Gospel Gleanings: Volume 27 (1927)

For many years I had suffered from a common, but very painful malady, which I was often told could only be relieved, and possibly cured, by an operation. I preferred the suffering because of the dread of that operation. To be frank, I was really afraid of death. I knew that in my unregenerate state I was quite unfit to die, because after death is judgment. I was not alone in this fear. How many men and women there are in the world who fear, as I did, that which comes after death, yet go on in their sin, though knowing full well that if death should overtake them there is that awful judgment to be faced? Yes, many know the way of life, but choose the way of death. I was among the number.

One day I was particularly ill, suffering very much, when there came a sudden decision to undergo the operation. I was home for the weekend; but on Monday I reported to the surgeon of one of His Majesty’s ships, who ordered My removal at once to the Royal Naval Hospital.

I think it was in May, 1905, that the first operation was performed; and while I was under the influence of the anesthetic, I had this most wonderful experience. I thought I had died. I could see my body, but I had left it, and was swiftly moving in a very dark space.

I then saw before me a huge archway, beyond which the blackness was awful! I saw a brother of mine sitting at a turnstile, at the base of the arch, and I thought he could prevent me going through into the blackness. I appealed to him, but he shook his head sadly, and I passed on. Then in front of me, I saw written in letters of gold, right across the black space, these words: “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.”

Now, as a lad, I had attended Sunday School (I am afraid not regularly), and I was familiar with this particular text; also, in after years, I had heard and seen it. But now, in agony of soul, feeling I had despised this glorious truth, and that I was lost, I cried out, “Yes! that is true;” and I pleaded with Someone, who I felt was near, but could not see, to allow me to go back, and warn those whom I had left behind; but a Voice very clearly said, “You cannot go back from here.” Of course, it is impossible to convey in cold print the agony of my soul; it was terrible! All this time I was traveling at tremendous speed through this darkness with not one glimmer of light. And then again, in front of me, there appeared these letters, in burning fire, and large letters they were, spelling the word “ETERNITY”: and I passed right through them.

As consciousness returned, I could hardly believe at first that I was back in the ward; but when I realized it, I realized that God had brought me back from death; and given me another chance. There upon my bed, I cried to God, using the words of the publican in the Temple: “God be merciful to me the sinner.” And immediately I felt the burden of my sin rolled away, and I knew that God had, for Christ’s sake, forgiven me. Oh, how different things seemed! the note of the sparrows was new; everything seemed new! On the day of my discharge to my ship, I thought the propeller of the steamboat was chiming a hymn: truly I was a new creature in Christ Jesus! I have now retired from H.M. service; but I am still in the service of the Lord. For 21 years I lived in the Nary, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and proved His power to save and keep all those who really trust Him. I met many dear Christians in the Service, and have had sweet fellowship with them in the things of God; many have gone on, but many are still serving, showing by consistent living that God’s grace is sufficient for every circumstance.

Two operations were performed on me on the day I have mentioned. But the greatest and best was performed by the great Physician the Lord Jesus Christ.

I write this, my experience and testimony, and send it forth, praying that God, through His Holy Spirit, may use it to the conversion of those who read it.

“I know not why God’s wondrous love,

To me hath been made known

Nor why, unworthy as I am,

He claimed me for His own!

But I know Whom I have believed”

And God’s word declares that, Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I must add this. The brother whom I saw sitting at the turnstile, was a child of God, who, on receiving a letter from me, to the effect that I had decided to undergo the operation, went to God in prayer, and prayed (he said) as never before, that God would make my going into the Hospital a means of my conversion. Praise His holy name, He heard and answered.

J.R.

The Kindness of God

One feels that many of the readers of Gospel Gleanings are more or less acquainted with the narrative recorded in the second book of Samuel, Chapter 9. The more closely one looks into it, the more are we convinced that King David was a man after God’s own heart. He truly proved it in the case in question, and broke pall rules and regulations in order to show kindness to one who was an outcast and a stranger and who was lame on both his feet.

David’s love for Jonathan was great indeed, because Jonathan not only stripped himself of all that was valuable to give it to David, but he loved him as his own soul, and, in fact, jeopardized his life for his sake. They had covenanted before the Lord to serve each other, and were therefore knit together in the bonds of tender affection. When David heard of his death, he lamented with a great lamentation, and said, “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.” And again, “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been to me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (Chap. 1). Here, therefore, was a cause why King David should show kindness to Jonathan’s son; but herein the type falls short, when we think of God’s great kindness to His very enemies. Is it not written in the Psalms, “Because thy loving kindness is better than life: my lips shall praise thee?” and again, “How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings” (Psalms 63: 3 and 36:7).

We see, however, in Mephibosheth, a striking type of the way a sinner is brought into the presence of God; and that is where we want every unsaved one who reads this to be brought I First then, let us consider King David, who sought to show the kindness of God. He thought of the house of Saul. He was anxious to show the kindness of God to them for Jonathan’s sake. When it is made known to him that Jonathan’s son still lives, he socks him out; and on discovering his hiding place, he sends to fetch him, as he not only wants to deliver him from his present position, but to make him as one of the King’s sons, eating bread continually at his table.

Now this is very significant. It surely speaks of God’s great interest in every sinner. Does He not think of us? Has not His heart of love gone out to every one of us? Not alone did He give His only begotten Son to die for us; but having raised Him again from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand, He has sent the Holy Spirit to seek us out and bring us into His very presence as His sons, to sit at His table continually, and feast upon His love. O how blessed this is! What grace! Could we desire anything better? This is indeed surpassing love; and you may enjoy it, if you will only believe it.

Now see where this man, Mephibosheth, was. In Lodebar, a place of no pasture. Nothing was found there to satisfy or give peace.

How much like this world of famine, not for natural food, but for that bread which endureth unto life everlasting! Mephibosheth’s condition was something like that of the prodigal son, who found nothing that could satisfy his longing soul until he thought of his father’s love. He awoke to the fact that his father could meet his need. And he did! Yes, indeed! His father thought of him when a long way off, and drew him with the cords of love. He gave him a right royal reception, too. The ring, the robe, and the sandals were all ready; and best of all, the fatted calf was killed, so that the returned wanderer might feast at his table continually. There was everything there to satisfy. And all speaks of Christ who alone can, and does, satisfy.

Then Mephibosheth was lame on both his feet, a poor maimed one, debarred legally from the King’s presence; and he had no claim whatsoever on the King’s bounty. This he owns when brought into his presence. He falls on his face and does reverence. He was, a poor trembling one indeed, fearing the wrath of the King, knowing what his grandfather Saul had done to David; and he expected to be exterminated. He could only take the place of a servant; but David’s “fear not” assured him of his acceptance; and the King said, “I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake!” What magnificent grace! What mercy! What love! No wonder he takes the lowest possible place in the. King’s presence, that of a dead dog And how true it is “that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Oh! dear unsaved one who reads this narrative, humble yourself before God! Take your place as an unclean thing; a dead dog; unworthy of the least of God’s mercies; and as surely as David showed Mephibosheth the kindness of God, and fitted him for his presence, to eat bread at his table as one of the King’s sons, so God will show you mercy and make you His child, to eat bread at His table continually.

C.H.C.

(To be continued).

The Expected One

It was a wet day in the month of January, 1915, and the lady of the house stood in her spare room, busily preparing it for a guest, whom she expected in a few hours. But while neglecting nothing that would be for his comfort, there was no hope in it; no anticipation of pleasure; no joy. The coming one was a stranger. A soldier, a British soldier, one prepared to give his life in the defense of his country, and she was a fellow-countrywoman: he was no foe; he was worthy to be received with kindness and courtesy; but he was a stranger...

Two years have passed, and again we see that lady. It is a cold frosty night, early in 1917; and she and her husband are in their dining room. The curtains are closely drawn over the window, a bright fire is burning in the grate, and a pair of slippers are warming in the fender; supper is laid on the table. All is ready, waiting for a guest. The gentleman has a book before him, but he is not reading it; the lady takes up her needlework, but soon drops it. “What time is his train due?” “When can he get here?” Over and over the questions are asked, and the few footsteps that are heard outside are eagerly listened to. No, only the policeman’s measured beat; or the hesitating step of a belated neighbor as he gropes his way along the darkened road; they wait, they listen; “Here he is!” Yes, a quick, firm step on the hard pathway; and before the latch of the garden gate can be lifted, the hall door is flung wide, and two glad voices exclaim, “Welcome home!” from the battlefields of France.

What a contrast between those two preparations! And yet the persons were the same! It was the same hostess, the same guest; but shat made the difference? In the first case, it was a stranger who was expected; in the second, is dearly loved friend, known, respected, and honored.

Dear reader of Gospel Gleanings, you have often heard of Another Who is coming, and coming soon, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is your attitude towards that coming? Does your heart bound forward with joy at the thought of meeting Him; of seeing for yourself the very One Who laid down His life for you; of gazing on that Face once so marred more than any man’s, but now the glory of all the glory of heaven; of falling in adoring worship before those Feet which once were pierced on Calvary? Is it so? or, like the lady of the story, do you dread the thought of His coming as that of a Stranger? If still He is a Stranger to you, you well may dread it; for if He comes as a Stranger; He comes taking vengeance. Make no mistake. This same Jesus, Who when here was known as the Friend of publicans and sinners, and IS the Friend of sinners today, will say in that day, “Those Mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before Me.”

But He is coming, whatever men may say. He is coming first to the air, to call every blood-bought and redeemed one to meet Him there. Open your Bible on 1 Thessalonians, 4:16, 17, and read the manner of His coming. That coming will be entirely sovereign grace, pure, unalloyed GRACE. Not one in those ransomed myriads that will rise from their graves, or as living ones be changed into the likeness of His body of glory, deserve, or could deserve such a favor. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace,” for “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (1 Theses. 4:14). “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Yes, with Him in the Father’s house; with Him, presented unto Himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; with Him in the glories and peace of heaven while judgment on judgment is poured on the unbelieving, Christ-rejecting people of earth. With Him while the “day of the Lord,” that day that shall be “darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it” (Amos, 5:20), comes “as a thief in the night,” and God makes inquisition for blood, even the blood of His beloved Son once slain by wicked hands. That blood which now speaks pardon to every soul who trusts it, will then cry for vengeance; and days of tribulation, such as have never been, and never shall be again (Matt. 24:21) shall culminate with the shining forth from heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Yes, and with “His mighty angels,” too, “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:8, 9). Then “He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” (Is. 11:4), bringing in a scene of unparalleled peace and rest (as the verses following that last quotation show, among many others). Then shall this groaning creation be delivered, and all that is now so wrong will be righted by the only One with title as well as power to do so. God has declared, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come Whose right it is; and I will give it Him” (Ezekiel 21:27).

Yes, dear reader, “Yet a little while, and He that shall come; will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37). “He is not slack concerning His promise,” “but His longsuffering is salvation,” for He is “not willing that any (that YOU) should perish, but that all (YOU among them; should come to repentance” (2 Peter, 3:9). “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:21).

Coming! Christ Himself is coming!

Soon our eyes shall see

Him in all the peerless glory

Of His majesty.

Coming! Lord, with joy we hail Thee!

“Even so,” we cry,

Answering Thy heart’s deep longing

For the day that’s nigh.

A Mother's Desire and Its Fulfillment

Eighty-six years ago, a young mother knelt in earnest prayer to God, that the child which was to be hers might be specially used by Him to bring sinners to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, Whom she knew as her own Saviour, and Whose glory was of paramount importance to her. And so sure was she that her desire was granted, that when a little son was born she “called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.”

But it is written that those who become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John, 1:13); and in spite of his Christian parentage, and the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” in which he was brought up, the little Samuel soon made it evident that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh”; he was self-willed and obstinate, and the only one of her five children that praying mother had difficulty in managing. And she had so prayed for him! Were her prayers forgotten?

Eight years passed by, and then, as another little lad long centuries ago, “the Lord called Samuel.” To use his own words, written at the age of eighty, “He sent me such a dream (Rev. 6:12 to end), as woke me up, at three o’clock one morning, with the appalling feeling, that if it were true, I was forever lost; for I knew enough of my Bible then to be quite sure that the solemn events, there specified, could not take place until after the ransomed saints were singing the New Song of Rev. 5. It had such an effect upon me that I could not go to sleep, for all the others in the house were converted; and I knew that, if it were not a dream, I should find the house empty the next! morning. So you may judge of my joy, when (at six o’clock) I heard the servant coming down stairs.”

But while he never forgot that awful vision of the “great day of His wrath,” the “wrath of the Lamb,” about to be poured out on the world that is still stained with His blood, and on those that refuse Him as their Saviour, “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.” Years passed; he was a lad in his teens when his elder brother (away at boarding school when he had the dream) was brought to Christ. They had been close companions, but this caused a severance. Samuel was very angry, and his brother had to find, even in such a home as theirs, “a man’s foes shall be they of his own household,” This went on for two years; and then the honored servant of God who had been used to bring the elder lad to Christ, was again announced to preach in the neighborhood. To hear the word of God from his lips was always a joy to the young believer; but on this occasion he astonished his father by requesting that he might be the one to keep house that evening.

His parents agreed, and the family, Samuel included, went to the gospel preaching. No sooner had the door closed behind them, than the youth went on his knees, and spent the time of solitude in earnest prayer for his brother’s conversion to God that night; nor did he rise up until he had the assurance his prayer was answered. Shortly after, a quick knock caused him to open the front door; his brother stood there alone, and he eagerly inquired, “Sam, are you converted?” “I am,” was the instant reply; and from that day the lads rejoiced as heirs together of the grace of life. The wonderful vision of Joshua the high priest in his filthy garments (Zechariah 3) had been the subject of the discourse that night, and the blessed declaration made to him, “Behold, I have Used thine iniquity to pass from thee,” had some with life-giving power to the soul of Samuel; he had rested on God’s own words; and knew his iniquity was blotted out by the blood of the Lamb, and he no longer was exposed to His wrath.

And in course of time, his mother’s longing desire was granted. On a December night, in an x village, Samuel’s lips were opened to tell his glad tidings of full and free salvation to every one that believeth, through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross; and He Who had given him the message, honored it, by the conversion of one who was present. From that time he went on for over half a century preaching the gospel to young and old, during the week as on the Lord’s Day, and many were brought to Christ who will be his crown of rejoicing “in that day.”

Laid aside at last, and after a long period in the quiet of a sick room, he said to the writer, “Think of it! The Marriage of the Lamb. Oh, you and I are happy people! I am very, very happy, but it makes me weep at times to know that others will not have it when they may!” A few days afterward he passed into the presence of the Saviour Who had so fully answered his mother’s prayers.

My reader, are you redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and looking forward to that scene of brightest glory, where all heaven shall rejoice because “The marriage of the Lamb is come” (Rev. 19)? Or are you still in your sins and exposed to the wrath of the Lamb, which shall soon be made manifest? Oh, flee from the wrath to come! Flee for refuge to the once smitten Rock of Ages, and know yourself safe for time and eternity!

The Late Beloved "S.T."

Editor’s NOTICE. It is remarkable that the following narrative, by the pen of one brought to Christ through the instrumentality of “Samuel” should reach us, unsolicited, just now. May it be God’s message to you, dear unsaved reader!

The writer is one of scores, possibly hundreds, who will thank God through eternity that they were brought into contact with the dear servant of the Lord, known affectionately to so many as “S.T.”

When but three years or so of age, a cousin asked my parents if she might take me with her to Sunday School.

On looking back, how I thank God for thus leading me there! That He did so, I have no doubt. How I thank Him for the faithfulness of dear “S.T.” and his band of teachers, while for nine or ten years the “bread” was being cast upon the waters.

As I write, I can picture that dear servant of the Lord, with tears rolling down his face and with trembling voice, pleading with the children, and beseeching them to come to Christ the Saviour.

Yes, I can hear, as it were, those loving tones still, repeating the words of the One Who is now my precious Saviour, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Many times while listening has the writer been “almost persuaded to be a Christian.”

When I was leaving the meeting room to have a little more pleasure, and waiting for “some more convenient season,” “S.T” would say: “Charlie, is it alright now? Has Jesus washed your sins away? If my precious Saviour should come before you reach home, would you be ready to meet Him? The teachers will go; the children who know Him will go; and all others who know Him not will be left behind!”

Though but a child, the coming of the Lord was to me a reality. It is so now; but oh, what a difference!

I knew I was unsaved. I intended to be saved, but would put it off for a little longer!

