peace for nothing! salvation for nothing! He has sent to you the most
loving and tender offers that even an almighty God could frame; and
what have you replied? Have you taken the trouble to reply at all?
Have you not turned away in utter scornful unbelief, like the woman?
or ran away in fear, like the child? You are still without a hope on
earth, or a hope in heaven, because you will not believe God's
messengers when they offer you all that you need for time and
eternity--FOR NOTHING.
"Take warning by that disappointed crowd of hungry applicants. When
they were convinced that the offer was in good faith, and would gladly
have shared with their fellows, they were too late!
"Let it not be so with you! Do not be in that awfully large crowd of
disappointed ones, who will be obliged to believe when belief will not
help them; whose knowledge, when it comes, will only increase the
sorrow that they put off believing until it was _too late_."
As I looked earnestly upon that vast crowd, the laughter was entirely
gone, and an air of uneasy conviction was plainly traceable upon many
faces.
[Illustration: Come Unto Me.]
"Will you not come to Jesus now?" I entreated. "He is waiting,
pleading with you! Here is salvation, full, free, and eternal; help,
guidance, and blessing,--all for nothing! without money and without
price."