Beloved Brethren and Sisters in Christ:

The day of apostasy is hastening on with rapid strides, and also the day in which the Lord shall
come to snatch His own away. The present moment is of so solemn a character that I feel
constrained to address you this word of exhortation. Godly men everywhere, who watch the signs
of the times, see the moment approaching which shall terminate the present actings of grace. The
time has evidently arrived when one must speak plainly and decisively, and ask you where you
are and what you are doing.

You have by grace_ which has shone brighter and brighter as it has approached its termination_
been gathered out of the seething mass of idolatry and wickedness which now threatens
Christendom and the world with an overthrow more awful than that of Sodom and Gomorrah of
old. The question is whether you are adequately impressed with the responsibility, as well as the
blessedness, of the ground you are on, and walking like men and women whose eyes have been
opened. Believe me, there has never been in the world’s history such a time as the present, and
Satan is occupied with none as he is with you; and his occupation with you is the more to be
feared because of the subtlety of his operations. His object is to withdraw your attention from
Christ while you suppose you are on safe ground and have nothing to fear. He would destroy you
with the very truth itself. For mark the subtlety:you are on safe ground, but only while Christ is
your all in all. ( Ed. note:The author has in view here the testimony of the Christian_ our living
before God and before men in harmony with the heavenly position and character into which every
"born again" person is put at new birth. The security of our blessed relationship with Christ is not
in question, but the danger of loss of blessing and lack of spiritual advancement through its not
being lived out is warned against.) Here is where Satan is drawing some away. Interpose anything
between your soul and Christ and your "Philadelphia" becomes "Laodicea" (see Rev. 2 and 3);
your safe ground is as unsafe as the rest of Christendom, your strength is gone from you, and you
are become weak like any ordinary mortal.

Some of you are young, recently converted, or brought to the right ways of the Lord, and you do
not know the depths of Satan. But you are hereby solemnly warned of your peril, and if mischief
overtake you, you cannot plead ignorance. Again I say, Satan has his eye especially upon you for
the purpose of bringing the world, in some form, between your soul and Christ. He cares not how
little, or in what form. If you knew how little will answer to Satan’s purpose, you would be
alarmed. He does not begin by bringing in that which is gross or shameful; such is the
development, not the beginning of evil. It is not by anything glaring that he seeks to ruin you, but
in small and seemingly harmless things-things that would not shock or offend anyone as things go,
and yet these constitute the deadly and insidious poison which is destined to ruin your testimony
and withdraw you from Christ.

Do you ask what are these alarming symptoms and where are they seen? The question does but
show what is the character of the opiate at work. Brethren and sisters, you are being infected with
the spirit of the world. Your dress, your manner, your talk, your lack of spirituality, betray it in
every gathering. There is a dead weight, a restraint, a want of power that reveals itself in the

meetings as plainly as if your heart were visibly displayed and its thoughts publicly read. A form
of godliness without power is beginning to be seen among you as plainly as in Christendom
generally. As surely as you tamper with the world, so surely will you drift away to its level. This
is in the nature of things. It must be so. If you tamper with the world, the privileged place you
occupy, instead of shielding you, will only expose you to greater condemnation. It must be Christ
or the world. It cannot be Christ and the world. God’s grace in drawing you out of the world in
your ignorance is one thing, but God will never permit you to prostitute His grace, and play fast
and loose, when you have been separated from the world. Remember that you take the place and
claim the privileges of one whose eyes have been opened; and if on the one hand this is
unspeakably blessed (and it is), on the other hand it is the most dreadful position in which a human
being can be found. It is to say, "Lord, Lord," while you do not the things that He bids. It is to
say, "I go, sir," as he said who went not.

Beloved, I am persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak, and I have confidence in you
in the Lord, that you will bless Him for these few faithful words. Oh, awake then from your
lethargy, slumber no longer, put away your idols and false gods, wash your garments, and get
back to the Lord, finding Him to be better than ever you knew Him, even in your best days. Lay
aside your last bit of worldly dress; guard your speech that it be of Christ and His affairs. Let your
prayers mingle with those of other saints at the prayer meetings_they never were more needed.
Neglect no opportunity of gathering up instruction from that Word which alone can keep you from
the paths lot die destroyer, and let your Me be the evidence of the treasures you gather up at the
Bible studies. If you want occupation which will win a glorious reward from a beloved Master,
ask that Master to set you to work for Him; you will never regret it, either in this world or in that
which is to come.

