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IF MY READER has not followed me step by step as he has read
my pages, I am truly sorry. Book-reading is of small value unless
the truths which pass before the mind are grasped, appropriated,
and carried out to their practical issues. It is as if one saw
plenty of food in a shop and yet remained hungry, for want of
personally eating some. It is all in vain, dear reader, that you
and I have met, unless you have actually laid hold upon Christ
Jesus, my Lord. On my part there was a distinct desire to benefit
you, and I have done my best to that end. It pains me that I have
not been able to do you good, for I have longed to win that
privilege. I was thinking of you when I wrote this page, and I
laid down my pen and solemnly bowed my knee in prayer for
everyone who should read it. It is my firm conviction that great
numbers of readers will get a blessing, even though you refuse to
be of the number. But why should you refuse? If you do not desire
the choice blessing which I would have brought to you, at least
do me the justice to admit that the blame of your final doom will
not lie at my door. When we two meet before the great white
throne you will not be able to charge me with having idly used
the attention which you were pleased to give me while you were
reading my little book. God knoweth I wrote each line for your
eternal good. I now in spirit take you by the hand. I give you a
firm grip. Do you feel my brotherly grasp? The tears are in my
eyes as I look at you and say, Why will you die? Will you not
give your soul a thought? Will you perish through sheer
carelessness? Oh, do not so; but weigh these solemn matters, and
make sure work for eternity! Do not refuse Jesus, His love, His
blood, His salvation. Why should you do so? Can you do it?
I beseech you,
Do not turn away from your Redeemer!
If, on the other hand, my prayers are heard, and you, my
reader, have been led to trust the Lord Jesus and receive from
Him salvation by grace, then keep you ever to this doctrine, and
this way of living. Let Jesus be your all in all, and let free
grace be the one line in which you live and move. There is no
life like that of one who lives in the favor of God. To receive
all as a free gift preserves the mind from self-righteous pride,
and from self-accusing despair. It makes the heart grow warm with
grateful love, and thus it creates a feeling in the soul which is
infinitely more acceptable to God than anything that can possibly
come of slavish fear. Those who hope to be saved by trying to do
their best know nothing of that glowing fervor, that hallowed
warmth, that devout joy in God, which come with salvation freely
given according to the grace of God. The slavish spirit of self-
salvation is no match for the joyous spirit of adoption. There is
more real virtue in the least emotion of faith than in all the
tuggings of legal bond-slaves, or all the weary machinery of
devotees who would climb to Heaven by rounds of ceremonies. Faith
is spiritual, and God who is a spirit delights in it for that
reason. Years of prayer-saying, and church-going, or chapel-
going, and ceremonies, and performances, may only be an
abomination in the sight of Jehovah; but a glance from the eye of
true faith is spiritual and it is therefore dear to Him. "The
Father seeketh such to worship him." Look you first to the inner
man, and to the spiritual, and the rest will then follow in due
course.
If you are saved yourself, be on the watch for the souls of
others. Your own heart will not prosper unless it is filled with
intense concern to bless your fellow men. The life of your soul
lies in faith; its health lies in love. He who does not pine to
lead others to Jesus has never been under the spell of love
himself. Get to the work of the Lord--the work of love. Begin at
home. Visit next your neighbors. Enlighten the village or the
street in which you live. Scatter the word of the Lord wherever
your hand can reach.
Reader, meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is
no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish
to enter the way of death when Heaven's gate is open before you?
Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus
grants to all who trust Him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have
had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now,
with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come
unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may
be
now or never
with you. Let it be NOW; it would be horrible that it should
be never.
Again I charge you,
meet me in heaven.