DURING the autumn of last year, I visited the popular Lancashire sea-side town of B―, to which thousands upon thousands of rich and poor alike annually resort. The greater number, alas! it is but too evident, go not only to derive benefit from the bracing sea air, but to find something that may for the time being help to gratify their poor unsatisfied hearts.
One day passing the Winter Gardens, one of the many places of amusement to be found in B —, I was much struck by seeing a large signboard exhibited with this announcement, “Entertainments all day, not a dull moment.”
I thought, “How like the devil that sounds, ‘Not a dull moment.’”
Pleasure seeker, be warned! The god of this world, i.e., the devil, is endeavoring to sink your poor deluded soul into hell, by trying to fill you with the fleeting pleasures of this poor doomed world, and he therefore uses every imaginable means to effect this. The gaily-decked ball-room is one of the many, the concert another, a nigger entertainment a third, ―anything and everything he would occupy you with, and not a dull moment will he let you have if he can possibly help it, se that your eternal future may be hid from view.
Perhaps you say, “Is it not true that the Bible says, ‘Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes?’”
Yes, that is so far correct, but I ask you to turn to Ecclesiastes 11:9, and read the whole of the verse, the latter part is very solemn indeed: “But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”
Ah! yes, my friend, God’s judgment will come at the end of all your pleasure-seeking here, and will seal your doom. Not glory with Christ, but damnation with the devil; not heaven, but hell―eternal hell, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:46). Surely such a destiny is terrible! Maybe you never thought it possible to be led on and on to such an end as this; but if your eyes are opened to see the danger to which you are exposed, and you are willing to escape such an awful eternity, thank God there is hope for you.
Hearken to, and believe these loving and blessed words, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11); also Jesus says, “Come unto me all le that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Therefore confess Tour sin and guilt to God; take your place before Him as a guilty, ruined, helpless soul, and say in the words of the poor publican, “God be merciful to me (the) sinner.” Turn then at once to Christ, He ‘is the only ransom whom God has provided to deliver you from going down to the pit, and “To him give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43; see also 13:38, 39). Thus trusting in Christ, you will be everlastingly secure. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1, 29-39).
Blessed, precious security, for nothing can separate you from His love.
Dear reader, I earnestly and solemnly beseech you to consider well what your eternal future will be. Remember! All the glories and joys of heaven may be thine forever, if thou wilt but come as a poor guilty sinner to God, and really believe in Jesus; on the other hand, if thou dost refuse to do this, and art content to have “the pleasures of sin,” which are only for a season, all the burnings of a quenchless fire in hell will be thy portion for all eternity.
“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head,
Our load was laid on Thee;
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead,
Didst bear all ill for me:
A Victim led, Thy blood was shed;
Now there’s no load for me.”
P. H. S.