"I Always Meant to be Saved."

By:
“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 Cumberland 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 it was being told out that “God SO loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)), that “Christ DIED FOR THE UNGODLY” (Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)), that “The blood of Jesus Christ (God’s Son) CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN,” that Christ said “Him that COMETH TO ME, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)).
Oh, how freely God forgives the repentant sinner who turns to Him, in virtue of Christ having atoned to Him for sin―but Satan’s whisper prevailed, “Time enough yet, 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.
Oh, 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 over to His saving grace.” “HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE, if we NEGLECT so great salvation?”
My reader, NOW, NOW is the time to turn to God, you may never have a TOMORROW.
Oh, the awful risk of “I always MEANT to be saved,” resulting in “TOO LATE, I am LOST.”
“Art thou troubled, sin oppress’d
Come to Jesus now;
Wouldn’t thou find thy only rest?
Come to Jesus now.”
F. A.