GOD usually warns before He judges. So infinite is His mercy and grace that, perhaps, even one might not go beyond the truth in saying that He always does. Scripture abounds with instances. Sodom was visited by two heavenly messengers the day before the fire of God consumed it (Gen. 19). Pharaoh had warnings in abundance long before his final doom. His chariot wheels came off some hours before he “sank as lead in the mighty waters” (Ex. 14, 15). The impious Chaldean monarch had his warning written before his eyes by the “fingers of a man’s hand,” and from the lips of Daniel heard, “God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it,” hours before the enemy gained ingress to the city, yet “in that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain” (Dan. 5). Judas got his warning when the Lord said, “One of you shall betray me.” He heeded it not, and went “to his own place” (John 13, Acts 1). Pilate was well and wisely warned, when, even on the judgment seat, he got the message from his wife― “Have thou nothing to do with that just man.” Disregarding it he signed the Lord’s death-warrant, and who shall say not his own at the same moment of time?
How different might have been the end, for time and eternity, of all these men, had God’s warning been heeded, His message believed, and His mercy besought; had repentance and self-judgment taken the place of unbelief and indifference.
The five words which head this paper were God’s warning message to another man. Hananiah was a false prophet. Unsent of God, he prophesied lies in His name. To him came the word of God, “Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth; this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year, in the seventh month” (Jer. 28:15-1715Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. 16Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. 17So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. (Jeremiah 28:15‑17)).
It was in the fifth month of the year (see 5:1) that Hananiah uttered his false prophecy and got his warning― “this year thou shalt die”; and “Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month” is God’s record of what took place. His word ever comes true.
Reader, we have reached the twelfth month of this year, and you are yet alive, though God may have spoken as to you, “This year thou shalt die.” May I ask, Are your ready to die? Are you converted? Are you prepared to meet God? Are your sins all washed away? If not, you have not much time left. A few more brief days and 1888 will be numbered in the past, and if “THIS YEAR THOU SHALT DIE” apply to you, it surely behooves you to be on the alert.
Very likely you will say—How do you know I shall die this year? I do not know it, nor affirm it, but God knows, and if your days on earth are numbered, where will you go when you die? Will you spend eternity in heaven or hell? There is no third place. Annihilation is a lure of the devil to get careless sinners to go on in sin till it be too late. Believe it not, my friend. Dear unsaved fellow-sinner, death is before you—two deaths. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” What is that? The second death, which Revelation 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) describes as “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” Surely, to die once is enough. Then you pass out of man’s sight, but do not cease to exist. In the second death you pass out of God’s sight, but, appalling thought, exist as long as He does. He is the eternal God, and yours will be eternal judgment.
Really, my friend, it is time you were alive to your future. You need not be a gross, scandalous sinner to ensure these two deaths. You have only to go on quietly as you are, in unbelief, and disregard of God’s word (and He may be giving you your warning by this paper, viz., “this year THOU shalt die”) to seal your eternal doom.
Quite possibly you may argue―The chances are greatly against my dying this year, it has nearly sped by, and I am young and hale.
So might have retorted three young men, in the full possession of health and strength, as they, one week evening, heard a friend of mine preach from the words― “This year thou shalt die.” The next evening the mangled corpses of all the three were found in a railway cutting. Crossing this, as a short way home from work, an express train overtook and slew them. As to their souls and eternity, nothing was known. They had never confessed Christ, but God had coupled the gospel with the warning they heard overnight.
Death has indeed been busy this year, and my unsaved reader may well heed the poet’s words: ―
“Both old and young the dart of death
Lays level with the dust;
So, reader, whilst you still have breath
Make Christ alone your trust.”
Your heart, sinner, is the target at which death relentlessly shoots his arrows, and possibly, even as you read this, the shaft is being put to the bow which shall fulfill the solemn words, “This year thou shalt die.”
For a man to continue in his sins, unrepentant, unforgiven, unwashed, unsaved, when grace is calling him to a Saviour, is folly of the deepest dye. Who can gainsay it? Do you, my reader? Let me tell you what has happened “this year” to others. I was holding, dome special gospel meetings in a country village, lasting over a month. The last night I spoke on Acts 17, where Paul at Athens “preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection,” and then added, “God... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead” (vers. 30, 31). The effect on his hearers is thus given: ― “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed” (vers. 32, 34). His audience was split into three classes-mockers, procrastinators, and believers. That night I pressed greatly the folly of procrastination. One man, noted for his godlessness and indifference, who was present, fell dead next day without one moment’s warning, and with no confession of Christ on his lips. He had got his warning over-night, “This year thou shalt die,” but I fear heeded it not.
