Echoes of Grace: 1995

Sir Isaac Newton had a friend who was a scientist like himself, but he was an atheist. Newton was a devout believer, and the two men often had long discussions over this question, since their interest in science often threw them together.

Newton had a skilled mechanic make him a miniature replica of our solar system. In the center was a large gilded ball representing the sun. Revolving around this central ball were smaller balls fixed on the ends of arms of varying length. They represented Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (Pluto had not yet been discovered), in their proper order. These balls were geared together so as to move in perfect harmony by turning a crank.

One day as Newton sat reading in his study with his mechanism on a large table near him, his atheist friend stopped in to visit him. He recognized at a glance what was before him. Walking up to it, he slowly turned the crank. With open admiration he watched the heavenly bodies all move at their relative speeds in their orbits. Standing back a few feet, he exclaimed: “My! What an exquisite thing this is! Who made it?”

Without looking up from his book, Newton answered, “Nobody!”

Quickly turning to Newton, the atheist said, “Evidently you did not understand my question. I asked who made this thing?”

Looking up now, Newton solemnly assured him that nobody made it, but that the aggregation of matter which he so much admired had just happened to assume the form it was in. At this the astonished friend answered hotly, “You must think I’m a fool! Of course somebody made it, and he is a genius. I’d like to know who he is.”

Laying his book aside, Newton rose. Putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder, he said, “This is only a weak imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know. I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer and maker, yet you profess that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without either designer or maker! Now tell me: By what sort of reasoning can you reach such a conclusion?”

The atheist was convinced, and acknowledged that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1.)

“Shall mortal man be more just than God?
shall a man be more pure than his maker?”

Job 4:17

Peter the Great

Pyotr Alekseyevich reigned as czar in Russia in the early 1700s. Today we know him as Peter the Great, for he earned this title by his life and leadership. Pushkin, a Russian author, described Peter as “The eternal toiler upon the throne of Russia.”

Peter’s reign was full of bold, imaginative projects to make his country stronger. He imported tradesmen and industries to improve his nation’s economy. He built St. Petersburg on marshlands along the Baltic Sea to increase commerce and trade. He established colleges and universities. He started a navy for his country’s protection. Although he was an autocrat whose word was law, he dressed as an ordinary laborer and worked for some months in the shipyards of Holland to learn improved techniques of shipbuilding.

When he died, Peter’s last words were, “I hope God will forgive me my many sins for the good that I have tried to do for my people.” Peter hoped that God would forgive and forget his sins in exchange for his good works, but such a hope has no foundation. God has never said that good words or works can remove bad ones. God never has and never will forgive sins because of personal merit.

God forgives sins freely because of the suffering and death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross. By His work salvation is offered free to all. It is a work begun and finished on the cross, not begun on the cross and finished by anything that we could ever do. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9.)

No one has anything to boast of when it comes to salvation. The great as well as the small of the earth, the rich as well as the poor are alike sinners before God. No one has anything acceptable to offer God to remove their sins. All must depend upon what God will do for them, not upon what they can do for God. Who can forgive sins but God only? (Mark 2:7.)

Don’t make the fatal mistake of searching for something good in your life by which you may earn God’s favor and hope that He will forgive your sins. Remember, though you are a sinner, before you ever thought about your sins, Christ died for you. Now God commends His love to you, urging you to receive His forgiveness through Christ who suffered and died to save sinners.

When a person believes on the Lord Jesus, the world’s only Saviour, he is entitled to be sure of his forgiveness with God. While it is presumptuous and wrong to believe that God will forgive sins because of good deeds, it is never presumptuous for a sinner to trust the Lord and have all sins forgiven. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Ephesians 1:7.)

“ We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”

Isaiah 64:6

The Lost Wallet

I teach my Bible class to cast all their cares upon God, and, of course, a teacher should practice what he teaches. Recently I lost my wallet while shopping. When I went to pay for a purchase, I discovered it was missing.

I went back to the store where I had paid for my purchase a few minutes earlier, but no wallet had been found, so I started for home feeling pretty sad. But I remembered the Bible lesson, and silently rolled my burden over onto the Lord.

When I reached home I was greeted with the good news that my wallet had been found! A clerk assisting my son-in-law found the wallet, and recognizing that I had been a recent customer, showed it to him. He recognized the wallet and notified me. My prayer was answered and my faith confirmed. To God be the glory!

Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7.)

The Lock Is on Our Side

A man once met a preacher in London and said, “I heard you preach one time, and you said something which I have never forgotten. It has been the means of my conversion.”

“What was that?” asked the preacher.

“It was that the lock was on our side of the door. I had always thought that God was a hard God, and that we must do something to pacify Him. It was a new thought to me that Christ was waiting for me to open to Him.”

If Christ is not within our hearts, the fault is ours.

Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life. ( John 5:40.)

Have a Nice Day!

“Have a nice day!”—said the cashier in the grocery store.

“Have a nice day!”—said the service-station attendant.

“Have a nice day!”—maybe even you said to your next-door neighbor.

Well, if wishing could make it true, we’d all have a nice day—or week—or year—or lifetime.

But it doesn’t work that way.

But we can have a nice eternity—surely—positively—no wishing involved. David wrote in Psalm 16, verse 11: Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. “Fullness of joy!” “Pleasures for evermore!” Talk about nice!

That “path of life” sounds good; how do we find it?

The same book, the Bible, answers that. The Lord Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. ( John 14:6.)

There is no other path; there is no other way. There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12.)

One way. One path of life. Simple, isn’t it? There are no great things to do to please God, no impossible price to pay for salvation. We have only to accept for ourselves the redemption the Lord Jesus offers us, the redemption accomplished by His death and resurrection, and He has promised that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. ( John 3:36.)

Not a wish, not a hope or a prayer, only an absolute certainty.

Have a nice eternity!

“Show me Thy ways, O Lord;
teach me Thy paths.
Lead me in Thy truth,
and teach me:
for Thou art
the God of my salvation.”

Psalm 25:4-5

"Tell Me Something to Read"

The gospel meeting was over. The preacher invited any who would like to talk to him to remain behind. Among those who stayed was a young man about thirty years old. His face was intelligent; his body appeared strong, but a dark cloud seemed to hang over him.

The preacher went to him and said, “Can you tell me the heart of your trouble? Tell me your problems and I will do what I can to help you.”

“Well, sir,” was the reply, “I suppose you will consider my case desperate. I am an unbeliever—an atheist.”

“But there are some things you believe. You believe the Bible to be the Word of God?”

“No, I do not.”

“You believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God?”

“No.”

“Well, at least you believe in a God?”

“There may be a God. I can’t say that I believe there is, but there may be. I do not know.”

“Then why are you here? I do not see what you want with me if you do not believe in the Bible, nor in Christ, neither are you sure that there is a God.”

“I wandered in here tonight expecting to hear some fine music. I heard only the congregation singing, but curiosity led me to stay and hear what you had to say. The one impression I got from your sermon was that you believe in something, and that you are happy in that belief. If you can show me the way to believe in anything and how to get happiness in believing, I wish you would. Tell me something to read.”

“You have been reading too much already; that is part of your problem. You are full of the misleading writings of the skeptics. I would have you read only the Bible—the Word of God.”

“But what is the use, when I don’t believe it to be the Word of God?”

Opening his Bible, the preacher read from the gospel of John: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. ( John 5:39.) Now that means that one who honestly searches the Bible will find that it contains the witness to its own divine origin and inspiration, and the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Well, I’ll read the Bible, but what else?”

The preacher turned to Matthew 6:6 and read: “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. If you sincerely pray to God, He will reveal Himself to you.”

“But what use is it to pray to God if I don’t believe there is a God?”

“Go and pray: ‘O God (if there be a God), save my soul (if I have a soul).’ He will not disregard any genuine effort to draw near to Him.”

“Anything more?”

“Yes, one more text: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28.)”

“Is that all?”

“That is all. Will you promise to do these things?”

They both knelt down, and the preacher prayed earnestly for the young man. They separated, but the preacher continued to pray often for him.

Two weeks later at the close of an evening service the young man came again to the preacher. This time his face was shining with happiness.

“I have found God and Christ,” he exclaimed, “and now I am a happy man!”

Blessed [happy] is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. ( Jeremiah 17:7.)

"My Sins!"

J. D. Smith one day said to a young fellow who looked very gloomy: “What’s the matter?”

“My sins!”

“What about your sins?”

“I shall be lost!”

“Can you read?”

“Of course.”

Opening his Bible at Isaiah 53, Smith asked him to read the following lines in verse six: We have turned every one to his own way. Then he added, “A drunkard has turned to his own way; an atheist has turned to his own way, and God says that all have turned to their own way.”

“Yes,” said the young man tearfully.

“Now read the next line.”

“The Lord hath laid on Him [Christ] the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6.)”

“Do you believe that?”

“Is it true? May I believe it?”

“You will be lost if you don’t.”

“I understand—I believe,” said the young man. And his face, so long and so gloomy, suddenly beamed.

“You know you are saved then?”

“Yes.”

“And happy?”

“Yes!”

“And at peace with God?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

May you also be filled with all joy and peace in believing. (Romans 15:13.)

Christ Can Meet Your Need!

Straying far on sin’s dark mountain,

Like a sheep that’s gone astray,

Every moment takes you farther

From the straight and narrow way.

As a foolish sheep, not knowing

Where the path it treads will lead,

You are straying into darkness;

None but Christ can meet your need.

Listen to the wondrous story:

Jesus came the lost to save,

Gave His precious blood on Calvary,

Rose victorious o’er the grave.

Lives in glory to receive you;

None are ever turned away

While the door of mercy’s open,

While it’s called salvation’s day.

Now to you He calls in mercy,

Calls to you, to all oppressed;

Yes, to you the word is written,

“Come, and I will give you rest.”

Then delay not till tomorrow!

Soon will pass salvation’s day,

You will then be gone forever

To another world to stay.

“Bhld, I come quickly. . . .
The time is at hand.”
Revelation 22:7,10

"All Aboard!"

In a western town lived a small family: father, mother and little son John. Times were hard and they were poor. But something far worse than poverty overtook the little family: an epidemic swept through the area and both father and mother died. After the funeral expenses were paid there was practically nothing left for little John.

Only one hope came to John. He had heard his parents talk of a relative who lived in Chicago. If he could only go to him!

One day as he wandered near the railway station, lonely and forlorn, a train thundered in and stopped beside the platform. John asked a man in the crowd where the train was going.

“To Chicago” was the reply.

“Chicago!” exclaimed John, moving nearer to the train. “That’s where I want to go.”

Presently, while he stood wistfully watching, the conductor shouted, “All aboard!” and the engine’s bell began ringing.

All aboard? thought John. Why, that means everybody aboard, and if everybody’s invited to get on, that means me.

“ALL ABOARD!” again shouted the conductor louder than ever, and without further hesitation John clambered aboard and took a seat. In a few seconds the train moved swiftly on its way.

Before long, however, the conductor appeared asking for tickets. But John had no ticket, neither had he any money. The stern conductor eyed him severely and ordered him to leave the train at the next station.

This he did, and again he could be seen standing alone on the platform. But to his astonishment and delight, the conductor shouted again, “ALL ABOARD!”

And again John responded and took his seat on the train.

Here he was again confronted by the conductor who angrily demanded: “Did I not order you to leave the train at the last station?”

“Yes,” replied John, “and so I did. But you said ‘ALL aboard’ once more and I thought that must mean me. So I got on again.”

The conductor saw the point. It was his mistake as well as John’s, and the sad, honest face of the little orphan captured the conductor’s interest and heart. So after listening to John’s story, he let him ride freely to Chicago and his relative.

We may smile at little John’s credulity, but we must admire his faith. He heard the conductor’s unqualified “all aboard” and acted on it.

The little word “all” is one of the greatest and grandest in the gospel message. Though we read that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, we also read that there is no difference . . . the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. (Romans 10:12.)

And the blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7.)

Some or All?

Simon the Pharisee knew only some of the sins of the woman in the city, which was a sinner, and condemned her. He thought that, if the Lord Jesus really were a prophet, He would know she was a sinner and angrily send her away.

But the Lord Jesus knew all her sins. What did He do? Instead of sending her away in anger, He spoke these blessed, peace-giving words: Thy sins are forgiven. . . . Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:48, 50.)

Years ago there was a long, severe winter in England. The river Thames was frozen over for weeks. People built streets of shops over the icy surface, and there was driving and buying and merriment upon the solid, glass-like river.

But one night suddenly the thaw set in and the ice heaved and cracked and broke away in chunks. Booths and merchandise were hurled down the flood.

Suppose that some citizen had said, “It would be nicer to live in the beautiful ice street than in the narrow, dirty lane where I live now,” and then moved all his furniture and his family into a new house built on the frozen river. What would have become of him and his family and possessions that night?

Such a supposition only goes to show the foolishness of living for the present only. Wisdom does not lay up treasures on earth, but in heaven, and says, “Soon I must be done with earth, and heaven abides.”

The world passeth away . . . but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:17.)

“The World Passeth Away”

Under Arrest

A convict had escaped from the penitentiary, and no trace of him could be found. At the same time Dr. Oliver, a well-known preacher, was conducting a mission in the neighborhood of that prison. Night after night he pleaded with men and women to come to Christ, and for several nights he noticed a man who invariably sat near the back of the hall. There was an intense light in his eyes, speaking of earnest interest, and the drawn, haggard expression on his face told of his agony of soul.

At last one night Dr. Oliver felt that he must speak to the man. He left the platform and, going straight to the man, said, “Why on earth don’t you surrender to Christ?”

The words just seemed to burst from the man. He said, “I have been in hell the last four days! I would have escaped from here, but I just couldn’t. You could say I’m under ‘spiritual arrest!’ I guess you know who I am: I am the man they are hunting for. If I surrender to Christ it means the penitentiary again for me.” He shuddered as he spoke.

Dr. Oliver said to him: “The question for you to settle tonight is God’s penitentiary, not man’s. It is impossible for you to escape the private detective of God Almighty—the Holy Spirit.”

The man fell on his knees sobbing. The flood tide of God’s love in Christ crashed through the bitterness of his sin-scarred heart and he surrendered to the Saviour.

Of his own accord he went back to the penitentiary and told the warden of his conversion to Christ. The warden, looking him in the face said, “Man, I know you, and nothing but God Almighty could have made you come back here.”

Once again the gates of the prison closed on him and he finished his sentence, leaving a clean record from the time of his return. Released, he became a strong witness to the saving power of Christ.

Have you ever realized that you are under arrest? More than that, you are already condemned and sentenced. By whom? By Almighty God! He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ( John 3:18.)

The sentence has not yet been carried into effect, but the time is soon coming when, if you still go on in sin, the righteous God of heaven will judge you.

Friend, One has already been brought to the bar of God’s judgment on account of your sins and mine. Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, has paid the debt in full. For all who own their sin and guilt, a pardon is proclaimed by the God against whom we have sinned.

Why not take advantage of this wonderful offer? You must meet God in grace or in judgment. The choice is YOURS. Come in all your need today.

Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. (Hebrews 3:15.)

The Hundredth Case

The doctor didn’t give me much hope. The only chance was an operation, an operation so risky that the chances would still be only about one in a hundred. After agreeing to go ahead with the surgery, I lay in my bed and thought: What will it mean to wake up in eternity? Where will I spend it? How can I meet God?

The questions demanded an answer, and quickly too. All I had trusted to in the way of religion was giving way under me, for I realized that it had left the questions of my sins unsettled. Going into the presence of God, and my sins unforgiven! This was reality!

Oh, how I longed for some little bit of the Word of God on which I could rest for peace and assured salvation! But who could give it at that moment?

God Himself gave it! Quick as a lightning flash an old and familiar Bible verse shot into my mind, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7.)

