Evening, December 31
Go To Morning Reading
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
Jeremiah 8:20
Not saved ! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight? Warned of the judgment
to come, bidden to escape for your life, and yet at this moment not saved ! You know the way of salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear
it from the pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you
neglect it, and therefore you are not saved . You will be without excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and
dead. The Holy Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the
word which has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing
have come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ.
All these hopeful seasons have come and gone—your summer and your harvest have past—and yet you are not saved . Years have followed one another into eternity, and your last year
will soon be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are
not saved . Let me ask you— will you ever be saved ? Is there any likelihood of it? Already the most propitious seasons
have left you unsaved; will other occasions alter your condition?
Means have failed with you—the best of means, used perseveringly and with the utmost affection—what more can be done for you? Affliction and prosperity have alike
failed to impress you; tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted
on your barren heart. Are not the probabilities dead against your
ever being saved? Is it not more than likely that you will abide as
you are till death forever bars the door of hope? Do you recoil from
the supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he who is not washed
in so many waters will in all probability go filthy to his end. The
convenient time never has come, why should it ever come? It is logical
to fear that it never will arrive, and that Felix like, you will find
no convenient season till you are in hell. O bethink you of what that
hell is, and of the dread probability that you will soon be cast into
it!
Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words can picture.
Write out your dread estate in tears and blood, talk of it with groans
and gnashing of teeth: you will be punished with everlasting destruction
from the glory of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. A brother’s voice would fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise
in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able
to save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely thought,
and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well; and if it
lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. O see to
it that this year pass not away, and you an unforgiven spirit. Let
not the new year’s midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit! Now, now , NOW believe, and live.
“ESCAPE FOR THY LIFE;
LOOK NOT BEHIND THEE,
NEITHER STAY THOU IN ALL THE PLAIN;
ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAIN,
LEST THOU BE CONSUMED.”