by a pass from the government; but the love of
Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures
for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God
too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a
fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour
the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you
to attend to this matter--to attend to it now? Time is flying,
flying--the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to
you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off!

Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your
immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that
must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for
heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are
open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne?
Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it
will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for
all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The
Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more
convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this
very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say
this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I
show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward
beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be
launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ
shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost--would I
not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand
before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now
is the day of your redemption.

It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in
judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see
Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the
earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will
come up for our glory or for our discomfiture--every prayer, every
sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace;
and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is
being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas!