By:
Edited by Heyman Wreford
ON more than one occasion the writer has sat on the forecastle of one of His Majesty’s ships, when passing through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, which the sailors call “Hell’s Gates,” because of the intense heat experienced when entering the Red Sea by its eastern entrance.
It is an awfully solemn thought, isn’t it, that quietly, and peacefully gliding along, like a ship on smooth water, many souls are passing through hell’s gates, into hell, awaiting the eternal burnings, as so solemnly announced by the Lord Jesus, and recorded in the Gospel by Mark (chs. 9:43-18).
You will readily admit that there was a power which drove the ship into the Red Sea; she did not pass through those awful Straits without a guide. No! neither are you passing into that dreadful abyss without the power of the evil one propelling you along a smooth slippery path, paved with many good resolutions, yet cunningly and surely guiding you to the gates of hell.
Is there no remedy? Yes, praise God! He has provided the only way of escape — His beloved Son. His word declares, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Isn’t this good news? That God, the One that you and I sinned against, has provided such a Saviour, One who saves from sin, from death, and from hell, and for eternal glory.
He, the Holy One, took my place, the sinful one, at Calvary’s cross. God meted out to Him the cross, the grave. He got what I deserved, that I may get what He deserved, and if you own yourself to be a guilty sinner, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be able to say with me, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” What! all my sins gone? Yes! on the authority of God’s unerring word, “and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)). Every one, therefore, who has faith in the person and work of God’s beloved Son, can rely upon the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ for cleansing; for His word declares, “and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
Ah, my dear deluded soul, do not trifle with God, for these are solemn realities, and sooner or later must be faced. God is beseeching you to be reconciled to Himself, and you can be so the moment you trust Christ, and thus be right with God forever. That wicked one — the devil —is saying, “Time enough yet, wait a little longer,” and by his prevailing influences he is drawing you through “Hell’s gates,” into the “lake of fire” (Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8))!
C. H. C.