eternity? Yet are there not thousands of shrewd, far-seeing men today, who look sharply enough after their own interests in life, but who seem stone-blind to the eternity before them? In spite of the infinite love of God to helpless rebels, revealed at Calvary; in spite of His pronounced hatred of sin; in spite of the known brevity of man's history here; in spite of the terrors of judgement after death, and of the solemn probability of waking up at last with the unbearable remorse of being on Hell's side of a "fixed" gulf, man hurries on to the bitter end; as careless as if there were no God, no death, no judgement, no heaven, no Hell! If the reader of these pages be such an one, may God this very moment have mercy upon you, and while you read these lines, open your eyes to your most perilous position, standing as you may be on the slippery brink of an endless woe!

Oh, friend, believe it or not, your case is truly desperate! Put off the thought of eternity no longer. Remember, that procrastination is like him who deceives you by it, not only a "thief," but a "murderer." There is much truth in the Spanish proverb which says, "The road of 'By-and-by' leads to the town of 'Never.'" I beseech you, therefore, to travel that road no longer. "Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

"But," says one, "I am not indifferent as to the welfare of my soul. My deep trouble lies wrapped up in another word —

UNCERTAINTY.

I am among the second-class passengers you speak of."

Well, both indifference and uncertainty are the offspring of one parent - unbelief. The first results from unbelief as to the sin and ruin of man, the other from unbelief as to God's sovereign remedy for man. It is especially for souls desiring before God to be fully and unmistakably SURE of their salvation that these pages are written. I can in a great measure understand your deep soul-trouble, and am assured that the more you are in earnest about this all-important matter, the greater will be your thirst, until you know for certain that you are really and eternally saved. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36,37). The only son of a devoted father is at sea. News comes that his ship has been wrecked on some foreign shore. Who can tell the anguish of suspense in that father's heart until, upon the most reliable authority, he is assured that his boy is safe and sound?

Or, again, you are far from home. The night is dark and wintry, and your way is totally unknown. Standing at a point where two roads diverge, you ask a passer-by the way to the town you desire to reach, and he tells you he thinks that such and such a way is the right one, and hopes you will be all right if you take it. Would "thinks", and "hopes," and "may be's" satisfy you? Surely not. You must have certainty about it, or every step you take will increase your anxiety. What wonder, then, that men have sometimes neither