Evening, December 30
Go To Morning Reading
“Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?”
2 Samuel 2:26
If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor
of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true
sketch of thine end.
You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because
others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your
beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years
you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by
an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart
in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such
a one as yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is
on his brow, and he wakes up crying, “O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?” “Yes, he is coming.” The minister comes. “Sir, I fear that I am dying!” “Have you any hope?” “I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray
for me.” The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way
of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before
he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon
those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again. But
where is the man, and where are the man’s true eyes? It is written, “In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he was so accustomed
to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should
lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings. Let the
Saviour’s own words reveal the woe: “Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger
in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to
spell it out by the red light of Jehovah’s wrath!