A MAN is dying of some deadly disease. The best possible medical advice is procured; the only medicine known to cure such a disease is prescribed, and placed alongside the patient; he does not refuse to take it, but he neglects to do so, and dies, and thus has to pay the penalty of his folly. Whose fault is it?
A house is on fire. The inmates of the burning building are aroused, a fire-escape ladder is wheeled to one of the windows where escape is possible; a man is seen looking out of the window; he does not refuse the ladder, but he neglects it, and as the floor beneath him gives way, he falls with it into the flames below, and is burned to a cinder. Who is to blame?
A man has fallen overboard. He is unable to swim a stroke; a lifebuoy is thrown to him, and falls within his reach; he refuses it, thinking he is able to swim to the ship from which he has fallen; he neglects the only means whereby he could he saved from a watery grave, and is drowned. Where does the fault lie?
And you are a dying sinner, and God's remedy is salvation. You are not in a burning building, but you are exposed to the everlasting flames of the lake of fire, and God's way of escape for' you is salvation. You are overboard, struggling and sinking in the surging sea of death; but God has a lifebuoy for you, and that is His salvation. Now, do you receive it, or refuse it?
“I do neither," you reply; then you are guilty of neglect; and God's question to such is, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so, great salvation?”
You may say, as many are saying Today.
“But I am not wicked; I am not such a sinner as many around me; I have been baptized and confirmed, and am a regular and devout communicant at the place I usually attend.”
All this may be quite true of you, and yet you may be a neglecter of salvation all the time. God does not say, How shall we escape if we "break the Sabbath," get drunk, steal, tell lies, and don't go to “a place of worship." No! We may be most moral, may go to "church" or chapel or meeting, and be a member of one of such places, and still be neglecting "so great salvation.”
The great sin in this day of wide-spread' profession is NEGLECT. Neglect is the God and Christ and Holy Ghost dishonoring sin, the heaven-forfeiting, hell-filling, and soul-damning sin of this privileged moment in which we are living. And whilst you remain in this guilty state of indifference and neglect, there is no way of escape. You may look forward and behind you, on the right and on the left of you, but the words NO ESCAPE will stare you in the face; and most certainly there is no way of escape in ETERNITY, for there is no blood in hell! no Saviour pleads with souls there and no salvation is offered there!
But, thank God, NOW there is a way of escape. Oh, flee to the outstretched arms of Jesus! flee to the rich mercy of God! flee to, the great love of God! flee to the exceeding riches of God's grace! There is a way of escape now from sin, death, and judgment.
Oh, avail yourselves of it without another moment's delay, by accepting the “so great salvation" of God.
But it is not only that men are neglecters, it is what is neglected, "so great salvation,” that makes them so guilty and responsible.
Why is it called "so great salvation"? Because it saves me from my sins, from myself, from Satan, from the world, and from the lake of fire. It saves me to be a child of God, a member of Christ's body, a temple of the Holy Ghost, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. What incomparable, unpardonable guilt to neglect suck a salvation.
But it is called "so great salvation" because it is Christ Himself.
When the patriarch Simeon held the holy child Jesus in his arms, looking at Him adoringly and confidingly, he exultingly exclaimed, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word for mine eyes have seen 'Fin SALVATION " (Luke 2:29, 3029Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, (Luke 2:29‑30)); LUK 2:29-3029Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, (Luke 2:29‑30) and when Jesus walked into Zacchæus' house (Luke 19:99And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9)) LUK 19:99And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9) He did so saying, " This day is SALVATION come to this house.”
JESUS is the salvation of God, and to neglect Jesus is to be guilty of neglecting the “so great salvation" of God; and what possible way of escape can there be for those who do it? “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)). ACT 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
But you ask, "How am I to receive Him?” John 1:12, 1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13) JOH 1:12-1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13) it says, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them who BELIEVE on His name.
You may have neglected Him in youth, manhood, and old age. Oh, do so no longer! but receive Him in all the love of His heart, in all the efficaciousness of His blood, just WHERE you are, just AS you are, and just NOW, by simply believing on Him, and you will at once and forever he in the possession of God's “SO GREAT SALVATION." H. M. H.