A FRIEND and I were walking along the streets of Dublin, when he suddenly pulled me up and said, “Do you see the spouting on the side of that building?”
I looked where his finger indicated.
“Yes,” he continued, “that piece of spouting is connected with my history in a very remarkable way.”
He then told me that years ago a well-known evangelist was preaching in the building―the celebrated Rotunda Hall. His Christian brother had earnestly invited him to attend one of the services. An easily framed excuse readily came to his lips. He was reading hard for an examination, and could not spare the time.
But happening to pass the building they noted the immense crowd standing at the door unable to get into the already densely crowded hall. This fired my friend with a strong desire to gain admittance, where others were shut out. At the risk of his neck he climbed up the water-spout over the portico, and clambered in at an opened window, only too gladly followed by his brother.
What a sight met the gaze of these two young men, as their legs dangled over the window-sill, just above the preacher’s head, ―a sight angels would have rejoiced over, ―the earnest hundreds hanging upon the lips of heaven’s eloquent preacher, as if life or death depended on his words―as indeed they did!
Friend, if so far thou hast been slumbering upon the brink of an endless hell, may God awake thee by this printed page. Awake thou wilt one day. Oh the awful awakening that does take place, when the soul shivers out of the disease-stricken body, and finds that all the breath of man’s reason has not succeeded in blowing out the flames of hell! They have been lit by the hand of God in everlasting righteousness. Look then your eternity in the face. You cannot refuse to die. And oh! how terribly near your dying day may be! And remember, “After death, THIS JUDGMENT.” Thou mayest talk glibly today, but canst not brow-beat thy God in eternity.
To return to our narrative.
In that strange pew my friend heard earnest, stirring words. But the unexpected sight of hundreds upon hundreds of eager faces so awfully impressed him, that he remembered nothing the preacher said, but climbed down miserable and unhappy, and determined not to rest till he was a child of God. Through grace he soon decided for Christ, found peace, and followed the Lord devotedly for many a year, and not long since entered peacefully into glory.
Was it a mere coincidence, or something more, that prompted him some years after his conversion to take down his pen from the rack and write these solemn lines? ―
“God’s house is filling fast,
‘Yet there is room;
Some guest will be the last,
‘Yet there is room.’
Yes! Soon salvation’s day
To you will pass away,
Then grace no more will say
‘Yet there is room.”
Reader, still thou mayest enter. Strange thou dost require such a pressing invitation. It may be the great Servant―the Holy Ghost―is seeking for one guest more, and then the great house will be filled and the door forever shut! It may be you are receiving by this printed page your last loving invitation to God’s feast.
Oh! by the shame and sorrow and suffering of Calvary’s cross, by the death and blood-shedding of Jesus, heaven’s tables have been spread with choicest viands―the doors have been swung open by the hand of God Himself―eternity’s music has begun―the vilest and the most wretched, pleading the name of Jesus alone, may pass in unchallenged, nay, welcomed with rapturous joy―the cup of everlasting bliss pressed into their willing hands! As it has been well remarked, “The tables have been spread, the chairs are now being filled.”
But oh, friend, what will it matter to thee how untold the joys of that festal board may be, if thou art not there? What will it matter how sweet and rapturous the song may be, if thou art wailing in the outer darkness? Soon life’s little day will be past, and say, What about eternity for thee?
For once be profoundly in earnest and intensely selfish. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:3636For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).) Forget the gains of this life, and think of that awful loss―YOUR SOUL―which, once incurred, can never be repaired.
Let it be your downright honest cry, “What must I do to be saved?”
The majority of people ask this question at some time or other of their lives, and it all depends upon the amount of their anxiety how they answer it.
Many are content with saying, “If I do the best I can, God Almighty will have mercy upon me.” Probably their best is a very easy best—more in their thoughts than their conduct. Remember, “God requireth that which is PAST” (Eccl. 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)). “Without shedding of blood is NO REMISSION” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). That easy, careless way of putting the matter off will not avail in the day of judgment.
