THREE weeks ago a dear young girl of seventeen years was buried. On the Sunday before she had been at the Bible-class she usually attended. At 3:30 p.m. the same day she was taken ill. In twenty-four hours she was gone―in her case, thank God―to be with Christ, which is far better. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” Her testimony to Him had been clear and bright.
He who had been her teacher for some years was one of those who carried her to the grave. As they passed along he was recognized by the wife of an old servant of his, who had come to the cemetery on that Friday to place some flowers on the grave, of her daughter. On the following Tuesday she was summoned into another world! O how unexpectedly! But there was satisfactory evidence that she was one who had come as a poor, lost, and undone sinner, to Christ for salvation. He had received her and forgiven her all her sins; and she passed away into the presence of the One who loved her and gave Himself for her.
On Monday last I spoke to a number of women at an afternoon meeting, and told them of the above-mentioned circumstances―pressing upon them the uncertainty of life here, and asking who out of that company would first be called away, and where? It was urged upon them that (as unlikely as it appeared) there might be some one present who was hearing the word preached for the last time, and who would be gone, for eternity, before the next Monday’s meeting, either to heaven or to hell. They were entreated to come to Christ as the alone refuge and hope of poor undone sinners.
On Wednesday morning a lady who is interested in these meetings, called to tell me that one of the women who had been present on Monday, and had heard the address (which in her case she thought prophetic) had died suddenly the next day, i.e., in less than twenty-four hours after listening to that solemn appeal. I have today (Saturday) preached the gospel at her funeral.
We have happy assurance that she had found Christ as her Saviour, at those Monday meetings, and that she knew through Him the forgiveness of her sins. For her then this sudden removal was a blessed one. Christ saved her―marked her as His own―and called her without pain or pang, without lingering illness or tearful farewells, to be with Himself on high. What a bright and joyous change for her, to close her eyes upon all here, and to find herself at home, forever, with the Lord.
On Monday next I hope once again to address the many women who usually assemble to hear the Word of God. What a solemn occasion it will be when so many will hear that one who was sitting among them a week before has been called away from this world, to meet God.
Will it not be a fitting opportunity to press once more upon those souls the dread realities, for the Christless sinner, of death, and judgment, and the lake of fire? Surely it will be so.
But, my reader, have not these solemn events a voice from God for you? Many persons will probably read these lines who have been warned again and again, and have not heeded the warning. To such I would say, You are still without Christ, unsaved and in your sins―surely and certainly on the way to hell―so that if you should be summoned hence at a moment’s notice, it would be to meet Christ, not as your Saviour, but as your Judge, to be condemned by Him to a lost eternity. It never could be said of you that you were “called away without a moment’s warning.” The fact is you have had the warning, but you did not profit by it.
Noah was warned of God (Heb. 11:77By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)). He believed what he heard, and acted upon it. The result was that, when the flood came upon the world of the ungodly, he was saved, and his house. On the other hand, many must have heard the warning voice (for Noah was “a preacher of righteousness,” 2 Peter 2:55And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5)), but they disregarded it, and so “the flood came and took them all away.”
In like manner Lot was warned of the impending doom of the cities of the plain. To him it was said, “Escape for thy life!” He acted upon what he heard, and was thus outside the scene of judgment when the judgment came. But his sons-in-law, to whom he had said, “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city,” disregarded the warning, and so perished in the overthrow of the condemned place.
Hear God the Holy Ghost speaking to you in the following solemn passages of Scripture: ―
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the foolish pass on and are punished” (Prov. 22:3, 27:12. Surely God must mean these words to have peculiar weight with you when He repeats them in His holy Word.
“Haste! haste! haste!
Delay not from wrath to flee;
Oh, wherefore the moments in madness waste,
When Jesus is calling for thee?
Now! now! now!
Tomorrow too late may be;
O sinner, with tears of contrition bow,
Confessing, He died for me.”