These are solemn warning words. Life is uncertain. Eternity is near. When we may pass out of time into eternity, we know not.
Forever.
There was a little boy who began to think about what comes after this life. He went to a churchyard, and looked at the graves. Some of them were very long. He measured them, and found that they were for grown up people. Some were middle-sized, and these he measured, too, feeling sure that they were much too long for little boys of his height. But presently he came to some very little graves, much shorter than he was, so he felt sure, that young and small as he was, he too might die, and he wished to know where he should go if he died.
It is only the body that dies: the soul lives on forever. The little baby child that was put into the ground will by-and-by be raised up from the grave, and body and spirit will be again joined in one, and the body raised up out of the grave will never die again, but live forever.
Did you ever try to think what is meant by " forever "? Suppose you were at the seashore, and began to carry away, one by one, the grains of sand to a place a mile inland, how many years do you think it would take you to carry away all the sand from the seashore? If you were to count the grains of sands that you can put into your hand you might reckon many, many hundreds of them, and I am sure you would have to live to be very, very old indeed in order to carry away many handsful of sand. And what would you have done? You would only have made a little hole, and carried away a few grains, while the seashore would look just the same as before you began. If the sand upon the shore were all carried away, grain by grain, it would take millions and tens of millions of years to do it; but even all that long 'time would be as nothing at all to " forever."
Time is shorter than we think, but eternity is longer than we can grasp. Contemplating the distance of the stars from the earth helps us to consider eternity. Men put a line, fathom after fathom, down into the sea to ascertain its depth, and men count the length of time it takes for light to reach the earth from the stars, and thus measure how far they are from us. It would take thousands of thousands of years to reach some of the stars we see, if we could travel to them without stopping day and night more quickly than any express train can go; and even suppose those stars reached, we should then see other stars far beyond them. Thousands of years before we had gained, our journey's end the Lord would have come, the earth would have been burned up, and the eternal state in heaven and hell begun. Could we then search out the friends and relations now beside us, we should find them all, not one would be missing. Some would be happy beyond utterance; some would be miserable beyond description. Those would be with Jesus in heaven; these in hell along with the devil and his angels.
And could we then leave our friends and relations and take another journey, only this time to the very farthest off star of all, and be millions and millions of years going to the star, and millions and millions of years in coming back again to our friends, we should find them all living. There would be no change with them; those, who were so blessedly, happy in heaven with the Lord Jesus, would be happy still. All those years in glory would not have wearied them; they would still be as bright and glad as they were when they first entered God's rest. The presence of Jesus, of His holy angels and of His saints, would be as delightful as ever to them. The songs of heaven, the sights of heaven, the pleasures of heaven, would be still and unchangingly their joys.
Could we then go and search out those poor lost ones in the darkness, we should find them, too, unchanged. Their hearts, their hatred to Christ, their misery, and also the woe. of hell unchanged. Some might say, "I did not, I would not believe there was a hell, or that it could last forever, or if it could, that I could last in it forever; but it is true, all true." Others might say, "I would not listen to the gospel, I wanted the world-that little star called the world, which was burned up millions and millions of years ago." Others, "Not a drop of water here, no, not for eternity, I am tormented in this flame.' God says, "Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
The mind of a man can, in a way, receive the idea of millions and millions of years. God has made man capable of understanding this, for though we are creatures of a day, yet we are to last forever, and we can all faintly perceive what everlasting means.
How long sometimes a day appears,
And weeks, how long are they;
Months move as slow as if the years
Would never pass away.
Both months and years are passing by,
And soon must all be gone.
For day by day, as minutes fly,
Eternity comes on.
Days, months, and years must have an end,
Eternity has none;
'Twill always have as long to spend
As when it first begun.
Great God! an infant cannot tell
How such a thing can be;
I only pray that I may dwell
That long, long time with Thee.
Well may we all join in the desire expressed in this last verse.
Again we repeat the words forming the heading of our chapter, Do not delay. Alas! many children are saying -
I'LL BE A CHRISTIAN WHEN I GROW UP.
