GOD’S ways of reaching souls are many, and sometimes very wonderful, as the following will show. A young man went to a dentist to get some teeth out. It was agreed he should have gas, and while Tinder it, and the dentist busy pulling his teeth, he had a dream or vision.
He thought he found himself at the gate of heaven, but, sad to say, he was outside the gate. As he sat there, the gate, which seemed to be hanging overhead, began gradually to descend. It came down, down, down, until at last it was closed. Then he wakened up to the fact that the gate was shut and he was outside. What a horror of soul took possession of him; but just then he came to his senses. He soon got over the effects of the gas, but, happy to say, he could not get away from the vision he had seen.
Like most sinners he was slow to give in—to own what he was, and get a passport to heaven, the precious blood of Christ. But God, who had begun a good work in his soul, was not to let him go on his downward road much longer. A short time after he was going from Edinburgh to Glasgow, when, as he entered the carriage, the following words—left there doubtless by some servant of God—met his eyes: “Young man, where will you spend eternity?” That settled the matter for him—Praise the Lord. From that moment he never rested until, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of salvation, he knew that he would spend eternity in the company of that blessed One, who loved him and gave Himself for him.
Reader, have you a link with that blessed One, the Saviour of sinners? If not, you may be quite certain that should heaven’s gate close today — and it may—you will be shut outside forever. What horrified the young man we have spoken of, was the thought that he had sat still while the gate was closing until he was too late. And you are going complacently on, thinking there is plenty of time. Of course you mean to be saved some day. Ah! reader, now is your only safe time. The gate will close, and it will close soon. You had better take action. Be like those four lepers who said, “Why sit we here until we die?” (2 Kings 7:33And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? (2 Kings 7:3)). If you sit still, you will die and be damned. If you flee to Christ, you will live forever.
“Decide for Christ today,
And God’s salvation see;
Yield soul and body, heart and will,
To Him who died for thee.
Decide for Christ today,
Confess Him as thy Lord;
Proclaim to all the Saviour’s worth,
How faithful is His word.
Decide for Christ today,
Procrastinate no more;
Now mercy pleads, soon wrath will burn―
The Judge is at the door!”
A. C.