We were traveling by rail from C. to B., when all at once a woman among us, frightened at some noise, cried out: “Do you think there is any danger?”
“Don’t be afraid, Madam,” replied a young man in jest seated in front of her; “anyway, you can only die once.”
“Pardon me,” I replied, “you are mistaken.” He appeared rather surprised at my remark, and I added:
“You have been badly informed on this subject. Where have you learned that one only dies once? I know from, an infallible authority, that there is a second death.” Then opening my Bible I read the passage ending thus: “This is the second death.” (Rev. 20:1414And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Revelation 20:14)).
“I hope, my friend,” I added, “that not one of those here present will ever know what it is to pass through the second death—the lake of fire! Thanks be to God, there is a means of escaping it, and the Word of God tells us plainly who are those on whom the second death hath no power, as we are shown in the sixth verse of the same chapter: ‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.’ But unless your name is in the book of life (verse 15) you cannot escape the second death.”
The young man was evidently surprised at this doctrine, quite new for him. He murmured a “that’s true,” but it was easy to see, that up to this moment, he had troubled himself very little to know if the eternal happiness of a life that death could not touch, belonged to him, or if he must spend eternity in the horrors of the lake of fire, which is the second death.
Reader, looking at yourself as a lost sinner, have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? If so, then you have eternal life; then you will have part in the first resurrection when Jesus will come from heaven to take His own to Himself, and on you the second, death will have no power. Glorious prospect, delightful assurance! It is founded on the Word of God who cannot lie and on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
ML 09/24/1922