|
|
| |
|
I'm Glad I Settled it Last Night |
|
Author: H. M. Riggle |
|
|
|
In a certain coal mining town a revival was being
held. One night a miner came to the altar seeking Christ. He had a
hard struggle striving to enter "in at the strait gate." Finally,
after more than an hour of seeking, the minister dismissed the
congregation. He himself remained with the seeker. After a long time
he suggested that they go home, and urged the seeker to keep on
praying and come back to the altar the next night. But the penitent
man would not be put off. He said, "I want this settled tonight."
Together they prayed until long after midnight, and finally the
repentant sinner found the Saviour and was happily converted. Oh,
how he shouted the high praises of God and rejoiced in his pardoning
grace!
The next morning he bade his family good-bye as usual, took his
dinner pail, and hurried to the mines to engage in his work. About
4:30 p. m. the roof caved in, and several tons of slate and rock
fell. It caught this miner. His fellow workmen rushed to him and
found his body under the mass, but his head and shoulders were
protruding. As they knelt around him with their digging lamps, there
was a smile on his face. Just as he expired he whispered, "Oh, I am
so glad I settled it last night."
A minister was conducting a revival in East Liverpool, OH. One night
a young man standing near the door wept while the invitation was
being extended. While the minister and others urged him to surrender
then and not wait another moment, he trembled from head to foot, but
finally replied, "I know I ought to be saved tonight, but I am an
operator at the railway station, and my duty will soon call me
there. I will promise you, however, that I will come back and get
saved tomorrow night." They warned him of the danger of delay, but
he kept saying, "I will get saved tomorrow night."
He left the services shortly and was not seen again until about 30
minutes later. The minister was on his way home, and as he neared
the railway depot he noticed a group of men running together
excitedly, as though something had happened. He hurried to the spot
and saw a young man lying upon the ground with both his legs cut off
close to the trunk of his body. He had accidentally fallen under
some shifting freight cars. The life blood was gushing from his
body. The minister looked into the pale, upturned face of the dying
man, and he was horror-stricken to see that it was the same young
man who had, not more than 30 minutes before, stood in the meeting
trembling under conviction and said, "Not tonight, but I will return
and get saved tomorrow night." He was now dying. The death damp was
already gathering upon his brow, and the scenes of earth and time
were forever fading from his view. As the minister knelt beside the
poor dying boy as he was breathing his last, he distinctly heard him
whisper, "Oh, if I had only yielded tonight." Too late forever! Oh,
how sad! He let the last opportunity pass. To the Holy Spirit he
said for the last time, "Go thy way." He went, and the young man
died in despair.
Reader, how is it with your soul today? If you are not saved, you
had better decide now. Like a muffled drum, your heart is now
beating a death march to the grave. The end will come, and beyond
the tomb there is no hope and no power that can save you.
UNCERTAINTY OF DEATH-BED CONVERSION
In April, 1909, when we moved to Oakland, PA to take charge of the
work, as we were unpacking our goods, a man came rushing into the
house saying that one of our neighbor women was dying and that we
should come quickly. With Bro. John R. Allen, I hurried to the
bedside of the woman. From all appearances she was dying. We fell
promptly upon our knees and prayed mightily to God to spare her life
until she would have the opportunity to be saved. Finally she
quieted down and asked us to pray for her salvation. We gave her all
the instruction we could, and she joined with us in earnest prayer.
After some time she claimed conversion, and when we sang some hymns
she seemed to rejoice in the belief that her sins were forgiven. The
woman lived. Our church house was less than a block from her home,
and to our surprise, when she recovered, she never attended any of
our services. Several months later, during our winter revival
meeting, she came forward and was gloriously converted. Then I asked
her why she never attended meetings before. I asked her regarding
her claiming to be saved when she was so near death. She replied, "I
knew nothing of it. All I knew was what my friends afterwards told
me. On account of my suffering, my mind was somewhat delirious and I
really was not conscious of what took place when you were there." I
thought, "Oh, what a slender chance dying people have of being
saved." Had that poor woman died, no doubt most of those who were
present would have thought that she was saved and that she died in
hope. The fact is, she would have been lost.
On another occasion my wife and I were conducting a revival at
Stoneboro, PA. We learned of a young man about eight miles distant
who was in a very low condition and who was expected to die any
time. We visited him. When we inquired as to his spiritual
condition, he told us that he had lived in sin until his sickness,
but now claimed conversion. We had prayer with him, and he joined
both in prayer and in song, and apparently gave good evidence of his
acceptance with the Lord.
After we closed the meeting and returned home, I received a
long-distance message to come and preach his funeral. I arrived at
the churchyard just as the procession drove in. When his father
alighted from the carriage, I walked over to him and asked how his
son died. I desired to know so I might have some comforting word for
the sorrowing friends. With tears streaming down his face, the
brokenhearted father related the awful death of his son. He said
that George gathered them all around the bed and bade them farewell,
asking each member of the family to meet him in heaven. From all
appearance, he died. After several moments, while the friends were
weeping, all at once he opened his eyes and said, "I have come back
to tell you that I am lost. I have gone into death itself to
discover that hell is my eternal doom. I am going to tell you the
reason. When I had health and strength I had no desire to serve God.
When I realized that I was sure to die and could not recover, I
tried to get saved because I was afraid to meet God. I am lost. Hell
is my doom." Before his sickness he was a heavy beer drinker, and
now he asked his relatives please to get him a glass of beer. He
said, "I want one more glass of beer before I land in hell." Some
neighbors furnished the beer, and he drank it and passed into
eternity.
This was one of the saddest funerals at which I ever officiated. It
helped to confirm what I believe: There are very few who put off
salvation until their dying hour who really find a satisfactory
experience. It is unreasonable to think that people can sow the
seeds of wickedness all through life, spurn the mercies of God by
refusing to be saved, and then expect to reap a "golden harvest"
when they have sown nothing but tares. Reader, "Today, if you can
hear His voice harden not your heart."
Remember the words of the apostle Paul: "Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." |
|
|
|
|
Printed By: Faith Publishing House,
P.O. Box 518, Guthrie, OK 73044 |
|
|
|
Top of Page
I Tract Index |
|
|
|
