BY REV. JOHN MACDONALD, CALCUTTA.
VII.
(Continued from p. 210).
“I have long known that unbelief was my misfortune, but, O sir, until to-day, I knew not it was my guilt.”
ONCE more, dear reader, am I summoned to apply the silver trumpet to my mouth, and blow a warning blast. Since last I wrote I have seen childhood become youth, and youth advance to manhood, and manhood assume the grey hairs of age, and age slide down into the grave; yet one thing have I found in all these—the “Saviour rejected” and “salvation by Him” vilely cast away! I have taught in the household; I have instructed in the Sabbath school; I have preached in the Christian church; I have proclaimed Christ on the streets of the world’s metropolis; I have passed from pastorates in Europe to Missions in Asia, and have now dwelt for a time in the chief seat of the gospel in the East; I have heard the truth in its greatest power, and have seen profession in its highest forms; yet everywhere have I seen one evil destroying the blossom of seriousness; one canker eating out the bud of conviction—that universal evil, that mortal canker is Delay! Children, youths, men, and old men, say, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee!”
Seest thou that aged worldling, fretting and groping in the darkness of death? Go, say to him, “Why dost thou torment thyself so?” In the whisper of the tomb he says—“Too late, too late; I delayed. I am too late!” So he dies.
Bend down over apoplectic manhood, just fallen on the street; kneel beside him, whilst gurgling out the last breath of a covetous life, and say softly in the ear of death—“Why groanest thou? Behold the suffering Saviour! Cry to Him!” Catch his last words—“Oh, delay—damnation. I am lost for ever!” So, too, he dies.
Go, sit kindly on that pale couch of mortality, beside that wasted, dying youth, whose sunken eye is still fixed on that setting sun, and taking its last mournful draught of that glorious western sky! Take his clammy hand into thine, and gently say—“O youth, why so sad in thy weakness? What aileth now thy faint-
ing heart? Is there not a better Sun than that? Is it not said, “God is their sun?” Canst thou gather up his words? “I thought—hoped—purposed—I promised—but, it is past—gone—lost—I cannot now—no, never—I am sinking—I am dark—no sun—oh! no sun. Delay—delay—thou—thou damning sin—O God! I am—.” And thus he also dies! These, these, my readers, are the servants of delay: such their wages in the end!
I am now in your hands to warn you against this evil. I feel as if I could not leave you until you have taken Christ for your Lord, and received salvation by Him. I do not see you; I may never know you; but now I speak to you by these lines, and beseech you, in Christ’s stead, to lose no time, to make no delay, but to be saved now, if ever you desire not to be damned . . .
Are you not a sinner now? This you will not deny. Are you not under sentence of condemnation now? Is not the anger of God as present as sin is? Are you not then, already in danger of the judgment? and is there a moment in which you may not perish eternally? Are not your blessings cursed now? Do you not feel now, in the blindness of your eyes, the hardness of your heart, the forerunners of eternal death? Why, then, delay?
Is not the Lord Jesus Christ a Saviour now? Is not His sacrifice finished, and His intercession begun? Does He not live now? Can He not save now? Will He not receive you now? Is He not actually saving multitudes of sinners on this earth now? Whilst you are delaying, are not others coming to Him, even now? And will not many more come to Him to-day, to-morrow, and every day hereafter, until the last sinner come, and every now is occupied? And why, then, do you delay to come to Christ?
Is not the Gospel, which is the message of Christ’s love to you, true now? Can it ever be more so? Is it not perfect and fixed? What it ever was to others, is it not that now to you? What it shall be to the end of the world, is it not that to you at this instant? Can it ever be more gracious or free than now? Can it ever come nearer to you than at this present time? Can it ever be of greater authority than now? Can there ever be more of God in it, more of Christ in it, more of the Spirit in it, than now? Can it ever have a more individual application, a more personal offer to you, than now? No—never—were you to live a thousand years. The Gospel never changes; then, why delay to receive it?
