AN evening party was being held at a lady’s house who was a skeptic, and in the family there was a little girl, in whom God was graciously working, and who was alarmed about the condition of her own soul, and evidently that of her parents also.
When the party had assembled, this young girl was in another room, and the solemn realities of eternity were pressing on her soul, and she wept much as she thought of her dear mother, whom she knew to be a skeptic.
The mother came to her to know the cause of her trouble.
The daughter replied, “O MAMMA, WON’T IT BE AWFUL IF WE DON’T GO TO THE SAME PLACE?”
Sad to say, that though the words of the child made an impression for the moment, the poor mother lapsed back into her former thoughts, and would even prevent her very child from hearing the gospel.
A household where Christ is not known and recognized is a dark, dreary habitation. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)). It follows, then, that those who do not follow the Lord Jesus Christ are “walking in darkness,” and rejecting the message of God concerning Him. He is to them a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” How deeply solemn to know that the blessed Christ of God, the only Saviour for sinful men, is made to those “who stumble at the Word, being disobedient,” a stone of stumbling, aver which they stumble into hell!
It is a solemn thing to reject Christ the Son of God! READER, ARE YOU DOING IT? That once crucified Christ can save you now, ― “today, if ye will hear his voice,”―but tomorrow you may be where mercy’s voice will never be heard. Remember, it is written, that Christ is “the light of the world;” but it is never said that He is the light of hell. Let that light then flood your soul, and illumine your whole being. Christ is light, life, righteousness, and salvation to every needy soul that trusts Him. Come, just as you are, my friend; come now, put your whole undivided trust in Him. Is He not worthy? Think of His glorious Person: He is the eternal Son of God. Think of His work on the cross, for He is Son of Man too, and, blessed be His name, He died for sinful men. How worthy of your trust! How able to save you, and that forever! And being saved, what a Being to serve in time and eternity!
It is a solemn thing to be fathers and mothers, the heads of families, and yet unsaved, and not only unsaved, but, by precept and example, to hinder the very children, you have been the means of bringing into this world, from coming to Christ.
Alas! there are many such. Cavilers at the Word, rejecters of the Son of God, despisers of His salvation, Cain-followers, they would rather see their children damned with themselves, than let them come under the light and influence of the gospel, and be saved.
Reader! are you a bold rejecter, a scoffer at the holy Son of God? Perhaps you have a tender child, a girl or boy; blight not, I beseech you, that tender soul; darken not the mind of that one with your hell-born doctrines against the Son of God. I pray you, by the love you have for your child, educate him not in your system of wicked perversities, which can only make him “a child of hell” with yourself. Think of spending an eternity out of God’s presence, and there beholding your very child that you gave birth to, whom you have been the means of darkening and perverting, and whom (as far as in you lay) you kept from Christ! What an eternal pang for your heart! And how your very being will be overwhelmed with bitter and eternal remorse!
My friend, send your children to hear the gospel, that they may be saved; and if you are determined to go to hell yourself, be not the means, in Satan’s hands, of their destruction.
E. A.