The following is taken from a message by Rev. Albert P. Graves which was delivered in Rock Island, Illinois, Sunday Evening, Feb 25, 1877. The text was from 2 Kings 4:26 — “Run now I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.”
What could you say if that question was put to you, dear father, to whom God has given a wife and children, and you never prayed with them yet, and never asked a blessing at your table? What if God should send a cohort of angels down from the capital of the universe tonight to press the question to your heart, “Is it well with you?” Would you say, “I am a moralist,” or “I am a Universalist,” or something of that kind?” Would you try to palm off the idea, that because it is some way, as you hope, well with you, that you are not going to be judged? I want every person in this room, as far as the human mind, aided by Divine truth, can do it, to settle this question tonight, right before your God, “Is it well with you?” What say you, my dear friend, in the light of eternity?” If you should be called to go into eternity before twelve o’clock tonight, is it well with you?
I propose, dear friends, to consider the divine welfare for a little while. Let me take a few minutes to consider the process of the divine welfare. I shall show this in two ways. First, I will give you an incident, and then a passage of Scripture.
It is said that Whitefield at one time dined with Lady Huntington: an unconverted brother of his was present. During the dinner hour, Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntington had a religious conversation. Such was the nature of it that this brother’s attention was arrested, and he was so deeply impressed that all at once he dropped his knife and fork, and threw up his hands and cried, “I am lost! I am lost! I am lost!” “Thank God!” said Lady Huntington. “Why? Why do you exult over my lost condition?” “O, I can not help it,” she says; “I am so glad you are lost — so glad!” “But why, why, do have such ecstasies over my lost condition?” “Simply because Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and save that which was lost. Now, sir, if you have found out that you are lost, there is some hope of your being saved.”
I want to give that to every person in this room tonight. There is no hope of being saved until one owns himself to be a lost sinner. God has never sent His Son into the world to save the righteous. Jesus says Himself that He “came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Some of you self-righteous men here in Rock Island, I don’t know whether the angels in glory could live with you if you could get into heaven under your self-righteousness.