A FEW days since a young lady, in the full enjoyment of health, forming one of a party met together for an evening's amusement, after dancing a set of quadrilles, and immediately remarking to a friend that she had never known an hour’s illness, suddenly dropped dead on the floor.
A gentleman left his house the other evening for the purpose of coming into town to sign his will. A few hours later his dead body was found on the roadside.
Another gentleman coming into a public office to transact business, apparently in perfect health, suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I'm dying!" and passed into eternity. This occurred in the writer's presence.
A ship, on fire for nearly two days, rushed into one of our harbors the other day. The crew were so occupied in endeavoring to extinguish the flames that they had not discovered their near approach to port in time to lessen the speed of their vessel, which collided with great force against a schooner in the harbor, and crushed its captain to death between the two ships.
Dear unsaved reader, death is a reality, HELL is a reality, ETERNITY is a REALITY. Oh, sinner, what power Satan has over you. He keeps you asleep when God would rouse you by such solemn warnings to think of your own soul; or if you are aroused for the moment, proves his power over you by causing you to fall asleep again. How solemn to think that he works in you (Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)); and his great work is to blind. your mind, lest the light of the Gospel should shine unto you (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)). Yes, dear soul, he keeps you asleep and ignorant of the deeply awful, solemn fact, that you are walking on a volcano, which at any moment may break forth and engulf you in its depths—the cavernous depths of the LAKE of FIRE. God forbid than we should say, like some, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. Would we see a man asleep in a house on fire, and say to him, "Sleep on, there is no danger"? and how could we, before God, say so to you? Nay, beloved reader, we feel bound to warn you, to arouse you from your death-like sleep, because you are in the greatest danger—in danger of HELL FIRE; none the less so that you are asleep and ignorant of it. We would cry to you, and may God awaken you by the word, "What meanest thou, O SLEEPER?" Arise, arise, flee from the wrath to come. The clouds of judgment are thickening on every side, ready soon to break over this devoted world; the wrath of God is even now abiding on you.
Look with me at the first chapter of Jonah; what a scene in the fourth verse—a mighty tempest—the ship like to be broken—the mariners afraid, as well they might be. This is your condition. "Ready to perish." Judgment—that terrible tempest—waiting to fall on you. Your ship like to be broken—you know not at what moment God may summon you unto His presence. Are you, like the mariners, awakened to a sense of your dangerous position? Are you "afraid" to die, "afraid" to meet God? or are you, like Jonah, still "fast asleep"? Oh, if you are, again I say, "What meanest thou, O sleeper?" What do you mean by sleeping when the vessel in which you sail is like to be broken by the "mighty tempest" of judgment?
Awake, awake, and see your condition—your awful condition. Behold yourself ready to be engulphed in the judgment of God. Know, sinner, that but for the longsuffering of the Lord, which is salvation, you would ere now be in the place of outer darkness, where there is "WEEPING, and WAILING, and GNASHING of TEETH," where "their worm dieth not, and the FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”
And now see what the awakened soul turns to when he is aroused and feels afraid of death—"They cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them." So the sinner, aroused to a sense of his position, attempts to better it by working; by "casting forth," as it were, some particular sins; but it is to no purpose. And why? Why could not the mariners improve their position by casting forth their wares? Ah, reader, SIN was there. Jonah was disobedient to God. The wages of SIN is DEATH. Thus all their efforts to relieve themselves, to improve their position, end in their getting into a worse state than ever. They are "EXCEEDINGLY AFRAID." In Jonah 1:55Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. (Jonah 1:5) they are "afraid," because they see the threatened judgment. In Jonah 1:1010Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. (Jonah 1:10) they became "exceedingly afraid," because they have found out the cause thereof. The soul that sinneth, it shall DIE. Reader, have you discovered that you are a sinner? That therefore you DESERVE to DIE? and to be cast into HELL? Do you OWN yourself a LOST, RUINED, HELPLESS, HELL-DESERVING SINNER? Oh, are you EXCEEDINGLY AFRAID? Then there is hope for you. For you are awakened out of your sleep to realize your position. This is the work of God the Holy Ghost. It is Satan’s work to put to sleep. Thank God if you are awakened out of that sleep. For when you know your danger we can speak of the way of escape, but it is useless to talk of escaping from danger to a man who does not know he is in it.
