Is it not a reality, dear reader, that you have an immortal soul? The body may die and be buried, but your soul is undying; for after death is the judgment. The soul of the rich man was in hell, though his body had been consigned to the grave with funeral pomp and ceremony. It is the soul, then, that has such paramount importance. Hence our Lord inquired, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” What could he give for what is of priceless value? No doubt, God is “able to destroy both body and soul in hell,” and punish with “everlasting destruction and eternal fire.” What a reality it is then, dear reader, that you have an immortal soul, as well as a mortal body? Where, then, would you be if it were now said, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee”?
But is it not a solemn reality that every natural man is a sinner against God? Not only now and then a sinner, as a kind of exception, as many suppose; but that he is living in sin before the all-seeing eye of God. Have you thought of this reality, dear reader, as your state before God? That He who searches all hearts, and knows all things, always beholds you as “a corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit”? That whatever educational or religious advantages you may have, until you have a new life, a new nature, by being born of God through faith in Christ Jesus, you cannot please God? Have you ever seriously pondered the Scripture— “They that are in the flesh cannot please God”? What say you? Is this a reality, that as a child of Adam, however virtuous and refined, and even diligent in religious duties, that you are incurably bad, and cannot please God? Indeed, it is a most solemn reality. Then, say you, “I am undone, unclean, utterly unclean, totally sinful, both in nature and practice. Well then may my heart exclaim, What must I do to be saved?”
But is it not a precious reality that God gave His Son, sent forth His Son into the world to save sinners, not to amend sinners, or to improve an old depraved nature, but to save? That by bearing sins, suffering under the hand of God’s unsparing wrath for sins, and thus judicially purging sins, and dying for the ungodly, being on the cross a substitute for the old Adam nature under divine judgment, that both the old man might be thus crucified, and all his evil fruits purged by the death of the Son of God upon the tree. Thus every claim of divine justice and holiness was fully and righteously met, and redemption accomplished in Christ, and through His precious blood. Is it not a precious reality that God now says of all believers, in virtue of Christ’s redemption, their “old man is crucified with Christ;” “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”? Does not the Holy Ghost declare that “by Christ all that believe are justified from all things;” and that “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”? Can anything be clearer? That, by faith in Christ Jesus, I, once a totally unclean, depraved sinner, and an enemy to God, am now reconciled to God through the death of His Son, have forgiveness of sins, am a child of God, am justified from all things, and shall never perish? Are net these solemn, eternal, unchanging realities? And is not the Holy Ghost sent into my heart to bear witness to me of these things, and as the seal and earnest of the inheritance? Most assuredly they are realities. The word of the living God, who cannot lie, tells me so, and I may well hold fast my confidence in His word; for He is faithful that promised!
Is it not also a reality, that he that believeth not shall be damned? Does not God say so? It must, then, be true. It is an awful, an eternal, reality! No doubt those who depart this life in their sins feel at once that where Jesus is they cannot come, that there is an impassable gulf between the lost and saved, and that torment is immediately known. Was it not the picture of a dread reality the blessed Saviour drew when he represented Dives in hades, asking that Lazarus might be sent with one drop of water to cool his tongue, because he was tormented in that flame? his body lying, it may be, in the family vault, and his soul in torments, longing for a drop of water from the tip of the finger of one whom he had known on the earth only to despise and neglect. Oh, dear reader, is it possible that thy steps are hastening toward this awful reality? But more than this. Are not all that are in the graves yet to come forth? Must not the body of Dives yet be raised and join the miserable spirit? Must not the body and soul of the whole human race yet appear before God? Is not the Lord Jesus the raiser of the dead? And did He not say, “All that are in their graves shall come forth”? Most assuredly He did. And all sinners must yet appear before the great white throne, and be judged one by one, “every one according to his works.” What an awful reality! The graves, the sea, giving up the dead in it; death and hades, the place of departed spirits, delivering up the dead in it; all the dead, both small and great, brought thus to stand before the great white throne; and “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Oh, eternal reality, thus forever shut into the second death, forever shut out from God’s happy presence; no rest forever; no change from the never-ending, ceaseless agony of torment in the lake of fire! Dear reader, do lay this word of divine truth to heart— “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life (that is, never received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour) was cast into the lake of fire.” What an awful, an eternal, reality! Oh, dear reader, flee now to the Saviour! Escape for thy life! Delay not! Haste at once; for the Saviour says, “Come, come unto me, and I will give you rest.” Oh, I beseech you, hear His voice, and turn Now! for, “how can you escape if you neglect so great salvation?”
Again, is it not a precious reality that Christ is quickly coming for His own, that all that are “Christ’s at His coming” will be caught up to meet Him in the air, and so be forever with the Lord? Oh, how blessed to be with Christ, and like Christ, forever! that even if any of His die before He comes, or rather fall asleep in Jesus, their spirits go at once into His most blessed presence; for “to die is gain,” “to depart and be with Christ far better,” “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Now loved, cared for, preserved in Christ Jesus, and blessed abundantly by Him, and then to be forever with Him, and like Him, and, if He is judging and reigning, to be judging and reigning with Him. “forever with the Lord.” What a sweet reality! What a glorious prospect! How very soon we who are Christ’s may know this glorious change and translation!