I gripped it with all the eagerness that a drowning man would grip a life belt that had been thrown to him, knowing there was no time to lose. I said to myself, “I will meet God with that!” As I clung by simple faith to God’s testimony to the virtue of that precious blood, a sudden peace filled my troubled soul, such as I had never known before. I went to the operating table as calm as I would have been had I been going to my breakfast.

Through God’s mercy I was the hundredth case and I was brought safely through. I have come back from the very gates of death to say that trusting in the precious blood of Jesus, the worst sinner can meet God without a quiver of the conscience or doubt in the heart.

“ Behold, I lay in Sion
a chief corner stone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on Him
shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe
He is precious.”

1 Peter 2:6-7

The Gift of God

“A model Christian business man”—that was William. A respected banker, a member of the church, kind and honest in all his dealings—yes, he certainly seemed to live up to his reputation to be what they called him: “a model Christian business man.”

But William was a Christian in name only. He owned that Jesus was the only Saviour, but he did not know Him as his own Saviour. Satisfied, successful, ambitious, he pursued his own career.

One Sunday morning as he left his regular church service, his attention was caught by a large text painted on a wall on the opposite side of the street. In big, bold letters it read:

THE WAGES OF SIN
IS DEATH;
BUT THE GIFT OF GOD
IS ETERNAL LIFE
THROUGH JESUS
CHRIST OUR LORD.

Romans 6:23

It was like an arrow piercing his conscience. Of all William’s secret fears, death was the “king of terrors.” Until then he had succeeded in drowning the thought of death whenever it entered his mind, but now he could not get rid of the thought. The wages of sin is death began to ring in his ears constantly. He knew they were the words of the living God, and he was forced to listen.

He knew that all men were sinners, but not till then had he realized that he himself had sins, nor what could be the consequences. He saw that he was lost and helpless, and trembled at the thought of being cut off in his sins and condemned for eternity. “If ever a man had a glance at hell, it was I,” he said later.

Facing the fact that he had sinned against God, William immediately set about trying to save himself. He labored fervently to earn God’s favor by extra church-going, giving to the poor, praying, and strict religious observances. Convinced that the forgiveness of sins was obtained by good works, he toiled perpetually to earn God’s pardon.

Later he wrote in a letter to a friend: “I fasted till I could barely walk. Day after day during Lent I walked early in the morning without breakfast to take the morning sacrament. I fasted the rest of the day and prayed so earnestly and so long that I am surprised I did not break down. I did everything my heart suggested until, worn out and discouraged, I almost gave up in despair.”

How many there are who are trying to save themselves, though God’s Word plainly says that salvation is “not of works.” The more zealously William struggled to save himself, the more miserable he became. He did not know that God was waiting for him to give up all his efforts and simply accept eternal life as His free gift.

The truth dawned upon him one lovely Sunday morning in spring. Sad and discouraged, he was leaving the service in company with his young nephew. The little boy suggested that they walk on the other side of the street. Crossing over, William was again confronted by the big text which had started all his trouble. Slowly and deliberately he read it again:

This time it was the last two lines which struck home like a bright ray of light from heaven. The truth of the gospel shone into his dark soul in a flash. Throwing up his hands, he exclaimed: “Is it possible that eternal life is a free gift? And I have been working so hard to get it!”

In a moment he understood that Christ, by His sacrifice, had settled the sin question and won eternal life for him. By simply believing on Him who did it all—paid it all—he was saved.

Hurrying to his room he fell on his knees and thanked God for His amazing grace in giving Jesus to die in his place. His heart overflowing in praise and thanksgiving, he declared: “From now on I shall devote my life, my heart, my strength, my all to the proclamation of the gospel which has been God’s power to the salvation of my soul.”

No longer was he working to gain salvation; his whole purpose in life now was to serve the One who had loved and saved him.

“Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest
unto your souls.”

Matthew 11:28-29

Retrospect

I thought today of my childhood days;

The prayer at my mother’s knee;

Of the counsels grave that my father gave—

The wrath I was warned to flee.

I thought today of the many days

I had wasted in folly and sin—

Of the times I mocked when the Saviour knocked,

And I would not let Him in.

What joy to find that He loved me still,

And waited my love to win—

To make me know, on the cross of woe,

He suffered for all my sin.

And that precious blood that from His side

Was drawn by the soldier’s spear,

Has cleansed my soul and made me whole—

To His Father brought me near.

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.” Isaiah 55:6

"Only an Enquirer"

Ted was a Russian living in southeast Poland. His wife was a true believer in Jesus Christ, but though Ted saw her rejoicing daily in God’s great salvation, he refused to accept it for himself. He insisted that he was “only an enquirer.”

In time he emigrated with his family to South America, where they settled as farmers in a Slavic colony. Many of his neighbors were Christians, and he attended the gospel meetings there with his wife. He began to enjoy mixing with believers, although remaining “only an enquirer” himself. He was like many who lived in Noah’s day before the flood—standing near the door of the ark, perhaps, and yet not entering in.

With the outbreak of World War II, Ted joined the Polish army. Soon after enlisting he told his family good-by and boarded a troop ship bound for Britain. In a few days they were far out on the Atlantic.

Ted’s ship was one of a convoy, heavily escorted on account of enemy submarines. But in spite of the protecting cover a dreaded sub succeeded in torpedoing the two troop-laden vessels sailing before and behind the one in which Ted sailed.

In that dreadful encounter it seemed that everyone prayed. Certainly Ted did! In deepest sincerity he told God that if He would but save him this once from drowning, he would take the first opportunity to find spiritual help and to put his trust in the Saviour he had so long refused.

God in mercy answered his prayer—and Ted remembered his promise. In a few days he found himself safe from the sea, stationed in a Polish military camp in Scotland.

On the first Sunday he was off duty, so he walked to the nearest town. Later he could be seen going slowly along the main street as if searching for something. He was looking for a church.

He soon found one. It was much more imposing than he was used to, but he timidly entered and sat down. Acquainted only with the Polish language, and not even able to recognize the Scottish tunes of the hymns, he again returned to the street and resumed his walk.

Before long he came to a simple hall and paused outside to listen to the singing. This time he was delighted to recognize the familiar notes of “Oh, happy day, that fixed my choice on Thee, my Saviour and my God.”

The music was irresistible, so he entered the building and sat down. To his amazement a man handed him a New Testament printed in Polish. He had been immediately recognized as a Polish soldier.

After the service, Ted soon made the Christians understand what his desire was, pointing first to the Testament and then to his heart.

Three evenings later he again entered the hall. A Polish gospel meeting had been arranged specially for the men from the Polish camp. After the service, the Polish speaker talked with Ted and listened to all his story. Finally the preacher asked, “Ted, from tonight are you going to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, or remain ‘only an enquirer’?”

Ted at last faced the issue. He knew that “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). He also remembered hearing that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Acknowledging the overwhelming claims of Christ he replied: “From tonight I am going to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ!”

That night he walked back to camp rejoicing in the knowledge of a full and free salvation through the finished work of Christ for him upon the cross.

With the first opportunity he sent the good news of his salvation to his wife. Through the goodness of God he was kept through the war in safety, and when peace returned he was once more united with his family on their farm in South America.

How wonderful was the mercy of God to this poor soldier, first in saving him from what seemed certain death in the ocean, and then in saving him from his sins and in bringing him to a living faith in Christ Jesus.

"They Simply Will Not Believe!"

The great volcano near Djakarta had erupted and, though there had been no loss of life, over 2500 persons were left homeless. After the eruption had somewhat subsided they returned to the remains of their homes in spite of the fact that there was now a huge basin of boiling lava which emitted sulphurous gases and great clouds of brown dust. It is also said that the temperature some distance from the volcano was still nearly 900 degrees. Rumblings were constantly heard, and everything indicated continuing volcanic activity. A reporter on the scene said: “They have been warned repeatedly of their great danger, but they simply will not believe.”

She was so impressed with their carelessness that she repeated: “THEY HAVE BEEN REPEATEDLY WARNED OF THEIR GREAT DANGER, BUT THEY SIMPLY WILL NOT BELIEVE!”

How like many today! The rumblings of coming judgment are ignored by young and old alike: “They simply will not believe!”

Yet at any moment God’s door of mercy may close. The day of God’s grace has nearly run its course; the storm clouds are gathering, and soon God’s judgment will fall on the earth.

Are you among the many who “simply will not believe”? Your position is far more serious than those near the volcano. You are in danger of eternal doom, cut out of heaven and shut up in hell for all eternity.

Hear the words of the Bible addressed to you: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

Listen to the warnings and run for refuge to the Saviour of sinners!

“ Therefore be ye also ready:
for in such an hour as ye think not
the Son of man cometh.”

Matthew 24:44

“For the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven
with a shout.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Letter to a Friend

Dear Kathleen,

For months now I have wanted to write to you, but I’ve put it off time and time again. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and you were even “littler.” Daddy said to me, “Why don’t you give little Kathleen a nickel or a dime sometime, since she is your namesake?” But I never did. I guess it was because I was afraid you might laugh at me and say I thought I was better than you because I had dimes to give out! But tonight I have been reading an article that compels me to write, and I can’t put it off any longer. This is what the article said:

“Suppose I saw a blind man unknowingly approach the brink of a high cliff, and I just stood by without any effort to warn and save him from certain death. Would I not be guilty of his death? The death of one person, which another might have prevented, is a terrible thing, but how much worse not to warn another of eternal judgment after death. Does not God hold me responsible to warn another to flee from the coming wrath? If failure to warn others to save them from physical harm is an awful thing, what is my guilt if I neglect to warn someone of how to be saved from eternal suffering?”

Dear Kathleen, I do not know what your inmost thoughts are regarding eternity. But I pray that you will think seriously now of God’s love for you, which He has made known to you by giving the Lord Jesus Christ to die for you. Consider your need of Him in your heart and in your life. You need Him now and for eternity.

When I think that someone I love may not spend eternity with Jesus Christ in heaven, but may spend it apart from Him in the blackness of darkness forever, that thought is overpowering. You know the gospel well, Kathleen, so won’t you consider it and accept the One who died for you at once?

Until now, I have thought many times how the Lord, like Daddy, might say to me, “Why didn’t you present the way of salvation to Kathleen, especially since she is your namesake?” And with shame I would have to reply that it was simply because I was afraid she might laugh at me.

Now it’s up to you, Kathleen dear, to simply accept the gift that is being offered to you—eternal life through the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Your loving sister-in-law,

Kathleen

Kathleen was a teenager when she received this letter. It so affected her that she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour, and she has lived for Him ever since.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

One Great Impossibility

It is possible to get to heaven without money. Many a pauper without a cent in the bank has been welcomed to the Father’s house, while many a millionaire has found his wealth a millstone to crush his Christless heart. The Apostle Peter once uttered these burning words to a “money man”: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20).

It is possible to get to heaven without having a friend in the world. Friendship has never been the passkey to heaven, for it is written: “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

It is possible to get to heaven without being a social worker or a philanthropist. All men apart from a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are counted as “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is not expected that a dead man can do anything of living value. All the good works done by misguided men could never fashion a key to heaven, for salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).

It is possible to get to heaven without being a church member. One can argue endlessly over the idle question, “Which church saves?” It is wasted time. The dying thief could see no church, but he could see Calvary and the dying Son of God and, churchless though he was, he cried, “Lord, remember me.” And he received the answer which many church members have never heard: “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

It is possible to get to heaven without many things which the world, religious or otherwise, would consider necessary. But the world has never seen eye-to-eye with the Man of Calvary. For Him it has only a rough cross atop a bleak hill.

BUT—there is one great impossibility. It is not possible to get to heaven without the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). The only key to heaven is faith in His redeeming work. “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

Life is uncertain. In fact, the only thing in life about which we can really be sure is the fact that we can’t be sure about it. But beyond life there is eternity—and there is no need for us to lose our precious souls by being uncertain about that.

There is only one way—the way of the cross. There is only one truth—the truth of God’s Word. There is only one life—the seeking Saviour and loving Lord Himself.

“ There is none other name under heaven
given among men,
whereby we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12

My Saviour Could, and Would

If you could find the oldest heart,

That longest has withstood

The pleadings of Almighty love,

My Saviour could, and would

Forgive the awful life of sin,

And take the aged offender in—

My Saviour could, and would.

If you could find the hardest heart,

Receiving only good,

And yet returning only ill,

My Saviour could, and would,

With one sweet glance of patient love,

The hardest rebel’s spirit move—

My Saviour could, and would.

If dark despair had sealed the heart,

And like a sentry stood

And cried, “Life is impossible!”

My Saviour could, and would—

He could give life, for He has died;

He would give life, though all denied—

My Saviour could, and would!

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

Ephesians 2:8

Whose Side?

During the Civil War, a man lived in a district which was sometimes occupied by the one army, and sometimes by the other.

When the Northern army was in the neighborhood he said he was “a Northern man,” but when the Southern army was near he immediately became “a Southern man.”

This led at last to his being despised by both sides, and he had to suffer much at the hands of both parties. On one occasion a company of soldiers came to his house unexpectedly. He was asked by them to declare what he truly was. Before answering he looked carefully at their uniforms so that he might say he was on the same side as themselves, but he could not make them out at all.

It was growing dark, and the uniforms were worn and faded. He could not figure out how to answer. At last he blurted out: “Well, gentlemen, I am just nothing at all—and mighty little of that!”

We may condemn him, but is it clear whose side we are on? Are you for Christ—or for the world and the devil? It has to be one or the other.

“Who is on the Lord’s side?” (Exodus 32:26).

Are you?

Big Bill

They called him “Big Bill.” Tall, strong and bearded, he was a real Paul Bunyan lumberman. He was rough and rude, a heavy drinker and swearer, and decent people avoided him. Little he cared what people thought! He “feared not God, neither regarded man.”

One day Big Bill was sitting on a stump whittling a stick. There was no work to be done that day, so he was waiting for someone to go with him for a drink. A boyish voice beside him said, “Mornin’, Bill. Have you heard the news?”

“What is it?”

“Why, some feller is coming to the island to preach, and they’re lettin’ him have the schoolhouse,” replied the speaker, a thin, barefooted boy. The boy added with a grin, “I thought you might be going.”

“What! What’s that you say?”

“Oh, nothin’, only some feller’s going to preach in the schoolhouse.”

“Not much, he ain’t!” exploded Big Bill. “We ain’t never had religion or preachin’ on this island, and we ain’t going to start now—not so long as my name’s Big Bill!”

The night came for the preaching. So did the preacher. And so did the people of the island. Some came to hear the Word of God, but most came to see what Big Bill would do. He was expected to make trouble, and it would be a courageous preacher that would withstand him.

The meeting began. The preacher was reading his text when the door opened and in stalked Big Bill, loaded for trouble.

The first words to meet his ears were the preacher’s text: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Big Bill stopped and listened. The preacher repeated the text. Then he read it for the third time. By the power of God the words took hold of Big Bill’s heart.

Never before had he heard such words. The strong man was utterly disarmed by the text, and he went quietly to a seat near the front of the room.

No one listened to that gospel message with more concern than Big Bill. At the close, the preacher stepped forward and shook his hand—the hand of the man who had come determined not to allow any preaching or religion on the island.

To his great joy, the preacher learned that Big Bill, as he sat in his seat, had accepted Jesus into his heart. Oh, the power of the Word of God!

“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

“ There is joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth.”

Luke 15:10

Two Roads

Bob died recently; so did Diane. He had a long trip through life; hers was relatively short. Both started life on the same road, but later Diane chose a different road. The two roads they traveled led them to two different destinations.

Diane and Jim were high school sweethearts. They dated, got married, and had a baby boy. Up to that time neither took life very seriously. But after she became a mother, Diane became more serious and her sins started to bother her. She got a Bible and started to read it. Discovering that Christ was the Saviour of sinners, and that “the Son of God . . . loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20), she called upon Him and was saved.

