IT is recorded of the accomplished ingenious infidel Altamont, that when dying he exclaimed, “Did you only feel half the mountain that is on me, thou wouldst struggle with the martyr for his stake, and bless Heaven for the flames.”
His hell had begun on earth—already the fires were kindling about him. The shadow of coming wrath had fallen upon his spirit. Face God he must. The God he had so wantonly belied and blasphemed, he now dreaded to meet.
And why did he dread to meet God? Ah reader, let conscience speak. Was it not his sins?
BUT WHAT ABOUT YOURS?
Oh, the power of conscience when fully aroused! When YOUR SINS crowd down upon YOU in all their resistless force, tremble you will. Yes, shake like a reed before a gale; but if shaken now, you would be like a young lady of whom I once heard. When she was awakened to her awful condition, she cried, “I am ready for hell, and hell is ready for me!” What a sight! At that moment she trusted Christ and His finished work, and was saved right where she was.
Dear reader, allow the writer to ask you earnestly and affectionately, Are you ready to meet God, for meet Him you must? How very important to have divine certainty on such a subject. The soul’s eternal destiny is involved and a mistake, therefore, would be eternally fatal.
Listen. There are but two classes of people in this world before God: (1) Those who are saved; (2) Those who are not.
What I mean by not being saved, is not having the forgiveness of sins, and settled peace with God. You, dear reader, can test yourself thus: Are my sins forgiven? Have I peace with God, and no dread of meeting Him?
Many people think that certainty on such a subject is unattainable on this side of the great white throne, albeit the Scriptures are so plain oh the subject. Such was the case of a man of highly respectable appearance, who fearlessly and boldly stated to me that it was impossible to be sure whether one was saved or not.
I begged leave to read to him one or two passages of Scripture. He consented. I read: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED.... For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-31Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:1‑3)).
I said to him, “You see the Corinthians need not have remained in any doubt, being divinely assured of what had taken place. ‘By which also ye are saved,’ is very plain and emphatic language, and calculated to banish any doubt that might arise in a timid soul.”
“Well,” he exclaimed, “I must confess I never observed those verses in the Bible before.”
“But, nevertheless, they were there all the time, though you so fearlessly asserted that it was impossible to be certain on the subject.”
Three grand facts were preached by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. (1) The death of Christ, as that which met the judgment of God, the judgment which we, as sinners, deserved, and should have justly borne in hell forever; (2) His burial, as the proof that death had actually taken place; (3) His resurrection, as the evidence of God’s satisfaction in the work thus accomplished.
This was the preaching that saved the licentious worldly-minded Corinthians, which, thank God, has saved thousands since, and which is just as able to save today.
If you, reader, are seeking salvation, if the desire of your heart is, “What must I do to be saved?” if your sins are troubling you, and you dread the thought of meeting God, ―there is but one answer to your anxious inquiry: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
Though you may be the blackest of sinners you need not despair, for Paul writes: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)), Behold the salvation of God brought to you through what Christ has done. With His latest breath He cried, “IT IS FINISHED!”
Blessed be His name, the work is all complete; and now it may be your privilege, believing, to say, like a Roman Catholic Irishwoman when dying, “Ten thousand thanks to You. Yourself has done it all!”
Oh, it is so simple! You have not to say, “Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart” (Rom. 10:6-86But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; (Romans 10:6‑8)).
Accept, then, the word brought to you; let it be truly in your heart as God’s message to you, and salvation is yours at this moment, and, like the eunuch, you will go on your way rejoicing.
It may be the reader is like another I once met, who told me he did believe. In fact he assured me he believed every word in the Bible, but somehow he did not feel happy. His believing had not brought peace to his soul.
But the question is, Did he truly believe? In whom, and on what, was his faith based? Had he really received God’s testimony concerning Christ and His finished work?
Or was he not, after all, looking within to find some good, like many others; and, like what I did once myself, looking for some inward feeling as a ground of assurance?
I said to him, “Suppose you were involved to the extent of £1500, and had nothing wherewith to meet your liabilities, how would you feel?”
“I would surely feel miserable,” he replied.
“Suppose that tomorrow the postman brought you a letter, with your own name upon it, from a well-known firm of solicitors in America, which informed you that a friend had died and in his will had left you £2000. How do you think you would feel when you received such news?”
“I WOULD FEEL ELEVATED,” was his reply.
“What would elevate you?” I asked.
“Why, the knowledge that my friend had left me more than would clear me of all my debts.”
“Exactly so; but what brought that knowledge?”
“The letter, to be sure.”
