INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE CONTRASTS
How Does the Future Look to You?
ONE of the greatest skeptics of modern times, a man who spent a great deal of his energies in ridiculing the Bible and the blessed Christ, in some of his sober moments gave utterance to the following words:157 "In man there is more wretchedness than in all the other animals put together. He loves life, and yet he knows that he must die. He spends the transient moments of his existence in diffusing the miseries which he suffers; in cutting the throats of his fellow creatures for pay; in cheating and being cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving, that he may command; and in repenting of all he does. The bulk of mankind are nothing more than a crowd of wretches, equally criminal and unfortunate; and the globe contains carcasses rather than men. I tremble at the review of this dreadful picture, and — "I WISH THAT I HAD NEVER BEEN BORN." In contrast with the foregoing, another man, who had tasted of the joys of salvation, and who was looking toward the eternal future with indescribable pleasure, wrote: "I shall shortly get a very different sight of God from what I have ever had, and shall be made meet to praise Him forever. O, how I wonder at myself that I do not love Him more, and that I do not admire Him more! What a wonder that I enjoy such composure under all my bodily pains, and in the view of death itself! What a mercy that, having the use of my reason, I can declare His goodness to my soul! I long for His salvation. I bless His name. I die rejoicing in Him. O that I were where He is! If there be such a glory in His conduct toward me now, what will it be to see the Lamb in the midst of the throne?" "BLESSED BE GOD THAT EVER I WAS BORN." Infidelity, or any other false religion or false doctrine, can never bring satisfaction, contentment, and hope to the soul. There is just one individual in all the universe who has the power to say: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. 11: 28, 29. Have you found this rest? The Lord Jesus Christ loves you so dearly that He actually died in order to bring that love and this rest within your reach. There is no treasure in all this world that can be compared, in its precious value, with the rest and the hope that come to the soul who actually knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and his personal Friend.