LivePrayerSermon 667. Last Things
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 31, 1865, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"At the last." Proverbs 5:11
THE wise man saw the young and simple straying into the house of the strange woman. The house seemed so completely differentfrom what he knew it to be that he desired to shed a light upon it, that the young man might not sin in the dark, but mightunderstand the nature of his deeds. The wise manlooked abroad and he saw but one lamp suitable to his purpose. It was named, "At the last." So, snatching this, he heldit up in the midst of the strange woman's den of infamy and everything was changed from what it had been before-the truthhad come to light and the deceptivehad vanished.
The young man dreamed of pleasure. In wanton dalliance he hoped to find delight. But when the lamp of "At the last" beganto shine, he saw rottenness in his bones, filthiness in his flesh. He saw pains and griefs and sorrows as the necessary consequenceof sin and, wisely guided, wisely taught, thesimple-minded started back and listened to the admonitions of the teacher, "Come not near the door of her house, for hergates lead down to the chambers of death."
Now if this lamp of "At the last" was found so useful in this one particular case, I think it must be equally useful everywhereelse! And it may help us all to understand the truth of matters if we will look at them in the light which this wonderfullamp yields. I can only compare my text in itsmatchless power to Ithuriel's spear with which, according to Milton, he touched the toad and straightway Satan appearedin his true colors. If I can apply my text to certain things today, they will come out in their true light. "At the last,"shall be the rod in my hand with which Ishall touch tinsel and it shall disappear, and you will see it is not gold. I will touch varnish and paint and grainingand you shall understand that they are really what they are and not what they profess to be-the light of "At the last" shallbe the light of Truth-thelight of Wisdom to our souls.
It seems to me a fitting occasion for holding up this light this morning, when we have come to the end of the year and shall,in a few short hours, be at the beginning of another. This period, like Janus, has two faces looking back on the year thatis past and looking forward on the year that is tocome. And my four-sided lamp will, perhaps, gleam afar. I wish that, in the light of the beams of this lamp, "At the last,"you may have courage enough to look down the vista of the years that you have already lived and think of everything that youhave thought and spoken and done.And then I hope you will have holy daring enough to let the same light shine forward on the years yet to come, when yourhair shall be gray and the teeth shall fail, and they that look out of the windows shall be darkened.
We will, then, examine the past and the future of life in the light of, "At the last." May it teach us wisdom and make uswalk in the fear of God. I have said that my lamp has four sides to it and so it has-we will look at it first in the lightwhich streams from death.
I. DEATH is at the last. In some sense it is the last of this mortal life. It is the last of our period of trial here below.It is the last of the days of Divine Grace. It is the last of the days of mortal sin. The tree falls when we die and it sproutsnot again. The house is washed from thefoundations and it is built no more if it has been founded on sin. Death is the end of this present life. And how certainis it to all of us! This year we have had many tokens of its certainty. One might almost compose an almanac for the year 1865and put down the name of someone ofnote at least to every month-and I should scarcely exaggerate if I said to every week in the year.
All ranks and classes have been made to feel the arrow of the insatiable Archer. From royalty down to poverty the grave hasbeen glutted with its prey. Not late in the year there fell one whose benevolence mingled with wisdom had blessed our landand who, being dead, is still remembered by theneedy because he cheapened their bread and broke down the laws which, while they might have fattened the rich, certainlywould have impoverished the poor. His wisdom could not spare him, and though he is embalmed in the hearts of thousands, yetto the dust he has returned.
Swiftly after him there fell one who ruled a mighty people in the flush of victory, when what threatened to be a disruptionand a separation had ended in triumph to one side and the nation seemed as if it were about to start on a fresh course ofprosperity. By the assassin's hand he fell. Whateverquestion there might have been about him in his life, all men conspired to honor him in his death. The ruler of a nationwho could subdue a gallant and a mighty foe, could not subdue that old foeman who conquers whom he wills. Abraham Lincolndied as well as Cobden!
And there was he who had saved many precious lives by warning mariners of the approaching storm and thus many a ship had remainedin harbor and been delivered from the merciless jaws of the deep. But he could not forecast or escape himself the last dreadstorm. He, too, must go down into thatfathomless deep which swallows all mankind. Then, when the year was ripe and the flowers were all in bloom-fit season forhis going-there was taken away the man who has garnished our nation with objects of beauty and of joy. A man who loved theflowers and sleeps beneaththem now. Like flowers, he withered as all of us must do-Sir Joseph Paxton died.