The time came when the one who writes thought himself too big for Sunday School. He must try the world, but only to find, as all do, that “This world has nothing new to give; it has no true, no pure delight.” Oh, the mercy of our God! The bread “cast” came back after many days.

Never did I retire without the thought that the Lord might take all the saved ones to meet Him in the air before the light of another day.

The words of dear “S.T.” could not be forgotten, “What if Jesus comes now?” Well do I remember the New Year’s Eve, when, fearing to meet the Lord, and fearing, too, to go on in sin, I accepted the Saviour’s loving invitation, so many times unheeded, and

“I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary and worn and sad;

I found in Him a resting place—,

And He has made me glad.”

It may be that some who will read these lines may have known “S.T.,” too, but do not yet know his precious Saviour, to Whom he has now gone. To such, yea, and to any unsaved reader I would ask the all important question, What if the Lord come while you read? What if He should take His own home before the light of another day?

Are you ready to meet Him? His coming again is very near. Only they who are Christ’s at His coming will be caught up to meet Him in the air!

Only those whose sins have been washed away in His precious blood will go to be with and like Him, to sing His praise throughout eternity! Oh, unsaved soul, be wise in time! “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”

While Jesus calls you, while the door of mercy stands open, Come!

Jesus says, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Oh! come now as you are; He will save. Trust Him now, and be among the company of those who will be with Him and like Him forever, to sing of His love in laying down His life, that we poor, lost, hell-deserving sinners might be saved.

E.C.F.

"The Kindness of God."-Cont.

It will be seen from the Epistle to Titus, chapter 3, verse 4, that the Spirit of God, through the beloved Apostle Paul, brings the kindness and love of our Saviour God prominently before us; which I would again press upon every dear unsaved one who reads this paper. If you will be good enough to read the third verse of the chapter, you will see that the Apostle speaks of the condition, by nature, of every one of us: sin has characterized us all as “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” The evil nature that was manifest in Paul and Titus, also exists in you and me. Do not let us try to deceive ourselves, for it is clearly written, “That the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” None but God; and He has concluded all under sin, that He may have mercy upon all. You are included in both. Is it not written of Gentiles— “In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind: and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”? And, therefore, are we not entirely unsuitable for the presence of a holy God? Can you question this? “But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,” everything is changed for the believer. How blessed! Paul and Titus had learned, as have many who read this, the sweet and precious character of the Saviour God. What love is there expressed! What grace! As we joyfully sing sometimes

“Brightness of the eternal glory,

Shall Thy praise unuttered lie?

Who would hush the boundless story

Of the One Who came to die?

“Came from heights of bliss eternal,

Down to Calvary’s depth of woe;

Now on high, we bow before Thee;

Streams of praises ceaseless flow.”

When Saul of Tarsus (afterward Paul) was exercising his greatest animosity and hatred against the Saviour: breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, hurling them to prison and to death, that bright light from heaven flashed upon him, and he fell to the earth (Acts, 9:3, 4). To his astonishment, he heard a voice saying unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” He discovered, as all who have been recipients of His grace, that no works of righteousness could save us; and who so righteous (in his own eyes) as Saul of Tarsus? He thought he was doing God’s service, as some are doing today, when persecuting the church, i.e., true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ; and the righteousness which was in the Jaw, he endeavored to keep; but when his eyes were opened to see that the One he was persecuting was none other than the Saviour God, it was such a revelation that he exclaimed, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Now he owns, as many have since, that it was “according to His mercy He saved us.” Saved without the least deserving it! Oh, what a God is ours! We are all cast upon His mercy, and if you receive the blessing as many of us have, may I beseech you to take the publican’s place in the presence of God, and use the publican’s prayer, GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME THE SINNER. He went down to his house justified, for God delighteth in mercy, and his supplication was surely heard, as yours will be. “God Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved).” What for? “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5 and 7). This is most blessed, and goes to prove that all our righteousness is as filthy rags, and as another has said, “Only fit for the dust heap.” Why then be foolish any longer? Cast yourself upon the mercy of God, and you will be blessed indeed.

His grace not only justifies, but makes us sons and heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We read in Romans, 8:17, “If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” so that: “In the person of His Son,” We are as near as He;

“The love wherewith He loves His Son,

Such is His love to me.”

C.H.C.

"Out and Into."

“He brought us out... that He might bring us in.” (Deut., 6:23).

Out of the distance and darkness so deep,

Out of the settled and perilous sleep;

Out of the region and shadow of death,

Out of its foul and pestilent breath;

Out of the bondage and wearying chains;

Out of companionship ever with stains;

Into the light and the glory of God;

Into the Holiest, made clean by blood;

Into His arms, the embrace, and the kiss;

Into the scene of ineffable bliss;

Into the quiet, the infinite calm;

Into the place of the song and the psalm.

Wonderful love that has wrought all for me!

Wonderful work, that has thus set me free!

Wonderful ground, upon which I have come!

Wonderful tenderness, welcoming home!

Out of disaster, and ruin complete;

Out of the struggle, and dreary defeat;

Out of my sorrow, and burden, and shame;

Out of the evils too fearful to name;

Out of my guilt, and the criminal’s doom;

Out of the dreading, the terror, the gloom;

Into the sense of forgiveness and rest;

Into inheritance with all the blest;

Into a righteous and permanent peace;

Into the grandest and fullest release;

Into the comfort without an alloy;

Into a perfect and confident joy.

Wonderful holiness, bringing to light!

Wonderful grace, putting all out of sight!

Wonderful wisdom, devising the way!

Wonderful power, that nothing could stay!

Out of the horror of being alone;

Out, and forever, of being my own;

Out of the hardness of heart and of will;

Out of the longings which nothing could fill;

Out of the bitterness, madness, and strife;

Out of myself, and all I called “life”;

Into communion with Father and Son;

Into the sharing of all that Christ won;

Into the ecstasies full to the brim:

Into the “having of all things” with Him;

Into Christ Jesus, there ever to dwell.

Into more blessings than words can e’er tell!

Wonderful lowliness, draining my cup!

Wonderful purpose, that ne’er gave me up!

Wonderful patience, that waited so long!

Wonderful glory, to which I belong!

Out of my poverty, into His wealth:

Out of my sickness, into pure health;

Out of the false, and into the true;

Out of “the old man,” into the “new”;

Out of what measures the full depth of “Lost!”

Out of it all, and at infinite cost!

Into what must with that cost correspond;

Into that which there is nothing beyond;

Into the union which nothing can part;

Into what satisfies His and my heart.

Into the deepest, of joys ever had,

Into the gladness of making God glad!

Wonderful Person, Whose Face I’ll behold!

Wonderful story, then all to be told!

Wonderful all the dread way that He trod!

Wonderful end, He has brought me to God!

M.T.

From Ruin Unto Salvation

“W.13.” was, I think, the youngest son of a large family, the greater portion of whom had been “saved from the wrath to come,” through belief of the truth concerning the wondrous atoning death and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Much prayer to God for the conversion of the dear lad had been made, and “to the praise of the glory of His grace” be it recorded, He heard the prayers of His people and He answered them.

A very young servant of the Lord, weak and in frail health, had walked a distance of 12 miles on a Lord’s day to preach “the Gospel of God, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” in the village of B.T. in South Devon, and came to the room where the preaching was to take place in a very tired and exhausted condition, feeling almost too far spent to be able to make known the glad tidings of redeeming love, that God in His mercy had made so dear to his heart.

But God had the glory of His Son, risen from the dead, before Him, and the salvation also of this dear soul; and so, in spite of human frailty and weakness, and in support of the precious words uttered by the glorified Christ to another of His servants, “My strength is made perfect in weakness,” He put forth the Almighty power of the Holy Spirit, and once and forever drew ‘W.B.’ “out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

The preacher read the solemn, but beautiful, story as recorded in Luke 10:30-35. “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance, there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

“And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and, when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, ‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee’”; and as he proceeded to point out that this was a perfect description of every one who knew not Christ as their Saviour, dear “W.B.” felt himself to be in that state of wretchedness naked, wounded and dying; and as “a certain Samaritan” was presented as the type of the One and only Saviour, he longed for Him to save him and make him His.

And as the sweet and blessed gospel of God in sending down out of heaven no less a Person than the Son of His love, “to seek and to save that which was lost,” was unfolded, hot scalding tears of contrition fell from his eyes, and the Word being used by the Holy Ghost in saving power, he “passed from death unto life,” through faith in the Lord Jesus; “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter, 1:23).

The young preacher (who is now an old preacher of the gospel of God’s grace to sinners), after that memorable night, often had the company of dear “W.B.” when preaching in the district, and by life and testimony he commended to others the same blessed and perfect Saviour Who was so gracious and merciful to him.

Ponder for yourself, dear reader, the precious words in Luke 10:30-35, and may God help you to see quite clearly that they apply to Christ and YOU.

The city of Jerusalem was the city of blessing, “the place which the Lord shall choose to place His Name there” (Deuteronomy 26:2).

“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion” (Psalm 48:2). And Jericho! Ah. Jericho! Was not that the city of the curse? “Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city, Jericho” (Joshua 6:26). And this poor deluded one, in Luke 10, had turned his back on God and blessing, and was on the road to destruction!

Dear unsaved one, are not you on the same road?

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but THE END thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

But, oh, the wonderful truth is that although God came in Joshua’s day to Jericho in judgment, wonder of wonders, He has come in the Holy Person of His Son in these last days, in WONDROUS GRACE, “for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

Helpless, guilty and without strength, look to Jesus, weary, troubled one, put your faith in Him Who has all power given unto Him in heaven and in earth, and He will never let thee go for time or eternity.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:27, 28).

H.C.M.

Silence

“These things hast thou done, and I kept silence” (Psalms 50:21).

“As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long” (Psalms 32:3).

“And he was speechless” (Matt. 22:12).

In the first of these Scriptures we find the silence of God; in the second the silence of the Saviour; in the third, the silence of a convicted sinner; and in the fourth, the silence of a rejected sinner.

Silence is always awe-inspiring. The Two Minutes’ Silence in November, when there is a sudden stoppage of all sound, is always awe-inspiring. And some quiet place of nature, among the mountains, how awe-inspiring the silence! But here is the silence of God. When men put His Son on the cross, when they martyred Stephen, God was silent, and has been all these years. In his providential ways He speaks at times through something happening on earth, or a special judgment on one defying His Name; but, speaking generally, God has “Kept silence.” God keeps silence about judgment, but He is always speaking about His Son.

And He says, “Consider it” (v. 23). Judgment must come upon sin. God loves the sinner, and that is why His patient grace goes on year after year. But the door of mercy will be closed, the sun will set on this day of grace, and then the wrath of God will be poured out on the sinner who has forgotten Him, and not had ears to hear the gospel of His Son. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence” (v. 3). He has kept, and is keeping silence, but He will break it, and that soon.

Let us go to Isaiah 53. The spirit of Christ, in Isaiah the prophet, is looking forward to that which, beyond all compare, is the greatest event on earth, in heaven, or in hell, that can ever take place, the CROSS OF CHRIST. And we find this recorded about the blessed Lord, the Lord of Glory, the Lamb whom Abraham foretold God Himself would provide, the Lamb to whom the sacrifices pointed, the Lamb of Whom John says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world: “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.”

Men robbed Him of His throne; they gave Him the cross instead, and wrote a name on His head in mockery. Yet he was the King of the Jews. He was derided of men, and those on the judgment seat spoke against Him, while the drunkards made Him their song, as we read in Psalm 69. They sought by false witness to take his character, “Yet He opened not His mouth.” “When He was reviled, He reviled not again.” The silence of the Saviour.

In Psalms 32, we find one who knew he was a sinner, and he says (v. 3), “When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” Such was the anguish of soul through which this convicted sinner passed, until he gave expression to what he realized he was, convicted of sin, ruined and undone, with distance between himself and God, because of sin he could not remove. “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee.” Not to a fellowman. It is with GOD we have to do individually. It all comes out, and what follows? “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” He confessed his transgression and sin unto the Lord, and “Thou forgavest!” Oh, God, is ready to pardon! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. That one, and that one only, has real happiness in his soul, who knows his sin has been covered by the precious blood of Christ, and his sins, though many, are all forgiven.”

Let us look at the last silence in Matt. 22. A certain King made a marriage for His Son, and His servants gathered together, both bad and good, and the hall was full. But the King had made provision of a wedding garment for the guests, a garment suited to His presence as King.

The King represents what God is: His heart is always going out towards the undone sinner; but the undone sinner is not fit to come into the presence of God, so God has made provision of a suited garment. For a sinner to be uncovered in God’s presence would be unbearable. The provision God has made is Christ and what He did when He died on the cross, and rose again. The Person of Christ is that which meets the need of the sinner, and is suitable for the presence of God.

But one at that feast did not know the character of the One Who invited him, and he spurned His provision. He was like the sinner who is trying to get into the presence of God without Christ.

The King saw this man. Oh, fearful moment as the King looked on him and said, “Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” What a word for religious persons, who profess a religious character, yet have no appreciation of Christ: “He was speechless.” He had no words to say. He was there convicted, and without excuse. So will those be who seek by their own works to get into the presence of God, and despise all God has provided for them in the Person of Christ. What was the result? “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Men try to deny hell today; but have you ever thought of those who murdered Stephen? They “gnashed upon him with their teeth.” That will be expressed in hell, where mercy can never come, and prayer is never answered. The rich man in hell, in Luke xvi., was occupied with the torment, not with his sins. Today is the day of God’s mercy, and of His grace. Today the Saviour is not silent, but says, “Come unto Me” Jesus the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Lamb of God, and “I, I will give you rest.”

QUARTUS.

The Loss of the "Monarch."

It must be nearly 40 years ago now since the “Monarch,” a sailing yacht, capsized with 28 people on board, 14 of whom were drowned and 14 saved. One at least will never forget it; for it was one of the links in the chain that led to her conversion. The child of Christian parents, she longed for the world, its pleasures, its gaiety, its amusements. She loved the world, and longed to be in it and of it. But God had His purposes of grace. Something was going to happen, an awakening shock should be sent, which should bring Eternity before her, and through God’s grace and mercy, keep Eternity before her.

Little she thought it, as she and a merry little band of young people started out under the care of an old friend of her father, for an afternoon’s walk to L and back. They went. over L— Downs, the beautiful, hilly coast road. Many boats were out, and the party just noticed sudden squalls of wind from the hills seawards; and one of these squalls, with a sharp shower of rain, kept them for a while sheltering in L under some fine old trees on the inland road leading from L— to I—. When nearly home, they heard the sad, sad news that the “Monarch” had capsized. Into what sorrow was the town of I— plunged! And an arrow from the Almighty God had reached one heart at least, the heart of this young girl. She had loved boating, loved the excitement of a good sail, and now she thought, “Oh, if I had been on the ‘Monarch,’ if I had been drowned, where should I be now?” Nor could she get away from the thought; it was kept continually before her. Some of the bodies were recovered at once. At the prayer-meeting on the Monday evening, those present could hear the coffins being made by the carpenter son-in-law of the people from whom the room was rented. She heard it. If one of those coffins had been for her, where would her poor soul have been?

Where? Some of the bodies were not found for nine days, some not for three weeks. Descriptions of these were posted up in many places. Often she read them, and would think, “Oh, if it had been I!” The world had lost its charm. The end of those things was death. A day’s outing, an afternoon’s outing might end in death. Eternity stared her in the face.

One young man who was on the “Monarch” that afternoon, and who was drowned, was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; and known to be such. He knew, too, the joy and privilege of being gathered to the precious Name of the Lord Jesus; and would doubtless have been at the Lord’s Table on the Lord’s Day morning, but instead of that was “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” He had come to If or a little change of air and scene, as he sorely needed a rest and holiday, leaving his young wife and child at home. His hymn book was in his pocket. The young girl felt and knew it was all right with him, but if she had been there, where would she have been?

This was one link in the chain that led to her conversion. A severe, though brief, illness was another. “If taken, where shall I spend Eternity?”

For many, many years now she has known the Lord Jesus as the One Who bore her sins in His Own Body on the tree; and she is waiting for Him to come and receive her unto Himself, that where He is, there she may be also. Blessed hope, blessed rest of her soul, Eternity with Christ!

“A Brand plucked out of the fire nearly 40 years ago.”

Love and Manifestation

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”

“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:21, 23).

God’s Word in the Old Testament thus runs

“I love them that love me,” and this agrees

With all the clearer teaching of the New.

Not to a cold, indifferent and doubting world

Did Jesus, risen, show Himself alive:

But to those hearts whose love embraced the Lord.

