"I don't know you, and so I don't know whether you are happier than I am.”
These words were spoken to a Christian by a man whom he was urging to attend to the claims of the Gospel. He seemed to confuse happiness with truth. The believer has not accepted the Gospel because it gives him happy feelings, but because it is true.
A lie may make you as happy as a lark, but that is no reason why you should accept it.
At the same time, the one who accepts the Gospel gains immensely even in this life. Peace of conscience, rest of mind, and satisfaction of heart are surely worth having, and all these we get when we truly receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who knows Christ as his Savior has no reason to fear death, and can look forward to the future beyond the grave without the least misgiving. The future is no longer dark with the thought of judgment.
It is no longer a dismal gulf into which he fears to fall, and which he strives to forget.
On the contrary, it is bright with the thought of home and glory.
It is no mean gain to realize that sin, "that horrid burden and impediment on the soul,” no longer oppresses the heart. It is no mean gain to enjoy the smile of a Savior-God and communion with His Son. Even in this life "sin forgiven is the dawn of heaven.”
But all these present advantages, which are so real to the regenerate soul, seem as an idle tale to an unsaved person. What he thinks he will lose by accepting the Gospel is painfully real to him, while what he is told he will gain but faintly appeals to him.
Like a beggar who is offered magnificent apparel, but hugs his rags still closer for fear of losing the miserable clothes he is accustomed to wear, so the unsaved man starts back at the, to him, dreadful thought of parting with his paltry worldly joys for the sake of the spiritual delights of the children of God.
But a moment's consideration of the eternal future should at once settle all hesitation at making the blessed exchange. Better die in the gutter with our sins forgiven than die on a throne unsaved. Better spend a lifetime in prison if heaven is our portion in the next world, than live the happiest life that mortals ever knew down here, if our fate in the existence beyond the grave is everlasting banishment.
If men were not filled with sin's reckless madness they would consider it the act of a lunatic to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, when the end was to be eternal punishment.
Unsaved reader, consider the brief span of existence here on earth; then you will realize something of the meaning of the old, unanswerable question, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
"AS I LIVE, SAITH THE
LORD GOD, I HAVE NO
PLEASURE IN THE
DEATH OF THE WICKED;
BUT THAT THE WICKED
TURN FROM HIS WAY
AND LIVE: TURN YE,
TURN YE FROM YOUR
EVIL WAYS; FOR WHY
WILL: YE DIE?”
THE LORD IS NOT SLACK
CONCERNING HIS PROMISE,
AS SOME MEN
COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT
IS LONGSUFFERING TO
US WARP, NOT WILLING
THAT ANY SHOULD
PERISH, BUT THAT ALL
SHOULD COME TO
REPENTANCE.”