“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” - Jeremiah 8:20

“Not Saved! Is this our mournful plight? Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for our life, and yet at this moment not saved! We know the way of salvation, we read it in the Bible, we hear it from the pulpit, it is explained to us by friends, and yet we neglect it, and therefore we are not saved.

We will be without excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and the dead. The Holy Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which has been preached in our hearing, and times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, and yet we are without Christ. All these hopeful seasons have come and gone – our summer and our harvest have passed – and we are not saved.

Years have followed one another into eternity, and our last year will come at any time, for some of us youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet we are not saved. Let us ask ourselves – “will we be ever saved?” Is there any likelihood of it? Already the most propitious seasons have left us unsaved; will other occasions alter our condition? Means have failed with us – the best of means, used perseveringly and with utmost affection – what more can be done for us?

Affliction and prosperity have alike failed to impress us; tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on our barren heart. Are not the probabilities dead against us ever being saved? Is it not likely that we will abide as we are till death for ever bars the door of hope? Do we recoil from this supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he who is not washed in so many waters will in all probability go filthy to the end.

The convenient time has never come, why should it ever come? It is logical to fear that it never will arrive, and the Felix like, we will find no convenient season till we are in hell. O! Let us bethink of what that hell is, and the dread probability that we will soon be cast into it. Suppose we die unsaved, our doom no words can picture. Write our dread estate in tears of blood, talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: we will be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

A brother’s voice would fain startle us into earnestness. Let us be wise, be wise in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Consecrate this past year to lonely thought, and if deep repentance be bred in us, it will be well; and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. Let us see to it that this New Year not be too far gone and we remain an un-forgiven spirit.