WHEN recently following the body of a believer to the grave, a remarkable inscription upon a tombstone at the side of the path caught my eye: ―
In affectionate remembrance of—
who passed suddenly away
in life’s bloom.
Here in one brief hour BUSINESS―HURRY―WORRY―
DEATH.
Hereafter CHRIST―PEACE―REST―LIFE.
Change for gain―
Christ for Business, Peace for Hurry,
Rest for Worry, Life for Death.
Till He come, Adieu, loved One.
The epitaph was apparently composed by a Christian husband for his believing wife. But I thought how aptly those four words describe the life and end of thousands in this age of rush and pressure: “Business―Hurry―Worry―Death.” Maybe the first three just describe your life, my reader. “Business,” with its pressing claims, that, like a slave-driver with heavy lash, goads on his poor victims. Business, morning, noon, and night, week in and week out, from the year’s commencement to its close, and year after year. Business with its accompaniment of ceaseless hurry and constant worry. And all ending in what? Successful or unsuccessful―all ending here in death.
The story has often been told of a wealthy man of business to whom a kind friend spoke a few words as to how it would all end. “Die!” said the man; “I haven’t time to die.” And he had scarcely uttered the words when, stooping from his chair to pick up a paper, he expired. Yes, however busy, hurried, or worried, death is the end, for “It is appointed unto men once to die,” and there is “no discharge in that war.”
But let me ask you in all seriousness, yet in all kindness, should you be called on, like the one described in the epitaph, to pass “suddenly away,” whether you are in “life’s bloom” or otherwise, should you find the change gain? Would it be with you “Christ for business, rest for hurry, peace for worry, life for death”? Or is all uncertain and dark hereafter? It is for such I especially write. The change for you would be all loss. What, instead of business? Not Christ. For the Christ rejecter here there will be no Christ hereafter, save as his Judge. For “after death,” what? “The judgment” (look up Heb. 9:27). No rest for hurry. There will be no rest for the unrighteous. No peace for worry. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” No life for death. No, no! Nothing but the “second death,” which is “the lake of fire” (see Rev. 20:11-15), for those whose names are “not found written in the book of life.”
Dear reader, now is the time for you to face these solemn realities, for “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Here is the place for you to make sure of a happy hereafter. When once the border-line is crossed, your eternity of weal or woe will be unchangeably fixed. If you would have “Christ hereafter,” you must begin now. If you would have the full enjoyment of Christ hereafter, decide for Christ in time.
In a large and crowded hall we had closed our gospel meeting with the well-known hymn of which the refrain is―
“Christ for me.”
I spoke to a woman passing down the aisle and found her anxious about her soul, but not decided. Referring to a verse of our hymn―
“Let others boast of heaps of gold,
Christ for me.”
I said, “Suppose I had a heap of gold in one hand and Christ in the other, and offered you your choice, which would you take?” She replied, “Christ for me.” There and then her decision was made, and she abode by it after. And why not you, my undecided reader? It is so simple―to faith. Unbelief falters and goes without the blessing. Faith takes God at His word, and believes because He says it. Christ is God’s last and only word to man now. Everything He has to offer is wrapped up in Christ. “If thou knewest the gift of God,” said Jesus to the woman of Samaria. God is a GIVER, and He has everything to give. Christ is God’s gift for and to a perishing world. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” for it is His purpose that, believing in Him (the Son), we should have eternal life in Him. “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” Said I not well that all God offers is enfolded in Christ? All that Christ is, unfolded by the Spirit. Believing in Him you accept Christ, and “peace, rest, life,” yea, all is yours.
“Then why, oh, why delay?
You may not see tomorrow,
Now is salvation’s day!”
And what about that last affecting word on the epitaph to his loved one, “Till He come”? Yes, Jesus is coming again. His last word of assurance to His own is, “Surely I come quickly.” Oh, that will be the moment for Him, and for us who have accepted Him. For Him, “the day of the gladness of His heart.” For us, of the realization of that for which we have been saved in hope. To see Him, to be like Him, to be with Him forever. To be conducted by Him into the Father’s house, where He has, by going Himself, prepared a place for us. That will be the moment for which we have wished and waited, while we worked for Him during the night of His absence.
But what about you, if still unprepared, unready? “They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage, and the door was shut.” While the “ready” will be shut in with Him, the unready will be shut out from Him forever. Then lips that never prayed will pray, and eyes that never wept will weep. But all to no purpose. Therefore, oh! my reader, delay no longer. Risk not the salvation of your soul another moment. Good intentions are valueless. The one man we read of in Scripture who was “almost persuaded” never, as far as the record goes, came the rest of the way, but was altogether lost. Decide for Christ, and decide NOW.
W. G. B.