“GOING―going―gone!” said the auctioneer, as he handed the article he had been exposing for sale to the highest bidder, and the article became the property of a new possessor.
“Going―going―gone!” said the spendthrift, as he squandered away his last piece of money, and found himself a pauper on the face of the earth, and the piece of money belonged henceforth to the successful gamester.
“Going―going―gone!” rang out the church bells, as the old year gradually faded away; and when the midnight hour had struck, it passed on to the page of history.
“Going―going―gone!” said the little child, as it watched the grains of sand silently gliding into the lower globe of the sand-glass. The last grain fell, and became mingled with the others.
“Going―going―gone!” said, slowly and solemnly, the physician, as he stood beside the death-bed: the bosom had ceased to heave, and the pulse to beat―all was over. Life had retired, death had stepped in; mirth had vanished, gloom had cast its shroud over the scene. The smile of joy had flitted from each countenance; and reechoing throughout the silence of that chamber, and striking heavily home upon the mourning hearts around, rolled that unwelcome sound, “Going―going―gone!”
“Gone,” no more to return; “gone,” no more to be seen nor heard; “gone,” no more to be enjoyed, or caressed, or loved; “gone,” only to be remembered; “gone,” from life to death; “gone” from time to eternity; “gone” ― but WHITHER? To an eternity of joy, or an eternity of woe? to an eternity of heaven, or an eternity of hell? to an eternity of the presence of God, or an eternity in company with the devil and his Whither, ah! whither hath “gone” that soul? There lies the body; but body and soul have now parted. The one may be decently laid in the coffin, and buried in the clay; but the soul―that precious, priceless, and imperishable soul, over which man hath no power to kill nor to destroy―where hath the soul “gone”?
Turn back for an answer to the time when that soul had not “gone,” when it was only “going,” and ask how it went?
It was “going” the road of sin, and it has “gone” the way of death and judgment.
It was “going” the road of “wicked works,” or “dead works,” and it has “gone” to receive or the curse.
It was “going” the road of amiability, respectability, uprightness, and morality, avoiding, nevertheless, the second birth, and it has “gone” to hear the unalterable decree, “I know you not, depart from me.”
“Gone” to death, “gone” to hell, “gone” to damnation.
Oh, sinner, awake, awake Thou art “going, going,” and will soon be “gone” ― “GONE” Forever. “Gone” to thy judgment, “gone” to thy part in the lake of fire, “gone” to thy weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thy body will lie quietly in the grave; but thy soul will be “gone” to torment, to await the opening of the tombs, and the raising of the bodies that sleep in them; and then with re-united body and soul must thou appear before the “great white throne” to meet the eye of thy Judge, and find thyself hurried away to “the lake of fire, which is the second death.”
On that dread morning, death and the grave shall give up their inmates, for “all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth,” and the grave will then be cleared of that dust which it has held for years or centuries. Oh, what a reunion when thy body shall recognize thy soul, and shall see in it the spring of all those sins and misdeeds of which thou wast guilty when on earth! But almighty power shall produce this reunion; and death and the grave being now emptied, the lake of fire shall be filled-that second death that shall never, can never, die.
Oh! man, woman, living in sin, or else, if not in open sin, yet unborn again, unrenewed, unconverted, trusting your supposed “good works” or your kindly disposition, let me entreat you to take thought.
Your time is “going,” “going” swiftly, and will soon be “gone.” You yourself will soon be “gone,” BUT WHERE? Where, oh! where would you be “gone” if taken away now, at this moment? Say, Are you ready? Are you forgiven? Are you saved? Have your sins been washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you a child of God? If not, I tell thee lovingly, faithfully, thou art “going” to hell. Arouse thee, or thou mayest be found there! “Flee from the coming wrath.”
As the tree inclineth, so probably will it fall; and “as the tree falleth, so,” most surely, “will it lie.” Reader! may I ask what is your present leaning, your inclination, your tendency, your proclivity, your bias? Your end will, in all probability, be as your leaning. Of the two thieves who were crucified only one was saved, and the other, with equal opportunity and access to the Savior, was lost.
As a matter of fact death-bed conversions are very rare; and it is folly in the extreme to live unsaved, and hope for a death-bed repentance. At such a moment the body may be agonized with pain in every member, and the mind totally unfitted for sober, calm, and deep reflection. Moreover, that is the moment chosen, above all others, for the last grand assault of the devil upon the soul. The valley of death is haunted by gloom, and tenanted by the devil. Death is his weapon; and when the cold hand of the King of Terrors is laid upon its victim, then does Satan appear with all his darts and delusions to becloud the soul. It is then he repeats in awful power, and, alas! with great success, the two hopeless words, “Too LATE!” “Your life,” says he, “has been misspent; your opportunity is over now, the door of mercy is firmly closed against you, and it is too late!”
“All true,” says the soul, “too true. I have sinned, I have closed my ear to warning, and my heart to God; and now, racked with pain in every part of my body, and filled in every region of my soul with blank, hopeless despair, I sink, I fall―lost, ruined, undone, damned!” and the fearful scene, but too frequently witnessed, is brought to a close. The soul has “gone” to “outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
“The way of transgressors is hard.” They live hard, they die hard, and they spend a hard eternity. The road on which they travel here is rough; for whilst sin may afford its momentary pleasures, yet the conscience tells its tale, and the prospect of meeting God and rendering account to Him creates trouble, fear, and anguish. The eternity throughout which they must exist hereafter will be one of misery chiefly because, when they knew the right way, they refused to walk in it. They neglected the great salvation; and the one bitter, grievous, and poignant sorrow of their hearts will be this terrible thought: “I might have been saved. I might have spent ETERNITY in yonder regions of everlasting and amaranthine glory, instead of in this ‘place of torment.’ I might have heard the loving words, ‘Come, ye blessed,’ instead of the words, ‘Depart, ye cursed’; but I loved sin and the world, and turned a deaf ear to the earnest calls of mercy and of love.” Such will be the sad soliloquy of many a soul. Reader, shall it be thine?
Oh, let me, in closing, press on thee to accept this great salvation NOW! Come to Jesus NOW and having, been saved by Him, then go forth to serve Him, that thy bent, thy tendency, thy life may be clearly, distinctly, faithfully, that of a. true, fearless witness to the truth of God; that there may be no question in the mind of anyone who knows you that you are “going” in the way of the Lord, and that when the “gone” may have sounded over the departure of your spirit, “to be forever with the Lord” may be the succeeding words of the mourners.