JOwen
Puritan Board Junior
Frances Ridley Havergal, "Daily Thoughts of Coming to Christ", p.19.
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, 'I am inside' and yet you do not like to look the alarming alternative and say, 'I am outside!' And you prefer trying to persuade yourself that you do not 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 you say? I cannot help that; I can only tell you exactly what God says. And if you are not in Christ, you are out of Christ, outside the only place of safety.
'Come thou into the Ark!' It is one of the tools of the destroyer to delude you into thinking that no actual step is necessary. He is very fond of the word gradually. You are to become more earnest—gradually. You are to find salvation—gradually. 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 might have been gradually approaching the ark, 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 want the call to haunt you, to ring in your ears all day and all night, till you come. For at this moment, if you are not in the Ark, you are in more danger than you can conceive. 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.'
Whose fault is it if you do not enter in and be saved? Noah did not put it off. He and his family entered the very same day into 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.
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, 'I am inside' and yet you do not like to look the alarming alternative and say, 'I am outside!' And you prefer trying to persuade yourself that you do not 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 you say? I cannot help that; I can only tell you exactly what God says. And if you are not in Christ, you are out of Christ, outside the only place of safety.
'Come thou into the Ark!' It is one of the tools of the destroyer to delude you into thinking that no actual step is necessary. He is very fond of the word gradually. You are to become more earnest—gradually. You are to find salvation—gradually. 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 might have been gradually approaching the ark, 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 want the call to haunt you, to ring in your ears all day and all night, till you come. For at this moment, if you are not in the Ark, you are in more danger than you can conceive. 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.'
Whose fault is it if you do not enter in and be saved? Noah did not put it off. He and his family entered the very same day into 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.
