"A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished" Prov. 27:12.
I WAS driving to a small town in Scotland. The road passed at one part near some large stone quarries, where numbers of men where employed. As we came near these, I was astonished to see many waving the hand to us, and, to hear the sound of a loud horn. The driver pulled up at once.
I was just asking him what was the matter, when a loud explosion in the quarries explained all, and high up into the air went a shower of stones. Well was it for us, that the driver heeded the warning of the horn, and the men waving us back, or some evil might certainly have befallen us; but by taking heed to the warning the danger was averted. "When the horn is sounded, a shot is about to be fired in the quarry," was the simple yet forcible notice, that I saw outside a granite quarry last summer near Peterhead. Oh that people would but take heed to their danger in spiritual things as well as they do in temporal!
What person who read that notice, and heard the warning sound of the horn, would pass on and be punished? And yet thousands are just doing this from day to day, with regard to their souls. Let me ask you dear reader to consider your own case. You attended some faithful preachings lately, perhaps last Sunday. You listened to an earnest gospel address: the horn was clearly sounded in your ears—you were told of the danger you are in, while yet out of Christ: you were told of the day of judgment which is coming, when God will shake, not the earth only, but also heaven, Heb. 12:26; when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned (2 Pet. 3:10). As you listened you may perhaps have trembled like Felix, but the impression wore off when the speaker finished, and you have not yet turned to the Lord Jesus for refuge and safety, from the awful blast that is coming one day.
Oh beware! simple one, beware lest you should neglect once too often, and should pass on and be punished. God addresses you now.
To-day, He says " How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity. Turn you at my reproof." You see the notice with its plain warning, you hear the sound of the horn, “Turn you at my reproof" says God. What an awful thing to disregard His call, and to pass on and be punished. How solemn is it that the same God “Who knoweth how to deliver the godly, also knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished." Will you not then be prudent today; for the Word says " The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way," and where he is going—what is before him; but " woe unto them that are prudent in their own sight”
Isa. 5:21. Will you not turn to the Lord Jesus, who is now saying " Come unto me and I will give you rest?" Yes present and eternal rest, so that in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh thee. There is danger before you, dear unconverted one; there is now however a Saviour for you to flee to. Which shall it be with you to-day? Prudent will you be, in turning to Christ and finding shelter in Him from the danger and the judgment that is coming? or simple, in passing on heedless and being punished with everlasting destruction for eternity?
“Whoso hearkeneth unto me, shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil”
Prov. 1:33.