Deep Solicitude About Salvation Reasonable and Necessary
Reader, you have lately been avakened, by the mercy of God, to ask, with some degree of anxiety, the momentous question, “What shall I do to be saved?” No wonder you should be anxious; the wonder is, that you were not concerned about this matter before, that you are not more deeply solicitous now, and that all who possess the word of God do not sympathize mth you in this anxiety. Every thing justifies solicitude and condemns indilTerencc. Unconcern about the soul, indifference to salvation, is a most irrational, as well as a most guilty state of mind. The wildest enthusiasm about these matters is less surprising and imreasonable, than absolute carelessness, as will appear from the following considerations.
1. You are an immortal creature, a being born for eternitij, a creature that tcill never go out of existe7ice. Millions of ages, as numerous as the sands upon the shore, and the drops of the ocean, and the leaves of all the forests on the globe, will not shorten the duration of your being; eternity, vast eternity, incomprehensible eiernity, is before you. Every day brings you nearer to everlasting torments or felicity. You may die any moment; and you are as near to heaven or hell as you are to death. No wonder you are asking, “What shall I do to be saved?”
2. But the reasonableness of this anxiety appears, if yoxi add to this consideration, that you are sinners. You have broken God’s law; you have rebelled against his authority; you have acted as an enemy to him, and made him your, enemy. If you had committed only one single act of transgression, your situation would be alarming. One sin would liavc subjected you to the sentence of his law, and exposed you to his displeasure; but you have committed sins more in number, and gi-eater in magnitude, than you know, or can conceive of. Your whole life has been one continued sin: you have, so far as God is considered, done nothing but sin. Your transgressions have sent up to lieavcu a cry fur vengeance. You are actually under the curse of the Almighty.
3. Consider what the loss of the soxd includes. The loss of the soul is the loss of every thing dear to man as an imuiortal creature: it is the loss of heaven, with all its honours, fclicilies, and glories; it is the loss of God’s favour, which is the life of all rational crcatiu-es; it is the loss of every thing that can contribute to oui- happiness; and it is the loss of hope, the last refuge of the wretched. The loss of the soul includes in it all that is contained in that dreadful word, Hell! — it is the eternal endurance of the MTath of God; it is the lighting down of the curse of the Almighty upon the human spirit; or rather, it is the failing of the hunian spirit into that curse, as into a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Huw true, as well as solemn, are the words of Christ, “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his ovm soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” All the tears that ever have been, or ever will be shed on the face of the earth; all the groans that ever have been, or ever will be uttered; all the anguish that ever has been, or ever will be endured by all the inhabitants of the world, through all the ages of time, do not make up an equal amount of misery to that which is included in the loss of one human soul. Justly therefore do you say, who are exposed to this misery, “What shall I do to be saved?”
4. Thi solicitude is reasonable if you considor that the eternal loss of the soul is not a
rare, but a very common occurrence. It is
so tremendous a catastrophe, that if it li;’.p-B 2 pened only once in a year, or once in a century, so as to render it barely possible that it should happen to you, it would be unpardonable carelessness not to feel some solicitude about the matter: how much more, then, when, alas! it is an every day calamity. So far from its being a rare thing for men to go to hell, it is a much rarer thing for them to go to heaven. Our Lord tells us, that the road to destruction is thronged, while the way to life is travelled by lew. Hell opens its mouth wide, and swallows up multitudes in perdition. How alarming is the idea, and how probable the fact, that you may be among this number! Some that read these pages will very likely spend their eternity with lost souls; it is therefore yoiu: wisdom, as well as your duty, to cherish the anxiety which says, “What shall I do to be saved?” 5. Salvation is possible, for if it were not, it would be useless to be anxious about it. It would be cruel to encourage an anxiety which could never be relieved by the possession of the object which excites it. But your case is not hopeless; you may be saved; you are invited to be saved. Christ has died for your salvation, and God waits to save you; all the opportunities, and advantages, and helps, and encouragements to salvation are round yuu; the blessing is within your reach; it is brought near to you j and it will
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be youx* omti fault if you do not possess it. Your solicitude is not therefore directed to an unattainable object.
