But as for some of you, you have done positively nothing. You have joined the church and have been baptized, and that is about all, you have sometimes doled out a little from your abundance to the cause of Christ, but oh, how little when you think he gave his all for you! Others there are of you who out of your little have given much, out of your weakness have been strong, in your poverty you have never been poor towards Christ’s cause; ye shall not lack your reward at last but even ye will come with the rest of us and say, “Lord help us to love the poor and by thy amazing love to us constrain us to devote ourselves wholly, unreservedly to thee.”
Another argument let me give you, why you should serve Christ with all your might now. You believe, my dear hearers, that if men die unconverted their doom is fearful beyond all expression. You and I are compelled to believe from the testimony of the Spirit, that the punishment of those who die impenitent is beyond all that words can describe. They sink into a pit that is bottomless, into a fire that never can be quenched where they are fed on by a worm that dieth not. You know, and sometimes your hair has almost stood on end with the thought that the wrath to come is more than the soul can conceive. And is it possible, can it be possible with this belief in your mind that many of your fellow-creatures are going post-haste to this awful, this fearful hell, that you are idle and doing nothing? May God forgive you if such is your unfeeling state of heart—that you can contemplate a fellow-creature perishing in the fires of hell, and yet permit your band to hang down in listless idleness. O children of the living God, I beseech you by the fires of hell, by the agony that knows of no abatement by the thirst that is not to be mitigated by a drop of water, by the eternity which knows no end; I beseech you by the wrath to come, be ye up and doing, earnestly striving together to be the means in God’s hand of awakening poor souls and bringing them to the mercy of Christ. Be ye earnest. If ye do not believe this Bible, I care not what you are—earnest or dull. But if ye do believe it, act as ye believe; if ye think men are perishing, if the Lord’s right hand is dashing in pieces his enemy, then I beseech you be strengthened by the same right hand, to endeavor to bring those enemies to Christ that they may be reconciled by the blood of the cross.
And, now last of all, let, me just appeal to you in this way. Possibly, in my explanation, I have led you to form in your heart some great scheme of what you would do. Let me knock that all to pieces, because that is not my text. It is not a great scheme, but it is, “whatsoever your hand findeth to do,” that I want you to do. My dear friends, many of you are parents of children. It is quite certain, whatever else may be your duty, that your duty as parents is first. As their parents you owe them a duty; you have responsibilities towards them, and it is your duty to bring them up in the fear and nurture of God. May I earnestly beg and beseech of you, not to neglect this; for remember, you will soon be gone, and will not this be a thorn in your dying pillow, if, when your children stand around your bed to bid farewell to their dying father, or their dying mother, they shall have to say to you, “You are going from us, but we shall not miss you. We shall miss you as far as temporal things is concerned but when you are dead we shall be as well off in spiritual things as we were before, for you neglected us.” They will not say so but do you suppose they will not think so, if such be the truth? Children are always quick. and if they say it not they would feel it. Will it not be far better, if God stroll so bless you, that when you lay sick and dying, there shall be a daughter wiping the hot sweat from your brow, and saying, “Fear not, mother, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, “God is with you, and you need fear no evil?’ Will it not be a satisfaction to you, father, when you die if glancing at the foot of the bed, you can say to your son, “Farewell, my son; I bless God that I leave you in this world to carry on the work which I have begun, for you are walking in your father’s steps.” I know of no greater joy than for some aged patriarch, and I know of one,—God bless him, he is preaching the word I doubt not this morning,—to be able to look to sons and daughters converted to Christ and then to look to another generation and see grandchildren converted to Christ It must be a noble thing to die and leave behind three generations, and many of these already able to call the Redeemer blessed. O neglect not your present work I beseech you, or otherwise you shall lose the present blessing; and by neglecting this present duty which concerns your own household, you shell incur a household curse and make your death-bed uneasy, so that you shall toss there with those eyes looking on you, and silently charging you with having neglected their souls.
Sunday school teachers, I give you the same exhortation. I pray God that when you die it may not be said in your schools, “Well, we do not miss so-and-so at all; she was not a teacher we could desire, she filled up a gap, and that is all we can say.” I hope it may be said of you, my brothers and sisters, in the holy work of Sunday—school teaching, “They are gone to their grave, and there is a vacancy made which will not soon be filled.” But still your children shall gather round your coffin, and say, “God be blessed that we ever had such a teacher!” And though they are not converted, yet shall their little eyes weep w hen they think, “Teacher will never weep over us again. teacher will never pray for us any more, teacher will never tell us of Christ again;” and that very thought may be more powerful in their minds than all you ever said to them, and may, perhaps, effect the work which was not accomplished when your soul left the body.
And now I charge myself most solemnly in his conclusion, to be more earnest than ever in preaching the Word to you,—to preach it in season and out of season to preach it with all my might, for I shall soon be gone. Life lasts not long, and when we have all departed may not others have to think of us, that we went before our work was fully accomplished? Once when George Whitfleld was very sick and ill he was laid down by his friends by the fireside and he lay there as if he was dying. Presently he opened his eyes and a poor old negro woman, who had watched over him when others had given him up, spoke to him and said, “Massa George Whitfield are you still alive?” He looked and said, “Yes, I am; but I was in hopes I should have been in heaven.” Then the old woman made this pretty speech. “Ah! Massa George,” she said, “you went to the very gates of heaven, and Christ said, ‘Go back, Massa George; there are many poor negroes down on the earth that I mean to have saved. Go back and tell them I love them, and mind you do not come back any more till you bring them all with you.” So Whitfield recovered strength, and even found, as the old women said, a desire not to go home till he could take these poor negroes with him. So may it be with us; may we live till we shall bring many souls home with us to glory, and then may it be said—
“Servant of Christ well done,
Rest from thy loved employ;
The battle’s fought. the victory’s won,
Enter thy rest with joy.”
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, for he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
