“Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”
IT is sad to think that the man who uttered this expression died the death of the wicked. If Balaam could have lived the life of the unrighteous, and died the death of the righteous, it might have been so; but this is an impossibility.
It is running an awful risk to put of the question of righteousness till a dying day. Visiting a Christian a short time ago, who was within a few days of glory, it was a source of comfort to this one to know that the question of her soul's salvation was a settled one. There was no anxiety as to it, but peace and thankfulness. Balaam loved money.
It is not that he could not make use of prayer, and, in the long-suffering of God, his prayer was answered, but the answer was trifled with. Let the trifler remember that God is not mocked?
With the false prophet, too, there was no enjoyment in his heart of the glowing truths his lips gave expression to. All was so distant to him.
Hear what he states: —" I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh." And seeking "enchantments" to further his selfish ends at the same time, his soul was indeed far away from God.
Although Balaam represents a class of men who occupy the place of servants of God, but who in reality are serving themselves, “loving the wages of unrighteousness," yet there are very many others who keep themselves at a distance from the Lord Jesus Christ. Such persons are not atheists, or what the world would pronounce as bad living people. In profession they are Christian, but have never known nearness to Christ. Such have never been truly able to say—
“Jehovah lifted up His rod—
Christ, it fell on Thee!
Thou wast forsaken of Thy God:
No distance now for me.
Thy blood beneath that rod has flowed:
Thy bruising healeth me.”
Alas! many are procrastinators, putting of eternal salvation till it be too late. Let the reader reflect that at the judgment-seat he will have to do with Christ as a Judge, if he has not previously had to do with Him as a Savior. There may be forgiveness now: there will be none then. If God be a gracious God, and one that cannot lie, then why not believe Him? If His beloved Son died on the cross of Calvary, meeting the judgment of God for sinners, why not thank Him, and own it in a world which does really not own Him? Had you better not own Christ now in this world than be denied by Him when He comes in His glory?
Many, many who never meant to be lost will be, and thus become not only “dupes of tomorrow e'en from a child," but infinitely worse dupes of the devil, and "e'en from a child" lulled to sleep in the arms of procrastination.
If the second death and eternal life are realities, then look them in the face now. Eventually you will have to do so,—perhaps when it is too late!
What keeps you from trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for your soul's salvation! The first line of a well-known hymn runs—
"just as I am, without one plea.”
It is not just as you were, or just as you will be, but "just as I am." Believe us when we say Jesus Christ will receive you as you are. The prodigal son was received just as he was. He, repentant and self-judged, was not told to keep his distance till he had divested himself of his rags, but the father fell upon his neck and kissed him. God loved sinners, though hating their sins. The best robe, too, was all in readiness to put upon him. Simeon speaks of God's salvation, which He has “prepared before the face of all people." Observe it is God's salvation, and it is "prepared" too, and placed before the face of all people, not above their heads, not surely at their feet to be trampled upon; not at their backs for them to slight and neglect it. No, but before their face. It is only for the unsaved reader to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he shall be saved. Do not procrastinate, do not put this most important question off till what you may think a convenient season.
Put salvation at a distance from you now, and ere long you may find it at an eternal distance.
We are told of a man who found it to be so. He had lived to himself in this world, and after his death, and probably a pompous funeral, he is lifting up his eyes in torment, and sees a poor man., who had been a believer, and known to him, in a place of repose and happiness, but he was "afar off:”
Before death a moral gulf had existed between them, now "a great gulf fixed." Nothing now but judgment for him, who in time had neglected salvation. People go on, hoping all will come right in the end. This is nothing else than a delusion; it will all come wrong in the end for the neglecter, whether rich or poor. Are you right with God now? If not, what ground can anyone have for supposing all will come right in the end? Right! when you have treated the best that God has done for you with indifference—sought after temporal things, but let eternal things slip.
No man can be upon the two roads at one and the same time. You must be in either one or the other. The end of the broad road is destruction, the end of the other is eternal life. Neither was it an ingredient of solace in the rich man's cup of misery to know others were in the same torment as he himself was. His real prayer for his blinded brothers teaches us the contrary. Sometimes those have been met with who think that if they can just say at the last, "God be merciful to me a sinner,” they will leave the rest to the mercy of God. A fisherman who had rejected the gospel of God's grace, in his dying agonies cried, " God be merciful to me a sinner!" and nearly in the same breath made use of such language as was shocking to hear, and so passed away. The prayer of the publican was not specially framed for use in one's dying hour. There is nothing to hinder us in supposing that the publican was in health. It is a great mistake to suppose that forgiveness of our sins and eternal life are only for the aged, the sick, and the dying. The fact is that people are far less disposed to trust in Christ when they are old than when they are young. Sin hardens. People may not think so, but Satan knows it quite well. It is said of a well-known statesman that when near his end, as we say,—the end of his life in this world, he exclaimed, "I fear I have put off repentance too long for it to be of any avail now." The enemy of men had previously whispered, "It is too soon;” now he suggested, "It is of no avail,—too late." It is not enough to know "the way of salvation;" it is to be in it. The Pythoness, in the days of the apostles, followed them, saying, "These men are the servants of the most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation," but she was not in the way of salvation.
Reader, are you in the way of salvation, or in the way leading to condemnation? Put not the question from you. God says "now" is the accepted time. W. R. C.