Beloved, bear with me. I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. You belong to Christ, and
Christ to you (see 2 Cor. 11:1-3). Let not the betrothed one be unfaithful to her Bridegroom! Why
should you be robbed and spoiled? And for what? Empty husks and bitter fruits while you waste
this little span of blessing! All the distinctions acquired here in the energy of the Spirit will but
serve to enhance your beauty and render you more lovely in .the eyes of Him who has espoused
you to Himself. Can you refuse Him His delights in you? Can you refuse Him the fruit of the
travail of His soul, who once hung, a dying man, between two thieves on Calvary, a spectacle to
men and angels, and for you. He could have taken the world without the cross and left you out,
but He would not; and now, will you, having been enriched by those agonies and that blood, take
the world into your tolerance and leave Him out? Impossible! Your pure mind but needs to be
stirred up by way of remembrance.

Let us therefore take courage from this very moment. We have lately been offering up prayers,
confessing the lack of piety and devotedness. May we not take this word as the answer of our
ever-gracious, faithful Lord, to arouse us_to reawaken our drooping energies? And then the more
quickly He comes the better. We shall "not be ashamed before Him at His coming."

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such turn away" (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

This chapter begins with the statement that in the last days perilous or difficult times shall come.
A number of questions arise as to this; "When are these times?" "Have they come yet, are they
past, or are they yet to come?" and "Difficult times for whom?" I believe we can truly say that
for God’s own people_the Church today_difficult times are here. May we be more as Daniel was
in his day, for God gave him to know the times. If these be difficult times, we know that God has
given us every resource in the midst of all the difficulty. We need continually to turn to Him.

Let us now consider the various characteristics of these difficult times which God through the
Spirit gives to us by Paul in his letter to Timothy. The first characteristic is, "Men shall be lovers
of their own selves." Is not this true of the world all around? We see it everywhere. Such
selfishness as is prevalent now, there has never, been in our history before and it is worldwide.
We even hear the people of the world speaking of it:"Where are the ethics anymore? Everyone
in the world seems to be selfish." We as Christians might think, why does that concern us? Well,
we are out in the world every day, are we not? That is the exercise that I have upon my
heart_that these things we are reading about can brush off on us and defile us. The old nature is
still within, and sometimes it is not always evident to us that worldly attitudes have rubbed off on
us, yet we show a self-love. At the same time we lack that mind which was in Christ Jesus that
esteems others better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3). How we tend to surround ourselves with our own
little fence, so to speak, and not be concerned as we should be about others. We want to do what
we want to do, regardless of how it affects others in our own assembly, or in the whole body, the
Church. Oh may it not be characteristic of us that we are lovers of our own selves!

The next characteristic is "covetous," or as another translation has it, "lovers of money." Now we
can fool each other for a time; but as people get to know us better and visit our homes it does not
take long before it can be easily seen that in our hearts we are lovers of money or what money
brings. We have been living in too affluent a society these past few years, haven’t we? It has
rubbed off on us. We want to accumulate this and accumulate that. We think of income; we think,
"In so many years I am going to retire, and I will have so much, and I will travel around the
world, and I will do this, and I will do that." May our Father and the Lord Jesus search our hearts
that we might clearly see what is the goal of our life.

Next we read, "Men shall be … boasters, proud." Oh, that certainly does not become us who
belong to Christ. We are to have that mind which was also in Him, who thought it not something
to be held onto to be equal with God. He was equal with God_God the Son_yet He stepped
down. As we see in Phil. 2, He took a low place to become a Servant, the perfect Son, the Son
of man; and then further, He humbled Himself and went into death, even the death of the cross.
Although this passage in Second Timothy applies especially to those in the world today, does not
that element come in among ourselves who are Christians as well? Does it not come into my own
heart, into your own heart? We are proud, aren’t we? We have gotten along so far in our status,

in our work, in society, and at home. Sometimes we criticize others of our brethren for being
"after money all the time," and then we turn around and tell about all the great things we have
been doing. Oh, how subtle our hearts are! "The heart [that is, the natural heart] is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). The older we get, the more we
learn the subtlety and deceitfulness of our own hearts.

Another description of men in the last days is "blasphemers" or "evil speakers." In the world there
is no limit to which man will go, no limit to speaking evil against all authority and all powers, and
even against God Himself. But among God’s own people, are there evil speakers? Are the things
which we speak, and the things which we think, "First pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to
be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (James
3:17)?

