"I have nothing to expect, sir, but condemnation! Nothing to expect but condemnation!”
The speaker voiced his thoughts with difficulty. He was a big man of massive features, just stricken down in an illness which was soon to prove fatal. His nurse sought, as quietly as possible, to alleviate his sufferings which were very great.
"Oh, don't talk of pain!" he cried bitterly; "it is the mind, woman, the mind!”
Then slowly and deliberately he said: "I knew it all the time—every time. I knew it. I knew that a penalty must follow sin. Yet I have gone on. I did wrong, knowing that it was wrong; first with a few qualms, then brushing aside conscience, and at last with determined desire for the wickedness itself. Sir, not in one minute of my life have I lived for heaven, for God, for Christ; no, not one minute. My whole life has been spent for Satan.”
"But Christ died for the ungodly and for sinners," was whispered in his ear.
"Oh, yes, Christ died for sinners; I know that. My intellect is clear, sir; clearer than ever before, I tell you." His voice became shrill and concentrated. "I can see almost into eternity! I know that unless Christ Himself is accepted, His death can be of no avail. But devils believe and tremble!”
Soon after he said, "I have been following up the natural laws, and see an affinity between them and the great law of God's moral universe. Heaven is for the holy and believing; without, all are dogs and whoremongers. There is the distinction! It is all right, all right. God is just and holy.”
At eleven o'clock, roused by the striking of the clock, he looked around. He caught the eye of his nurse, and his Christian friend.
"It is awfully dark here," he whispered; "my feet are on the slippery edge of a great gulf! Oh, for solid foundation!”
He stretched out his hand, as if feeling for a way.
"Christ," gently whispered his friend.
"Not for me!" he moaned, and pen cannot describe the immeasurable woe in that awful answer.
Can any one read this stirring incident and not be moved to the depths of his mortal being? Can a true believer in the Lord Jesus read it, and not with adoration, heartfelt and solemn, bless God that his feet stand firm upon the "Rock of Ages"? Can any skeptic read it and not find his heart quail before the stupendous and awful realities of an eternity for which he is unprepared, utterly without foundation of any kind-a wild, unreasoning "leap in the dark"?
Vain is the strength of man or the help of man in that hour. One foundation alone stands firm then: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 3:1111For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11).
He who gives this solid ground for the foot of faith to rest upon, declares solemnly as to all other foundations: "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." Isa. 28:1717Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:17).
Oh Christless soul, be warned ere it is too late! Turn from your selfish wickedness to Christ, the only true and sure foundation for time and eternity.
"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, God's righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.”