Destiny Determined by Belief

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Mark 16:16

He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.

There is the way of salvation, and thou must trust Christ or perish; and there is nothing hard in it that thou shouldst perish if thou dost not. Here is a man out at sea; he has got a chart which, if well studied, will, with the help of the compass, guide him to his journey's end. The pole star gleams out amidst the cloud rifts, and that too will help him. "No," says he, "I will have nothing to do with your stars; I do not believe in the North Pole; I shall not attend to that little thing inside the box; one needle is as good as another needle; I do not believe in your rubbish, and I will have nothing to do with it; it is only a lot of nonsense got up by people on purpose to make money, and I will have nothing to do with it." The man does not get to shore anywhere; he drifts about, but never reaches port, and he says it is a very hard thing. I do not think so. Some of you say, "Well, I am not going to read your Bible; I am not going to listen to your talk about Jesus Christ; I do not believe in such things." You will be damned then, sir. "That's very hard," say you. No it is not. It is not more so than the fact that if you reject the compass and the pole star you will not get to your journey's end. If a man will not do the thing that is necessary to a certain end, I do not see how he can expect to gain that end. You have taken poison, and the physician brings an antidote, and says, "Take it quickly, or you will die; but if you take it quickly I will guarantee that the poison will be neutralized." But you say, "No, doctor, I do not believe it; let everything take its course; let every tub stand on its own bottom; I will have nothing to do with you, doctor." "Well, sir, you will die; and when the coroner's inquest is held on your body, the verdict will be, 'Served him right!'" So will it be with you if, having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, you say, "Oh! pooh, pooh! I am too much of a common sense man to have anything to do with that, and I shall not attend to it." Then, when you perish, the verdict given by your conscience, which will sit upon the King's quest at last, will be a verdict of felo-de-se — he destroyed himself.

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