THROUGH the gloom and fog of a London night in November we hurry; one train has been already missed, shall we again be so unfortunate? Straining our eyes through the mist, we can dimly discern, by the lighted clock over London Bridge station, that our train is due. We reach the station, we see the ticket-collector at his post, we ever see the gates open—and then, e’er we can reach them, they are closed: we are almost in time, but too late! No one relents, no one reopens them, we are shut out!
Another November night in the country—cold, wet, and getting on for midnight. We are driving borne in the darkness through the quiet villages we know so well, till we see a light before us, a light in the lodge window and as we near it, we find the gates open: a few steps further and. opened doors cast a broad light over us as we alight, tired, wet, and hungry, to find ourselves at home. The gates are open, we are welcomed, shut in!
Down to the gates of death were hastening two crucified side by side and One “in the midst.” Two were dying for their own sins:
One was dying “the just for the unjust.” “He knew no sin.” But a few short minutes before the two had been railing on their companion; now one of them says, “We indeed justly; we receive the due reward of our deeds; this Man hath done nothing amiss.” And this unjust one suffering justly says to the Saviour, “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” List to the reply, “Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” A few more solemn hours and the gates of death are passed by all.
Then to one of them, the unjust and unrepenting railer, the door of Paradise is shut, but the “gates of hell” stand wide open, and he enters in at the “wide gate” to be “where their worm died not and the fire is not quenched.” He had walked in the broad road, he had turned away from a Saviour, his end was destruction.
But how will the once unjust, but now justified man pass through the gates of Paradise? He will go in company with the just One, his Saviour and Redeemer; and mark His reception: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.” “By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.” Through those gates was welcomed the Christ, the king of glory, and also through those gates passed the first of His blood-bought train. “The Lord shut him in.”
Yet once again there is a picture; the city, the holy Jerusalem, descending from heaven, having the glory of God, and arrayed in all the splendors of a millennial day. Walls and twelve gates of pearl are there, but gates that “shall not be shut at all by day;” never shut, for there is “no night there.” And yet inside those walls and gates is one company, and outside another. Inside are “His servants” who “see His face,” whose “names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Outside are all who defile, or who work abomination, or who make a lie; those who are not “written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Reader, now is your time for choosing between gates open or gates shut, inside or outside. The moment that unjust and dying man turned his eyes in faith on a Saviour, that moment he was made ready for Paradise; and the moment you look to Jesus you are “made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light;” “by grace you are saved” and the gates of heaven are as wide open to you as they were to that dying thief, Christ’s death opened the way, for “He suffered for sins, to bring us to God.” But if you do not choose now, it may happen to you to be almost, but not quite in time; for “when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door,” it will be in vain to remonstrate. Think how pleasant to arrive at an earthly home and find gates open and a welcome! Think how much more it is blessed to know that Christ has already entered the Father’s house and prepared a place for His own, and to have the certainty of being forever with Him in that holy city, where they need no candle, neither light of the sun. The only ones who “may enter in through the gates into the city” are those who have washed their robes; and now Jesus says, “I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.”
H. L. H.