Peter and Mary, women with sad eyes;

Disciples walking, and in the Upper Room;

And then to Thomas with his troubled faith.

It was to Love that Jesus showed Himself!

O Thou, Whose absence makes our spirits mourn,

Come, in Thine Advent glory, Love to cheer!

Till then, make known Thy Presence to each heart,

Which loves, and longs from Thee no more to part.

W.O.

"Another Monument of Mercy."

Captain L— was born in a seaport town in North Devon. A very poor boy, he went to sea when old enough, and rose in his profession till he became not only master of a ship, but part, or entire, owner of her. Alas, he was a high-handed sinner. Into what depths of iniquity did he not plunge! Sensitive and proud to a degree, he was, as so many sailors are, generous and open-handed. Living in sin, he spent freely amongst friends and companions. Like one of old, like thousands since, in the far country he “wasted his substance with riotous living.” And he was to find, when health and strength were gone, when he was sick, helpless, and poor, not one worldly friend to help him. The devil is a hard master. But, thanks be to God, as George Whitfield said, “The Lord Jesus Christ receives the devil’s castaways”; and so Captain L— was to prove to his eternal joy.

When getting elderly, his health began to fail, and he felt himself unable to sail with his ship; and she was sent to sea with another master; Captain L— meanwhile staying in I— with his widowed sister-in-law, and her boy and girl. Of the little girl he was passionately fond, and treated her with a sailor’s generosity, for money was still plentiful. It was, I think, at this time that his ship was lost, or very badly disabled, through the carelessness of the master.

This was serious for Captain L— as only his savings remained. But Satan still held him fast a willing prey; and in the far country he still wasted his substance (though much of it was gone) with riotous living.

One winter afternoon, or evening, he went to a certain public-house, and whilst there engaged in a game of skittles in the skittle-alley. When throwing the ball, he fell forward on his face. He was in reality smitten with paralysis. The finger of God had touched him, and his strength and power were gone. He was helpless.

The other men simply thought him drunk, and for a long time not one touched him, but let him lie there, thinking that the bitter cold would bring him to himself. The frost penetrated to his very bones. When at length a donkey chair was fetched, and he was taken to his sister-in-law’s house, she, poor woman, received a helpless invalid. Never again could he move himself; never again did he feed himself. Mrs. L— had a house, a business and two children; and for weeks a man had to be engaged to sit up with Captain L— at night. This alone, made a hole in his savings; besides the doctor’s visits, and all the expenses of daily living.

At this time a carman, who had shown the poor invalid the greatest kindness, bethought him of a young Christian fireman at I station, and, stopping his van one day, made known to I, him the sad case of poor Captain L— , and besought him to visit him.

At that time Captain L— was, to use the carman’s own words, “like a wild bull in a net,” helpless but raging. “Give me poison!” he would cry. T.S., the carman, could only reply, “Get up, and get it yourself.” “Bring me my pistols!” the captain would shout. “Fetch them yourself,” would be T.S.’s answer, whilst he was kindly ministering to the poor patient. But whilst so useful to the body (and all his services were, I believe, performed for nothing, and in the few spare moments of a very hard working life), T.S. felt the captain needed something for his soul, and so he stopped his van that day in the street, and asked Charlie C— , the young Christian fireman, to visit the poor old captain.

Charlie C— went, and he kept on going. Much of his spare time was spent by the captain’s bedside. He cared most tenderly for the poor suffering body, most skillfully, too; but his thoughts were for the precious never-dying soul, that soul which must live forever, which can sever, never cease to be. The hard heart of Captain L— was first touched, and reached, by drawing his young friend on his knees by the bedside, pouring out his soul to God on the sufferer’s behalf, the tears streaming down his face meanwhile. “Does he care so much as that for my poor soul, that I’ve never cared about?” The hard heart was reached and touched at last; and one happy day Charlie C had the joy of seeing his old friend venture on the Rock of Ages, the Rock smitten for our sins on Calvary’s Cross.

Captain L— lived for years after that happy day, growing in grace and in the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour. Charlie C was removed from — to — but he ever kept in close touch with the one to whom he had been so greatly blessed. When about to be stationed at E—, he earnestly asked that the writer’s father, and the writer, would visit Captain L—, a request that they most gladly complied with.

At one time Captain L— was taken to the Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic in Queen Square, Bloomsbury; kind T.S. conveying him in his cot in his railway van to I—, — station, where the cot was slung in the guard’s van for the long journey to Waterloo. After a good stay in the hospital (visited there by Christian friends, amongst them Charlie C—), he was discharged as incurable. Now Captain L— thought he must go to the workhouse infirmary at B—, near his home; and I believe the cot was actually directed there, when slung for the return journey in the guard’s van at Waterloo. But Charlie C— (either at Salisbury or Exeter) met his old friend with hot tea and refreshment, and the joyful news that the Captain’s old sister, Miss L— , (herself aged and infirm) would not hear of his being taken to the Workhouse, but would have him in her own little four-roomed cottage. And to this house and his sister’s care, Captain L— was taken from — station by T.S. in his railway van.

In this house he lived till the Lord took him home to Himself. His sister, Miss L— died. Then an elderly couple came to live in the house and care for him. When they left, his sister-in-law came with her son and daughter, and she cared for him to the last. A pension of £20 a year was granted him from the Home for Incurables. Sometimes he thought, when his own savings should be quite finished (for it took two men every night to lift him) that he would have to go, after all, to the workhouse infirmary. But the Lord, Who had plucked him as a brand out of the fire, Who had cleansed him, clothed him, crowned him, cared for him to the last, to the very end of his pilgrimage. As said before, not one of his old worldly friends, not one of his old companions in sin, ever came forward to his assistance. They had done with him from the moment he fell helpless in the skittle-alley of the public-house, where he was smitten with paralysis. Of them it might be said, “No man gave unto him.” But he never needed their help, though he proved the emptiness of their friendship; for the Lord had taken him up.

For the last few months he suffered terribly from gangrene. But he was wonderfully sustained, and cheered, and comforted. His savings did not come to an end, for in the Lord’s own good time, on the morning of September 2nd, 1902, his groaning ceased; the happy spirit was released from that most suffering body, and was at once, immediately, present with the Lord.

One of his visitors.

Condemnation; Already, or Not at All?

“God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

This one verse tells us the world is under condemnation; lost, ruined, and undone. Men are exercised about the world today, and alarmed at its condition. Many see the social evils, and hope they can remedy the grievous state the world is in. But, alas! all the evil, and suffering, and affliction is the outcome of SIN. Sin is in the heart of man, and the result we see all around us. The world is lost; and you were born in that condition, and nothing in yourself, or in your fellow man can remove it. You are a lost sinner.

But God’s eye is on this scene; His heart is full of love and compassion for it; verse 16 tells us, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Why did He give Him? Why did He spare Him from His side to come down here to suffer, bleed, and die? Because He loved lost sinners, loved you. Our verse tells us His object in sending His Son was “that the world through Him should be saved.” God is concerned about this world’s lost estate. He, the Just and Holy God, He it is Whose affections are moved that this lost world might be saved! And in order to effect it, He sent His Son into it. “God is Light”; and if He sends His Son, not to condemn, but to save the world, He must be consistent with Himself as Light in doing it. The Son of God might come into this scene, and walk through it to the glory of God the Father; His feet ever going about, doing good; and His hand outstretched to heal countless complaints; but that would not retrieve the dire condition the world was in, LOST.

But he went to the cross, hanged there between two malefactors; God’s wrath was poured on Him there, and He died there, not for Himself, but for the sins of His people. Paul could say, “The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me”; and the saved sinner who pens this can reiterate it today, and say, “He gave Himself for me.”

But the world has no confidence in God. It rests on its own works, for it lacks that wherewith it can trust God, although he loved it, and sent His Son. But the world does not trust Him. Oh, how man misjudges God! Have you done so? Have you thought of Him as One Who demands this, that, or the other? He does not; He desires you should accept what He has given.

Man’s heart is full of sin, and because of that he loves his evil deeds. “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The blessed Lord Jesus, although “Love” is also “Light,” and when alone in His presence the light shines on the conscience, and reveals one to be a sinner, lost, and without hope, without power to retrieve the position. And men prefer to stay in the darkness, for they love their sins, their evil.

“There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Oh, blessed statement, one of the grandest ever written! We have seen that “all have sinned,” all are under condemnation; and now we see that all in Christ are free from condemnation! Blessed be His Name, this is true of the worst sinner who reads this, if he is resting on the finished work of Christ on the cross. Why? Because such an one is “in Christ.” This is God’s word: this is true. What assurance! What safety! What peace! No judgment because in Christ. This shall stand, when heaven and earth flee away.

“There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.” Christ died for sinners; Christ paid the penalty for sinners; Christ is risen and gone into glory for the sinners for whom He died. The question of sin cannot be settled in heaven; it must be settled, and it has been settled, on earth; and I, for one, know it is settled; and I know there is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.” Yes, God justifies the sinner who believes in His Christ. Oh, but what a sinner he has been! Never mind; “it is GOD that justifies.” “Who is he that condemneth?” “It is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen again; Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.”

QUARTUS.

A Study in Contrasts

At a small refreshment room I met some school teachers taking their lunch, and they were chatting freely about their work with the children. One asked, “How much of religion do you think they can understand?” (I was at a separate table, but close enough to hear.)

Another said in reply, “Well, I had to go to Sunday School twice every Sunday, but I never understood anything; and oh, how I hated it!”

Then another said, “Yes, and in those days they used to talk about being saved or lost. Do you know, I had an old aunt who positively believed that; and she used to go to people’s doors, and ask if they were saved!”

There was a great deal of laughing, and “How very absurd!”

“I wonder who believes it now. Let us ask Mr. W. what he thinks it means to be saved.”

The one male teacher with them, a quiet, grave person, had not joined in the conversation, or the sad mockery of God’s things. In reply to their appeal, he said: “You will find a passage in the Acts of the Apostles which gives us the true idea. ‘The Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved,’ as the better rendering gives it. That means, we are being saved all the way along. We persevere, and walk in right ways; and there is no need to talk of being lost in the end.”

At first hearing I thought he was a Christian; but now could see he had a plan of his own or of man, and was greatly stirred in my soul. “What am I here for? Surely I must confess my Lord.”

The scoffers had all left, and when he rose to go, I said “Excuse me, please; I have been intensely interested in what I overheard of your conversation. What you said about being saved all the way along is true of a believer; but I fear you are leaving out conversion. The question of sin must be settled first. It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.”

“Conversion?” he said; “it all depends on what you call conversion.” To which I at once replied, “Repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! If you don’t teach the boys that you are leaving out the foundation.”

He sat down, and took great pains to explain his theory. “I think we must be a little elastic,” he said, “in these days of advanced knowledge, and be willing to look at things a little differently.”

I explained that having enjoyed God’s truth for many years, I did not wish for anything new. I begged him to take his true place before God as a sinner, and accept Christ as his Saviour; adding, “Then you can teach the boys the truth. Look how responsible you are in their lives for good or evil!” Just then the Lord gave me a good word for him, and all such: “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

He said his time was up. I gave him a tract, but he returned it very politely, wishing me every blessing. He really was very kind and patient with me.

My next call was to see an old friend, who was a happy Christian. She was ill in bed, in pain and much weakness, at eighty years of age. Here I found my contrast, and it was a great one: Light instead of darkness, confidence instead of doubt; a Saviour known and loved, whereas in the other case man was exalting himself! The aged Christian was feeding on the Bread of life. The story in Mark 5 had been read, of the Lord’s wonderful ways with the people of His day; of the man in the tombs; of the afflicted woman; of the child whom He raised from the dead. She said, with a beaming face: “We have told Him all the truth long ago, haven’t we? And He said those lovely words to us ‘Daughter, be of good cheer!’ She must have been surprised when He said that; she must have thought, Why, He has known me all the time!”

And so, dear reader, it is true of you: He knows you, loves you, and waits for you to come with that touch of faith telling Him all the truth, to receive the comfort of His gracious words. We see by faith the Christ, once humbled here, but all powerful to heal, and even restore the dead to life.

Here is a contrast which our thoughts and words all fail to gauge, so vast and deep in meaning and results, that I pray God Himself may be your Teacher here and now, that He may lead you away from the school of man’s proposings to find pardon and peace in the Person and Work of His beloved Son. “HE THAT BELIEVETH ON THE SON HATH EVERLASTING LIFE” (John 3:36).

“On Christ salvation rests secure,

The Rock of Ages must endure;

Nor can that faith be overthrown

Which rests on Christ, the Living Stone.”

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

E.E.E.

Rejection or Reception

“HE came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But 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 1:11, 12.

Passing along a busy street a few days ago in one of our provincial cities, I saw on a big placard the above precious words of Holy Scripture, printed in large bold type, and my attention was arrested, and I greatly rejoiced.

For it revived old and delightful memories, and my heart was thrilled afresh as I remembered how God in His great love and mercy blessed, by His Holy Spirit, these very words of His, to my soul’s salvation, nearly 47 years ago. Praise His Holy Name!

It was on the last Lord’s Day in May, 1880, that three young fellows stood outside the Town Hall in A—, Monmouthshire, reading the announcement posted up by the entrance, that Admiral F— would, D. V., preach the gospel there that evening; and as it was now near the time stated for the meeting, we ascended the steps and entered the Hall. The preacher, an old gentleman retired from H.M. Royal Navy, read from the 1st Chapter John’s Gospel, and selecting particularly the 11th and 12th verses, began to address the large company gathered to hear him.

That he had been much in prayer and communion with the Lord was quickly made evident from the fact that the Word was applied in much power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost; for the three youths who had gone into the meeting light-hearted and frivolous, to hear “what this old man had to say,” were at once arrested in a very remarkable way, and made to realize as never before, that they were lost shows in the sight of a thrice Holy God; and as they had never received the Lord Jesus as the sent One of God, they were under His just condemnation unsaved; “without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).

After the preaching was over and they had made their way to the street, thoroughly convinced of their utter sinfulness, they looked in each other’s faces, and first one, and then the other two, burst into tears (and real tears of contrition for sin, thank God, they were), and back into the Hall they returned to ask the dear servant of the Lord, in the language of the Philippian jailer, “what must I do to be saved?” (Acts. 16:30).

Adding a little to what he had already said, the preacher pointed out that God in mercy, and pity, and love “sent the Son as Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14), and whilst His earthly people, the Jews, as a nation, refused and rejected Him, and at last put Him to a shameful death, He was, nevertheless, accessible to, and would bless and save, any that received Him as their Saviour.

“To God be the glory, great things He hath done;

So loved He the world, that He gave us His son,

Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,

And opened the life-gate that all may go in,”

That night, a night never to be forgotten, we three lost, undone, sinful young men, accepted the Lord Jesus God’s blessed eternal Son, as our own personal Saviour, and we passed from death unto life. We yielded ourselves to Him who called us, as He had called one in the days of His flesh, when He said, “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully” (Luke 19:5, 6).

No person ever received the Lord Jesus in any other way, for He fills the heart of each one who truly trusts Him, “with joy and peace in believing.”

This has been the writer’s happy experience for well-nigh 47 years!

“Life, rest, and peace, the flowers of deathless bloom,

The Saviour gives us not beyond the tomb;

But here and now: on earth some glimpse is given

Of joys which wait us through the gates of heaven.”

Addressing a large number of men, in the breakfast half-hour, employed in a tannery in the City where I reside, I said, after they had sung the words, “Receive me, bless’d Saviour, at last,” that He certainly would do so, as He did His martyred servant, Stephen, when we were called upon to leave this world, if we would only, and now, hold out the hand of faith, each one for himself, and accept Him— “God’s Unspeakable Gift”; “for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). And God, dear reader, in rich grace and mercy is pressing upon your heart’s acceptance, not religion, but CHRIST, who alone can save you, and bring you to God.

Since the Lord Jesus died for the ungodly and rose from the dead and ascended to His Father’s throne on high, God the Holy Ghost, according to His promise, has come to this earth to indwell each person who trusts to the Saviour’s atoning, sin cleansing Blood. And further, the Lord Jesus Himself said, “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). The wind often blows with great force and power upon a door or window. Why?

Because it wants to enter. What was it that pressed, and pressed, and PRESSED upon our hearts that never to be forgotten night of which I have written? No One less than the Holy Spirit of God, so that He might enter, and bring to us with irresistible power the blessed and wondrous knowledge of the Lord Jesus as our very own Saviour.