Jim loved Diane. If she wanted “religion” that was OK, but he didn’t see any need for it himself. So their lives went on, she on one road and he on another. They had two more boys and were a happy family. In time Jim listened to what Diane was telling him about his guilt before God as a sinner. He asked Jesus to save him from his sins; now the whole family was on the same road, enjoying the Lord Jesus, reading the Bible and praying together.

A little more than a year later, Diane discovered that she had leukemia. She began taking the treatments prescribed by her doctors, but she didn’t get any better. Slowly her health deteriorated. The family prayed that, if it was God’s will, she would get better. They could accept God’s will for them, knowing that “as for God, His way is perfect.”

With Jim at her side and two Christian friends quietly singing to her, Diane came to the end of her road through life with a peaceful smile on her face. That road led directly and immediately into the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Bob’s journey through life lasted longer than Diane’s, but he took a different road. Like Diane, he had a family he loved; God gave him the joys of a wife, two daughters, a nice house and a good job, but his family seldom went to church, never read the Bible, and thought they were good enough to get to heaven.

After being healthy for many years, Bob suddenly got very sick. His wife and daughter cried to God, pleading with Him to make Bob well again, for they pleaded, “Bob is a good man.”

For a few days he seemed brighter, but then quickly went downhill to the end of his road—a road he had traveled without God and that leads to eternal separation from God.

Bob and Diane traveled through life down separate roads, leading to separate destinations. The Lord Jesus spoke of these two roads when He was here on the earth. He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus is the straight gate and the narrow way, for He said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

Are you on Bob’s road—or Diane’s? God promises: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Get on the road of life that leads to eternal joy. The gate is still open.

“I have set before you
life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life.”

Deuteronomy 30:19

The Receipt

On the banks of the river Mary in Queensland, Australia, lived a “scrub” farmer named Sam.

He had lived a wild life—working hard, drinking hard, farming, butchering and doing other things by turns. He had made a lot of money, but spent it as fast as it came. Alcohol had been his downfall.

Riding home through the bush at night he had had many hair-raising escapes. Again and again he had been thrown from his horse and dragged by the stirrup at imminent risk of death. One morning, following a night of carousing, he awoke lying head downward on the side of a water hole within a foot of the water, where he had been thrown some hours before.

But time did not pass lightly over Sam, and the life he had led took a heavy toll. Now he lay upon his bed, a human wreck, slowly dying.

Conscience, too, was beginning to make itself heard. His career rose up before him like a dark cloud, and the future filled him with dread.

Visiting him one day, a Christian said to Sam: “Sam, do you know what a debt is?”

“Yes,” said Sam.

“And what a receipt is?”

“Yes, I’ve plenty of them in my time too.”

“Well, let’s suppose you were in debt and could not possibly pay. And let’s suppose a friend came forward and paid your debt and gave you the receipt. Would you be afraid of your creditor after that?”

“No, the receipt would settle it anywhere.”

“Your sins then, Sam, may be compared to a debt, and God demands the debt must be paid. Payment must be rendered to Him or you cannot escape hell.”

“Ah! but can a receipt be had for that debt?”

“Yes,” said his visitor, and he read him Christ’s parable of the two debtors: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:41-42). “But, Sam, your debt must be owned, and you must acknowledge that you have nothing to pay with. Own to God that your debt is much, and your assets nothing, and then, God says, you will be freely forgiven everything you owe.”

“But the receipt—what’s that?”

“Well, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). His blood and His death are what paid the debt. Afterwards, God raised Him from the dead, so declaring to all that He, the Creditor, is satisfied with the payment made by His Son upon the cross. Yes, God took Him up to heaven and gave Him a place at His right hand. This is the receipt, Sam—Jesus risen and ascended and seated at God’s right hand.

“The Holy Spirit has come down from heaven, where Jesus now is, to testify that God is satisfied with the work of Christ. He has caused it to be written in this Book, the New Testament. This Book is like a written receipt. Any poor sinner who has owned to God his sin and helplessness may hold this Book in his hand and say, ‘This is my receipt!’ It gives peace and security to the heart—it can neither lie nor change.”

Sam grasped the truth as a drowning man grasps a life preserver.

He believed and was at peace.

On his next visit, his Christian friend thought that he would test Sam. He reminded him of his sins and of the holiness of God. He talked of the impossibility of a sinner earning the favor of God. He pictured the hell that awaits all such.

Sam’s quiet attention gave way to excitement. Raising himself on his elbow, he reached out to touch the New Testament which lay unopened on the visitor’s knee. He said, “Well, I can’t read, but in that Book you’ll find that Jesus died for sinners!”

Happy Sam! He had the receipt, and he held it steadily to the end.

Are your sins forgiven? Is your debt paid? Be assured that what God did in grace for poor old Sam, He will certainly do for you. Do not rest until you can say from your heart: “My indebtedness to God is cancelled by the blood of Christ, and in the unchanging words of the Bible I have the receipt.”

"Him That Cometh"

Until I was sixteen I was just a wild girl. I never read the Bible. I could not have told you who Jesus was. I knew there was a God, but nothing more. But one Sunday night I had such a longing to go to a gospel service, I said to my brother: “Oh, Sid, I feel as if I would like to go to service. Do come with me!”

“Why, Edie,” he laughed, “what has put that into your head?”

After a good deal of persuasion, my brother came with me to a large hall. We sat in the back row. My brother thought the preacher was never going to quit. It was all new to him too. He said: “If this is coming to service, I will never come again. I was silly to come.”

When at last the service ended, I said, “That made me uncomfortable!”

“Now, Edie, don’t you begin, for I have had enough. I’ll never come again,” said Sid.

“I won’t either!” I said.

I thought no more about it until the next Sunday, when again I felt that strange urge to go to the service. So I pleaded with my brother to go with me. It never occurred to me that I could go by myself.

At last he put on his jacket and came. We went to the same hall and sat in the same seats. The same thing happened. I felt so uncomfortable, and my brother was angry with himself for coming.

“I will never, never come again,” I said to him when at last it was over.

“You said that last week,” he replied, “but I know nothing nor nobody will get me to come again.”

Again I forgot about it all week until the time for the Sunday evening service came on—and again I felt that I must go. How I begged Sid to come with me! He did, but very unwillingly. We went to the same hall, and sat in the same seats.

As I sat there I knew I was a lost soul. Nobody had spoken to me personally, but I knew that if I died that night I would go straight to hell.

We went home, and my brother hung up his jacket, but I paced up and down our large kitchen with my coat still on. At last my brother came and said, “Whatever is the matter with you? Take your coat off and sit down.”

“Sid,” I said desperately, “I’ve got to see that man who preached tonight.”

“All right, Edie, I’ll go with you,” he replied. I never in all my life loved him as I did at that moment.

Together we returned to the hall just as the preacher was coming out. I went up to him and said, “Oh, sir, will you baptize me?” I thought baptism would save me!

The dear man looked at me, and then he spoke to me of the Saviour. For the first time I heard the story of Calvary. He told me of His love—how Jesus loved me.

“Oh, but I have not given Him a thought all my life! I have cared nothing for Him,” I said.

Very gently he replied, “My child, the Lord loves you and died for you.”

For ME! In my joy I just shook my brother and cried, “Sid! Sid! Listen to the good news!”

Then I asked the preacher, “What must I do?”

He took out his Bible and read me some verses. This was one of them: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

“I will come this minute!” And my first prayer was: “Lord, save me, a sinner; and save my brother too.”

I rose from my knees and the preacher said, “Have you trusted Him? Do you believe you are saved?”

“Why, of course! Didn’t He say, ‘Him that cometh’ ? And I have come!”

In my joy I ran all the way home with my brother. I burst in upon our astonished family and said: “I am saved! I have found Jesus Christ!”

I went everywhere telling people; I thought nobody knew the good news. I believe today as I believed then: if only people knew Christ they must love Him.

“But does it last?” someone may ask. Well, it is many years since I came to Christ. I can say from the depth of my heart that ever since I heard the wonderful message of God’s redeeming love it has been the joy of my life to tell others. There is no joy in the world like seeing the love of God transform lives as it transformed mine.

I have seen drunkards, gamblers, prostitutes, thieves—people of all kinds and conditions—come under its influence, and the result has been wonderful. The Lord Jesus does not reform their lives. He makes them all new. Wonderful Saviour! Saving all who will receive Him.

“If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

The Two Sons

“A certain man had two sons. . . . Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant” (Luke 15:11, 25-26).

We often read the parable of the Prodigal Son and his return to his father, but we stop at the end of that and forget that “a certain man had two sons.” We like to hear how the younger son was received back, but do we ever ask, “What about the elder son? What became of him?”

The elder son came near to the house, and hearing the music and dancing, he wanted to know what it was all about. Have you ever wondered what makes your believing relatives and friends so happy? Have you asked yourself what it all means? God the Father rejoices in the return of the lost ones; they have confessed that they were once “in the far country,” but have now been brought to God and they are glad.

But the elder son “was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out and entreated him.” The angry elder son stood on the outside, and his father came out himself to “entreat.” God entreats you, too. His Word says, “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” The Saviour has been right down into the very depths of death to enable a holy God to come out in righteousness as well as grace and save all “that come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25).

We are all either inside, rejoicing with the Father in His joy and with the returned son, or outside in company with the elder son. The door was as open to the one as to the other, and today it is still kept open by a hand of love. Why not enter?

The elder son had his reasons for anger: “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” Now he revealed his character in his complaints! He was proud of his length of service, self-righteous in his claim never to have transgressed, and utterly selfish in wanting a gift only that he might make merry with his friends. It was not his father’s company he desired, but his friends’.

There are many like that today that are angry, and will not come in. They are proud in standing up in their own strength before God, self-righteous in depending on their own morality apart from Him, and selfish in refusing Him the joy of blessing them according to His own heart of love.

The door of God’s mercy stands wide open; all that God has of blessing is there for all who will take it. Won’t you come in?

There's a Saviour for You

Afar off from God

In the broad, downward road,

The soul may have wandered,

Neath sin’s heavy load;

Yet still there’s a message

For Gentile and Jew,

And this is its purport—

There’s a Saviour for you.

Though burdened with sin,

And though laden with care,

E’en yet there is hope

And you need not despair;

For Jesus has met

All the penalty due.

And now in the glory

He’s the Saviour for you.

Ah, soon will this day

Of God’s favor be o’er,

When He will forever

Have shut tight the door.

How bitterly then

All the past you’ll review,

When hearing no longer,

There’s a Saviour for you!

Cme unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

"Where Do We Go From Here, Boys?"

The army was advancing. A soldier stationed on the ridge was signaling when a bullet struck him and he fell, a crumpled heap, into a shell hole.

This soldier had been a sailor before going into the army. He was proud of his strength, contemptuous of the weakness of others and cared only for his own interests. Now his strength was turned to weakness, and as the weary hours dragged by there seemed little hope of rescue. His line had been driven back, and he was all alone.

The effort of supporting his body and preventing it from sliding down into the water at the bottom of the shell hole exhausted him. About midnight he saw distant figures outlined against the sky; they were newcomers replacing his men. They knew nothing of his position, and this made his rescue seem more hopeless than ever. It was terribly hard to keep awake and fatal to fall asleep.

Near dawn shelling began again. One shell fell so close behind him that the explosion nearly blocked up the hole in which he was. The water rose to his chest. Now for the first time it was possible to wet his parched tongue and soothe his raging thirst, but, should he fall asleep, drowning was inevitable.

Running through his mind now came the strains of a song cheerfully sung on former occasions: “Where do we go from here, boys?” Gradually the words became pointed and the thought was impressed on his mind: he was going somewhere—and soon. “Where?” And again, “Where?”

His body was trapped in the mud, his strength was gone and his careless soul was on its way out. Out he was going, naked and stained with the sins of thirty years, into the presence of a holy God with nothing to plead and no one to intercede.

The terror of death fell on him, and he made frantic efforts to escape from what seemed to be his grave. Again and again he called out for help. No answer. I cannot die, he thought. I am not ready to die!

No method of approaching God offered itself. “What can I do? I must do something!” he said desperately.

Into his mind now came an answering thought: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee.”

Not recognizing this as a reply to his question, he still kept muttering, “What’ll I do? What’ll I do?”

Again came the thought: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee” (Psalm 50:15).

“Who should I call? It must be God. The sentence must come from the Bible. But if it is God, He must be speaking to His own people—not to me. I don’t know Him!”

Something must be done soon, but how to begin? Where is God? At last he began to form his request: “O God, if there is a God, and if He can hear one out of the ten thousand that are crying to Him this morning, and if He will listen to such a voice as mine, hear me. If this is in the Bible, and can be stretched to cover me, this is my day of trouble and I am calling.”

This done, panic began to recede and sleep was falling upon him when he heard someone say, “Who are you, buddy?”

“7th Battalion,” he replied.

A period of silence, and then again: “Where are you?”

He roused himself to answer, “Over here.”

Finally two men, crawling over the mud, reached the place where he was trapped. Their combined efforts dragged him out of the shell hole. They tried without success three or four ways of carrying him back to their post, but were compelled to stop because snipers fired as soon as they raised their bodies. They had to leave him to try and make his own way out. After pointing to the dressing station more than half a mile off, they returned to their own posts. The wounded man could not lift his body from the ground, so he lay on his face and, by digging his elbows into the ground, he dragged himself forward a foot at a time.

Several times an airplane passed overhead, machine-gunning the front lines, but each time it reached a point above the crawling body the firing ceased. Was this due to the need to reload, or was it due to the promise, “I will deliver thee”? At last he reached a point where other soldiers could see him, and with a final effort he raised his body and shouted. When next he came to himself, he was in a base hospital.

One of the first things he did was to ask for a Bible and look for the promise that had proved to be so true. He was told he would find it in Psalm 50, verse 15, and when he turned to it and read it, he was deeply interested in the concluding words: “And thou shalt glorify Me.” He resolved to do this as long as he should live.

As he said many times, “It is better to walk to God in health and strength than to crawl like a worm through the mud to His feet!”

It’s the grandest theme—

Let the tidings roll

To the weary heart,

To the sin-sick soul.

Look to God in faith,

He will make you whole.

Our God is able to deliver you!

"Take it in the Dark"

More than eighty years old, with wrinkled skin and silvered hair, she was still without peace and tormented with doubts. Her simple country life was often darkened by fears as thoughts of death and eternity again and again burdened her.

Friends had asked me to call on her, so one afternoon last winter I went to see her. The message of God’s love and Christ’s death and resurrection was again given—the wonderful story told once more. Still she wanted to see or feel some change. So I thought to show her that feeling followed faith and did not go before it.

Suddenly, while I was still speaking, a bright gleam of sunshine passed over that clouded face. “Then,” she slowly said, “you mean that I’m to take it in the dark?”

“Yes! That is just it,” I replied. “You cannot see it. The happy ones are those who have not seen, and yet have believed. But, just simply believe what God says about the death of His Son. Yes, as you say, ‘take it in the dark.’ ”

Wait no longer for happier feelings. Look no more for brighter experiences. But give glory to God by believing what God says—just because He says it! And so “take it in the dark.” The message is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “All that believe are justified” (Acts 13:39).

"Going Through the Seas to Glory"

Many a new idea is quite pretty to look at—as pretty as some of those flimsy fabrics made to catch the eye. Like those fabrics though, they are very disappointing in actual use, being simply no good at all when it is a question of facing the rough wear of everyday life.

For downright hard wear there is nothing like the sweet old gospel of the grace of God. It stands alone, without a rival. Beyond the rough and tumble of this world there stretches eternity with its vast issues, and into that eternity we, men and women, must enter because our spirits are immortal. Where will you find a clue to lead you through the labyrinth? Where will you find the peace and joy that cannot be quenched by the sorrows of this world or the pangs of death itself?

The men who go down to the sea in ships see as much of the rough side of life and death as most of us, and in many cases a good deal more. Listen to the testimony of one who experienced the gospel’s power.

Years ago a sailor, John, found the Saviour one Sunday morning. On the following Tuesday he sailed for the River Platte on a freighter. The voyage was safely completed, though John had to put up with a great deal of persecution from the mate, David, for his “religious cant and psalm singing.”

The cargo being discharged, the ship reloaded. But only two days afterward a violent storm caught them in its grip, and the ship seemed ready to sink. A great wave finally struck them on the starboard quarter where both John and the mate, David, were struggling with the wind. Both were washed away. But David caught the railing and was saved, while John was swept clean out to sea on the crest of the wave. Without the least hope of being saved and with nothing but death before him, John shouted out, “David! David! I’m going through the seas to glory!”

Another instant and he was gone, never to be seen again. But those last words, “I’m going through the seas to glory,” rang in David’s ears. The old persecutor said to himself, “A man with death staring him in the face never yet told a lie with his last breath.”

He was a convicted man, and, before he reached home, a converted man too. He found the peace that John enjoyed by believing in Christ Jesus.

Is that peace real? Yes, thank God, it is! Do you want it? Then come to the Saviour yourself. Rest your soul on the value of the blood that cleanses from all sin.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

The Flood of '93

Throughout the spring and early summer of 1993 record rainfall fell on the Midwest. Torrential rains caused billions of dollars worth of damage and the loss of 42 lives. If you turned on a radio anywhere in the United States, the broadcast might have sounded something like this:

The flood conditions along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers worsened today. Record crests are expected all along these waterways following the heavy rains of yesterday. Throughout the flooded region neighbors worked feverishly filling sandbags to protect their houses. More heavy rains are expected this afternoon. Experts are calling the flood of ’93 the worst of the century.

The reporters often sounded like preachers, proclaiming great truths from the Bible. For instance:

Residents along the banks of the Illinois River were forced to flee to higher ground today before the flooding river overtakes them.

Change a few words in this broadcast and it sounds like a message the Lord of life would have delivered to every person. “Sinners in this world need to flee to higher ground before God’s judgment overtakes them.”

What is the higher ground that sinners need to flee to? It is resurrection ground.

When the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, He became the sin-bearer for all those who would afterwards believe on Him. In an overwhelming flood, God’s judgment against sin was poured out on Him. He cried to God, saying, “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42:7). No human being will ever be able to understand the depth of suffering that the Lord Jesus went through for sinners. Then He cried out, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head in death.

Before evening His body was taken from the cross and laid in a tomb. It was sealed, and Roman soldiers were ordered to watch so that no one could steal the body. There it lay for three days. Early Sunday morning Mary Magdalene came to the grave and made a startling discovery. The rock had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. The Lord Jesus was victorious over death. He had risen from the grave.

The sins of everyone who receives the Lord Jesus as Saviour are gone. Jesus died, suffering for them as His own. When He died, not a sin remained on Him or God could never have raised Him from the dead. Therefore, the sins of every believer are gone forever.

If you are a believer, then you are on higher ground—resurrection ground. You are safe from the punishment that will overtake everyone who dies in their sins. If you have not yet come to Christ, you need to do so at once. Flee to higher ground!

Another news flash went something like this:

Tonight suspense grows for the townspeople living below the Richfield dam. The water has been rising all evening. It is predicted that at any moment the bank of earth will give way, causing unprecedented damage and misery.

This report illustrates a solemn truth about sin and judgment. Sinners are in a dangerous position. Like the water rising below the dam, they are storing up God’s anger against themselves. God warns: “[Thou] after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath” (Romans 2:5).

God would lead you by His goodness to repentance and faith in Christ. Right now He is waiting for you to acknowledge that you are a sinner and need the Saviour. However, if you continue to reject the Lord Jesus, God’s anger against sin will surpass His patience towards you. The people who lived near Richfield dam didn’t know when it might break, and you don’t know when God’s righteous anger will come upon all who refuse His goodness. God’s patience is great, but He will not keep His anger against sin in check forever. “Flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7).

One of the most chilling stories about the flood concerned Gary Mahr. It might have been broadcast something like this:

Today the death toll rose by six to a total of forty-two. Two adults and four children were drowned in a cave which they had entered to find shelter from the heavy rains. The group had ignored the warning signs at the entrance of the cave. Gary Mahr, a thirteen-year-old boy, was the only survivor. For eighteen hours he clung to a rock ledge as the waters, carrying the bodies of his dead friends, swirled around him.

If they had paid attention to the warning signs, the tragedy would have been avoided. Yet, like them, many people today ignore God’s warning about the judgment to come.

An underground cave was no place to seek shelter at such a time. And there is no place to seek shelter from judgment for sin except in Christ. Long ago the prophet Isaiah said, “A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest” (Isaiah 32:2). Now we know that that Man is Christ the Saviour. Sadly, instead of coming to the Saviour, some seek a refuge in good works of some kind. There is no refuge apart from Christ. Only He can save. Those who have trusted Him as Saviour have found the one refuge which will never fail. Will you not receive Him as the one and only Saviour of sinners—the one and only Saviour for you?

He Loves Us

Sometimes people think that God requires them to love Him in order to be saved. They begin to search their hearts, and they cannot find there one particle of love to Him. If we are not to be saved till we love Him, we will never be saved at all!

The wonderful truth is, HE LOVES US. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Have you been trying to love God in order to be saved? Give it up! It is true that you ought to love Him, but so long as you are unsaved you cannot do so. Accept the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, meditate on His love to you, and you will be able to say, “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

When the Saviour Came My Way

You ask me why I love the Lord.

Well, friend, just let me say:

My life was not worth living

Till the Saviour came my way.

You say I lose so much in life;

Yes, friend, PRAISE GOD, I do.

I lose the sin and sorrow

Which was all I ever knew.

I lose the days spent seeking joy,

The long nights full of tears;

I lose the heavy burdens

Which I carried through the years.

But, friend, I would not have them back

For all that you could pay!

My life was not worth living

Till the Saviour came my way.

“lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.” Isaiah 40:26

Braver Than Most

Was it dangerous? Of course not! The Pammer family had been doing the same thing for years, and there was nothing at all to fear. Every week, weather permitting, they packed their boat with food, charcoal and children, and then sailed to the island for a cookout. Today the sun was shining, the water smooth, the breeze just right for sailing. What could possibly go wrong?

Many things! Storm fronts move quickly in Florida, and as they were sailing homeward late in the afternoon, a sudden storm bore down on them. The sun disappeared behind flying black clouds and the wind and rain struck with a roar.

Bill Pammer started the engine, preparing to lower the sails and get quickly to shore, but the storm hit with 45-knot gusts of wind and nine- to ten-foot waves. The 25-foot boat was tossed wildly on the rough water, and the boom swung over and struck Bill on the head. He was swept overboard, and his sister-in-law, Becky, disappeared beneath the waves at the same time.

Out of control, the boat spun round in the wild waves. Water rushed in, sweeping everything into a jumble. The three Pammer children huddled close to their mother and screamed for help as they were driven relentlessly toward shore.

When two hundred yards out, their frantic cries were heard by Chester Sprague, standing on pier 60. The boat was being driven straight toward the pier, and he thought: It could go back out to sea—or I could go out in the water and help.

As the boat floundered, coming closer and closer to the pier, Sprague waited tensely. If I could jump aboard—! It crashed into the pilings—now? No! Again it rammed the pier—now? No.

It swirled away again out of reach. At last—for a split second—the mast was near. Sprague leaped—and caught it. Shinning down the mast, he secured the sail and guided the little family to safety.

Two hours later Bill and Becky were found clinging to a mile marker two miles off shore and brought to shore for a happy and thankful reunion with their family.

Myrrha Pammer said, “I just thanked God over and over again. He [Sprague] was the bravest, kindest man with the biggest heart I’ve ever seen!”

Sprague was certainly brave—braver than most would be, for he risked falling into the wild waves to save people who were strangers to him—but there was One who went into the darkest depths knowingly for those who cared nothing for Him. “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42:7) was written of Him.

And Sprague’s heart was big with love for those helpless, frightened children, but nothing can equal the love of the Lord Jesus in giving His life for us— “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). No man has greater love than that!

Myrrha Pammer “just thanked God over and over again” that their lives were saved. The Lord Jesus sacrificed Himself to save our souls. Have you ever asked Him to save yours? And have you thanked Him?

Jerry McAuley

Jerry McAuley, product of a broken home and an abusive childhood, escaped to “freedom” and the streets of New York when he was thirteen. Life went only downward from there, and at nineteen he found himself in Sing Sing prison with a long sentence to be served. Then something wonderful happened to Jerry. He said, “God was more merciful to me than man. He loved and pitied me, and stretched out His hand to save me. His wonderful way of doing it was to shut me up within those heavy stone walls!”

Yes, Jerry learned in prison that the Lord Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10)—he was certainly that! He prayed the old prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). God heard, God answered, and soon Jerry knew the joy of sins forgiven. Long before he had served all his time, he left the prison, truly free, and with the governor’s pardon in his pocket.

Years later, speaking in the mission to which he devoted his later years, he told his story like this:

“Once I was a loafer and a tough. I never knew what it was to be contented and happy. My head was like a mop—with a big scar across my nose. If I had a coat, it was one of the kind with the cuffs up here to the elbows! Split open in the back! Latest style, you see. You couldn’t find any drunken rowdy on the corner worse looking than I was. I held up my hand and cursed God for giving me existence. Why had He put me in a hell on earth? Why had He made me a thief and drunkard, while He gave others wealth and comforts?

“Then I suddenly thought—He has done none of those things. It was I who brought myself to what I was. Yes, I did it myself! I made myself a drunkard and a thief, and then went and accused God of it! But oh, God is good, my friends. He is kind. He is merciful. ‘Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him’ (Psalm 103:13), and ‘He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil’ (Luke 6:35).

“But some people say, ‘Ah, but I’m too bad; God wouldn’t listen to me.’ That’s all a mistake! His Word says, ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow’ (Isaiah 1:18).

“He can save the vilest! God will take what the devil would almost refuse—the very worst, He loves and invites. Didn’t He save the thief on the cross? And Mary Magdalene with seven devils?

“That’s the way it is. Jesus is willing to save everyone who honestly asks Him to do it. ‘Let the wicked forsake his way . . . and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon’ (Isaiah 55:7).

“My friends, I want to tell you that it pays to serve Jesus. He’s a good friend. I used to hang round that rumshop on the corner there, and they were glad enough to have me there as long as my money lasted. But when that was gone, it was, ‘Jerry, take a walk! Take a walk round the block and cool off!’

“I felt the insult down in my heart. It stung me, but I couldn’t help it, I was such a slave to my appetite. I hadn’t a friend in the world. But I can tell you, it’s not so now. I’m a new creature, inside and out! I’m honest and clean and respectable and happy. I am full of joy and peace! The blessed Jesus has done it all. Jesus saved me, and He can save any man.

“The gift of Christ to us is the measure of God’s love. ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).

“The death of Christ is the measure of Christ’s love: Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, ‘the just for the unjust,’ to bring us to God. And now, my friends, ‘How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?’ (Hebrews 2:3).

“ ‘The Spirit and the bride say, Come. . . . And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely’ ” (Revelation 22:17).

Only by Birth

Life begins with a birth. Physical life begins with a birth; spiritual life also begins with a birth. We become members of the human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth—by being “born again.”

There is no way to get into the human family except by birth. There is no way to get into God’s family except by a new birth.

Education will not do it. Reformation will not do it. Joining a church will not do it. Trying to do your best will not do it. Turning over a new leaf will not do it. What is needed is not a new “leaf,” but a new “life.” You “must be born again” (John 3:7).

By physical birth we become partakers of the human nature. By being born again we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the receiving of a new nature—entirely new.

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old nature is unimproved and unimprovable in God’s sight; it is hopelessly bad and incapable of being made fit for the presence of God.

Christianity is not “religion.” Christianity is LIFE—the life of the Lord Jesus Christ given to us the moment we are born again. “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12), and “to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

“Trying to follow Christ” is not Christianity. Christianity is not imitation of Christ; it is the indwelling of Christ. Christianity is not trying to do anything; it is trusting Christ who has done it all.

He finished the work of salvation, and there is nothing left to do—simply receive and trust Him who said, “It is finished”! He shed His blood on the cross, and the work is all done once and forever. Stop trying and begin trusting!

You are born again, you become a Christian, by trusting a person—receiving the person of Christ. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in, and life—His life—begins in you.

The important question then is: Have you been born again? The Lord Jesus says, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Have you thus believed on the Lord Jesus? If so, then you are saved, you are born again, you have “passed from death unto life” —God says so! Take God at His word and go on your way rejoicing!

It Is a Gift

One morning in one of the wards of the General Hospital some visitors had finished singing to the patients and were going from bed to bed with cheerful greetings. I approached a young man who expressed his thanks for our service of song. I asked him, “Have you become acquainted with the One we have been singing about?”

“No,” he said, “I am sorry to say I have not.”

“Then, why not?” I asked. “You must realize the importance of becoming a Christian.”

“Yes, I do, but it is of no use in my case. It is not for me. It requires faith, and I have no faith. I know the Bible pretty well—I’ve read it all my life. At least ten people, among them several ministers, have tried to explain it to me and I cannot understand it.”

“I am going to make you a present this morning,” I said. “Will you accept it?” And taking my wallet out, I selected the best-looking bill and offered it to him.

“Oh, yes,” he said, “I will accept it if you want me to, but you only want to use it as an illustration, and then you will take it back again.”

“Oh, no,” I said. “I told you it was to be a present,” and he held out his hand and took the bill. “Now, have you got it?” I asked.

Again he said, “Yes, but after your illustration, you will take it back and I will be without it.”

“But, surely you do not doubt my word.”

Still holding the money in his hand he said, “No, I have no reason to doubt your word, and you said that you gave it to me.”

“Now, once more may I ask, Have you got it?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Now, how did you get it?”

“Why, you gave it to me.”

“And why did I give it to you?”

“I don’t know—you do not owe me anything.”

“And you accepted it?”

“Yes.”

“Now see,” I said, “Jesus offers you salvation in just the same way. It is a free gift. ‘ The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life’ (Romans 6:23). Will you accept it?”

“Oh,” he said, “I see it now, and He doesn’t take it back! Why yes, I accept it, and I will keep this bill in remembrance of this. I’m saved!”

Salvation is the free gift of God. He does not owe us anything. It is a free gift. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).

“ By grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: not of works,
lest any man should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

Mother's Prayers Answered

“Okay, José, within an hour you must board your ship!”

José shrugged his shoulders and contemplated the voyage indifferently. There was nothing to indicate that it would be any different from the many others he had made. A steward’s job aboard a freighter doesn’t provide much excitement, and regular trips to South African ports can become pretty monotonous.

While waiting, he was sitting in the living room of their neat little home near Lisbon. While his wife packed the clothes he would need for four or five weeks at sea, José casually picked up a book that lay beside the sewing machine.

“Christian Reading,” he mused. “A religious book, judging from the title. Well, I’m forty years old now and have knocked about the world too much to bother about religion. If all Christians were like my old mother, there might be something to it.”

It was years since he had seen his mother, though she never failed to write and he knew that she never ceased to pray for him.

“It’s good to have a mother like mine,” he continued to himself. “What a pity that our ship doesn’t cross the Atlantic sometimes—then there might be a chance of putting in at a port near where she lives.”

Listlessly he opened the book in his hands. Immediately his eyes fell on the words: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

Here was a meeting José had never reckoned on! He had always been careful to keep short accounts with his mates. Now all of a sudden he realized a day was coming when he must settle up with God.

His wife glanced up and saw that something was the matter, and asked him what was wrong. He gave an evasive answer, but asked her to put a Bible in his bag.

He made his way to the ship, preoccupied with this strange new thought: he would have to meet God about his sins.

His sins! All his thoughts now revolved around his sinful past. Feelings of guilt and horror possessed him.

Once on board, he took the first opportunity to open his Bible, but everywhere he read it seemed only to add to his dread of condemnation. Statements such as, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23) and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) haunted him.

He could not sleep at night, but tossed for hours in his bunk. Nor did the morning bring relief, for so great was his distress that he could not eat. When he opened and searched the Book again, every sin he had ever committed seemed to be written down there in terms of judgment.

The other members of the crew advised him to throw the Bible overboard—otherwise, they said, he would go mad. But he dared not do that, though its message filled him with the terrors of hell. Days went by, and his anguish only increased. There was not a single ray of light to pierce the gloom.

But behind the clouds God was working to prepare José’s soul for blessing. In His time and in His way, He caused the unhappy man at last to discover these words: “All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme” (Mark 3:28).

Here was a promise from the lips of the Saviour Himself, and he laid hold of it. As he did so, a wonderful calm came over his storm-tossed soul. José at once resolved that, as soon as his boat returned to Lisbon, he would seek someone who could show him the way of salvation.

His first evening on shore found him in a gospel meeting. There he heard the wonderful truth that has brought peace to millions: “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). He believed and was saved and rejoiced.

His first act was to write to his mother and tell her that her prayers had been heard in heaven and gloriously answered.

God can save a repentant sinner at any age and in any place, regardless of their nationality or moral condition. He can use a few words in print to tear the veil from our eyes. Yes, He can use José’s brief, true story to bring others—to bring you—face to face with the realities of eternity.

“ The Lord is not . . . willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

The Anchor

Fears undetermined plagued my mind

Of things illusive, undefined.

I tried religions, one by one,

And ended worse than I’d begun.

I sought for pleasures, found them brief;

Not anything brought real relief.

Philosophy—the “good thought” trend—

Still left me empty in the end;

Adrift upon life’s troubled sea

There seemed no anchor sure for me.

Then I was introduced one day

To One who knew my troubled way.

He had experienced it before

And knew I’d never make the shore

Struggling alone and on my own.

He paid the full price for my fare

Across the troubled waters where

I’ll never ever be alone!

Now as I travel o’er the waves,

I know it is His hand that saves.

A steadfast Anchor now have I;

My Anchor rests above the sky!

All other anchors anchor down;

An upward Anchor I have found!

“We have . . . an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.”
Philippians 3:10

"Only an Empty Tomb"

In one of the villages in northern India a missionary was preaching in a bazaar. Afterward a Mohammedan came up and said, “You must admit that we Mohammedans have one thing that you Christians have not. We at least can take our people to Medina where they can see the tomb of Mohammed, but when you Christians go to Jerusalem, you have only an empty tomb.”

And the missionary answered, “Thank God, you are right! That is the difference between our faith and yours. Your leader is in his grave, but Jesus Christ, whose kingdom is to include all nations and peoples and tribes, is not in any grave. He is risen! And He says from the resurrection side of an empty tomb, ‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth’ (Matthew 28:18).”

Our risen Lord is our ever-living Saviour. And His promise is, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19).

You ask, “Did Christ really live?”

That is one thing that all agree upon—that this person who claimed to be the Son of God really lived here on earth among men.

We know when He lived—from about 4 B.C. until around 30 A.D. We know where He was born—in Bethlehem of Judea, a real town. We know where He lived for most of the years of His life—in Nazareth, in northern Galilee. There He worked as a carpenter.

We know many of the characters of His day—their names appear in other historical writings outside of the Bible: Herod the Great, King Agrippa, Salome, Pontius Pilate, Tiberius Caesar, Gamaliel, Felix and Festus.

Every history of the ancient world and every encyclopedia records the fact that Jesus lived during the first century of our era. All dates of history are now designated by the letters B.C. or A.D., both of which refer to the time of the birth of Christ.

JESUS CHRIST LIVED!

And now “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” who believe on Him (Hebrews 7:25).

HE LIVES!

Consider

The person who accepts the gospel gains immensely, even in this life. Peace of conscience, rest of mind, and satisfaction of heart are surely worth having, and all these we get when we truly receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who knows Christ as his Saviour has no reason to fear death, and he can look forward to the future beyond the grave without the least misgiving. The future is no longer dark with the thought of judgment. It is no longer a gulf into which he fears to fall and which he strives to forget. On the contrary, it is bright with the thought of home and glory.

It is no small gain to realize that sin no longer oppresses the heart. It is no small gain to enjoy the smile of a Saviour-God and communion with His Son. Even in this life, knowing our sins are forgiven brings wonderful peace.

But all these advantages seem as an idle tale to an unsaved person. What he thinks he will lose by accepting the gospel is painfully real to him, while what he is told he will gain only faintly appeals to him.

But a moment’s consideration of the eternal future should settle all hesitation at making the exchange. Better to die in the gutter with our sins forgiven than to die on a throne unsaved. Better to spend a lifetime in prison, if heaven is our destiny in the next world, than to live the happiest life that mortals ever knew down here if our fate in the existence beyond the grave is everlasting banishment.

Consider the brief span of life here on earth. Then you will realize something of the meaning of the old, unanswerable question: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The door to heaven—the door back to God—has been opened. It was opened up in the person of God’s Son. Sin, the mighty barrier, shut man out from God’s presence, but the Son of God put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, bringing in everlasting righteousness to all who will receive Him.

You do not need to pray for an open way; it is open. You have simply to enter in, believing on that Saviour who died that you might live.

“And by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39).

Jesus said: “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).

The Age of Information

“Knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4). Did you know that this was foretold in the Bible? The same passage also states that this shall come to pass in the time of the end. Our time, right now, must be near the time of the end.

Recently we read that “a single weekday edition of The New York Times carries more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England.”

An advertisement offers a CD-ROM computer disk containing a full, 21-volume encyclopedia with 33,000 complete entries and 2000 illustrations. A computer can scan hundreds of published works, from ancient history to telephone books. We truly live in the information age!

Facts, figures, information and misinformation pour forth in a continuous stream, bombarding our overworked minds until the simple ability to think, to judge and to make clear decisions may be lost. Sometimes in self-defense the overtaxed mind begins to erase information, like a crashing computer, and we forget. So much for knowledge.

What about wisdom? James 3:17 tells us that “the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle.” How restful it sounds! How can we get it?

“The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). We get that wisdom through “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

It is a full provision, for time and eternity, and it is ours for the asking: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally . . . and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

But there is no time to lose. This age of information is also the time of the end and could reach its climax at any day—even today. Then it will be too late to acquire that gentle and peaceable wisdom, too late to receive the redemption and righteousness and eternal salvation which God has offered you.

“Seek ye the Lord
while He may be found,
call ye upon Him while He is near.”

Isaiah 55:6

"He Will Never Let Me Go"

Can a thief—a felon—a convict—be truly saved? Certainly! Danny was one such who learned of God’s offer of salvation and was thankfully converted. He had had enough of the old life!

An old acquaintance tried to convince him that “it wouldn’t last,” and he would probably be lost after all. “If you don’t hold on you will be lost,” he would assert.

“You’re wrong,” Danny answered. “I mean to hold on, but I have learned that, when I was saved, two got hold of each other. I got hold of Christ, and Christ got hold of me. I am sure of one thing—if I let Him go, He will never let me go. He loves me so much that He died for me. I cost Him too much for Him to give me up!”

The sinner who believes on Christ becomes one of the sheep of Christ, the Good Shepherd. And He says seven things about them in John 10:27-29:

1. “My sheep hear My voice.”

2. “I know them.”

3. “They follow Me.”

4. “I give unto them eternal life.”

5. “They shall never perish.”

6. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.”

7. “My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.”

“He’ll not let my soul be lost,

He will hold me fast;

Bought by Him at such a cost,

He will hold me fast.

“ This is life eternal,
that they might know Thee
the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”

John 17:3

Judgment Ahead

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

How can there be so much indifference to this great, positive fact? If a heart has not been touched by the loving message of God’s grace, there remains only the terrible alternative of falling into the hands of God for judgment!

We live in the last days as prophesied in 2 Peter 3:3-4: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

There are those who not only deny God’s word, but they deny the existence of God Himself. Others do not like to go so far as that, but they say that the Bible is not inspired, which is equally bad, for “all scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).

To the indifferent we would say: “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). “God . . . commandeth all men every where to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:30-31). Can you afford to be indifferent to such commands? No!

You say, I do not want to think of these things yet; I have other things I want first. I implore you not to allow anything to come between your soul and God. All the pleasures and the riches this world can offer are not to be compared with the value of your soul.

At any moment death may snap the link connecting you with this fascinating scene and the certainty is: “After this [death] the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

How does the title of these remarks—“Judgment Ahead”—affect you? If you are without Christ, it should terrify you, but if you possess Christ as your Saviour, you have the unspeakable joy of knowing that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

“ Behold, now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.”

2 Corinthians 6:2

He Goes After the Lost

God is the seeker. We do not have to soften His heart to pity or turn Him toward us. We feel our hardness toward Him, and we think Him hard. We listen to our consciences that accuse us, and we think we hear His voice in them.

Conscience can never take the place of revelation. Only God can tell me what He is, or what Christ did for me, or how my soul can be at peace with Him. For all this I must listen to His Word alone. It alone can bring in the true, eternal light in which conscience and heart alike can find their rest and satisfaction forever.

It is a wonderful thing to be able to give a free and general offer of salvation—to say: Christ died for all. Come to Him, and He will give you rest. Yet there are those who need even closer attention—those who lie wounded by the roadside. They need, not merely the call of the gospel, but the grasp of strong, tender hands and the binding up of the wounds. There are those who dare not reach out soiled hands to Him because of their pollution and who can only be liberated and brought out of their isolation by that direct touch of His in which a new, undreamed-of life for them begins.

How much do those quiet words involve! “He . . . [goes] after that which is lost” (Luke 15:4).

But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed,

Nor how dark was the night which the Lord passed

through,

Ere He found His sheep which was lost.

The cross was the only place where He could overtake these wandering ones. It is only as we realize what the cross is that we find the arms of this mighty love thrown round us. Here He has come where we are. Here is the place in which, without rebuke, we can claim Him—our substitute and sin-bearer.

The terrible cross of Calvary has destroyed forever the distance between us. The crucified One is ours, for the death and judgment He has borne are ours. “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Our penalty He has paid for us. He finds us, and immediately we are freed and uplifted by the might of this redemption and by the living power of our Redeemer.

“ The Son of man is come
to seek and to save
that which was lost.”

Luke 19:10

Jesus

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, Jesus.

My soul is night, my heart is steel—

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to Jesus.

He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads;

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in Jesus.

Though some may sneer, and some may

blame,

I’ll go with all my sin and shame,

I’ll go to HIM, because His name

Above all names—is JESUS.

“With Christ; which is far better.”

Philippians 1:23

The Blood-Marked Door

It was a defenseless little town in the path of the invading army. Only women and children and the elderly were still there, but something had angered the commander. In the presence of his troops he swore that he would kill the entire population. As his troops rushed in, the order was “wipe them out!”

Sick with horror, one fugitive watched from his hiding place as the soldiers broke into a house and he listened to screams of the victims inside. As the men burst out and raced toward the next house, one stopped to slam the door behind them, and with a bloody cloth he marked the door as a token to others of what had taken place inside.

The watcher understood in a flash what he had seen. Slipping as much out of sight as he could, he made his way ahead of the mob of men to a large house near the center of the town. A number of his friends were hiding there, and breathlessly he told them what he had seen.

They acted at once. A goat in the yard was immediately killed and its blood splashed on the door. Scarcely had they closed the door again when a band of men rushed into the street and began their murderous work. But when they came to the blood-marked door they made no attempt to enter! All inside the house with the blood-marked door were saved, though many around were slain.

The gospel application of our story is easy to understand. Imperfect though the illustration is, yet it reminds us of those soul-saving words of God, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13).

Yes, Christ has indeed been “sacrificed for us,” and every believer in Him knows that what has stopped the sword of divine judgment is His sheltering blood.

Have you believed God’s word about the blood? Have your sins been washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus? “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth . . . from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

“ This is My blood . . .
which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.”

Matthew 26:28

"Pop" Brown

“Pop” Brown lived in the southern part of the United States. The unusual thing about him is that he spent most of his life behind the bars of jails and prisons—over seventy years. In fact, Pop Brown called such places “home.” Escape or release from one merely opened the way for being put into another. Again and again the story was repeated until a lifetime was gone. The opportunities and joys of freedom were lost forever. He was always confined.

You say, Nothing could be worse!

But wait a minute—did you ever think about the confinement of HELL?

NOTHING COULD BE WORSE! In the Bible this place is called the “lake of fire.” A lake speaks of confinement, and fire is a picture of judgment. It is the end of the road for everyone who leaves this world without the salvation of God. You and I have sinned. Hell is what we deserve. “For all have sinned,” and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23 and 6:23).

Here’s good news: Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from the confinement and judgment of hell. He suffered for our sins. With His own blood, He paid the full price for our salvation. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; . . . He was buried . . . He rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

By receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, you get freedom now:

FREEDOM FROM SIN—“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18).

FREEDOM FROM JUDGMENT—“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who . . . hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

PERSONAL FREEDOM—“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Only One Man

Is it possible that the great God above can care for one soul among all the millions of the earth? It is, for the One who came to tell us all we know of the heart of God said, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). God desires that all should be saved, but He and all His angels rejoice over one. Have they rejoiced over you yet?

The lifeboat men will save the whole of the shipwrecked crew if they can. If not, they rejoice to be able to bring even one safe to land. Oh, the value of one soul, who can estimate it? For one soul as well as for millions, Jesus died. For one soul He seeks today, and that one soul is yours. Welcome Him, welcome Him now! Take this wonderful message from God to you and make it your very own. For God so loved you, that He gave His only begotten Son, that if you will believe in Him you shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then, over your one soul there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God, and with joy you can exclaim, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me!” (Galatians 2:20).

Why?

“Pourquoi?”

It was the question of a country woman in France. Her cottage was at the foot of a high mountain, and some mountain climbers stopped there to fill their canteens with water. Having told her that their object was to reach the top of the mountain, she exclaimed in astonishment, “Pourquoi?”

“Why?” Why were they about to risk their lives? She who lived so near had never tried to reach the summit. It was a dangerous climb; what was the good of it? She could not see that it was worthwhile. The excitement of the adventure, added to by the risks they were to run, did not appeal to her imagination.

Could it be that for a mere view they would place their lives in danger? What was their motive? What would be their gain?

Why? Why?

Today the question comes to you. Why will you risk your eternal safety? Why will you go on day after day without forgiveness, without peace with God, without salvation? Is it worthwhile?

Why will you die? Why will you not come to the Saviour now and live? “Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; . . . that believing ye might have life through His name” (John 20:31).

The Clock of Life

The clock of life is wound but once,

And no man has the power

To tell just when the hands will stop,

At late or early hour.

To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,

To lose one’s health is more;

To lose one’s soul is such a loss

As no one can restore.

Thirty-nine people died while you read this short poem. Every hour 5,417 go to meet their Maker. (We speak of “normal times”; there are no definite totals yet for the slaughter going on all around the world today.) You could have been one of those figures. Sooner or later you will be. Are you ready?

"That's You!"

James had been brought up in a comfortable home. Although he had a loving family and every material thing he could desire, he was still unsatisfied. He wanted to see LIFE, and for this he left home and family to have his fling in the world.

He spent his money freely as long as it lasted, but at last the day came when it was all spent, and he faced the necessity of earning a living. That was easier said than done! The best he could find was to join a group of other young men in the same condition. They sang and played their instruments on the street for whatever their listeners might give them.

