MANY have so often refused the gospel, so put off the soul's salvation to some future time, that when they have been, as it were, surprised into the reality of death, they have exclaimed, in deep and bitter remorse of conscience, "I have sold my soul for a straw:" or, "Too late! too late!" Others have been so sensible of their being eternally lost, that they have spoken of their going to the bottomless pit almost with the last breath. Reader, beware of procrastination! “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The following account of one who put off this momentous matter until he had to exclaim, in bitter anguish, "Too late!" is only, I am pained to say, one of a long list that might be given.
"D- was a young man of twenty-five years.
When I saw him first he was just recovering from fever, and seemed very anxious about his soul. He realized, in some measure, his deliverance from an early grave, and now his mind was exercised about eternal things. I endeavored to set before him God's simple way of salvation. He said, ‘Oh, if I am spared, how differently I would live.' I tried to show him that that was a device of Satan; that it was his duty now to trust the Lord Jesus.
"He recovered, and as strength returned his anxiety disappeared, and he now only seemed to rest in the vain hope of ‘turning over a new leaf.' To my surprise, on entering the ward one day, I found him again ill. He was very much alarmed, and I again spoke to him. My visits were earnestly sought, and as cheerfully paid, hoping that now he would be brought, not to rest on ‘turning over a new leaf,' but, resting only on Jesus, become at once a new creature. He was brought very low, but once more restored, and after a few weeks was again walking about convalescent, hoping to be dismissed in a few days from the building where his life had been in so much jeopardy. He had as yet not embraced the free message of the gospel, but waited for the convenient season.
"I had just entered the hospital one afternoon, when the nurse of the ward where D- was a patient came to me. I followed her to his bedside. There he lay; every limb trembled, his eye wandered wildly, his lip quivered. I spoke to him of the compassion of Jesus-His work for the lost, His willingness to save. He listened for a few minutes; but as if my words could no longer be borne, he gave me such a look that I cannot soon forget it. Oh! the despair and terror that seemed mingled in that gaze, and his voice almost filled the ward with the cry, ‘IT'S TOO LATE IT'S TOO LATE!’ And before the sun went down the lifeless form of the procrastinator was carried away."
Dear reader! now think of God's word, that "He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now, then, turn to God; believe His word about Jesus, and rejoice that you have everlasting life.