Harold Vogt was born in Germany but left there as a young man to make his home in California. He obtained employment and settled in the city of San Francisco.
Possessed of a considerable sum of money, he was courted by those whose company he ought to have shunned; and through gambling and speculating he soon lost his means. Though taught to respect and reverence God's Word, his Bible was laid aside, and for years was left unread.
During this time Harold Vogt was most unhappy. His life was one long attempt to escape thinking of God, judgment, and eternity. In this he partially succeeded, but only so long as he was in the company of others. Right well did he know he was sinning against light and love; and deep down in his soul he knew that "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
To prevent the recurrence of such unwelcome thoughts, "I often," to use his own words, "stayed up late at night and on to the hours of morning with other fellows gambling just to get out of my room; for no sooner was I alone in my room than my conscience would accuse me.”
Is this so with the reader? Are you attempting to get away from God? Do you shrink from being alone? Have you been heedless of your soul's interests, allowing your mind and heart to be absorbed with the pleasures, amusements, business, or cares of this life? If so, remember that a day of reckoning is at hand.
A famous evangelist came to San Francisco and was conducting services in a large building. Vogt thought he would like to hear him and, accordingly, attended several of the meetings. One evening, through curiosity more than anything else, he went into the inquiry room and was asked by one of the workers if he were a Christian.
"I don't think so," was the reply.
"Would you like to be one?”
"I would not mind," he answered.
The worker then read a portion of Scripture, prayed, and asked him to do the same.
Vogt left under the impression that he was a child of God. But, like many others, Satan had deceived him with a spurious conversion.
He had "prayed" for salvation and imagined that he had obtained it through his praying. He "felt happy" now—much happier than he had formerly been. But his "happiness" was obtained through believing a lie—through believing that his sins were forgiven when they were not. Thus it is that, "A man may think that all is well,
And every fear be calmed;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
Not only doomed but damned!”
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12). Vogt, believing that he was now a Christian, joined a religious association; but, as he says, he was only happy when at the meetings. "Perhaps," said he, "I ought to do more for God and I shall feel better." He "worked" and "worked," trying to do good to others in order to obtain peace with God. But the "earnest Christian worker," as he was now considered, had yet to learn that he was on the wrong track.
Late that year, walking along one of the leading streets of the city, he saw a crowd of people listening to a street preacher who was telling out the "old, old story" of Calvary's cross. He listened for a while and then, with others, went to a hall in an adjoining street.
Vogt thought that the preaching was pointed and rather personal. He imagined that the preacher had singled him out and he went home in a miserable condition. Could it be possible that after all he was not a Christian? The evangelist had dwelt on the necessity of regeneration and had emphasized the fact that there are but two classes in God's sight—saved and unsaved, justified and condemned. Where did he stand? What was he? To which class did he belong?
Reference had been made in the course of the preaching to the fact that on the broad road to hell there was both a clean and a dirty footpath and that many were traveling religiously and respectably to eternal ruin on its clean side. Was he? He was afraid so, but was too proud to own it.
On the following night, with Bible in hand, he was back at the hall. He was even more wretched than on the previous evening. On the next night he saw himself to be a lost, guilty sinner, under the wrath of a holy God. He hurried to his home and, sitting reading, for the first time in his life's history he perceived that the Lord Jesus, by bearing the punishment due to him, had done everything necessary for his soul's deliverance. When he learned what Christ's death had accomplished he fell on his knees and thanked God for giving Christ to die for him.
Next morning Satan was on his track with his fiery darts. "Are you really born again?" "Are you sure you have got the right kind of faith?" were the arrows shot.
Satan, however, was defeated. Vogt rested his weary, sin-burdened soul not on what he had done or felt but on the finished work of Christ; his assurance of salvation depended not on the testimony of a fallible creature but upon the Word of the living God.
Is the reader of these lines merely a "professor of religion?" Or is he also a possessor of Christ? Where do you stand? Are you white-washed or washed white? Be honest. Get down to the foundation and ascertain whether you are building for eternity on the sandy foundation of your prayers, good works, happy feelings, resolutions, sacramental observances, or on the "Rock of Ages." Flee at once to Him who is able and willing to save all who come.