NIGHTFALL was coming on. As the traveler looked round, nothing hut miles of waving grass met his gaze. He had traveled across the broad prairie from early morning on horseback, and as he rode he smoked continually.
It was now time to dismount, tether his horse, and bivouac for the night. This done, he set himself to gather dried grass and light his fire. He opened his match-box and found to his dismay and amazement that only one match remained after his day's smoking. His life depended upon the tire, and the fire depended upon this single match.
A biting wind was blowing—wild beasts were prowling about. Death was on the wings of the blast, and death was in the roar of the fierce brutes.
In such a plight for what would our traveler have sold his single match? In the streets of New York matches could have been bought by the gross for a cent or two. A strip of wood—a little ignitable preparation on the tip! Yet how priceless Gold would not have bought it. And how carefully he shielded the flickering flame from the wind, and how relieved he was as he saw the fire take a firm hold of the fuel.
And now let me seek to draw from this illustration a lesson or two of the utmost importance. You, too, are journeying.
Life's little day for you will soon be spent. Sin, decay, and death are stamped on the whole human family. And for you, like our traveler, if unsaved, night is coming on—for you the night of eternal wrath.
Oh! now in your days of health and strength, now in God's day of salvation prepare for the future.
Come, is it not worse than blind folly to go on another moment unprepared? Unforgiven sin must be punished. The great, white throne must be faced. God must be faced by the sinner.
Alas! there are thousands and thousands who value lightly what God calls precious. "The precious blood of Christ." What a profound mistake!
What you, perhaps, set great store by now—good works—will look paltry and insignificant as eternity with its momentous issues lies within reach of your death-bed. Then you will not want the sandy foundation of good works, but a solid foundation under your sinking feet.
Hear what God says of salvation by good works: "NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:99Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:9)). "But to him that worketh Not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom, 4:5). “NOT by works of righteousness which WE have done but according to His mercy, He saved us." (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)).
Even the Old Testament believers, walking in the dim light of unfulfilled types and shadows, could read in Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)—"All our righteousness, are as filthy rags;" and on the great day of atonement in the jubilee year, the captives waiting for release were told, "Ye shall do NO WORK in that same day; for it is a day of atonement." (Lev. 23:2828And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:28)). Infraction of this met with instant death.
And, think you, now you stand, not in the starlit night of a Jewish age, but in all the splendid light of Christianity; not by the side of a typical sacrifice on the great day of atonement, but in the presence of the great sacrifice of Christ—the finished work on the cross—that the object lessons of "NO WORK" are not intensified? Christ is the fulfiller of the types, the chaser-away of the shadows. Well does the Christian poet sing God's truth in these lines:—
“Till to Jesus' work you cling
By a simple faith,
‘Doing ' is a deadly thing—
‘Doing ' ends in death.”
Friend, there is absolutely nothing to shelter you from the wrath of God but the "precious blood.”
Bow then to God's Word, and dismiss from your mind the thought of any merit by your fancied good works. Luther toiling up the steps of St. Peter's in Rome rose from his knees as like a clarion note there sounded in his inmost soul what proved to be his battle cry for the truth of God—”Justification by faith." Though papal bulls were hurled at his head—though a world of monks toiled and prayed for his destruction, God's truth was everything to him. So may it be to you, dear reader.
In conclusion, let me earnestly invite you to unwaveringly trust the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, His shed blood. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
THE EDITOR.