The Soul’s Crisis

The Soul's Crisis

A sermon

(No. 906)

Delivered by

C.H.SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"Jesus of Nazareth passes by."- Luke 18:37.

Such was the news of that day. As an exclamation, doubtless it was
often repeated when our Lord made His journeys through the land of
Palestine and its outskirts–"Jesus of Nazareth passes by!" How quickly
would the inhabitants of their cities and their villages be astir when
the news reached them! What a curiosity there would be to see Him,
knowing that His fame was spoken of everywhere! What an eagerness among
the multitudes to get close enough to hear Him! What an intense anxiety
on the part of some to go, themselves, and of others to take their sick
and diseased friends that they might obtain health and cure! Oh, I
think there was enough in those words to make men forego, awhile, their
farms and their merchandise, their labors and their pleasures that they
might feast their eyes and ears with the sight of His face and the
sound of His voice–or much more, that they might obtain some grateful
relief and get some substantial benefit from Him who went about doing
good!

But, my dear Brothers and Sisters, I want you to catch the spiritual
significance of these thrilling words. Did you understand them aright,
you would rise up and shake off your lethargy! You would be eager to
greet His Presence and anxious to learn His doctrine! That, however,
which I am sure would stir you to the heart's core and excite all your
passions is the vehement desire to have salvation, present salvation,
from Him! Surely you would be ready to receive Him into your house, to
welcome Him to your heart and to sit at His feet dissolved in wonder,
love and praise! And yet full many of you who join the throng and
mingle with the families that come up to seek the Lord are as
unconcerned for yourselves as though your sins were of no concern and
your souls in no immediate peril!

Oh, it is high time that some here present were saved! In a short time
you must be in another world. Hard by that column, on my right, in
yonder gallery, in that next pew, there have usually sat two attentive
hearers, husband and wife, who early this morning were suffocated by
the smoke of their own burning house! I little thought that they would
be preachers to us tonight–but they are so. The calamity, sudden and
mysterious, which has removed them from our midst, sets "the
uncertainly of life," and the "preparation for departure" so vividly
before us that we cannot refrain our emotions or restrain our
sympathies.

Their absence should speak loudly to those who occupy the seat they
have vacated, asking them whether they are ready to depart. Not less
loudly should it speak to all sitting here, raising the question in the
hearts of some of you who are careless about your souls, how you could
bear to pass out of this world if the arrow of death should overtake
you unawares. A trifling accident may prove fatal! A slight illness may
be the precursor of speedy dissolution! Can you imagine your own
remorse as you glance backwards at the Gospel you have listened to but
never embraced–the blood of sprinkling you have heard of, but have
never been applied to your conscience–the Savior whom you passed by
with indifference when He passed by you, ready to be gracious and you
would not be His disciple? Ah, you may turn from such questions with a
faint smile now–before long you will turn to them with a pale shudder!

Are there any here present anxious to be saved? Let me have their
solemn, earnest and devout attention! I pray God that what I speak
simply may just strike their consciences and touch their hearts. If
they want their judgments informed, may the Word come with light to
their spirits and in that light may they behold Christ and find
salvation! Our text is taken from a little narrative of a blind man who
sat by the side of the highway begging–not an inappropriate picture of
you, my Friends, who are solicitous of mercy and anxiously desirous of
salvation. Are you not as blind and poor spiritually as he was
literally?

I am sure that you will at once confess that you are blind. The eyes of
your understanding are dim. Your heart is wrapped in darkness. You
cannot see what you want to see. You do not even see your sin so as to
repent of it with contrition. You have not yet seen the power of the
precious blood of Jesus so as to believe in it as worshippers once

purged and abundantly conscious that it has procured their remission.
While you are so blind, I am quite sure that you will not be grieved or
vexed with me if I say, too, that you are as poor as Bartimeus. His was
poverty of pence, but yours is poverty of soul. You have no merit! You
have no strength. You have no possibility of ever getting the means of
spiritual livelihood for yourselves. You are as poor as the poorest
beggar that ever asked a charity for God's sake from the wayfarers!

