ONE fine winter afternoon some years ago four men, three of them young and one past middle age, were driving along a turnpike road. One of the toll-gates on the road was tended by a very old and feeble man who came forward, hobbling on a stick, to receive the few pennies demanded. His form was sadly bent, and his white hair indicated that the snows of many winters had left their indelible mark upon him.
Having paid him his money, the eldest of the four men politely offered him a neat booklet, saying as he did so that it was "something interesting and important about God's way of salvation," and expressed the hope that the old man knew he was saved. An angry flush mantled the faded cheek of the toll-keeper as he savagely retorted: "No, I don't want your book, and I am not saved, nor is anyone else in this world. And it's my opinion that there's plenty of time, and everything is beautiful in its season." Having thus, relieved himself, he went in, slamming the door behind him.
Poor old man! One foot in the grave, and saying, "Time enough yet." His sun almost set, and he had not yet found the "beautiful season" for God's salvation. "But thus it is all over. God's warnings and invitations alike fall unheeded on the ear and heart, and youth gives place to middle age, and middle age to old age, decrepitude and death, and the" beautiful season "for everything else is eagerly sought and found, and accounted worthy of attention, but the things of God and Eternity are looked upon as subjects unimportant, or at the best to be deferred to a death-bed when it is hoped some mysterious change will take place by which men will be made fit for heaven. What a delusion! God says:" Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth “(Proverbs 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)).
Many there are who hoped for salvation on a death-bed who never had one. By some accident, or suddenly in the quiet hours of the night, they were cut off, and learned too late the meaning of that awful wail: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jer. 8:2020The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20)).
There is a time of salvation, a "beautiful season" in which God is waiting to be gracious, but that time is now. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)). Again: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
Man is lost, ruined, and undone, and all must have miserably perished forever, but God has in grace sent His Son, who undertook and went into the whole case for God and man, and by His death on Calvary opened up the way for the grace and mercy of our God to flow out to the sinner—and that on righteous grounds. "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). Why not you?
“Dare you hesitate, or longer Soon will grace give way to judgment, Trifle with His loving heart? Now 'tis come, but then depart!”
T. D. W. M.