By the Editor.
“At any moment the Lord Himself may descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to raise the sleeping bodies of the saints, and to summon the whole people of God to meet Him in the air.” J. R.
Repent or Perish.
“Repent or perish―these are stern words, spoken by the most loving lips that ever spake on earth. Jesus said:.... “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13:33I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3). The wide-significance of these words embrace the whole world. No man or woman can escape their application; they apply to every human soul. We live in days, dark with the most awful sinning the world has ever known. All the storm-troops of hell, led by the devil, are assaulting the strongholds of faith — many of the foremost soldiers in these ranks of perdition are those who have professed the name of Christ, and are now the perverts of Satan. The atheist flies his banner, “There is no God.” The Modernist has for his battle-cry, “Jesus was not the Son of God, and the Bible that speaks of Him as such is not to be believed.” Traitors, by the tens of thousands, are inspired by Satan to pour forth the “doctrines of devils,” where once the pure gospel was preached. Children are taught to curse God and Christ. These Satanic doctrines take every conceivable form. The whole world “lieth in the wicked one.”
Satan is the “prince of darkness” and “the God of this world.” The fiery trail of the bottomless pit can be traced all over the earth. The devil sows darkness in human lives, and quenches all desire for the light of God. He eclipses the light of many a life that once shone brightly for God and Christ. The faith of many has waxed cold — many have followed afar off, and others in their wanderings from truth have lost sight of Christ altogether. But the faith of many still keeps its stand, thank God, upon the heights of prayer and communion. The heart that knows the Father and the Son need never falter in these awful days. The charge of God to His own is, “Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Rev. 3:1111Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:11).
Repent or Perish.
Fiercely the battle rages amid the darkness and ruin of the world-the world where Satan reigns, and where his mighty power for evil is everywhere manifest. The solemn voice speaks its warning to the men and women of the world today, as it has for nigh 2,000 years, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” Repentance is self-judgment through faith before God. Throughout the whole of Scripture we constantly read of the necessity of repentance. It is a fundamental truth of God. The old world would not repent, and the waters of the deluge swept them away. Sodom and Gomorrah would not repent, and fire and brimstone destroyed them. Nineveh did repent, and God spared the people for their repentance, Peter at Pentecost preached a gospel of repentance, and many a heart was softened then by the spirit of God, and the cry arose, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” Then said Peter, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” They did repent, and they were saved, for a greater than Peter had said to them, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” And when Paul stands at Mar’s Hill, men heard him say, “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” My reader, you must repent of your sins, or you will perish, you will perish, in your sins. Think now of the sins for which you have to repent. Let God’s light in over your life. They say to put prisoners into solitary confinement is the worst punishment you can give them, because they are left alone with their own thoughts.
Reader, get alone with God; the sinner and his God must meet some day. Why not now, when grace is reigning and the “golden scepter” of acceptance is held out for you to touch?
The Bible tells us of a sinner who got alone with God, and he cried “God, be merciful to me the sinner.” If you get alone with God and cry out thus, the Love that died for sin and sinners will have mercy and forgive your sins; but if you will not repent, if you will not confess―then the stern decree is, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” You must repent or you must perish. This is the truth of God―never to be mitigated or altered―repent of sin, or perish in your sin.
Dear Reader, we have had solemn things brought before us, and you are concerned in it all. Will you repent now and have everlasting life? Will you enter the open door of salvation now? Then the door of heaven will never be shut against you? But beware of tiring out the patient love of a Saviour God. A poacher in one of his midnight excursions was shot and carried home to die. As he lay in his bed, his constant cry was, “My sins, my sins and the judgment day.” Over and over again these awful words came from his lips. They brought him water to drink, but he cried out, “water can never quench my thirst; my sins, my sins, and the judgment day.” And so he died. What an awful death. A careless, hardened sinner at the close of life, in the “outer darkness,” with the awful specters of his sins around his bed, shrieking, “My sins, my sins and the judgment day.” He looked around and he saw his sins; he looked ahead and he saw the Great White Throne, where he would stand unsaved in his sins to be condemned forever. It was all real. And what of you? Have you ever looked back and seen your sins following you silently and surely, on to judgment? Think of it now not one sin absent―all coming silently on, and if you die an unrepentant sinner, every sin will find a tongue to accuse you before God. What is there before you, unsaved and unrepentant sinner? The day of awful wrath―God’s wrath against unrepented sin. Then think of your position now, your sins behind, the judgment before you. Repent of your sins at once; trust the precious blood that cleanseth from all sin; tell Jesus how you have sinned, and He will tell you how He saves; tell the Saviour how far you have wandered, and He will tell you how He seeks and saves the lost. Do it now — I entreat you to do it now.
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford.