THERE is a very old story told of a certain bad man which I should like to tell you because, although there is not much in the story itself, it reminds me very much of a mistake into which some children are very likely to fall, I mean the children of godly parents. The story is this: ―The man had a Christian wife, who always liked to go to hear God’s Word whenever she had the opportunity, and, although her husband had no liking for anything of the kind, he did not at all object to her going; on the contrary, when he heard the church bells tolling, he was wont to say to her, “Go thou to church and pray for thee and me.” It was in vain that she tried to persuade him to go and hear the Word for himself; his answer always was, “Nay, go thou to church and pray for thee and me.”
But one night he had a dream, and a very strange one it was. He fancied that both he and his wife had died, and that they went together far, far away, higher and higher yet, until they came, as he thought, to heaven’s gate, and knocked to be let in. Now, you must understand that Romish priests pretend that the Apostle Peter is the porter at heaven’s gate, and although this man was not a Roman Catholic, yet he had somehow heard that old legend, for this country was once overrun with Romanism, and monks and priests, convents and monasteries, were to be found everywhere, especially in the richest parts of the land. Of course, a good deal of their false teaching and superstitious notions still cling about those places where they were most numerous, and thus many people in out of the “way country places still think that Peter keeps the gate of heaven. Well, this poor sinner thought so; and thus he dreamed that, when he and his wife knocked, Peter opened the door and let in the woman, but just when he also was about to pass in Peter said, “Nay; she has gone in both for thee and herself. She went to church for thee, and so she must now go into heaven for thee;” and, having so said, Peter shut the gate, and the bad old man, shut out of heaven, felt for the first time in his life that he was LOST! Whether the dream led him to repentance before it was too late, the old tale does not tell, but in any case I want you to think over it. Of course, it was only a dream, and yet it teaches a very solemn lesson.
Perhaps you have a godly father and mother, and, if so, I have no doubt they often pray for you. But they cannot believe for you, nor will their piety justify you before God. The old man in the story I have told you evidently thought that his wife’s goodness would somehow or other reckon in his favor in God’s sight, and so he went on, careless about Christ, and with a feeling of security, until he dreamed that he was lost at last. Perhaps you feel satisfied because your parents love God, and although I trust you are hardly so ignorant as to think they can save you, or that their faith can be put to your account, you may possibly have a false sense of security, and feel more at ease than you would do if the truth fully stared you in the face, that “he that believeth not shall be damned.” Surely this is most solemn, for you see it is “he that believeth not”―it is each one that does not believe―that shall be condemned. Now, if your parents believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you do not, what will it avail you “in that day”? Will it not rather add condemnation, that you have had such examples before you all in vain? Of course it will. I hope then, if you have not yet come to Christ, that the strange old tale I have told you will set you thinking, and lead you, through God’s grace, to consider your real condition before Him. Remember you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if you would be saved no other can do it for you. You must have to do with Him for yourself.
“He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life.” “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
K.