There is nothing certain in this world. Famines, disasters, pestilences, death, wars, have occurred and do take place. They constantly remind us of eternity. A certain man, who had spent some time in storing up his goods, had proposed to himself to take his "ease, eat, drink and be merry" for "many years" in the enjoyment of his prosperity, like many are doing at the present day. But he had left God and eternity out of his calculations. Just at that time "God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:2020But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20)), and his earthly career was closed.
While crowds were returning from the resorts of fashion at 5:20 o'clock one afternoon, a lady of wealth stepped off the sidewalk and was knocked down by an automobile bus coming up the avenue, and run over. She was instantly taken from under the wheels of the bus and carried into a store nearby, and though all medical and surgical skill was exerted to revive her, she died. Suddenly, "this night," her soul was required of her.
Reader, pause now and consider the uncertainty of existence upon earth. If it should be "this night" your soul were required of you, what would be your eternal destiny? Would it be with the Lord Jesus in heaven? or would it be in eternity "in torments"—your soul lost?
"All have sinned"—the rich and the poor, the elegantly attired lady of society and the poorly clad outcast, the scholar and the illiterate-all of every race, nationality and condition in this world.
Have you taken your true place before God as a guilty sinner in need of forgiveness? Jesus, God's beloved Son, is the Savior. And Jesus has died upon the cross to save poor, lost, guilty sinners. The blood of Jesus Christ is enough to cleanse the blackest and the vilest.
"This night," if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you should die, it would only be to be far happier in eternity with Him in heaven. The real, actual balance of life's ledger is only taken and declared in eternity. On earth the trial balance may seem to some to read thus-gain, "the whole world." But what shall it profit a man if he gains "the whole world" here, and in eternity he finds the actual balance to be thus—loss, "his own soul?" O, the awfulness, the terrible wretchedness of going to hell. "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:3737Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:37).
If the Lord should come "this night," would you be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air? If you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins upon the cross, rose again for your justification, you "have peace with God," you are eternally saved, and you will be caught up in the clouds together with His own redeemed ones "to meet the Lord in the air" when He comes.
If you do not believe in Him as your Savior, and He should come "this night," you will be left behind for judgment. If death should come to you "this night"—and it may—what would your destiny be? Heaven? Hell? Which?
It is no time to trifle with your soul. It is no time to neglect your salvation. Death is busy in this earth, and it may come to you this day—"this night." The Lord Jesus Christ is coming. Haste now, dear unsaved reader, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.