Then in the month of September, when the year began to wane, three men, at least, who had walked with their staff to Heavenand read the spheres-astronomers who predicted eclipses and told of comets, men of fame and name-three fell at once! Theymight tell the eclipse, but they,themselves, must be eclipsed. And they might foretell the track of the comet, but they, themselves, are gone from us justas those meteoric stars are gone. Then you will remember well, when the year had waned, grown old, it is but a day or twoago, that all were startled by thedeath of that young old man who had ruled our nation so long and on the whole so well.
We shall not forget that he was taken away from us, who was, in some respects, a king throughout our land. Wisdom, cheerfulness,youthful strength such as he possessed could not avert the time of death. And then, as if the muster roll were not complete-asif Death could not be satisfied tillthe year had yielded up yet another grave-we heard that the oldest of monarchs had been taken away. And though his goodnessand his wisdom had guided well the little nation over which he ruled and given him an influence far more extensive than hisown sphere, yet death sparedhim not and Leopold must die.
It has been a year of dying rather than of living and you may look upon yourselves and wonder that you are here! Some greenerthan we are have been cut down. You that are ripe, are you ready? It is marvelous that although so ripe you should have beenspared so long. Now in the light of all thesedeaths, I want you to look upon mortal sins. They sculpture angels upon gravestones sometimes. Then let each angel fromthe gravestone speak to us this morning and we will listen to his words, for wise and solemn they will surely be and worthyof our notice, as if he had risen fromthe dead. Let me take you upstairs to your own dying chamber, for there, perhaps, the lamp will burn best for you.
Look at actions which you have thought to be great and upon which you have prided yourself-how will they look at the last?You made money. You made money fast. You did the thing very cleverly. You praised yourself for it, just as others have praisedthemselves for conquering nations, orforcing their way to fame, or lifting themselves into eminence. Now you are dying and what do you think of all that? Isit so great as it seemed to be? Oh, how you leaped up to it, how you strained yourself to reach it and you have got it andyou are dying! What do you think of itnow? The greatest of human actions will appear to be insignificant when we come to die and especially those upon which menmost pride themselves-these will yield them the bitterest humiliation.
We shall then say what madmen we must have been to have wasted so much time and energy upon such paltry things. When we shalldiscover that they were not real, that they were but mere bubbles, mere pretences, we shall then look upon ourselves as dementedto have spent the whole of our life and ofour energy upon them. Let us look at our selfish actions in that light. A man says, "I know how to make money, and I knowhow to keep it, too-and he prides himself that he is not such a fool as to be generous, nor such a simpleton as to give eitherto God or to the poor. Now,there he lies.
Ah, do you know how to keep it now? Can you take it with you? Can you bear so much as a single farthing of it across the riverof death? You are come to the water's side-how much of it will you carry through? Ah Fool! How much wiser had you been ifyou had laid up your treasure in Heaven,where neither moth nor rust does corrupt! You called such men fools when you were living. What do you think of them now,that you are dying? Who is the fool-he that sent his goods beforehand-or he that stored them up here to leave them everlastingly?Everything that isselfish will look beggarly when we come to die! But everything which, in the sight of God we have done for Christ's sake-thathas been generous and self-denying and noble-will even amidst the vaults of death sparkle with celestial splendor!
Some of you have been, during this week, giving to the cause of God right generously, for which I thank you-I think I mayalso do it in my Master's name-and when I have thought of it, I have said to myself, "Surely, when they come to die, theyshall, none of them, regret that they haveserved the cause of God. Ah, if they have even given to the pinching of themselves, it shall be no source of sorrow whenthey come to the dying bed that they did it unto one of the least of God's little ones."
Look at your actions in the light of death and the selfish ones shall soon pass. I would also, dear Friends, that some ofyou would look at your self-righteousness in the light of death. You have been very good people, very upright, honest, moral,amiable, generous and so on. And you are resting onwhat you are. Do you think this will bear your weight when you come to die? When you are in good health any form of religionmay satisfy, but a dying soul wants more than sand to rest on. You will want the Rock of Ages. Then let me assure you thatin the light of the grave, allconfidence, except confidence in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, is a clear delusion! Fly from it, I beseechyou. Why will you repose beneath a Jonah's gourd that will die before the worm? Seek a better shelter-cling to the Rock ofAges! Find the shadow of a greatRock in a weary land.
