It is an old and very trite saying, but still no less true that, "IT IS A SOLEMN THING TO DIE." The circumstances and surroundings of death may add to, but they do not make its real solemnity. In every case the real solemnity of death is in the fact itself, not in the surroundings. With every soul it is the end of life here in the body, and the opening of the door to an endless heaven or to an endless hell. Could there be anything more solemn, more awful than this for a man of sound mind to contemplate? How insignificant all the circumstances of death—the roar of battle, the midnight hour, the struggle for breath or consciousness, or the quiet room, with tender, loving hands to minister to every want—compared with the simple fact of death itself.

To a man prepared for death, it does not much matter as to painful circumstances. These are soon over, and the thought that he will soon see Christ and be in heaven will abundantly sustain him. But to a man unprepared for death, no circumstances, nothing in his position or surroundings, can mitigate its horror. The one overwhelming thought, if permitted to roll upon the mind for a little on this side of death, as it must on the other, is God in judgment.

Think of the startling realization after death of the impenitent, with no power to be otherwise, without light, and no way of finding light; with a knowledge that there is a Saviour, but that He cannot be my Saviour; having a sense of moral defilement and a consciousness of enmity to God, and a certainty that this will be my eternal condition; a vain clutching after the gold and goods for which I had bartered my soul, and a wail of despair as I am torn from them, and they recede from my sight. How awful must all this be! Oh, it is a solemn thing to die! Millions of souls in the lost world, as they look back upon the days of grace and times of God's pleading, such as you now enjoy, lift up their wailing cry, "Oh, I wish I had! I wish I had!"

Friends, there is danger, great danger that you will join their number. You are living in an illusion. The material world of sense and carnal things occupies your mind and heart. God and the Bible, your soul, with its never-dying need, is unreal to you. The god of this world (Satan) is blinding your mind with the things that perish, and speeding you onward in an excited, unrestful, gold-getting, pleasure-loving, sin-indulging, world-conforming, unhappy life to the fearful end.

I urge you to despise not the truth. Don't be fooled any longer as to these solemn realities. God loves you. Christ died for you. You may be saved NOW. Delay not to secure the salvation of your soul. If you refuse, be sure that by and by you will cry, "I wish I had."

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

—Major Whittle