HERE it is, the soldier's Bible, with the bullet mark in the center, torn and tattered. What must that soldier have felt as he looked at it and remembered that it had turned aside from him the stroke of death? Little he thought that day he placed his Bible in his pocket and went into the battlefield of Tel-el-Kebir it was to receive the bullet that otherwise would have been his death. Think you not that he would ever have had an affection for that Book, and that every time he looked on those tattered leaves they would seem to say to him: "I saved you from death, though it has cost me this." And has not the living Word, the Son of God, done for the believer that which the written Word of God did for this soldier. He has saved—but at what a price! On the Cross He bore the stroke of Divine justice that would have fallen on guilty man, and will yet fall on the Christ—rejector!
Are you one who can say, as you gaze by faith at the Lord Jesus: "He has been smitten and I have escaped?" Has your heart been moved with love as He has shown you His nail-pierced hands and bleeding side, and said to you: "I have saved you, but it has cost Me this"? Through the bitter agony of Calvary's Cross, and that dark hour when the face of God was hidden, He has turned aside the stroke of justice from the believing sinner—that stroke which would have hurled the guilty one from the presence of a holy God, a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, a God who will by no means clear the guilty, and yet in infinite grace and mercy He has accepted His Son in the sinner's stead, so that now there is no more judgment to those that are in Christ Jesus.
No more judgment—what a thought! No more terror then of the great white-throne day, for, wondrous thought, on that very throne will be seated, not only the world's Judge, not only the One before whom the angels veil their faces, but the One who has so loved us as to give Himself for us. "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." "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 8:3434Who 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. (Romans 8:34)). But you say, "I have no love." Have you ever believed His love to you? Have you ever seen yourself as a guilty, lost one, and heard the solemn sentence passed on you: "The wicked shall be turned into hell?" (Psalm 9:1717The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:17)).
But you may say: "I don't believe there is a hell. God is too kind a God to permit His creatures to perish; the text that you have mentioned means but the grave." Are you thus deluding yourself as thousands are? Why does God say THE WICKED shall be cast into hell if it means but the grave? Are only the wicked put there? Are not the best of men and women laid in the grave day by day?
Have you ever thought of these solemn words: "And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire"? (Rev. 20:1414And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Revelation 20:14)). Where will the Christ-rejector be then? Memory will have wakened up and brought back all the dreary past, the broken vows, the secret sins. Hope will have flown, and not a ray of light will enter to cheer that endless gloom. Why not now "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved?"
J. A. B