IT was our privilege some years ago to pitch a gospel tent in the village of E—. Many came to hear, and, thank God, some for blessing.
Among others was an old man, T. N—, who had been a marine in Her Majesty’s service, now retired on his pension, to spend the remainder of his days in his native village. God was pleased to reach him at one of the earliest meetings. The sharp, barbed arrow of conviction entered his soul; those long years of sin rose up before him with all their consequences. He faced his past with God, and it troubled him sore.
We visited him at his cottage many a time and presented the blessed gospel to him. Still no peace. Often at the close of our interviews would he say with his deep voice, “But God is just, sir—God is just.” He had yet to learn that if God be just, He is “the justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus.”
Weeks rolled by, and others were brought into blessing, but T. N—’s trouble deepened. The last Sunday came, and on Monday morning the canvas was coming down. It was a solemn time this last preaching. The subject was: “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us,” etc. (Luke 13:2525When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: (Luke 13:25)). T. N— sat just inside the tent door, with a look which seemed to say, “If I do not get the blessing tonight, whenever shall I get it?”
At the close of the meeting we invited the people to stay for prayer. To our surprise T. N— was the first to leave. He went home to have the after-meeting with God.
On Monday morning, walking down the village, I met him. As he drew near, his face told the tale of this after-meeting. Holding up his hand, with a look of peace and joy on his face, he said, “It is all right with me now.” “Tell me,” I said, “how it happened.” He said, “Last night I went home to my cottage, fell on the floor, and cried for mercy. I said, as the sweat poured off me, ‘O God, have mercy on a poor old sinner like me.’ At last I saw the Lord Jesus on the cross for a poor old sinner like me; then I saw Him in the glory, and it is all clear from there” —pointing upwards— “to here,” smiting on his breast. All clear from there to here. It was peace.
How is it with you, dear reader? Have you acknowledged the claims of the throne? Do you know the One who has met those claims? How blessed to know that the God to whom we are responsible, and who alone could rightly estimate the extent of our responsibility, has come in from His own side to meet it! His love provided what His holiness demanded; His own blessed Son was that provision. A Divine Person was competent to give divine satisfaction.
“Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me... Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5, 75Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5)
7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:7)). He has done it, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God” (v. 12).
He is where He is because He did what He did where He was; and He did what He did where He was because of who He is—THE SON OF GOD.
God the Holy Ghost has now come down to bear witness to us of what is in the mind of God for us. He is a competent witness. Listen, then, to His witness: “Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more.” No more! NO MORE! NO MORE! It is like the olive leaf which the dove brought to Noah. The dove brought the witness that the judgment was past, and it plainly said, No more! no more!
The Son of God has gone up the shining way to the throne of God, and the Spirit of God has come down to let us know “it is all clear from there to here.”
W. J.