Is the reader conscious of this pressure? Then, I beseech you in Christ’s stead, yield to His gracious overtures of love and Mercy; for “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

How very appealing in their deep sorrowful lament are the words of the rejected Son of God, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen cloth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

And then, how solemn, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Luke 13:34, 35). May that Blessed One who also said “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), be received into your heart by faith, so that you may know the bliss of being able to say, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

H.C.M.

Nothing

In Luke 5:1-11, we find there is nothing in works to save a man; in Mark 5:22-34, there is nothing to give him life; in Luke 7:40-48 both Simon and the woman in his house were in the same condition, deeply involved in debt, and had nothing wherewith to pay; and in John 15:5, the Saviour says, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” It is Christ the Lord all through. We cannot get salvation by works; we cannot get it by human instrumentality; we are bankrupt before God, and have nothing wherewith, to pay; and if it is a question of doing anything for the Lord, it is necessary to know Him.

It is a very quiet, interesting scene in Luke 5. A lake, called the Sea of Galilee, and by the shore two fishing boats. But the men are not in the boats, but washing their nets. And we see on the shore One Who is the Lord of glory, and much people pressing in a crowd upon Him to hear the word of God. And the Lord asks one of the fishermen to thrust out a little from the shore; and entering the boat, He teaches the people from it. Oh, the simplicity, beauty, and quietness of that scene! And then the Lord says, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft.” But Simon says, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing!” Night is the time when fish are mostly caught, but all that night’s work had been without result. “Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net.” There was a reliance, a trust in that word; and Peter goes back to those very waters where all night they had caught nothing, and lets down the net. “And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net broke.” They beckoned to their partners, and filled both boats, till they began to sink! This was a revelation to Peter that he was in the presence of One Who was more than man, One Who had control over the fishes of the sea the Creator His Maker, his., God! And drawn by irresistible grace to that Person, “he fell down at Jesus’ knees, and said, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” The revelation of that Presence to Peter’s conscience showed him he was unworthy of it, and yet grace had drawn him there! God always works in these two ways. His light reveals the sinner’s condition, and His grace draws the convicted one into His Own blessed presence. The people pressed on Him to hear the word of God: Peter not only heard it, but obeyed it; and the effect was, he and his companions “forsook all and followed Him.”

In the next case in Mark 5, the Lord is on a journey to heal the daughter of Jairus, and again “much people followed Him.” His miracles attracted many; all there had needs, yet only in one ease was the need met; and it was met on the ground of faith (vv. 25, 26). She had spent all she had on physicians, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse (v., 26); but she heard of Jesus, and that He was drawing near. She says, “If I may but touch His clothes I shall be whole”; and she goes to Him; she touches His clothes; there is living contact with Him. She had not to wait for the morrow, but “straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and” (after she touched, not before) “she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague.”

In Luke 7 we have another “nothing.” Simon the Pharisee invited the Lord into his house, but did not give Him the common courtesies a host should give. And there stole into the room a woman, a noted character, known as a sinner, and a dissolute one. And He, the holy, spotless One, the Stranger from heaven, yet the Friend of sinners, is sitting there. She knows she is a sinner, but she knows He knows all about her, and she has confidence to come to His feet. Simon remarks, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who, and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him; for she is a sinner.” Oh, it is a grand thing when the sinner touches the Saviour! And a wonderful thing when the Saviour touches the sinner! The Lord tells Simon of two men who were debtors; one owing 500 pence, the other 50. But both were debtors. And Simon and the woman were both indebted to God; both were sinners, though one was religious and the other profligate; yet both were lost. There might be a difference in the amount of debt; but both were alike in this they had nothing to pay. Both were in debt, and both were bankrupt. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” it matters not how far short. But the Lord says, “He frankly forgave them both.” That is God’s attitude today; He would frankly forgive. But the Pharisee would not bow down to receive such a gift; the woman did, and she got the blessing.

Oh, how blessed to know a God of love Who has frankly forgiven us, because the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our debts on the cross, and the work is finished! What a wonderful pardoning God we have! The woman loved most, because most forgiven. The one who has taken his place as a debtor, and knows the One Who paid it all, and has forgiven all, must return such love, and seek to do something to show that return. And the expression of it is seen by fruitbearing and life; as in John 15. But “without Me ye can do nothing,” and if we want to do anything that is well done in the annals of heaven, we must be in communion with Him.

QUARTUS

"The Marriage of the Lamb."

Suggested by some of the last words of S.T. recorded in “Gospel Gleanings” for February, 1927, also some sweet thoughts expressed by him at a conference. “Whenever you do a thing for HIM, in goes a stitch into the marriage garment.”

“The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready...And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of saints.”

Revelation 19:7, 8.

The marriage of the Lamb! Oh happy people we,

Who have a share in glory, eternally to be;

Who form a part of His own church, for whom He gave His life;

When the Marriage Day takes place above, she’ll be the Lamb’s own wife.

She’ll be brought to Him in garments that her own hands have made.

In linen fine and beautiful His bride shall be arrayed;

‘Tis everything she did for Him, when she was here on earth;

And every stitch she wrought for Him, He’ll see it in its worth.

In raiment of fine needlework His bride shall be arrayed,

In raiment of fine needlework that her own hands have made;

But, before she wears the garment on the glorious Marriage Day,

Her Lord’s own Hands have taken every spot and stain away.

I am very, very happy, but the tears I cannot stay,

When I think of those who have Him not, in this salvation’s day!

He wore upon His blessed Brow the wreath of cruel thorns,

He was the Man of Sorrows, Whom the world rejects and scorns.

I am very, very happy, but, oh, the tears will flow,

When I think of men and women, boys and girls, who treat Him so;

When I think of those who stay outside, when they might be within;

If they won’t have my Saviour, they must perish in their sin!

Yes, sinner, yes, we weep for you, though you never wept for sin;

We weep that you’re outside the Door, when you might be within!

Oh, Jesus says, “I am the Door,” “I am the living Way,”

Oh, sinner, won’t you come to him? Now is salvation’s day!

“A brand plucked out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2).

An Open Door

The following is a short account of the way the Lord can open a door for one very near eternity to hear of the only way of salvation, and by His grace, to accept it.

Having heard that a young man was very ill, I felt led to visit him; but rather drew back on learning that his mother was one who believed salvation was only to be found in “the Church,” and on the ground of merit, through good works, almsgiving, and the sacrifice of the mass; and also that his father had just died suddenly in an outhouse. Still, I felt compelled to go.

The mother opened the door, and showed me into the parlor, where lay the dead body of the father, so suddenly ushered into eternity. After sympathizing with her in her great grief, I asked to see her son, which she readily agreed to. I found him in the last stage of consumption, and I spoke to him of salvation through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through that alone. No works, no ordinances, nothing but faith in that precious blood once shed, which cleanseth from all sin.

On my second visit, how thankful was I to hear him say he had found peace through believing that message of salvation through the finished work of the cross, and was quite ready when his call should come.

Oh, how real it is to be born again from heaven! He simply trusted in the atonement of Christ, and we praised God together.

None can undo what God has done through the precious blood of Christ. That, and that alone, gave him peace, and an entrance to heaven.

Dear reader, if you have not trusted the precious blood of Christ, do so NOW ere it be too late, and the door of mercy is closed. “Now is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2); and God is. beseeching sinners to be reconciled to Him. But there is only one way to come to Him, as sinners, owning the truth to God; and as the bitten Israelites of old looked to the serpent of brass. and were healed, so our sins are pardoned when we look to Jesus by faith, and know Him as the way, the truth, and the life.

A.C.W.

A Loaf of Bread

“A long price for a loaf, ain’t it?” said the old baker, as I placed 5d. in his hand, in exchange for the bread.

“It do seem a lot,” he went on, “and yet it is the cheapest thing on the market: 2d. a lb., and all ready to eat! If you buy a pound of taters, you has to peel and cook ‘em; but here, all you has to do, is to sliver it off, and eat it!”

“You have done the cooking!” I replied, smiling at his apology.

“Yes; and then the farmer; he had to sow his seed, and wait pretty near a twelvemonth, and then pay his reapers; and then the millers! Why, it is nigh eighteen months before there is a return on the money! And it comes to you all ready to eat! Yet people grumble!!”

“It is a wonderful picture of God’s salvation,” was my answer: “the Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the Bread of Life.’”

“Yes, but people don’t think nowadays,” he responded, as he moved away.

Dear reader, do you think as you partake of the loaf on your breakfast table, of the wonderful illustration it affords of God’s great salvation? You know it is a necessity in your daily life, a staple article of food for rich and poor: and so is the Christ of God. You must have Christ, or perish eternally!

The first act in the produce of that loaf was the sowing of the seed; and He has said: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). He Himself, “the Bread of God,” come down from heaven, has gone into the grave; He has died; nay more, “Bread corn is bruised” (Isaiah 28:28); and on the Cross He was “bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5); the wrath of God fell on Him, the Holy Substitute in the sinner’s stead, and He bore the judgment, and exhausted it. He cried “It is finished!” and bowing His head, dismissed His Spirit. They took His lifeless, sinless Body from the Cross; they laid it in the tomb: the Corn of wheat had fallen into the ground, and died. But the third day, He rose again! He is today the Risen One; death has no claim on Him; the grave cannot hold Him; and He is ascended to heaven; on the right hand of the Majesty on high He sits, the Purger of sins, the Firstfruits from the dead.

All that the sowing, and the reaping, the milling, and the baking suggest has been borne by Him; and this is His own blessed word: “I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that Bread of life.”

“I am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever: and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:35, 47, 48, 51). He has given, it; and again He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53, 54).

Make no mistake, nor imagine that the Christ of God spoke there of the physical partaking of the elements in the Communion Service in remembrance of His death: thousands may partake of them and still have no life. The “eating” in verse 53 is the same as in verse 35: “He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” But it is faith, not alone in His Person, as the Incarnate Son of God, but also in His finished and perfect work, His atoning Sacrifice, once offered (Hebrews 9:28), that gives life to dead sinners, and is meant by “eating” His “flesh,” and “drinking” His “blood.” Your hunger is not appeased by admiring your loaf on the table; you must partake of it, feed on it; receive it into your very being.

But in one way the loaf I purchased, the loaf you partake of, are contrasts as well as illustrations of God’s salvation. They needed to be bought. As the old baker handed me the bread, he expected payment, even though it was “the cheapest food on the market.”

But the Bread of Life comes to you and to me on far other terms “Ho!” such is God’s proclamation: “Ho, he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy... without money, and without price. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness!” (Isaiah 55:1, 2). “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).

The Person of the Christ

In the opening of John’s Gospel we see the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in past ages. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “The beginning” is put there because our finite minds must start somewhere, but there was no beginning with Him. From all eternity He was daily the delight of the Father.

But in v. 14 we read that He Who throughout eternity was with God, and was God, became flesh. Oh, how marvelous that He should leave those heights of glory, where all was perfect joy and happiness, to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as Man to be seen here! Though unbelievers knew (and know) Him not, He was made flesh and dwelt among us, the blessed Son of God! Those who believed in His Name beheld something the world could not see in Him: they “beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And what they saw, we, in God’s mercy see. Think of Him here among sinners, the holy Son of God; hear them revile Him, and He reviles not again! God manifest in flesh, in all the perfection of moral glory found in Jesus! We may trace His way from the manger to the Cross; and every detail of that path, every action, every word demonstrates one fact: “the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!” When His eye saw one passing through trial, whether affliction of body or of soul, how He “had compassion,” and bade them “weep not”; how He spoke words of cheer and comfort, and gave strength to the weak, sight to the blind, life to the dead! In all His ways He was distributing mercy and truth—the eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, Who at last hung on Calvary’s cross as the Lamb of God, Who suffered in the sinner’s stead, and Whose precious blood was shed that your sins might be washed away.

But in Mark 9 we see His official glory. He led three of the apostles up “into a high mountain apart by themselves.” They had beheld His moral glory, and were following Him. “And He was transfigured before them.” Is my soul occupied with the world, or with Him? If I am occupied with Him away from earth and earthly things, then I see before me that blessed Person in both His moral and official glory. “And His raiment became shining,” glittering, with all the brightness that belongs to Him, the Son of God, with all the glory associated with Him. Man would not have Him, but God will give Him glory; it is His title and His right. So His very raiment became “shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.” There was something that was not natural, something which belonged to Him, and the One Who was giving Him glory. We read in Daniel of the Ancient of Days, Whose garment was white as snow; and in Revelation 1 there is the same characteristic. Here He is brought before us in the supernatural glory God had given Him. And the same blessed Face Peter, James, and John had known and loved when they companioned with Him, they see it shining as the sun!

“And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.” What were they talking about? Luke tells us it was that which heaven is most concerned about; that which all the coming ages of eternity will never exhaust: “they spake of His decease which He should accomplish in Jerusalem.” It was the death of Christ these men were speaking of! To think that the One Whose moral glory these disciples had seen should be talking to these strangers from heaven about His death!

Throughout both Old and New Testament God ever brings one theme before us, the glory of Christ. And never did His glory shine out with such beauty and excellence as when He suffered on the cross. Never was such love or such sorrow as met then. Can you, dear reader, say with me: “The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me?”

But when Peter speaks he shows he does not appreciate the Person of the Son of God as he should. He puts Moses and Elias on a par with Him. Good men as they were, they were only sinners, only men; but the Person of the Christ is beyond all men, He is God, God and Man.

Then the Father comes out. The Cloud which led them through the wilderness, the Cloud which told the presence of Jehovah, and which had not been seen since the people went into captivity, that Cloud is seen again. And it “overshadowed them.” No wonder they “feared as they entered into the Cloud!” Then the Father’s Voice is heard saying: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.” It is not the law now, nor the prophets; their glory is surpassed by Another, by the Only Perfect One Who walked this scene entirely to the glory of God; the One Whom the world rejected and cast out. But the Father’s testimony is “This is My Beloved Son; hear ye Him.” That Person is everything to the Father. Soon His glory will be manifested; and though earth spurns Him today, God has highly exalted Him, and has decreed that all in heaven, earth, and hell shall acknowledge He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Eternal Son is He Who came from God, and went to God; and God presents Him today with His finished work, to the sinner. That glorious Person is the One Who died for the sinner, and is risen again; Who alone can meet the heart’s desire, and fill the soul with peace and joy; an Object too big for the soul, Who can fill it to overflowing, so that the believer is lost in the beauty, excellency and glory of the Person of the Christ!

QUARTUS.

Unchanging Values

No. 1 “the Virtuous Woman.”

At the time of the Great War, there was a keen interest taken in the changing prices. How the sugar, bread, and other things for our daily use soared up to our dismay, as also the wool, iron, etc., for our industries! Then as prices were lowered there came disaster in trade, as many had to sell at a loss. There was nothing certain, and most of us were in fear of what might happen. If we look into our Bibles we find things which cannot be changed by circumstances, and it may be well to remind each other now of some which God has called precious, and of lasting value. If we reckon with Him as to values, we shall find the true riches, and prize what is really worth the having.

It is wonderful that there can be found in this poor lost world what is precious to Him, even beautiful! Some old lines run like this: “There hath One Object been revealed below Which might commend the place; But now ‘tis gone, Jesus is with the Father!”

This is most true! Yet some dear believers are left to shine on where He has been the Light! These are precious to Him and commended to His Father as He was leaving them. Let us speak of the “Virtuous Woman” in Proverbs 31. Here is a woman of Israel, who has faith and courage to live before the Lord in the midst of people who know Him not. She orders her household, and her various employments in accord with His commands. She is a “keeper at home,” is subject to her husband, loves her children, for they rise up and call her blessed! “Her price is far above rubies” (v. 10).

Beautiful before God is the quiet home-life of a wife and mother. Should a weary one read this, I pray that she may take comfort from this Scripture, assured that her labor is not in vain. Let her get hold of God’s value of it, and she will find rest even in her toil!

The ruby is a thing of value, and beauty, and it also shines! There is a far-reaching result oftentimes, from the service which only God has seen! Verse 30 of our chapter tells her: “The woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised!”

The modern woman has changed her conduct, and her dress of late, till we hardly know her, and we fear she takes little or no notice of what is plainly taught in Old and New Testaments.

She is not reckoning with God! His order in Creation is unchanged. “Adam was first formed” (1 Tim. 2:13).

No. 2 “the Soul.”

If we have looked in God’s Word to find the price of a woman who fears the Lord, so must we come again to it alone, for the price of the soul! “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Listen to what God says of it: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20); and “The redemption of their soul is precious” (Psalm 49:8). Then it is lost, and has to he bought back! What Is the price? Psalm 49 tells of a very rich man, but he cannot by any of his means redeem his brother. We can tell of One Who has paid the full price, the Lord Jesus, Who once “offered Himself without spot to God.” He is now saying with outstretched arms of love and power, “Come unto Me” and be ye saved! Because of that sacrifice, so precious to God, He can say, “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24).