“But suppose, when you read the letter, you said, ‘I fear that letter is not for me; it must be for some other person of the same name.’ Or suppose you treat that letter as being fictitious, and next morning return it to the postman, would you be elevated?”
“Of course not,” he replied, “when I did not believe it.”
“Well, now,” I said, “here you are today, with all your sins upon you. Your conscience is burdened; your soul is miserable; and you dread the thought of meeting God, because you have sinned against Him. But God has come out in rich grace, and met your whole case by giving Jesus―His own blessed Son―to die for you. He ‘was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification’ (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
“Let me tell you plainly, THE REASON OF ALL YOUR MISERY IS THAT YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE GOSPEL; that is, you do not believe that Christ, by His death, has met your whole case, and that God has been perfectly satisfied about your sins. IF YOU DID, YOU COULD NOT HELP BEING ELEVATED. Why, man, if you believed the glad tidings thus brought to you, you would forget all your misery.”
Nothing can elevate man, or lift him out of the misery in which sin has plunged him, but God’s wondrous grace. With all man’s ingenuity he has never discovered what will meet his own state. No wonder, then, the great apostle boasted, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)).
He had experienced its mighty power in himself―the chief of sinners. The mad persecutor had been transformed into the meekest and humblest, as well as the happiest of men. So much had he experienced its joy and power, that, when standing a chained prisoner before King Agrippa, he exclaimed, “I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds” (Acts 26:2929And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. (Acts 26:29)).
He had witnessed its effects on those sunken in the lowest forms of degradation and superstition, and therefore was not ashamed to go on declaring it to the end of his days, AS THAT ALONE which suited man’s need.
Is it any wonder, then, that men are living in misery, and die in agony when they refuse to submit to it?
Ah! it is a solemn reality that death is in the world―it is rampant everywhere. It is God’s judgment on account of sin. Its victims are numbered yearly by tens of thousands. The fear of it is on every man.
I know well there are those who say they have no fear of death; but when it comes suddenly, making them to feel they must die, where then could the man be found who would dare to deny the words of the great poet? ―
“Darest thou die?
Death is a fearful thing― ‘tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.”
Reader, if yet unsaved, AWAKE! AWAKE! The coming of the Lord draweth nigh (James 5:88Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5:8)). At any moment the archangel’s voice may be heard, and the trump of God sound, calling the redeemed out of this world to be forever with the Lord. The day of grace may leave you. Time is on the wing. The sharp, cruel arrows of death are flying fast and thick around you. Soon―very soon―you may be counted with those who have gone from this world―BUT WHERE? THIS IS THE GREAT QUESTION.
WHERE? Many have been your opportunities, great have been your privileges. Today God speaks to you in mercy. Tomorrow you cannot call your own. Tomorrow may be too late. Judgment is God’s strange work. He delights in mercy.
“Today thou livest yet,
Today turn thee to God;
For ere tomorrow comes
Thou may’st be with the dead.”
Do not say, “I have no faith in sudden conversions.” Let me remind you of the jailor in Acts 16, who came trembling before the servants of Christ, whom he had shamefully beaten but a short time before. The terrors of coming wrath were upon him. The sharp pricking’s of conscience had done their work. His soul was filled with the dread thought of meeting God―that God he had sinned against.
A Saviour he needed, a Saviour he desired; and a Saviour he found that very night!
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,” was the message given to him, and the very message he needed, and the message he rested upon.
It was not what he had done, or could do, that the apostle directed him to; but to what Another had done for him, as the ALONE MEANS of salvation.
He simply received and believed the message. The effect was soon manifest in his washing the stripes of God’s servants and setting meat before them.
In his case we see the divine order: (1) He believed the message; (2) he rejoiced in what it brought; (3) he proved his faith by his works.
It is important to insist that because we are saved, and have the assurance of it through grace, that we are not to do as we like―live merely as we list. That would be to go on in sin, as people often say. No. On the contrary, we are exhorted to “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:10-1310Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (Titus 2:10‑13)).
Three things, then, God’s grace teaches us. (1) What we ought not to do. (2) What we ought to do. (3) What we are to hope for.
Each most important in its place; and never was it more important than it is today to press on those who are saved to be “zealous of good works.”
It is a day of lip as well as loud profession; a day of luke-warmness connected with the greatest boastfulness; a day when men are dealing in the grossest carnal way with divine things. It therefore behooves those who are saved to be more intensely real than ever.
And if that “blessed hope” animates us, it will lead us to purify ourselves “EVEN AS HE IS PURE.” What a standard!
“I would not work my soul to save,
That work my Lord hath done;
But I would work like any slave
From love to God’s dear Son.”
P. W.