One day they stood outside a small shop, a Bible store. After they had sung several songs, James stepped forward and offered his tambourine as a collection plate.

The storekeeper took a Bible from the window and said, “See here, young man! I will give you a dollar and this Book, if you will read a portion of it outside, among your fellows, in the hearing of the bystanders.”

“Here’s a dollar for an easy job!” shouted James to his mates. “I’m going to give a ‘public reading!’ ”

The storekeeper opened the Book at the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel and, pointing to the eleventh verse, asked the young man to begin.

“Now, Jim, speak up,” said one of his companions, “and earn your dollar like a man!”

James began, “A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”

“That’s you, Jim,” exclaimed one of the company. “It’s just like what you told us about yourself and your father.”

Controlling his feelings, James read slowly on: “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”

“Why, that’s you again, Jim!” said the voice. “Go on!”

“And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.”

“That’s just like us all!” interrupted the voice. “We’re all beggars; go on and let’s hear what came of it!”

Jim was hardly able to read, but with quivering lips he continued: “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.”

He could read no more, but this was sufficient. Thoughts of home sprang up in his heart: Everyone there has enough, while I in my present state—have nothing. Everything compelled him to say, “I will arise and go to my father.” He went, and oh, what a welcome he got!

Thank God, the story does not end here. Jim did not rest until he knew that not only had his father received him, but that God, too, found His delight in receiving and blessing him.

I wonder if you, too, have gotten away from home, away from God. If so, let me tell you that God is waiting to receive you back. Think of the way in which the heart of God has been expressed to poor, wretched man in the gift of Jesus! He has died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

He Himself says, “Come; for all things are now ready” (Luke 14:17). What an invitation! And what a Saviour is waiting to receive you! He wants to save you. He died to save you!

“ His father saw him,
and had compassion, and ran,
and fell on his neck , and kissed him.”

Luke 15:20

"It's Only a Little While"

“Well, Molly,” said the judge, going up to an old apple seller’s stand, “don’t you get tired sitting here these cold, dismal days?”

“It’s only a little while, sir,” she said.

“And the hot, dusty days?”

“It’s only a little while,” answered Molly.

“And the rainy, drizzly days?”

“It’s only a little while.”

“And your sick, rheumatic days?”

“It’s only a little while, sir.”

“And what then, Molly?” asked the judge.

“I shall enter into that rest which remains for the people of God,” answered the old woman quietly, “and the troubles of the way cannot fret me. It’s only a little while, sir.”

“All’s well that ends well, I suppose,” said the judge. “But what makes you so sure, Molly?”

“How can I not be sure, sir, since Jesus is the way, and He is mine and I am His. I shall see Him as He is in a little while.”

“Ah, Molly, you’ve got more than the law ever taught me!”

“Yes, sir, because I went to the gospel.”

“Well, Molly, I must look into these things,” said the judge, as he bought an apple.

“There’s only a little while, sir, for that, and we are not quite sure of having even a little while,” she said as he started to walk away.

“ Yet a little while,
and He that shall come will come,
and will not tarry.”

Hebrews 10:37

“ Watch therefore,
for ye know neither the day
nor the hour wherein the
Son of man cometh.”

Matthew 25:13

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow

“Tomorrow,” he promised his conscience;

“Tomorrow I mean to believe;

Tomorrow I’ll think as I ought to;

Tomorrow the Saviour receive;

Tomorrow I’ll conquer the habits

That hold me in sin’s bitter sway.”

But ever his conscience repeated one word,

“Today, today, today!”

“Tomorrow—tomorrow—tomorrow”—

So day after day it went on.

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow”—

Till youth like a vision was gone,

Till age and his passions had written

The sentence of fate on his brow;

And forth from the shadows came Death,

With the pitiless syllable: “NOW!”

“Thou wilt show me . . . in Thy presence is fullness of joy.”
Psalm 16:11

The Human Fly

Some years ago there came to Los Angeles a so-called “human fly.” It was announced that on a certain day this man would climb up the face of one of the large department-store buildings. Long before the appointed time, thousands of eager spectators were gathered to see him perform the feat.

Without the use of ropes or safety nets, he mounted slowly and carefully, now clinging to a window ledge, sometimes to a jutting brick, and again to a cornice. Up and up he went, and at last he was nearing the top.

The watchers below saw him feeling to right and left and above his head for something firm enough to support his weight and to carry him further. Soon he seemed to see what looked like a gray bit of stone protruding from the stone wall. He reached for it, but it was just out of reach. Gathering his muscles, he sprang for it, grasped the protuberance and, before the horrified eyes of the spectators, fell to the ground—crushed.

In his dead hand they found a dusty mass of spider’s web. What he evidently mistook for solid stone or brick turned out to be nothing but dried froth!

How many today are thinking to climb to heaven by effort of their own, only to find at last that they have ventured all on a spider’s web—and are lost forever.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I am the way . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

“All things are full of labor;
man cannot utter it:
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.”

Ecclesiastes 1:8

“Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My words shall not
pass away.”

Matthew 24:35

Sleeper, Wake up!

The way through the Peruvian mountain pass was long and steep, and it was late in the day. The weather was bitterly cold and snow was filling the pass, while two weary men urged their laden donkeys up the last lap of their journey to a shelter at the top.

At this point one of the travelers, overcome with cold and fatigue, gave up the struggle and sat down in the snow to sleep.

Knowing that it would be a sleep which ended in death, his companion tried with sternest warnings to urge him on, but all his threats were in vain. At last he went on with the donkeys alone, and finally reached the top.

Later, another traveler up the pass found the sleeping man, but, unable to wake him, he too left him behind and reached the shelter. When the first arrival learned from the newcomer that the sleeper was still alive, he pulled on his coat and boots and, taking his donkey whip, returned to the scene.

Finding the man now more deeply asleep, he began to beat him with the whip and finally succeeded in waking him and standing him on his feet. Then, with constant yelling, threatening and whipping, he managed to literally drive the drowsy fellow up to the safety of the refuge and saved him from his fatal sleep.

When a missionary from Peru related this story, we could only think of the multitudes in our land who are asleep to the awful judgment that is waiting for them if they die in their sins. They are like the sailor in the proverbs who, totally insensible to his danger, “lieth down in the midst of the sea, or . . . lieth upon the top of a mast” (Proverbs 23:34).

God in His mercy and love often uses the sternest measures to awaken those He longs to save. It may be through accident, illness, loss of loved one, loss of property or other financial reverses. Assuredly this is God by His Spirit going out to compel them to come in that God’s house may be filled.

There is room in God’s house, room for you. Have you come in?

“ What meanest thou, O sleeper?
arise, call upon thy God.”

Jonah 1:6

Are You Sure?

Are you sure you are on the right way? Do you know where you must go for the pardon of your sins? Do you know where forgiveness is to be found? There is a way both sure and plain, and I want to guide you into that way.

The right way is simply to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. It is to cast your soul with all its sins unreservedly on Christ—to cease completely from any dependence on your own works and to rest on no work but Christ’s work, no righteousness but Christ’s righteousness, no merit but Christ’s merit, as your ground of hope. Take this course, and you are a pardoned soul.

“To [Christ],” says Peter, “give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).

The Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin. There He allowed the wrath of God, which we deserved, to fall on His own head. For our sin He gave Himself, the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty, that He might provide a full, unqualified pardon for all who are willing to receive it.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Come to Him now with all your sins and wickedness, with all your doubts and fears, with all your feelings of unfitness and unworthiness, and He will not cast you out nor refuse you. He has said it. He will stand by it, for He never breaks His word.

A Wayward Sheep

From childhood I was unsociable, and seldom bothered even to be friendly. Independent and stubborn, I would yield to no one. My father left me to myself, and my chief pleasure after school hours was to ramble alone along the seashore. In high school I learned to deceive my parents in order to get money from them to spend on my pleasures. They soon found this out, and begged me to change my ways.

One day my father asked me, “Who do you think supports you?”

“Nobody,” I replied.

This made him angry, and he said, “If you are not supported by me, why do you not earn your own living?”

So I left home for a few days and sold newspapers for a living. Soon my parents began to worry about me and took me back home. I spent another year at school in the same unhappy state of discontent and discouragement. Then I ran away, this time to Tokyo, without telling my parents. They traced me, and took me home again.

For about a year after this I worked in a drug store at Osaka and saved a little money. But, still discontented, I went to Tokyo again and worked as a laborer in the Honjo District. A man of few words, with no friends or companions, I soon became lonesome.

One night a fellow-worker took me to a bar. There I learned to drink with him, and soon my lonely heart was caught by the devil’s snare. More drinking and more bad friends followed. Soon I became a member of a wild gang. One night after drinking hard, I found myself on the banks of the River Sumida. I listened to the whisperings of the dark stream, and it seemed to say, “Why did you come to Tokyo? To become a drunkard?”

“No, my intention was to study hard,” I answered.

But I could not give up drinking with my new friends and sank lower and lower. Soon my money was gone, and what I collected from my employer was spent too.

That good man guessed what was going on, and called me into his private office. He warned me, “Young man, did you not come here to study and improve yourself? Stop your drinking and be a man!”

I would not listen, but ran away (with his money) to Hakodate, a city in the far north. Here in a cheap hotel I meditated over my past. Why was I born so wicked and degraded? Why was I nothing but a menace to those around me? It would be best to put an end to myself and sin no more. Yes, I decided, death was the only way out.

I wrote to my employer, asking his forgiveness, and then went down to the seashore intending to drown myself. There, gazing at the sunset from a rock on Cape Tachimachi, I said to myself, “Death will end all for me.”

Then I burst into tears, crying, “Oh, my dear loving father and mother, forgive your unworthy son. Oh, my friends, forgive this unworthy wretch!”

Taking off my coat, I murmured, “Yes, I must die,” and plunged into the deep waters of the bay.

I remember nothing more, but God had His eye upon me and I was picked up unconscious by a fishing boat, and rushed to a hospital at Omori. Regaining consciousness in the hospital, I found that it was run by Christians. The patients in the ward were often visited by a preacher who came to read the Bible to them. One day he took as his text the parable of the lost sheep. He read how the sheep had become lost, and how the loving shepherd searched until he found it. That sheep was so much like me—a poor, wandering, unworthy person! I learned that even a sinner such as I could be saved through faith in Christ Jesus and the cleansing power of His atoning blood. I believed God—and it “was counted unto [me] for righteousness” (Romans 4:3)!

Now the gloom, which had filled my heart, was gone and I was filled instead with joy and peace. I rejoiced in the love of God that could seek and save even me.

Is there any parallel between my story and the condition of your own heart? If so, the love of the God that saved me can save you too. Will you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“I am poor
and needy; yet
the Lord
thinketh upon
me.”

Psalm 40:17

“If a man have an hundred sheep,
and one of them be gone astray,
doth he not leave
the ninety and nine, and goeth
into the mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray?”

Matthew 18:12

Do Not Say

Do not say you are too young to be saved; Jesus said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me” (Luke 18:16).

Do not say you are too old. The invitation is for “whosoever will” (Revelation 22:17).

Do not say you are too poor. Jesus said, “To the poor the gospel is preached” (Luke 7:22).

Do not say you are too rich. Zaccheus was saved, and he was rich.

Do not say there is plenty of time yet. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).

Do not say you are too wicked. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Do not say you have not been invited. You have heard the invitation many times.

“Come; for all things are now ready.” If you delay and make excuses, one day you will stand before God “speechless”—without excuse.

Come, for angel hosts are musing

O’er this sight so strangely sad:

God beseeching, man refusing

To be made forever glad!

The Time Is Short

“The time is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29).

How short? Who knows? Not you—not I. But we can be sure of this one fact: time is shorter than we think. What God calls “short” cannot be made “long.” No man can stretch out the span of his appointed life, and it is disastrous to attempt to deny or evade the final issue.

How short? Man has not the answer to that question, nor is the answer to be found even in the Bible. God alone is time’s controller, and my times are in God’s hands (Psalm 31:15). That is the only possible answer. That is why the Word of God so urgently states the great truth that “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

That is why almighty God invites: “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).

That is why the Holy Spirit pleads in solemn warning: “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-8). The time is short!

It is shorter than you realize. It is too short to be wasted in sin and ruined in iniquity. But it is just long enough if you turn now in “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

It is just long enough for your soul to say “Yes” to Jesus and to enter into the blessedness of “therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). TIME and LIFE are far, far too short for anything less than that!

"What's Your Name, Doctor?"

“Doctor, please!” It was the pleading call of a soldier as he lay bleeding to death on the battlefield. The passing medic with the red cross on his arm heard the faint call. He stopped, attended to the man, gave all possible relief, and then ordered him to be taken to the field hospital at once.

As he was being placed on the stretcher, the wounded man asked: “What’s your name, doctor?”

“Oh, no matter,” was the reply.

“But doctor, I want to tell my wife and children who saved my life!”

That was gratitude, you say. And do you not think the Lord Jesus deserves as much from you? Does He not say to you as He did to another, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mark 5:19)?

Tell it to others! It will strengthen you. It will be a safeguard to you. To openly confess the name of Christ will help you to stand firm.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Choose Now

“Some day,” you say, “I will seek the Lord;

Some day I will make my choice;

Some day, some day, I will heed His Word,

And answer the Spirit’s voice.”

God’s time is now, for the days fly fast,

And swiftly the seasons roll.

Today is yours; it may be your last.

Choose life for your precious soul!

Choose now, just now! There’s a soul at stake!

Oh, what will your answer be?

It’s life or death, and the choice you make

Is made for eternity.

Choose now, just now, for the Lord is here,

And angels your answer wait.

Choose now, just now, while the call is clear.

Tomorrow may be too late!

The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.”
Romans 6:23

"I Cast in My Lot with Roger"

“I tell you again mate, religion may be fine for some, but it won’t do for real men.”

So spoke Jon Winters, a miner, to one of the men who had recently decided to follow Christ.

“And as for you, Roger,” continued Jon, “you are already the softest, most chicken-hearted man I know. And if you really are going to be pious and a Bible reader as well, you’ll turn so soft that a shadow will frighten you. Give it up, mate; give it up! You’re only half a man as it is, but whatever will you become if you stick to religion, I should like to know?”

“Something better than I have been” was Roger’s quiet answer.

Roger and Jon, with about a hundred others, worked in the same mine. Roger was the only Christian among them, and many a joke he had to bear about his “Bible reading.”

Months passed, and one day Roger was let down in the bucket to the bottom of the mine shaft. When he reached the floor he began handing some tools and supplies out to Ben, a helper. The bucket was soon emptied, and Roger was stepping out.

But stop! What was that sound? Water—rushing water. Water in the mine! There was a break somewhere, and in a few minutes the mine would be flooded.

One foot was in the bucket. A jerk of the rope and it could be raised and he would be saved. Then he remembered his mates—their certain death—their willful ignorance of the love of Christ.

The thought of the Saviour nerved his heart. He would not save himself while they died without warning.

Jumping out, he shoved Ben into the bucket, saying as he jerked the rope: “Tell them that the water is coming in and we will make for the far end of the right gallery. Be quick!”

The next moment the bucket and Ben disappeared.

The mine was a series of long, narrow passages from which the coal had been dug. Rushing along these, Roger reached the crew in time to tell them of their danger. It was a terrible moment. Each one would have rushed wildly away in futile effort to save himself, but his firm purpose made the timid Roger calm, and he quietly took command. He told them of the message he had sent to the surface, and that they must follow him to the end of the right gallery carrying their picks. It was the highest point they could reach, and the trapped men succeeded in hollowing out a chamber still higher up. Hoping they would be above the level which the fast-rising water would reach, the men scrambled up as high as they could go, there to wait slow deliverance—or drowning or suffocation.

