SAY, reader, have you ever thought of this solemn fact? You are traveling on to a moment in your history when YOU MUST HAVE TO DO WITH GOD. None can gainsay that. Reason may refuse, foolish unbelief affect to despise, or indifference turn the deaf ear, but there it stands in the living, lasting record of the Word of God: ― “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to ME, and every tongue shall confess to God. So THEN every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
O sinner, then, give ear! Thou art being borne along life’s short journey as fast as the wings of fleeting time can carry thee! Whither? Ah! that is the point. It demands thine instant and earnest consideration. Thy precious bark is floating down life’s stream into eternity. Any moment, and it might strike the jagged edge of an unseen rock, or be stranded on some treacherous sandbank. What then of its precious immortal freight? Soon wilt thou have passed into the surges of yonder ocean. Canst thou weather the fierce winds that lash its waters into wild raging tempests, and will beat upon thy poor frail vessel? Sinner! what are thine eternal prospects? Whither art thou bound? Onward to the haven of eternal rest? or downward to the deep dark waters of death and judgment? Carest thou not if thou perish and lose thy life, ―thy precious soul, ―thy all? “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this THE JUDGMENT” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)).
Only the other day, a young man lay dying. His life, though a short one, had been gay and careless. He was, in fact, just a poor pleasure-seeker, and had sought to enjoy the world with his boon companions of sin and folly. But now they surround his bedside. “Cheer up, old fellow,” say they, “you are getting better, and will soon be well; the day is not far distant when we shall have you amongst us once more.” Mark the mournful answer that such miserable comfort awakened in the soul of one standing on the very threshold of time, and about to cross its border into eternity. “Ah! mates, I am dying; this is death, and I want to see what that means for me.” Such was the solemn reply of this dying one. Shortly after, and he had passed away. To which side of that impassable fixed gulf, that forever separates the eternal abodes of the guilty lost, and the joyous redeemed, God alone knows. He had time given him to face death and its cold terrors. “That day” will reveal whether, or not, he fled, by faith, for refuge to the Saviour in glory, who passed through death’s dark waters, and in deepest love to poor sinners bore the judgment due to sin, so that “WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
What would DEATH mean for the reader of these lines? Remember, if it find thee out in thy sins, afterward will come the judgment! Then that awful day of reckoning, “that certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries!” In that day it will be “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;” but now, in this day of grace, there is mercy full and free awaiting the vilest. Said one of old, when he had sinned, “Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord;” and he was right too, “for very great are his mercies” (1 Chron. 21:1313And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. (1 Chronicles 21:13)). Mark the time, “Now!” Then why not this moment for thee? “Him that cometh to ME I will in no wise cast out.”
O sinner, be wise, take heed, give ear. “Today, if ye will hear his voice,” you are not beyond the reach of mercy. Tomorrow, you may be. God’s free and full salvation is held out to you. Will you spurn it, neglect it, or take it? Which shall it be? “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). Take it now, and happy be.
“Haste! haste! haste!
Delay not from wrath to flee;
Oh, wherefore the moments in madness waste
When Jesus is calling thee?
Calling thee, calling thee.
O sinner, thy many sins were dark,
But Jesus hath died for thee.”
But, methinks, I hear someone say, “That may be a right enough word for some poor prodigal, or bold blasphemer, or debauched drunkard, and the like, but I have steered clear of all that kind of thing, and I think it’s all right with me.”
Hold, friend! Have you a sure foundation for your hopes? What saith the Scripture? “EVERY ONE of us shall give account of HIMSELF to God” (Rom. 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)). Will you pass muster, then? “Well, as for that, I don’t think I have any reason to fear the consequences; I have been born, baptized, and brought up as a Christian, and have always endeavored to lead a decent and honest life. I’m a regular attendant at a place of worship, and seek to keep the Sabbath, and I don’t see what more can be expected of any man.”
And so you think, then, that you will have a good title to heaven when you die, and will be ready to meet the all-searching gaze of a holy God, partly because of what you have not done, ―i.e., gone into open sin, ―and partly because of what you are doing and hope to do? Is that it?
“Well, I quite admit many shortcomings; we are none of us perfect in that respect. But my belief is, that if a man seeks to please God, and do all the good he can in this world, he will be all right for the next.”
Alas, then, for all your hopes! for it is written, ― “SO THEN they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)).
Reader! God forbid that we should help to deceive any on a question of such eternal importance. We shall seek to be short and simple, plain and pointed, concerning this most subtle snare that Satan has laid so successfully in the hearts of thousands. KNOW, THEN, that your case has been gone into. Already God’s Word declares you to be guilty, condemned, lost. Hearken “There is none righteous, no, not one;” “There is none that doeth good, no, not one;” “FOR there is no difference;” “ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10,12, 22, 2310As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)
12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:12)
22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)). It is no question of great or small sinners. One sin committed, small or great, ―whether in thought, word, or deed, ―is sufficient to close heaven’s door forever against you, and ensure your utter and eternal condemnation in the lake of fire.
But there is more. Every soul of Adam’s fallen race is possessed of a sinful nature, so corrupt that it is incapable of producing fruit for God, and cannot be improved. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh;” “SO THEN they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” There is nothing within the hidden springs of the natural heart that will do for God. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer. 17:9,109The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9‑10)). Rightly, indeed, were the words of the Blessed Lord suited to that respectable religionist of old, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN,” “for he knew what was in man.” Ah, reader, at the cross God gave up expecting any good from the natural heart. But His love has measured your need, in sending down from the brightest glory His well-beloved Son, to die in your stead. There Christ “once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). Your works will never avail. You have not to turn over a new leaf, form pious resolves, or become religious. Away, then, with your own thoughts! “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:66But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)). Do you ask how this is to be obtained? Listen!
FAITH, not in yourself, or your own doings. Ah, no! But a living personal faith, in that living personal Saviour who sits at God’s right hand in glory. Behold Him there, and as you listen to what God’s Word says about it, bow to it. Own yourself as lost and undone, and trust in His worthy name. He alone could do the work that was needed to cleanse and fit us for the presence of God. That work He finished on the cross nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and you cannot add to it. But, “To him give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, WHOSOEVER believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43)). Oh! dear unknown and unsaved reader, will not you trust Him?
W. B. P.