Well, these men ask Jonah what they shall do; their position was becoming increasingly precarious, for the sea was growing "more and more tempestuous" (marg.), and what are they to do? They must cast Jonah into the sea! Only one way of escape, and that through death. Sin's penalty must be paid, even death. But they still try to earn their salvation. Aye, they try hard. "They rowed HARD to bring the ship to land, but they COULD NOT." Oh, sinner, have you gone so far as this, to discover not only that you are guilty and deserving of hell, but that you CANNOT deliver yourself? Have you discovered that you are WITHOUT STRENGTH? Blessed be God if you have. For "WHEN we were WITHOUT STRENGTH, in due time, Christ DIED FOR the ungodly." As we get it in the type, "They took up Jonah and cast him into the sea." One goes into the waves of death and judgment for them all; and oh, blessed result, "The sea ceased from her raging." The storm is over, the waves cease from roaring, the billows from surging. Do you ask why? Do you say, How are God's righteous claims against sin met? Listen to the voice of the One who has gone into death. He says: "ALL Thy billows and Thy waves passed over ME." They spend their fury on Him, the holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Unlike Jonah in this respect, who suffered for his own sin, Jesus was made sin FOR US. He went under the sea of judgment for our sins. Hear Him cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Sinner, was He not forsaken for YOU? He took the cup of wrath from the hand of God, the cup that you and I deserved to drink, and HE DRANK IT. Not a drop remains.
"No wrath God's heart retaineth
To us-ward who believe.”
Have you found out your inability to deliver yourself? Listen. He died that "through death He might destroy him that had the power of death (that is, the Devil) and DELIVER them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Sinner, Jesus died to DELIVER you when you couldn't deliver yourself. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou SHALT BE SAVED. A work had to be done. Jesus HAS DONE IT. The penalty had to be paid. Jesus HAS PAID IT. It is finished; so that now it is no longer working or doing, no longer casting your wares into the sea, or rowing hard to bring your ship to land. All, ALL is already done. Done on the Cross of Christ. Salvation is of the Lord, not of works. Then
“Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so I
Cease your doing, ALL WAS DONE
Long, long ago.”
And done by Jesus, the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
Ah! cannot you turn from your own miserable, uncertain works to that blessed, perfect, finished work of His, and find perfect rest in it? Being justified by faith, we have PEACE with God."What a word is this! Now no longer afraid, but at peace. No longer dreading death, but longing to "depart and be with Christ, which is far better." No longer toiling, but resting. No longer fearing, but worshipping, "offering sacrifice." Oh, what a change! and yet it is not an overdrawn picture. Not a greater change than that which takes place in the sinner, who simply believes For he that believeth “is PASSED from DEATH unto LIFE.”
The Lord bless His own Word to you, dear reader. I leave it with you; but I ask you in conclusion not to trifle with your immortal soul. Do not turn away from the voice of God's Spirit calling to you to awaken. Say not, like the sluggard, "yet a little sleep, and a little slumber," lest you awaken when TOO LATE to find yourself in HELL. "HOW LONG wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? WHEN wilt thou arise from thy sleep?" I say it solemnly, feeling how awfully true it is, that if after you have known yourself deserving of hell, you turn away from and despise the offer of God to save you from it; if you say, "A little folding of the hands to sleep," you are courting the judgment—courting the waves and billow of the lake of fire. God forbid that you should be found doing this. May God lead you into His own presence, there to discover all that you are, and all that He is, and has shown Himself to be, in giving—GIVING—His Son to save you from going down into the pit, and may you be brought NOW—in the accepted time and the day of salvation—to trust in that finished work—to believe in Jesus—that you may, like the Ethiopian eunuch, "go" henceforth "on your way rejoicing.”
H. P. A. G.