Take two illustrations of what God is now doing by the gospel. One from the higher circles, and one from the lower — or, rather, from the lowest of the low.
First: Alice was an only child, an heiress, Lovely and accomplished, she lived for this world, and this world offered her no ordinary attractions. Idolized by her parents, and beloved by an accepted suitor, she knew not the meaning of a wish ungratified. But an unexpected visitor arrived at the mansion. A pale messenger came to Alice. A hectic flush suffused her beautiful face, rendering it, if possible, more lovely still. The eagle eye of affection soon perceived that the seeds of consumption had been laid. The skilled physician pronounced the heart-rending verdict that her days were numbered, and that the career of love and self-indulgence would soon close.
Alice sank by degrees, and as she lay on her couch, surrounded with all the luxuries that wealth could procure, began to think how sad it was to leave her loving friends and all her brilliant prospects, and to go — where — where?
She could not find an answer satisfactory to her soul. So she sent for the high church clergyman.
He came. The family were assembled. He produced a missal. They all knelt round the bed. He intoned the service for the sick. Having received her confession, and pronounced absolution, he, with peculiar genuflections, administered the sacrament, and placing his hands on her, blessed her, and pronounced her a good child of the church. He departed, perfectly satisfied with his own performances, and assuring the parents that all was right.
Was Alice satisfied?
She had submitted to all. She had endeavored to join in the service, but in her inmost soul she felt a blank.
“Father,” said she, “I am going to die. Where am I going?”
The father gave no reply.
“Mother, darling, can you tell me what I am to do to get to heaven?”
No reply save tears.
“William, you who were to be the guide of my life, can you tell me anything of the future?”
No response.
“I’m lost! lost!” she exclaimed. “Am I not, father? Is there any one who can tell me what I must do to be saved?”
At length the father spoke.
“My child, you have always been a dutiful daughter, and have never grieved your parents. You have regularly attended the Abbey Church, and helped in its services, and the minister has performed the rites of the church, and expressed himself satisfied with your state.”
“Alas! father, I feel that is not enough. It is no rest to my soul. It is hollow — it is not real. O! I am going to die, and I know not where I am going. O, the blackness of the darkness! Can no one teach me what I can do to be saved?”
Blank despair was pictured on her countenance. Misery overshadowed the circle. They were overtaken by a real danger; Death was in their midst. Eternity was looming before them.
They knew not how to answer the agonizing appeal of an immortal soul, awakened to a sense of sin — to a dread of appearing before God — to the terrors of Hell.
Alice was attended by a little maid, who was in the habit of frequenting a meeting held in a barn in the village, where prayer and praise were offered in simplicity, and where they sang the old hymns
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”
and
“God laid my sins on Jesus,
The spotless lamb of God;
He bears them all, and frees us
From the accursed load,”
She longed to tell her mistress that she might “wash and be clean,” but felt diffident. At last she took courage and just as the Israelitish captive said unto Naaman’s wife, “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy,” she told her mistress: “There is a preacher in the village who proclaims salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and urges us to accept the forgiveness freely offered in the gospel.”
“O! that I could see Him,” exclaimed the dying girl.
Alice besought her father to invite the strange preacher to the house; and though he thought it extraordinary, her wish was law.
Again the family were assembled, and the man of God entered the room. The dying girl, raising herself, appealed to him. “Can you tell me what I must DO to obtain rest for my soul, and die at peace with God?”
“.... I can tell you what HAS BEEN DONE for you. Jesus Christ, the Savior God, has completely finished a work by which lost and helpless sinners may be righteously saved. God, who is love, saw us in our lost and ruined state. He pitied us, and in love and compassion sent Jesus to die for 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.’ He shed His precious blood on the accursed tree in the stead and place of sinners, that they might be pardoned and saved. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’”
“And have I nothing to do?” “Nothing but to believe. No doing, working, praying, giving or abstaining, can give relief to the conscience burdened with a sense of guilt, or rest to the troubled heart. It is not a work done in you by yourself, but a work done for you by another, long, long ago. Jesus has completed the work of our redemption. He has said, ‘It is finished.’ Through faith in Him you have pardon. It is impossible for a sinner to do aught to save himself. It is impossible to add anything to the perfect work of Christ. Doing is not God’s way of salvation, but ceasing from doing, and believing what God in Christ has already done for you. `God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.’”
“I do believe that Jesus died on the cross for sinners; but how am I to know that God has accepted me?”
“Jesus, the God-man, has ascended into heaven. He has presented His blood before God, and has been accepted for us; and when you believe, you are accepted in Him.”
The awakened sinner listened with breathless attention. She received the Word of God, which revealed Christ to her soul. The glad tidings of salvation fell as balm upon her wounded spirit. Her face was lit up with heaven’s sunlight; looking upward, she exclaimed, “O, what love! what grace!
“‘Jesus Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress,’”
and in a few days she departed to be with Christ.
(To be continued.)