A SERVANT of God once told me of a terrible scene. He received an urgent call to visit a dying man, who a few hours before had been the picture of health, robust and powerful, but now, without a moment's warning, was stricken down in death, and was without God and without hope.
Upon entering the room, the servant of God found the dying man's sorrowing family and friends, hurriedly gathered, surrounding his bed. Amidst the most profound silence he knelt down at the bedside of the dying man, to ask God, in this awful extremity, to come in and save his soul, but not a word of prayer could he utter. And in another moment he heard, as it were, the lost man's heartstrings break in death, and immediately this scripture flashed into his mind, "And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.”
Oh, dear reader, this was a man who had had many opportunities of being saved; he was one who, being often reproved, had hardened his neck, and was thus suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy.
Let me ask, Are you treading in this man's footsteps, stifling your convictions, resisting God's Spirit, trifling with God's word, and exhausting God's patience? I beseech you, stop once again and consider what you are and what you have done, and hearken to this soul-stirring word "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. 55:77Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7).)
Poor wanderer, act upon this scripture, and return, and all shall be yours—forgiveness, justification, and eternal life; for hath not Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and cannot repentant believers say, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;" and, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," and once again, "The gift of God is eternal life, through (or in) Jesus Christ our Lord"? Grace reigns through righteousness, and the moment you return to God, owning Christ as the only Saviour, God can and does save you; you shall never come into judgment, you pass from death unto life, and as Christ is, so (in God's account) is the Christian in this world.
And now, as you read these lines, avail yourself of this fresh opportunity of being saved for remember—
“There is a time, we know not when,
A point, we know not where,
Which marks the destiny of man,
To glory or despair.
There is a line, by us unseen,
Which crosses every path,
The hidden boundary between
God's patience and His wrath.”
T. O.