How frequently these days we hear of the "NOW" people, those who demand everything NOW! All the joys, all the thrills, all the comforts and pleasures of this life must be theirs NOW, they say, with no effort on their part to obtain them. Indeed, they neither seek nor desire any fitness in themselves, but rather would they seize, unworthily and violently, these mercies hard-earned by others.
Such a one was Hal Camp. Though born of a Christian father, a wealthy and well-known tradesman, his mother was all for the world and, secretly, an alcoholic. Sad to say, her dissolute life and not his father's godliness appealed to their boy, and at eighteen years of age this good-looking, good-natured, but exceedingly dissipated lad had drunk deep of earth's broken cisterns. Yet, with the irresponsibility and eagerness of his associates in the NOW generation, Hal still grasped greedily at every new sensation that catered to the flesh.
One evening I was with a cousin of mine-a cousin, alas, as dissolute as poor Hal Camp himself. In vain I had begged my cousin to abandon his evil ways and to turn to the Savior of sinners, but all my pleading led him only to further excesses, as though he would dare that blessed One to interfere in his life.
Discouraged and deeply distressed at my failure, I was preparing to leave my cousin's home when his buddy, Hal Camp, arrived. "Now," I thought, "I will make one last effort to reach both of them with God's good news."
With a prayer in my heart for wisdom and courage, I grasped a hand of each of the lads and with tears in my eyes I said: "Oh, my friends, what wreckage you are making of your precious lives! You say you want fun, but what you get is but folly. Why will you not turn to the Savior and receive from Him `joy unspeakable and full of glory'? The psalmist tells us that 'in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forever more.' These will be your portion too if you will forsake 'the pleasures of sin' which are 'but for a season,' and believe in Him whose gifts are everlasting."
With a derisive hoot, Hal pulled his hand from mine, saying: "What a dope you are! You'll never know what fun is. We are taking ours as it comes—right here and NOW—and taking no thought for tomorrow. THIS IS LIFE!"
Poor Hal! In less than a month his lifeless body was found, a victim of an excess of the "dope" that does things NOW to the profligate soul. His soul had suddenly been required of him. It had passed into eternity leaving no testimony of belief in God.
True, his life was a brief one. And so is even the longest life-a vapor that passeth away. But it was long enough for him to have repented and turned to God! It was long enough to have exclaimed: "Lord, save me, I perish!"
Perhaps Hal did in that instant realize his folly and danger and turn the eye of faith to the Savior in the glory on the throne of God. Maybe in faith he cried for help to the One who is seated there in proof of the fact that He has finished the work needed to rend the veil separating man from God, and thus to open a way for every poor, believing prodigal straight into the very presence, and to the very heart, of God!
But Scripture says: "Behold, NOW is the day of salvation." NOW! As another long ago said of it, "a short word! A shorter thing; soon uttered; sooner gone. Now! A grain of sand on a boundless plain. A tiny ripple on a measureless ocean!... The past, for action, is ours no longer. The future may never become present, and is not ours till it does. The only part of time we can use is this very moment—NOW!"
Oh, dear reader, this may be your last opportunity; what will you do with it? Already the word for you may well be, "Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Heb. 3:7, 87Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: (Hebrews 3:7‑8).
"Haste! haste! haste!
Tomorrow may be too late!"