“THE Last Night!” Such were the striking words posted all over Cape Town in huge, heavy capital letters.
What did they signify? At any rate they set me thinking that Sunday evening as I wended my way to where the gospel message was once more to be told out.
Was it the “last night” that sweet story of redeeming love was to be heard by some one in that preaching hall? Was it the “last night” some preacher was about to deliver his message? Was it the “last night” before the coming of the Lord?
These were the thoughts that went flashing through my mind, though the announcement itself had to do with a very trivial matter.
For a whole week the walls of the town had been placarded,
“THE LAST SIX NIGHTS.”
Some theatrical company had been performing, and their visit was about to terminate. The public were thus informed that their chances of witnessing the spectacle were now getting fewer, but at length the last night had come, and all were warned that it must be now or never!
THE LAST NIGHT!
Yes, the last night had come, and the following morning a large crowd was assembled at the station to witness the departure of the troupe.
Reader, has this no voice for you? Of course it is true, no one could for a moment deny it, that we must all arrive sooner or later at our last night of life. And yet how often time speeds us on to ETERNITY, and little do we contemplate that any day may be our last on earth.
Belshazzar’s “last night” came when, amidst scenes of blasphemous revelry, he was drinking himself drunk in Babylon’s palaces, forgetful of that God who held his life in His hand, and took account of all his ways. “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting,” was the solemn record; and, reader, is it otherwise with you? If weighed in God’s righteous balances of judgment at this moment, what sentence must needs be passed upon you?
“The last night” had come for Sodom and the cities of the plain when two messengers from God presented themselves at the gate where Lot sat (Gen. 19:11And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; (Genesis 19:1). True type of a worldly minded believer, he had accommodated himself to the wickedness of the place instead of, in faithfulness to God and his fellow, raising the voice of warning as to impending judgment.
Oh, ye Christians, who dabble in the politics of this world fast ripening for God’s judgment; and omit the weightier matters of “the world to come” in your intercourse with those around you, take warning by Lot!
“The last night” in Sodom had come. And Lot, at length awakened to the seriousness of the moment, sallies forth from his house into the streets and goes from door to door where his sons-in-law were slumbering. In vain, now, he pleads, and warns, and beseeches them to fly. “He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law” (vs. 14).
But “the last night” had come, and the sun was just risen upon the earth when the Lord rained brimstone and fire out of heaven upon the cities of the plain. Every traveler to those parts can to this day behold the awful and unmistakable evidences of this dire calamity. Scripture it is that informs us that it was a direct interposition of God in judgment because of the wickedness of the inhabitants. And “as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28,28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; (Luke 17:28) &c.).
And “the last night” has already, since the opening of this year, come to many of the inhabitants of South Africa. The Natal railway disaster, the worst ever known in the southern hemisphere, launching its sixty and more victims into eternity in a moment of time as they hurried from Johannesburg; and now, as I write, news has come of the awful dynamite explosion whereby, in that self-same city, hundreds of lives have unexpectedly been cut short. Do not these and many other instances of the kind speak loudly to us all, and remind us that soon and suddenly, too, our “last night” on earth may come; and if our eyes were suddenly closed in death, where next, reader, would they be opened? When death terminates your sojourn here, where will your soul go?
Where will you spend eternity?
But your “last night,” reader, may come in another sense than this of which we are speaking. “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh;” in the twinkling of an eye He will come and take His people home to the mansions prepared for them on high. Beware, lest coming suddenly He find you unprepared! Then, though your life on earth might continue for a short space, your “last night” of gospel privilege will have come, your last chance of salvation will have been missed, and your eternal doom have been fixed.
Reader, these are faithful and true sayings. Despise not the warnings, or you, too, may suddenly be cut off, and that without remedy!
But, thank God! the remedy is now available: the remedy for sin. The precious blood of Christ in all its sin-cleansing efficacy may be your immediate confidence. There are no stains so dark but what it can make whiter than snow. Come, then, and prove its value at once!
God, the God you have sinned against, invites you; He has Himself provided the remedy; He is satisfied with the atoning work of His dear Son, and now offers a full, free, and eternal forgiveness to all who believe (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). This day may be your last of life on earth. Decide at once! Choose this day whom you will serve!
Christ or Satan?