WE feel we cannot allow one year to pass and another to begin without special reference to the occasion. The Editor of a monthly magazine, perhaps more than any other, is made aware of the rapid march of time. He knows that there are but twelve months in the year, and how quickly they do come round.
It is estimated that the average of human life is about forty years, rather under than over. In a town of say 30,000, the population changes in about forty years, that Isaiah 30,000 graves are dug in the cemetery of a town of 30,000 inhabitants during the short space of forty years! It seems incredible, but it is true nevertheless.
How short is human life in the world, and yet each man, woman, and child possesses a soul that will live forever and ever.
Christian reader, what are we doing to “rescue the perishing”?
1. A Word To Our Contributors.
We thank you all most warmly for your help and fellowship in this important work. “Be not weary in well doing” is an exhortation we constantly feel the need of, and we pass it on to all our fellow-laborers in this field.
As we are addressing no one in particular we feel we may write the more freely. Be brief. Long articles, like long sermons, are of interest only to the producer. People will not read the one, nor listen to the other. It is labor lost, though the matter may be excellent.
Especially in a gospel magazine do we need to remember that the class whom we seek to reach have not yet developed a taste for these things. They will not read a long, doctrinal article, no matter how good and sound it may be.
They are like a young man we heard of lately, who as far as the body was concerned, was lying seriously ill, though altogether careless as to his spiritual danger. He had one deaf ear, and when a Christian visitor used to call and speak of his eternal interests, it was his custom to place his good ear upon the pillow and his deaf ear up!
To use the figure, let us remember that the unsaved around us have for the most part the “deaf ear up.” No sooner was our young friend converted than he used to reverse the matter, and turn his deaf ear down and his sound ear up.
2. A Word To Distributors.
Take courage, and go on!
While holding some special gospel services in a Scotch town last summer, a large number of gospel books were distributed. In some instances they were most reluctantly taken, and no sooner taken than rudely and with evident temper flung away. Had even those tracts been given in vain? Who can tell?
While there we were much encouraged by the story of an old man, converted only two years ago. He was one day at work digging in a trench, when quick as thought the words flashed into his conscience, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!” (Amos 6:11Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! (Amos 6:1))
“O God,” he cried, “I am at ease, when I ought to be troubled.” His soul-trouble became so great that he had to throw down his spade and fling himself upon his knees. He could do no work, and so with a conscience deeply pierced by the arrow of conviction he wended his way home through the woods. His eye caught a bit of paper lying on the ground. It was a gospel tract, entitled,
“When I see the blood!”
The message this tract contained spoke peace to his soul. Had it been thrown away in disgust by the first recipient? Possibly, but it did its work, God’s work, nevertheless.
3. To The General Reader.
The death-roll of 1895 has been unusually heavy. The awful “‘Elbe’ disaster” in the North Sea, when nearly four hundred lives were lost almost within hail of our shores, has been followed by numbers of wrecks on the Spanish coast, in the West Indies, and on the Pacific shores of South America, whereby many hundreds of hale and hearty men and women have been swept into eternity. They, like you, began the year full of hope for their earthly future, and with little idea that they would now be where their eternal destinies are fixed.
And have you, dear reader, any certainty as to what this year may bring forth for you? No, you cannot count upon a day. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)).
Be assured that when we urge upon you the imperative necessity of an immediate settlement of this important matter, we are actuated with no other motive than the constraining love of Christ for your soul.
“When the harvest is past, and the summer is gone,
And preaching and prayer shall be o’er,
When the beams cease to break of the blest gospel morn,
And Jesus invites thee no more.
When the rich gales of mercy no longer shall blow,
The gospel no message declare,
How canst thou, sinner, bear the deep wailing of woe —
How suffer the night of despair?
When believers have gone to the region of peace,
To dwell in the mansions above,
When their harmony wakes in the fullness of bliss,
Their song to the Saviour they love.
Say, O sinner, that livest at rest and secure,
Who fearest no trouble to come,
Can thy spirit the wailings of sorrow endure?
Or bear the impenitent’s doom?”