"The longsuffering of GOD WAITED in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing."—1 Peter 3:20.
YES, dear unsaved reader, He cares for you! He longs after you! He is waiting for you! And the very fact that while numbers around have been called during the past year from time to Eternity—from the world and its feverish haste and excitement to meet God—you have been spared to this the last month of 1874—spared to hear once more of a Savior's love and once more have repeated to you the offer of forgiveness, life, and glory in Him—proves that in His longsuffering grace and love, God is still willing, and still waiting to save you! The all-important question for your soul now is—Are you willing to be saved? or do you want to go on still with a God-forgetting, Christ-rejecting world?
What if you had been one of that vast number who have had to face death during the past year? Ah, you shrink from the thought! It is one of dread—of uncertainty—of gloom—and you seek to push it aside. You are not ready to die. You are not ready to meet God. You are not saved, and you know it! And so you cannot bear to think that there is a time coming when life’s dearest and strongest ties must be broken; when the lights of earth will be quenched; its music silent; its flowers dead; and when, wearied and unsatisfied with all its hollow vanities, you will have dropped out of its crowded ranks to die! Oh! in view of that solemn moment—that moment when you will have to face God, to pass out of Time, to enter Eternity—I beseech you to pause and consider your terrible condition! With sin unforgiven—with eternal life unsecured—with Eternity at hand—how can you hurry on through life so heedless and indifferent? How can you calmly face each new day or year, while every one is bringing you nearer and nearer to a Christless Eternity—to judgment to come—to "blackness of darkness forever"? What a terrible road this is along which you are traveling! What a fearful goal to which you are hastening. And it is from this God is waiting to save you. He "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Each passing day greets you with a welcome from Him—each throb of your heart is a moment given you by Him to accept Christ and be eternally saved! Oh, will you not do so now? Shall not "His great love"—His patient waiting—His longsuffering grace—win your heart? There is no reluctance on His part; let there be none on yours! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And now we can sing—
"And by the one chief Treasure
Thy bosom freely gave,
Thine own pure love we measure
Thy willing mind to save.”
But more than this, He is waiting to save. As of old we read "He waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water" (1 Peter 3:2020Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20)), so He is waiting now for you. Staying back with one hand, as it were, the heavy lurid cloud of judgment which is hanging over this doomed world, while the other is stretched out in loving entreaty and welcome to guilty sinners. Before it is too late, then, I entreat you to awake from your sleep of indifference. Listen to His own words: " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:2020Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)). How often has He knocked at your heart during the past year? You and He alone know. But you have not yet responded to one appeal! Your heart is still closed He is still outside; and in matchless grace He is still waiting—still seeking admission, and still desiring to find a place and a home there. Oh, do not delay any longer. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Open to Him now; receive Him to-day; and receive in Him every blessing that God can give. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God" (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)). "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)).
And now in these last days of the old year, we who are His children; we who have proved His willingness to save; we who are lifting up our heads in joyful expectancy, knowing that "our redemption draweth nigh," unitedly make one appeal more; and entreat you to accept Christ now, while we echo the message which God is sending out to every unsaved soul throughout the length and breadth of the land—COME! From the "far country" of sin, and ruin, and destitution—"Come!" From the fading, unreal, unsatisfying world—"Come!" From the "broken cisterns; of earthly pleasure which can hold no water—" Come!”
“Come to the Savior now
He ready stands to bless;
He bids thee nothing bring—
Only thy guilt confess.”
Come to the Fountain of Living Waters and quench your soul-thirst forever! Come to the Father’s house, with its joy, its beauty, its abundance; yea, come to the Father's heart—that heart which has all these years been following you with its changeless love, and is still yearning over you, not willing that you should perish, but WILLING and WAITING to save—to satisfy and O bless! A. S. O.