THESE scriptures speak of four different cups. The first is the present portion of the man of the world—” waters of a full cup are wrung out to him.” See how eagerly he grasps his cup of prosperity! See how he presses to his lips his cup of pleasure! See him enjoying his cup of fame! Like the rich man of Luke 16, he is “faring sumptuously every day.” Yet he is never satisfied. “He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” It is said that many publicans salt the drinks which they sell, so that their customers may thirst more. That is just how the devil treats those who drink at his bar. Immense the variety, unlimited the supply, from which he fills the cups of his infatuated guests; right jovial too they seem as they quaff deeper and yet deeper of those fatal, soul-entrapping draughts; and thus he lures them on till, fully intoxicated, they sink — sink to rise on earth no more, for “the dead are there,” and his “guests are in the depths of hell.” Oh, reader, beware! If unsaved, you are assuredly a customer at the devil’s bar; he is luring you on. Happy you may seem now; and so you once appeared to me, “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.... How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.”
But if such is the end of their present cup, what is their future portion? Note the solemn words — “In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red... but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” Do you ask what is the nature of its contents? See Revelation 14:10: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.” Reader, the cup is in His hand; it may be placed in yours tomorrow, for you to spend eternity drinking its bitter dregs, if you refuse today to “take the cup of salvation.” (Psalms 116:1313I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:13).) Yes, thank God, He yet extends that “cup of salvation.” And a full cup indeed it is — salvation from your bitter bondage to the world’s prince and god; salvation from sin’s power, with all its loveless, godless gloom, the cruel mockery of its phantom pleasures, the bitter remorse and heart-wearying pangs of your guilty conscience; salvation from the fear of death, from death, from the grave, from hell, from the lake of fire. Yes, present and eternal salvation fill that cup, and divine, grace offers it freely. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money... yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Take it then, dear reader.
“Take it now, and happy be.”
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” But free though the gift be to you, reader, despise it not as of small cost. Infinite love offers you a gift worthy of its Giver, but bought at infinite price; and there in Gethsemane behold the Saviour, as it were, counting the cost. There, on bended knee, He views the cup extended to Him by His Father, and viewing it, He pours out His soul “with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death.” “Father,” He says, “if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Reader, see His agony, see His bloody sweat. What could that cup be, the prospect of which was so tremendous? Ah, reader, it was that cup which He must drink to purchase the cup of salvation for you and me. But if the thought of it was so overwhelming, what must the reality have been! Do you ask what that cup contained? Turn to Psalms 22. and you will find it expressed in that one mighty cry, wrung from the infinite agony of the Son of God — “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” That, reader, was the cost measured by Himself alone; that the cup, drunk to its last dark and bitter dregs, that He might fill the cup of salvation to the brim, and offer it thus freely to you and to me. Such your sinfulness, and such mine, that nothing less would suffice. Oh, reader, no longer reject that cup of salvation, no longer slight the love that paid such a price for it; but take it at His own hand, and drink it, to His glory and your eternal blessing.
W. H. K.