"Disobedience to parents." Perhaps some of the younger people may think we have worn out this
phrase. But God’s Word puts it here. God has constituted the family; He has entrusted parents
with children, and we are told to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

To be sure, we make all kinds of mistakes as parents. Yet God has put us there, as parents, with
responsibility for our children; and children in the place of responsibility to the parents. So the
spirit which is prevalent in the world today is not simply disobedience to parents, it is a refusal
of the authority of God who put the parents over the children. It is true that we parents make many
mistakes in bringing up our children. One may be too strict, too legal, or else too weak, too
liberal, too permissive. We may chasten too much or too little. But above all that, God has
established His Word, and we must follow His Word.

I would say to the children:Our parents are not old fogeys from the Stone Age, as the world puts
it. Our parents have been given to us, and what a privilege it is to have parents who are the Lord’s
and who are seeking to bring us up for Him. So may we look beyond the mistakes "of our parents
and seek to be obedient to God in being obedient to our parents. And as for parents, we must obey
God and bring up our children for Him.

"Men shall be … unthankful." Where is there thankfulness in the world? There is discontent
everywhere. During economically harder times there has, in general, been more thankfulness by
the people in the world. But today, the accumulation of material things has not produced
thankfulness, but the contrary. It is part of the fallen nature to get what I can get and then to get
more. But again, unless we are subject to the Spirit of God and walking in communion with the
Lord Jesus this same spirit of unthankfulness will permeate our life too.

The next characteristic listed is "unholy" or "profane." This is a general term that would cover
many things. We think of the Lord Jesus, how He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He was
the One who knew no sin. And we should be like Him, allowing the new nature to operate in us
by the power of the Spirit, so that we might not become like those in the world whose whole
course is unholy and profane.

"Without natural affection." That is everywhere in the world, is it not? Consider the marriage and

divorce statistics. That is just one phase of it. Natural affection seems almost no longer to exist.
To truly fall in love and to marry for life seems to be becoming something obsolete and belonging
to the Victorian era. Seldom before has there been made so much in the world of what is really
lust.

And of course we find a lack of affection in children toward their parents, too. This is seen when
the parents get older. We cannot say what is right for each one; that is between the soul and the
Lord. But in the world that lack of natural affection is, I am sure, the reason why there are so
many convalescent homes and old people’s homes. So instead of that natural affection being
present as- it used to be, the attitude now is to send our aging parents off to the nursing homes,
visit them once a week or once a month, and then go our own way, live our own life, and enjoy
it.

"Men shall be … truce breakers." No one’s word is good anymore in the world, it seems. Let us
be careful to keep this from coming in among ourselves. May our word be good.

"False accusers" or "slanderers." Oh, what a seed- this is that comes in sometimes among God’s
people! What attitudes a root of bitterness brings out! Many are defiled by it. And how the Spirit
of God is quenched. How easy it is to point to other people’s faults. It is very easy to see the faults
of others, but I need to look within and see how I measure up to just the thing I am speaking of
in someone else. So often slandering and backbiting come from a bad conscience; I talk slightingly
about someone else, and that makes me feel better because I can think of myself as on a higher
plane than that one is. Is there something that offends us in another one of God’s people in our
own assembly? Let us first of all take it before the Lord, examine it all before Him to see if what
we think about that person or those persons is true; and then in the spirit of Matthew 18 we ought
to go to that one. It takes a lot of grace. As another said many years ago, we have to be as a
doormat, allowing others to walk over us, so to speak. We have to get down low so that the Lord
can use us to restore others.

"Incontinent" or "unsubdued passion" is prevalent in the world today. This description includes
all kinds of passion. How many murders are committed every day for what variety of reasons!
Lives are taken over the smallest matters. Unsubdued passion covers many other things as well.
How the world is filled with "free love" today; it is the worst bondage there is. It is unsubdued
passion. Again, we as Christians are living in this world, and these things can brush off on us. We
see it every day, and how defiling it is. How we need to go to the Lord continually, to wash our
feet as we go through this scene.

The next words are "fierce, despisers of those that are good." On every hand, perhaps now more
than ever before, there is that element of despising anyone who would stand for righteousness.
Applying it to ourselves as believers, we should not resist what someone may say to us because
we have something in our lives that needs correction. May we not despise those that are good, but
take, as from the Lord, any exhortation that is given to us. Let us forget the vessel _the person
offering the correction_and recognize that the Lord has set the members in the body of Christ as
it pleased Him, for our good and for His glory.

