After the rams’ horns came the ark, which the priests carried round and round the city. That ark was the type of Christ. We beg to bring Christ before you, ye unconverted ones. Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. God smote Him instead of us. He took the sins of His people, and God punished Him for our sins instead of punishing us. Christ is the great Substitute for sin. If you trust Him you shall live. If you will take Him this day to be your Savior, and to be your Master and your Lord, you shall never perish, for God has pledged His word for it, that if you believe in Him you shall be saved. O that you would look to Christ, and live! Your good works are nothing, your tears and prayers all go for nothing as to merit, but if you look to Jesus hanging from yonder cross, you shall live. If you will trust yourself with Him who is now at the right hand of the eternal Father, crowned with many crowns, sooner shall heaven’s high throne be shaken than your soul be suffered to perish. Only believe in Jesus, and thou shalt live; for this is the gospel, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” We seek not to mince matters with you–damned you will be unless you trust Christ, damned you never shall be if you will come and cast yourself before Him. “Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish by the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” Suppose that in the visions of the night, this night when you are on your bed you should suddenly see in your chamber the man with a sword drawn in his hand! You would not need to ask the question, “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” for your own conscience would soon tell you. Suppose you should hear a solemn voice declare, “The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and you are not saved.” “Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded . . . I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.” Suppose you saw that sword uplifted, and about to smite you, would you not start in your dream, and your face be covered with a clammy sweat, feeling horrors indescribable? Yet such is your case today; except you repent, such will be your case eternally. I bless God that now our Lord Jesus has no sword drawn in His hand, but He comes to you with open hands, and saith, “Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” With tears He invites you to come to Him, persuades you to come. O wherefore do ye tarry, wherefore do you turn your backs upon your own mercy, and seal your own death warrant? God grant that you may come to Jesus, and ere He grasps that sharp destroying sword.
Lastly, brethren, we are not only to sound the ram’s horn of warning, and to bear round and round the sinner’s conscience the ark of Christ’s grace, but all the host must engage in the work. Did you notice that the whole of the people were to compass the city! It would not fall else; and they were to shout, too, at the last. I want you, my fellow members, to unite in our earnest efforts to win souls for Christ. I have a right to claim it, and now I entreat you to fulfill the claim. You profess to have been bought with the Lord’s blood, and to be His disciples. I ask you all, if you be sincere in your professions, come with us round about this Jericho, every one of you. If ye cannot al come up to the public prayer-meetings, yet send us your hearts, pray for sinners, plead for the unconverted, give the eternal Leader no rest till He be pleased to use His great power for their conversion. I am almost inclined to fall on my knees to ask you church members to rally round us at this hour. If you owe your conversion to me under God, as many of you do, I charge you by every filial tie you feel, desert me not just now. If you have ever been comforted, as I know some of you have, if I have ever been God’s voice to your souls, I beseech you return to me this kindness by drawing very near to God in prayer for the souls of others. For your own children’s souls be very earnest; for the souls of your servants, and kinsfolk, and neighbors, wrestle with God even unto tears; and if you will not do it, I had almost said I had sooner you were not with us. If you will not pray, if you will not join in the common supplication. wherefore do ye cumber us? O Meroz, take care lest thou be accused if thou come not up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty! But you will come, God will be with us, and show us His bare right hand resplendent in our midst, and unto Him shall be the praise forever and ever.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