But you are sitting tonight in somewhat the same position as that blind
man was, for he sat in the place of Jesus' passing by and you have come
to the place where God's mercy has often been revealed–where saints
and sinners have passed by in crowds and where, blessed be His
name!–Jesus Himself sometimes has passed by! What if tonight you
should be apprised and aware of His Presence here and should cry out to
Him and He should stop and open those blind eyes of yours and give you
the light of life and the joy of eternal salvation? What if you should
have to go home and say to your friends and kinsfolk, "I have had an
experience tonight the like of which I never felt before! I have found
a Savior! I have received the forgiveness of my sins! I am a new
creature in Christ Jesus!"?

Why you would make angels sing fresh hallelujahs in Heaven, while on
earth God would be glorified and yourselves and your friends would be
blessed by so lively an exercise of faith and so wonderful a
participation of Divine Grace!

I. Now, looking steadfastly that this may be the case, I wish to speak
very pointedly to you about two or three things. First, when Jesus
passed by the blind man it was to that man A DAY OF HOPE. He had given
up all thought of ever being able to see, so long had his eyes been
closed to the light. When Jesus passed by the case was different. He
could perform any miracle–there was no limit to His healing power–why
shouldn't He open a blind man's eyes? And you, my anxious Friend, you
have felt that you could not be saved. Of course, if it depended upon
yourself you could not by any duties you discharged, or any services
you performed acquire merit enough to enter Heaven–or even to procure
the forgiveness of your sins on earth.

But, if Jesus Christ has come into the world to save that which was
lost, it is a totally different matter! He can certainly pardon the
greatest offenders and He can deliver from going down into the Pit the
most undeserving of rebels. It was an hour of hope to that blind man
and if Jesus passes by now, this is an hour of hope to you! But, does
He pass by? I answer–Yes! There are different respects in which this
may be interpreted of our Lord's conduct. In a certain sense He has
been passing by some of you ever since you began to discern right from
wrong. You have, some of you, been nurtured and bred up under the
hearing of the Gospel and you cannot remember the time when you did not
know something, at any rate, of the facts and Truths of God that
pertain to Christianity.

Well, all this while Jesus Christ has been slowly passing by
you–halting, pausing, giving you space–if perhaps you would call to
Him for mercy. O take heed, that passing by may soon be over! The
candle of life may be blown out. Yet while the Gospel rings in your
ears, it is a day of hope to you–let not Satan or your own despairing
heart persuade you to the contrary. More especially is it a time of
Christ's passing by when the Gospel is preached with power. If this
evening the Gospel should so come to you as to win your attention and
melt your heart–if you should feel a Divine influence exerted over you
by it–the evidence will not be lacking that Jesus is passing by.

Or, if the Gospel, though it affects not you, should convey such an
influence and bring forth such fruits in others who are sitting in the
same pew with you, that they should be saved–depend upon it–the
kingdom of God will have come near unto you! It will then have passed
by and you will have received no blessing because you sought it not in
faith. Yet responsibilities will have come upon you from which you will
not be able to escape! Jesus will have passed by other blind men and
they will have asked for sight and had it, while you will remain
blind–not because Jesus cannot heal you–but because you have not
asked His healing, but have continued still in your unbelief of Him. I
feel conscious within myself that this very night Jesus is, in a
special manner, present in this assembly.

Sometimes the preacher has yearnings within himself for the people as
if he travailed in birth until Christ is formed in them. He wrestles
with such an earnest longing after souls as if their peril and the
conflict for their rescue were all his own–that is no slight omen of
the coming blessing. He perceives, also, the same desire in many of his
converted hearers. As he knows that they are praying God with much
vehemence of spirit to bring in the sinner, the atmosphere of prayer
becomes to him an indication of the time and the place where Jesus
manifests Himself, for where His people pray, Christ is surely present!
I encourage you then, dear Hearers, with hopeful signs of heavenly
Grace!