"Traitors" is similar to what we had before in "truce-breakers." Traitors are those who turn
against what they are. We usually think of those who turn against their own country as traitors.
But here it means one who turns against what he knows is right, to be a traitor to it.

The next characteristics are "heady, high-minded." Oh, how much headiness there is. How much
the man of the world is boasting of his knowledge, of having opportunity for more education than
had previous generations. But often, if this education is not rightly received, it produces headiness
or high-mindedness. This is one of those things that is of the world_the pride of life. If God gives
the privilege of better education, may we use it for Him. All that we do should be done in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and that includes education. May we be free from headiness and high-
mindedness.

"Lovers of pleasures more than lovers pf God." Certainly this is true everywhere. And how easily
does this love of pleasure fit in among God’s people. There are certain things we like to do and
we will make time and room for that; we have the money to pay for it too. Everything is lined up
in the right direction, we think. May we examine our hearts before the Lord as to what we are
doing with our spare time -our leisure hours. There may be the legitimate excuse that we are doing
it for our family. But may we be more before God about every aspect of our lives, day by day,
and shall we say, weekend by weekend, so that we will not be characterized as lovers of pleasure.

The last characteristic mentioned is "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
Could this denial of the true power of godliness be the reason why there is so much going after
the. tongues and healing movement today? Perhaps we have all had experiences in speaking with
someone connected with this movement. We always try to take up the Word and enjoy something
together, to have a measure of fellowship with someone whom we believe belongs to the Lord.
But time after time in speaking to these people, we do not get very far in the Word. The tongues
arid healing have come in to take the place of what, perhaps, used to be, in a measure, the work
of the Holy Spirit We should .not speak disparagingly of true believers who have been entrapped
by this system, but let us pray for them and seek to help them in rightly dividing the Word of
Truth. Surely this "experiential theology," as some call it, is very subtle and one can easily be
attracted to it if not well grounded in the truth.

"From such turn away." May die Lord preserve us in these last days when difficult times are here.
We could isolate ourselves as hermits somewhere, but that is not the way God would have us live.
He would have us stay in the world, as the Lord Jesus prayed the Father that He would not take
us out of the world, but that we might be kept from the evil (John 17:15). We especially need this
today in these difficult times.

(From a message given at the Cedar Falls, Iowa, Bible Conference, August 1972.)

In Genesis 4:17 we are told that Cain builds a city. He has a thriving, prosperous family. Through
their skill and industry the face of the world flourishes and looks well. All is respectable, and the
people are pleasant and friendly to one another. The murder of Abel is forgotten. Man does not
hear the cry of blood, but rather the sound of the harp and the organ. His inventions have stifled
his convictions. Cain is an honorable man, but he is as thoroughly separated from the presence
of God as when his hand was freshly stained with the blood of his brother. The ease and
indifference with which Cain could turn his back upon the Lord, and upon the recollection of his
brother’s blood, is astounding. He got a promise of security (verse 15), and that was all he cared
for. And quickly, under his hand, accommodations and delights of all sorts fill the scene.

In some sense this is very alarming. But is not this the "course of the world"? Was it not man that
slew the Lord Jesus? Does not the guilt of that deed lie at every man’s door? And what is the
course of the world but the ease and indifference of Cain in this highest state of guilt? The earth
has borne the cross of Christ; and yet man can busy himself with garnishing and furnishing the
earth, and making life on it convenient and pleasurable without God. This is solemn and awful
when we look at it in full divine light. Cain was a respectable citizen of the world, but all the
while a heartless forgetter of the sorrows of Abel! His ease and respectability are the blackest
features of his history. He went away as soon as he got a promise of security; and that promise
he used, not to soften his heart and overwhelm him with convictions of all that had happened, but
to give him full occasion to indulge and magnify himself.

We read in the New Testament of "the way of Cain" (Jude 11). It may be_in fact it is_run by
others. And what a way does this chapter show it to be! Cain was an infidel, a man of his own
religion_not obedient in faith to God’s revelation. He practiced the works of the liar and the
murderer; he hated the light; he cared nothing for the presence of God which his sin had forfeited,
or for the sorrow of his brother which his hand had inflicted. And, as such a one, he could take
pains to make himself happy and honorable in the very place which thus witnessed against him.

