THERE are not many people who can bring themselves to say that they are absolutely certain that there is no hereafter.
Many hope that the grave will terminate their history forever, for they feel pretty sure of this, that if there be a God to be met, they are not ready for that meeting; if there be a judgment day, they dare not face that awful ordeal in their sins.
Most people know in their hearts that they are sinners, and if the Bible be true, to die in their sins would be the most terrible thing that could befall them. And yet they will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in Him for salvation, for forgiveness, for peace and pardon. They will keep putting it off, and hoping that on a deathbed, or at some future time, they may in some way or other be fitted for eternal bliss.
Again we want to impress upon every reader of this gospel magazine the importance of immediate decision.
We know not what a day may bring forth — not an hour, not even a moment, can we reckon upon.
The town of Hanley, in Staffordshire, has recently been thrown into a state of consternation. For long it was known that dangers lay thickly strewn around in the shape of old disused collieries and coalpit shafts; but on Saturday morning, 12Th December 1903, the matter was pressed home with terrible vividness.
A man named Thomas Holland was walking along with a basket on his arm at the early hour of seven. He was singing at the time, when suddenly, and without a moment’s warning, the earth opened, and he was engulphed, falling headlong down a deep pit. Not a sound was heard beyond the heavy thud of his body as it reached the bottom of the shaft; then all was still: one more soul had entered eternity. The basket lay on the pavement; its bearer had stepped into the presence of God.
How awful! the reader may exclaim, to die without a moment to prepare! Thank God, that man was ready, and the words of song that trembled on his lips as he took that fatal plunge were these:
“When the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there!”
Only two hours before, a young lady, delicately attired, stepped upon that very spot, returning from a ball. May God use the sad occurrence to her soul’s salvation! What would it have been for her had she stepped from the giddy pleasures of the world into the presence of a holy God!
“I’ll be there!”
sang the happy Christian, all unconscious of how near he was to that happy land. There, in the presence of his blessed Saviour, he now rests. In life he had learned to trust Him; in death, he had nothing to fear. The precious blood of Jesus was his title to be there in mansions of light, peace, and joy.
Reader, will you be there too? We are all exposed to dangers. We none of us know what an hour may bring forth. Why, then, run the awful risk of eternal perdition, when salvation is within your reach? Why rob yourself of the present joy of knowing Christ by pursuing the empty and unsatisfying pleasures of sin?
Once more let the simple gospel message fall upon your ears: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.”
Oh, then, be wise now in this day of grace. Own your lost condition; believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you, too, will be able to say, “I’ll be there.”
A. H. B.