Online Tracts
The Midnight Cry
"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Matt. 25:6. Christ is the bridegroom, and is soon coming as he said. Both saved and unsaved will hear this awful, solemn cry, and will then be compelled to face the judgment. But the most important question is Where shall I be? Shall I be reckoned with the foolish whose lamps have burned dry ? or shall I stand redeemed with my lamp brightly burning? We do not know why the Lord used the term "midnight" in connection with his return unless it was to convey to the minds of the wise the fact that great spiritual darkness would be prevailing. Truly there is much light shining in the world for those who want it, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. When I was first saved, I marvelled at the great darkness by which I had been surrounded, and I had been unaware that it was darkness until the Lord opened my eyes. Surely it is midnight darkness. The world is in an awful condition; and just at the very instant when the cry is made, "Behold the bridegroom cometh," some husband and wife will be quarreling; some one will be drinking intoxicating liquor; someone will be backbiting his neighbor; someone will be accusing and faultfinding the brethren; someone will be trying to gain a higher position by pushing and crowding others; someone will be speaking unkindly to his fellow beings; someone will be committing adultery; someone will be taking his neighbor's life; some will be taking that which does not belong to them; and numbers will be claiming to follow the Lord but living to please the flesh and will not really have an experience of salvation. Sometimes I shudder when I think of the many evils that are going on around meand I see and know of a very small per cent. How it must grieve God, who sees and knows everything! It seems that some think they will get by if they can make their fellowmen think they are all right. Jesus had many rebukes for this class of people when he was here. He said they appeared before men to be righteous, but he called them hypocrites. There will be many hypocrites when the midnight cry is made. Some of these hypocrites claim they are saved but not sanctified and use the fact that they are not sanctified to cover things in their lives that they know are not right. Some of them pretend to be seeking for sanctification, but never seem to gain the experience. Why? God knows the heart. They want a little of the pride of life, and to enjoy some fleshly pleasures, they want to love the things of this world, give way to their ill feelings and hold grudges against others, gossip, and back-bite. "The hypocrite's hope shall perish." If one is not clear from all known sins, he is not saved; his lamp is empty. There is no satisfaction nor eternal profit in trying to appear what we are not. We should live unto the Lord and not unto men. If we wear some article of dress for pride before worldly people, we may as well wear it before the saints even if we do know they will count us unsaved for doing so because God counts us unsaved if we have the desire in our hearts, and His opinion is what counts. His word says if we love the things of the world the love of the Father is not in us. If we are cross at home, we do not need to put on a pious face around others and act like we would never speak an unkind word, for God heard the words at home. Some guard their speech quite closely when around Christian people, but join in with slang, jesting, and joking when around others who indulge in it. We ought to guard our speech more around worldly people than we do around the righteous, for we need to be an example and point them to the right way. If we are pure in heart, our speech will always be pure, and we will not be under a strain for fear we will say any wrong words when in the presence of the righteous. If some people could be known by others as God knows them, they would not appear in daylight. They would be ashamed to let their wives or husbands see them as they really are. These little thoughts and deeds of impurity and deceitfulness, if allowed, will surely cIuster around our minds and hearts like cancers, and cancers of the soul should be as nauseating to us as cancers of the body, or more so. We ought to live as pure and conscientiously every day as we would want to be living when the cry is made. Salvation makes men or women appear to be just what they really are, and only those who have salvation will be ready when the Lord comes. God is light, and in him and his people there is no darkness. People are becoming accustomed to being warned about the coming of the Lord and the midnight cry, and it is becoming as an old tale to them. People would live quite differently if they really believed from the heart that they would have to stand before the flaming bar of God to give an account of the way they have spent their time here. Unbelief along this line is another sign that the midnight hour is fast approaching. And yet we hesitate to call it total unbelief, for even though they act like they do not believe it, yet their actions in times of a sudden calamity show that they really do believe and that there is an instinct in each heart to make them know that at the coming of the Lord there will be "tribulations and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil...but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good...For there is no respect of persons with God." Romans 2 :9. We are told that in the summer of 1952 during the Bakersfield, California earthquake many thought the Lord was coming and began to pray and confess their sins. One woman was living in adultery with another woman's husband. She had justified herself in this condition until the earth began to shake, then she cried out, "Oh, Lord, if I had known you were coming so soon, I would not have been living here with this man !" But when the earthquake was over and all seemed quiet again, she settled down in her life of sin. Oh ! the mercy of God to bear with sinful humanity! A few years ago we knew of a family of saints. The father was becoming careless and unconcerned about the things of God. The rest of the family seemed to want to do better, but because of the father's example and influence, the family was seldom ever seen at prayer meeting. One Wednesday night they were listening to the radio. A program came over the radio which they thought was real and they thought the end of the world was upon them. Immediately they began to repent of their carelessness and indifference, and even that night they got ready and came to the prayer meeting, though it was late.
These are only examples of what men will do when they really hear the midnight cry. But it will be too late then to repent or to change our way of living. We need to live at all times so we can look up to God with a sweet assurance in our hearts that we have lived to please Him. Read again these words concerning the coming of the Lord. Acts 1:9-11, "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Does your heart thrill with Joy when you read these words? and can you say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," without having to pray another prayer, or finish some neglected work, or make a wrong right? ‹G. Ray
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