Time is Short

WHEN your time on earth is finished, where will you be then? You will not die like a beast; you will not go with your body to the grave. You must live somewhere. It cannot be on earth; you must leave earth in the hour of death. The eternal, infallible word of God tells what comes after death. Let its voice be heard: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The judgment―YOUR judgment—comes after death. You will meet your God then. You will give an account to Him there. There will be nothing hid. Your secret life will be unveiled. Midnight deeds, all hidden acts will be revealed. “For all these things, God will bring thee into judgment” (Eccl. 11:9).
Are you happy in the prospect of meeting God? Can you look forward to the judgment without fear? Is there anything in your life’s record you do not care to meet there? There will be no grace, no mercy in the judgment day. Righteousness will be the standard. The day of grace, the hour of mercy will be passed forever then. It is present now.
Now God may be met “ready to pardon,” willing to save. In virtue of Christ’s death on the cross He is now proclaiming “forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38), “preaching peace” (Acts 10:36), holding forth “the free gift of eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23, R. V.).
But this will not be forever. “The time is short.” Judgment will follow grace. Vengeance will take the place of mercy. Therefore trifle not, but “flee from the wrath to come.” See that you do not neglect your soul. Life is very brief. Time is short.
J.R.

The Diary of a Soul
By the Editor
YOU and I, my dear readers, have been travelers for another year, on our way to eternity. This year is fraught with more tremendous issues for the world than has ever been known before. We stand appalled at the awful sacrifice of human life; at the mad ambition of a ruler that has darkened the universe with the pall of death. At his command more than a million men have died. An order given from his imperious lips has been, during the last fortnight, the death warrant of one hundred thousand men. The menace of his wrath is heard in the unceasing roar of his mighty cannon, and in the unavailing rush of his squadrons to the charge. It is heard, too, in the dying groans of strong men in their agony, and of weeping women and children in their wild despair. Oh! the pity of it! But God allows it, and we must pray and pray that the strife may soon be over. What desolated homes and broken hearts must haunt that awful man, who shadows the earth as a type of the coming “man of sin.” God will deal with him. Let us seek those things that make for peace and humbly serve our God.