The same, I may say, of all confidence in the efficacy of ceremonies and sacraments. When we are in good health it seems asufficiently satisfactory thing to have been baptized and to have taken the sacrament and to go to church and read prayersand all that-and one can get some little waterout of those wells while one is strong and joyous. But when you come to be sick and to die, let me tell you, sacramentswill be nothing to you! Baptism and the Lord's Supper, will, alike deceive you if you rest on them! When you come to die youwill find them to be supports toofrail to bear the weight of an immortal soul's eternal interests. It will be in vain when you lie dying, if God gives youa quickened conscience, to say, "I went to church or to meetings so many times a day." You will find it a poor bandage toyour soul's wounds to be able to say,"I made a profession of godliness."
Oh your shams will all be torn away from you by the rough hand of the skeleton, Death! You will need a real Savior, vitalgodliness, true regeneration-not baptismal regeneration! You will need Christ, not sacraments! And nothing short of this willdo "at the last." And, dear Friends, let meask as I hold up the light, How will sin appear when we come to die? It is pleasant now and we can excuse it, calling ita peccadillo, a little trivial mistake, a juvenile error and imprudence and so on. But how will sin appear when you come todie? The grim ghosts of ouriniquities, if they have not been laid in the grave of Christ Jesus, will haunt our dying bed. That ghastly chamberlain,with fingers bloody and red, will draw the curtain round about us!
What a horrid prospect, to be shut in with our sins forever! To be dying with no comrades about the bed to comfort, but withthe remembrances of the past to terrify and to alarm! Think, I pray you, not only upon the root and principle of evil, butupon the fruit of it! Remember that the wages ofsin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life! Do not consider what the thing looks like today, but what will it bein the end? You warm the viper in your bosom, but how will you bear its sting when you shall come to lie upon your last bed?The sea, I know, is smooth and calm toyou for a moment-but remember, there are storms, there are hurricanes that sweep it-and what will your poor boat do withoutChrist for its Pilot when the dread storm of Death shall come?
I wish I could, in imagination, take you down, down, down to the waters of death where you shall feel your feet sinking inthe dread sand of uncertainty and hear the booming of the distant sea and your spirit shall begin to ask, "What is that oceanthat I hear?" And there shall come back an answer,"You hear the breaking of the everlasting waves. The bottomless sea of eternity is that to which you are descending." Youshall feel its chill floods as they come from the ankles to the knees and from the knees to the loins. And you will find it,(if you are without Christ), not ariver to swim in, but an ocean to be drowned in forever, forever, FOREVER!
Oh, may God help you to look at present joys and actions and thoughts and doings in the light of death! What a contrast thereis often between the life of man and his death! You would praise some men if you only saw their lives, but, when you see theirdeaths, you change your mind. There isMoses-he may be the King of Egypt, but he gives up royalty and all its tempting joys. On the mount it is offered to himto be made the founder of a mighty race-a desire always prominent in the Eastern mind. But, instead of desiring himself tobe made a great nation, he,unselfishly, desires even to be blotted out of the Book of Life if God will but spare his people Israel! And what does Mosesget for it all? His only earthly reward is to be the leader of a crew of slaves who are perpetually rebelling against himand vexing the Holy Spirit.
Now there is Balaam, on the other hand. He has visitations from God. And when Balak, the son of Zippor, begs him to curseIsrael, he cannot, though he is quite willing to go as far as he can. He is compelled, by the inward Holy Spirit, to blessthe people! But, after he has done that, for gain andfor reward, he plots a plan against Israel by which they were cursed-he bids them send out the women of Moab to lead astraythe children of Israel. Now there he goes, with his treasures of silver and gold, back to his own house! The shrewd and busyworldly man says, "That isthe man for me-do not tell me about your meek Moses that is afraid of doing this and that and will not look after the mainchance. He has thrown away a kingdom and now he has thrown away the chance of being the head of a nation!
