Too Late by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 15, 1914

Too Late

By G. B. Thompson

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” Matt. 25:10.

THESE were too late. They had rejected the overtures of mercy too long. They had procrastinated and failed to lay hold of forgiveness and eternal life until the sun of human probation had set, and the door of mercy, so long ajar, had been closed.

There will come a time when probation will close, when the tribunal of the universal Judge will sit no longer, when every case will be eternally decided for weal or for woe. Not that the Lord desires the loss of any soul, or will not listen to the cry of those who want life. But one generation of men is to span the time of the judgment, and just when the work will close, none of us know. We know not how soon the crisis in our experience, and in the history of the world, will come.

“There is a line by use unseen That crosses every path,— The hidden boundary between God’s patience and his wrath.

“O! where is this mysterious bourn By which our path is crossed, Beyond which God himself hath sworn That he who goes is lost?”

Too late are melancholy words. A loved one has reached home as soon as the most improved inventions of travel could carry him to the bedside of the dying, and it has been whispered to him, “You are too late.” The skillful surgeon has been summoned, and has sadly told the agonized and sorrowing loved ones, “I am too late; there is no hope.” Crowds have gathered around a burning building in which are trapped many helpless victims, who, with terror-stricken hearts, wait for help while the fire demon roars on its mission of destruction. The firemen have ascended the hot ladders again and again to save those in danger. Breathlessly the people watch to see if the agonized faces at the windows above will be rescued. They cheer the heroic life-savers. But alas! they are too late. All go to their doom in the fiery vortex. A ship is driven on the rocks, and is being fast torn to pieces by the angry waves, lashed to fury by the storm king. The life-savers push out from the shore to rescue, if possible, the stricken crew, who face death by the angry elements. They do their best to reach the doomed vessel. But it is beyond their powers. They are too late. Ere they can render them help, the vessel succumbs to the fury of the storm; and the sea, the greatest of all cemeteries, where there are so many unmarked graves, claims more victims till the time when it shall yield up its dead.

But sad as are all these, they in no way compare with that awful hour when probation shall close, and it will be too late to enter the paradise of God. There comes an hour when the Master of the house will rise up and shut the door; when the Mediator will finish the work of judgment, and lay down the censer forever; when he will step out from between guilty man and God; when the finally incorrigible will be given over to believe a lie, and to perish in the lake of fire.

This is no arbitrary act with God; man settles his own destiny. But that we are approaching the end of earth’s history and the finishing of the judgment, there can be no doubt. The Spirit of God is fast leaving the world; the hearts of men are becoming harder, and fierceness and violence fill the earth as never before.

Today if we hear his voice, we are to repent and seek a refuge in the ark, the door of which is still open, inviting us to enter. G. B. THOMPSON.