In passing a house, where all blinds are drawn, we at once suppose that someone has died, that there is a body lying in the stillness of death! What if blinds were pulled down for all the dead souls! Would there be many in our road, do you think? How about your house and mine?

Do not think it unkind if we speak in earnest tones, for our great concern today is for your abundant blessing, and fearing lest you should still neglect, and then lose this great salvation. The enemy of souls is doing his best to occupy you with business and pleasure, brushing away any serious thought.

But to refuse god’s Gift will mean, in the end, that you will have nothing; that you reckoned all wrong; and there can only be the wages of sin for you! His Word is very plain about this: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

No. 3 “the Blood of Christ.”

This subject seems, as I touch it, too wonderful for me, yet one would earnestly contend for the faith. The new teaching, which so many are glad to receive today, makes very little of the precious Blood of Christ. Bishops and teachers seek to do without the Atonement. Poor indeed their thoughts must be of God, and of sin in His sight! He calls it “precious” (1 Peter 1, 19); and how we love the verse, “The Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Blessedly true now. Later it will cleanse the universe. So great its value before God!

Have YOU felt its cleansing power? Long ages ago God told the people, “I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls” (Lev. 17:11).

His plan of salvation is the same now! The 1st Epistle of John tells about light and love; and the cleansed sinner can be in the light, because the love is also there to protect, the blood to justify!

Little dogs bark at the sun; it still shines! The modernists are barking at God’s. Holy Word, but they cannot hurt it, and it will shine still! Go to it in faith! “Seek and ye shall find!”

E. E. E.

The Wreck of the "Lymington."

How bright L— Bay looks this summer! The sun shining on the calm waters; motor boats laden with passengers plying to and fro from I— to and from L— to I—; bathers enjoying the sunlit waters; happy parties scattered up and down upon the rocky beach. It is a pleasant scene for the eye to rest upon. A continual coming and going, some on foot, some by buses, some by motor boats. L— is a beauty spot, a health and pleasure resort for health and pleasure seekers.

But very different sights have the inhabitants of L— witnessed, and far different sounds have they heard.

In L— Bay, in February, 1889, the whole crew of the “Lymington” were drowned one awful night, their cries for help being distinctly heard by those on land. All were willing to save, none were able. What a scene of death and desolation! The cruel rocky coast, the raging billows, the fierce storm, the piteous cries of the drowning men. Awful sight, awful sounds!

The coastguards and the rocket apparatus had been called out from I— to the distressed crew of the “Lymington”; but, in the agitation and excitement, a fatal mistake was made. The officer in command instructed his men to wait for him at the gates of I churchyard.

Sad to relate, he entirely forgot his own order, and hastened by himself to L— Bay, a distance of 21 miles willing to save the drowning crew, but absolutely powerless to reach them. Coastguards and horses and rocket apparatus waited in vain at the churchyard gates, till at length the owner of the horses refused to keep them standing in the bitter cold any longer. The coastguards were willing and anxious to save the drowning crew; but when they at last reached L— it was too late. The old fisherman of L—, George L—, a man of dauntless courage, declared he could have saved the drowning men with the rocket apparatus. He, too, was willing, but he was not able. NONE was able. ALL were willing to save. NONE was able.

In I— churchyard is a grave with this inscription, so faint in parts that it is difficult to read the whole: “Erected By Public Subscription

To the Memory of

Edward Miller,

Aged 22,

Whose Body Lies Below, And

To Seven Other Members

Of the Crew of the

S.S. “Lymington,”

Wrecked off L—,

Feb. —, 1889.”

And so the entire crew of the “Lymington” perished for lack of a saviour. Anxious, desperately anxious to be saved, as their bitter cries for help testified; but none appeared to be their saviour. There was none with power to save those drowning men from death in the raging waters. No saviour.

Dear reader, if you perish eternally, it will not be as with the crew of the “Lymington,” because there is none with power to save you. They had no saviour; there was not one able to save. Many saw the dire distress they were in; many heard their piteous cries for help; but not one had power to save. They could in no wise save themselves. And none saved them. But it will not be so with you. True, you cannot Save yourself. But the Lord Jesus Christ can save you, and He will save you if you will but put your trust in Him.

The leper in Mark 1:40-42, doubted the Lord’s willingness to meet his need. “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me whole.” “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”

The father of the child possessed with a foul spirit, in Mark 9:17-27, doubted the Lord’s power to help. “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”

The woman in Mark 5:24-34, had an “If,” too, but it was the “If” of faith.

“If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole,” verse 28.

“HE IS ABLE,

“HE IS WILLING: doubt no more.”

“Whose fault will it be if you are lost?” asked a servant of Christ of some boys and girls at a meeting for children. “Our own,” answered a big girl. And, dear reader, if you are eternally lost, it will be your own fault, for “HE IS ABLE HE IS WILLING: doubt no more.”

“A brand plucked out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2).

"What Think Ye of Christ?"

The world is full of questions, and more so since education has made such advancement; but no question has ever been put from one lip to another which has such importance as this one, put in the land of Palestine nineteen hundred years ago. Important in those days, it has never lost its importance as it comes now to you and me. It is important because of the Person about Whom it is; it is important because our eternity is involved in our answer to it. “What think ye of Christ?”

Let us see what the world thought of Him when He was down here.

When He was only about twelve months old, as we see in Matthew 2, wise men came from the East inquiring, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” For they had seen the star in the East which linked up their thoughts with this blessed Person, appointed to be the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King of Israel. But when they came, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod demanded where Christ should be born; they told him from the Scriptures where it should be, and he desired the wise men to find out where He was that he might worship Him also. But was that the truth? Nay; murder was in his heart. His desire to know where He was was only in order to kill Him; and he sends forth the decree that all the male children under two years should be killed, to be sure of the death of the Messiah, the Christ of God!

Go on to the later part of the Lord’s life; and in Matthew 26 we find a consultation held by those looked up to as leaders in the nation, a consultation to take Jesus by subtlety and kill Him! Murder was in their hearts, not only in the heart of Herod, but of those professedly religious leaders of the people! But they said, “Not on the feast day”; not while religious observances were going on, “for fear of the people.”

What then was their appraisement of the Lord’s Christ? Nothing more than a common slave, for they covenanted with Judas for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave, Exodus 21:32.

Go on again to the judgment hall, where Pilate puts two questions to them concerning this same blessed Person. First, what is their choice, Christ, or one who for sedition and murder had been cast into prison; Barabbas? “Bar” means “son”; “abbas,” “of the father”; the devil’s counterfeit of the Son of the Father! Would they have the counterfeit, already under sentence of death, or Christ? What is your choice? The devil’s counterfeit, or the Saviour God has sent? What think ye of Christ?

Then Pilate asks the second question: “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” “They all say unto him, Let Him be crucified.”

Come now to another scene at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13). The Lord asks His disciples, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” They tell Him there is a difference of opinion about Him; and the Lord turns round and says, “Whom say ye that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” A wonderful answer that! When murder was in the hearts of men, the Father had revealed to Peter that this outcast, despised One is THE Christ, THE Son of THE living God! God, the living God, had sent His own beloved Son, speaking words of grace and truth, and bringing salvation to all who would come to Him. Again let us go back to our question; What think ye of Christ? It matters not what others think: what are THY thoughts of that blessed Person?

Ah, blessed be He, God over all, blessed forever! That is what we think of Him, the Sent One of God, Who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Did He not say, “He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life?” (John 5:24). Are your thoughts in accordance with what God has declared through His word, that He is His beloved Son, Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, the Creator, the Sustainer of all life, yet seen in a body amongst men?

Ah, but He might have passed through this scene as He did, every word, every action bringing glory to God; but had it finished there, there was no salvation for you or me.

Go to Calvary, and see that blessed One nailed to the cross. Hark to the cry from His lips, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” Hark to that loud voice, “It is finished!” as He dismisses His Spirit, and passes into Paradise. What think ye of Christ? He Who knew no sin while on that cross was made sin for you and for me: He, the Holy and the Just, died for us the unjust, to bring us to God.

“Oh, ‘twas love, ‘twas wondrous love,

The love of God to me;

It brought my Saviour from above

To die on Calvary.”

What think ye of Christ? Read in Acts 2, and find that He who was upon the cross, is now up there in the glory, having passed through death. Hades could not contain Him; His body saw no corruption; God has raised Him up, and put Him at His own right hand, and given Him glory; having made that same Jesus which was crucified both Lord and Christ. He is the center of all that scene, the Glory of all the glories there, the Son of God, highly exalted, Head over all, blessed forever! He is up there as having been unto death, the Risen Man, Christ Jesus. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and rose again according to the Scriptures. All the word of God witnesses to the fact He died for our sins, and rose again. Wondrous truth for God to send forth, and for you to believe!

But we have a hope; He is coming again! We know not the day or the hour, but He is bound to come, for He has never broken His word yet! And He is coming soon, for “yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” And we who believe on Him, shall behold Him, and be like Him! But He is going to reign as David’s Son, and David’s Lord, the coming Monarch Whom all nations will serve. The Son of Man has been given authority; and He Who would give peace to the troubled conscience today will then sit as Judge of those who reject Him according to their works. Oh, again we ask, “What think YE of Christ?”

QUARTUS.

Nobody but Christ

It was a beautiful home in one of the most picturesque parts of the country, and the three ladies who shared it were surrounded by almost everything that the human heart desires. Highly educated, it had been theirs to mingle with the great and the learned; the name of one of them had become familiar, as a brilliant and voluminous writer, wherever the English language was spoken; they had the means of doing good to others less highly favored, and had delighted to use their wealth and their talents in works of philanthropy and mercy. They were highly thought of by those whose approval was worth having, and tenderly attached to each other; but—Yes, there was a “but” in their case—a crook in their lot—as in everyone else’s; all three (now elderly) were more or less invalids, and it was apparent to all that that three-fold cord of love and companionship was about to be broken.

The eldest of them, whose sparkling wit and keen sense of humor had made her remarkable from her girlhood, was drawing near the end of her earthly journey, and she and the others knew it. The brilliant social functions; the intellectual gatherings of the literary world; the quieter, but still deeper pleasures of ministering to the poor and needy, and the sweets of that dear home circle, all were passing: what remained? “We have brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Tim. 6:7). What was Sarah M taking with her into eternity? Was she going naked, and empty handed into the presence of her Creator? Your Creator, too, reader, to Whom you, too, soon must render account.

Her sister tenderly bends over her: “Do you know me?” she asks. “I know nobody but Christ,” is the answer from those dying lips. Then feebly, and painfully, “Talk of the cross the precious cross; the King of love!” “Oh, the blood of Christ! He died for me; God was made man.”

A friend repeated to her the heart-sustaining assurance: “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Softly she repeated, “Cleanseth”; and a moment after, “Blessed Jesus!” the last word that could be understood.

A day or two before, on her medical attendant wishing her “good morning,” she had exclaimed, “Oh, for the glorious morning of the resurrection! but there are some gray clouds between!” Those clouds were not permitted to dim her joy, however, for waking out of a quiet sleep, she exclaimed, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto the Lamb. Hallelujah!”

And so she passed into eternity, knowing “nobody but Christ,” she, whose knowledge of the world, and the wisdom of the world, was much greater than that of either writer or reader of these lines is likely to be. Men may deride the Person of the Christ of God; may deny His Deity; ridicule the need of His atonement, and trample on His blood, accounting it an unholy thing; but what when death comes? What when everything of earth is slipping from their grasp?

Christ is the Wisdom of God, and He is the Power of God.

His word is unchangeable, unbreakable; He cannot deny Himself. Take your place before Him as a needy, bankrupt and guilty sinner; and find Him to be for time and eternity made unto you by God Himself, “wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

Good News

The gospel of God concerning His Son is good news: good news of His Person, blessed expression! All until the gospel was a claim. upon man. A claim can never be good news, but the gospel never alters the claim of God upon man, but maintains it, and shows that all is over with man, because he can never meet that claim. But the gospel brings in the power of God power on behalf of man; yet not power to help man meet the claim of God upon him. It reveals the righteousness of God, consequent upon man being altogether without strength to meet God’s claim. While a person is looking for help, he is under law, and has never been in God’s presence. If I am in the presence of God NOW, help will not do. I am lost. I want righteousness and pardon; and I want it now. And the soul will not have solid peace until it is in the presence of God, righteous and pardoned. The apostle says (Romans 1:16), “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation... because therein is the righteousness of God revealed.”

A righteousness which is declared unto all, yea, to every creature, and which is “UPON all them that believe.”

Our Message

We are not left to choose our words;

Our message comes from Heaven’s Throne;

The work and word are both the Lord’s—

The Cross alone!

Let Modernists their own device

Or vain philosophy proclaim,

We preach the truth, beyond all price—

THE SAVIOUR’S NAME.

W.O.

From the East.

We are With Judson (Dr. Adoniram Judson, the Apostle of Burmah) one day, in the zayat by the wayside. It is noon; and the sun is pouring down his rays upon the thin, fragile roof, In the center of the floor beneath, the missionary is seated, in a bamboo chair, haggard and careworn, for he has suffered greatly for Christ’s sake. He takes up a Burmese tract, written by himself, and reading it aloud, waits, hoping some native as he passes may be arrested, and enter in. Just at that moment a stranger, tall and dignified, comes up, leading by the hand a bright eyed, sprightly boy. “Papa! Papa!” says the latter, “look, look, Papa, there is Jesus Christ’s man.” The father does not speak or turn his head; but day after day, as they pass, the child regularly smiles at “Jesus Christ’s man,” as if recognizing in him a friend.

One evening the missionary calls a native convert. “Did you ever observe the tall man who has just passed, leading a little boy?”

“I saw him.”

“What do you know about him?”

“He is a writer under Government, a very respectable man, haughty, reserved—”

“And what else?”

“He hates Christians. . . but does the teacher remember, it may be now three, four, I know not how many years ago, a young woman came for medicine? This little boy, her only child, was very ill. She did not dare ask you to the house, or even send a servant for the medicine; for her husband was one of the most violent persecutors.”

“Ah, I do recollect her, by her distress, and by her warm gratitude. So this is her child! What has become of the mother?”

“Has the teacher forgotten putting a Gospel of Matthew in her hand, and saying it contained medicine for her for she was afflicted with a worse disease than the fever of her little son; and then praying?”

“I do not recall the circumstance just now. But what came of it?”

“They say,” answered the Burman, lowering his voice, “the medicine cured her.”

A few days passed, and who should spring up the steps of the zayat but the child, and behind him, his grave, dignified father, who, with a courteous bow, took his seat on the mat? “You are the foreign priest?” he remarked, by way of introduction.

“I am a missionary,” was the reply.

“And so you make people believe in Jesus Christ? My little son, here, has heard of you, sir,” he added, with an air of assumed carelessness, but betraying to Judson’s practiced eye a deep, wearing anxiety, “and he is very anxious to learn something about Jesus Christ. It is a pretty story you tell of that Man, prettier, I think, than any of our fables.”

“Ah, you think so? To what particular story do you allude?”

“Why, that strange sort of a Being you call Jesus Christ, a great Prince or something of that sort, dying for us poor fellows. The absurdity of the thing makes me laugh, though there is something beautiful in it, too. I am a true and faithful worshipper of Lord Gautama; but of course neither you nor I subscribe to all the fables of our respective religions.”

“But what if I should tell you I do believe everything I preach as firmly as I believe you sit on the mat before me, and that it is the one desire of my life to make everybody else believe it, you and your child among the rest?”...

One night, very late, the weaned missionary was roused from his slumbers. “Teacher! teacher! you are wanted.” And in a few minutes he was hastening to a house where cholera was raging. He entered the verandah, and proceeded to an inner room, where wild wailing intimated the presence of death. A few moments more, and he was gazing, in intense emotion, on thy corpse of a little boy.

“He is gone up to the golden country,” murmured a voice close to his ear, “to bloom forever amid the royal lilies of paradise.”

Startled, and turning abruptly, he had before him a middle-aged woman, holding to her mouth a palm leaf fan. Slurring over an occasional word, she dared not pronounce distinctly, she added, “He worshipped the true God, and trusted in the Lord our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ; He trusted in Him; he called and was answered; he was weary and in pain; and the Lord, Who loved him, He took him home to be a little golden lamb in His bosom forever.”

“How long since did he go?”

“About an hour.”

“Was he conscious?”

“Yes, and full of joy.”

“What did he talk of?”

“Only the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose face he seemed to see.”

“And his father?” inquired Judson, anxiously.

“His father! oh my master! he is going too. Come and see.”

They moved forward together to the next apartment, where in the last stage of the disease lay his noble figure.

“Do you trust in Lord Gautama at a moment like this?” inquired the missionary softly. The eyes were unclosed, with a look of mingled pain and disappointment.

“Lord Jesus, receive his spirit!” exclaimed Judson, kneeling at the side of the dying man. A smile flitted across the pale face, as if the sacred Name had touched a kindred chord within. The finger pointed upward, then fell heavily on his breast. A moment later, he was with the Lord.

“You had better go now,” whispered the woman; “you can do no further good, and may receive harm.”

They once more stood by the corpse of the child, which the mourners, by the rush to the inner apartment, had suddenly left alone.

“See!” she said, softly, lifting the cloth reverently. Judson looked, and on the toy’s bosom lay a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. “Who placed it there?”

“He did, with his own dear hand. I was his mother’s nurse,” she continued, after a pause. “She got this book from you, sir. We thought my master had burned it; but he kept, and maybe, studied it. Do you think he became a true believer?”

“Whom did he worship at the last moment?”

“The Lord Jesus Christ, I am sure of that. Do you think the Lord would receive him, sir?”

“Did you ever read about the thief who was crucified with the Saviour?”

“Oh, yes! I read it to the boy this very day. He was holding his mother’s book when the disease smote him; and he kept it in his hand, and went up with it lying on his bosom. Yes, I remember.”

“The Lord Jesus Christ is just as merciful now as He was then.”

“And so they are all” she exclaimed, gathering before her mind’s eye the three departed, now with Christ above. “Oh, it is almost too much to believe!”

“But where,” asked Judson, “did you first become acquainted with this religion?”

“My mistress taught me, sir, and made me promise to teach her baby when he was old enough, and to go to you for more instruction. But I was alone and afraid... I should not mind now,” she added, “if they did find me out and kill me. It would be very pleasant to go up to Paradise. I think I should even like to go tonight, if the Lord would please to take me.”

Sel.

Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down,... in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom [baptized rejecters of Christ and His Word] shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:11, 12.)

An Old Photograph

A photograph, forty years old, of a class of young men and boys, with their teacher! What memories it recalls! It was a Bible Class, and there were fourteen in it. Eleven lived in Christian homes, and the other three had a Christian master. So they all had the great advantage of being every day with those whose prayer and aim was that they should be Christians too.

You may like to know how it has fared with them during the forty years that have passed since that photo was taken.

Well, some made a profession of faith in Christ which turned out to be unreal; but three made good their confession of the Name of Jesus, grew in grace and in knowledge, and today are witnessing for Him by a decided Christian life.

One of the others, too, today is not afraid to preach Christ; nay, rather, is not able to help telling of His love. And with good reason! For when he got too big for that Bible Class, he wandered and fell: but for the Good Shepherd’s pursuit he had been lost beyond all remedy. You shall hear his story later.

His brother also was lost sight of for a time, but returned some years before he died. He never made a decided stand for Christ, but seemed much like “Mr. Fearing,” in “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Two others were of the wavering kind also, sometimes turning aside, but always returning. They, too, have died.

This disposes of half of them; what of the other seven lads? Alas, not one has ever become a Christian, as far as I know! Two of them have died without giving any reason for a hope that they had trusted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. Strange that Bible Class boys, having Christian homes, or under good influences in other ways, should become, one, a runaway from home; another, a robber of his master, and imprisoned; and yet another sunk to the gutter through drink and sin, ruined in mind and body! Such was the record of some of the remaining seven, but the veil can be drawn aside no further. T.D.

Let us now hear

W. C— k’s Story (Nearly in his own words.)

As far as I can recollect, going to Sunday School never made the slightest impression on me. I am not conscious of a single thing I heard or experienced there that remained with me. Though favored with a Christian father and mother, I turned out a real prodigal; tramping the country, sleeping under hayricks and straw-stacks, and in the lowest lodging houses. Thieving, lying, swearing, cheating, gambling these occupied me; the sporting papers were my only mental food; I would sit up in bed, pipe in mouth reading them. I have been forgiven much. Tears flow as I write! I married with not a stool to sit on, but I was not an infidel, for I never doubted it was true that Jesus Christ had lived, and died, and was buried, and rose again. So should I have been today, believing as the devils believe, but the Lord stopped me in my mad career when I was 27 years of age. I lost the sight of one eye through a burn, and was reduced to abject poverty. A little from “the parish” was all we had to live on, and I became sad at heart and weary of life. In this state I went to bed one night, it was the night the good Shepherd found His wandering sheep, the last sad night I have ever I’m?! Not a spark of love had I towards Him, but in love to my soul He gave me in that night a sight of the last great Assize. The two classes were in view, the saved and the lost. He would not leave me till I made my choice which of those two classes I was going to be in. At length, horror stricken at the thought of being among the lost, and to escape that awful doom, I cried for mercy. When I cried, He heard, and answered, and delivered me. My wife shrieked out, “Our W— has gone mad!” but I said, “I have been mad all my life, and I have just come to my senses.” Yes, by my want and blindness He humbled me: He brought me out of darkness into His marvelous light!

What brought Joseph’s brethren to acknowledge Him? Was it love? No, it was famine. What brought the prodigal to his father? Love? No, famine. What brought me to the Saviour? My love? No, it was dire necessity. But what a Saviour! He first loved us, and because of this, we love Him. I do not remember the date, but I know the place. When I pass it, I say to myself, “That’s the place where my Saviour found me, and made me His own. That’s where the burden of my heart rolled away!” Truly I came to Jesus as I was, Weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, And He has made me glad! Someone may wonder what more could be desired if I always believed the Bible was true? Well, it says in John’s gospel (1:12) “But as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.”

Not believe about Him. That will never save anyone, for I believed about Him all my life, but was lost, and would have been lost forever. But the moment I received Him, He revolutionized me, and filled me with joy and praise, and thanksgiving. He gave me peace, that peace which He made by the blood of His cross. From that day till now I have been saying, “We love Him because He first loved us.” And so I have a joy in Christ that no unfavorable circumstances can dim. Though often tried, and almost fainting by the way, I always recover after shutting myself up in the bedroom to pray, and read His word, enjoying His presence, and growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Him.

I cannot understand how anyone can be full of doubts, and merely hoping that they will find themselves in heaven at last. Since that never-to-be-forgotten moment when He found me, I have never doubted that I am His, and He is mine. When God speaks, even though He promise what we may think impossible, why stagger through unbelief? Faith believes Him every time; when He declares His love in word and deed, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; when He says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life”; and afterward when He utters all those 32,000 promises that I have heard the Scripture contains.

We Love Him Because -

Do you believe, as a poor guilty sinner, on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe that God, out of His own boundless love, gave Jesus His Son? Cast away the vain hope of any good thing of your own fit for God; receive on God’s authority, and in His grace, Him Who has all good, not only for God, but for you, and Who was sent to be the propitiation for sins. Then, as receiving God’s glad tidings, you are entitled to say, “By grace I do believe that I have life, and peace, and am His child.”

While you are uncertain of God’s love, you cannot really love Him; when you believe the reality of His love in giving His Son for the ungodly, for His enemies, is He not coming down to meet you? Take again the once abandoned woman (Luke 7), and the violent robber on the cross (Luke 23); why are these extreme cases recorded, but to encourage you on God’s part? Otherwise they had been passed over in silence. But they are written expressly to meet doubting men and women, as hard to believe God’s love as the most outrageous sinner, or even more so.

Do not be discouraged because you come to the conclusion that you do not love God. This is not the true question; but does not God point to Christ and His death for sins as the best proof even He could give of His love to you and me? When you bow your reasoning mind to such an overwhelming proof to satisfy you of His love, you will surely love, though you may be slow to allow it: others will see the change in you. When you rest on Christ’s sacrifice for your sins, your heart will open to the God that thus cleanses you by Christ’s blood from every stain; and you will be ready then to say, “I have found Him,” and soon learn that it was He who found you.

Come just as you are, that He may have all the glory. And if He loved me with so mighty a love of His own, without one single thing or thought in me worthy of His love; if He so loved me notwithstanding my entire being, and all my life, full of sins, will He cease to love me when I am His child, His son by faith in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, cry Abba Father? Assuredly not!

W.K.

The Royal Banquet

A State banquet was being held that evening, to honor the presence of the ruler of another mighty nation, and full dress was the King’s command for those privileged to attend. The guests were arriving: peers and peeresses in splendid attire; army commanders in the scarlet and gold uniforms of their respective rank. It was a gay and gorgeous scene in Buckingham Palace that evening as they assembled in the hall. Among those resplendent uniforms, chatting gaily to their wearers, moved a striking figure. Across his spotless white shirt front were draped the sashes of the Legion of Honor and the Order of the Bath, while on his black coat shimmered many well-earned decorations, bestowed by his sovereign’s hand. A great and victorious general, he freely moved among his peers, with whom he had so often been associated in far different scenes to that happy gathering about to take place in the presence of Their Majesties and their guests.

But, suddenly, an unexpected thing happened. Deferential and embarrassed, a Court official approached, saying that as his lordship was not in full dress it would be impossible for him to go up to be presented, or to attend the banquet! What? Was he not well known as a faithful servant of the King? Did not those many decorations prove how his services had been appreciated, and the favors he had received? He not go up into the Royal Presence, indeed! And why not? Because he was appearing there in his own dress, and not in the uniform prescribed by His Majesty.

There was still time, the official suggested, to go back and change. But alas, the uniform was too far away to be got at in time; and, leaving his wife to attend the banquet, that great, and famous, and victorious general had to turn his back on the palace, and the presence of his Sovereign and his guests, rejected, because “improperly attired!”

Such was the story told, a few months ago, in the daily Press. Listen! Here is another story similar in some respects, but told by One Who never mistakes, or adds, or omits one detail inconsistent with truth.

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain King, which made a marriage for His Son, and sent forth His servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again He sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared My dinner; My oxen and My fatlings are killed and all things are ready: come to the marriage. But they made light of it...

“... Then saith He to His servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

“... And the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the King came in to see the guests, He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment and He saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the King to His servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:2-13).

All hangs on attire suited to the presence of the King. King George made the banquet to honor his guest, and those present must be there in a manner suited to the dignity of the one who invited them.

God, a far Greater King, has made a wedding feast for the honor of His Son; and while the invitation goes out to all, “as many as ye shall find,” yet all shall be there in a manner suited to the glory of God, and the honor of His Christ. It matters not whether a peer or a pauper; whether covered with honors as a professing servant of God, or steeped in the mire of this world and the filth of sin, the invitation, on the authority of the word of God goes to all, goes to YOU: “WHOSOEVER WILL LET HIM TAKE OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY” (Rev. 22:17).

Come as you are: in the rags of self-righteousness, or the nakedness of sin. God has a Robe for you, the BEST ROBE that heaven itself can provide: “the Righteousness of God, which is unto all, and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22), even “Christ Jesus,” Himself. “Who of God is made unto us... righteousness.”

He was once “made sin for us, Who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21); but the work of atonement is finished, and He is on the Throne of God, the Brightness of all the glory of heaven; and God offers Him to you today, the One Who can meet all your need.

Oh, delay not till too late. Think not that the mercies and favors you receive from the God of all grace can fit you for heaven apart from Christ: He says, “I am the way and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).

Now

“Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). “Behold NOW is the accepted time: behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

A preacher of the gospel asked his hearers, “Who is the last person you expect to die?” and then answered the question for them, “Yourself!” And yet you may be the next to go.

Little did a young lady think, as she took her journey to the seaside, that she would never return again; but that she would take another journey, and a most important one, from which there is no return, the journey from time into ETERNITY. Yet so it was. She went to enjoy the air and the lovely view from a grand hill, with its rugged rocky side descending sheer on to the beach, and into the sea beneath. She spread her mackintosh on the grass, and sat down to enjoy the sea, the air, the view. But the mackintosh began to slip, and slipped with her over the cliff, and she was killed. Her short journey of life here finished, she had passed from time into ETERNITY. And who can tell when you shall pass from time into ETERNITY?

A coal-heaver once preached a very short and very excellent sermon. He said, “To live hard is hard; to die hard is harder: a hard ETERNITY is hardest of all.” He knew what it was to live hard; he had seen many a hard deathbed: he had been saved from a hard ETERNITY through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who had suffered in his stead on the Cross of Calvary.

“He took the guilty culprit’s place,

He suffered in my stead;

For me, O miracle of grace,

For me the Saviour bled.”

“WHO was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” (Romans 4:25).

A dear young girl coming home from school on her cycle, met with her death just outside her father’s gate. Her bicycle skidded, and she fell under the wheels of a great lorry and was killed just outside her home. How soon her short span of life here was ended, and she, too, had taken that journey from which there is no return, the journey from time into ETERNITY.

A man went to his daily work in the gravel pits. At dinner time he sat down to eat his dinner of bread and fish, when a heavy load of gravel fell upon him and he was killed. He, too, had taken the journey from which there is no return, the journey from time into ETERNITY. Little did he think, when he left his home in the morning, that there would be no coming back in the evening for him. Little did he think when he sat down to eat his dinner, that, before he could finish it, he would have passed from time into ETERNITY. Yet so it was; and he was found, after the breath had left his body, with a piece of bread in one hand, and a piece of fish in the other.

So sudden were the calls to these precious immortal souls to pass from time into ETERNITY. But, dear reader, we are expecting something more sudden still, an event that will take place in the twinkling of an eye. Yes, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).

“Are you one of those people who are going to be caught up?” asked one young sailor of another.

Dear friend, we would ask it of you, “Are you one of those people who are going to be caught up?” or should you be left behind for judgment if the Lord comes today?

“G — ,” said a young Christian to the only son (a boy of 13), in a house where he had come to tea, “Father and Mother are going to be caught up. What about you?”

G— melted into tears, and went upstairs. When his mother shortly afterward followed him, he burst into tears again and exclaimed, “Mother, I shall go with you!”

Dear friend, will you go with us? Shall you be caught up to meet the Lord in the air? Or will you, alas, alas, be left behind for coming judgment?

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31), but “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” “Behold, NOW is the accepted time: behold, NOW is the day of salvation.”

“A broad plucked out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2).

The Blood

There can be no question in the minds of believers as to the importance of the truth, “Cleansing by the blood”; but one wants to impress it upon every unsaved reader of Gospel Gleanings.

This truth is either being turned aside by preachers, or overlooked, in their seeking for texts from which to preach the gospel; and yet there cannot be a more fitting, or a more blessed subject to arrest the attention of the sinner who is anxious to be made fit for the presence of a holy God.

It has frequently been pointed out that “Redemption” was no after-thought with God, and must have been planned even before the creation of the world; for when our first parents sinned, God righteously clothed them with coats of skin, which must, of necessity, mean blood-shedding. This thought soon developed when Abel offered the firstlings of the flock, which found acceptance with God. Abel was a man of faith, and evidently entered into God’s thoughts.

The depravity of man’s nature was immediately apparent, when Cain killed his brother. The earth became corrupt, and so filled with violence, that God repented that He had made man, and destroyed the world that then was, by a flood. But this did not frustrate either God’s plans or His purpose, and when the judgment was passed, God smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s sacrifice, and entered into a covenant with him, that He would not destroy the world any more by a flood.

Then Abraham was called out, and the test of his faith was the offering up of Isaac; but God provided a substitute, which Abraham offered as a burnt offering, instead of his son. This points in a very special way to Christ, the Lamb of God’s own providing.

We go on to Exodus 12, where we read of the passover lamb, without blemish, the blood of which had to be sprinkled on the two side-posts and upper door-post of the houses wherein the children of Israel should eat it; and Jehovah says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” This was a night of nights to be remembered. There was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead; but all those who obeyed the word of the Lord, and sprinkled the blood, were saved from the stroke of judgment.

Oh, poor sinner, how do you stand in the light of such an incident as this? Do you question, in your heart, whether God will keep His word or not, in a coming day of judgment? Remember that “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. Hath He said and shall He not do it; or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” Yes! as surely as you are reading this, se surely will eternal judgment overtake you, unless YOU ARE SHELTERED BY THE BLOOD.

The passover speaks of God’s deliverance of His people out of Egypt (type of the world), and points to Calvary, where Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us; and in the thirteenth of Exodus we read, “and every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.” The ass signifies what I am by nature; unclean, self-willed, stubborn; and unless redeemed by God’s appointed Lamb (none other than Christ) I must come under the stroke of God’s judgment.

