Echoes of Grace: 1950

No better time could present itself than this dawning of a new year in which to seek to press home to our hearts the rapidity with which time is passing by, and the solemn fact too, that every step onward is bringing us nearer and nearer to the end of our days down here.

As we stand at the door of this new year, and look back upon the one we are leaving behind, it is with mixed feelings in our hearts gratitude to Him who has preserved us till now on the one hand, and on the other, anxiety for the many around us who are carelessly allowing time to hurry them on without a single serious thought as to where they are going.

In a general way, most of us have to lament many wasted opportunities during its course— opportunities which have been God-given. But, though often done, it is useless and vain to bemoan the little use made of the past. We think the most intense anguish and remorse suffered by the man in the sixteenth chapter of Luke must have been when he thought of the long life he had wasted, when he could have seen that the salvation of his soul was secured. He threw away every opportunity, and lived only with thoughts of this life. Yes, lived in the very top of luxury, robed in fine linen and faring sumptuously every day—and his opportunities slipped by unnoticed.

At last he did awake to a sense of the reality of eternity, but it was in hell—and it was too late. There, beyond all hope, his eyes were earnestly raised, but his opportunity was gone. The ruthless hand of death had come to him, as the wages of his sin, and judgment and judgment alone must be his portion after death; for the Scripture says, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Oh, may no reader of this ever know such remorse and anguish as did that man! A: decision for Christ— an immediate decision—is all important. Thank God! it is still true that "Now is the accepted time; ... now is the day of salvation." If till now you have thoughtlessly gone on your way disregarding not only your desperate need as a sinner, but also God's claims upon you, won't you now be wise, and start this year with God?

The Word of God

Unsaved reader, we would earnestly warn you to give heed to the Word of God. It can make you "wise unto salvation.”

Learn therein the first great lesson for a sinner to learn—that you are hopelessly lost as far as your own strength and power goes.

Learn that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Study it until you can rejoicingly say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

Every word of God is true.

Build on it and you build on an unchanging foundation.

Rest

Come ye souls by sin afflicted,
Bowed with contrite sorrow down;
By the Word of God convicted,
Through the cross behold the crown.
Look to Jesus;
Mercy flows through Him alone.

Take His easy yoke, and wear it;
Love will make obedience sweet;
Christ will be your strength to bear it;
And the light to guide your feet
Safe to glory
Where His ransomed captives meet.
Sweet as home to pilgrims weary,
Light to newly opened eyes,
Or fresh springs in deserts dreary,
Is the rest the cross supplies:
All who taste it,
Shall to rest immortal rise.

Rest, full fruit of grace's story;
Rest from sin's oppressive thrall;
Rest in God's eternal glory;
Rest for pardoned sinners all.
Faith believes it;
Love doth it with joy forestall.

"I'll Keep Ye Out Nae Mair"

Elsie Craig was an invalid, who lived in a cottage on a lonely moor in Scotland. Many persons visited Elsie, to comfort her in her affliction. She could not answer the door herself, so when any one tapped it was her custom to ask, "Wha's there?" and if the visitor was one whom she wished to see, she would say, "Open the door yersel', and come in by." Very few were allowed to stand long at Elsie's door, and fewer still to go away without admittance.

There was, however, one person who frequently called, but who was never once asked to open the door and come in. That person was the minister. It was not that Elsie had any special hatred for the man: she spoke a great deal of religion, and even said many fine things to others about Mr. Scott; yet she shunned meeting with him. She never bade him come in, and of course he would not enter poor Elsie's cottage without leave. Again and again he called, but with no success. He only heard the "Wha's there?" and then a deep silence; so he always turned and left.

Mr. Scott had frequently thought of giving up visiting Elsie; but his desire for her salvation constrained him to continue.

One Saturday evening, while returning across the moor, he turned aside from the path to call on Elsie once more. The clock had struck ten ere he reached the door; but he had scarcely tapped when the accustomed "Wha's there?" fell upon his ear.

"Yer ain minister, Elsie," was the affectionate reply.

There was silence, and Mr. Scott was preparing to depart, when new words reached him: "Weel, sir, I'll keep ye out nae mair; just open the door yersel', and come in.”

Gladly he opened the door, and took his seat close by the frail little woman. He spoke kind words to her. He spoke of the loving and patient Jesus, who "bare our sins in His own body on the tree," and who by the "sacrifice of Himself put away sin." He toki her, too, how long this Jesus had stood at the door of her heart, how He was still waiting for her soul, and would come in even now if she would ask Him.

As Mr. Scott spoke of Jesus and His quenchless love, the tears began to run down over the wan cheeks and Elsie said in her heart, "I will let Him in." Mr. Scott prayed and departed, and Elsie was left alone.

During the long sleepless night which followed poor Elsie thought of the loving Jesus standing at the door of her sinful heart, and she wept again. Yes, she wept, and prayed. Nor did she pray in vain: One came to her, in the dark lonely night, and spoke with her; and when the sun rose in the morning and peeped in at the little window, Elsie woke with a heart at peace with God. She had been to Jesus, and He had washed away all her sins and taken up His abode in her heart.

