(Notes of an Open-Air Address.)
THERE is no neglect so terrible as a neglected salvation! It is fatal.
If you neglect to take your daily food you will probably starve―if you neglect to take the medicine prescribed for your malady you will, in all likelihood, die; but, if you neglect God’s salvation, you must certainly be damned.
Now, it is a wonderful and blessed fact that salvation is made possible. God has graciously made it known, and has placed it within the reach of all. “The word is nigh thee!” Like your daily food, “it is in thy mouth and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach” (Rom. 10). It could not be nearer or more accessible; so much so, that woe to the man who fails to make it his own. To neglect it is to place yourself beyond escape from judgment.
It is not a thing to be sought for in heaven or in the depths, it is not the result of tears or prayers or contrition. It is to be received by faith, here and now, in God’s free and kindly gift. It is for present enjoyment and experience. If repentance is necessary, as it surely is, yet it is not a purchase price, nor a reason why the soul should be saved.
I am not saved because I repent, though I could never be saved without it; but the same faith that leads me to accept God’s great gift causes me, at the same time, to judge myself, and hate the sins from whose condemnation God’s salvation delivers me.
No, my friends, salvation is full and free. It claims no particle of merit on our part. It views us as we are, sinners, lost and undone! It meets us while on that ground, and in that condition! It comes there to save us. It is like food for the starving; medicine for the sick; a Saviour for the lost!
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5). Think of that! We never asked Him to die; never dreamed of such a way of salvation, and certainly never gave Him a reason why He should thus die for us!
No, no! that reason lay in the full, flowing fountain of His own infinite love. There we find the spring and glorious secret of all His salvation. “God is love.” He has “commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners (mark the truth), yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Yes, “He first loved us.” His love takes the initiative and the priority. And, if we Christians love Him in return, it is but the response, the reflection of His first love to us.
Oh! but it is grand, glorious, divine. It is just like God―the God of all grace―to act as He has done!
Salvation is great, because it springs from the heart of God. It is great because it was accomplished by His Son in the darkness and agony of Calvary. It is great because it is communicated in the power of God’s Spirit. It is great because it saves great, very great sinners; and it is great because it saves them forever. It is God’s salvation.
It is a gift, and therefore free! To neglect it is to be damned! Alas, there are myriads of souls in hell today whose greatest torment is the recollection that they might have been saved while on earth, but that, whatever other sins they committed, this was their most condemnatory they just neglected salvation!
Ah! my friends, take solemn warning today. Heaven’s greatest boon is, thank God, within your reach; make it yours at once.
“I would give £40,000,” said a wealthy man, who died recently in the South of England, “if I could only be young again.” But money can neither redeem your time nor your soul. Time is sweeping us on to eternity! To heaven or to hell! Which, my friends, which? The redemption-price is paid in the blood of the Lamb. It can cleanse from all sin. It alone! Let’ me plead with you to be wise in time. “Now is the accepted time.”
You are thrice-welcome! Love constrains, conscience pleads, Scripture warns. How, yes, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? May God draw souls to Himself for their blessing and His glory.
J. W. S.