"That is the man to make money-Balaam-he will be a common counselor, or an alderman, or lord mayor one day! A man must notstick too much at things-he must go ahead and make hay while the sun shines-
'There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.' That is the man for me who knowswhen to launch out on the waters and who does not ask if they are dirty or clean if they only waft him onward to wealth andsuccess." Ah, but they come to die and Balaamdies-where? He had prayed, "Let my last end be like his"-like the righteous-and he died in battle, fighting against therighteous and against the God of the righteous. And hard by that very spot Moses also died and you know how?-With visionsof Canaan uponhis eyes melting into visions of the Canaan which is above-the New Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all!
In that death, who would not be Moses? Let who will, be Balaam in life. Be it yours and mine to aspire to be like Moses, bothliving and dying. "At the last!" Think of that and whenever you are tempted by sin, or tempted by gain- look at it-"At thelast," "At the last." God help you tojudge righteous judgment.
II. And now we will turn to the second side of our lantern. The second of these last things is JUDGMENT. After death the judgment.When we die, we die not. When a man dies, shall he live again? Yes, that he shall-for his spirit never dies. God has madeus such strange wondrous beings, withsuch wide reaching hopes and such far darting aspirations, that it is not possible we should die and become extinct! Thebeast has no longing for immortality. You never hear it sigh for celestial regions-it has no dread of judgment, because thereis no second life-nojudgment for the beast that perishes.
But the God who gives to man the dread of things to come and makes him feel and long after something better than this smallglobe affords us-cannot have mocked us, cannot have made us more wretched than the beast that perishes- by giving us passionsand desires never to be gratified. Weare immortal, every one of us! And when the stars go out and Sol's great furnace is extinguished for want of fuel, and,like a vesture, God's wide universe shall be rolled up, we shall still be living a life as eternal as the Eternal God Himself!Oh, when we leave this world we aretold that after death there comes a judgment to us. I do not know how it is with you-you may be more accustomed to courtsof justice than I am- but there always creeps a solemnity over me, even in a common court of justice among men and especiallywhen a man is beingtried for his life.
Laughter seems hushed there and everything is solemn. How much more dread will be that Court where men shall be tried fortheir eternal lives-where their souls-rather than their bodies, shall be at stake? The judgment of one's fellows is not tobe despised. A bold good man can afford tolaugh at the world's opinion, but still it is trying to him, for one's fellows may be right. Multitudes of men, if theyhave really thought upon the matter, may not all be wrong. It is not easy to stand at the bar of public opinion and receivethe verdict of condemnation. But whatwill it be to stand at the bar of God, who is greater than all, and to receive from Him the sentence of damnation? God saveus from that!
Let us think of this judgment a moment. We shall rise from the dead. We shall be there in body as well as spirit. These verybodies will stand upon the earth at the last day when Christ shall come and the trumpet shall sound. His people shall riseat the first resurrection, and the wicked shallrise, also. And in their flesh shall they see God. Let me think of all that I have done, then, in the light of that. Therewill be present every man who has ever lived on earth. How shall I like to have all my doings published there?
My very thoughts! How shall I feel when they are read aloud? What I whispered in the ear in the closet-how shall I like tohave that proclaimed with the sound of a trumpet? And what I did in the dark-how shall I care to have that revealed in thelight? And yet these things must be madeknown before the assembled universe. There will be present there my enemies. If I have treated them ill, if I have beena backbiter, a slanderer, it will be then declared-if I have been a hypocrite and a dissembler and made others think me truewhen I have been false, then Ishall be unmasked.
Those I have injured will be there. With what alarm will the debauchee see those whom he has seduced stand with fiery eyesto accuse him! With what horror will the oppressor see the widow and the fatherless, whom he drove to poverty, stand thereas swift witnesses against him to condemnation! If Ihave spread false doctrine, a moral pestilence destroying human souls-my victims shall be there to gather round me in acircle and, like dogs that bay the stag-will, each of them, demand my blood! They shall all be there, friends and foes!
More solemn still, "He" shall be there-the Man of men, the grandest among men-God, as well as Man-and if I have despised andrejected His salvation, I shall then see Him in another fashion and after another sort-
"The Lord shall come! But not the same As once in lowliness He came, A silent Lamb before His foes, A weary Man and full ofwoes. The Lord shall come! A dreadful form, With rainbow-wreath and robes of storm, On cherub wings and wings of wind, AppointedJudge of all mankind!" How will you face Him,you that have despised Him? You who have doubted His Deity, how will you bear the blaze of it? You rejected and trampledon His precious blood, how will you bear the weight of His almighty arm? When on the Cross you would not receive Him, andwhen on the Throne you shall not escapefrom Him. That silver scepter which He stretches out now to you, if you refuse to touch it, shall be laid aside and He willtake one of another metal-a rod of iron-and He shall break you in pieces. Yes, He shall dash you in pieces like potters' vessels.
