十二月三十日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/12/1230.mp3″]
经文: 你岂不知终久必有苦楚吗？（撒母耳记下二：26）
你是否仅有宗教而没有在基督耶稣里的真正信仰？你经常聚会，是因为别人如此行，不是因为你向上帝有正确的心态。以后二、三十年了，你可能依然故我，有宗教的外表，却无内在。我必须指出像你这样的人临终时的情况。我们温柔地注视他。他的额上渗出了冰冷的汗珠，他张开双眼。说道：“上帝啊，死亡是难忍受的。求祢差遣牧师来吧。”“是的，他来了。”牧师来了。“牧师，我怕我要死了！”“你有任何盼望吗？”“我不知道。我害怕站在上帝的面前。哦，为我祷告吧！”牧师为他献上真诚迫切的祷告，救恩之路第一万次摆在他的面前，但是在他能抓紧救恩之索以前，我见到他坠入了死亡深渊。这个人现在何处？经上说：“他在阴间受痛苦，举目远远的望……”（路十六：23）为什么以前他不举目望呢？福音，他已习以为常，他的灵魂沉睡了。但愿救主亲自说的话将此痛苦显明：“我祖亚伯拉罕哪，……打发拉撒路来，用指尖蘸点水，凉凉我的舌头。因为我在这火焰里，极其痛苦。”（路十六：24）那些话中的含意是可怖的。但愿你永不会尝到耶和华的愤怒！
Evening, December 30
Scripture: “Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?”(2 Samuel 2:26)
If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch of thine end.
You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he wakes up crying, “O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?” “Yes, he is coming.” The minister comes. “Sir, I fear that I am dying!” “Have you any hope?” “I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me.” The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again. But where is the man, and where are the man’s true eyes? It is written, “In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings. Let the Saviour’s own words reveal the woe: “Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah’s wrath!