Condemned—Condemned—Condemned.
THIS word, thrice repeated, stamped in large white letters over the sides and roof of a shed standing close to the railway, attracted my attention lately as our train passed rapidly by.
Whose fault, I thought, will it be if that man's goods are spoiled in the next storm that comes this way. He is trying to make the best of a tarpaulin which has been tested and proved by good authority to be valueless in the time of strain and difficulty.
While the bright days continue, this covering serves his purpose well, but wait till the wind blows and the rain falls in torrents. Ah then defects in his ill-chosen cover will be found out. Little by little the water will get into the crevices, and at last work its way into the shed, damaging, if not entirely spoiling, the goods.
Foolish man, you perhaps exclaim, to put any trust in a thing condemned already. Stop and think. Are you not trying to get some good out of a thing God has "condemned already." Are you not by your honest and upright life hoping to patch up and make the best of your life here, hoping in this way to fit yourself for the Holy Presence of God? Are you not by some merit of your own seeking to secure a shelter for yourself in the day of God's reckoning? If so, let me impress upon you, on the authority of God's Word, that in the Day of Judgment’s storm you will be found wanting.
Your false and condemned shelter will not stand the great storm which, ere long-, will burst on all those who forget God and His sure and certain refuge from every tempest.
Hear how God has condemned you and your efforts just as surely as that old tarpaulin was condemned:
"All have sinned, and come short of the, glory of God." (Rom. 3:23.)
“He that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY." (John 3:18.)
“All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isa. 64:6.)
But if you and your efforts are of no avail, there is a way of safety and shelter. Hear the words of the Lord Himself: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION, but is passed from death unto (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).)
We, who have believed, can say—
“God is a refuge for us." (Psa. 62:8.)
Come to God's Refuge now, even to Jesus.
He waits to be gracious. Don't let the day of reckoning come to find you still under a condemned shelter. If it does, yours will be that awful doom of being shut out of God's presence forever, the doom summed up in one word—Condemned.
Have you ever thought of it—your soul's worth is greater than all the riches of the whole world, for “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? “(Mark 8:36, 37)
Oh think of it now, and see to it that your soul is safely sheltered. Now there is time, now there is a way. Accept it now we pray you. If the storm comes and you are unsaved whose fault will it be? C. V.