After preaching a sermon on The Judgment at Steelton, Pa., one night, I gave the altar call, earnestly exhorting the people to yield themselves to God, and before I was through a woman hastened up the aisle and threw herself down at the altar and cried, "O God, give me one more chance." She evidently realized in that meeting at that time the Spirit was dealing with her for the last time. I have a very deep conviction that in every revival series of meetings where the presence of the Spirit is so marked, and He is rejected, there are souls that cross the dead line, and their doom is irreversibly sealed. At Andersonville prison, in Georgia, during the Civil War, there was a Confederate prison in which were confined some twenty thousand Union soldiers. Sherman was making his march to the sea, and every man who could be spared was called upon to resist him and his army, until there were but few to do guard duty at the prison, and there was fear that the prisoners might make a break for liberty. In order to hold them a line was drawn inside the prison, and some yards from the stockade, and the prisoners were informed that any man coming to that line would be instantly shot, and because some men were killed there it was called the dead line. I believe there is a "dead line" in every life. Dr. Alexander well expresses it in these lines:
There is a time we know not when, A place we know not where; That marks the destiny of man, For glory or despair;
There is a line by us unseen, That crosses every path, The hidden boundry between God's mercy and His wrath.
To pass that limit is to die To die as if by stealth; It does not quench the beaming eye Nor pale the glow of health.
The conscience may be still at ease, The spirit light and gay; That which is pleasing still may please, And care be thrust away.
O where is this mysterious bourne By which our path is crossed? Beyond which God Himself hath sworn That he who goes is lost.
How far may we go on in sin? How long will God forbear? Where does hope end? and where begin The confines of despair?
An answer from the skies is sent Ye that from God depart While it is called today, repent, And harden not your heart.
My text tells us of a man who had crossed the dead line and he knew it, and he knew why. He had repeatedly disobeyed God and did it willfully. I challenge anyone to put their finger on anything in this man's life that was immoral or unclean. There is no record of his getting drunk; he did not steal, nor lie, nor run off with some other man's wife. He did not gamble, nor get rich at other folks' expense; he simply did what you are doing every day -- he just disobeyed God. I do not ask you to accept of the thought that men cross the dead line and are as surely damned as if they were in hell if I do not prove it by the Word of God. I firmly believe what the articles of religion teach that any doctrine that is not based upon more than one passage of Scriptures we are not required to believe. But give attention to the Word as I quote it. "Ephraim is joined to his idols, -let him alone." "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." "They shall go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord but He will not be found of them." Israel in their hearts turned to go back into Egypt, and God turned and gave them up, "Because I have called and ye have refused; I stretched out my hand and no man regarded. Because ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer . they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof." Listen to the words of Jesus: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets and killest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not, behold your house is left unto you desolate."
In our text the Holy Ghost makes record of a fact. "The Lord was departed from Saul," and in this message to you I believe God would have me give you facts. I do not come with arguments, but just simple facts that are beyond contradiction, like the text. I want to pile the Blue Mountains on the Alleghenies, on top of these the Rockies, and then the Alps and Apennines, on these the Himalayas, and have you survey them in the light of the eternity to come, and act as an eternity bound soul should act -- and at once. I aim to give you facts, facts, facts that ought to startle you into action at once. I was called to draw up the will of a man who was nearing eternity, and as I did so I saw he was unsaved and little interested in spiritual things. I asked God to help me say the right thing at the right time. I visited him for five weeks and talked and prayed and pointed him to the only remedy for sin, the only Savior for a sinner. As the end drew near I became more and more interested and prayed, "O God, give me something from Thy Word that will help a dying man to find peace." I quoted the most precious passages as the Spirit brought them to me, and he listened to me apparently much interested, but at last he opened his heart and said: "When I was a young man nineteen years of age, I worked in a machine shop in Rhode Island, and was surrounded by ungodly men who sneered at the truth and at everything religious. I had a Christian mother, but went contrary to her teachings and imbibed the heresy of those men, and now when you quote the Word as you have done, what those men said comes up before me." Then God gave me a passage that I did not quote to this dying man, and it was this: "The wicked are driven away in their wickedness. He died without any hope; he had rejected the truth and God left him.
