I WAS recently traveling by rail from London to Sussex. One after another had left the compartment in which I was seated, leaving but one other in it besides myself.
My fellow-passenger informed me that she resided in a Sussex village to which she was then going, and volunteered the remark that she had been staying with “The Church Army.” Upon being told this, I asked whether she had received any good from her visit. To this she replied, that she believed she had. Being desirous of knowing whether my fellow-passenger was on the right line for eternal glory, I respectfully inquired; and was pleased to receive an answer, which led me to believe that, not only were we fellow travelers to Sussex, but also to “a better country.”
However, to be more assured, I asked, “And where is your trust?” to which question the unhesitating answer was given, “In Jesus only.” There was a freshness about the apparently unstudied reply which was cheering, as it showed too that this woman’s trust was not in herself, nor in her good works, nor in “The Church Army,” but in Jesus Christ, or, as she herself expressed it, “In Jesus only.”
“On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Yes! “Jesus only” is, so to speak, the believer’s only password through the “pearly gates” of heaven. Recently I received from a Christian friend a story about a gentleman, who was likely to have been shot, through giving a sentry the wrong password. It was at the time of the Civil War in the United States of America. A Mr. Stuart (known to the friend referred to, and who has given me the details of the affair) had been chosen President of a Commission, the object of which was the spiritual welfare of the camps and hospitals engaged in the war.
In the performance of his important services, he was one evening returning from visiting a camp near the enemy’s front. A sentry approached, saying, “Who goes there?” to which reply was made, “A friend with the countersign.”
“Advance, friend, and give the countersign,” replied the soldier.
Now, be it understood that strict orders had been given that if any failed to give the right password, he was to be shot down there and then. While the sentry was prepared with his rifle, Mr. Stuart gave what he believed to be the right password, which had been given him that morning, namely, “Lincoln.” At this the sentry leveled his rifle at the heart of Mr. Stuart, and a deathlike silence followed, causing an agony of suspense, the moments appearing like months or years.
The feeling that something was wrong seized the President of the Commission. Great was his relief when the sentry spoke out, saying, “At the risk of my own life I spare yours, sir. I know you and your mission, but I have to tell you, that you have given me the wrong password, and for me to give you the right one, is much more than I dare to do. But go at once to headquarters and obtain the right password.”
In doing this, no time was lost, and it was with some excitement that Mr. Stuart reached the officer in charge, and said or rather gasped out, “You gave me the wrong password, and had not the sentry known me and my mission I should not be here to tell you.”
The officer expressed his deep regret, and said, “We changed the password this evening from ‘Lincoln’ to ‘Massachusetts.’” Thus fortified, Mr. S — again went forth to meet the challenge, “Who goes there?” and now the correct password being given, how different the experience which followed the “Pass on, friend,” from the challenger.
Mr. Stuart walked on a few paces, and, turning round to the sentry, addressed him thus: “Young man, I owe you a debt of deep gratitude, on account of what you have done for me this evening. You have spared my life, and that at the risk of your own, giving me the opportunity of obtaining the right password after having given the wrong one, and ere we part do let me ask you in view of our both passing onward to eternity, ‘Have you the password?’ Should any cross the line without the right one, there will then be no opportunity given of obtaining that which ought to have been obtained before. There will be no such chance of getting it made right, as you have given me; therefore, eternal death would be the consequence. Now, do, you know the right password to heaven?”
“Yes,” was the unhesitating reply of the sentry.
“I challenge you now for the right password for that place Christ has prepared for His own.”
“Jesus,” was the ready answer to that question.
“Right,” said he, who had now become a kind of spiritual sentry on guard. “And now,” asked Mr. Stuart, “tell me, Where did you get to know this precious name?”
“From your own lips in your Sunday-school in Philadelphia” (Mr. S — was superintendent of one of the largest Sunday-schools in Philadelphia, the friend who furnished me with these details, being a scholar in this very school). This answer, which was scarcely less pleasing than surprising, must encourage Sunday-school teachers, and all who are interested in the spiritual welfare of the young, about which much might be said, but space forbids just now.
Well might Cowper write―
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.”
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Depend upon it, reader, salvation must be by this name, or there will be no salvation for you at all. This statement is made by the Apostle Peter to the Jewish people, who had committed the fearful crime of crucifying the “Lord of glory,” who had come to them, “His own”; the apostle adding, “that this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.” Builders, too, they were who should have known so good a stone when seen by them; but, alas! pride blinds Gentiles as well as Jews. God the Father only knows the proper value of that “precious corner-stone,” and it is He who declares, “Behold, I have laid in Sion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.” No! the believer in Christ Jesus shall never be confounded. It is the believer who sings―
“No other hope shall intervene;
To Him we look, on Him we lean;
Other foundation we &sown,
And build on Christ the living stone.”
“Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
Is the reader at rest on this immutable foundation? other foundation is but sand. And what will you do when the shaking of all things, that can be shaken, shall take place? People are saying they do not believe it. No! and many of them might go further, and add, “We do not want to believe it.” As Dr Taylor, of Norwich, once said that he had read through the Bible several times (I believe ten times), and he could not find the Deity of Christ in it; to which John Newton replied, “Yes, and if I were to try ten times to light a candle with an extinguisher on it, I should not succeed.”
Beware, reader, of seeking to get light with an extinguisher on; the Lord grant that such a dreadful impediment may be removed from you. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him” (1 Cor. 2:14).
W. R. C.