This is a hopeful hour! If you have lived up till now unsaved, I
indulge the fervent hope that the hour has now come when you shall find
salvation! Though you may, up to now, have sought and sought and sought
in vain, yet now, surely, the set time to favor you has come! Lord,
grant it may be so, that it may be so to many and we will bless Your
name!

II. Secondly, as it was a time of hope to that poor blind man, so was
it especially a TIME OF ACTIVITY. You that anxiously desire salvation
regard attentively these words. A man cannot be saved by what he
does–salvation is in Christ–yet no man is saved except as he seeks
earnestly after Christ! This blind man did not open his eyes himself.
What he did, did not help or contribute in any degree to his attaining
sight. Nevertheless, he had to seek Jesus to have his eyes opened.
There was enough in this to kindle all his passions, summon all his
faculties and engage all his energies. But most certainly there was
nothing in it to exercise his skill in discovering or applying a
remedy–nothing to win him any honor–nothing to entitle him to any
reward.

Yet this man is a picture of what we should be if we desire to be
saved. He listened attentively. He could not see, but he had ears. He
could catch the sound of footsteps. The silence that was broken by
crowds coming along the road to Jericho was peculiar. The tramp was of
an unusual sort and the tone of voices far different from those of
wrangling or of revelry, or the songs of common travelers. He listened,
yes, he listened with all his ears. So, dear Hearers, whenever the
Gospel is preached, do not give it merely such a hearing as you might
give to an ordinary story that is told you. But oh, hear it as God's
Word! Hear it with bated breath and profound reverence! Drink it in as
the parched earth drinks in the shower! Hear it fearing to miss a
single word, lest that should be the word that might have blessed you!

I believe attentive hearers are the most likely people to get the
blessing. Let none of us, therefore, when we go to the courts of the
Lord's House and hear a Gospel sermon, suffer our thoughts to be
wandering here and there, but let us give scrupulous heed so we may
detect the footsteps of the Lord by the conversation of His disciples.
But, this man, after he had heard with discrimination, enquired with
eagerness what it meant. Oh, how I wish our hearers would begin to ask,
"What does it mean?" I can say that I put my words as plainly as I can.
Oftentimes when there is a bunch of gaudy flowers of rhetoric that I
gladly would use and could use, I have thrown them all on the dunghill
because they might have stood in some poor sinner's way and he might
not have understood the plain Truth of God so well.

Ah, but still, for all that, talk as we may, the carnal mind
understands not the things that are of God! It is a blessed sign when
men begin to say, "What is it all about? What is the drift of this
Gospel? What does the man mean by sin and its heinousness? What does he
mean by Christ and His precious blood? What is it all about?" O dear
Hearers, some of you only skim your Bibles when you read them! I wish
you would stop and ponder and ask of Christian people who have
experienced these things, "What do these texts mean?" So, too, if there
is anything in a sermon that baffles you, I wish you would seek out
some godly and instructed Christian and say, "Explain to me what this
thing means?" I should have great hopes of you if you were thus
enquiring after the plan of salvation.

Is it not worth your while to ask the question, Sirs? When a man has
lost his way, he will ask 20 people sooner than he will continue to
pursue a wrong course. And will you lose your way to Heaven through not
asking old travelers to direct you? Do, I pray you, be in earnest to
learn and it shall not be long before God shall teach you, for whenever
He makes a man conscious of his ignorance and anxious to be taught, God
the Holy Spirit is quite sure to instruct him before long. When this
man had asked the question and had been told in reply that Jesus of
Nazareth passed by, notice what he did next–he began to pray.

We are told that he cried. His cry was a prayer and his prayer was a
cry. It took the form of a piteous and emphatic outburst of
desire–"You Son of David, have mercy on me." It was a short prayer. He
did not need a book. Being a blind man he could not have used one if he
had had it. Blessed be God, we need no Book of Prayers. We need such
prayers as blind men can use quite as readily as those who can see. And
what a comprehensive prayer it was–"Have mercy on me! Have mercy on
me!" It was not the words of the prayer–it was the true desire and the
believing confidence of the prayer that did the work. "You Son of
David, have mercy upon me!"

