HAVE you ever thought, my dear children, of measuring eternity, of conceiving it as a period of time which has no beginning, and which shall have no end?
If you have not, may God in His grace lead you to think of it as He led a boy of my acquaintance several years ago.
As I thought you might like to hear his story, I will relate it to you as briefly as I can.
That boy had just left home to go and reside in a distant city.
Free from parental control, and having not the fear of God, he plunged boldly into sin. Do not believe he was happy, however, for though the satisfaction of his lusts, whose slave he was, gave him momentary enjoyment, but “there is no peace for the wicked.”
One day, as he was walking alone, his thoughts took a serious turn: eternity was the subject; he tried hard to compass it, but he felt altogether his inability to measure with his finite intelligence what was really infinite, and he dropped the subject, which was far from pleasant to him, but which had presented itself to his mind in such a persistent way, that he had not been able to shake it off.
It was God Himself who was beginning to work in his soul, as you will see.
A few evenings afterward, he heard, as if it were a voice, putting to him this question:
“If you were to die tonight, where would your soul go?”
“To hell forever!” he had to answer.
His conscience had at last been roused to its utmost depth. He felt himself a lost sinner, undone and justly doomed by a holy God to an eternity of woe.
Fully realizing the peril of his situation, but hoping there might perhaps be a deliverance for him, he quickened his steps, ran up to his room, lit his lamp, took his Testament from the bottom of his trunk, and began eagerly to read it.
The more he read the worse he felt, until in his agony he dropped on his knees and cried to God for mercy.
He found peace that very night, and without any human instrumentality whatever, but he was led by the Holy Spirit. through the Scriptures, to believe that the Lord Jesus had borne his sins on the cross, and that though his sins were as red as scarlet they had been washed as white as snow in the precious blood of the Lamb of God.
And the following morning, when he went down to his breakfast, his heart was overflowing with peace, joy and praise, and he could not but speak to others of the great good God had done to his soul.
Now, my dear children, let me in all love ask you the same question that was asked of this boy:
“If you were to die tonight where would your soul go? To an eternity of bliss with the Lord and the redeemed; or to an eternity of woe with Satan and his angels?”
May you take the place of lost sinners before God, and believe that He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).