Is this "the way of Cain"? Is man still like this? Yes! and nature outlives a thousand restraints and
improvements. For at the end of Christendom’s career it will even then be said of a generation,
"They have gone in the way of Cain" (Jude 11).

This is deeply solemn, beloved, had we but hearts to feel it. There is, however, a rescued,
separated people. Seth’s family are after another order altogether. They are not seen in cities,
furnished with accommodations and pleasures, apart "from the presence of the Lord" like Cain;
but as the household of God, they are separated from that world that lay "in the wicked one," to
the faith and worship of His Name. They are strikingly opposed to the way of Cain, and
remarkably sensitive to the way of God.

The details about these believers living prior to the flood are very scanty; but through it all there
is this heavenly character. They do not supply history for the world; but they do supply instruction
for the Church. Their conduct asks, "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14). Their religion is characterized by

separation from the world, and so are their habits.

They "call upon the name of the Lord." The name of the Lord is the revelation He has been
pleased to make of Himself. Immanuel, Jesus, the Lord our Righteousness, Jehovah, God
Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit_ these are among His names graciously and
gloriously published by Himself. And "to call upon the name of the Lord" was service or worship
of God in spirit and in truth.

This was the religion of these earliest saints. It was the religion of simple faith and hope. They
worshiped God, and apart from the world they waited in hope. "The work of faith" and "the
patience of hope" are seen in them. Something of the Thessalonian spirit breathed in them. For
they served the living and true God, and waited for His Son from heaven, who had already
delivered them (1 Thess. 1:9,10).

In their ways and habits the family of Seth are only seen as a people walking across the surface
of the earth, till their bodies are either laid under it, or are translated to heaven above it. All
around them is as Babylon to them, and their harps are on the willows (Psalm 137). Cain’s family
have all the music to themselves. But Seth’s family are a risen people. Their citizenship is in
heaven. They look for no estates or cities. Nothing is told us of their place or their business. They
are strangers where even Adam was once at home and, much more, where Cain still was.

They are the earliest witnesses of this heavenly stranger-ship. They leave the world to Cain. There
is not the symptom of a struggle, nor the breath of a complaint. They say not, nor think of saying,
"Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me" (Luke 12:13), In habits of
life and principles of conduct, they are as distinct from their injurious brother as though they were
of another race or in another world. Cain’s family make all the world’s history. They build its
cities, they promote its arts, they conduct its trade, they invent its pleasures and pastimes. But in
all this Seth’s family are not seen. The one generation call their cities after their own names; the
other call themselves by the name of the Lord.

We may bless the Lord for this beautiful portrayal of heavenly strangership on earth and ask for
grace to know some of its living power in our own souls. After this pattern the Lord would have
us in the world, but not of it; of heaven, though not as yet in it (except in Christ). Paul, in the
Holy Spirit, would so have us, taking example from those whose "conversation is in heaven"
(Phil. 3:20). Peter, in the same Spirit, would so have us "as strangers and pilgrims" abstaining
"from fleshly lusts" (1 Peter 2:11). James summons us, in the same Spirit, to know that "the
friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). And John separates us as by a stroke:
"We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:19).

May God grant that our practical lives as saints of God might become more and more delivered
from "the way of Cain," from association with the world in all its most respectable as well as its
basest forms. May we rather become more like the family of Seth, separated unto and calling
"upon the name of the Lord." It is for the Church, surely, to walk in this elevation and
separateness. What is according to the call of God, and what worthy of heavenly hopes, but this?
Compared to these and like witnesses, our testimony is feeble indeed.

Lead us, Lord, we pray Thee!

"Blessed are they that mourn:for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).

To be a "mourner" in the sense of our text is to be deeply and tenderly affected by the
condition_especially the moral and spiritual condition_of others around us. For example:The
worldliness of true Christians; the manifest delusion of mere professors; the godless ways of those
who may be our near neighbors; our own deep sense of inability to witness for God in such a
scene; all these fill the heart with holy sorrow. At the same time, this holy sorrow, which is so
good and wholesome, and which leads to much prayer and dependence on God, must not be
mistaken for a low, complaining, discontented, mournful spirit in ourselves, which we may think
answers to this beatitude. Not so; those with such a spirit would be little likely to enter into the
sorrows of others, or mourn over the dishonor done to God and His truth in this world. They are
too much occupied with their own state of mind, and that which immediately concerns themselves.

