Spurgeon: December PM
* 12/31/PM
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved."
--Jeremiah 8:20
Not saved ! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight?
Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for your life,
and yet at this moment not saved ! You know the way of
salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear it from the
pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you neglect
it, and therefore you are not saved . You will be without
excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and dead. The Holy
Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which
has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing have
come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ.
All these hopeful seasons have come and gone--your summer and
your harvest have past--and yet you are not saved . Years have
followed one another into eternity, and your last year will soon
be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are not
saved . Let me ask you-- will you ever be saved ? Is there any
likelihood of it? Already the most propitious seasons have left
you unsaved; will other occasions alter your condition? Means
have failed with you--the best of means, used perseveringly and
with the utmost affection--what more can be done for you?
Affliction and prosperity have alike failed to impress you;
tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren
heart. Are not the probabilities dead against your ever being
saved? Is it not more than likely that you will abide as you
are till death for ever bars the door of hope? Do you recoil
from the supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he who is
not washed in so many waters will in all probability go filthy
to his end. The convenient time never has come, why should it
ever come? It is logical to fear that it never will arrive, and
that Felix like, you will find no convenient season till you are
in hell. O bethink you of what that hell is, and of the dread
probability that you will soon be cast into it!
Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words
can picture. Write out your dread estate in tears and blood,
talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: you will be
punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the
Lord, and from the glory of His power. A brother's voice would
fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise in time,
and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to
save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely
thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well;
and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of
all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an
unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year's midnight peals sound
upon a joyless spirit! Now, NOW, NOW believe, and live.
"ESCAPE FOR THY LIFE;
LOOK NOT BEHIND THEE,
NEITHER STAY THOU
IN ALL THE PLAIN;
ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAIN,
LEST THOU BE CONSUMED."