A YOUNG American lady, a short time ago, came with her husband to live in one of our northern cities. They were not long there before, by her ways and conduct, she openly manifested a total disregard of God; in fact she practically ignored His existence. How truly has the Holy Ghost recorded for our instruction and admonition that, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”
It is said that this lady wrote to her mother in New York, saying, “I am going to spend Christmas with you, dead or alive,” naming the day she purposed leaving home, and the vessel in which she intended sailing. A few days after writing thus to her mother she went with her husband to the theater, and on their return went to her Christ-less bed with the wrath of God abiding on her. Towards morning she awoke, saying, “Oh! I cannot breathe,” and almost immediately died. On the following Wednesday her body was taken to New York by the same boat, and on the very day she had herself named, saying, “I am going to spend Christmas with you, dead or alive.” “But there is no man that hath power over the spirit, to retain the spirit: neither hath he power in the day of death.” How little this poor worldling thought, as she sat in the theater with her heart full of the world, that God up in heaven was saying of her, “Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.” Many poor unsaved sinners who intended spending Christmas eating and drinking, dancing and singing, have found themselves before Christmas came in the regions of despair, where there is no dancing, no singing. If we could listen for a moment at its portals we should hear naught but weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; there the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. All is intense reality in hell. No theaters there where poor unsaved sinners sit with the wrath of God hanging over their heads, laughing at other lost, deluded sinners acting out some lie of Satan, all fools together making a mock at sin, while the pit of hell yawns beneath their feet, and they go skipping and dancing round it. Satan takes care to keep them engaged with such attractions, if he can, till they find themselves in a lost eternity, and, oh! awful fact, there forever!
A young actress said to me in a railway carriage, when I spoke to her about her precious soul, and the realities of eternity, “We live in a constant whirl, and never get time to think about these things.”
The irreligious worldling has his Christmas pantomine, and the godless professor his Christmas decorations; but God does not forget the crown of thorns that man put upon the head of His beloved Son, and the all-important question is, “What think ye of” (not Christmas, but) “Christ?”
Reader, if you are not saved, if your sins are not washed away in the precious blood of Jesus, take care lest the devil cheat you out of your soul. And “what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Do not deceive yourself by thinking that because you are not openly irreligious, not a drunkard, or a theater-goer like the American lady, that therefore you do not need a Saviour, but will get to heaven at the end. Dear unsaved reader, nothing but the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will secure you an entrance there. Every saint now in heaven has been washed in that precious blood. You remember how the soldier came and plunged his spear into the side of the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung dead upon that cross of shame; but where sin abounded grace did much more abound, and “the very spear which pierced His side drew forth the blood to save.” And that precious blood cleanseth from all sin. The greatest, blackest sinner upon earth washed in it is made clean every whit, and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
“Precious, precious blood of Jesus,
Jesus, God’s own Son;
Telling that the work is finished,
All is done.”
God says, “There is no difference,” so that the theater-goer, the drunkard, and the religious man must each of them be saved in the same way, and by the same blessed Saviour. Reader, what think you of Christ? “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
“Though thy sins are red like crimson,
Deep in scarlet glow,
Jesus’ precious blood can make them
White as snow.”
C. R.