And God shall be there, manifestly there-that God who is here this morning, on the last day of this year-and who sees yourthoughts and reads your minds at this moment, but who is so invisible that you forget that He fills this place and fills allplaces! You shall not be able to forgetHim, then. Your eyes shall see Him in that day. You shall understand His Presence. You will try to hide from Him-would desireHell itself and think it a place of shelter-if you could escape from Him! But everywhere His fire shall encircle you, shallconsume you, for "ourGod is a consuming fire." You shall no more be able to escape from yourself than from God. You shall find Him as presentwith you as your own soul will be and you shall feel His hand of fire searching for the chords of your soul and sweeping witha doleful Miserere all the heartstrings of your spirit. Misery unspeakable must be yours when the voice of the God-Man, shall say, "Depart, you cursed,into everlasting fire in Hell."
I would to God that you would look at all your actions in the light of the Day of Judgment. Our secret thoughts, let us turnthem over this morning. They have been lying by till they are moldy-let us bring them forth today. My Thoughts, how will youlook in the light of judgment? Myprofessions, my imaginations, my conceptions, how will they all be when the Judgment Day shall gleam upon them? My profession,how does that look? I have been baptized in Christ professedly. I wear a Christian name, I preach the Gospel, I am a Churchofficer or a Churchmember-how will all this bear the light of that tremendous day?
When I am put in the scales and weighed, shall I be the weight that I am labeled? In that dreadful day shall I see the handwritingon the wall, "Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"-"you are weighed in the balances and found wanting"? Or shall I hear the gracious sentencewhich shall pronounce me saved inJesus Christ? As to my Graces, what must they be in the light of judgment? My own salvation, all the matters of experienceand knowledge-how do they all look in that light? I think I have believed-I think I love the Savior-I sometimes hope thatI am His-butam I so? Shall I be found to be a true Believer at the last? Will my love be mere cant or true affection? Will my Gracesbe mere talk, or will they be found to be the work of God the Holy Spirit?
Am I vitally united to Christ or not? Am I a mere pretender, or a true possessor of the things eternal? Oh, my Soul, set thesequestions in the light of that tremendous day! I would to God we could now go forward to the Day of
Judgment, in thought at any rate. And since I feel myself quite unable to lead you there, let me adopt my Savior's words-Hesays that the day comes when He shall separate the righteous from the wicked as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.There shall be some on His left hand towhom He shall say, "I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. Sick and in prison, andyou visited Me not. Depart, you cursed." Will He say that to you and to me?
There will be some on His right hand to whom He will say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared foryou from before the foundation of the world." Shall He say that to you and to me? The one or the other it must be. As I standhere this morning, I seem to feel, on my ownaccount, and I wish you all did on yours, what a certain man in court once felt. Sentence was about to be given in his case,or, at least he thought the case would be called on immediately and he rushed to his solicitor and he said, "Is there onething left undone? Are you sure? Forif I lose this case I am a ruined man." His face was white with anxiety. And so it is with you. Is there one thing leftundone? For if you lose this case at God's Judgment Seat you are a ruined man!
Come Hearer, have you believed on Christ Jesus, or is faith left undone? Have you given up self-righteousness? Have you leftyour sin? Have you given your heart to the Savior? Is regeneration still unaccomplished? Are you born again? Are you in Christ?Are you saved? If your case is lost you are aruined man! A man ruined here may still retrieve his fortunes. The bankrupt may start again and yet be rich. The captainwho has lost a battle may renew the fight and win the next victory and begin the campaign anew. But lose the battle of lifeand the fight shall be no more. Makebankruptcy in this life's business and you have no more trading. This is the business of eternity!
Soul, is there anything left undone? Brother, Sister, is there anything left undone? For if you lose this case, you are ruinedand that to all eternity. I pray you to look at this day and at all your days, past and the future, in the light of the Dayof Judgment.
III. But my lamp-this matchless lamp-has a third side to it, bright, gleaming like a cluster of stars! The third of the lastthings is HEAVEN, the portion, I trust, of many of us. We hope, when days and years have passed, that full many of us willmeet to part no more on the other sideof Jordan, in Heaven. Now, let us see if we can cast a little light from Heaven upon the things present and the things past.