I was in a meeting once upon a time and saw a man with the most pitiful expression on his face, showing he was at least interested. I went to him and talked to him of giving his heart to God, and he said to me, "If I could only get back twenty-four years." But you cannot reverse the wheels of time; there is no road to yesterday; that time with its opportunity had gone forever and as far as his life had showed, God had gone with it. Facts you know, not arguments. A merchant who had no time for anything but business, who thought in numbers, dollars, dimes, cents, who saw everything through his ledger and daybook, had a good wife who spent much time praying for him, and at last persuaded him to go to a camp where she was during the meeting. He came the last Sunday night and God, in answer to that woman's prayers, put him under awful conviction till he trembled, and forced to decision, said No to God. In six weeks time he was taken with his last sickness; friends prayed with him, exhorted him to pray. His wife pled with him, but while demons from the pit gathered round the bed waiting to drag his naked soul down to the home of the damned, he answered all their entreaties by saying, "God left me the last Sunday night at that camp meeting." God was departed from that soul and he knew why. I was in a meeting at a home camp in Kansas and there was a woman who wanted to give her heart to God and come to the camp, but her friends who were opposed to the doctrines of holiness, kept her away. It was her last call and she died in a few days, but her friends could not save her; they had kept her from God, but they could not snatch her from the clutches of death. I was preaching in a church in summer time, and the windows being up a woman in an adjoining house heard the sermon, and heard Sunday after Sunday. God put her under conviction. One Sunday night she came to church and the Holy Ghost was faithful to her, but she went home after saying No to Him. That week she was taken sick, and sat in her rocking chair saying, "I am lost! I am lost!" Some of the folks came to me and told me of her condition, and I sent some Christian ladies to see her and they talked to her of her soul, and of the One who is mighty to save; but all that woman would do was to sit in her chair and rock to the sad refrain, "I am lost! I am lost!" God was departed from her.
Facts and more facts. During a meeting in which many young people were giving their hearts to God, a young man was under deep conviction, and it continued till the meeting closed. The last night the pastor went to him and said, "George, give your heart to God tonight; this is the last night of the meeting and the Spirit is striving with you; yield tonight -- yield now." He was very thoughtful, delayed his answer as though thinking. The pastor urged him further, but at last he said, "Not tonight." The meeting closed; he went to his home. The next morning his mother called him, "Come to breakfast, son; we are all ready to sit down." But he did not come. Again the mother went to the stairs and called, "George, get up, come to your breakfast; we are nearly through." He did not come. His younger brother said, "I will bring him." And taking a cane from the corner he ran upstairs, poked George in the side and said, "Get up you lazy bones!" but there was no move; he poked him again and then dropped the cane in fear and ran down stairs saying, "Mother, I poked him twice and he did not move!" The mother, smitten with fear ran upstairs to find that George, who had the night before said no to God, was compelled to go when death called him. He had his last opportunity the night before, and murdered it.
A young woman in the state of Pennsylvania, reared by an infidel father who paved her way to hell by teaching her the contents of the Age of Reason, was at last, after her father's death, brought under the influence of the Gospel by an earnest minister whose services she attended. She gave her heart to God, and for some years lived an humble Christian life. In the course of time the minister was removed by the calendar; a new preacher came; one of a different type, who had been trained under the new regime, with a new "Course of Study," an evolutionist, a higher critic of the destructive type, and in his sermons he gave vent to the things which this young woman had heard her father say, many years ago. How strange it seems that men can and do preach things in orthodox pulpits today, that if they had preached them forty years ago, they would have been expelled. Her faith was weakened; she lost her experience, and soon after died. During her last illness the preacher came to see her. When she told him what his destructive criticism had done for her, and said to him, "You are preaching what my infidel father once said, you are rehashing the things Paine taught, from an orthodox pulpit, I have lost all the faith I ever had. I am going to hell, and you will come after me. I am damned and you did it." During the campmeeting at Beulah Park, Allentown, Pa., an earnest, talented Methodist preacher was a constant attendant and a very helpful hearer. He received the Holy Ghost as his Sanctifier as a result of the sermons he heard at that time. In his earlier years he had been a Methodist preacher, filling a pulpit in a conference, was devoted and true; but his Presiding Elder came quarterly and would preach sermons that tore the Word of God to pieces, assailing the Pentateuch, denying the Prophetical Books, and pursuing the usual course of the higher critic of the day. The young man followed him, and went to the logical conclusion, and out of the pulpit, into Socialism, became a noted Socialist orator, but never found any rest for his soul. He went to an evangelistic service held by Bro. Biederwolf, went to the altar, found the Christ he had rejected, went shouting down the streets, and told all he met of his joy in believing, and was led of God back into the ministry. He is at this very date minding the Holy Ghost, and is headed toward the evangelistic field, preaching a full salvation.