Now, my dear Hearer, you tell me that you wish to be saved, that you
are anxious, no, enquiring–but do you pray? How can you expect mercy
if it is not thought by you to be worth the asking for? What? Will you
have God give you it without your seeking it? He has done so sometimes,
but the usual rule of Divine Grace, and the most proper rule is that
you should humbly ask for mercy at His feet. Will you do it? What? Is
Hell so paltry a doom that you will not pray to escape from it? What?
Is Heaven so trifling a destination that you will not pray that you may
gain it? O Sirs, when

heavenly mercy is to be had for the asking, will you not invoke the
Almighty and be obedient to the Redeemer to obtain it? Then how richly
you deserve to die! Being placed on pleading terms, you will not plead!
And being bid to seek the Lord while He may be found, you willfully
refuse to seek Him!

Yes, richly do you deserve to perish in your sin! But it must not be so
with you. I cannot look you in the face and think you will do such
despite to God's claims and your own interests. No, you will pray, I
trust you will. You will cry with your whole heart to God! Be assured
that never did a man really cry for mercy and continue to do so with
his whole heart, but sooner or later mercy came! There are no praying
souls in Hell! God never damns those who are suppliants for mercy. If
you do but lay hold on the Cross of Christ and say, "I will not let
this go except I get the blessing! I will not cease until I win my
soul's desire," you shall soon have the mercy that you seek! O that God
would stir you up to pray!

As this man prayed, there were some standing by who said, "Hush! Hold
your tongue! You disturb the preaching. We cannot hear the silvery
tones of the orator. Be still. It is not right for a beggar like you,
crawling in the street, to disturb respectable people by your harsh,
croaking voice–be quiet!" But his heart, being thus moved, there was
no silence for his tongue! So much the more, with increasing vehemence
and force, he iterated and reiterated the prayer, "You Son of David,
you Son of David, have mercy on me! Have mercy on me!"

Now, if you desire salvation and have begun to pray, Satan will say,
"Ah, it is of no use! Be quiet!" The flesh will say, "Why do you do
this? There is time enough." Procrastination will come in and say,
"When you grow old it will be time enough, then, to begin to seek the
Lord." A thousand difficulties will be suggested, but, O Soul, if you
are, indeed, set upon salvation and God has made you in earnest, you
will say to all these, "Stand back! I cannot and will not be silenced
by you! I must have mercy! It is mercy I need and it is mercy I must
have, or I perish forever and that I cannot afford! Therefore I will
cry the more!"

I wish–but ah, it is not in my power–still, I do wish that I could
persuade you to importunate prayer. May the Holy Spirit lead you to
pray. Well do I recollect my own prayers when I was seeking Christ. I
prayed for months and sometimes in the chamber where I sought the Lord,
I felt as if I could not come away from the Mercy Seat till I had an
answer of peace–but I waited long before I got it. Still, it came at
last and oh, it is worth waiting for! If one had to plead for mercy by
the 20 years at a time, yet if at last the silver scepter were
stretched out it would well repay all the groans and the tears of the
most anxious spirits! Get to your chambers, then, or if you cannot get
to your chambers, get to a saw pit, a hayloft–it matters not
where–and pour out your heart before Him and do not rise from your
knees until the Lord has said, "Your sins, which are many, are forgiven
you"!

After this man had thus pleaded, it is noteworthy that Jesus stood
still and called him. I must call your attention to this matter. As
soon as Jesus had called the blind man, the effect produced on him is
startling. I think I see him sitting there by the wayside helpless.
Jesus bids him come. He gets up and in a moment he throws off that
outer garment which had been so precious to him–in which he had so
often wrapped himself up in cold nights–when he had to sleep beneath
the open sky. That much prized, though all patched and filthy
garment–he threw it right away! It might have made him a minute or two
slower, so off he threw it and away he ran to Jesus!

