Coming into the Ark

* Come thou, and all thy house, into the Ark.*

NO need to repeat the story! We knew it all at six years old. To-day the words are sent to you, ‘Comt thou,”

We are either inside or outside the Ark. There is no half-way in this. Outside is death, inside is life. Outside is certain, inevitable, utter destruction. Inside is certain and complete safety. Where are you at this moment? Perhaps you dare not say confidently and happily,.’I am inside;’ and yet you do not like to look the alarming alternative in the face, and say, ‘I am outside!’ And you prefer trying to persuade yourself that you do xlo.

Gen. vii. x.

Deut. ZX3C
X5-19.
John iii. 36.

X John V. xa.

I John iii. 14,
34.

X Johniv. 13.
1 John V. 13.

a Cor. ▼. 17.

Num. xxiii.

Gal. VI. 15. John iii. 3. z John iii. 14. £ph.ii.z«,x3. Aeti iv. 19, exactly know, and can’t be expected to be able to answer such a question. And you say, perhaps with a shade of annoyance, *How am I to know?’ God’s infallible Word tells you very plainly, * If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” A very severe test! ’ yoti say. I cannot help that; I can only tell you exactly what God says. * I cannot reverse It,’ and you cannot alter it. So then, if old things have not passed aWay in your life, and if you are mt a new creature, * born again,’ altogether different in Yitdn and life and love and aim, you arc not in Christ* And if yovL ai-e not * in Christ,’ you ate of Christ, outside the only place of safety.

* Come thou into the Ark I ‘It is one of the devices of the destroyer to delude you into fancying that no very decided step is necessary. He is very fond of th6 word ^gradudlly.’ You e to become more edrnest-^gtadually. You are to find salvation-ij[iadually. You are to turn your mind:

to God — gradually. Did you ever think that God never once uses this word nor anything like it? Neither the word nor the sense of it occurs in any way in the whole Bible with reference to salvation. You tnight have been ’ gradually ’ approaching the arky and gradually’ making up your mind to enter; but unless you took the one step into the Ark, the one step from outside to inside what would have been your fate when the door was shut?

‘Come thou into the Ark i * I want the call to haunt you, to ring in your ears all day and all night, till you come.

For at this mometit if you are not in the Ark, you are in more awful danger than you can conceive. Just because you know It is so awful, you shut your eyes and try not to think of it! But there it is, all the same. Any moment the door may bei shut for you. Any hour may be the sunset of your day of gracei irith no twilight of possibilities of saltation beyond And then, as the tree ftllethi 80 it lietlt Aiid]Ei^^

ProY. xyiiL
zo.

ActszvL 33.
John V. 34.

Gen. yiL ai,
33.

Heb. xlL is.

IbA. xxxiiL
Mark ix. 44.
X Pet. iv, 17.

Ps. 1. 33.

3TlMfS. L 7,
Matt. xxY.
zo.
Luke xiit.

35-88<

Heb. xiL 17.

* ifc

PetiiL lo.

Jer. T. 31.

Rev. vi. 17.

X Pet. iv. 17,
Isa. xxxii. 3.
Ps. cxliti. 9.

Matt. iii. 7.
V*. xxxii. 7.

Gen. vL 17.

Gexu vii. x6.

Gen. viL 13.
John X. 9.

X4i]cexviLa7

Tff£ ROYAL INVITATION.

you, so the judgment will find you. Where it finds you, inside or outside the Ark, there the day of the Lord will find you, ’ in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.* What will you do then, when neither heavens nor earth afford even a standing-place for you?

But come thou into the Ark! ‘Jesus is the Ark. He is the Hiding-place from that fiery tempest * I flee unto Thee to hide me ’ ‘from the wrath to come.’ * Thou art my Hiding-place.*

He who brings the flood has provided the Ark. And the door is open. It will be shut some day — it may be shut to-morrow. What will you do if you find yourself not shut /«, but shut outt Whose fault is it if you do not enter in and be saved?

Noah did not put it ofi*. He and his family entered the self-same day into the Ark. I wonder if any of Noah’s acquaintimcs were thinking

«. iji. .■.i..

about coming when the flood overtook them, and even coming ‘gradually’ nearer! We are told that * Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark.’ Then, once more, * Come thou into the Ark,’ that when the * great and terrible day’ comes, you may be * found of Him in peace,’ * found in Him.’

The rising tempest sweeps the sky. The rain descends, the winds are high; The waters swdl, and death and fear Beset thy path, no refuge near: Haste, traveller, haste!

Oh, haste I a shelter you may gain, A covert from the wind and rain, A hiding-place, a rest, a home, A refuge from the wrath to come: Haste traveller, baste I

W. B. COLLYER.

Gen. vii. 93.

Joel ii. 3t.
2 Pet. iii. X4.
PhiL iiL 9.

a6

Gen. vi. x8.

Ivoin. V. 6.

Deut. xxxii.
3<5.

Isa. xlii. 8.
Isa. lix. x6.

THE ROYAL mVITATtON.