Then again, in the case of the leper (Lev. 14) two birds had to be taken alive and clean, one of the birds to be killed, and the living bird dipped in the blood, and let fly and then the blood sprinkled seven times on the leper, who was then pronounced clean. This again points to the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin.

Now let us think a moment of Rahab, the harlot (Joshua 2) for do we not see that which saved her was the scarlet line? This was a true token, like the red line in Government rope; and again typifies the blood of Christ in which alone is salvation. Rahab believed the God-sent messengers, and displayed the scarlet line from the window, and this was the means of her salvation. Oh, what grace to a poor sinner who believes the gospel! God never overlooks one such; and are you one who believes the gospel? Now all these events point to the blood of Christ; and in the first chapter of John’s gospel, we read that John the Baptist, seeing Jesus, saith, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” Before any one of us could be cleansed from our sins, the Lamb must needs be slain, and atonement made, as expressed so beautifully in the hymn

“There is a pardon bought with blood;

Amazing truth; the blood of one

Who, without usurpation, could

Lay claim to heaven’s eternal Throne!”

So we read of the One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus— “Who for sins not His own, Has died to atone!”

Man was not satisfied by nailing God’s beloved Son to that shameful cross of Calvary, but with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water; expiation and cleansing. Thus was redemption by blood accomplished, and God is justly able to save and cleanse every sinner that believes in Jesus

“Precious blood that hath redeemed us,

All the price is paid;

Perfect pardon now is offered,

Peace is made!”

He made peace by the blood of His cross. Now it is perfectly certain that if Christ made peace with God on my behalf, I have not to make it. How foolish then to tell a poor sinner to make his peace with God! He cannot do it. No, but Another has done it for him. Why do you not believe this, and know the peace of being justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ? (Rom. 5:1).

Have you got peace? Are you resting on the work of Christ?

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read that “almost all things are by the law purged with blood,” and again I repeat that “without shedding of blood is no remission.” There was, therefore, a Divine necessity for the blood of Christ to be shed in order that every true believer in Him should be cleansed and forgiven. It is written, “once in the end of the age hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” The glory of the Person gives the value to the work. God was so satisfied with the work of Christ that He raised Him from the dead; and now the message goes out to all, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Then believe in Him and receive this infinite and eternal blessing of “Cleansing by the blood.”

C.H.C.

The Railway Advertisement

I have lived a great part of my life in India; and fifty years or so ago, I was traveling in that country. Railways were only just being constructed, and the trains were very few. I had been to see a Christian brother, and was going to pay a visit somewhere else; and the trains were, as I remember, only about two a day. So: one was very careful not to be behind-hand, and miss the train. We had some distance to go to the station, and got there half an hour before time; so we were walking up and down the platform, talking together. The wall was simply covered with advertisements, and one thing they all had in common. Those who would read them were in the special circumstances of travelers; and whatever might be needed for a journey, there was someone ready to supply it. I could see no notice to tell of a theater, or of a fine band playing in a public park; that was no use to a person going on a journey. Journeys then sometimes took more than two days, and if you found you had forgotten anything, there was a notice of someone ready to help you.

It was evening as we walked up and down, and the gas was lighted. And one gas jet. seemed to bring out one notice in dearness. While the whole of that station wall was covered with various. notices, that gas jet seemed to illumine one particular notice, as if conscious it was of great importance for any traveler going. on that journey. We stood still and read it. GOD COMMENDETEL HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT, WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US. (Rom. 5:8).

It was wonderful that I should see there, amid these other notices, written and prepared by men who were ready to meet the travelers’ need, that GOD was thinking of the needs of these people passing on this journey not only from one local place to another but also on a far more important journey; from time to eternity. Yet I wonder how many who read that notice paid much attention to it, and recognized the wondrous grace and condescension of God to take up a space on that station wall, in order to remind some careless traveler of the welfare of his immortal soul.

Well now, my friends, we are all going on that journey from time. to eternity; a journey that will bring every one of us into the presence of God; and at the end of that journey every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Do not forget it. Satan attempts to delude men from that end; but each one individually will have to give account to God as to how he has been occupying himself on this journey.

And not only so, but we have a need, and He has thought of that need, and knows it can never be met by any effort of our own.

I was looking out of the window, and the wind carried off my hat. Ah, here is a man who supplies a hat, and my need is met. But no man can satisfy my need as a responsible person. who has to give an account to God. And you cannot meet this need yourself; yet you must give account. How can it be met? God says, I HAVE MET THAT NEED. “God commendeth His own love.” That God is One Who loves you, and sees your helpless condition: “God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,” not having improved or reformed, but just as we are, “Christ died for us.” God was speaking that word, fifty years ago, in that station building, and He is speaking that word now, for it is to YOU, individually and personally.

You know what it is to go to a tradesman, and he says, “I have not got exactly what you ask for, but I have something better”; and he seeks to press home to you all the advantages of the article he wants you to accept. God wants you to accept His love, His own love. It is not a question of this love being better than some other; but it is a love peculiar to God, and only to be found in the heart of God. And if, so be God has exercised your conscience, and opened your heart to believe His Word that you are a sinner, you will soon find out there is no love for a sinner anywhere else comparable to the love of God. And the more you have found yourself a lost sinner, the more welcome is the announcement, “Here is something I have provided that will meet you in your need. This is love, My love for you; and in My love I have provided a Saviour for you.”

When Adam, in the garden, knew himself a sinner who had transgressed the commandment of God, he hid himself when he heard the voice of the Lord God, because he knew not the love of God, and God had not proved it. But God comes to you and me saying, “I have proved My love: Christ has died for you.” Do you believe it? Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as the One Who died for you?

I am going to stand in the presence of God, and shall give account to Him as to One Whose heart is only filled with love to me, and Who proved that love when I was only a sinner. Then, just as I was, He sent His Son to die for me. When I have to tell it all out I shall wind it all up by thanking God for His own love Who sent His Son and has forgiven all my sins.

But God is saying something more. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood” (v. 9). Now justified through the blood of Jesus then what is the end of the journey? We “shall be saved from wrath through Him.” There IS WRATH TO COME. The one that has refused the gift of God’s love, when standing before God, will have to hear His righteous pronouncement of eternal destruction from His presence; but “being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

0.11.

"That Verse Again!"

A servant of Christ was going with others to preach in the open air, but there was delay on the part of those who were to accompany him, and time was passing, so he started off by himself. Having reached the spot, he took his stand, and repeated in his beautifully clear tones John 3:16: “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.”

A great powerfully built man thereupon rushed up to him, and, shaking his fist in the preacher’s face, exclaimed, “If you say that again I’ll smash your face for you!”

Alone, and with no friends as yet in sight, Mr. D was in a quandary. But he silently and swiftly looked to the Lord for help and guidance, and then said to his would-be assailant: “I am sure you did not hear what I said, so I will say it again a little louder,” and again he repeated in his clear tones, “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.”

“If you say that again,” cried the man, “I will smash your nose for you.”

“And now I am quite certain you have not heard what I said,” calmly replied Mr. D—, “for no one who heard such beautiful words could think of smashing the nose of the one who said them. I will say them again.” And again he repeated, “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.”

At this, the third time of hearing, the man dropped his arm, and walked quietly away.

Praise be to God, he was converted to Him Who had given His only begotten Son for him, and had sent him the message of love and mercy.

How sweet to him ever afterward must John 3:16, have been and how dear to him the Lord’s servant who thrice proclaimed it in his ear. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

“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).

On another occasion, when Mr. D was preaching in the open air, a cabman passing, flicked him with his whip. Mr. D took no notice of this, and went on as if nothing had happened. Not so the cabman, who could not rest till he had put up his horse (losing thereby part of his earnings for the day) and coming to the servant of Christ, expressed his sorrow and asked forgiveness. Let us hope he also felt sorrow for sin, and sought and obtained forgiveness from God.

Dear friend, if you feel yourself to be a sinner in God’s sight, let us say once again in your ear, John 3:16 and more loudly still: “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.”

Can you hear us, friend? Is there any response from you to such a message of love and mercy? Or are you like the one who, spoken to of the Saviour, said he could only think of business. Visited again, on his deathbed, spoken to again of the Saviour, put his hand to his ear. and asked, “Is that the mills I hear grinding? Is that the mills I hear grinding?”

Oh, friend, can you hear us, do you hear us? as, perhaps, for the last time, we cry aloud in your ears: “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.”

“A brand plucked out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2).

What Manner of Man Is This?

The Lord Jesus had told His disciples, “Let us go over unto the other side,” and they launched a little sailing vessel on the lake. When they started it was calm; but the wind rose and the waves became rough, and they were filled with fear. So they ran to the Lord Jesus, and said, Carest Thou not that we perish? “He arose, and rebuked the wind, and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm,” So surprised were the disciples that they said: “What manner of Man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” We may well pause and ask that! “What manner of Man is THIS?”

He was, as we know, the Creator of the Universe. He held the waters in the hollow of His hand, and grasped the wind in His fist; His fingers made the heavens, and by the word of His power He upholds the worlds. That One from everlasting to everlasting is GOD. That One was with God from all eternity, daily His delight; and His holiness is such that the living creatures continually cry, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts! That One Who is beyond finite expression, Whose power is unlimited, that One we see sleeping in a boat! The Christ of God, the Creator of the universe, the Eternal Son of the Eternal God, asleep in a boat! Why did He leave those heights of glory? Why was He seen here, walking up and down this world? Why was He seen among the rebellious, ruined children of Adam? Why! Because “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”! What a gift!

If we value a gift by its cost, we cannot count the cost of that Gift! That He should love us, who were sinners without a fraction of good in us, and love us to such an extent that He gave that blessed One to come down here as a Man, a Man asleep in a boat! Wonderful! What manner of Man is this, that when the boat rocked up and down, can rebuke the wind and the raging of the water, and make all calm? He was here, Emmanuel, God manifest in flesh. His presence here was for one purpose to glorify the One Who sent Him; and at the close He could say: “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work that Thou gavest Me to do.” But we need not only to dwell on His life but His death.

“O come, my soul, and gaze

On that great grief!”

As we see that One crowned with thorns, and those hands that were ever doing good, nailed to the cross; as we gaze on Him we say, “Behold, what manner of Man is this!” And as we do so, our hearts go up in thankfulness and praise. We “know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor!” Why did the Saviour hang on that cross? Why, in the righteous wrath of a sin-hating God, did He bear my sins on that tree? He was “the Lamb of God, that beareth away the sin of the world.” Have you ever gazed on that sacrifice, and accepted the salvation God offers you without money, and without price? If not, come now: there is no time like the present. Come to Him, and “Behold what manner of Man is this!”

There was a woman who thought there was plenty of happiness in the world, and she would have her fling. She would say, “A short life and a merry one!” She drank of the pleasures of this world; she drank of its dregs, she was a woman of the city, and a sinner. She heard of the Friend of publicans and sinners, and she came with all her ruin, with all her past history, came as a sinner. She “stood at His feet behind Him weeping.” She was conscious of her condition, conscious of her sin; and “she washed His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head; and she kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

She came as a sinner, owing five hundred pence. The Lord quotes the case of two debtors, one owing five hundred pence, the other fifty; but both in debt, and both bankrupt. God can never, put a receipt stamp on for your payment. “But when they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both.” And He says, “Her sins which are many are forgiven!” What, the sins of her life, sins she had been piling up in all the paths of wickedness she had trodden? Oh, what wondrous grace! Have you great sins? Have you a conscience about them? The Lord says, through what He did on Calvary’s Cross, “Thy sins are forgiven!” They say, “Who is this that forgiveth sins also?” But it does not matter what they say; it matters what the Lord says! “Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

What manner of Man is this? Behold, what manner of love!

QUARTITS.

A Last Message.

“How is your husband, Mrs. P—?”

“He is home, ma’am. They sent him home from the hospital, and he seems much more comfortable here with us. Won’t you come in and see him? He has just had a bad turn, but he would like to see you.”

The visitor entered the clean, comfortable little room where the invalid was sitting up in bed. After a few words of kindly greeting on both sides, she said: “Mr. P—, I had a dear relative who, when lying ill, said she had a little pillow on which she could rest, and it was this text: GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT, WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US. She could rest happily on those words.”

“Yes, ma’am. But I am feeling too bad to talk now. When I am better I should like to have a nice talk with you, but I cannot speak much now.”

“No, and I don’t want you to. But you can think of these words”; and again she repeated: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” and shaking his hand she bade him “Goodbye,” and left the room.

Ah, it was a last message! But fourteen hours after, the invalid who could talk about getting “better” so glibly, was ushered into the presence of God! Very ill his visitor had known him to be, discharged from the hospital as incurable; but she was not prepared to hear how very near the end of the journey he was when she brought that last message from God to him. Did he receive it? The day of eternity will declare.

Have you received it? Do you set to your seal that God is true, and that He means what He says when He tells you that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?”

It may be God’s last message to you, as it was to P—; but it IS His message: “see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.”

Two Eventful Nights in the Lives of Two Young Men

The Gospel was being preached with much blessing, and two of the children of a godly widow had been converted, but the eldest son was not. Every evening he was at the meetings, and many of his companions turned to the Lord. A few days after the meetings closed, those young converts sang a hymn together, while he sat still, downright miserable. His mother said to him, “Look at them; how happy they are since they have known the Lord, but your sins hinder you.”

“Mother, don’t speak to me. I’ll come to it by and by, not now. I don’t want to be miserable now.”

“But, son,” she said, “not every man will have a dying bed.”

That night a fire broke out, and the house was burned to its foundation; and the next morning that Christian mother and her unbelieving son were found under the ruins, dead. If you wait for a dying bed, you may be too late. You know not what may happen tonight. We live in days when thousands of people are ushered from time to eternity. If you die in your sins, you have not been truly happy here, and you will never be happy in eternity.

But how can you get rid of your sins? You must get the deep conviction you are lost.

I remember, thirty years ago, when for the first time I heard the gospel. Oh, after that I felt like Peter, and wept bitterly. I ran through the streets of London, weeping; I cared not what people thought of me. And then in my room, a power I knew not forced me to my knees. I had never knelt before. I know not how long it was, but the whole room seemed full of light, and my life, oh, it came out before me, seen from my earliest childhood! God showed me my ruined case, and that I could be drawn out of my ruin and saved from hell.

Someone once said to me, “You can’t tell me there is a hell, or where it is.”

“Yes,” I said, “it is at the end of your life, Christless soul. Do you think, because you don’t believe it, God will withhold His purpose? He will do everything He has said in His precious word.”

But I saw my lost condition, my ruin, before I could gaze on Calvary. I saw in the midst of the Throne, the Lamb of God for sinners slain; and I cried to Him in the deep need of my soul, “Lord Jesus, save me.”

Not a single soul who comes so is cast out. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Oh, what rest! What peace through believing! I have met many who have said, “Oh, I wish I had not done this or that”; but never one who said, “I wish I had not come to the Lord Jesus Christ.” We speak from experience.

God looks down on you, dear reader, and greets you with grace. Oh, the activity of Divine love! But this grace can only be accepted when you bow to the Holy Spirit’s witness that what God says about you is true. “All have sinned.” Some have many sins, some few; but think not with only few sins, you can enter heaven any more than one with many.

A man once came to me and said, “I liked to hear you tonight.” I said, “What about your sin?” (I had been preaching about man’s lost estate, and that without repentance there is no true forgiveness). He looked up, and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I have never done anything to reproach myself with.”

I said, “Have you ever called out ‘O God’?” “Yes.”

“Then you have called on the Name of God in vain. That is sin. Have you ever told a lie?”

“I don’t know who has not.”

“Then you have sinned.”

“Oh, well, if it is sin to tell an untruth, I have done it.”

“Have you ever been drunk?”

“Well, sometimes I have.”

“Will you ever say again you have not sinned?”

Oh, how he woke up! Dear reader, the best man cannot stand before God. He is full of the leprosy of sin, and must be cleansed. But how can a man who is guilty before God get rid of his sins?

Oh, “peace unto you!” The beloved Son of God has made peace by the blood of His Cross (Col. 1:20); and if anyone longs to be saved, the blessed Lord Jesus has put that longing in your wretched unsatisfied heart; and will fill you with joy and peace in believing.

Do you acknowledge you are lost? Do you believe the Lord Jesus, on the Cross, died for your sins? Oh yes, I believe the Lord Jesus died for my sins! Then you need not die for your sins. Do you believe He bore the judgment in your stead on Calvary’s cross? Then you are free.

“The sinner who believes is free,

Can say ‘The Saviour died for me’;

Can point to the atoning blood,

And say ‘This made my peace with God.’”

P. S.

A Man Full of Leprosy

I have lived many years in a country where it is not uncommon to see the terrible disease of leprosy, and I have seen lepers “full of leprosy”; and I can assure you there are no more distressing sights to see objects you shrink from, and turn away from. You don’t want to show, out of pity, the loathsomeness the object presents to you, and yet you cannot help shrinking from such an one being near you. I look at the leper, and see the ravages of the disease, and I know God has said: “He shall dwell alone. He is unclean.”

Ah, let us see. Such a leper sees Jesus, and falls down, and says, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean!” What makes him dare to go near Jesus, God manifest in flesh? Because he had come to see God, to know God. It is one thing to say, like Job, “I have heard of Thee”; another to say, “I have met God.” Have you had to do with God personally in this life?

He came and fell down at the feet of Jesus, and besought Him: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean!” He knew the Lord had the power, but he was not assured (he knew men turned away with disgust from him) if he could count on love in the heart of God. Do you think you can count on love in the heart of God, and you a sinner? You cannot be morally more unclean than this man was physically. He comes before the Lord Jesus just as he is, and says, “Lord, if You have only love in Your heart, You can heal me!” Think of the answer of the Lord! He could have spoken a word.

When the centurion sends to Him, he says, “Speak in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” The Lord need only have spoken the word, “I will,” and this poor man would have been healed of his leprosy. But it went to the heart of the Lord that the poor leper should doubt His love. It goes to the heart of God, if you doubt there is love in His heart to you, the sinner. We read, “He put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.” He would give expression to His love.

In India, there was a lady missionary, seeking to labor among the women folk there. You may know, perhaps, that in former days all the educated people were very jealous of their women relations, and they were always kept in retreat at home, and not allowed to mingle with people in the streets, and were without any education. But for women missionaries, it would have been impossible to reach the families of the educated classes. So ladies went out to gain admittance to these people. There was a very rich man, and this lady missionary of whom I speak had received permission to visit his female relatives, and went to try to teach them various occupations, and at the same time speak of the Lord Jesus. They belonged to the highest caste the Brahmins; and she always had to remember that, according to their idea, they were descended from heaven, and she had to avoid coming too near them. They were friendly, but maintained their distance. They would have been defiled by her touch.

One morning, on passing the house, to her surprise she found the courtyard door open, and great preparations for something to take place. She found the ladies of the house were all on a raised platform, and one of them called out, “You can come and sit with us today, for we are all defiled!” There had been a death in the family, and they were beginning the funeral ceremonies. She went in and sat down. There was not much room, and they had to crowd together, and she had never been so near before. They were weeping, and all the caste barriers being broken down, because they were all defiled, she could put her arm round one, and speak a word of comfort. Telling the incident she said, You cannot tell, if you love a person, how difficult it is to refrain from touching them!

Do you not see how the heart of the Lord is affected? He could have healed by a word, but it would not have satisfied His heart. “He put forth His hand,” and loathsome as he was, the Hand of God touched that poor man, and He said, “I will, be thou clean!” If you come to God, owning the same need as this leper, you will get the same reception as he!

0.H.

"That Verse Did It."

S.V. was an engine driver. When about 50 years of age, he was afflicted with cancer. This was terrible for one dead in trespasses and sins. But God used the affliction in blessing to his soul. After much suffering in body, and not a little distress of mind, one day during the visit of a servant of Christ, to use S.V.’s own words, “I felt a change come over my heart and conscience.” His visitor had very gently pointed out to him, “You know, Mr. V—, it does not matter what a man has been,” and showed that, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ the vilest sinner is saved. S.V. believed and was saved.

“It was that verse,” he said afterward, “that did it.” John 3:16, “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.”

One day when he was very ill and suffering, being asked on what his hope was grounded, he pointed with his finger to this text which had been brought him, and which was hanging on the wall, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”

On one occasion the landlady of a certain public house (one of the many he had frequented when in health and strength, spending his substance in riotous living), came to see him, and poured into his ear the tale of sorrow in her family, the grief they were daily and hourly causing her. Poor women, she was reaping in her own children some of the sorrows she had for years been sowing in many another home.

And she had NO COMFORT. This she owned to her sick friend. “But there is comfort, Mrs. D—,”said he, “there’s comfort in this book,” his little red “Marked Testament” which lay upon his bed.

After S.V. had passed away, and the once suffering, now lifeless, body was lying in the coffin, his wife requested that this precious red “Marked Testament” might be placed beneath his hands, open at the verse which shone in life giving power into his soul, John 3:16, “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.”

“That means me! That means me!

Blessed ‘whosoever,’ that means me!”

“A brand plucked out of the fire” (Zechariah 3:2).

Cedars of Lebanon

Mount Lebanon is situated on the north of Palestine, and the trees which grow there are the most beautiful of the whole eastern countryside the cedars. They are always green; file wood is very hard and solid, of a brown color, and very beautiful. So the tree has stood pre-eminent for beauty; and in its natural state, on the mountain side, most picturesque. It is an apt picture of man.

Man was created by God, and pre-eminent among His creatures possessing not an almost everlasting, but an immortal soul. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. He was as the cedar when God made him; but sin came in, and in consequence that which was lovely and beautiful has been destroyed. The result of sin is death, “but after this the judgment.”

The natural home of the cedars was Lebanon, but the purpose of Solomon was to put them in the temple of God, the most wonderful building on earth. Let us trace the cedar’s story from the mountain to the temple: I seem to see Mount Lebanon in its wild and lonely state, with the wind swaying the trees; and I see in it a picture of this world. There, in all their solitariness, swayed by the prince of the power of the air, and producing all manner of sin, are men and women. Yes, it is a picture of the world, with all its self-exaltation and pride, full of sin and death, and “after this the judgment.”

What happened to the cedar tree on the mountainside? It had to be cut down cut from its root, severed from its natural source. Death had to come in, and all that conduced to its pride and beauty had to he hewn down. So has the pride of man to sink into its true condition, and own itself lost and ruined. The sentence of death was passed on those cedars, and has been passed on man, because of his sin.

Then they were brought down to the sea, and taken by sea to the place Solomon had appointed. What is the sea typical of but death! Now we have to turn to Him Who went into the waters of death for you and me. Think of Him, and the anguish of His soul when hanging on the cross, and saying “Let not the waterfloods overflow Me, neither let the deep swallow Me up.”

What figurative language! What does it mean? The waters of God’s judgment were poured out on Him on the cross. He knew what it was to be judged for sin when He took the place of the sinner: He tasted death. Why did the waves and billows of God’s wrath roll over His sacred Head then? He might have gone back to the Throne; but He chose to go into the waters of death for the poor, hell-deserving sinner for the man who is proud and lifted up, if he will only take his true place, like the cedar when it fell to the ground under the stroke of the ax.

The timber was taken down by sea to the place appointed by Solomon. The one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ participates in that death on Calvary, and is brought to the place God has appointed, the ground of resurrection. Our sins have been dealt with, once and forever, and we stand in resurrection, with a risen Christ.

After the trees had been brought to the place of appointment, they were prepared and made into boards; and while we HAVE eternal life, and ARE children of God, yet God has some preparation for us down here, by the Holy Spirit for just the particular place we shall each have in His house. There is a place for every saved sinner in heaven, and every saved sinner will be in his place. So the boards were prepared before they were brought into the temple, as the stones were, and fitted in without any hammer, or noise of any tool. Thus is the sinner taken from the place of death and judgment, and placed in Christ, the Beloved of God.

But there is more. In that temple no wood was seen. It was all covered with gold. Here we have the thought of that wherewith God covers the sinner His own righteousness. There is not a flaw, because God has done it all, and the sinner stands in the perfectness of God’s own righteousness. God has done it and as the gold covered the cedars, so does the righteousness of God cover every saved sinner.

Oh, dear reader, where do you stand? Still on the mountains, swayed by the angry winds, by the prince of the power of the air; or are you resting, safe, secure, accepted in the Beloved, so that God’s thrice holy eye, looking on you, sees you in all the perfection of Christ? Which is it?

QUARTUS.

"I Should Not Have Chosen That!"

The short December afternoon was closing in, as a little group of mourners stood round an open grave in, the peaceful cemetery at N—. There, surrounded by many who had gone before to be “with Christ,” they committed to His keeping the dust of one who had long known and loved His Name, and had served Him, too, with a quiet devotedness and consistency rarely equaled; and whose sudden departure to be with Him was to be mourned by many who had heard the truth of the gospel from her lips, but who, through the very suddenness of her home-call, had had no intimation of it. Thus it was that only her own nearest relatives were gathered there to sow the precious seed that shall surely spring up again in incorruption and glory, conformed to the likeness of His glorious body, Who died for her and rose again.

A few hours later, and they were gathered in the desolated home, where the question was raised about a suitable inscription to be added to the names already on the tombstone before it was replaced; and many were the texts of Scripture suggested. Presently one of the mourners said, “She told me once she would like Romans 5:8 put on her grave.”

“Let it be so then,” was the unanimous response; but when it was drawn up, and the words filled in: “Also of E— W—,daughter of the above, who fell asleep December 19th, 18 —

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

There was one dissentient voice. One handsome lip curled in adorn; and the dignified form of her eldest sister was drawn up to its full height as she indignantly exclaimed, “I should not have chosen that for her! It is most unsuitable, she was so good! But if she wished it, of course, it must be!”

And so it was; and is now the epitaph of one of the most heavenly minded saints the writer ever knew.

Reader, what do you think of its suitability? Would you choose it as your epitaph? You are selecting your Christmas and your New Year presents, as she had been but a few days before; you are looking forward to the holidays, and the family gatherings, and the pleasantness of the coming season; but suppose you never see them? What if you, as she did, drop back suddenly, dead? What shall they put upon your tombstone? What is your hope for eternity?

“God commendeth” think of it! He recommends His love! He knows there is nothing else to satisfy, to delight, or to rest in, and He recommends it to you. Will you believe and receive, or despise and refuse it? Is it worth having? Is it worth trusting? Would you trust the friend who risked his life to save yours? Would you believe in his love? How much more then, since “when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” Not when we were good, not when we were His friends, but when we were sinners, when we were enemies, offending against His majesty and His rights, then “Christ died for us” not risked, but GAVE His life. For whom? For “us”; we who were sinners, He died for us. Can you make it still more personal? Will you take it home to yourself and say, “Since I am a sinner, He died for me?”

The loved one spoken about above did so, she owned her title of “sinner”; and His rights as Saviour; and to all eternity will glory in that love which God commendeth to sinners.

Will you join her?

The Cup of Tea

A lady once said to me, “I would like to get rid of my sins, and I pray God every evening to forgive me, but I cannot get certainty.”

I asked if I could accompany her home, and when we got there I said, “Now please make me a cup of tea.” She readily agreed, put it on the table, and said, “Now enjoy it.”

I waited a bit, and then said, “Oh, do make me a cup of tea. I should like it.”

She said, “You asked for it; I made it, and there it stands!”

I replied, “I asked for tea, and you made it. I did not ask the Son of God to die, but He did it in the matchless love of His own heart. ‘It is finished.’ You cry every night for it; you must take it, as I must take the tea and drink it. All you have to do is to take it.”

Then light broke into her heart.

Many want to feel they are saved before they believe it. It is like a man waiting to feel what it is to have his thirst quenched before he drinks. Take it! Believe it, and be at peace with God through His own Son!

You have done enough to get eternally lost. The blessed Saviour has done enough to save you eternally. Rest on the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and God will give you eternal salvation and satisfaction.

The moss is empty; the tomb is empty; the Throne is filled, and at the right hand of God sits the glorified Man, the Prince of the kings of the earth, Who in the near future, will display His splendor; and to Whom now we can sing, Unto Him Who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

P. S.

The Two Letters

Notes of an Address on Esther 3:8; 8:17.

The book of Esther is very, very little read; and I suppose because the name of God does not occur in it, many think it is not inspired. But the book belongs to the word of God, and there are great lessons for us to learn from it. What we have read is a picture of the gospel.

The position of the Jews, in a strange land, was due to their sin. Had they been obedient they would never have been captives. They had gone on in sin and rebellion against God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came and took them captive; and this was their condition. But they had another enemy Haman. And there was someone else behind him the devil. Had the devil had his way in destroying the Jews, God’s purposes would have been frustrated. His purpose was that from the seed of Abraham One should arise that should redeem His people from their sins. He, the Christ, Who is God over all, came of Jewish stock, to be the Saviour.

But here we have the letter of death. Haman told the king it was not for his profit to keep the Jews; they might rebel; so he would pay 50,000 talents to have them destroyed. The king gave him his ring, and told him to have it written and sealed, that on such a day the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, there should be a general massacre of all the Jews; young and old should be destroyed. What a condition! What would it have been for us, had we been living then, and had been Jews, to see that death-sentence posted up! Yet a message has gone out from God far worse than that. We, like the Jews, have rebelled against God, and have done that which is contrary to Him. He has said there is wrath gone out—it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18). He has said, “When they shall say, Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh.... and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3). The wrath of God is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; for “the wages of sin is death”; yet what is the result of the proclamation of that message?

Did the people in Esther’s day, when they saw the notices that on the 13th of December (as we should say) they would be slain, go on lightly as men do today? No; a general fast was proclaimed, because they knew the king’s word would be carried out. They knew “the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse” (Chap. 8:8). But today people who have been warned of eternal death turn a deaf ear to it. In 2 Thess. 1 we read “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord”; that is the sinner’s doom—total banishment from God for all eternity.

God is working behind the scenes, and brings a sleepless night to the king, and he remembers his life was once saved by one of his servants, Mordecai. He asks, What honor has been done to him? None; so he honors him. Queen Esther, too, pleads for the people (Chap. 7:3, 4). The queen herself was a Jewess, who had become the favorite of the king, and had been made queen by him; but she, too, was under the condemnation, for being queen would not avail her, since the decree had gone forth that all Jews were to be destroyed. So she takes her life in her hand, and goes in unto the king, and pleads, and he grants her her request. He gives his ring to Mordecai, and he and the queen send out another notice, sealed as the former that all Jews should stand up for their lives and destroy all who would destroy them.

So the message of death has gone out to you, unsaved sinner, that you are under the condemnation of death. But in the gospel we have the glad tidings the message of life. We have not Queen Esther risking her life, but the blessed Lord Jesus Who gave His life to save you gave it, “a ransom for all,” that you and I might be rescued from the sentence of death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

What was the result to the people? When they received the message of death they believed it because it was sealed with the king’s seal. When they had the message of life, equally sealed by the king’s seal, they believed it, too, and acted on it (Chap. 8:16, 17). They believed the king’s word; when the message of death came they mourned; when the message of life came, they rejoiced. Did they not rejoice too soon? Should they not have waited till the thirteenth of the twelfth month came? No; had they delayed believing it, they would have been destroyed.

Are you going to believe what God has said? The message of life has gone out by the Lord Jesus Christ, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself”; what are you going to do with the word? If you believe it, you have eternal life. They believed before the day came, and rejoiced; so you, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, have eternal life NOW, and eternal death will not be your portion.

The people of Shushan saw Mordecai in royal apparel, with the chain of gold and the ring; and surely they knew that because he was accepted, so were they. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ has been accepted “raised again for our justification.” “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

H.B.

Gospel Gleanings: Volume 27 (1927)

Table of Contents

A Naval Officer's Experience

The Kindness of God

The Expected One

A Mother's Desire and Its Fulfillment

The Late Beloved "S.T."

"The Kindness of God."-Cont.

"Out and Into."

From Ruin Unto Salvation

Silence

The Loss of the "Monarch."

Love and Manifestation

"Another Monument of Mercy."

Condemnation; Already, or Not at All?

A Study in Contrasts

Rejection or Reception

Nothing

"The Marriage of the Lamb."

An Open Door

A Loaf of Bread

The Person of the Christ

Unchanging Values

The Wreck of the "Lymington."

"What Think Ye of Christ?"

Nobody but Christ

Good News

Our Message

From the East.

An Old Photograph

We Love Him Because -

The Royal Banquet

Now

The Blood

The Railway Advertisement

"That Verse Again!"

What Manner of Man Is This?

A Last Message.

Two Eventful Nights in the Lives of Two Young Men

A Man Full of Leprosy

"That Verse Did It."

Cedars of Lebanon

"I Should Not Have Chosen That!"

The Cup of Tea

The Two Letters