A merry child was little Katie. There was not a girl in the school who had such a merry laugh or was so full of fun. She was a general favorite, too, for she had such winning ways, yet she cost her widowed mother many an anxious thought. Katie's mother was an earnest Christian, not one of those mothers who profess to be Christians and yet never seek to lead their little ones to Jesus; no, it was her one great desire, her most fervent prayer, that her little Katie might early learn to know the Savior. Many were the quiet talks between mother and child, but they usually ended by Katie saying, " I'll be a Christian when I grow up, mother; that will be quite time enough." So months went on until Katie was nearly twelve years old, and still the mother's prayers for her were unanswered.
One bright summer's day it was arranged that Katie, with one of her schoolfellows, should go for a long ramble in the woods, and, as the evenings were warm and light, they took their tea with them, that they need not hurry home. They had a very pleasant time together, and were thinking it would soon be time to turn homewards, when a distant peal of thunder startled them greatly; they had been so busy plucking flowers in the woods and weaving them into garlands, that they had not noticed the heavy clouds that had been gathering for some time, and now they found that it would be impossible for them to reach their homes, or, indeed, any place of shelter, before the storm came on, for they were far from the nearest cottage. They hurried. Out of the wood, but they had some distance to go to reach the road. The rain came down, the thunder pealed loudly, and the lightning was so vivid that it filled them with terror. As they neared the road Katie begged her companion to stay beneath a large thick tree till the storm was over, saying that it would shelter them so nicely; but Mary insisted on their leaving the shelter as quickly as possible, saying that her father had told her it was very dangerous to go under a tree in a storm. Katie was very desirous to linger, but Mary had at length to take her hand and almost drag her to the road. They had only just reached it when, hearing a loud sound, and turning back, they saw that a flash of lightning had struck the tree, and shivered its enormous trunk.
The children were awestruck, to think how nearly they had lost their lives; for had they stayed two minutes longer they would have been killed. In spite of the drenching rain they stood still, with pale faces looking at the place where the grand old tree had stood; then they started on their way again in terror, lest they themselves should be struck before they reached. home. But they were preserved; and an impression was made on the mind of each which lasted through lifetime.
Katie did not soon recover the shock, and having taken a severe cold from the wetting, she was obliged to keep her bed some days. One evening, after lying still for some time, she said, " Oh, mother, what would have become of me if I had stayed under that tree? and it would have served me right if God had killed me then for saying I would not be a Christian till I grew up."
" I think you learned a lesson that night, Katie," said her mother. " Do you really desire to be a Christian now? "
" Yes, mother, if Jesus will have me after keeping Him waiting so long," was little Katie's answer.
" Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,' " answered her mother.
" Then I will come. Mother, how shall I come? " said Katie.
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,'" replied her mother.
" But I do believe on Him," said Katie; " I have believed on Him all my life."
" Ah, but not in your heart, or in such a way as to make you love Him.."
And then she showed her Katie how that the Lord died to cleanse away our sins with His own blood. And God gave Katie to believe the love of Jesus and to trust in Him. She felt her sins, and repented of them, and came to Jesus.
J. S.
TEN MINUTES TO THREE.
When I was a boy I read and heard of little boys being converted, and then soon afterward dying. I did not like to hear or read of children' being converted, lest I should find out that they had died; and I was quite afraid of being converted myself, lest I should die also. Now, I do not doubt, many of my dear young readers have the same feelings that I once had about being saved while they are young; but God had His own way with me, and was pleased to save me when I was young, and that is about twenty-one years ago, and I am not dead yet, but have been trying, in my poor way, to the best of my ability, by the grace of God, to serve and please Him who gave His dear Son to die for me on the cross.
So you see, my dear young friends, all who are converted young do not die immediately afterward.
But I will now tell you of a dear youth who was converted at twelve years of age. I was asked to address a Sunday-school in Derbyshire, three Sunday afternoons following each other. There were about 400 scholars in the school. The first Sunday afternoon, whilst I was speaking about Jesus dying and shedding His precious blood to wash away sins, and even those of little boys and girls, the blessed Spirit of God made many of my young hearers very anxious to be washed from all their sins in the blood of the Lamb. Many professed to be saved that afternoon, and also the two Sunday afternoons following. My young friend William was there the first time I addressed the children; he had a dear praying father and mother, but he was not saved, and he did not want to be saved; because he thought that if he were, he would have to give up all his little pleasures, amusements, and companions, and that he would become very miserable, and so he went away, determined that he would not come to Jesus. Nevertheless, the Spirit of God was dealing with him, and made him very unhappy, and caused him to see and feel that there is no real happiness out of Christ.
