34 CUT IT DOWN. found you engrossed with cares, absorbed in business, or pleasure, or sin, and neglecting the great salvation. And lo! he has waited long; he has pruned and afflicted, and borne with all your provocations, waiting to see if you would seek him; but though he has come these many years seeking fruit, he has found none. And now the sentence has gone forth, "Cut it down !" And, my dear reader, this sentence may have gone forth respecting you. You may be going about your business as usual; you may take your seat at the family board as usual; you may mingle with your companions as usual. No one can see your danger, or know how near you are to your doom, but this is known to your God and Judge: for he may have given the sentence down, and cast it into the forth, "Cut it fire." Cut it down, and let others have privileges so abused. Cut it down, and let not mercies be any longer wasted. Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? Why? the sinner is only filling up the measure of his iniquities. Why? he is only adding sin to sin. Why? he is only leading others CUT IT DOWN. 35 astray. Why? he is but adding fuel to the everlasting burnings. Dark brood the heavens o'er thee! Dark brood the heavens o'er thee! Dark brood the heavens o'er thee! Dark brood the heavens o'er thee! Yet stay the vision lingers; Why, sinner, wilt thou die? Dark brood the heavens, but mercy waits, This hour to Jesus fly. Ah! sinner, there is no hope for you but in JESUS ONLY. Bope for the Guilty! Is it true, anxious reader, that your once careless and trifling mind is thoroughly aroused to a sense of your danger, and that the great desire of your heart is to discover, with the jailor of Philippi, and answer to the earnest question, "What must I do to be saved?" Is it true that you who have so long been trifling upon the most momentous of all subjects, trifling with your own everlasting interests, are now in deep concern, and like the fluttering dove are seeking an entrance into the only ark of safety. Be assured such a refuge does exist, and there is room in it for you. Be assured there is a covert from the angry elements of destruction, and you may yet find security there. There's a refuge of peace from the tempests that beat, From the dark clouds that threaten, the storm-wind that blows, A holy, a sweet, and a lovely retreat, A spring of refreshment, a place of repose. HOPE FOR THE GUILTY! 37 Let me endeavour to guide your anxious steps to that only safe resting-place. And remember, first of all, that "sentence" of condemnation, spoken of in a former page, is the great obstacle to your safety, Be assured the very first step you take must be up to a position where that sentence no longer hangs over you. Until that sentence, the just condemnation of a Holy God, be removed, salvation, safety, peace, are impossible. "How can man be just with God?" is the all-important question. How may you be accepted, justified, before the bar of a Righteous God? How may your sins be blotted out? How may you be furnished with a plea, that the Righteous Judge of all will not reject? How may you find a plea that will prevail before the High Court of the Universe, and that will satisfy the demands of stern Justice requiring a penalty for sin? This is the great question. Not only are you to discover if God will pardon, but you must know how he will pardon, and must come to him only in that way. Remember God is holy. "He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." He cannot "away with" 38 HOPE FOR THE GUILTY! sin. He will by no means clear the guilty but by a way of which holiness itself must approve. Remember God is just. He must punish sin. His law demands it. His own veracity demands it. His own consistency demands it. Angels in heaven demand it. Angels in hell, who fell by sin, and are now enduring its fearful consequences, demand that the Judge of all should do right, and punish sin wherever in the Universe it is found. Where then can you flee with your sins? How can that sentence of condemnation be lifted off your doomed head? Where can you look? Whither can you turn to have that sentence removed? The hope of the guilty is in JESUS ONLY. O that my load of sin were gone; O that I could at last submit I would, but thou must give the power |