"If I Thought About It"

From: Messages of God's Love: 1924

From: Gospel Gleanings: Volume 5 (1905)

MANY years ago there was a young girl in my class at Sunday-school, in whom I was especially interested. She was an orphan, having lost both parents when very young, and had been tossed about in a hard, cold world.

Very little love had the poor child experienced; and yet, under a rough, half-frozen exterior, she had a warm heart, and seemed to cling to the one or two Christian friends who had taken a kindly interest in her welfare. She was intelligent, and very ready with texts and replies in class; but still I feared she was a stranger to the grace of Him who alone can save.

One day I met her in the street, and finding her willing to stand and talk a few moments, I seized the opportunity to press home the question of a personal acceptance of Christ.

“Does it not make you sad, Mary,” I said, “to feel that, if you were called to die, or the Lord Jesus were to come to take His own people home to heaven, you would not be ready? Does it not make you miserable to go on day after day, knowing your danger?”

“It would, if I thought about it, teacher!” was her truthful reply.

How many with equal truthfulness could echo her: “It would, if I thought about it!”

Eternity, away from God, shut out for ever from His presence! Eternity, in blackness of darkness, shut out from the glorious city where “the Lamb is the light thereof!”

If God’s word be true (and you know it is, however much you may try to persuade yourself to the contrary), this is the doom that awaits you.

Poor Mary knew it, but she sought to banish the thought of the future, for she dared not think about it.

But was the awful future less a fact, because she ignored it? Is it less a fact because you ignore it?

Look the question fairly in the face, and get it answered by Him who alone is able.

“How can a man be just with God?”

How can I, a sinner, meet the Holy God? The Lord Jesus Christ has answered the solemn question,

“I am the Way, . . no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” John 14:6⁶Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).

“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Mark 2:17¹⁷When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:17).

“The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” Luke 19:10¹⁰For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).

“By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:39³⁹And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39).

“Jesus our Lord . . who was delivered for our offences. and raised again for our justification.” Rom. 1:24, 25²⁴Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: ²⁵Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:24‑25).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1).