IT will seem almost incredible that the above words, strictly and literally as they stand, should have been uttered by a young woman who knew that her little span of life was all but over, and that she was about to enter eternity. But it is a solemn and terrible fact that they were so uttered, and under such circumstances; spoken, too, in reply to the warning of a nurse in the hospital where she was dying, who told her that the end was near, and asked her a question about her poor perishing soul.
“Don’t bother me,” was the only answer the nurse got, and two hours later that soul passed into eternity, the words in which she rejected the grace of God and the message of His love being almost, if not quite, the last that passed her lips.
And what makes it more solemn is that some weeks before, when there was still a hope of recovery if the operation it was necessary she should undergo should be successful, she seemed to listen to one who then spoke to her about her soul, and to be anxious as to her state. But, oh! fatal mistake! she put it off in the hope that she might recover, or that at least she might have time at the last to repent; and when the time came, that heart which had trifled with the message of grace was hardened against it, and in three little words she rejected it forever, and hopeless and helpless she passed away; to wait with the “dead, small and great” who will “stand before God,” whose names are “not written in the Book of Life,” and who will be “cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:12-1512And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:12‑15)).
Is it not wonderful that there are so many people, and who believe, or profess to believe, that they have immortal souls, souls that will live throughout the countless ages of eternity, either in boundless bliss or hopeless torment; either in the presence of God, or out of that presence; who yet persist in putting off the great question in comparison with which every other question is as nothing?
It was only yesterday I was speaking to one who, in reply to my remarks, said he did his best to keep the Law; and when obliged to admit, which he did freely, that he constantly broke it, added that there was “hope to the last”; and even pointed to that wondrous instance of the grace of God, the saved thief upon the cross, to confirm his statement. Too many there are who do the same; thus using this most blessed story of God’s super-abounding grace to go on with the world which crucified His Son, and enjoy its so-called pleasures to the end. But they willfully forget that there were two thieves dying there, and that the one who perished everlastingly was as near to the Saviour whom he rejected as the one who looked and lived.
Let me ask you, dear reader, earnestly and affectionately: Are you trifling with that great question, the question of eternity, as if you were going to live as long as you pleased, and then at the last, as a mere kind of formality, you would repent, and go to heaven? Perhaps you would be horrified to say so; but if you are going on doing your own will, and living for yourself in this world, you are saying so by your life, if not with your lips. You know well you cannot claim the next moment as your own, and yet you are living as if you had an unlimited number of years before you.
As I recall those terrible, God-rejecting words which form the title of this little paper, I think of that solemn warning found in the Word of God “Because I have called, and ye refused... I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find me.” (Prov. 1:24-2824Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: (Proverbs 1:24‑28).)
But I turn from the warning of judgment to the invitation of grace; to those blessed words of the Son of God: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). Do you “labor” under the weight of your guilt? Are you “heavy laden” with the burden of your sins? How many are so God only knows. Do you crave for “rest,” rest of conscience as to those very sins with which you know yourself to be laden, and which unfit you for the presence of a righteous God who cannot look at sin? Do you tremble at the thought of the righteousness of God, and say, “Oh! tell me about His love and mercy, and not about His righteousness.”
Why, it is to that very righteousness I would point you as the most certain and sure foundation on which to rest every hope. Surely “God is Love” (1 John 4:8, 168He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8)
16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)), and the cross of His Son is the measure of His love to a world lost and ruined, and to a sinner dead in trespasses and sins; but it is not love which passes over sin as if it were nothing; that is not what God is, or what God does. “God is Light.” (1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)). He requires payment to the very last farthing. But He points the poor, burdened, weary sinner to the One who has paid to the very last farthing; and while such a one also learns the fullness of the love of God at the cross of His Son, he also learns there the righteousness that cannot impute the sin to the Saviour and the sinner too. And when he knows that the righteousness of God has been so met and vindicated, and that that is all settled, he can enter into and enjoy God’s love, and not before; grace reigns indeed, but, blessed be God, it reigns “through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:2121That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)).
As God cannot in, righteousness pass over sin, not even a single thought of sin, so He cannot in righteousness impute sin, not even a single thought of sin, if it has been imputed to His Son upon the cross. Oh! wondrous, blessed thought, nay truth, the Son of God has become a man, and taken my standing and place before God, that He may give me His standing and place before God; and Christ, and Christ only, is the measure of my acceptance before God, and of the love wherewith I am loved!
Can you say this, dear reader? If not, why not? Is it God’s fault if you reject the free offer of His grace? He is “not willing that any should perish.” Only take it while He offers it, I entreat you, and don’t put it off to a death-bed which you may never have, for you may be suddenly cut off in your sins. This moment is yours, in the goodness of God; the next, and you may be gone forever to that place from which there is no return.
A. P. G.