Ah, and it is a great mercy when a poor soul feels that it can throw
away anything and everything to get to Christ! "Oh," says the sinner
who really seeks a Savior, "if there is any sin that I indulged that
prevents my finding mercy, only let me know it and I will do away with
it. Is there any habit I have which I do not even know to be sin, or a
thing I do that gives me pleasure, but is objectionable in the sight of
God, I will do away with it! O Lord, if I must be poor, or if I must be
sick, I will do away with my health and away with my wealth if I may
but find mercy–

"The dearest idol I have known, Whatever thatidolis, Help me to tear it
from its throne, And worship only You."

I charge you, seekers of Jesus, let nothing stand between you and
Christ! You must have salvation! You cannot afford to do without it. O
fling away, then, everything that might impede you. Cast off the
garment that might trip you up in the heavenly race. Lay aside every
weight and the sin that does most easily beset you and press to Jesus
at once. Tonight, I pray you, press to Jesus with vehement speed and be
not content till you get the blessing!

Once more. When this man had come to Jesus and Jesus said to him, "What
will you that I should do unto you?" the man returned a straightforward
and intelligent answer, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." Now,
when you are at

prayer tonight, any of you, do not merely pray a general prayer, but
put it before the Lord in plain language. I could suppose, for example,
the tenor of your confession and petition might be something like
this–"Lord, here I am. I have lived all this time without regard of
You. I have been a hearer at the Tabernacle. Sometimes I have been so
deeply impressed that I have shed many tears, but Lord, it has all come
to nothing. Sermons upon sermons have I heard, yet sermon after sermon
has been lost upon me. I am afraid I am a Gospel-hardened sinner.

"I think, Lord, that sitting as I do right opposite the preacher, he
speaking so pointedly as he does to me, witnessing, as I do, how others
have been saved while I have been left unsaved, my heart must be like
the nether millstone. Yet, Lord, You can save me. O have mercy on me! O
melt this heart of stone! Break this adamant! Thaw this rock of ice!
Lord, I know what it is that hinders me–there is that cherished sin.
There is that vile companion. There is that lust of the flesh. O God,
enable me to give it up! Now help me to pluck off the right arm and
tear out the right eye, for, oh, I cannot perish! I cannot perish! I
cannot bear Your wrath in the world to come! I am afraid because of it!
Therefore would I flee from it and find refuge in Jesus!"

Or perhaps your case may be quite a different one and in pleading with
God you may have to say, "Lord, I never was a keeper of Your Sabbath. I
have been on all those holy days spending the time in sinful pleasure
and I do not know that I have any regard for You, but I fell into the
crowd at the Tabernacle gates just now and got into the aisle and,
Lord, Your Word has found me out and I feel as I never felt before! I
do desire to be reconciled to You." Oh, you do not know how glad your
heavenly Father will be to hear that, for, just as in the parable, the
father ran and fell upon the prodigal's neck and kissed him, so will
our Father who is in Heaven run and fall upon your guilty neck and give
you the kiss of pardon and of acceptance! And you, even you, shall be
saved!

Glory be to God, there is none that will press and seek and knock and
strive thus, but the mercy shall come unto them! Still, I cannot
withhold one other remark. That which really brought salvation to this
blind man was his faith, for Christ says, "Your faith has saved you."
Now here is the greatest point of all–faith! Faith–for work without
faith is of little worth. Faith is the great saving Grace–it is the
real life-germ. "What is faith?" you ask. Anxious Enquirer, if you
would know what faith is, understand that the other words for it are
trust and belief. The faith that saves is a belief that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, offered an atonement for sin, and then, after a firm
conviction, a simple trusting in that Atonement for your salvation.

Can you, this night–oh, I pray the Holy Spirit enables you!–can you,
this night, trust Jesus Christ? When I ask that question of an awakened
sinner, it seems to me as if the answer should always be, "Can I trust
Him? Yes, indeed! Such a Savior, so Divine, offering such a sacrifice
as the death of Himself, surely I can trust Him!" Here is a nail upon
which you may well hang all the weight of the vessel! Here is a bridge
over which tens of thousands of the heaviest sinners may safely cross!
Come then, Sinner, what do you say? Are you resolved to trust Jesus? If
so, your faith has saved you already! Go and wrestle in prayer till you
get you an assurance of it.

