"I am lost! I am lost! Yet I always MEANT to be saved," were the last words of one who had to meet death suddenly by the upsetting of a boat on one of the Lakes.
Alas! this sad retrospect, "I always meant to be saved," must be that of many a dying soul who has put off the acceptance of God's mercy until too late.
Perhaps the unkept resolve was made when thoughts of death and judgment were pressed upon the mind, or it may have been at some street corner, where was being told out,
O, how freely God forgives the repentant sinner who turns to Him, in virtue of Christ having made atonement for sin—but Satan's whisper prevailed,
"Time enough, death for you is a long way off." And, with still the fullest intention of being saved sometime, it was put off for the present.
Then, filled with the cares and pleasures of this life, days, weeks, months, years fled quickly by, and at last death came to claim its victim.
O, what might have been now, if there had been the turning to God for His forgiveness before it was too late!
Alas, NOW there, is only a lost eternity, the going "forth into a night of sorrow, a stranger ever to His saving grace."
My reader, NOW, NOW is the time to turn to God, you may never have a TOMORROW.
O, the awful risk of "I always meant to be saved," resulting in "Too late, I am lost."
"Are you troubled, sin oppressed
Come to Jesus now;
Would you find your only rest?
Come to Jesus now."