“FOUND drowned in one of the ornamental waters of a London park, the body of a man who had evidently committed suicide sometime during Sunday evening.” I cannot tell you the conclusion to which the jury came as to the motives which led to the act, but I can tell you the steps leading to the poor fellow’s sad end. That man had a friend, a companion in sin.
Their lives had been spent in self-gratification and drunken orgies. One of them had served his time as a soldier, and after he left the army had settled down with his wife in the cellar kitchen of a crowded London street. He obtained work at his trade, but no sooner was a little money in his pocket than he hastened to a public-house to gratify his passion for drink. This at length preyed upon his health, and consumption set in. He became weak and ill, and to all appearance was a hopeless wreck, morally and physically. He still pursued his sinful course with his boon companion.
Things got worse and worse, until both became so wretched that they decided to take away their lives, supposing this would end their misery. They made a solemn compact with each other on the following Sunday to end their existence. The one man carried out his purpose. Did he end his misery? Let Scripture answer, “In hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment.” He had gone “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Can a suicide’s death atone for a sinful life? Man is an immortal being. He does not cease to exist when he dies. If unsaved, he departs to learn that “indignation and wrath,” “tribulation and anguish,” is the portion of every soul that doeth evil.
What about your soul, my reader? “Oh,” you say, “I am not a drunkard, I do not intend committing suicide.” Perhaps not, but if you die in your sins you will spend eternity with that drunken profligate and suicide. Do you like the prospect? It is not said that the rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell was a very bad man. He only did what you are doing. He enjoyed the good things of this world, and left God out.
Now what became of the other man? He was fully determined to carry out his part of the compact. He left home on the Sunday evening with his mind full of how he would carry out his promise to his friend and end his misery. On his way he had to pass the entrance to a building where a number of earnest young men used to preach the gospel. Their congregation was a very changing one, and was chiefly recruited from the passers-by in the public streets.
One young man named A—, specially set upon getting hold of people, observed a poor wretched-looking man leaning against a lamp post, sunk in deep thought. It was the miserable would-be suicide, cogitating how to end his life. He was so absorbed in thought that before he was aware an arm was put round him, and ere he realized where he was, he found himself sitting where the gospel was being preached. My friend Mr. B—was preaching. As this poor man came into the room those lovely words fell upon his ear, “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” They are part of John 3:16,16For 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) “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
There and then that man was saved. The Spirit of God brought the Word of God in living power, and he passed out of death into life immediately. He had not been in that room two minutes before he was converted. There was no mistake about it. God saved Saul of Tarsus on his way to take other people’s lives away. God saved poor O—on his way to take his own life away. He can save you, dear reader, as He did them. Why wait? Why not put yourself into that word “whosoever believeth” and get salvation, life, and blessing now? Oh, you say, I do not believe in sudden conversions. Perhaps not, but if you read the Acts you will find that nearly all the cases recorded are those who were suddenly converted. Any way, you cannot be in death and life at the same time.
O— ‘s conversion had such a wonderful effect upon him that the neighbors marveled. His bodily disease and his spiritual disease appeared to have gone together. He was a miracle of mercy. He brought his wife to the preaching, and she too got blessing. He lived many years a witness to the matchless grace that had saved him from a suicide’s death here, and eternal death hereafter in the lake of fire. The God of all grace met and saved him. That same blessed God desires your salvation. Come to the graveside of those two men. One died in his sins; the other died without them. One went straight to misery; the other went straight to happiness. One became the companion of suicides, murderers, and men who lived to please themselves; the other went to the presence of his Saviour, and will spend his eternity with “whosoever believeth.” With which one will you spend yours?
“Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what shall your answer be—
Where will you spend eternity!
Eternity! Eternity!
Where will you spend Eternity?
H. N.