Untitled article by Ryle

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, December 31, 1867

AN EARNEST WORD.

By Ryle

I love to contemplate the coming day of joy and glory, that awaits the servants of God. That day when death shall be destroyed, when sin shall have an end, when sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and God shall be all and in all. But yet to many that day shall bring no gladness. It shall be the day when the sinner shall for the first time fully see his great mistake. Despair is truth seen too late; and men will feel it then. As the Christian's days of toil and sorrow shall have an end, so also the sinner's hours of scorn, and mockery, and carelessness, shall all be past. The gayest shall become sober then, and awful reverence shall seal the blasphemer's lips. Hard hearts shall break, proud wills shall bend, brazen foreheads shall bow, and mockers shall be dumb.

And when I think that all who read these pages must meet those grand events, and when all things in heaven and earth are warning me that the solemn and decisive hour draws near, I cannot refrain from saying an earnest word to the careless, the thoughtless, the wanderer from the Lord.

The scenes of future light and blessing which the prophets bring to view, are glorious, grand, eternal facts. But the day of judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the wrath to come, the damnation of hell, and the perdition of ungodly men,—these are just as certain and just as true. If, in that day of glory, “the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth,” even so, “much more the wicked and the sinner” shall receive their recompense therein. The lake of fire is as real as the city of our God, and the “second death” is as certain as “the first resurrection.” The day of Lot's escape was the day of Sodom's downfall; and the day when God's people shall enter their glory, will be the day when the ungodly shall receive their doom.

“Come ye blessed,” and “Depart ye cursed,” will be the words of welcome or of woe which shall either call us to eternal joys, or clothe our skies in sackcloth, and consign us to the devouring flames.

The world to come will be a holy world. No sin, or shame, or sorrow will find entrance there, and if we would share it, we too, must be among the pure in heart, who alone shall see the Lord in peace.

My friend, whoever you are who may read these words, I solemnly testify to you of these eternal facts.

I warn you of the necessity of repentance, the danger of delay, the approach of death, the nearness of the judgment, and the certainty of the eternal doom. But with this warning, thank God, I can bring you words of hope. Your sins are many, but Christ has borne them in his body on the tree. Your guilt is great, but a greater sacrifice has been slain to give you peace and rest. His blood can make you clean; his grace can purge your heart from every inward fault and lust and stain.

And He who gave his Son for you, is your friend. He who died for your sins on the cross, is your friend. The Holy Ghost that convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, is your friend. The angels that are sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation, are your friends. The servants of God who proclaim your danger and unfold to you the way of peace, they also are your friends. All Heaven bends lovingly over the wayward, erring son of sorrow and of shame.

Christ, the companion of publicans and sinners, the pitying and gentle-hearted Man of Sorrows, the Good Shepherd seeking to save the wayward sheep, only unfolds the love of God to sinful men. “Why will you die?” is the entreating word of God. “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life,” is the piteous complaint of him who died for man; and the Holy Spirit still re-echoes these entreating words within your soul from day to day.

O my friend, I pray you heed these warnings and invitations, and turn to Christ and live. In him you can find peace, in him you may have salvation. And then when his glory shall be revealed, you too may behold it and rejoice for ever more. May God grant it for his name and mercy's sake.—Ryle.