EARLY one morning, in a remote part of this country, a hunter, fatally wounded, was carried to a little rustic cottage by a terrified comrade.
It appears that they had both been roaming through the woods, during the night, in search of game. Towards daybreak there had arisen a little dispute between them. The man who was carrying the gun thought it prudent to return home, while the other seemed determined to pursue still longer. It ended in a struggle for the possession of the gun, and in the struggle the loaded firearm exploded, shooting one poor fellow.
But let us return to the cottage where the dying man is laid. What a saddening sight it is! A few more beats of his enfeebled heart, and all will be over with him for this world. But it was neither bodily suffering nor earthly disappointments that occupied the poor man’s mind in that solemn hour.
Two great and weighty realities stare him full in the face, filling his soul with horror and dismay. Beside them everything else seems to fade into insignificance and pass out of sight.
Not only do these ponderous realities occupy his mind, but the very walls of the cottage are made to re-echo with the expression of them, as, in anguish unutterable, he cries aloud, “My sins, my sins, and the judgment day!”
A woman, standing by, partly in kindness to the poor sufferer, and partly, perhaps, with a desire of getting him to cease this oft-repeated and heart-piercing cry, offered him a drink of water. This, however, only seemed to intensify his bitter anguish, and he exclaimed, in tones never to be forgotten by those who heard him, “Water can never quench my thirst! My sins, my sins, and the judgment day!” And thus he passed away—passed into eternity. What an end of life’s short journey!
Now, dear children, notice; this man looked in two directions. Backward, he saw his sins; forward, the judgment day. Well might he then make those cottage walls ring with his shouts of soul agony. But has it ever struck you that everyone must sooner or later face these two realities? and you, dear children, are no exception to the rule.
The true Christian has already looked them fully in the face, and that in the presence of God. Christ bore his sins upon the cross, and suffered the penalty due to them, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being- dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).
The work of redemption has been finished. God declares Himself satisfied, for Christ is risen from the dead, and the glory of God has welcomed Him back.
Messages of God’s Love 9/12/1915