HOW terrible are the ravages wrought by that cruel monster and king of terrors—Death! The friends whom we dearly loved in life, and carefully watched in illness, pass away, the earthly friendship is closed, we can minister to their wants no longer, and are only left to mourn their loss!
It may be they have been cut off suddenly; no premonition of what was coming, but stricken down in a moment without warning; our hearts bleed at every fresh memory of a happy relationship forever sundered on earth.
Dear reader, we affectionately ask you, have you traced the hand of God and heard His voice speaking to you in some sad bereavement? Do you know that He desires your greatest sorrow to be the means of your greatest blessing? He wounds, that He may heal.
“God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:14). How often has the “still small voice” of conscience whispered to you that you are by nature and practice a sinner! You have been impressed with a sense of the precarious position that you occupy; that
DEATH FOR YOU WOULD MEAN A LOST ETERNITY,
and that at any moment it might overtake you. But you have closed your heart against the love of God; you have turned aside from the gracious entreaty of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shut your ear against the pleading of the Holy Ghost. In fact, you have incurred an enormous risk; but God would not permit you to go on thus. He has caused this great sorrow to come upon you in His infinite mercy and love, that He may constrain you to consider your latter end, and apply your heart unto wisdom; that He may deliver you from going down to the pit, He Himself having “found a ransom” (Job 33:24) in the blessed One “who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6). We are reminded by this sad event, that, as the penalty of sin, ALL MUST DIE that are unsaved.
It is a gruesome fact, but fact it is. Not a child of Adam’s race can escape. Friend! you may be in health and strength, prospering better than ever, yet it may be that even now the fatal dart is leveled at your heart. Should it lodge there today,
ARE YOU READY?
It is not simply that you will die, but
MEET GOD YOU MUST―ARE YOU PREPARED?
“Now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31). Your eyes shall see His face, your ears shall hear His voice; and individually He will retrace with you that history of your life known only to Himself and you. How WILL IT FARE WITH YOU THEN? And then―
ETERNITY―WHERE WILL YOU SPEND IT?
Eternity is a reality. You have an immortal soul that shall exist as long as God Himself―WHERE? These are solemn questions, but they have to be faced and answered.
Mother! you have lost your darling child, and your heart bleeds at the remembrance of the sweet little object of your deepest affection wrenched from your side. Just as the shepherd carries the little lambs over the stream, in order that the unwilling mother sheep may follow; so has God in His tender love removed your little lamb to His house on high that He may lead you thither also. Will you still withstand His grace, be banished from God’s presence and heaven’s delights, and be separated from your child forever and ever? Think once more, we entreat you, of God’s unbounded love. He knew your condition, He gauged the depth of your need, and He spared not His only begotten, and well beloved Son that He might redeem you and bring you to Himself. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Take your true place as a sinner; accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and salvation is yours. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). If saved, you
NEED NOT DIE.
If the Lord tarry, He may put you to sleep to await His coming. Yes, “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). If we go before, there is no sting or terror; and if we remain, we have the happy sense that
IN ANOTHER MOMENT WE MAY BE IN GLORY.
And should our friends who “believe in Jesus” be taken from us, we “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”; (1 Thess. 4:13-18). We shall meet them in the air when Jesus comes; and forever in the Father’s house we shall with them swell the eternal song, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).
Dear friend!
WILL YOU BE THERE?
We assure you of our deepest sympathy with you in your intense grief and heartfelt sorrow. But we beg of you to heed God’s voice at this time; to heed that which may be the last call of His grace, and not miss that which will in all probability be
YOUR LAST OPPORTUNITY OF BEING SAVED.
“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).
God’s remedy is more than sufficient for man’s ruin, and it is all of Himself. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9), and “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
May God in the riches of His grace, by His Holy Spirit, lead you, as a lost sinner, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in His precious blood, and rest your soul upon His finished work, even now, for His peerless name’s sake. Amen.
“Time is earnest, passing by;
Death is earnest, drawing nigh:
Sinner, wilt thou trifling be?
Time and death appeal to thee.
Life is earnest; when ‘tie o’er,
Thou returnest―never more!
Soon to meet eternity,
Wilt thou never serious be?
Oh, be earnest! death is near;
Thou wilt perish, ling’ring here!
Sleep no longer, rise and flee,
Lo, thy Saviour waits on thee!”
W. B. D.