TO those who have been divinely awakened the indifference of those who are still dead in sins is appalling. To be awakened to your jeopardy in a burning house, and find others as quietly, heavily slumbering as you were until a hot spark fell on your face, is to stir you up in earnest desire for, their awakening. You wonder that your first shake does not awaken them. In proportion to your anxiety to see them roused will be your gratification in seeing their earnestness to flee from the place of peril. If this is so as to man’s short life here, how much more so when God brings eternity full in view.
True awakening is by the Spirit; and when it does take place, how real it is! “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). As with a man’s, half-bewildered awakening in a burning house, the one previously awakened, who has clearly seen the sure way of escape, is the one to thankfully direct the seeker to the only way out, so with our spiritual awakening. Whatever the instrumentality, it is by the Spirit that the awakening comes, and by the same Spirit the seeker is directed, in the Gospel message, to the One in Whom is found the only way of escape from the deadly peril in which sin had involved him.
Oh, it is a glad message! There is gladness in it for the one who carries it; gladness, for the one who receives it gladness for God Himself when even one sinner is awakened to listen to it: gladness for time; gladness for eternity; gladness shared by the blessed Redeemer Himself with every one of His redeemed in glory. He will present them “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24). With such a prospect, who would not rejoice in the salvation of a sinner today?
Recently a young man, often prayed for by his departed mother, came to hear the “glad tidings” in a farmyard granary. God only knew what had previously been going on in that young man’s soul; but presently it became manifest to others. The glad message brought it to light. His sister had already discovered the only way out of present danger into eternal blessing, and very real was her solicitude for him. With trembling joy she watched the many evidences of his awakening, as she was able to trace them. One evening, however, her hopes had a severe shock. She found an old companion had invited him to go with him to a popular concert in a neighboring town, and that he was actually going!
She had one resource. She betook herself all that evening to prayer for him. What of the young man himself? He had not been long in the brightly-lighted concert room before the thought came to him: “If this place should catch fire, I shall be lost!” It grew upon him, and he whispered his fears into his companion’s ear. His friend made light of it, but not so that awakened heart. He made for the door. But when he had got outside the enemy began to whisper. What would his companion think of such a strange way of going on? He returned, but the same alarm seized him again. He felt once more the awful peril, and eventually left the hall to return no more. He mounted his cycle for home, but had not gone far before the thought struck him: “If I should fall off my machine and get killed, my soul will be lost forever!” He hastily dismounted; and once more it might be said on earth, “Behold, he prayeth.” He knelt down under the hedge. He cried to God, turned to Christ, trusted Him as his own Saviour, and found all that his troubled heart desired in the assurance of forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus.
He now felt too happy to mount his bicycle, and walked home to confess with his lips what, all that night, his sister had been praying for. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” For the Scripture saith, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:10, 11, 13).
Here is encouragement for you, my dear reader! What greater boon than to be the subject of a work of grace in the soul! What greater calamity than to miss it! Today finds you with the blessing still within your reach. Tomorrow may find you as far removed from all its glorious possibilities as the “great gulf fixed” can place you eternally. May your prayer be―
“Lord, I hear of showers of blessing
Thou art scattering full and free,
Blessing others, oh bless me,
EVEN ME.”
Oh, it is a great reality Seek it, and you also shall find it. Seek it NOW. GEO. C.