| "The harvest is past,
the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jer. 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
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. Oh, 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. Oh, 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. Oh, 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."
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