ONLY five short words―yet they made a great stir when first uttered. Many false professors and worldly pleasure-seekers were made to tremble as they rang in their ears.
I give their echo through this paper for You who are living for time only and forgetting ETERNITY.
“PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD,”
cried the prophet of old, and people trembled because they were not ready for this. “Prepare to, meet thy God,” I say to you, and if you are unprepared, well might you tremble too.
A man charged with murder at Melbourne was convicted and sentenced to death. After the sentence had been passed upon him, he stood up in the dock and with a defiant look hissed out, “I care for neither man nor devil.” A thrill of horror passed through the court-house as the poor wretch was led away to his cell. He proved during the few days he had to spend on earth how true his words were. But on the eve of his execution he was seen pacing wildly up and down his cell as though in intense agony.
“Aha!” said one of the warders, “what’s the Matter now? I thought you said you ‘cared for neither man nor devil?”
“That’s true,” replied the condemned man, “but at eight o’clock tomorrow morning I have to meet God, and I fear Him.”
Well might he tremble.
And this has never given you an uneasy thought, and yet (who can say), before another sunrise you may have passed into eternity and into
THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
Oh! ye canting Christless professors of religion, you must meet God, and then all your hypocrisy will be stripped from you.
And you who are selling your soul for the tinsel and glitter of this world―you who grovel at the shrine of the goddess PLEASURE―these five words should shake you into deep soul exercise, for meet God you must.
You have made great preparations for many things in your time. Amongst my readers there is a young fellow who has made great preparation for a successful life-a middle-aged man who has prepared for old age―a maiden who has prepared for marriage,
BUT FORGOTTEN GOD.
Yet you must meet Him, and the God-forgetters, together with the wicked, are to be turned into hell.
Turn now, my reader, to the Lord Jesus Christ. What you cannot do for yourself, He has done on the cross. God’s righteous claims were satisfied on the sinner’s behalf. Jesus cried, “It is finished I” Then, everything was fully done. To seek salvation by works of your own is to deny this fact. God is not telling you to prepare yourself now, but turns you to Christ Jesus. He says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” His blood can wash away your sins. Without Him you must be damned. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39))
J. T. M.