The whole place is in an uproar. Nothing but canvassing, and election speeches! What excitement! What a great ado! And soon it will be voting day; and then the excitement will reach its height. Meanwhile the cry is,
"Who's to be the man?”
And strange to tell, that was just the cry in a certain great city many hundred years ago. It was voting day in Jerusalem. What! you say, you did not know there was any voting day there. O, but there was. And what crowds, and what excitement there was then! You could have numbered the people by the thousands—aye by the tens of thousands. It was Election Day; and there never had been a day like it before; nor has there been a day like it since. The governor of the city presided at the meeting, and took the vote of the people as to whether they were for Barabbas or Christ—Barabbas the murderer, or Christ Jesus the Lord, the Savior of lost sinners,
"Who's to be the man?”
That was the question.
And it was soon to be settled.
"Who are you for?" said the governor;
"Are you for Christ?”
"No," they cried out, all at once, "Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas.”
Their choice is made; their vote is recorded. They have elected Barabbas. They won't have Christ. They will have anybody but Him. They will rather have Barabbas, murderer though he be. And what is to be done with Christ?
"Away with Him, crucify Him.”
And so Barabbas the people's man is set free, and Christ the rejected one, is led forth and nailed to a cross on Golgotha's hill, and hung up between heaven and earth, as if unworthy of a place in either!
But God has not forgotten that terrible deed—the murder of His own Son. Ah! no. And there is a day coming when the world shall have to stand before God, and tell Him what they did with His Son. And Jerusalem's governor shall have to say what he did with Christ. And you, reader, shall have to answer the question—
"What have you done with Christ?" "What!" you say, "me?" Yes, you. The question before you is the very same one that Pilate asked: "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?”
Have you received Him, or have you rejected Him? Remember that that is the question God has in store for you. On the great day that is coming, God will not ask, "Whom did you vote for in this election?" or "What party did you sympathize with?" Or "Who was your favorite?" But He will ask, "What have you done with My Son?”
You need not say, "I'll be neutral. I'll neither receive Christ nor reject Him. Pilate tried that, but failed. There was no middle ground. It was simply
Christ or the World—Which?
And that is the question with you, reader.
Does the world think any more of Christ now than 1900 years ago? O no. Go into that company there, and say, "Let us have a little talk about Christ;" and they say, "Away with Him; we don't want to hear about Him; we'll talk of anything, anybody but Him.”
The vote of the world is still the same. God says, "Seek first the kingdom of God." But people say No; we must see this election over first. Mr. So-and-So is to be the man, and he must be put in. God says Christ is to be the man, and He is to be first; and the world virtually says He must be second this time. What terrible folly!
Reader, you may be a voter, although possibly you are not, but no matter. In the midst of all this noise I ask, Are you born again? Is your soul saved? If not, what will this great ado profit you if God were to say, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee?" What then?
Ah! "Lost forever," you would cry; "and I might have been saved had I taken God's plan and received Christ first." Then reader, I beseech you, even as you are reading this, to be reconciled unto God.
People say they don't believe in excitement. But look at the great excitement that prevails just now. And if you had only half as much excitement about your soul's salvation, the world would say you were getting into "too great a state!" How Satan is blindfolding the people! But don't be deceived, reader! Don't be afraid of getting excited about your soul. It will be terribly exciting for you to go to hell, for there you must go if you have not Christ—if you are not converted to God. Then don't tarry. Let others get excited about the election or whatever they like—
"Make your calling and election sure." Take the lost sinner's place and claim the lost sinner's Savior. While others are crying up this one or that one, and wondering who's to be the man, let the language of your soul be—
"The Man Christ Jesus for me.”
"My heart is fixed, eternal God—
Fixed on Thee;
Any my eternal choice is made—
Christ for me.”