You have been toiling-toiling very hard, and wiping the sweat from your brow and saying, "My lot is not a desirable one. Ohhow weary I am! I cannot bear it." Courage, Brother! Courage, Sister! There is rest for the weary. There is eternal rest forthe beloved of the Lord and when you shallarrive in Heaven, how little, how utterly insignificant your toil will seem, even if it shall have lasted threescore yearsand ten! You are pained much. Even now pain shoots through your body. You do not often know what it is to have an easy hourand you half murmur, "Why am I thus?Why did God deal so harshly with me?"
Think of Heaven, where the inhabitants shall no more say, "I am sick"! Where there are no groans to mingle with the songsthat warble from immortal tongues. Courage, tried One! It will soon be over! It is but a pin's prick or a moment's pang andthen eternal Glory! Be of good cheer and let yourpatience not fail you. And so you have been slandered. On your face, for Christ's dear name, shame and reproach have beencast and you are ready to give up. Come, Man, look before you! Can you not hear the acclamations of the angels as the conquerorsreceive, one by one, theireternal crowns? What? Will you not fight when there is so much to be won? Must you be carried to the skies on flowery bedsof ease? You must fight if you would reign!
Gird up the loins of your mind and have respect to the recompense of reward. In the light of Heaven the shame of earth willseem to be less than nothing and vanity! And so you have had many losses and crosses-you were once well-to-do-but you arenow poor. You will have to go home todayto a very poor abode and to a scanty meal. Oh, but Beloved, you will not be there long. "In My Father's house are many mansions."It is but an inn you are tarrying at awhile and, if the accommodation is rough, you are gone tomorrow-so complain not! I wouldto God we could lookupon all our actions in the light of Heaven-I mean those who are Believers in Jesus Christ. If we could have regrets hereafter,I think it would be that we did not do more than we did for Christ here below.
In Heaven they cannot feed Christ's poor, cannot teach the ignorant. They can extol Him with songs of praise, but there aresome things in which we have the preference over them-they cannot clothe the naked, or visit the sick, or speak words of cheerto those that are disconsolate. If thereis anything that can give joy in Heaven, surely it will be in looking back on the Divine Grace which enabled us to servethe Master! Oh, if I can win souls to Christ I shall be a gainer as well as you! I shall have another Heaven in their Heaven,another joy, as it were, in theirlife and another happiness in their souls' happiness. And, dear Brothers and Sisters, if in your Sunday school teaching,or visiting, or talking to others you can bring any to Glory, you will, if it is possible, multiply your Heaven and make itall the more glad and joyful!
Now, look at the life of some Christians. They come here and if I preach what they call a good sermon, they like it and drinkit in. They are willing to eat the fat and drink the sweet, but what do they do for Christ? Nothing! What do they give forChrist? Hardly anything. There are a few suchamong us and these are generally the most miserable people you meet with-neither a comfort to others, nor any joy to themselves.Now, even in Heaven, I think, though no sorrow should be there, it will be only God's wiping it away that will keep them fromregretting that theydid not do what they might have done on earth!
We are saved by Grace, blessed be God-by Grace alone-but, being saved, we do desire to make known the savor of Christ in everyplace, and we believe in Heaven we shall have joy in having made this known among the sons of men. Look at your joy in thelight of Heaven and you will make itother than it now looks.
IV. We now turn to the fourth of the four last things and that is, let us look at all things in the light of HELL, that dreadand dismal light, the glare of the fiery abyss. Bring that lantern here. Here is a young man very merry. "Ho! Ho!" he sings,"Christians are fools." Hold my light up. Thereyou are without God, without hope, with the great iron gate of Death shut upon you and barred forever, your body in theflames of Tophet and your soul in the yet more horrible flames of the wrath of God.
Who is the fool now? Oh, when your spirits are damned, as they must be if you live without a Savior, you will think laughinga poor thing. Laugh now, Sir! Scoff now! For a few minutes' merriment you sold eternal joys. You had a mess of pottage andyou ate it in haste and you sold your birthright.What do you think of it now? It is an awful thing that men should be content-for a few short hours of silly mirth-to flingaway their souls! Look at merriment in the glare of the flames of Hell.
