The death knell of the world is sounding. Have you heard it? The great bell of doom began to peal out its solemn: notes when Adam and Eve sinned. The awful knell was, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “Sin came into the world and death by sin.” “In Adam all die.” “Death is passed upon all, for all have sinned.”
It sent its message out over the world into which Adam and Eve passed from Eden, a world cursed on account of their sin. It boomed out its awful knell when Abel’s blood was shed; it pursued the murderer as he fled from the presence of the Lord. Its wailing notes passed over a drowned world, where all were dead save eight. It rang its dirge of death over Sodom and Gomorrah. The land of Egypt heard the solemn tones in the night of death when the firstborn died.
‘Mid Sinai’s smoke and flame and thundering’s and trumpet exceeding loud, the insistent pealing of the bell of doom was sounding. Men in the councils of God, as Noah and Abraham, and Enoch and others, heard the dread warning and lived for God, and warned a guilty world. Its solemn notes have rung out in every century of this world’s history. It sounded over your cradle and it will sound over your Christless grave unless you come to Christ. Men of God in every age have heard the knell, the death knell of the world in which they lived, and have prayed and preached and exhorted-prophets, priests and kings—warning the sinner in his sins to flee from the wrath to come.
Have you heard it? Listen to the pealing notes, “Flee from the wrath to come.” I appeal to you, my reader, to come to Christ. Nothing can avert the doom of a Christ-rejecting world. On Calvary’s awful hill it sounded out ‘mid darkness, earthquake and the cry of a breaking heart―the doom of a world of sinners who had crucified the Son of God.
I appeal to you to forsake sin and flee to the sinner’s Friend. I appeal to you by His mercy, His divine compassion― “He willeth not the death of the sinner.” Think of His loving invitations and His blessed promises; think of His sacred tears over sinners, and His precious blood shed; think of the terrors of the Great White Throne and the everlasting hell; think of judgment and darkness and the wailings of the lost—the knell of doom sounding amid the caverns of the lost forever.
Think, too, of mercy and forgiveness, of the joys of salvation and the hallelujahs of heaven. The world is passing away to a sure and certain destruction—but the salvation of God is forever and ever!
Please pray for us, that in these days of earthly harvest there may be a great ingathering of precious souls for the harvest home of heaven.
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford.