"I was taken suddenly ill, and lay unconscious for two days," a friend told me.
I had met him on the street and stopped to talk to him. He had been at death's door, as people say; but through God's mercy he had recovered again. He freely admitted that it was a very serious thing to be called to meet God. He knew that life was very uncertain, and that eternity was a solemn reality indeed.
I said, "And do you know now how a man can have his sins forgiven—what can take away all his sins and make him fit for the presence of a holy God?”
After a moment or two he replied, "I believe it is by going to church.”
"Where do you find that in the Bible?" I asked. To this he made no reply. Taking out a small Testament I read for him the words, "And the blood of Jesus Christ His [God's] Son cleanseth us from all sin." I sought to impress upon him the fact that the only thing which could cleanse from sin and give peace with God was the blood of God's spotless Lamb: not our doing, not our righteousness, but what Christ has done for us upon the cross.
What an answer to give as to what can cleanse a guilty soul! Yet this very man had been present at meetings held in his own home where God's way of salvation had been told out, and the words of the well-known hymn had been sung:
"What can wash away my stain?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Little had he taken in the truth of those words, although I know he had sung them himself, and heard others sing them.
Oh, fellow-traveler to eternity, be in earnest! Your immortal soul's destiny hangs in the balance. The sands of time are sinking; eternity with all its great realities draws very near. Many of your loved ones, your friends, and your acquaintances have already passed beyond the boundary of time and have entered into eternity. You too must soon pass that way. Time is like a dewdrop, a vapor, compared to eternity, which is like a boundless ocean. Are you ready for it? If not, listen to the voice of God: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lon: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18).