"Truly, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death." 1 Sam. 20:33And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. (1 Samuel 20:3). So said David to Jonathan when he fled from King Saul. The king sought his life, and David realized his danger.
Reader, may it not be said of you, that there is but a step between you and death?
Have you ever yet, like David, realized that such is really the case—that the brittle thread of your life may snap at any moment? And what then? Perhaps, like thousands more, you think there is no danger. Well, Nabal the Carmelite did not think there was but a step between him and death when he sent the contemptuous message to David, "Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?" But a few days later God smote Nabal and he died.
Neither did the rich man, whose ground brought forth abundantly, think there was any danger when he proposed to himself in the midst of his prosperity to eat, drink, and be merry. Yet God said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
But, even should your life not be cut short, it is at the longest but "a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Oh, if you have never realized your danger, be persuaded to consider it now.
But if, on the one hand, there is only a step between you and death, there is—thank God—a Savior at hand. He is willing to receive you, for He has said, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
"Only a step to Jesus;
Then why not take it now?
Come, and thy sin confessing,
To Him, thy Savior, bow.
Only a step to Jesus!
A step from sin to grace—
What has thy heart decided?
The moments fly apace.
Only a step to Jesus!
Oh, why not come and say,
`Gladly to Thee, my Savior,
I give myself away'?”
Awake then! Awake before it is too late! Hear the Word of the Lord: "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" Ezek. 33:1111Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11).