IN the month of May this year, in the town of—, I asked a young man how his mother was, who had been very ill for years. He said it was not known how soon she might be called away from this life into eternity.
She was an elderly lady; but he was a young man, in good health and spirits. He held a good position, and was looking forward to a long career of activity, after which he meant to retire to the country and spend his last years in the quietness of village life.
I asked him how it would be if he should be taken before his dear mother; for she was greatly beloved by him. Still, while he could not but acknowledge the possibility of such a thing, yet the probability seemed to him so very remote, that the idea had apparently never entered his thoughts.
He replied, "Well, I think it is our duty to do our best, to help those who need it, and do all the good we can, and then at the last all will be right. God is a God of love, and I don't believe He will condemn me to everlasting punishment.”
I quoted to him the scripture which says, " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."
Scripture also says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," and "the soul that sinneth it shall die;" but God so loves the sinner that He provided a substitute who has borne the punishment due to sin, so that God can now righteously say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
What we think will not save us when we stand in God's presence. God's word declares that He is holy, and that without "shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." I told my friend that God did not ask him for his thoughts or opinion, but now commands him and all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.
A fortnight afterward, this young man was away from his work, having caught a cold, and within the following week, he had passed into eternity.
Dear reader, are you looking forward to a long life? It seems very nice to think of working hard and making sufficient means to retire in a quiet way and "enjoy a well-earned rest in old age," and have, it may be, our children and grandchildren round us. But you cannot be sure even of tomorrow; and if you are not prepared and fit for the presence of God at this moment,—yes, this present moment,—you are not saved; and if not saved, you are lost; for there is no middle ground between these two conditions.
The Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life," and you cannot have this life in any other way. You must come to Jesus; He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," said Jesus, and again He said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
Coming to Jesus is believing in Him as God's Son sent by the Father, trusting Him for my eternal salvation, and doubting not that my sins were borne by Him upon the cross, and that I now belong to Him.
There is a time coming when those who neglect or reject this "great salvation" will be cast out.
At the judgment-day all whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. G. K. H.