“The end of all things is at hand.”―1 Pet. 4:7.
A VERY great deal of interest is at present being centered in that far away country Manchuria, where an enormous expenditure both of lives and money is taking place, and where the two great nations are endeavoring to secure by the force of arras what they failed to accomplish by diplomacy; and I suppose the question uppermost in the minds of most people as they think of the conflict is, “What will the end be?”
Whether this is the first link in the great chain of events very soon to take place upon the earth, to which allusion is made repeatedly in the Scriptures, or not, it would be folly on the part of any one to say. But it is quite within the range of possibility, dear reader, that before the end of this great struggle comes your end may have come.
All the things around us, of which we are able to take cognizance, have had a beginning, and will, sooner or later, have an end, and man is no exception to this.
Now in this little interval known as Time, and in view of Eternity, there is something to get and something to lose.
Let me pause here and ask thee, friend, Is it well, is it well with thy soul? If not, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee” (Prov. 4:25). Never mind the present, but make sure about the future. Think of the man in the twelfth of Luke, in the very zenith of what the world would call happiness―eating, drinking, and making merry. In his reverie he left God out altogether, and God calls him a fool. You cannot be happy, friend, without the knowledge of God, with your sins unforgiven, and with death in front of you.
Again, the Lord Jesus in the sixteenth chapter of Luke draws aside the curtain and lets us see the end of a man who made the most of the present, and neglected the future. Fool you say. Yes; but is it not exactly what you are doing? “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
How is it then that people on every hand, having such a keen eye for seen things-temporal, have neither the heart nor the eye for unseen things―eternal?
The reason is, that “the god of this world (the devil), hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Now, though the enemy is working, busily working, bent upon the destruction of souls, blessed be God, He, too, is working in all the activities of His love and grace, and desires to bless you.
Listen to what Peter says. “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:16).
Ah! iniquities and sins! These are the things that hinder souls from getting blest.
How did the five thousand of that day get forgiveness? They repented before God. They acknowledged their guilt. And that is just the way the man in the thirty-second Psalm got forgiveness. He said,” “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (vs. 5).
Then why should you remain unforgiven, unblest, unhappy?
For whom did the Lord Jesus die? Clearly not for good people.
Can you say “for me”? Thank God if you can. That is the language of faith. I can say, “For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died.”
Now, if all your sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus, and He has suffered the judgment of every one of them, and more, has glorified God about them, how many remain? You cannot tell by looking within. Look right away from yourself and from things material right up to the place which no human eye can see nor any telescope of man’s construction can reach, but which is reached by faith, and see Jesus seated and crowned at God’s right hand, proof of His complete victory and triumph over every foe—Satan, Death, and the Grave; and of God’s good pleasure and delight in Him, the Son of His love. Then hearken to the words of the Spirit of God in Acts 13:38, 39, “Be it known unto you... that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified, from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
Is the blessing limited to this? No. If you are left on earth to await the coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven, you will prove not only that God’s salvation is a salvation of the soul, but a present salvation from the difficulties and dangers with which you will find the path so thickly strewn; whilst you await the moment, fast approaching, when “the Lord Jesus shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall vise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).
Let me ask, in closing, friend, will you participate in this bright and blessed hope, and be amongst the number of those who sing the first recorded song in heaven, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to upon the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation? (Rev. 5:9).
If not, then what shall the end be of them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?
A. V. P.