Dear Reader,
We desire, in this our closing number for the year, to address you in a few plain and pointed words. We deeply feel the solemnity of the present moment; and we are impressed with the necessity of dealing faithfully with the souls of our readers. We believe we have, as the conductors of this magazine, a sacred duty to perform — a duty to God — a duty to souls. We do honestly desire to be used of the Lord to do real, soul-work, and hence it is that we now devote a page or two simply to the object of making a direct appeal to the conscience of the reader.
And, first, we would ask you a very pointed question: Are you saved? Have you a hold of Christ as your Savior? Do you know yourself as in Christ? We do not ask you if you wish to be saved, or hope to be saved. There are few who would not say, “Yes,” to such an inquiry. But our question is, ‘Do you know yourself as one saved by grace, washed in the blood, justified in a risen Christ, and standing in the full favor of God?’ Have you peace with God, through Jesus Christ? Do not be satisfied with anything short of a clear and settled knowledge of these things in your own soul. Do not put the question aside. Meet it now. You may not live till tomorrow. God declares that “Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation.” God only speaks to you of salvation “today.” If you wait till tomorrow, He may have to speak to you of death and judgment. Have you ever felt the burden of sin? Do you now feel it? Do you realize, in any measure, your true condition, as a lost, ruined, hell-deserving sinner? Do you know that you have been found out, convicted, and condemned?
Thus it is. You are not now under probation or trial, as many suppose. Man was once under trial — God tried him in every way. He tried him in the garden of Eden and what was the result? Man listened to the devil, and believed his lie. He tried him without law; and what was the result? Man was lawless, violent, and corrupt. He tried him under government after the flood; and what was the result? Idolatry. He tried him under law; and what was the result? Transgression, offense, wrath. He tried him by the ministry of the prophets; and what was the result? The prophets were rejected and stoned. He sent His Son, in love and grace, and patient goodness; and what was the result? Man hated Him, cast Him out, and preferred a robber and a murderer to the holy, gracious, loving Jesus.
But, further, there is another link in the marvelous chain. No sooner had the rejected Jesus taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, than down came the Holy Ghost—for what? In judgment? Nay; but in patient grace and powerful testimony; what was the result? “Ye do always resist, the Holy Ghost.” The stoning of Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost, was the crowning proof of man’s total depravity and hopeless ruin.
Hence, dear fellow-sinner, you are not under trial. You have been tried, and found guilty. You are under sentence; and in this condition, God sends you a message of free pardon and full salvation. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses.” Precious word! Hear it, we beseech thee, hear it and live—hear it, and enter into divine peace, in the consciousness that your many sins are blotted out, and sin, the root of all, fully and forever condemned, so that God no longer sees you in your sins, but in a risen Christ.
It is of all importance for the reader to see the entire chain of evidence as to man’s guilt, bearing down upon himself as an individual — to see that not only has he committed sins peculiar to himself, and with which he himself is chargeable before God; but that also all that is true of man as such — all that is true of the race and of the nature of man, is true of him — that his condition is one of guilt, and such guilt as stops not short of the absolute hatred, rejection, and crucifixion of the Son of God. This is man’s guilt, and with this the reader stands charged, according to the just judgment of God, unless, as a repentant, conscience-smitten sinner, he has fled for refuge to the blood of Jesus. Thus it stands, at this moment, with the reader. He is either purged by the blood that was shed, or stained with the guilt of shedding it. There is positively no middle ground.
Oh! reader, do think of this! Say, are you stained or purged — which? If, as a convicted sinner, you have come to Jesus, then is your entire standing altered. You are no longer viewed as standing in nature’s guilt, but in divine righteousness. You have passed from death to life, from guilt to righteousness, from wrath to favor. You are no longer viewed as in the first Adam, but in the Second. In a word. Your deliverance is complete. You can never come into judgment. There is nothing to judge. The same authority that declares there is judgment coming, declares there is no judgment for you, nor can be, since Jesus was judged in your stead. All that was due to you— to your works, your ways, your nature, Jesus bore on the cross, and you stand accepted in Him, and never can be seen in any other way.
Such is your standing before God. Amazing truth! May the Holy Ghost enable you to enter into the knowledge and experience of it! There can be no intelligent or happy service rendered until your soul is divinely settled down in this glorious truth. You may be anxious, you may be sincere, you may be earnest; but a happy, intelligent, devoted Christian you cannot be, until you know, in the secret of your own soul, that you are eternally accepted in the Beloved. All affections flow out of relationship — all duties flow from position. If you are not a father, you cannot have the affections of a father. If you are not in an office, you cannot fulfill the duties of that office. Nothing can be simpler. We may fail in affections and duties; alas! we do; but then the relationship or the office is a positive thing, and divine relationship can never be broken, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
Beloved friend, will you allow us to urge upon you, solemnly and faithfully, the consideration of this grand and all-important question which we have laid before you. Do not put it aside. Your immortal soul, your eternal interests, are at stake. Time is rapidly passing away. Every breath you draw is bringing you nearer and nearer to a boundless eternity. You must meet God. You must live forever. You must, ere long, be summoned away from this world; and if you die in your sins you must spend a never-ending eternity in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, in blackness of darkness, in misery and woe unutterable. Oh! do be warned, we beseech you, ere it be too late, and you find yourself in that place where hope can never come. May God’s Spirit open your eyes and give you to see your guilt and danger, that so you may have no rest until you find it in a crucified and risen Lord.
And now one word to the Christian reader. Dearly beloved in the Lord, to you we could say much, did space permit. We could speak to you of the awful solemnity of the times in which our lot is cast — the appalling spread of infidelity and superstition — the worldliness and carnal indifference, the unsubduedness and self-indulgence, of professing Christians — the terrible looseness in morals, arising, in many cases, from an open abuse of the principles and doctrines of grace — the want of reality amongst us — the strife, discord, division, and confusion in our midst— in a word, the rapid progress of men and things down, down to eternal perdition — the doctrines and doings of devils at our very doors — drawing-room companies entertained by wicked spirits contradicting and blaspheming the word of God.
All this and much more that might be named should assuredly solemnize the heart, and lead to holy vigilance, earnestness, and reality. We do not want to terrify the reader. Quite the reverse. We want him to possess a clear understanding of the times, and to be on his watch-tower, looking out for the Morning Star. We believe that calm confidence and joyous hope should characterize the Christians inward state; and as to his practical bearing, his course, and conduct, he should be marked by a deep and earnest sense of things, and, withal, a downright reality. God grant these things to all His people!