She was anxious to read the Scriptures, to make sure that what she had done was right. And there she found that "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” She believed on the Son; therefore she had everlasting life. She wept again—but this time it was for joy that Christ was hers and she was His.

Mr. Scott was now a welcome visitor at Elsie's cottage, and spent many happy hours talking with her about the great salvation.

One afternoon Elsie took hold of his hand in both of hers, and, looking up into his face, said, "Eh, sir, but it breaks my heart to think that I kept you out se lang. For the words ye ha'e spoken, and yer prayers, ha'e been baith meat and drink to my weary soul; may the dear Lord bless you! Noo, dinna ye rap ony mair, but just open the door and come whan ye like; for ye ken ye're aye richt welcome.”

Reader, have you let Jesus enter your heart? If you have, are you not ready to say what Elsie Craig said of her minister, that it breaks your heart to think you kept Him out so long?

But if you have not allowed the Lord Jesus to enter your heart, know that He is even now knocking for admission; that He has called again, it may be for the last time, to see if you will admit Him to "sup with you.” Have you not often heard His knock? Have you not often wished He did not knock so loudly? Ah! the day may come when you will wish you could once more hear His footfall—could hear His voice saying, "Open unto Me." That day is steadily approaching, if you continue indifferent. For Jesus will not always stand waiting for your soul, but will lemie you in silence and alone to all the consequences of your sin.

Jesus has come to you in the night of calamity and said, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee." In the hour of sorrow He has visited you, to pour the balm of sympathy into your wounded heart. In the season of fierce temptation He stood on your right hand, ready to subdue the tempter. He has followed you these many years, and sought you in many ways. But: you did not answer—

"Take Thou my heart, and let it be
Forever closed to all but Thee.”

And Jesus will never enter till you let Him. Business, folly, or pleasure perhaps have filled your heart, while the Holy One and the Just has had to stand at the door.

Yes, reader, Jesus knocks and says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”

"Admit Him, for the human breast
Ne'er entertained so kind a guest,
No mortal tongue their joys can tell
With whom He condescends to dwell.”

It Is the Gospel of God

In much of modern Christianity it seems to be almost forgotten that the gospel is the gospel of God. God sends to man His good news of His way of salvation for man. God's own nature, His truth, His holiness, His righteousness, is made known to man in His gospel.

God is light, God is love—such is His nature, and His light and His love are made manifest in the cross of His Son. God cannot pass by sin. Were He to do so, He would not be the God of truth, and the cross of Christ is the great proof of His hatred of sin. His holiness cannot tolerate sin in His presence, and a propitiation for all sin is made by the death of Christ. Now God declares His righteousness in His gospel concerning His Son. The question is, will man believe God and live, or die in unbelief and perish?

This Year Thou Shalt Die”

God usually warns before He judges. So infinite is His mercy and grace that perhaps even one might not go beyond the truth in saying that He always does. Scripture abounds with instances. Sodom was visited by two heavenly messengers the day before the fire of God consumed it. Pharaoh had warnings in abundance long before his final doom. Judas got his warning when the Lord said, "One of you shall betray Me." He heeded it not, and went "to his own place.”

Pilate was well and wisely warned when, even on the judgment seat, he got the message from his wife, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man." Disregarding it, he signed the Lord's death warrant—and who shall say not his own at the same time?

Far different might have been the end, for time and eternity, of all these men, had God's warning been heeded, His message believed, and His mercy besought; had repentance and self-judgment taken the place of unbelief and indifference.

The five words we have quoted were God's warning 'message to another man. Hananiah was a false prophet. Unsent of God, he prophesied lies in His name. To him came the word of God, "Hear now, Hananiah; the LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: This year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month." Jer. 28:15-17.

It was in the fifth month of the year (see verse 1) that Hananiah uttered his false prophecy and got his warning "this year thou shalt die" and "Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month,” is God's record of what took place. His word ever comes true.

Reader, have you ever thought that God may have spoken as to you, "This year thou shalt die"? May I ask, Are you ready to die`? Are you prepared to meet God? Are your sins all washed away? If not, you have not much time left. A year goes by quickly, and if "This year thou shalt die" applies to you, it surely behooves you to be on the alert.

Very likely you will say, "How do you know I shall die this year?" I do not know it, or affirm it; but God knows, and if your days on earth are numbered, where will you go when you die? Will you spend eternity in heaven or hell? There is no third place.

Annihilation is a lure of the devil to get careless sinners to go on in sin till it be too late. Believe it not, my friend. Death is before you—two deaths.

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." What is that? The second death, which Revelation describes as "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Surely, to die once is enough. Then you pass out of man's sight, but do not cease to exist. In the second death you pass out of God's sight, but—appalling thought!—exist as long as He does. He is the eternal God, and yours will be eternal judgment.

Really, my friend, it is time you were alive to your future. You need not be a gross, scandalous sinner to ensure these two deaths. You have only to go on quietly as you are, in unbelief and disregard of God's

Word to seal your eternal doom—and He may be giving you your warning by this paper!

Quite possibly you may argue, "The chances are greatly against my dying this year I am young and strong.”

