p. 39 | TOO LATE | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 31, 1878

TOO LATE.

Last evening, as I stepped off the train at Cherokee City, my first inquiry was for a conveyance going to my destination. The hour was late, and the last team had gone. The station agent told me, by way of consolation, that Bro. A. had left only ten minutes before.

There was no help for it, so taking my satchel I started for a long walk through the mud, and in the face of a driving rain. As I walked, my reflections were something like the following: My misfortune this evening is, that I am too late; but I can remedy that by my own earnest exertion. But there is a time just before us when many will be too late. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, those who stand without are beyond the reach of God's mercy. Then they may seek carefully, and with tears, for a time to repent; but they will never find it. They may have been almost saved, but it avails them not. A trifle too late seals their destiny forever. “Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me.” Prov. 1: 28. “Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt.” Isa. 13: 7. Amos speaks thus of the dark picture: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord; and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.”