Others think that the waters of holy baptism make them children of God. This notion is sacerdotal, and entirely without foundation in God’s Word. They also think that confirmation imparts the gift of the Holy Spirit of God, and that the sacrament sustains the life imparted through baptism. This, again, is wholly unsustained by Scripture.
It is not for us in the brief compass of this article to prove these doctrines false. It is for those who lean on them for salvation to prove that they are true from the Word of God, else they are building blindfold upon a sandy foundation.
Ritualism, thou hast thousands upon thousands of thy slain in hell today. Unsuspecting honest men do not see that that art the hand-maiden of the devil. Did not the noble Luther in Germany, Wycliffe in England, Knox in Scotland, strike thee a well-aimed blow? Thou art full of genuflexions, and forms, and ceremonies, of which the Scriptures are innocent. The magnificent gorgeous ritual of Judaism, in its sacrifices and rites has found forever its glorious anti-type in the person and work of Jesus. To revive them, is to obscure His person, and becloud and belittle His work.
But you may say, “But, sir, I am sincere.”
Well, friend, sincerity will not save you. Out in the howling storm the captain has lost his reckonings. In the darkness he may steer his vessel most sincerely straight for the rocky coast. Will his sincerity save him?
“But has all my tract-distributing, almsgiving, sacrament-taking, prayer-saying, Bible-reading, to go for nothing in the question of my soul’s salvation?” my reader may anxiously inquire.
It has. The Bible says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)). “To him that worketh NOT, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). Again, “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:99Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:9)).
“Well, then,” you may say, “tell me plainly and concisely from God’s Word what is the way of salvation?”
I will, but let me ask you, Are you ready to take salvation as a free gift without works? Are you ready to give God all the glory, and be content, as that dear old bishop who said on his dying bed, “I take all my bad works, and all my good works, and throw them overboard, and I sail to heaven on the plank of free grace”?
“I am,” you say.
Turn then to Acts 16:31,31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31) and read, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” How simple and concise the Word of God puts it! Is that enough for you?
Perhaps it will help you, if I relate how my friend found peace with God. He left the Rotunda Hall that memorable evening, and for fourteen days and nights spent an anxious, miserable time.
Tossing one night on his bed, after being on his knees twice at his bed-side, and finding no relief, but the darkness settling upon him without one ray of light, he determined to give it all up, and have his fling in the world.
The determination was no sooner formed, than, like Job of old, he felt he might forget his sorrows, but still he would have to face his sins, and God, and eternity.
In his deep anguish of spirit he cried out, “I know I shall perish; but if I do, I will perish at His feet.” There and then he cast himself at the feet of Jesus.
This brought relief, but not peace. Then that precious verse came flashing into his mind, as if spoken by someone, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save SINNERS” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). He laid hold of the word “sinners,” and cried out, “Thank God, that is just what I want; I’m a sinner, and Christ Jesus came to save such.” Faith’s precious reasoning! He was full to overflowing. After lying awake praising God for hours, he fell into the first sweet refreshing sleep he had had since that memorable night.
Rising early the next morning to tell his brother the good news, the thought struck him, “What shall I tell him?” Looking in to find the peace and joy of the night before, he found it immediately gone, and at once he was miserable. Then he thought, “What was it that gave me peace last night?” He remembered it was that blessed verse in Tim. 1 and it was just the same, though he had changed.
Oh, the solid peace and joy of resting, not upon fleeting fickle feelings, but upon God’s written testimony! He simply trusted the Word of God, and, with a full heart, sweetly confessed Christ to his brother.
Come then, dear unknown friend, and trusting that same Jesus, you will have the same unchangeable Word of God as the resting-place of your assurance, and a living, glorified Saviour at God’s right hand as the object of your heart. May God grant it, for His name’s sake. A. J. P.