Mark that man in agony down in the vault of Hell. He made money by sin and there he is. He gained the whole world and losthis own soul. How does it look now? "I would give thirty thousand pounds," said an English gentleman when he lay dying, "ifany man would prove to me to a demonstration, thatthere is no Hell." Yes, but if he had given thirty thousand worlds that could not be proved and now, with pangs unutterable,he knows it is so. What would you give, when once you are lost, if you could throw back your gains? If lost spirits couldreturn here, surely they would dowhat Judas did-throw down the thirty pieces of silver in the temple and curse themselves that they ever took the gain ofthis world and destroyed their souls.
And how will unbelief look in the flames of Hell? There are no infidels anywhere but on earth-there are none in Heaven andthere are none in Hell. Atheism is a strange thing. Even the devils never fell into that vice, for, "the devils believe andtremble." And there are some of the devil'schildren that have gone beyond their father in sin, but how will it look when they are forever lost? When God's foot crushesthem, they will not be able to doubt His existence. When He tears them in pieces and there is none to deliver, then theirsophistical syllogisms, their emptylogic, their brags and bravadoes will be of no avail! Oh, that they had been wise and had not darkened their foolish hearts,but had turned unto the living God!
And, my dear Hearers, I have another thought which will come home to some of your spirits with peculiar power. How will procrastinationseem when once you get there? Some of you have been attending this place a long time-you have often had impressions, but youhave always said, "By and by.""By and by." You have been aroused and aroused again, but still it has been, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow." How will tomorrowring in your ears when once you are lost? What would you not give for another day of mercy, another hour of Divine Grace?
I feel, this morning, as if I would do with you what the Roman Ambassadors did with Antiochus. They met him and asked himwhether he meant war or peace. He said he must see. And one of them, taking his staff, made a circle round him where he stoodand said, "You must answer before you leave thatspot. If you step out of that it is war. Now, war or peace?" And I, too, would draw a secret circle round you in the pewthis morning and say to you, "Which shall it be, sin or holiness, self or Christ? Shall it be Grace or enmity, Heaven or Hell?"
And I pray you answer that question in the light of Hell. It is a dread light, but it is a revealing one. It is a fire thatwill devour the scales that are about your blind eyes. God grant that it may scorch those scales away, that you may see nowhow dreadful a thing it is to be an enemy to Godand be led by His Holy Spirit to apply to Jesus Christ even now. Ah, how will the Gospel seem in the light of Hell and howwill your indifference to it seem? When I was thinking of preaching this morning, I wished that I could preach as in thatlight. To think that there are some towhom I have spoken again and again, who during this year have passed away from the world of hope, we fear, into the landof despair is a dreadful thought!
Persons that occupied these pews, sat in these aisles, stood far away there and listened and heard the Gospel-and they aregone! Did I warn them fairly, truly? If not-"If you warn them not they shall perish, but their blood will I require at yourhands." My God, by the blood of theSavior, set me free from these men! Oh deliver me from that solemn condemnation! But with those of you that still live,I would be clear of you. Dear Hearers, do you not feel that you are mortal? Have not you within you a sense that you are dying?It is a thought that is always withme. Life seems so short. It was not so always with me-but the shortness of life now seems to hang over my mind perpetuallyand I suppose it must do so over those of you who are thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty and who frequently see your friends takenaway.
Now, since you must soon be gone. Since there is a world to come and you believe there is, how can some of you play with thesethings? How is it that while you are attentive to your business, you leave your soul's business neglected? What are you waitingfor, my Hearer? Are you waiting for anotherseason? Does not God say, "Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation"? What are you waiting for? Does not thetime past suffice?
Oh that you were wise and would think of your latter end and seek after God! I conjure you, by the shortness of life, by thecertainty of death, by the terrors ofjudgment, by the glories of Heaven, by the pains of Hell-seek after the right way andwalk in it. Christ Jesus came into the worldto save sinners. This is the Gospel, "Whoever believes is not condemned." To believe is to trust. Oh that you may have DivineGrace to trust your souls with the Lord Jesus now and forever and then we shall not need to fear those words, "At the last,"nor the light of the four lastthings, Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell.
God bless you, for His name's sake.
"Soon the whole, like a parched scroll, Shall before my amazed sight unroll, And without a screen at one burst be seen, Thepresence wherein I have ever been."
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Psalm 148, and 2 Corinthians 6.