III. Time flies and I must not tarry. Let me have a solemn word upon
another point. When Jesus passed by, it was, as we have said, to the
blind man an hour of hope and it was an hour for bestirring himself.
Now we notice, thirdly, it was AN HOUR OF CRISIS. Did I not observe
just now that while life lasts Jesus is passing by? That is true in one
sense, but I do also believe that in many cases the hour in which they
will ever be able to find mercy is past long before men die. There was
a man who had listened to an earnest Gospel exhortation and as he
listened he felt that the preacher was speaking out his inmost heart to
him. He thought within himself, "That is an important matter."

As he listened the importance of the matter seemed to strike him more
and more. His tears began to flow and he resolved that when he reached
his home that night he would seek the Lord. As he went on his way, a
companion met him and said, "Come with me," and he invited him to a
certain ale-house. He was revolted at the thought for the moment. He
stood still and the deliberation seemed to go on in his soul–"Which
shall it be? Shall it be my jovial companion, or shall it be that
earnest prayer on which I have resolved?" He hesitated a moment and his
better self, or rather the Holy Spirit within him, conquered, and that
night as he knelt, Divine light shone into his soul and he became a
Christian!

On that same occasion there was another man who passed through
precisely the same experience and to whom the same temptation came. But
he yielded to it and he was never after that troubled with such another
difficulty. He listened again to sermons, but he never felt, under
them, as he did under that. They lost all interest for him. After a
time he left off attending the means of Grace and he is at this time a
blasphemer, though before he seemed to stand upon the very borders

of salvation! Probably to this last man there will never come a day of
Grace again. He has now put himself beyond the reach of it, as to the
means–for he attends no place of worship and gives no heed to anything
of the kind. Religion has become a thing for him to laugh at and its
preachers the objects of his scorn.

Here were the turning points of these two lives–Divine Grace decided
the one and the flesh decided the other–the one, in all human
probability, is bound for Heaven and the other, alas, is bound for
Hell. Such a night as this may have come now. I do not know that young
man, nor where he sits tonight, but he is here. He has, after this
service is over, an engagement of a sort that if his sainted mother in
the country could but know of it, it would make her very hair stand on
end with horror to think that her son should have come to that. I
charge him by the living God to give up that sin, or else this night he
may seal his own damnation!

There sits here in this house a woman who will, this evening, if the
Lord shall make her fulfill the purpose of her heart, seek Christ and
find Him. But if the temptation that is now striving with her should
overcome her and the evening should be spent, after all, in idle chat,
her conscience shall be seared as with a hot iron and from this hour it
shall not be possible for the shafts of the Gospel to come at her. O
that God may decide your case rightly for you, helping your will, your
stubborn and wicked will, to yield and bow to the blessed instigation
of His Holy Spirit in your hearts, for I am persuaded that this is an
hour of crisis to many here!

IV. Lastly, remember that this hour of Jesus passing by is AN HOUR THAT
WILL SOON BE GONE. Did you notice that word, "Jesus of Nazareth passes
by"? He is not stopping, He is passing by, for He is going on towards
the walls of Jericho to pass through its gates. Blind man, it is now or
never, for He is passing by! He has come up to where you are! Cry to
Him now! He has passed you, but cry to Him. Now, Man, He is long past,
but He can yet hear you. Cry to Him now!

Ah, but He is passed and is gone and the man has not cried and now
there is no other who can open his eyes, neither will this Son of
David, for He has passed by and been unasked, unsought to bless. You
had Christ passing by when you were young. I would to God you had said
to Him then, "Have mercy on me!" But you waited till He came up to you
in middle life and yet you did not seek Him. Alas, alas, for that! And
now the gray hairs are stealing over you and half-a-century of unbelief
has hardened your heart. You are getting close to 60 years of
ungodliness, but He is not out of earshot yet. He will hear you now. O
cry to Him, I pray you cry and may God's Holy Spirit, who is the Author
of all true supplication, breathe in you, now, a cry that never shall
be stopped until you get the answer, "Your faith has saved you. Go in
peace."

