SUCH were the expressions heard on every hand after “The City of Glasgow Bank” suspended payment, and shut its doors on 2nd October 1878. Widows, teachers, tradesmen, farmers, people of no profession, held the majority of the shares, and many depended on the interest they received for their livelihood. The City of Glasgow was benumbed; business was interrupted and paralyzed, families were made destitute, whilst numbers were panic-stricken, as house after house stopped payment, until the liabilities amounted to nearly twenty-five millions sterling.
This financial crisis chiefly affected Scotland. But it reminds me of the great general panic which must shortly come to pass—the precursor of other awful events predicted in the Bible. If you are unsaved, reader, when they come, you will be cut off as a Christ rejecter under the judgment of God. The Lord may come in a moment, and take His people to heaven. God’s judgments upon the ungodly, on the earth, will immediately begin. Signs of the coming crisis are seen in the appalling armaments of Europe. The wise understand that when the Church is taken from earth to heaven, kings and nations will lose entire confidence in one another, treaties made for the prosperity of the people will be broken through, and the power that God had given them to preserve the equilibrium of empires, will be lost; the strong desire for conquest, long hindered from being satisfied, will burst forth and take peace from the earth; confusion and bloodshed must be the result.
The rider on the pale home, “Death and Hell,” will go forth to kill and destroy with hunger and death; wars and famines, pestilences and earthquakes will prevail; anarchy, revolution, and desolation will roll on like a mighty flood, and great consternation will seize on the inhabitants of the earth. Philanthropic measures will collapse, peaceful societies will be broken up, kings and rulers will lose their power and form part of the awful confusion. “God’s judgments will be abroad upon the earth.” Neither Noah nor Job’s righteousness could stem these judgments, nor will the Lord Himself at that time say, “Peace, be still.” Kings, princes, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, bond and free, will say to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:8-16).
Grace has run its course; God has called in love during its day, now it is over. The strong delusions are about to come, that all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. Opportunities for you to hear God’s glad tidings are over, it is too late, the door of salvation is shut. God’s gracious favor is “gone.” His goodness and mercy to you are “squandered.” His long-suffering for your salvation is “vanished.” What a discovery! Every ray of hope lost forever, and the judgments on the earth so terrible that you will seek death and shall not find it, but God’s judgments and death shall find you in your sins—your sins will stick to you—and you will be finally cast into the lake of fire to suffer the consequences of them forever and ever (Rev. 20:13-15).
Bank failures are trivial things, all the calamities put together are small, compared to things shortly coming to pass. The Lord’s words are: “There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21).
Thank God, the day of grace lingers. His loving call is still, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” “Today, today”— that is, believe the Lord Now. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Do you say you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but cannot feel saved? You are looking at yourself instead of looking to Christ. Feelings at best are only the effects of a fact believed.
“I never thought of it in that way before,” said a man the other night after a gospel meeting. “I have been trying to feel saved before believing on Christ, and always failed to feel saved; my thoughts are completely changed.” He was really converted.
God is a rich giver. He wants nothing from you, neither your feelings, strivings, nor even your prayers. He thinks so much of His Son and His work that He directs you to distrust yourself and trust Him. The Lord Jesus is worthy. Believe on Him and thou shalt be saved—saved from sin, death, judgment, and the lake of fire. Saved to be with Christ in glory forever. May it be so.
D. D.
IT is only as the heart is in fresh communion with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ that there is real love to the brethren. The children of a family are not found together because born of one father and mother. If the tender mother, the beloved father be gone, the power that kept them together is gone from among them. So with regard to fellowship with the Father and the Son, if that be not maintained with all freshness, love to the brethren fails.
G. V. W.