Around the Wicket Gate

MP3 Audio CD. Around the Wicket Gate

1. Awakening

Great numbers of persons have no concern about eternal things. They care more
about their cats and dogs than about their souls. It is a great mercy to be made to
think about ourselves, and how we stand towards God and the eternal world. This is
full often a sign that salvation is coming to us. By nature we do not like the anxiety
which spiritual concern causes us, and we try, like sluggards, to sleep again. This is
great foolishness; for it is at our peril that we trifle when death is so near, and judgment is
so sure. If the Lord has chosen us to eternal life, he will not let us return to our slumber.
If we are sensible, we shall pray that our anxiety about our souls may
never come to an end till we are really and truly saved. Let us say from our hearts,

“He that suffered in my stead,
Shall my Physician be;
I will not be comforted
Till Jesus comfort me.”

It would be an awful thing to go dreaming down to hell, and there to lift up our
eyes with a great gulf fixed between us and heaven. It will be equally terrible to be
aroused to escape from the wrath to come, and then to shake off the warning influence,
and go back to our insensibility. I notice that those who overcome their convictions and
continue in their sins are not so easily moved the next time: every
awakening which is thrown away leaves the soul more drowsy than before, and less
likely to be again stirred to holy feeling. Therefore our heart should be greatly troubled at
the thought of getting rid of its trouble in any other than the right way. One
who had the gout was cured of it by a quack medicine, which drove the disease within,
and the patient died. To be cured of distress of mind by a false hope, would be a terrible business:
the remedy would be worse than the disease.