Again, a Christian man I know, repeatedly brought an acquaintance to hear the gospel from my lips during the past summer. At the end of the meeting I, on two or three occasions, spoke with him. At first he treated the matter of his soul’s salvation rather jocularly. The last time I saw him he was more sober, but unsaved, and undecided, and said, “I will hear you again.” He did not, nor ever will. A few days later his friend heard him humming―
“I can believe, I do believe,
That Jesus died for me.”
“Is that true?” said the Christian. “No,” was the honest, but sad answer, “but I wish it were.” Ten days later, he suddenly fell on the pavement, became unconscious, and in twelve hours passed into eternity, with no further testimony that is known. God had said, “THIS YEAR SHALT THOU DIE,” and he had got his warning.
Depend upon it, my reader, you are getting yours. These solemn facts are true, and, if you are inclined to regard them as mere coincidences, which preacher and writer of the present day are wont to cite, let me affectionately urge on you to carefully peruse, yea, get off by heart, the following weighty words of one long since gone to his rest. Truly wrote Young: ―
“By nature’s law, what may be, may be now;
There’s no prerogative in human hours.
In human hearts what bolder thought can rise,
Than man’s presumption on tomorrow’s dawn?
Where is tomorrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverse
Is sure to none; and yet on this perhaps,
This peradventure, infamous for lies,
As on a rock of adamant, we build
Our mountain hopes; spin our eternal schemes,
As we the fatal sisters could out-spin,
And, big with life’s futurities, expire.
Not e’en Philander had bespoke his shroud:
Nor had he cause; a warning was denied.
How many fall as sudden, not as safe?
As sudden, though for years admonish’d home.
Of human ills the last extreme beware,
Beware, Lorenzo! a slow, sudden death.
How dreadful that deliberate surprise!
Be wise today; ‘tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life:
Procrastination is the thief of time;
Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That ‘tis so frequent, this is stranger still.”
Such words should be graven on the heart of every procrastinator. Reader, are you such? Let me urge you to at once come to Jesus. You may well trust Him. Trusting Him, pardon, peace, and eternal life are yours. For the Christian there is nothing but glory with Christ ahead of him. He has a title without a flaw to that glory. It is his Saviour’s blood. He has a prospect without a cloud. Every cloud is gone. The sin that was his has been borne by Jesus. The death and judgment, that sin demand, have been endured by Jesus, in his room and stead. Thus he has “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
For the believer death, should it come, is but the doorway into glory. I stood at the bedside of an aged believer but a week since. Among her last words, as she quietly winged her way to glory, were these: ―
“So calm, so safe, so satisfied,
The soul that clings to Thee.”
Come, say, dear friend, will you not turn to Jesus now and believe on Him? Let me entreat you. The time past of your life may surely suffice to have wrought your own will. Let this be the deciding hour. Let the closing days of 1888 find you really on the Lord’s side. You have but to come to Him, as you are. No works of yours are needed. All the work has been done by Jesus. “It is finished” is the legacy of the dying Saviour to the needy sinner. Receive this priceless heirloom, and then, should God’s will be, that “this year thou shalt die,” your happy portion will be “to depart and be with Christ which is far better.”
It is important to remember, however, that the believer is not looking for death (the unsaved sinner has nothing else but that, and judgment, to look for) but for the Lord’s second coming. Cheering indeed are the words, “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we watch or sleep we should live together with him” (1 Thess. 5:9, 109For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9‑10)). “To live together with him.” There, dear fellow-believer, is our eternal destiny. “And they have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 14:1111And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:11)) solemnly describes the eternity of the lost soul.
May God, in His infinite goodness, lead you, my reader, if hitherto undecided for Christ, this moment to decide for Him, for, again I repeat, concerning you the word may have gone out of His lips―a word of warning―which though unheeded will not be unremembered in hell―
“THIS YEAR THOU SHALT DIE.”
W. T. P. W.