The old man looked up quickly as the visitor entered his hospital room. Fully dressed, suitcase packed, he was waiting impatiently for his family to come to take him home. The visitor offered him a little booklet to "show him the way to heaven," but he shook his head. "No, no! I don't want it. I want to be with my friends!"
Think of it! Eighty-five years old, standing on the doorstep of eternity, and choosing, deliberately choosing, to go "with his friends" to HELL!
The visitor appealed to the old man not to throw his everlasting soul away, but still the only answer was, "I want to be with my friends." Sick at heart, the visitor went on to the other patients. As he left the hospital, a nurse came running after him. "Weren't you talking to the old man who was going home today?"
"Yes, I was."
"He's dead! He just lay down on his bed and was gone before anybody could get to him! You were the last person to speak to him."
What an example of the patience and grace of God! After eighty-five years of refusing God's offer, still at the last moment before the door of the day of grace could close behind him forever, God sent one last message of mercy, one more chance to be saved. And he rejected it.
But there came the last time, and the door was shut forever. Now there is nothing left for the stubborn old man but the "blackness of darkness forever," in the place of "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." What comfort then will his friends be?
"Turn ye, turn ye... for why will ye die?"