A Christian woman was distributing tracts on board ship. She handed one to an elderly man as she passed him on the deck, and as she returned she was deeply grieved to see him tear the tract in fragments and fling it overboard. She simply said as she walked past him, "You will have to account for that.”
The man thought no more of the matter. The tract was flung upon, the waters, as he thought, and he would forget all about it. But not so the living God; He had not forgotten either the tract or the man who had torn it up. He caused a little scrap of that torn tract to be blown by the breeze into the man's bosom! That very night as he was undressing to go to bed the fragment of the tract fell out of his shirt.
He picked it up. It was but a very small scrap; just large enough to contain two words of immense weight and deep solemnity: "God" and "Eternity." With these two words before him, the lady's pointed utterance came back to his memory, "You will have to account for that.”
Thus, this man had before him three grand and solemn realities: God—Eternity—Judgment. Tremendous words! He lay down, but not to sleep. There was no sleep for his eyes, nor slumber for his eyelids that night. He tossed to and fro till morning. The words, "God," "Eternity," and "You will have to account for that," rang in his ears and sounded deep down in his heart.
He arose from bed and sought to drown his thoughts by drink. But it was no use! He awoke from his wine only to feel with augmented force those solemn words: "God!—Eternity!—Judgment to come!" In short, an arrow from the quiver of God had entered his soul. He had thought to get rid of that little tract, to drown that silent messenger. But, no, God had His eye upon him. God sent the breeze and caused it to blow that identical scrap of the torn tract into his bosom. Of the scores of scraps into which the tract had been torn not one would do but that tiny one containing the very words which the Eternal Spirit meant to use as an arrow to pierce his soul.
How marvelous are God's ways! Who but an atheist could doubt that the hand of God was in the breeze which blew that fragment into the man's bosom? Blessed be His name, He knows how to reach a soul! When He begins to work, nothing can hinder. His eye was upon that precious soul, in spite of all his enmity and all his efforts to turn aside the arrow which sovereign grace had aimed at his heart. The man tried to destroy the tract. God ordered that just so much of the tract should lodge in his bosom as contained the arrow that was to lodge in his heart.
In vain did the man seek to get rid of his thoughts, to stifle his convictions. His misery increased, his anxiety became more intense. Only one thing could heal his wound; the precious balm of the gospel, the soothing virtues of the blood of Christ. In desperation he sought and heard a gospel message, and his troubled soul found rest in that finished work of Christ.
And now, reader, how do you respond to these things? What is your heart's answer to these solemn words: "GOD—ETERNITY—JUDGMENT TO COME"?
The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Eternity is just ahead. Will you stand before God as Judge, or will you meet Him as your loving Father? Ask your heart: "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" Matt. 27:2222Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. (Matthew 27:22).