Value of an "inch of time."-Too late!-Money loved and the soul lost!-Dying in despair.—Is despair a sin of great magnitude?— Cases of hope. The terrible risk.—When faith is impossible.— What keeps you from Christ? What are you willing to part with for Christ?—Trifling with sin !—God is no trifler.—Cases of daring impiety and the results.—Men taken at their word.— Sudden deaths.—In danger of being lost !—Only just in time.— The Broughshane blasphemer saved.—Joyous sudden death of the Derbyshire blacksmith.—Dr. Marsh's case.—“ Enjoying Christ.” -Study for eternity.-Practical earnestness.—Solemn earnestness. — That one word,“Eternity !”—The gay young lady.—No time to lose !-"I paint for eternity."—Duncan Matheson, David Nasmith, and Rev. John Rogers, on eternity.—Get Christ!

pp. 361-378.

CHAPTER XII.

"WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE. HIS OWN SOUL? OR, WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?"

"MILLIONS OF MONEY FOR AN INCH OF TIME," cried Queen Elizabeth, as she lay dying. But the piercing cry was of no avail Ten thousand million worlds, had she them to give, could not have furnished the single inch of time for which she craved!

A rich lady, when in the grasp of death, cried, "Run for the minister!" When he came, she said, "I'd give all I'm worth to live until I'm prepared to die." But ere the preparation was made, the soul had gone. SHE WAS TOO LATE!

A minister was once called to visit a dying gentleman belonging to his congregation. When he went, the gentleman exclaimed, "OH! IT IS TOO LATE NOW, SIR, IT IS TOO LATE; I HAVE LOVED MY MONEY AND LOST MY SOUL!" The minister tried to reason with him, and told him that even then the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to receive him, if he was penitent; but he died, exclaiming, "IT IS TOO LATE; I HAVE LOVED MY MONEY AND LOST MY SOUL!"

“

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"TOO LATE!" DESPAIR!

A young man who had possessed the means of sinning with a high hand, and who boasted of doing so, was seized with the cholera. His pious sister hung fondly over him in his dying moments, and besought him to look for mercy to Him who came "to save them that were lost;" wept, entreated, and implored him to give some sign that he was looking to the Saviour, and found comfort. But all in vain. There was no paroxysm of terror, but a cold, immovable despair. He shook his head, and his last half-articulate words were, "Too LATE! TOO LATE!"

despair.

Poor fellow! he died in

Despair! dying in despair! must, in very deed, be a sin of great magnitude, especially in the cases of those who know that the Lord Jesus has said: "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." A man lives in sin and loves it, and when dying he is distinctly assured, upon the best possible evidence, that the Lord Jesus "is able to save unto the uttermost all who come to God by Him;" and yet, when it is "the uttermost " with Him, he will not go to Christ or believe in His ability to save such a sinner as he is. He crowns his life of sin with a wilful act of unbelief, and a wilful rejection of the Saviour of sinners. Can anything be more criminal? "Despair," says Rev. R. Cecil, “is a damning sin!" Man's sin is against the infinite power and majesty of God, and, what makes it a

thousandfold more heinous is, that it is against the infinite goodness which has provided a free forgiveness for that sin.

Man, in refusing mercy on God's terms, has to do with His just judgment (Rom. iii. 3-5). Mercy refused, leaves the sinner to that inevitable doom which he has deliberately chosen. But if God's plan of saving mercy through faith in the Lord Jesus is first understood at the dying hour, there is hope that it may then be accepted, and that the soul may be saved.

A CARTER IN SPITALFIELDS was dying. He was an ignorant man, who had neglected his soul, and the great salvation; but his deathbed presented at least some shades of hope. He was assured that "the Lord had laid on the Saviour the iniquity of

us all," and that the Lord Jesus was, therefore, “able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him;" that as this was the "uttermost with him, He was able to save even then." The poor fellow was deeply conscious of his sinfulness, but seemed to catch the glorious idea of the gospel. Looking at the speaker, with dying agony on his countenance, he exclaimed, "Is He? is He?" He then seemed to fix his eyes on that blessed Redeemer, who was within the veil pleading for him; a look of hope rested on the countenance of the dying man; he began to gasp, and soon he was intro

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THE TERRIBLE RISK.

duced to the presence of Him who "is able to save unto the uttermost." Was this man saved? Hope said, “Yes, yes!"

But it's a terrible risk to run, to leave the settlement of the momentous questions of pardon, salvation, and eternal life to a dying hour.

A dying man asked a minister to pray for him. The minister knelt down, but could not utter a word, and rose from his knees. The dying man said, “Why will you not pray for me?" The minister replied, “I don't know why I could not speak in prayer, but will try again." He kneeled down and tried in vain to utter words of prayer. Then he remembered that God had said, “There is a sin unto death, I do not say ye shall pray for it." Unbelief, wilful, determined unbelief, is the sin unto death. All other sin will be forgiven unto men, but unbelief is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost-speaking against or in opposition to His teaching. God does not always mark this sin as in the case just quoted, but when it is committed, He will not hear prayer for it.

Something, it may be, stands between you and your Saviour. It is not that you are unable to believe or unable to trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. You would never be condemned for unbelief if you were unable to believe. "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten