HISTORY was about the only subject a certain gentleman cared to read—princes, parliaments, and people, wars, and rumors of wars, had taken full possession of his mind: indeed, the past seemed to interest him more than the present, and as for the future—he was no prophet.
One day a Christian friend persuaded this lover of history to read a small piece of ancient lore, about which he was ignorant. It required a good deal of coaxing to get him to handle the book containing this portion of neglected history, but at last he said— “Well, just to please you, I’ll read it this once.”
It was an ancient letter, addressed, “To all that be in Rome”; but, as he read, he found it concerned all men. “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:10-1210As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10‑12)).
There was no mistake about this; histories had affected him in an indirect way only, but this was evidently the portrait of every man, for it was written, that “all the world may become guilty before God” (19).
He took in the details of this portrait
Eyes: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (18).
Mouth: “Their mouth is full of cursing” (14).
Lips: “The poison of asps is under their lips” (13).
Tongue: “With their tongues they have used deceit.”
Throat: “Their throat is an open sepulcher.”
Feet: “Their feet are swift to shed blood” (15).
Yes, the portrait included himself, for it said, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (ver. 23). He had never seen a universal history of the human race compressed into so small a compass: yet, certainly it was an epitome of all he had ever read—sin—sin—sin—sin. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (ver. 20).
When his friend called, he asked what he thought of the book.
“Think,” said he, “why the picture is awful; it has haunted me like a nightmare!” “Will you try another portion?”
“If you promise it shall be brighter.”
“Certainly,” said the proposer of the reading lesson; “you have read the third of Romans, now read the third of John.”
As soon as he was alone, the lover of history took the Bible, and found the chapter named.
“Another bit of history,” he thought, as he read the first few sentences; but the third verse staggered him. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Evidently, thought he, Nicodemus, to whom the words were spoken, did not understand them, and our friend was glad that he had asked for an explanation; it was just what he himself wanted. The fourteenth verse seemed a little plainer— “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He remembered the old story of Israel’s disobedience, and how that, because of their sin, all the people were dying, and again, how that all who looked to the appointed remedy did not die. And here was a parallel.
“Jesus was lifted up. On the cross,” mused the dear man, “that if I, bitten by sin, and dying, look to Him, I shall be saved and shall not die.”
Then he read the sixteenth verse. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And the Holy Spirit showed him how “all the world,” declared to be “guilty before God” in Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19), was loved, notwithstanding all, loved by God, who gave not a brazen serpent, but His own beloved Son, who died instead of the guilty and condemned world, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
“Oh, that sixteenth verse,” said he, when his friend called again, “if I could only believe that it was true towards me.”
“You believe the first passage you read in Romans?”
“That I do, and it makes me wretched.”
“The second passage comes to you with the same authority as the first, and if you believe it, it will make you glad. The same divine voice that speaks the one, speaks the other.”
He believed God’s love to a guilty world, and that Jesus had died for sinners—he believed for himself that Jesus had died for him, that he should not perish, but have everlasting life, and after that, he became a man of one book. Some few months passed, and he was laid aside. Knowing what a bookworm he used to be, a friend called, and said he had brought him some volumes to read.
Taking his Bible from his pillow, he said, “This is all I read now.”
The Book of God had been used by the Spirit of God to the salvation of his soul. He had been born of water and the Spirit. What wonder he loved it?
W. L.