G. Salvation has been obtamed by mtdti’ tildes, and why may it not be obtained by you? Millions in heaven are already saved; myriads more are on the road to salvation. God is stdl as “willing, and Christ is still as able to save you as he was them: why, then, should not you be saved f
7. And then what a blessing is salvation! A blessing that includes all the riches of gi-ace, and all the greater riches of glory; deliverance from sin, death, and hell; the possession of pardon, peace, holiness, and heaven; a blessing, in short, immense, infinite, everlasting: which occupied the mind of Deity from eternity, was procured by the Son of God upon the cross, and which will fill eternity with its happiness. Oh how little, how insignificant, how contemptible, is the highest object of human ambition, to say nothing of the lower matters of men’s desires, compared with salvation! Riches, rank, fame, honours, are but as the small dust of the balance, when compared with the “salvation which is in Chi’ist Jesus with eternal glory.” Who that pretends to the least regard to his own happiness would not say, “What shall I do to be saved?”
8. The circumstances in which you arc placed for ohfaining this blessing, are partly favourable, and partly unfavourable. The love of God is infinite; the merit of Cm-ist is infinite; the power of the Holy Spirit is infinite: Jcliovah is willing and wailing to save 5’ou; Christ invites; all tilings are ready, and the grace of God oftercd for your conA-ersion. On the other hand, you have a corrupt heart, and are placed in a world where every thing seems to combine to draAV off your attention from salvation, and to cause 5’ou to neglect it. Satan is busy to blind your mind; the world, to fill your imaghiation and heart with other objects, so that even the “righteous are scarcely saved.” You cannot quit the world and go into monasteries and convents, but must seek the salvation of yoiu- soul amidst the engrossing cares of this busy and troublesome world; where anxiety about the body is so liable to put away anxiety about the soul, and things seen and temporal are likely to withdraw the attention from things that are unseen and eternal. Oh, how dilhcult it is to pay just enough regard to present things, and yet not too much! How difficult to attend properly 10 the afiairs both of earth and heaven; to be busy for two worlds at once! These circumstances m.ay well excite your solicitude. Anxiety, then, deep anxiety about salvation, is the most reasonable thing in the world; and we feci almost ready to ask, Can that man have a soul, or know that he has one, who is careless about its eternal happiness? Is he a man or a brute? Is he in the exercise of his reason, or is he a maniac? Ever walking on the edge of the precipice that hangs over the bottomless pit, and not anxious about salvation! Oh, fatal, awful, destructive indifference! Cherish, then, your solicitude. You must be anxious, you ought to be so, you cannot be sa-ed without it; for no man ever was, or e’er -svill be. The salvation of a lost soul is such a stupendous deliA’erance, such an infinitely momentous concern, that it is impossible, in the very nature of things, it should be bestowed on any one who is not in earnest to obtain it. This is the very end of your existence, the purpose for which God created you. Apart from this, you are an enigma in creation; a mystery in nature. Why has God given you faculties which seem to point to eternity, and desires which go forward to it, if he has not destined you for it? Eternal salvation is the great end of life: get what you will, if you lose this, you have lost the purpose of existence. Could you obtain all the wealth of the globe; could you rise to the possession of universal empire; could you, by the most splendid discoveries in science, or the most useful inventions in art, or the most magnificent achievements in literature, fill the earth with the fame of your exploits, and send do^^l your name with honour to the latest ages of time, still, if you lost the salvation of your soul, you would have lived in vain. Whatever you may gain, life “will be a lost adventure, if you do not gain salvation. The condition of the poorest creature that ever yet obtained eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, although he had but a mere glimmering of intellect, just enough of understanding to apprehend the nature of repentance; although he lived out his days amidst the most squalid poverty and repulsive scenes; although he was unknoAMi even among the poor; and although, when he died, was buried in the pauper’s grave, on which no tear was ever shed; is infinitely to be preferred to that of the most successful merchant, the greatest conqueror, the profoundest philosopher, or the sublimest poet, thai ever existed, if he lived and died without salvation. The lowest place in heaven is inlinitely to be preferred to
the highest place on earth. Go on, then, to urge the question, “What shall I do to be saved?” Lot no one turn off your attention from this matter. As long as you covet this, your eye, and heart, and hope, are fixed on the sublimest object in the luiiversc; and when ofTicious, but ignorant friends would persuade you that you are too anxious, point them to the bottomless pit, and ask them if any one can be too anxious to escape its torments? Point them to heaven, and ask them if any one can be too anxious to obtain its glories? Point them to eternity, and ask them if any one can be too anxious to secure immortal life? Point them to the cross of Christ, and ask them if any one can be too anxious to seciu-e the object fur which he died?