False Hopes.

I WAS once questioning an old man as to how he stood with regard to eternity, when he said, “I expect to go to heaven because I have always been willing to attend all the funerals in the village here, from the time I was a boy!”
You may smile at his answer, my reader, but may I ask, On WHAT do YOUR hopes of heaven rest? If not on the atoning death and blood-shedding of Christ, your awakening, when it comes, will be as terrible as that poor old man’s must have been years ago.
One has only to speak on eternal subjects to find what ignorance prevails-as to what is the ground of the sinner’s acceptance before God-that great redemption price paid by Christ on Calvary’s cross.
How many, alas 1 are building their hopes on their strict attention to religious duties, religious ordinances and observances.
Yet God’s Word says, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:33And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)).
Others think they will win heaven by keeping the ten commandments.
Many there are who think they will be saved if they try to lead good religious lives, and do all the good they can to their fellow-creatures.
Yet God’s Word says, “Salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:99Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:9)).
My reader, God has decreed that, “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). This cuts at the root of all man’s efforts to save himself, whether it be by good works or religious observances.
But “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” to die and shed His blood to atone for His creatures’ sins.
In virtue of this, and this alone, God freely forgives every repentant sinner who comes to Him.
In giving the ground of their hope these will say, “We have redemption THROUGH His BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
My reader, will you not come to Christ NOW, and appropriate what He has done for you as a sinner, and then seek grace to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, “and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:1010That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians 1:10))? F. A.