Is not faith the same now that it ever can be? Is it not the same truth that must be believed? Must not the same soul also now, as hereafter, perform the same act of faith? Must not the same understanding discern, the same heart receive, the same conscience submit, the same very person be converted, now as then? Present truth demands present belief, present grace demands present acceptance; even as present law demands present obedience, and a present judge demands present judgment. Is it not so? . . .
Is not present delay present sin? If a thing be my duty now, then not to do it now is not to do my duty now, which is sin. If a thing is not my duty now, then in not doing it now there is of course no delay, and therefore no room for sin; it is the presentness of the duty which constitutes the sin of delay. If I ought to believe now and repent now, and do not, then am I guilty now. A resolution as to the future is no substitute for present action; it is, in fact, a refusal to perform duty until that time come which we have selected; and he that delays for a time does wilfully sin during that period. To resolve to be converted shows that you hold it to be a duty for which you are accountable; to put it off declares that you prefer continuing in an unconverted state: thus you are your own judge, and convict yourself of present sin. If you are a sinner you ought not to advance one step further, but now to turn and believe in Christ with your heart unto salvation. Why add the sin of present impenitence to that of past iniquity? Why delay of purpose, when delay is sin?
Present unbelief entails present condemnation—for “he that believeth not is condemned already;” but delay is unbelief, and therefore entails condemnation every time it takes place. As long as a man returns not to God through Jesus Christ, he is sealing up his former sentence of death by taking out a new sentence of death in addition to it. A man’s curse, therefore, as a sinner is heaping up every moment, and his damnation doubling without end, whilst he puts off coming to Christ and closing with Him as his Lord. Oh, that men would then consider what account they can give of themselves, even to themselves, at death, in judgment and, above all, in eternity, when they find that by the poor device of delay they have brought themselves into the lowest perdition of hell! Then must the past pleasures of delay become the present agonies of the eternal dying!
And what excuse can you plead for such delay? The Gospel is sent to you as now you are—not as you once were, or may hereafter be. The only condition is acceptance, free acceptance, present acceptance, personal acceptance, cordial acceptance. “Hear and your soul shall live!” What you are is what the Gospel respects in you; what you need is what the Gospel offers. To wait, therefore, on the plea of not being good enough, and of wishing first to become better, is self-deceit, and a lie against the Gospel. The best work you can perform now is to believe now, and to turn now; and without this all intended preparation is but condemnation. Nay, so far from gaining or becoming better by delay, you lose and become worse. Your heart becomes harder, your mind darker, your sin greater, your time shorter, your burden heavier, your love less, your terror more, heaven further, hell nearer, God more angry, the Spirit more grieved, the Saviour more dimly seen, the Gospel more powerless, ministers more faint, friends more despondent, prayer less importunate, providence more unfelt, the world stronger, the flesh sweeter, Satan mightier, and the drowsy slumber of the second and eternal death, now at hand, more frequent and irresistible! Then shall that word be fulfilled, it may be—”I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh upon you. Ye shall call unto me, but I will not answer.” Reader, is that meant for you? What know you but it may?
Arise, flee—the way is before you—hold on straight before thee, but make speed—haste thee, haste thee. Behold that Throne of Grace. Behold that Mediator with the blood of sprinkling before it. See, He is an Advocate—an Intercessor for transgressors; go up to Him now in thine heart—put the catalogue of sin into His hand—see how He smiles over thee with love inexpressible—receives the sprinkling of His blood on thy conscience. Now lift up thine eyes. He who sitteth on that throne unseen is the eternal Father! He who led thee to this throne is the blessed Spirit, the Comforter! He who now holds thee with a kinsman’s hand before the throne is Jesus, the “Suffering Saviour!” and that blessing which is now issuing from the throne unto thee is a free, full, present, and everlasting “salvation by Him!” O Lord God, do thou grant unto the readers of this such grace unto life eternal! Let my beloved reader pray, saying, “Amen! and Amen!”