“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” ―Luke 19.
LOST! Lost! Lost! Who can fathom the solemn depth of such a word? The simple word causes a thrill of horror to descend to the very depths of the soul, stirring the conscience, which oft is as a glassy lake till the Spirit of God, with the warnings of a coming eternity, disturbs its serenity, making it as restless as the stormy, troubled ocean when the mighty winds are playing upon it.
Lost! again is the word repeated, falling perhaps with increased weight as the soul becomes convicted of sin. The question might be asked, “Lost for how long?” Hearken―for eternity. An old writer has endeavored to describe eternity in the following words, which, though graphic and true, cannot unfold its depths. “Suppose,” said he, “that the world were as a huge mass of sand, and that I were to take one single grain from it, and let it drop, then allow one million years to elapse before I took another, and repeat the same thing till the whole mass were exhausted; even though taking millions and billions of years to exhaust the whole, this length of time comparted with eternity would be but as the swing of the pendulum of a clock.”
Dare you face eternity in your lost condition? You might dare to face death―hundreds, yea thousands, have done so as martyrs for their country’s cause―but to face eternity in the knowledge of one’s lost condition, how solemn! Do you say that you are not lost, and that you do not intend to have your portion in those doleful shades of unutterable despair? Listen, I beseech you, to the voice of Scripture, and let the dew of God’s grace distil on the hardened soil of your conscience; let the beams of celestial glory fill every chamber of your soul: the Lord said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Is there a solitary doubt that the Lord has pronounced those lost who are not saved?
Do you say you do not feel lost? It is not a question of feeling but believing what God says; though if you speak truthfully and sincerely before God you know that you are unpardoned, unreconciled, unjustified, unsaved, and these can be summed up in one word―lost! Oh, how your conscience is pricked! How the ponderous load of accumulated sins is weighing heavily upon the soul! How in the stillness of solitude does memory, unforgetful of the past, haunt you! In that past, which you dread to recollect, how many sins have been committed which to your neighbor or the world are unknown, but not forgotten by God and yourself! He searches the heart. Those secret sins, that lie concealed, that untold crime—these speak volumes, and are sufficient to crush the soul. And then that secret anguish of soul which seemingly real smiles are trying to hide, but a voice, silent—though none the less powerful in its silence—from within says, This is vain, this is useless.
And then the cup of sorrow which the cup of mirth is trying to drown; but how futile are all attempts! Are these not proofs of the lost condition of unregenerate man?
But how sweet, how precious the truth that while mercy’s door is widely thrown open by the death of the Son of God there is room for the lost! O wanderer in the far-off distance, the father calls thee, come to meet Him! His heart of unchanging, undying love has yearned and is still yearning over thee. He is waiting to clothe thee with the garments of salvation. He waits to place upon thy finger His ring, which is the pledge of everlasting affection. He waits to put on thy feet the long unworn shoes, as a sign that thou art at home with Him. And the fatted calf is only waiting to be killed till thy return.
A feast will be provided; and though thy joy will be great, the joy of Him who sought the lost, and who waits to welcome thee, will be greater. O ye who are sitting in the shadow of darkness, open the Windows of your soul, and let light pour itself in! It is shining now― “the true light now shineth;” but it is passing, and soon those rays of bright effulgence and genial influence shining in the Gospel will tease to fall on a world clad in ebon darkness. God offers salvation to the lost today; tomorrow he may refuse it―it will be too late. Come now.
E. J. G.