We four young Christians were spending a few days on the West Coast. We arranged to go one day to an island for the purpose of scattering gospel tracts and holding an open-air meeting. We happened to be wearing peaked caps, something after the style of a naval officer's; and with satchels, papers and this hear-gear we arrived on the island, looking decidedly official.
We knocked at the door of a cottage, but could get no answer. The next door the same thing happened, and the next, and the next. Our curiosity was aroused. On first arriving we had seen a person here and there, and cottage doors open; but now every door was closed and no sign of a living occupant to be seen. What did it mean?
After trying to get an answer to our knocking we decided to try what effect, if any, a hymn would have. God's hand was leading in the matter, as we soon discovered; and we could not have chosen a more appropriate hymn for the occasion. We began to sing:
"The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide:
A shelter in the time of storm!
Secure whatever ill betide:
A shelter in the time of storm!
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land!
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A Shelter in the time of storm!"
The effect of our singing was magical. Doors were flung open; the people came out with smiling faces, and listened appreciatively to the singing.
Interesting explanations followed. The hour of our visit was unusual: it was morning and a week-day. The island had recently changed hands, its only industry having been a slate quarry. The new owner demanded the payment of rent from the cottagers. The cottages had been built by their forefathers, and they had lived rent-free from generation to generation. They had determined to resist this innovation as unjust.
The owner had given them six weeks' notice, and this notice expired on the very day our party landed on the island. Naturally, they thought that we, with our peaked caps, satchels, and papers, must be the eviction officers.
When they discovered our object was not to turn them out of their earthly homes, but to invite them to a heavenly one, they welcomed us and our message, and we had a very happy day in their midst.
This experience, unsaved one, illustrates your case. The Bible says: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).
Friend, you are a sinner and you are appointed to death and judgment. In other words, like those islanders, you are under notice to move, and the eviction officer is death. Closed doors and refusing to answer a knock might suffice for the cottagers, but you cannot evade your destiny. Are you ready for it?
Though you are under notice to go, here is an invitation for you to come. Go, you must; come, you may. You have no option as to the eviction, but this only emphasizes the urgency of the invitation. It can be declined only at the peril of a lost eternity. Trusting the Savior as your own, He will assure you of an eternal home in the Father's house. Death then could only come, not as an eviction officer, but as the messenger of God, your Father, summoning you to the place of many mansions.
"Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," Acts 20:2121Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21), are the two hinges on which swing the door of salvation. Be in earnest; salvation is now offered you if you will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Decide now, and do not wait till the great eviction officer, Death, with his skeleton fingers breaks your heartstrings one by one, and flings you, a poor, lost, doomed sinner, into an eternity of perdition.