Now, it may be that some here to whom I am speaking think that this
preaching is all child's play and that our talking about these solemn
things is very easy. I protest before God this night that I feel it to
be stern hard work! Not but what it is easy and delightful to preach
the Gospel, but I yearn over the souls of some of you! I cannot
understand why you crowd here and when I know that there are perhaps
half as many outside as inside, clamoring for entrance, I know not why
it is. I do nothing to attract you here, but speak right out my
Master's Gospel. The truth is, if the Lord inclines your hearts and
brings you within the sound of the Gospel which I am eager to proclaim,
I feel a responsibility about you which it were not possible for you to
estimate.

What if you should, in the Day of Judgment, be able to say, "We crowded
to that house and we listened to that man, but he did not tell us the
Truth of God, or he told it to us so coldly that we thought it did not
matter and we put it off"? Oh, if you are lost, yet bear me witness
that I would gladly have you saved! And if persuasions could bring you
to Christ, you should not perish for lack of them. "Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." This is the message, but if you
reject it, a weight falls on my spirit–it seems to crush me like a
millstone–the thought that you should be lost! For what is it to be
lost? To be cast away from the Presence of God! To be cast into Hell!
To have to suffer, and that forever, all that the Justice of God can
demand–all that the Omnipotence of God can inflict!

Why, Sirs, if I have but a headache, or a toothache for one brief hour,
my patience can scarcely endure the torture! What must it be to suffer
such pains for a century? Man, I cannot guess what it must be! What
must it be to have ten thousand times worse pains than these, forever
and ever? Why, to be dejected in mind, to be despairing, to be
disconsolate–how bewildered it makes men! They take the knife or the
poison in a fit of insanity–it may be they cannot bear their lives
because of their anguish and desperation. But all the pangs and racks
and abandonment from which men suffer here are nothing to be compared
with the woes and mental anguish of the world to come! Oh, the agony of
a spirit doomed, forlorn, accursed, upon which God shall put His foot
in awful wrath and lift it up no more forever!

And there, as you lie, tormented to the quick, you will have this to be
your miserable portion–"I heard the Gospel, but I would not heed it.
Christ was put before me, but I would not acknowledge Him. I was
entreated to believe in His name and fly to Him for salvation, but I
hesitated–hung in suspense, objected–and at length denied Him. And
all for what? For a little drink, a little dance, a little sin that
yielded me but slight pleasure–or for worldly gain, or for low and
groveling vices–or for sheer carelessness and gaiety! Lost, lost,
lost! And for nothing! A sinner damned!"

He lost his soul, but he did not gain the world. He gained only a
little frivolous pleasure, even that poor pittance he spent in an hour
and then he was forever cast away! May it not be so with you–not with
one of you, old or young! But may the Lord have mercy upon the whole
assembly, for His dear name's sake. Amen.–

"There is a time, we know not when,

A point we know not where,

That marks the destiny of men,

To glory or despair.

There is a line, by us unseen,

That crosses every path–

The hidden boundary between

God's patience and His wrath.

To pass that limit is to die,

To die, as if by stealth.

It does not quench the beaming eye,

Or pale the glow of health.

The conscience may be still at ease,

The spirits light and gay.

That which is pleasing still may please,

And care be thrust away.

But on that forehead

God has set

Indelibly a mark,

Unseen by man–for man as yet

Is blind and in the dark.

And yet the doomed man's path below,

Like Eden, may have bloomed.

He did not, does not, will not know,

Or feel that he is doomed.

He knows, he feels, that all is well,

And e very fear is calmed.

He lives, he dies, he wakes in Hell,

Not only doomed but damned!

O where is your mysterious brook,

By which our path is crossed,

Beyond which God Himself has sworn,

That he who goes is lost?

How far may we go on in sin?

How long will God forbear?

Where does hope end? And where begin

The confines of despair?

An answer from the skies is sent–

'You that from God depart,

While it is called today,

Repent! And harden not your heart.'"

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Luke 18