Editorial
“THESE … shall go away into everlasting fire Prepared for the devil and his angels.”
THESE … Not just these souls, these things, but these people. Real, living walking, busy people. These barbers, these taxi-drivers, these telephone operators, these housewives, these business men, these fathers, sons, mothers, daughters.
THESE … Who feel pain, remorse, sorrow in any day. THESE … With eyes in peril of becoming sightless in the gloom of black darkness to sting with bitter tears. THESE … whose hands will ever grasp and clutch and never find. THESE … with keen minds that will be eternally eaten by the undying worm of memories nothing can erase. THESE … whose hands shall find no work forever, for hope and purpose can no longer be in that awful place … AWAY.
THESE … have feet that shall stumble forever on the dark mountains that will never be tinted with a sunrise. THESE … to be lost forever and to know it. THESE … who will never be found in that unfathomable abyss and their cries drowned in the shatterings of eternal storms.
THESE … are the men I talk to about the weather, the government, the price of gas, the war in Viet Nam or how to barbecue a steak. These are the women I meet in the P.T.A., or the laundromat or the supermarket and chit-chat about soap powder, hair styles, premiums.
THESE … are the kids in my school class I live and joke with, the teachers I meet every day.
THESE … are my milkman, breadman, hairdresser. THESE … are the common folk with common problems and hopes and fears and plans for the future. But the Bible says THESE … are going away. Away from God. Away from His Truth, farther and farther every day. Away from the joyous company of the Son of God, I profess to love.
THESE … don’t cost me one tear a day, a sleepless night, or the price of the package of Gospel tracts.
THESE … I live with, I laugh with, I loan them my car, my lawnmower or my snowshovel, my notebook or a cup of sugar.
THESE … I presume will be alive tomorrow. THESE I am sure will “some day” give me the ideal oportunity to tell them about the Saviour.
THESE … I read about one day in the death notices. “So sudden wasn’t it, dear fellow, too bad.” Yes, too bad … in hell forever.
“O God wake me up,
Melt this heart of solid ice.
Teach me to weep real tears
To pray real prayers,
To show real love
For THESE…my friends
That by my conversation,
Life and lip,
THESE … will see and hear
They can yet be saved.”
“He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36.
—J.B.N.