The second Sunday afternoon William was there again when the address was given, and though many were in tears, and asking what they must do to be saved, he appeared to be quite unmoved; but he was not really so; he was listening to the wicked, lying suggestions of Satan, and so he spent a second week rejecting Christ; and all who reject Him must be very unhappy, whilst all who accept Him are very happy; and these only are ready for His second coming or for death.
Well, the third afternoon arrived for me to give my last address to the dear young people, and William was there again; and whilst I was speaking of the love of God, the preciousness of the blood of Jesus, the hatefulness of sin, the blessedness of being saved, and the awfulness of living and dying without Christ, William, as he told me afterward, felt the burden of his sin to be so heavy, that it seemed as if it would press him right through the floor into hell. In his distress, he cried to Jesus to remove the terrible burden of unforgiven sin, and he simply looked in faith to Jesus, where he was kneeling, and in a moment, he said, the burden was removed, and his soul found rest, and his heart was filled with joy; and looking up, his eyes met the clock, and it wanted exactly "ten minutes to three." Yes, at "ten minutes to three," on the second Sunday afternoon in March, 1863, God gave William to know that his sins were all forgiven-his soul was saved, and he there and then found happiness in Christ.
It is now (1875) more than twelve years since this occurred, and William is living still, a consistent, godly young man, working for the blessed Lord, who loved him and gave Himself for him. He has been used to bring many precious souls to Jesus among the young and the old, and he has long known that-
"Search the whole creation round,
Happiness out of Christ can ne'er be found."
And now, my dear young friends, will you not come at once by faith to Jesus, and find rest in Him? Look at once to Him by faith, and be saved forever. Receive Him at once as God's gift of eternal life. Give the blessed Lord the sunrise, meridian, and sunset of your days, and then, living or dying, you are the Lord's, and ready for His second coming or death; and should He spare your life and leave you in this poor world, you will be able by His grace to live for Him and work for Him.
H. M. H.
BY- AND—BY.
" BE decided; come to Jesus now." "Not yet, not yet," says the heart; "I will wait till I am grown up." Then God says again, "Now is the day of salvation." "By-and-by," answers the heart. Once more the word of Mercy speaks-"To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
All dear young friend, what is your answer? Oh! harden not your heart, saying, "By-and-by I will think about my soul and eternity."
In a Sunday class there was a little fellow named Ebenezer. He was a strong, healthy boy, but an unruly scholar, and very, very heedless of his soul. He was often told to come to Jesus, to repent, to seek for mercy, but he put it off till by-and-by. He would not learn his Scripture lessons, nor attend to his teacher's instructions, neither would poor little Ebby have come at all to the school had not his mother made him do so.
One afternoon we missed him; but, as it was a sunny summer day, we thought little of his absence. However, as he was still away the next Sunday, we called at his home.
His mother came weeping to the door. "Poor Ebby's dead! he will be buried tomorrow."
Oh! dreadful word-dead! No more Sunday schools; no more loving entreaties to come to Jesus. By-and-byes all past. Eternity begun.
We watched the humble funeral wind its solemn way along the footpath over the fields, and wept bitterly as we said again and again, "Where is Ebenezer's soul! Where is his soul? "
Do not put off Jesus till by-and-by.
LET NOT ONE HOUR PASS BY.
How many young lie sleeping
Beneath the earth and sea!
Some safe in Jesus' keeping—
Some past recovery.
Oh! could they stand before us,
What-think we-would they say?
Ah! earnestly implore us
Seek heaven WHILE YOU MAY.
"'Tis sweet to be with Jesus -"
Hush! thus the holy speak;
"'Tis sweet to be with Jesus,
Then QUICKLY heaven seek.
Come, come, and taste our gladness,
Among the happy stand,
Nor tear, nor sigh, nor sadness
Can grieve our loving band."
Hark! now a voice of mourning,
Like slow funereal bell,
With tears and solemn warning,
We hear around us swell-
Oh! seek to be forgiven,
LET NOT ONE HOUR PASS BY
Till you are sure of heaven,
The home above the sky."
Soon we, too, may be sleeping
Beneath the earth of sea;
Will gladness or will weeping
Our endless portion be?
'Tis God's own invitation-
Come, come this very day,
His NOW is our SALVATION,
And shall we more delay?