|
Hope
Unlimited
Chapter
19: In Closing
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
of that food.
It is all in vain, dear reader, that you and I have met, unless you
have actually laid hold upon 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 knows 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 do 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 hold to this doctrine for ever, 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 devoted joy in God, which comes
when we accept the salvation that is 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
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 God; but a glance from the eye of
true faith is spiritual and it is therefore dear to Him. "The
Father seeks 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 have accepted salvation by grace, 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 your
neighbors next. 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! 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------
How
do we "come unto our Lord this day?"
Please see the Home Page feature, A Brand New You -
Part 1
and Part 2
|
