In looking back over the past two years, we can have little difficulty in discerning the rise and progress of a mighty wave of blessing. It has been rolling across the whole vineyard of Christ, and bearing thousands and hundreds of thousands upon its bosom. From all quarters, the most soul-stirring tidings reach us, of sinners brought to Christ, and backsliders restored. Never, since the day of Pentecost, has there been such a remarkable work of God’s Spirit. On all hands we perceive a deep interest in reference to eternal things. Wherever there is a prayer-meeting, a preaching, a lecture, a scripture-reading, or Bible Class announced, numbers flock to it. It is so different from what it used to be. Not long since the difficulty was to get people to listen to the gospel; now, the difficulty is to get persons enough to preach it. There is an energy abroad—a truly divine energy, for which every true christian must bless God.
But we believe that this mighty wave of blessing will be succeeded by another mighty wave of judgment. Solemn thought! We desire to have this impressed upon our own souls and upon the souls of our readers. We are thoroughly convinced that the present action of the Holy Ghost is the precursor of the coming of Christ. The number of the elect is being speedily accomplished; and what is this but the hastening of that everlasting kingdom for which the redeemed are waiting? Time is short. God is making a speedy work of it. The wave of blessing will soon roll on and waft its thousands to heaven; and then will come the wave of judgment and waft its millions to hell. Does this proportion seem highly drawn? Look at a missionary map with its vast continents of black and green, and its tiny districts of blue, intimating the appalling extent to which Paganism and corrupt Christianity preponderates over the mere outward profession of Protestantism.
And when, we may ask, will the black, brown, and the blue, all become white? When will the whole scene be wrapped in the fair mantle of righteousness? Not until the wave of judgment has rolled over it. The sword of judgment must settle the great controversy between God and this world, touching the murder of His Son. God’s question with the world is, “What have you done with my Son?” Has this question ever been settled? Never. The world is stained, to this moment, with the blood of Christ and what is more, the reader of these lines is either purged by that blood, or stained with the guilt of shedding it. There is no middle ground. Stained or purged? Which? This is the solemn searching question. May the Holy Ghost apply it in divine power to the heart of the reader. There is no use saying, “I did not crucify the Lord of glory.” It was the act of the human heart, the act of the world; and each one forms a component part of the world until, through faith in Christ, he bids an eternal adieu to that world, and takes his place in the church. This is the true way to look at the matter. There is not so much as an hair’s breadth of neutral ground, when Christ is in question. “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” must ever be the pointed personal question; he must either be for or against Christ. Some try to assume a border position, but it is utterly vain. There is no such thing, and the sooner this is understood the better.
May the Lord make us more thoroughly decided. May we find ourselves upon the very crest of the wave of blessing which is now passing majestically onward to the sea of glory, and may we be led to utter a warning voice in the ears of sinners, calling upon them to flee from the approaching wave of judgment which shall roll downward into “the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.” Let us be faithful. Let us tell our fellow-sinners plainly what must be the conclusion of the whole matter. Judgment for the world; glory for the church. Eternal perdition for those who are stained with the blood of Christ; eternal glory for those who are washed in that blood. God grant that my reader may belong to the latter.