-Selected
To be mistaken is something very serious. A young man who shot his sister almost went crazy over it, but still the girl was dead. He was mistaken; he thought the revolver was not loaded. A man who was lost and perished in the mountains was mistaken; he thought he knew the way but he did not. Thousands of calamities are occurring because people are mistaken.
The Bible warns us against being mistaken, or deceived in regard to our salvation. It exhorts us to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith. Nowhere would a mistake be more serious than here, but such error is possible or we would not be so warned.
With an eternal hell of punishment to be shunned and a heaven of bliss to be won, we dare not be careless as to our salvation.
In these days, church membership and being saved are being mixed up. Many, feeling somewhat convicted of sin, join a church but do not really repent and get saved. This can be fatal.
Just imagine, if you can, after all your church attending and work, waking up some morning and finding you are at the judgment seat of Christ, there to discover your mistake, and hear the sentence that sends you forever to the land of darkness and torment.
It will profit nothing, if in our dying hour, the physician, with drugs, keeps us in a stupor and there is no awakening of conscience, and our friends never know of our mistakes. It will profit nothing that the minister says nice things at the funeral, or that what he says may be printed in the paper, if by our mistake we land in hell. It will then be too late.
Now is the time to ask the question, “Am I really saved?” and to be sure of your answer. It is quite evident that there are many with a profession without salvation. They have at some time been awakened, and instead of getting converted first, have simply joined a church and begun church attendance and church work. They may have church life, but no divine life. Spiritual preaching and prayer make them nervous. In short, they do not enjoy God or truth and prefer not to think about heaven or death.
There is a real experience of salvation. Friend, unless you change that stilted church life for real salvation, you are as sure of hell as the lowest sinner. You may be more respectable than they, but you are traveling on the same road. Satan is as busy in the church as in the bar and cares little whether you come to hell with a whiskey bottle or a hymn book. There is no safety but in real, life-changing salvation through Jesus Christ. -Selected
FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE
Faces that sorrow I will not see,
Voices that murmur will not reach me,
But where, oh where will my spirit be
Five minutes after I die?
Naught to repair the good I lack,
Fixed to the goal of my chosen track,
No room to repent, no turning back,
Five minutes after I die!
Now I can stifle conviction stirred,
Now I can silence the voice often heard,
Then the fulfillment of God’s sure Word,
Five minutes after I die.
Mated forever with my chosen throng,
Long is eternity, Oh so long,
Then woe is me if my soul be wrong
Five minutes after I die!
Oh, what a fool-hard the word, but true,
Passing the Savior with death in view,
Doing a deed I can never undo,
Five minutes after I die.
If I am flinging a fortune away,
If I am wasting salvation’s day,
“Just is my sentence,” my soul shall say,
Five minutes after I die!
Thanks be to Jesus for pardon free,
He paid my debt on Mount Calvary’s tree,
Paradise’ gates will enfold even me,
Five minutes after I die.
Oh marvelous grace that has rescued me,
Oh joyous moment when Jesus I see,
Oh happy day when like Him I’ll be,
Five minutes after I die!
