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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
January, 1940
entrancing grand opera singer in the world, in the parts that she rendered. I knew her in her early girlhood. She learned to sing in our Sunday-school in Minneapolis, and when her voice began to develop she sang solos for me with great effect in our meetings in that city. But she was persuaded to go into grand opera where she had such a career that her name became known in Wag nerian opera on both sides of the At lantic. I often wondered whether some day she would return to her first love and give her voice to singing the gos pel. But should she wish to do it now, it is too late. Last January I was in formed that the one with whom this marvelous singer had trained, had said that her voice was now practically gone. And there are many of you who have a voice or some other gift that you could use for Christ, but listen! the time is short. Put off the time of using your talent, and the talent will be gone for ever. Many a one has had rare gifts as a preacher, but has squandered them in preaching the silly trash of the popular pulpit and not the simple but mighty gospel of the Son of God, and now his gifts are gone, gone forever. In the fourth place, the time is short because of the loss of opportunity. Christ tarries, Death lingers, powers continue, but opportunities are gone. Each day carries many golden oppor tunities into the bosom of the fathom less ocean of the past. The time is short indeed. The opportunity is today. Strike now, or you will never strike at all. How fast the clock goes! One evening when Mr. Alexander and I were in Brighton, Englaitd, one of the workers went out from the afternoon meeting to a restaurant 'or his evening, meal. His attention was drawn toward the man who waited upon him, and there came to his heart a strong im pression that he should speak to that waiter about his soul, but that seemed to him such an unusual thing to do that he kept putting it off. When the meal was ended and the bill paid, he stepped out of the restaurant, but had such a feeling that he should speak to that waiter, that he decided to wait outside until the waiter came out. In a little while the prop ’etor came out and be gan to put up the shutters and asked him why he was waiting. He replied that he was waiting to speak with the man who had waited upon him at the table. The proprietor replied: “ You will never speak to that man again. After waiting upon you he went to his room and shot himself.” Oh, men and women, there are opportunities open to every one of us tonight that will he gone, and gone forever before another day dawns. The time is short!
THE MOST DANGEROUS SHORTAGE OF THE PRESENT DAY [ Continued, from Page 5]
day or for his old age. The property that we accumulate on earth we can enjoy but for a few years at the long est; the property we accumulate in heaven we can enjoy for an endless eternity. How important then that we make our accumulations there as large as possible! The time in which to do it is short, exceedingly short. For every wasted day, for every wasted hour, for every wasted dollar, we shall be poorer for all eternity. Ah! there are some of us here tonight who will wake up some day to the importance of laying up treasure in heaven; and we will regret it to all eternity that we did not begin soon enough and work more sedulously at it to make a better showing. In the fourth place, the time is short in which to save souls. Oh, the vast im portance of saving souls, saving every man, woman, and child we can from sin and its awful temporal and eternal con sequence! Oh, the urgent cry of God, “ The time is short” ! Do you realize of what immeasurable value a single soul is in God’s sight? Do you realize the awful degradation and agony of a soul 'that is lost, eternally lost ? Do you realize the unutterable joy and the in conceivable glory of the soul that is s- \^> That is the mo’ttKjyal of all oc cupations, saving souls,T^BPit is open to us all. But the time for doing it is short, exceedingly short. Not a year to lose, not a week to lose, not a day to lose, not a moment to lose! There are krais to be saved on every hand, and the time to do it is short. Let us up and at it at once. If you are not saved yourself, get saved tonight in order that you may get at this glorious work of saving others at once. In the fifth place, the time is short to pray. I have often spoken to you of the mighty power of prayer and of how to pray With mighty power. But the time for this wondrous and mighty work of prayer is short. There are some great things that can be wrought by prayer, that must be wrought tonight or never. There were great things that you might have wrought by prayer yesterday, but you did not seize the opportunity. The time was short, and it is now gone for ever. Let us stand and cry into the yawning abyss of the past, “ Yesterday, where art thou?” Listen to the an swer, "Gone forever.” And today will soon be yesterday and its opportunities also will be ¡gone for ever, and so with (tomorrow and all coming days of the brief span of life. All gone forever! Oh, do you not hear God shouting to you: “The time is short!” “The time if short!”
Why the Time Is So Short Now let us consider why the time is so short. First of all, the time is short because Death is fleet-footed and is swiftly, speedily pursuing each one of us. The fleetest runner will soon be overtaken by Death. We may run away from Death for a while, but Death beats us all on the home stretch. Death seems to you very far away tonight, does it not? So it did a few days ago to that man who was carried in a coffin to the cemetery this afternoon. Death is not very far away from any one of us who is here tonight. “There is (always) but a step between” any one of us and death. We may not enjoy that fact, but it is a fact nevertheless, and we might as well look it square in the face. It is only the fool that shuts his eyes to facts because they are unpleasant. In the second place, the time is short because Jesus Christ is coming quickly. The very last thing our Lord Jesus Christ says in the Bible, found in the next to the last verse in the Book, is, “Yea: I come quickly” (R.V.). Just how quickly the Lord Jesus may come, of course, I do not pretend to say. I do not know. No one knows. But every thing in these days seems to be focus ing toward that great and glorious con summation with startling rapidity. But whenever that day may come, it will take many of us here by surprise and overwhelm many of us with dismay: and the time of His absence and our opportunity will seem short indeed, and we shall say, “How quickly He came! Why did I not believe His word, 'Yea; I come quickly’ ?” If you knew that Christ would come tomorrow, would you waste time as you have been wasting it this last week ? He may come to morrow. Yes, He will come tomorrow— some tomorrow. In the third place, the time is short because of the near approach of the loss of capacity and power. Even if Christ tarries and Death lingers, there are things which we have a capacity for ■ doing today for which we shall not have a capacity in a short time. How many men there are who once had a power that is now gone, and who look back with bitter regret over their wasted years! They themselves still linger here, but the old-time power has vanished and they can only idly stand and watch others do what they could have done, but did not. I knew intimately a singer with a marvelous voice. Ten years or so ago she was regarded by many as the most
* Pray for great things, expect great things, work for great things, but above all, pray.— R. A. Torrey
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