A question such as this sounds strange in our ears, and we are about to ask, is there any one so wholly under the power of the devil as to say, There is no God? Awful as it may and does sound, it is but too true. There are souls in Protestant England professing to believe there is no God, and there are thousands showing, by their daily lives, that they virtually deny His existence. Satan loves to get a man so full of the world, with all its cares, and snares, and pleasures, that there is no room for a single thought of God; he loves to blot Him out of his memory, and to lead him on through life blindfolded, walking at the edge of a precipice, to be dashed over, at any moment, into eternal punishment. Dear fellow sinner, are you such an one as I have described, without God in the world? Are you one whose mind the god of this world has blinded, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into it? Oh, let me beg of you for one moment to give the Lord Jesus Christ a place in your thoughts, and think with me on What He is and What He will be. It is joy to tell you what He is, whoever you are and whatever you are, the blackest and the vilest: He is all love to you. As your eye falls on this page He is looking down upon you with a look of perfect love, waiting to be gracious, willing and longing to save you, and to make you "clean, every whit," from every spot of sin. At this moment He is holding out to you, in wondrous grace, a full and perfect salvation, inviting you, nay, pleading with you, to come and take it. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18). "Ye will not come to me, that that ye might have life" (John 5:40). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Yes! fellow sinner, Jesus Christ, God's only Son, suffered death upon the cross that you might be saved. The Lord of life and glory left His throne in heaven and came down to be the "Man of Sorrows," and to be brought into the dust of death, that you might never know what the flames of hell are.
"Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!" Behold the One who died, the just One, for the unjust, to bring us to God! Behold the One who has broken down every barrier that your sins had made, and left the way perfectly clear and open. Look, dear soul, straight up to God by faith, and take from His hand the pardon for all your sins and the eternal life which He is holding out to you. "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man (the Man Christ Jesus, who was once the sin bearer, nailed to the cross, but is now upon the Father's throne), is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things" (Acts 13:38, 39). "The wages of sin is death, but the gifts of God is eternal lift, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). It availed for the thief upon the cross, it availed for Mary Magdalene, the seven-deviled sinner, it availed for me, and it avails for you, dear reader; for you, poor drunkard; for you, poor soul, who art saying There is no God. Trust to that precious blood now, or to-morrow the day of grace may be over.
This brings us to our second thought: what the Lord Jesus Christ will be. He will be thy judge, poor rejecter. "God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). He will cast into outer darkness, into that lake of fire prepared (not for you, poor scoffer but) for the devil and his angels, all who go on slighting His offers of mercy. “Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?” "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:29-31). "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven" (Heb. 12:25).
May the Lord bless your precious, never-dying soul, dear reader, and lead you to take home to yourself, and rejoice in those blessed words, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). M.