We may, and ought_if we are poor in spirit and true mourners_to be bright and happy in the
divine presence where all is peace and joy, and yet have fellowship with the deep sympathies of
Him who was "a man of sorrows," in our journey through this world. And the more we know of
His Spirit, the deeper will be our sense of what is due to Him, and the keener will be our sorrow
when we see so many who set themselves against His authority, and use His goodness for the
display of their own pride and glory. But, wonderful grace, the Lord submits to being despised
and rejected still; and as a tinge of sorrow colored His path and characterized His sayings in this
world, so it must ever be with the godly while the world continues as it is. The Lord patiently
waits until His kingdom come in power and glory, and then His will shall be done on earth as it
is done in heaven. Could we at any moment unveil the world, what should we see? From the den
of poverty to the palace of luxury_one vast scene of human sorrow. This makes the Christian’s
heart, however bright and cheerful in the Lord’s presence, somber and sad in the presence of such
universal misery, knowing as he does its real source.

We must mourn over the fearful effects of sin and apostasy which meet us at every step. We walk
in the midst of ruins. Wrecks of every kind lie strewed around us. Blighted hopes, unexpected
calamities, with a multitude of little, secret sorrows, characterize the land in which we are
strangers and pilgrims. Like captive Israel of old, "by the waters of Babylon" we may "sit down
and weep," though we need not hang our harps on the willows; we are privileged to rejoice daily
in the blessed hope of the Lord’s coming, when we shall be fully and forever comforted.

To expand on this, how many have we seen floating down the stream of time as on a calm summer
day, dreaming only of worldly ease and prosperity, when suddenly the wind of adversity rises and
all is changed in a moment. Death enters; the head of the family is suddenly struck down; all is
desolate; nothing now is heard but the wail of the widow and fatherless. But do these things come
within the sphere of the Christian’s sympathies? Most surely they do, and must so long as we have
human hearts. But they are looked at in connection with the groaning creation, and lead us to
pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, come." Surely the Lord’s heart was touched with such a scene as this,
and may not ours be?

Nothing is more fitted to fill the heart with real sorrow than the immense number of mere
professors. And surely a responsibility beyond that which attaches to the mere worldling rests with
those who take the name and profess to be the followers of Christ. They will be judged by a
different standard. Many foolish virgins now mingle with the wise, and their lack of oil seems not
to be discovered until it is too late to buy (see Matt. 25). The door shut and the lamps out will
leave them in hopeless darkness and despair. This, alas! will be the portion of many who now hold
a high place in the professing church. But how difficult it is to reach this class; how difficult to
speak to them; how difficult to know which is which! All have lamps, but all have not oil. They
are self-deceived and may never be undeceived until, with awful surprise, they open their eyes in
hell, being in torment. Still, the spiritual eye can see that while much is made of mere externals,
very little is made of Christ and of that which is due to Him.

Again, the agony of mind peculiar to the sight of such a state of things, with the painful sense that
you can render no help, and can only testify against it by complete separation from it all, seeks
relief in sighs and groans before the Lord; you must be a mourner with Him in such a scene. And
what may draw forth a yet deeper sigh, you see among the mere professors those who really
belong to the Lord, but who refuse to separate either from the natural or the religious world.
Thus, loneliness in spirit is the inevitable path of a true mourner; his only friends are those outside
like himself. They mourn together.

The mourner must now retire into his secret chamber and breathe out his sorrow into the bosom
of his Lord. He must stand aloof from all this sad mixture of the church and the world, well
knowing that he will be judged as wanting in brotherly love, and uncharitably affected towards
other Christians. He will not have his sorrows to seek; but the Lord knows it all, and he shall be
comforted. The time is coming when he will enter into the joy of his Lord and reap the fruit of his
testimony for Him throughout eternity. "Blessed are they that mourn:for they shall be
comforted." Every tear that has been shed, every sigh that has gone up to God, every groan that
has been uttered in sympathy with a rejected Christ, are all treasured by Him as the memorials
of His own grace working in us, and will surely be held in everlasting remembrance.

The Lord grant unto my dear reader the true knowledge of Jesus, not -only as Saviour and Lord,
but as the Man of Sorrows, who went about doing good, though with the deep abiding sense of
rejection in His tender, loving heart. May we enter with our whole heart into the sympathies and
hopes of our blessed Lord as to this wide-spread scene of sin and sorrow, until He return to fill
it with joy and gladness. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."