SAD news has just reached the town. A young man has been drowned. The choir of —Church went down the loch in a steamer for an excursion, and Mr. —went bathing with some companions, when suddenly he threw up his arms and sank. The others tried to save him, but it was too late. He was a fine promising young fellow, the chief support of his poor, widowed mother, and her only son. He was only twenty-two, and now he is DEAD!
That same night a man going along the street, dreadfully drunk, fell down, cutting himself severely and had to be carried to his wretched home. The next morning found him in a kneeling posture at his bedside―DEAD!
A woman had not long finished her dinner that same day, when her head fell suddenly back. She was DEAD!
The next morning a man who had been ill for some time with consumption, leaned heavily upon his wife’s arm. He was DEAD! “It comes home to me,” said the woman who told us, “he lived only a few doors off, and my husband died last year of the same complaint.”
Looking from the window of our lodging across the river a few days later, we saw the last honors being paid by the friends of the young man who had been drowned. Having recently joined the volunteers, his body was borne to its last resting-place on earth, accompanied with military pomp, and the beat of the muffled drum.
A few minutes later and another funeral met our gaze.
The same week the whole town was in excitement over a grand military review. Thousands flocked in from the country round. The streets were gay with bunting and flags, &c. All had passed off well, and men were congratulating each other on the success of the day, when suddenly the decorations are hastily hurried down from the front of a club in the main street. What’s the matter? Men with subdued look and tones talk together; the sad news soon spread. An officer who had been prominent in preparing for the festivities of the day died after a few hours’ illness. DEAD, DEAD!
Four or five days elapsed, and again a military funeral passes slowly by. A long train of soldiers, sailors, and citizens accompany the corpse, the coffin being borne upon a gun-carriage in the midst, covered with the Union Jack. The band plays the dead march, and the bagpipes follow with a solemn dirge. Soon the sound of a volley of firearms in the distance tells that all is over here.
Death, death, DEATH, DEATH. The wages of sin is DEATH. And after this (mark it well)―after this the judgment. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:14). Oh! that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. “Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18).
How many of the above had anticipated so sudden a departure? How many were prepared to meet God? Dear reader, are you? If you were thus suddenly summoned into eternity, are you ready? There is no salvation beyond the grave, ―after death, the judgment. Now is the day of salvation; before tomorrow you may be forever beyond the reach of grace. Death is all around us; constantly we are reminded of its presence; thousands, day by day, are called to obey its solemn summons in different parts of the world, and yet, alas, how many shut their eyes to the dread reality, and live as if there was no such thing for them. Sinner, wake up from your fatal slumber, ere it be too late. This very day, for ought you know, the summons may come for you. Think of your awful destiny if you die unsaved―the lake of fire―God has said it―forever and forever (Rev. 20:15).
Oh, think then of the wondrous love of God in that inestimable gift, and of the love of that precious Saviour in dying on the tree. Forsaken of His loved ones, and then forsaken of God as the holy Sin-bearer on the cross, think, oh, think of the awful agonies of the Blessed Son of God in those terrible hours of darkness. Think, oh, think of the depths of anguish of that holy soul, that wrung from His blessed lips that piercing bitter cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
And think, too, dear reader, this was all for sinners such as you. Yes, the Son of the Blessed died on Calvary to save poor sinners―guilty, ruined, lost—from an endless hell, and for everlasting glory with Himself. God raised Him from the dead, a precious Saviour for all who trust in Him. Will you? “Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Never will you have a better opportunity; maybe you will never have another, to accept Christ. Without Him, whatever your moral character, you are lost; believe on Him, and your sins are forgiven, and you are saved.
E. H. C.