READER! what know you about the eternal destiny of your immortal soul? Is
it on the way to heaven or hell? Perhaps you scoff at the question, and persuade
yourself there is no hell! Take your Bible, and read these texts - Psalm 9:17;
Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:5; Matt. 23:33; 2 Pet. 2:4; Luke 16:23; Dan. 12:2; Mark
9:43-48; Rev. 14:9-11, etc. What! no hell! Then we may eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die, and there will be an end of us. But Paul was of a different
opinion to you. He knew, and was persuaded, there was to be a resurrection (see
1 Cor. 15); and, if a resurrection, an eternal weight of glory, or an eternal
condemnation.
Oh! if you could but feel the smoke of hell's fire in your
throat for half an hour, or stand before a river of fire and brimstone broader
than the earth, and think of being bound hand and foot, and cast into the midst
of it alive! and then hear God locking the prison door, never to be opened for
all eternity. How your conscience would shake, if it had any life in it! Perhaps
you are a philosopher, and try to prove, from what you know of the attributes of
God, that eternal punishment is inconsistent with His character. Ah! foolish
disputer of this world, beware of philosophy and vain deceit (Col. 2:8). What do
you know, or what can any man know of God, except what He has been pleased to
tell us? If He has revealed Himself as the personification of "love," has He not
also represented Himself as a "consuming fire" - as a God of wrath and of
vengeance? (1 John 4:8, 16; Heb. 12:29; 4:31). Can you square these
descriptions? Believe me, that your logic and fleshly wisdom will, sooner or
later, be all branded as "foolishness" in the sight of assembled worlds. Ay, you
will be taught that philosophical notions and arguings are but as thorns and
briers, which the Word of God will pass through and consume!
Reader!
believe me, whatever you are, whether Infidel, or Formalist, or Freethinker,
whether a poor blind zealot for ceremonies, or a fantastical enthusiast, when
you stand before Christ's tribunal, a marquis's or a king's word, a prime
minister's or an archbishop's interest, will be lighter than the wind. I again
ask you, Whither is your soul journeying? Haply you answer, "My soul is
heavenward." Well, but I must inquire of you - and pardon my inquisitiveness -
How do you know? Are you ready to answer, "I have never done harm to anybody; I
have lived a moral life; I have regularly attended to my religious duties; and
thus I cannot possibly be on any other road than that to heaven?" Shocking
delusion! I exclaim, Look into your Bible once again. One reference will suffice
(see Luke 18:2-14).
There was a highly moral gentleman for you - the
pink of propriety, the essence of righteousness, a pattern Churchman! He might
have been a Tractarian in our own day, or a decidedly pious Methodist, or a
straight laced Independent, or an amiable Moravian, or a rigid Baptist. I dare
say, had he lived at this time, he would have added to the list of his good
deeds, "I am a Sunday-School teacher, I am a teetotaller, I subscribe to all the
charities of my neighbourhood, I give liberally to missions, and am a member of
the _______ Christian Association," etc. But what is the Lord's judgment upon
such a one? It is decidedly against him. And why? Was the Lord a disapprover of
good deeds? By no means. But "He condemned him because he sought to attain the
law of righteousness, not by faith, but by the works of the law" (Rom. 9:31,32).
You are in a precisely similar position. If you have no sounder reason for
believing you are journeying heavenward than what you give, you will be
condemned in the end.
Reader! where is your soul going? Remember, that
many go far, and reform many things, and can find tears, as Esau did; and suffer
hunger for truth, as Judas did; and wish and desire the end of the righteous, as
Balaam did; and profess fair, and fight for the Lord, as Saul did; and desire
the saints of God to pray for them, as Pharaoh and Simon Magus did; and prophesy
and speak of Christ, as Caiaphas did; and walk softly and mourn for fear of
judgments, as Ahab did; and put away gross sins and idolatry, as Jehu did; and
hear the Word gladly, as Herod did; and say, "Master" to Christ, "I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest," as the man who offered to be Christ's servant
did; and may taste of the virtues of the life to come, and be partakers of the
good Word of God, as the apostates did; and yet all these are but like gold in
the clink and colour, and are watered brass and base metal. Ay, you may have
renounced Popery, and fought for Protestantism; you may have disclaimed
Arminianism, and espoused Calvinism; you may have emaciated your body by
fasting, and beggared yourself by liberality; you may have the gifts of an
archangel, and, after all, be a child of the devil. Oh! I again ask you, Whither
is your soul journeying?
Some, I know, count all trouble of conscience
about their eternal estate to be enthusiasm, melancholy, or mopishness; but this
shows their wonderful ignorance of Scripture, and their utter unacquaintedness
with the grace of God in their own souls. We live in the midst of rationalists
and formalists. The one think to bring God down to their own level, the other to
raise themselves up to heaven on the shoulders of hypocrisy. We have men
attempting to preach God's Word who are themselves utterly unacquainted with the
work of conversion in their own souls; and we are overwhelmed with baptized
infidels and idolaters as gross as Papists or Heathens in our Churches. Yet the
cry is, "Let us convert the nations!" Reader! are you yourself converted? The
soul that is not will surely die - ay, die eternally! Be assured it is an
infinite righteousness that must satisfy for you, for it is an infinite God that
is offended by you. If ever your sin is pardoned, it is infinite mercy that must
pardon it; if ever you be justified before God, it is infinite merit that must
do it; if ever your heart be changed, and your state renewed, it is infinite
power that must effect it; and if ever your soul escape hell, and be saves at
last, it is infinite grace that must accomplish it.
What know you of
these things? If you are unacquainted with them, your soul is this moment in
awful jeopardy, I wish you well. I hope heaven may be your everlasting abode. I
know it will be if ever you are awakened to take an intense interest in the
question, Whither is my soul journeying? [Reverend William Parks]
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