A VERY small rock stands in the water above Niagara Falls called “Past Redemption Point.” The reason it is so called is because no one was ever known to pass it, without getting into the rapids and being lost.
That point―“past redemption point”―in our lives may be small and apparently of little consequence; but, like the one above Niagara Falls, once we pass it we are lost―lost eternally.
Again and again we feel the Spirit striving with us, and trying to persuade us to repent and be converted, but if we repeatedly refuse His promptings, some day or another we shall refuse His last appeal: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” Why, then, do we refuse our last opportunity? Simply because we do not know it is the last. If we did know, do you think we should, for one moment, refuse it? Indeed we should not, unless we were mad.
Some, after repeated refusals, may just now be refusing for the last time. Before doing so yourself, reader, just stop and think of the tremendous issues at stake. Think of all it means to you. Think of your remorse in the lost world, through countless ages. Think how often you will review your neglected opportunities, especially the last! What sad regret you will have then; and there will be no recompense.
A story is told of a man many years since who was in charge of a railway bridge. Under it was a canal, where steamers very often passed. A train and a steamer could not pass at the same time. Before a steamer could get through the drawbridge had to be opened.
On one occasion a man in charge of a steamer was wanting to get through just as a train was nearly due. The gatekeeper informed him the bridge could not be opened till the train passed over: but the boatman being most anxious to get through, as he wanted to be first in the market with his fish, a bribe was given. The gate was opened. Hardly had he done so when the train came at full speed. The gateman tried his utmost to get the gate or bridge closed in time. But, alas! the time was insufficient. The train plunged into the water. The poor gateman ended his life in a lunatic asylum. One sentence was constantly on his lips, “Oh, if I only had...!” “Oh, if I only had...!”
Dear friends, would that not be our cry in hell if we allowed the devil to bribe us to open our gates to him, even though he could persuade us we could have them closed in time?
The gateman did not intend to cause a disaster. He thought, no doubt, that’ he could get the gate closed in time. Is it not the same with some who are neglecting their last opportunity? Never dream of trifling with it. As we do not know when the last opportunity is held out to us, our only plan is to treat every opportunity as though it were our last. Then when death comes it will not find us unprepared.
Are we waiting for a death-bed repentance? Be warned in time. This may never be our lot. Do not hold out any hope of your last opportunity being found there. How many never get a death-bed? And few of those who do are in a fit state of mind to repent; and it is certain that those who do repent then, have lost all the joy of Christianity throughout their lives.
God’s Word says: “Now is the accepted time.” “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” God forbid that any of us should neglect our last opportunity, or that it should be burs to cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” J. C. L.