Facts, not arguments. A chaplain was visiting a hospital; the surgeons had just made their rounds, and one of them said, "Chaplain, you had better go see that man in cot No. __, he is going to pass in his checks pretty soon, and there is no hope for him." The chaplain was soon by the side of the dying soldier, and accosting him asked, "My boy, how is it?" and received as an answer, "I am done for; going over soon -- no hope." The chaplain said, "Had you not better pray?" and the dying man laughed in his face. "Ask me to pray? You do not know who you are talking to, or you would never do that."
Then he unburdened himself. "Let me tell you chaplain. There was a young fellow came into our company, and he was as green as a gum log. He never swore an oath; he did not know one card from another, and as for liquor, he never had tasted it. I made up my mind I would make him one of us, and as bad as myself. And chaplain, that fellow got so he would swear till we old boys would stand back in sheer amazement. The air would be blue with his cuss words. And drink? He would carry more whisky under his belt and walk straighter than any man in our company. You should have seen the boys pony up on payday when the paymaster came round. He could skin us all, had us all euchered, and got half the money there was in the company. And say, chaplain, I taught him all he knew; taught him to drink, swear and gamble. Say, chaplain, in the fight in which I got this wound that will soon end my earthly career, that boy was shot dead at my side. Go call him back; let me undo the wrong I did that boy -- then I'll pray." No road to yesterday -- no way back to the lost opportunity. God was departed from him and he knew it!
Just facts, you know -- not arguments -- something for you to think on, something to make you think, give you pause. Your soul is at stake -- for God's sake, THINK!
A man lay dying in a little Kentucky town. A good member of the church -- but death came. His constant cry was, "I am lost." His wife said to their son, "Go, call the minister." And as he came in response to the call, she met him at the door and said, "Husband is always saying, 'I am lost! I am lost!' It is just awful to hear him going on so." The preacher went to his side, listened to him, then said, "Oh, no; you are not lost; you have been a pillar in the church. What would we have done without you? You have been a standby for years." But the dying church member kept on saying, "I am lost! I am lost!" The preacher went to the wife and said, "You must not mind what he says -- he is delirious." But the dying man said, as he caught the words, "I am not delirious; you have been pastor so many years; that man at the foot of the bed has been my neighbor and friend for years; that woman was my wife's girlhood friend. Do not tell me I am delirious. I am lost! lost! LOST!" Lost, and he knew it -- and knew why! The Lord was departed.
Sometime ago there was a church that received considerable support from an unsaved man who seemed to be much interested in the young folks of the community in which the church was located. Once there came a minister on the charge who wondered why he was so interested and yet never joined the church, nor gave any evidence of salvation. So he went to the man and asked him, "Why is it that you who so regularly give to the church, yet you never darken our doors, nor attend our meetings, nor make a profession?" The man looked him straight in the eyes, thanked him for the question, and answered: "Years ago, while I was a young man, the Spirit of God strove with me. I was under much conviction -- knew I ought to yield -- but owing to this and that, I said 'NO' to God. He left me. I am as surely damned as if I were in hell this moment. I shall die just as I have lived. I am a lost and damned man. I give to the church to help the young folks. I do not want them to do as I did. Do all you can for the young; as for me, there is no hope. God has left me." He knew the awful fact, and he knew why!