During the long, dismal hours which followed, Roger prayed and entreated, and after the first excitement had passed, the men listened as men listen when face-to-face with death.

Meanwhile, far above, relief operations had begun. Guided by Roger’s message, rescue teams toiled night and day sinking a new shaft above the right gallery. On the morning of the fifth day, faint sounds of hammering below greeted the weary rescuers above. With new energy they toiled, and soon the entombed miners were reached. Some had died, but more than half, and among them Roger, were still alive.

Among them was Jon Winters, who had been the first to sneer at Roger’s confession of Christ. When he learned how Roger might have saved himself and Ben, leaving others to their fate, he exclaimed: “I said that religion would make Roger more of a softy than he was before, but it seems to me that it has made him do more than most of us would have dared. The Bible reading that can make a timid fellow like him risk his life for the sake of telling us about a Saviour must be good for all. I cast in my lot with Roger.”

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

“ But God commendeth His love
toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

Missed the Train, but Found the Saviour

It was 9 a.m. The 8:50 train had been dispatched, and the stationmaster at the little country train station was settling down for an hour’s quiet. Suddenly a man, with a red-hot face and bursting with ill-temper, rushed onto the platform. He stormed against the driver whose neglect had made him late, declaring that he would rather have lost $25.00 than miss that particular train.

What was to be done? Nothing could be done but to wait for the ten o’clock train. The man was furious, and walked up and down the platform in a rage.

Presently, when he had cooled down a little, the stationmaster went to him and said, “There’s a comfortable waiting room inside, if you would like to sit down, sir.”

The man went in and found a pleasant room with seats and a table on which were spread some gospel tracts. To while away the time, he took one and began to read: “Passing onward, yes; but whither bound?”

Soon his whole attention was absorbed. Time passed. Passengers began to arrive. The ticket office was opened for the coming train. Still he sat on, deeply interested in what he was reading.

“The train’s in sight,” said the stationmaster.

“The train?” replied the man like one waking from a dream. “Will you sell me this tract? I want to read it again.”

“Take it and welcome,” was the response. “The lady who supplied the tracts will be glad if you will accept it.”

“Thank you, and her,” said the man. He took it, and in another minute he was speeding away in the train.

A month rolled by. A man stepped off the train and offered his hand to the stationmaster.

“Do you remember me?” he asked.

“I do, sir. You are the gentleman that missed the train a few weeks back, and were so upset about it.”

“I need not have been. I missed the train, but I found the Saviour! I had been so absorbed with business that I did not allow myself time to think about God, or to read His Word. I could not get away from the questions that tract raised. Please tell the lady that it has led me to Christ. Now I want others to know Him, so I am buying all I can and giving them away wholesale. I never knew what happiness was before.”

The whistle blew, and the man resumed his seat in the train. There was joy in the heart of the old stationmaster as he waved him farewell and saw the happy look on his face. He was a new creature in Christ Jesus.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

“ Enter ye in at the strait gate:
for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way, that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be
which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way,
which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.”

Matthew 7:13-14

How Do You Cope?

It is earthquake country. Fault lines crisscross the state, and the danger of a major shake-up is always present. A reporter working on an article about earthquakes asked one businessman, whose business could be destroyed by a shift in the nearby fault line, how he could live so close to danger.

He answered, “By hoping it won’t happen.”

To another the reporter asked, “How do you cope with living on a fault?”

“We cope by just not thinking about it!”

We used to believe that an ostrich would meet danger by hiding her head in the sand, but even an ostrich is not that foolish! A bird that can stand as much as eight feet high would be a conspicuous target, but in truth an ostrich reacts to an alarm from which it cannot run away (as when sitting on the nest) by lowering that long neck until it is close to the ground. It is then hard to see among even small vegetation.

So much for the ostrich! But what about the human who copes with danger by “just not thinking about it”?

What about the person who knows that his time on earth is limited, who knows not how short that time may be, and who refuses to think of the inevitable end? God has said: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

“Just hope it won’t happen” — “don’t think about it”—what poor preparation for the future!

Contrast it with the certain hope of the Christian: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [that is, our bodies] were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Not think about it? Hope it won’t happen? No way! One who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and knows that he has eternal life can hardly wait to see that wonderful, glorious hope fulfilled.

What is your hope?

“ Watch therefore,
for ye know neither the day nor the hour
wherein the Son of Man cometh.”

Matthew 25:13

Feel - Know

“Yes, I do believe on Jesus, but I don’t feel right.” This is the honest statement of many an anxious person. To such let me say a few words.

A few years ago a friend and I went down into a coal mine. As we descended, we experienced peculiar feelings. After we had gone down a short distance I felt precisely as though we were going upwards, and I could have been sure that such was the fact if I had not positively known that we were going down.

We explored the mine and returned, the cage coming down to where we were to lift us from the heat and darkness of the pit into the light and freedom of the outer world. Then my feelings were exactly reversed. I felt as though we were dropping downwards, but I KNEW the powerful engine was bearing us up as fast as it could, and we soon stepped out on the ground in the open air.

Now this is somewhat like the experience of many. When they are going downward at a rapid rate to the pit of everlasting despair, Satan does his best to give them happy feelings, and when they are questioned as to their salvation, their reply is: “Oh, we certainly hope to be saved! We feel quite happy!” Delusion!

There is no reason to have confidence in feelings which are not grounded upon the sure Word of God. No happy feelings are to be trusted, which are not produced by faith in God’s Word.

But when the conscience is aroused, and one sees himself in all his guilt before God, what a change! No flippantly expressed hope will satisfy him now. He must KNOW that there is a Saviour for him. How can he know? The Word of God replies: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

The cage descended to lift us from the bottom of the mine, and the Saviour came down into this dark world to save our souls. Just as I had stepped into the cage, trusting it to carry me every inch of the way to the top, so you too may trust that wonderful Saviour who died for you. The word which tells of Him is “faithful,” and worthy of your acceptance.

“I do accept it,” you say, “and trust Jesus as my Saviour. Yet I feel as though I must go to hell, for I am such a sinner.” This is Satan’s work again! When you were going to hell as fast as time could carry you, he tried to make you feel as if you were going to heaven. Now, when Jesus is bearing you to glory by His mighty power, Satan would make you feel as if you must drop down to hell.

What is the cure? Let go of your feelings; do not consider them; just hold fast to what you know. God’s Word says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; THAT YE MAY KNOW that ye HAVE eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Whatever your feelings may be, God would have you know that you have eternal life.

The One who died for sinners upon Calvary’s cross is a perfect, eternal Saviour. Trust Him unwaveringly every step of the way. Meet all Satan’s temptations with the words God has put into your lips: not “I feel,” but “I KNOW.” Sooner or later, every timid soul that has trusted Jesus will have the joy of stepping into the glory of God, to sing forever the praise of a faithful Saviour.

“ There is therefore now
no condemnation
to them which are in
Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

Sin and Its Cure

The worst of all diseases

Is light compared with sin;

On every part it seizes

But rages most within.

It’s palsy, plague and fever,

And madness all combined;

And none but a believer

The least relief can find.

From men great skill professing

I thought a cure to gain,

But this proved most distressing,

And added to my pain.

Some said that nothing ailed me;

Some gave me up for lost;

So every refuge failed me,

And all my hopes were crushed.

At length the Great Physician

(How matchless is His grace!)

Accepted my petition

And undertook my case.

First gave me sight to view Him—

For sin my eyes had sealed,

Then bid me LOOK unto Him!

I looked, and I was healed!

“Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Two Ways

Traveling home from the city one night, two men were talking together. One was setting before his friend “the way of life.” Earnestly he urged his companion to receive God’s gift of eternal life and to turn to Jesus who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Finally the listener turned his head away and, as he told his friend good-bye, exclaimed in irritation, “You go your way: I will go mine!”

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

The young man had chosen his own way, refused to accept God’s way, and continued his journey along “the ways of death.”

That same week he again took the train to the city, spent some hours there, and returned by the last train at night. On his way from the city he fell asleep, and slept so soundly that he did not awake when the train stopped at his station. The signal was given, and the train began to roll out of the station.

A sudden jerk aroused the sleeper. He discovered that the train was moving away from the station where he intended to get off. He jumped up, rushed to the door, leaped out, was caught by the wheels, and instantly was crushed to death.

His lifeless body was picked up and cared for, but what of his soul? “You go your way: I will go mine” had been his response to the last offer of God’s grace he is known to have had. Think of it! Awakened from sleep, and hurled in a moment into eternity!

Sooner or later all must pass into eternity. It will matter little how comfortable loving hands can make the deathbed, or how sudden and violent may be the end of life. The all-important questions will be: Are your sins forgiven? Have you eternal life? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you saved?

“Today if ye will hear His voice,

harden not your heart.”

Psalm 95:7-8

But God

There lived in Germany years ago a countess of the House of Hanover. She was an unbeliever, and specially opposed to the teaching of resurrection and eternal life.

This descendant of royalty died when about thirty years old. Before her death she gave written orders that her grave should be covered with a solid granite slab; that around it should be fitted square blocks of stone, and that the corners should be fastened to each other and to the granite slab by heavy iron clamps. On the granite covering she ordered this inscription to be placed:

“THIS BURIAL PLACE,
PURCHASED FOR ALL ETERNITY,
MUST NEVER BE OPENED.”

All that human power could do to seal that grave was done. BUT GOD—

Years later a little seed, hidden in the earth, sprouted. As the green shoot sought the light, the root grew and strengthened. It found its way between the side stone and the upper slab and grew there. Slowly and steadily it swelled with life and forced its way onward until the iron clamps were torn apart. The granite lid gradually lifted, and at last was resting, upright, against the trunk of the large and flourishing tree that grew from that little seed.

What a warning this is to those who do not know the power of God! “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it” (Ecclesiastes 8:8).

Human beings will be just as helpless to resist the power of God in resurrection as they now are in evading His decree of death.

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29).

One Man was here—only one—who had the power of life and death in His own hands: Jesus, the Son of God. He only could say of His life: “No man taketh it from Me. . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18).

Who else can use language like that? Who, among the greatest and strongest of the human race, can dispute God’s right to say to him, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee”? And when once that decree has gone out, who can reverse the sentence?

Turn to God in faith while it is still TODAY. In that solemn day of your own death it will be too late for you to seek the light. It can only be the blackness of darkness forever.

"Keep Your Wheelbarrow!"

One day in the spring my wife wanted me to prepare the ground so that she could plant some flowers. There was some earth to get and some stones to haul off, and I went over to a neighbor’s for a wheelbarrow. She was sitting on the doorstep humming a hymn to herself when I opened the gate.

She rose and came toward me, “Good evening, Mr. Green,” she said.

I said, “Good evening,” and we talked about the weather and crops, and then I asked her to lend me the wheelbarrow.

“With pleasure,” she said.

When I started after it she called out, “You can’t see to use it tonight; it is dark already.”

“I didn’t mean to use it tonight,” said I. “I want it for tomorrow morning.”

She looked at me a minute, and then said, “Tomorrow is Sunday. I don’t work on Sunday, and my wheelbarrow can’t work on Sunday.”

I said some pretty nasty words to the old woman, and she said, “Mr. Green,” very slowly and calmly, “what would your dead mother say if she could hear you talk like that to me, her old friend? And you know that God heard you.” “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).

But I got out of the yard as soon as I could, and hollered back, “Keep your old pious wheelbarrow. I don’t want it!”

But I did feel wretched enough when I got home, and every time I saw the old woman around the yard I felt bad. That old wheelbarrow worried me. I could not pass by the house without feeling wretched.

Then one day I was at work in my shop when old Dr. Murphy came in, and we talked of all the news. When I asked him who was sick in the town, he spoke of two or three, and then said his worst case was an old lady sick with erysipelas. My heart gave a great thump. I knew who it was before he could tell me—that wheelbarrow woman. “Doctor, is she going to get well?” I couldn’t say die.

“Well,” said the doctor, “she’s pretty sick; both eyes are swollen shut.”

“What will I do?” I cried. I dropped my tools and went home. My wife asked me if I were sick. I told her I didn’t know. I walked the floor and around the house. “What if she should die,” I kept crying, “and I did not tell her I’m sorry?”

All night I could not sleep. In the morning I set out for that house. I could not keep away. The house was shut up and all was so still I thought she was dead. I saw a woman at the door. I went up and asked her, “How is the old lady?”

She whispered, “Quite low.”

Then I heard a faint voice say, “Daughter, let him in! I knew he’d come. I asked the Lord to send him.”

The woman said, “Don’t talk much or stay long,” and she went out.

The old lady called me to her. “Bring up a chair to the bedside,” said she. “I am blind; I can’t see you. There, put your hand in mine, Peter. I am afraid I did not do my duty in the right spirit that night, and I have asked the Lord to send you to me, to tell you of the better way.”

I said, “I was afraid you would die before I could tell you I was sorry I said those mean words to you.”

“Peter,” she said, “the Lord knows it all. Now get down here on your knees and I’ll ask Him to forgive us both.”

I got out of the chair and knelt by the side of her bed, her hand in mine, and she told the Lord all about us. You maybe would call it praying, but she talked to Him like I am talking to you. She asked Him to make me an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ—me! Peter Green!—a son of God!

Then I saw it the way she meant me to; my sins were many, but God forgave them for Jesus Christ’s sake! “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

I started down the street eager to tell somebody that I had been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb! Now I live only to work for Jesus Christ, my wonderful Saviour.

Left Among the Dead

Dear Mother:

You will wonder and be anxious at my long silence, but I will explain all and you will see how impossible it was for me to write before. I have been in the hospital, and I did not want to worry you.

The day I was hit we were on the move at dawn, and we had not gone far when the boom of the guns ahead told us that a battle had begun. Things went on all right until we got about 500 yards, when I was hit in my foot by a piece of shrapnel. However, I managed to limp along and keep going.

Then others came up to reinforce and support our company. We doubled to the left, but we did not get far before I was struck to the ground. The shell did not burst, or I would have been blown to pieces. I felt very strange. Then, all at once, I seemed to see your face close to mine. I remember that someone undid my belt; then I suppose I became unconscious. I must have lain like that for many hours, for when I woke up it was dark and the stars were shining.

There was a strange quiet all around me. I put out my hand and touched someone, but though I called him he made no answer and I knew he must be dead. I tried to lift myself up, but fell back exhausted—then I knew what had happened. The fighting had stopped, and I was left among the dead.

Oh, it was a shock to find myself lying there, helpless, a dull ache all over me, and a sharp pain when I moved. How soon would I be dead? Oh, Mother, I can’t tell you the awfulness of that moment! I will never forget that night.

Something an old friend once said to me when I was a boy came to mind: “You’ll want God one of these days, Tom,” said he, “and don’t forget, He is waiting for you—waiting to be gracious to you.”

Then I thought of some verses you taught me as a youngster, and bits of hymns. I tried to put together a verse or two of this one:

“Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me,
Bless Thy little lamb tonight.”

and you would never believe how there, under the starlit sky, those simple words soothed me, but then it made me think that I, Tom Fisher, was no longer a little lamb. I was a black sheep, old in wickedness, a wandering sheep. I sobbed out confessing my sins for Christ’s sake, and He settled it there and then, out in the cold night. He said, “My son, give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26), and I answered, “Lord, it is Thine.”

The terror of death left me, for One stood beside me who took away all fear, and I wept for joy. I am writing this from my heart, and I feel that you, dearest of mothers, will understand and rejoice.

Well, the burial squad came around in the morning, and I remember clutching at a hand as they were lifting the next poor fellow from the ground, but I had no voice to speak. When I awoke, I was in the base hospital, where they have been very good to me. The nurse would have written to you, but I wanted to tell you the good news myself. I shall soon be with you, for although my wounds are healing, I am to have a spell at home.

Your loving son,

Tom

At Peace - With Whom?

