A preacher speaking from the text, Matt. 20:66And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? (Matthew 20:6), “And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle,” warned the people of the danger of delay, and told them how it was possible to put off the soul’s salvation till it was too late. “Perhaps there is a man here,” said he, “who has left it until the eleventh hour.”
One man who heard him was very angry, and went away in a rage; but he could not get rid of the thought. The words came back again and again, and he could not shake them off — “THE ELEVENTH HOUR,” “THE ELEVENTH HOUR,” you have put it off till the eleventh hour! He became very uncomfortable, and fell down on his knees and prayed hard that he might be saved before it was too late.
At last the Spirit of God flashed the thought into his mind, “The eleventh hour is not the twelfth!” Thank God, he thought, there is an hour left! And he looked to Jesus and was saved.
“But if you still this call refuse,
And all His wondrous love abuse,
Soon will He sadly from you turn,
Your bitter prayer for pardon spurn:
Too late! too late! will be the cry—
Jesus of Nazareth has passed by.”
ML 04/05/1959