I was in Idaho preaching in a revival service that God owned, where souls were getting through to precious victory. There was a young man in the congregation one night who wanted to come to the altar -- and could not. He had been in the meeting that was held the year before. In that meeting he went to the altar, and an older brother came and took him away. This time he wanted to go to the altar; the brother who took him away the year before, wanted him to go; friends were asking him to go, but he could not -- he was handcuffed to the sheriff. He had committed some crime for which he had been arrested, and was waiting in the meeting for the train to pass through that went to the adjoining town, the county seat. One man at least who could not go to the altar whenever he wanted to. And you cannot get folks to pray with you any old time that you want them to. Sometimes God will not let them pray. Let me give you an instance: Mrs. Williams was a successful evangelist, owned of God in winning souls and much gifted in prayer. She came home one time, very tired after a series of meetings. She had put off her traveling dress, arrayed herself in a loose garment and was seated in her chair, thanking God for an opportunity to rest, when the doorbell rang and she was called to pray with a dying neighbor. She went to the house and entering was taken upstairs to a room where lay a man who was constantly crying, "Pray, oh, pray!" The mother said to Mrs. Williams, "Oh, do pray for him!" And she at once fell on her knees and tried to pray for the young man -- but God shut her up -- and she rose from her attitude, saying, "I cannot pray." The mother said, "Mrs. Williams, you hear his request. Oh, do pray for him!" And thus urged, she knelt again in prayer, but she had hardly begun when God shut her up, and she again said, "I cannot pray." She left the room and the last thing she heard was the distressful cry, "Oh, pray, pray, pray!" He died the next morning just before the dawn of day, and his last whisper was, "Oh, pray, pray, pray." But God would not let his servant, so gifted in prayer, utter one single petition. Why? Let me tell you. Years before he had been in a meeting where many young people were asking for saints to pray for them, and he, with one other, had covenanted to ask for prayer never. But when the cold hand of death was feeling round his heartstrings, then he wanted someone to pray. But God has a long memory, and he would not let anyone pray for him. The Lord was departed from him -- and he knew it.
If the lost sinner was in his senses when he died, he would scream in agony of soul as he faces eternity without God. The great majority of people who die, die drugged. Ask any honest doctor, and he will tell you this is a fact. The chamber where the sinner meets his death would be an ante room of hell, were it not for the drug, the quieting medicine that you want given to them to relieve you as you see them suffer. In 1892 a train was rushing on toward the World's Fair. Men were laughing, talking -- merry in anticipation of the good times they were expecting at the great show, when a head-on collision occurred at Battle Creek, Mich., and twenty-six souls were hurried into eternity. Unexpected? Yes, but no more so than yours may be. At seventy heart-beats a minute you are rushing on towards eternity. At any minute your heart may stop beating, and then Where would you spend eternity? I saw this notice, or rather advertisement in the street car in Huntington, W. Va., one day. Read it: "If some folks could read the death notices that will be in the paper three months from now, they would take out life insurance today." I at once thought, If some folks could read the death notices that will be in the paper three months from now, they would seek God now -- at once. If that man reading this sermon now could read the death notices that will be in the paper three months from now -- yes, one month from now -- he would mind God and seek God now. Are you the one?
Lost forever, eternally lost Living in time, but the deadline crossed Lost to God, to hope and grace, Never to see an angel face.
Never to know of joy in Heaven, Never to know of sins forgiven, Always to know closed is the door, And hope has fled for evermore.
Naught but anguish and terror and pain, Crying for mercy, but ever in vain; The groans of the lost the music of hell, And naught to break the awful spell.
Moving to meet thee, hell from beneath, Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; Groanings and shriekings and cries of despair, Regrets unavailing, the lost everywhere.
Lost forever, ever and more, Closed forever probation's door; Lake of fire, the second death, Now spent in vain is praying breath.
