Forgiven but Lost

A young man who was brought up in a very good position strayed very far from God, and lived a very fast and wicked life. Shame at length drove him from his country. He enlisted and was sent to India. His anxious parents knew nothing of him until, through a friend, they heard that he was in India. His father at once wrote to him the following letter: “My Dear Son, — You are breaking your mother’s heart. Come home at once, and we freely forgive you for all the wrong you have done us. I send out money to a friend in Calcutta to buy you out of the ranks, and also sufficient to bring you home. Come at once: we will give you a hearty welcome home. — Your loving father.”
He got the letter, but did not open it, thinking it was of no value. He went further into sin than ever, until at last he was stretched upon a hospital bed, with his life fast ebbing away. When he felt that his end was drawing near, he asked the nurse to give him the unopened letter out of his knapsack. There it was, telling him of his redemption from the Army and a free pardon from home. Oh, how he wished now that he had opened it and read the good news which was sent from a loving father to him; but he spurned it when he had the opportunity, and now it was too late forever. He died a poor castaway, without a friend near him, and, worse still, without a Saviour—an eternally lost man. ‘Just such a letter is the Bible, which God has sent to those who are far off from Him; but they neglect it, until at length all chance of rejoicing in a Father’s pardon and glad welcome home passes away forever.