SINCE the year commenced one disaster after another has hurried multitudes into eternity who entered it in health and strength.
Once more the voice of the Lord has sounded forth a warning note in our ears, reminding us of the uncertainty of life. From the Queen on her throne to the pauper in the workhouse, all have been made to feel the suddenness with which human life may be cut short. May we not trust that the Archbishop’s unexpected death may be a voice to many, both high and low, warning them to be ready for the summons?
Reader, if you wish to be ready when you die,
You must be ready before you die.
It will be too late to get ready when once the chilly hand of Death is laid upon your shoulder.
You who are now reading these lines in health and strength may before tomorrow be dead. Oh, how is it with your soul? Are you ready?
Within the last few weeks we have come in contact with such a number of sudden deaths that we feel constrained to warn our readers afresh.
One Tuesday night a few weeks ago the village schoolhouse of W― was lit up and in readiness for a gospel service which had been announced to be held. Just before the hour I went from house to house to invite the neighbors to attend. Some thanked me courteously and came, others laughed and turned away; the hour was drawing near, and yet there was one lane full of houses uninvited. Quickly I hurried from one to the other, and as there were still a few I stood in the middle of the road and shouted with all my might: “Come and hear the blessed news of salvation full and free, now to be preached in the schoolhouse.”
A poor man in yonder house had been urged by a Christian friend to attend, but he turned away with scorn; he now again, and for the last time, hears a free invitation — but he will not come. He cares not for Christ, nor wishes to hear of His redeeming love, nor of His infinite sacrifice for sin upon the cross, whereby sinners such as he may be saved and forgiven.
Three days pass on and this despiser of God’s grace is rapidly nearing eternity, and yet he knows it not. Who would have thought it? On Friday night he retires to his rest after a day’s work, apparently in full health — he sleeps, but never to wake again in this world. Ere the morning’s sun has risen his soul is in eternity — and where? “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:41). Again, Jesus said, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).
If you die in your sins, you will be raised in your sins, and then be judged for your sins, and instead of salvation, damnation will be your sad and awful end.
Reader, it is not wise to despise God’s grace; it is madness to trample under your feet the precious blood of Christ.
“Passing onward, quickly passing!
Many to the downward road,
Careless of their souls immortal,
Heeding not the call of God,
Passing onward,
Trampling on the Saviour’s blood.”
A preacher of the gospel, well known to the writer, was announced to take a gospel service in London one Sunday night a few weeks ago. The hour came, but he did not keep his appointment. After waiting a short while, the service was conducted by another, and a letter was written that night expressing the hope that nothing serious had prevented his coming. The letter reached his house the morning before his funeral. He, too, had suddenly entered eternity.
Eternity! oh, eternity! that word of solemn import for the soul. Reader, again we ask, Are you ready? You, too, may have a sudden death. These are but two of the many that have come before me the last few weeks. But sudden or not, would yours be the end of the despiser of Christ, or that of the proclaimer of His grace? It was a reality to stand at the open grave of the latter, and to sing—
“Glory, honor, praise and power
Be unto the Lamb forever;
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer,
Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord!”
as we laid the precious dust in the tomb until that moment so near at hand when “the dead in Christ shall rise” to meet the Lord in the air.
A. H. B.
THOSE who know heaven to be their home can look upon all things here as a stepping-stone helping them on up there. J. W.