I once met a man who told me that he had never injured anyone, had never done any wrong, and was no worse than others. This man was at peace with himself, and not at all at peace with God.

Do you also, like this man, speak of having a “good heart”? If so, it is because you have never been by faith in the presence of God. Your constant thought is how you can please yourself, or others, rather than God.

Are you at peace with yourself, or at peace with God? Have you no Saviour, no Jesus? “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Are you saying, “Oh, you make the gospel to be too easy”?

Was it easy for Christ, who went into judgment that He “should taste death for every man”? Is it an easy thing for you to take your place as a sinner and to judge sin? “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

If you in this world refuse Christ, Christ must deny you. He has said, “He that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9).

R. A. Torrey

R. A. Torrey had a terrible reputation as a young man. Deep in sin, rebellion and atheism, he scorned everything Christian—the Bible, Christ, God, heaven, hell, immortality.

His God-fearing mother talked with him and prayed for him until at last young Torrey told her: “Mother, I’m tired of it all. I am going to leave you, and I will not bother you any more. I’m tired of all this!” And in rebellion and unbelief he left home.

His mother followed him through the door and down the walk to the gate, pleading, praying, weeping. “Son,” she said as she could follow no farther, “when you come to the darkest hour of all, and everything seems lost and gone, if you will honestly call on your mother’s God, you will get help.”

But with hardened heart, Torrey pursued his dark, downward way. Deeper and deeper, month in, month out, he sank into the pit of atheism and sin. But a mother’s prayers are not easily shaken off—God hears, and God answers!

One dark night in a dingy hotel room far from home, R. A. Torrey lay suffering from overwhelming despair and remorse. Sleep utterly forsook him. Burdened with his sins, and weary with life itself, the devil prodded him on to the very brink of suicide. Just before daybreak he sat up, saying, “I will get out of this bed and I will take the gun from my suitcase. I will put it to my temple, and I will end this farce called human life.”

But even as he stood up, he paused and looked through the window into the black, dark night, and the last words his mother had spoken to him echoed loud and clear in his mind: “Son, when your darkest hour of all comes, and everything seems lost and gone, if you will honestly call on your mother’s God, you will get help.”

In spite of himself he fell on his knees beside his bed and cried, “O God of my mother, if there is such a Being, I want light! If Thou wilt give it, no matter how, I will follow it.”

Immediately, he knew not how, light from heaven came into his heart. It was the Light that made everything light, but it did not destroy for it was love itself. With it came faith, the gift of God—and with faith in Christ came salvation. Torrey left the hotel a converted man.

In his new-found peace he hurried back home, but, instead of surprising his mother as he intended, she rushed to meet him on the walk, laughing and crying with joy.

“Oh, my boy,” she cried, “I know why you are coming back, and I know what you have to tell. You have found the Lord! God has told me so!”

It is a wonderful thing to have a mother’s prayers, but if you had no praying mother—if no one on earth has ever said a prayer for you—God still loves you and wants you and will welcome you—welcome you so gladly.

“There is joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

Luke 15:10

Ever On

Growing old, but not retiring,

For the battle still is on;

Going on without relenting

Till the final victory’s won.

Ever on, nor think of resting,

For the battle rages still;

And my Saviour still is with me,

And I seek to do His will.

Years roll by! The body weakens,

But the spirit still is young;

Breath of God—it never ages—

Is eternal, ever strong.

Let me tell it to the needy,

Far and wide Thy worth proclaim;

That my closing years may praise Thee—

Glorify Thy blessed name.

Let me labor in Thy harvest

More than ever in the past,

Reaping what Thou, Lord, hast planted,

Till I dwell with Thee at last;

That before Thy throne eternal

I may have some fruit to bring—

Not my work—the fruit of Calvary,

All Thine own, my Lord, the King.

“Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Revelation 22:20

Going Nowhere

Two men hurried into the railroad station, bought tickets for their destination, and went to take their seats in plenty of time. Finding a coach where there were empty seats, they settled down to continue their conversation. Some time passed, and as they talked complacently, waiting for the train to start, a porter came in and told them to “go forward.”

“But,” said one of the men, “what is the matter with this coach?”

“Nothing!” answered the porter. “Only ’taint hitched on to nothing that’ll take you nowhere!”

Both men were confident they were right and would soon reach their desired destination, just as many today seem confident they are on the right way for heaven, but their faith is “hitched on to nothing.” They are trusting in their own good intentions, basking in the light of their own self-esteem, reassuring themselves that they are “just as good as anybody.” It won’t do.

Remember there is only ONE way to heaven, and the Lord Jesus said: “I am the way.” One who has not made that “faith connection” to the Lord Jesus is not on the way to heaven, for the Bible says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death.”

Proverbs 14:12

"I Am Jesus"

A small group of miners was waiting for their pay. Another man joined them. “Why, Fred,” exclaimed one, “we were just talking about you. They say you turned saint last week.”

“Or is it angel?” asked another. “If it is, you will soon have white wings and must never go down to blacken them in a coal mine.”

“No, no! Don’t razz him,” said a third. “I tell you it’s parson he’ll be turning, and preaching to us all.”

“Good! Let him start now!” exclaimed the oldest man among them. “Come on, Fred, here’s your congregation before you; can you manage with this box for a pulpit, and preach us a sermon?”

“Yes, yes,” echoed a chorus of voices. “There’s five minutes yet to wait.”

“Now, then, Fred, mount the pulpit and preach us a three-minute sermon.”

All this time Fred had not spoken, but just stood listening with a good-natured smile. Very quietly he stepped on to the box. There was a peaceful, happy look in his dark eyes. For a moment he bowed his head, and a silent prayer went up for help, then he said quietly, “Well, fellows, I—”

“No, no, that won’t do for a sermon,” they cried. “You must begin with a text, your reverence!”

Then Fred spoke: “My text will be Christ’s words to Saul of Tarsus: ‘I am Jesus,’ because in the last ten days those words have been always in my mind. You all said that you wanted to know about the change in me, and I’ve been wishing to tell you what God has done for me. Two weeks ago I was cursing and swearing, and saying I didn’t believe there was a God. Now today, by His grace, I can say I know there is a God, and I know that He’s my Father; I know there is a Saviour, and that He has saved me; I know there is a Holy Spirit, and that He is willing to teach and help me.

“How did all this happen? Well, I can scarcely tell you, but do you remember how Saul was changed into the Apostle Paul? Do you remember how he suddenly heard a voice speaking from heaven? Well, fellows, it was like that with me. I was traveling fast on the wrong road; I’d had warnings from my friends, and I wouldn’t listen to them, but then God spoke to me.

“You have heard, maybe, that a week ago Wednesday I missed the last train from town. For a wonder I was quite sober; it was a pitch-dark night, and I had to walk that nine miles back. You know how bad the road is, and a bad time I had of it to find my way. In the frost and snow I thought I’d never get through.

“Suddenly there flashed into my mind a few words my old mother—bless her!—once said to me. It was something about two roads, and that the one that led to God was lighted by His presence. Then came the thought, ‘Fred, you are certainly not on that; your life won’t bear God’s light on it.’

“Then I’ll never forget how I seemed to see before me all my sins. As I stumbled along in the dark, my whole life seemed spread out before me, and I couldn’t bear the sight. For hours I stumbled on. Once or twice I cried out, and the words came from my very soul, ‘Lord, it’s true, all true, but oh, Lord, save me!’

“Suddenly I seemed to hear my mother’s voice again, teaching me to say, Jesus said, ‘Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). And it was as if I, who had cursed His name and mocked His people, heard Him saying to me: ‘I am Jesus whom thou persecutest’ (Acts 9:5).

“With those words light came into my soul. Oh, and I was rescued too, as you know, and brought home.

“And now you know I’m no preacher. I wish I were. If I could, I’d reach your hearts and just make you come to this wonderful Saviour. He’s standing by your side and He says, ‘I am Jesus,’ and Jesus means Saviour. Oh, you know what I’ve been, and yet He has saved me. I tell you, He longs to do the same for you. Oh, won’t you let Him?”

The sermon was done, and Fred quietly stepped down from his “pulpit.” As he did so, one of the men went up to him, saying, “You said, ‘Won’t you let the Lord Jesus save you, as He has done for me?’ and I want to say before them all, ‘I will.’ That is, if He will have the likes of me.”

“He said, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,’ ” answered Fred, grasping his hand. “You’ve got His word to depend on!”

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

"Sorry! Sorry! Okay?"

There was a car in the shade of the trees in the park, and the car door stood wide open. A strange man was leaning in. An older couple who knew the car’s owner suddenly quickened their steps just as he looked over his shoulder.

The door was shut with a bang, and the young man began to stride rapidly away at a right angle to the couple. Cutting diagonally toward him, they called, “What were you doing in that car?”

Faster he went, calling back, “Sorry! Sorry! Okay?”

Then as they still followed, he shouted, “Sorry! Okay?” and he sounded as irritated as if his “Sorry!” should excuse everything.

Was “Sorry! Sorry!” really enough?

The couple who witnessed the incident didn’t think so. They told the owner, and described the would-be robber.

The young woman whose car had been rifled didn’t think so. She pointed him out to the Park Ranger.

The ranger, the representative of the law, took an even darker view. He stopped the young man, checked his identification, verified it with the police, and let him go at last with the warning that if he should return to the park he would be arrested for trespassing. What seemed like a very minor offense was definitely lawbreaking, and “Sorry! Sorry!” was not “okay.”

Some day there will be millions—billions—of souls before the throne of judgment. Will “Sorry! Sorry!” and an ingratiating smile and “Okay?” be enough to admit them to heaven?

Never!

Every single one of us has “sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Just feeling “sorry” for sin is not enough. The penalty must be paid, and no sinner can possibly do it. Only One who had no sin can be accepted—accepted in the place of the sinner who has put his faith and trust in Him—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

It all comes back to that wonderful, well-known verse: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that He might
bring us to God.”

1 Peter 3:18

"Receive"

“Why do you religious people always try to rob us of our pleasures?” asked a young man while talking with a Christian woman.

“You are so mistaken,” she answered. “I don’t want you to give up anything—I want you to receive.”

On his way home the words kept ringing in his head: “I don’t want you to give up; I want you to receive.”

Try as he would, he could not forget them. Night and day he kept repeating to himself, “Receive . . . give up.”

At last he admitted to himself: “I would not be surprised if these Christians have the best of it after all. Maybe they do have something which I have not. What are the things I could not give up? What does she want me to receive?”

Finally he went back to his Christian friend. He told her how unhappy he had become, and asked her to tell him what it was he was to “receive.”

“Your whole life has been one long attempt to find satisfaction in things that cannot satisfy you,” she told him. “God wants you to receive from Him that which can satisfy. When you have received what God gives, you will be glad to give up the empty things.”

She explained to him from the Bible that Jesus Christ alone can give satisfaction and peace and rest to the hungry heart, and that when Christ is received by simple faith, the “pleasures of sin” lose their appeal.

God would have you know that He loves you—that He so loved you as to give His only Son to die for your sins—that you might not perish but have everlasting life. (See John 3:16.)

Why not receive God’s priceless gift, which is Jesus Christ, now?

“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).

“I [Jesus] am come
that they might have life,
and that they might have it
more abundantly.”

John 10:10

"Yes, Lord"

All that the doctors could do, all the medicine and treatments had been exhausted, and eleven-year-old Harry was near the end of a long illness. Old Mr. Brown, himself nearing the end of his years, said to him, “I wonder why you are not afraid to die; I am terribly afraid!”

A Christian visitor heard the sad admission, and tried to persuade the old man to accept the free gift of God’s great love immediately.

“I know it all,” Brown answered, “but I do not understand how I can get it, how I can make it my own.”

“How did you get it, Harry?” asked the visitor.

“Why,” said the boy, “when the Lord Jesus said to me, ‘Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest,’ I just said with all my heart, ‘Yes, Lord, I come,’ and He kept His word, and gave me rest. And when He said, ‘Come now,’ I just said, ‘Yes, Lord, now; not tomorrow.’ And when He promised to forgive me freely, to make me His own, and fit me to be with Him forever, I just said, ‘YES, LORD!’ How could I say ‘No’ to Him?”

The visitor turned again to Mr. Brown. “Yes, Mr. Brown, Harry told us the truth; it is just saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to God’s own words. It must be one or the other. If we are not saying ‘Yes’ to his invitation, and to His wonderful promises, we are saying, ‘No, Lord, I do not believe.’ ‘No, Lord, I will not come!’ ”

After praying with them, the Christian left and Mr. Brown asked the child again why he was not afraid to die.

“There’s nothing more to tell, nothing but just that I say, ‘Yes, Lord,’ to whatever Jesus says to me. If you are afraid, Mr. Brown, it must be that you are saying ‘No.’ He says, ‘It is I; be not afraid,’ and I say, ‘Yes, Lord, I am not afraid.’ ”

“You are right, child. I have been saying ‘No’ all my life to the Lord, but it is too late now. I wish I had known before that it was just that—just saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ Oh, I wish that I had been saying ‘Yes.’ ”

“But Mr. Brown, it is not too late. Jesus is ‘able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him’ (Hebrews 7:25). Uttermost will surely reach as far as you—as far as now.

“ ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). That ‘whosoever’ must mean you as well as me. Won’t you say now, ‘Lord Jesus, all my life I have been saying “No” to Thee, but now I will say “Yes.” Yes, Lord, I believe.’ ”

This was Harry’s last conversation, for during that night he slipped away to be with Christ. Old Mr. Brown did not live much longer, but his state of mind and heart were completely changed. He took God’s promise and invitation as addressed to him personally, and often he was heard repeating softly, “Yes, Lord, yes.”

Saved from a Horrible Death!

Down—and down—and down—Sam had gone nearly to the bottom. Devotion to alcohol had cost him his job, his wife and his children. Little was left but life itself—a derelict life, to be lived on the streets—and then—?

One night as he staggered on his way, he had to cross the railroad tracks. In the dark he stumbled and fell. There he lay and slept for hours, unconscious of danger.

Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder and he was jerked aside. Thinking it was a policeman, he told him to be gentle and he would go quietly along with him to the station, but a voice called to him out of the darkness, “Lie perfectly still!”

To his horror, the next instant a freight train roared past where he had lain. He was now thoroughly sober and awake, and well he might be! Had he lain there another minute his soul must have been rushed into a lost eternity.

Shocked and shaken, he was deeply conscious of the inevitable death that must have been his, had not a hand rescued him. A friend’s hand? A passing stranger? To Sam it was the hand of God that had reached out to snatch him from a horrible death.

The thought of what might have been haunted him and he could not rest. God had spoken to him, and he could not close his ears to that voice. The terror of hell was his, and he realized that one more minute would have landed him there forever.

Saved from death, he now was concerned to save his soul from hell. He turned to the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, for eternal salvation. Death, in whatever form it comes, is no longer a terror to him, for he has received God’s promise: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“When we were
yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.”

Romans 5:6

The Sure Ground

My spirit is sad and perplexed.

I know not the best thing to do;

With doubtings and fears I am vexed,

And Satan harasses me too.

They say that conviction of sin

Is the Spirit’s first work in the heart;

But though I have searched well within,

I feel no such promising start.

I’ve tried (how I’ve tried!) to believe

Till the word on my mind is engraved;

Can no one my sorrow relieve?

Oh, what must I do to be saved?

Lord Jesus, I’m full of alarms;

Indeed, I’ve no hope left but Thee;

I cast myself into Thy arms,

O Saviour, take pity on me!

I come as a poor little child,

With many a tremor and doubt;

Thy voice spreads a calm through the wild,

Saying, “I will in no wise cast out.”

No feelings will come to my aid,

This dull heart’s emotions are few;

But I’ll trust Thee, and not be afraid—

I’m as safe as the Bible is true!

Come unto Me, all ye that . . . are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28