It is now some months since this bitter cry, “Mountains of Sin!” escaped the lips of a dying woman who was living in the village of―, in one of the western counties of England.
I had often seen her, and other Christians had constantly visited her, but although she professed to be saved, it was our general impression that she was a miserable hypocrite.
It was painful to hear her talking freely about “her sins being washed away by the blood of Christ,” and yet no hatred of sin manifested by her words or appearance; although it was a well-known fact that within a few weeks of her supposed conversion she had been living a shamefully degraded life. I one day asked her if she did not look back on her past life with grief, when she remembered it was her sins which helped to nail the Lord to the cross. “Oh, of course, we are all sinners,” she replied; “but it says, ‘Only believe,’ and I do believe, so I know I am saved.” I could not believe that the Holy Spirit had been working in that soul, for surely there would have been some sense of the depths of sin Satan had led her into, though at the same time that very knowledge would bring out in greater fullness the love that met her need.
Reader! do you know anything of this great love which led the Lord of glory to humble Himself even to the death of the cross for sinners such as you and I? We cannot measure such love. But you may ask, Why need He have died? Was there no other way to be saved? No! for “without shedding of blood there is no remission”-that means no forgiveness. Are you a sinner? I suppose none would deny that fact. Well, then, bear the sinner’s sentence: “Thee wages of sin is death (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)), and “after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)); so you see this must be your portion ― death and judgment ― unless another will step into your place and bear it for you. But who can do that? for all have sinned, so all alike are under condemnation, and thus all must receive their own deserved sentence.
Now, mark the wondrous love of God: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Why, then, did God, out of the love of His own heart, give His Son? It was to die in the sinner’s stead: and now His blood has been shed, God is satisfied, and delights to send forth the glad tidings of a full and free salvation for all who believe in Jesus.
But you may ask, How can I know that this salvation is for me, and that I am one of those for whom Christ died?
Turn to Romans 5:6-86For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6‑8), “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.... But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” If the Holy Ghost has opened your eyes to see that you are without strength, ungodly, and a sinner in the sight of God, the above Scripture says it was for such that Christ died; and cannot you then say, I see from God’s word that Christ must have died for me, as I am eluded in that class of persons for whom He died, and if I can say He died for me, it was to bear my sins on His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)). Oh, the peace and rest it gives the anxious soul to know that all the burden of sin, which it is utterly unable to lessen or get rid of was borne by the only One who knew the amount, and could meet it all; and not until He had met it all did He say, “It is finished,” and that leaves nothing for the trembling sinner to do but to praise the One who did it for him.
But there is much more connected with the cross of Christ, and what He in His great love there underwent for us. We deserved death ― Christ died in our stead. We were under judgment ― Christ endured the judgment for us. There was all the wrath of a holy God against sin: Christ bore it for us. We must have been forever banished from God’s presence: Christ was forsaken of God on the cross that we might never be, when He cried, “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:4848And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. (Matthew 27:48)).
Yes, reader! during those hours of darkness He was bearing sin’s heavy load, and it was for the ungodly, the sinner, the enemies. He drank the bitter cup to the very last drop, so that nothing should remain for those who believe in Him but blessing.
Now if any soul sees something of this wonderful work of Christ on the cross, and in some faint degree can estimate the cost at which we were delivered from Satan, and brought to God, surely there must be a corresponding loathing of the sins which cost God’s Son such terrible agony. This I never found in Mrs.―.
I had been absent some months from the village of―, and on my return I met the daughter of Mrs.―. She was in deep mourning, and looked very sad and ill. “How is your mother?” I asked. “She is dead,” was the answer. “And what was her end?” “I hope she was saved, for she cried for mercy, and we read, that all who, ‘call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
I could say nothing, though the poor woman looked so wretched. I had no comfort to give her, for I feared that “the hypocrite’s hope shall perish,” was true of the one who was gone.
In a few hours I heard the terrible facts of the sad end of one who was merely a professor “without Christ” and “without hope.”
When she knew that she was dying, terror seized her, and incessantly the cry came from her lips, “Mountains of sin! mountains of sin: they get higher and higher! Oh, pray for me! Is there no mercy? ― they will sink me into hell!” At last, in great anguish, she told them she saw Satan on her bed, and died actually gnawing her tongue with torment already begun.
How different were the last moments of one who but a few months before, in the same village, departed to be with Christ. With a face radiant with joy, he said he could not think of his body―which was covered with wounds in a mortifying condition ― “for,” said he, “I am going to Christ!”
I would ask everyone who may read this perfectly true account of Mrs.―’s death to weigh the matter carefully, and compare the end of one who had Christ, and so forgot his suffering body in the joy of going to be with the Lord forever, and that of the poor lost one without hope, whose heart-breaking cry of “Mountains of sin!” will linger for many a day in the ears of those who were standing terrified by her deathbed. Would you like to pass into eternity with all your sins weighing you down to hell, or with the joy of knowing that Christ had borne them all for you, and that the “mountains of sin” are rolled away forever?
What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Reader! “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
“Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.”
L. C. K.