Walking down the village street one day, I met a very aged-looking man, well dressed and elegant in appearance. However, his frame was shrunken from age; his face was small, withered, and wrinkled; his eyes dull, and his steps feeble and tottering. He was a living picture of Eccl. 12, God's picture of man in his last days before he goes to his long home. Indeed one would say with the preacher: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
As we approached each other, we both seemed naturally to stop as we met, and after a few remarks had passed, I said: "I don't think I have seen you before, sir. You seem to be getting along in years, are you not?" He told me his name and where he lived, and then said, "I am ninety-five.”
I had never before seen one so old, and was awed and almost hushed at the thought of so great an age, for "the multitude of years should teach wisdom." The thoughts of what so long a life must have included, and of what may have taken place during it, passed rapidly through my mind. Above all, What had it been for God?
"Do you know God?" I inquired.
Tears came into the weary-looking eyes, and he answered that he had been for most of his life in a far-off land, where, I inferred, God had no thought nor place, and that he had at last returned to his native town to die.
"And you have lived nearly a century without God? Oh, what a loss!”
I felt deeply for the old man, and said further, "And will you live forever without Him who loved poor sinners so much that He sent His Son to die for them? He wants them to know Him, to trust Him, and He longs for their eternal joy. He has been very patient with you. He has spared you till now through these long years, that you may still turn to Him. It is not too late.”
I talked to him thus, and the old man wept, partly from feebleness and partly emotion, because the mention of such things affected him. He knew that he was without God, and that he had spent a life of nearly a hundred years without Him.
I invited him to come to the schoolhouse and hear God's message to him of mercy and salvation through the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God; and I was glad indeed to see him there at the next meeting, sitting near the front, where I knew he would hear well.
Earnestly we had been praying for him, and we looked for blessing on the old man. Yes, and God vouchsafed it! In the last days of his long life, God, whom he had neglected and left unsought, met him in grace and in blessing.
As before he had wept at the thought of having left God out, "and gone his own way," amongst reckless men in a godless land, now he wept at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. He was penitent and subdued, filled with the sense of the love and goodness of God, who had been for him, giving and forgiving, though he had turned his back upon Him. Now his delight was to listen to His precious Word that he might learn more of Him, and to attend the meetings, to which before long he had to be led, as his eyesight was rapidly failing.
One could look at the hoary head now, its way of unrighteousness past forever, and see it as God now saw it, and think His own blessed thoughts about it. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.”
Dear aged ones, we well know that "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away.”
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Who will be in that vast throng? Every blood-bought, blood-washed sinner from Abel down to the last soul saved before Christ comes; every one of whom it is said, "they that are Christ's at His coming.”
The moment Christ descends, all believers in Jesus will be caught up. Cemeteries, graves, and sea shall yield up their bodies. Those who are alive also "shall be changed," and "caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Reader, will you be among that happy assembly that shall rise to meet their Lord? Will you have part in that grand open-air meeting? Or will you be left behind to endure the terrible time of judgment that is coming upon this Christ-rejecting scene?
Do you reply, "I don't believe that. And if it be true, I suppose I shall not be there.”
Then, friend, there is a meeting where you will be, like it or not. It is the prayer-meeting―and there you will pray. When the door is shut, and the saved souls are inside with the Master of the house, and you are outside knocking for admittance, then you will pray, and pray earnestly too: "Lord, Lord, open to us!”
Friend, the saddest answer of all eternity then will be yours: "I know you not." Matt. 25:10-1210And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. 11Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. (Matthew 25:10‑12). Perhaps your prayer-meeting will be the one spoken of in Rev. 6:15-1715And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15‑17). Who will be there? "The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man.”
Would you feel honored to be among them? Just see what they will do. They "hid themselves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains." This fearful and unbelieving crowd hidden in mountain-caves and dens, they pray, too. Just listen to their prayer: they say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
A rich man in hell―one who possibly never prayed much on earth―"in hell he lifted up his eyes,... and said, Father Abraham,... send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”
What a prayer! But, friend, his prayer was too late. It was not answered. Beware, lest you put off the salvation of your soul till some convenient season. It may never come, and you may find yourself at last at that awful prayer-meeting where prayers will be in vain.
Thank God, there is another meeting, and the heart of the believer in Jesus longs for it. At this meeting all the redeemed shall cluster around God's Lamb, His blessed Son Jesus, and ascribe "blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever," and they shall "fall down and worship Him.”
In all honesty we must admit, to our shame, that many of the Lord's dear people give Him very little praise and worship here. How worldly they are! How occupied with themselves and their own blessings, giving little or nothing to the Blesser. In heaven all will be changed. There the blessed Lord shall have full praise. With all evil banished and the saints changed into the likeness of His body of glory, nothing can hinder the out flowings of full hearts throughout eternity.
Now, my reader, at which meeting will you be found? The open-air meeting and the glorious worship meeting? Oh, I beseech you, before it be too late, accept Christ now as your personal Savior, then live for Him here in the power of an ungrieved Holy Spirit, as you will live with Him in glory there, and worship Him forever and ever.