So may have answered three young men, in the full possession of health and strength, as they one evening listened to a friend of mine preach from the words, "This year thou shalt die." The next evening the mangled bodies of all three were found in a railway cutting. Crossing: this, as a short way home from work, an express train overtook them and slew them. As to their souls and eternity, nothing was known. They had never confessed Christ, but God had coupled the gospel with the warning they heard the night before.

Death has indeed been busy this past year, and my unsaved reader may well heed the poet's words: "Both old and young the dart of death Lays level with the dust; So, reader, whilst you still have breath Make Christ alone your trust.”

Your heart, sinner, is the target at which death relentlessly shoots his arrows, and possibly even as you read this the shaft is being put to the bow which shall fulfill the solemn words, "This year THOU shalt die.” This may be God's warning to you.

Depend upon it, my reader, you are getting your warning. These solemn facts are true and, if you are inclined to pass them off as mere coincidences which preachers and writers are wont to cite, let me urge you to carefully read—yes, to memorize—the words of one gone to his rest. Truly wrote Young:

"Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer—Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene. If not so frequent, would not this be strange? That 'tis so frequent, this is stranger still!”

Such words should be graven on the heart of every procrastinator. Are you such? Let me urge you to come to Jesus at once. You may well trust Him. Trusting Him, pardon, peace, and eternal life are yours. For the Christian there is nothing but glory with Christ ahead of him. He has a title without a flaw to that glory. It is his Savior's blood. He has a prospect without a cloud. Every cloud is gone. The sin that was his has been borne by Jesus. The death and judgment that sin demand have been endured by Jesus. Thus he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Come now, will you not turn to Jesus and believe on Him? Let me entreat you. All the work has been done by Jesus. "It is finished,” is the legacy of the dying Savior to the needy sinner. Receive this priceless heirloom and then, should God's will be that "this year thou shalt die," your happy portion will be to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”

May God, in His infinite goodness, lead you this moment to decide for Him, for again I repeat: concerning you the word may have gone out of His lips a word of warning, which though unheeded will not be unremembered—"This year thou shalt die.”

Fragment: God's Grace

God's grace works in our souls to give us the knowledge of our sins forgiven and enables us to be in His presence in perfect peace.

"GOD IS LOVE.
IN THIS WAS
MANIFESTED THE LOVE
OF GOD TOWARD US,
BECAUSE THAT GOD
SENT HIS ONLY
BEGOTTEN SON INTO
THE WORLD, THAT WE
MIGHT LIVE
THROUGH HIM.”

1 John 4:8, 9

February

The Reality of It

An old preacher said to some who wanted arguments: "Let me tell you a story! Three men were in a boat fishing on Niagara River above the falls. One of them was a believer in Christ; the other two were not. One persistently argued that there is no God. While they were still talking, they discovered that their boat had drifted into the current and they were in danger of going over the falls.

At once they seized their oars and pulled for their lives. It was a desperate struggle for a little. The man who had argued "there is no God" now kept shouting, "Pull, for God's sake; pull!”

When they had reached safety again the Christian said, "Why did you keep saying, ‘For God's sake, pull,' when you do not believe there is a God?”

"Oh," said he, "arguments may do in still water fishing, but not to go over Niagara Falls with!”

When the soul faces death, and knows it has to give an account to God, then it wants something solid to rest upon. What have you, dear reader, with eternity before you? Christ is the true Rock, the one safe resting-place for your soul. Have you found Him? Have you said, "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I"?

"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God."

Psa. 40:2, 3.

Still Room

Perishing souls, be wise,
Look to the blood-stained cross;
Dare you that cross despise,
Dare you at last be lost?

Jesus the Just has died,
Died for the sinner's sin;
Justice is satisfied,
Hasten and enter in!

Hasten ere mercy's door
Close on your aching view,
Ere the last chance be o'er—
Sinner, there's room for you!

Her Eighteenth Birthday

It was Alice's eighteenth birthday. Several presents had been given her and she took delight in looking them over again one by one, so time slipped away and it was late when she went upstairs to prepare for the meeting. Though she was sorry to be late on her birthday, when she got sight of the town clock it was already ten minutes past eleven.

Very quietly she opened the door of the meeting room, and determined to wait till they should sing before she went in. A 'passage from Scripture was being read and as she stood within the door, closing it noiselessly, the first words she heard were, "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

The Holy Spirit sent those words of the Savior right home to the heart of that young girl standing at the door. "Whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years,” she said to herself; "that is me. I am eighteen today, and I know that I am not serving God, and they say that if I am not, I must be serving Satan. If that's true, I am his slave.”

Little she heard that morning except these words. She saw that she had spent all her life—all those eighteen years, in which God had given her health and comfort and countless other blessings—in forgetfulness of Him. She remembered that He had often called her, and she had as often refused to listen. Yes, she saw it all now; she had been bound by Satan for eighteen years. She was bound still. How could she be "loosed"?

The meeting ended, and Alice returned home. Still those words filled her mind. She went to her room, but not now to spend her time at the mirror, or looking at her presents. Now she was on her knees before God. Earnestly she prayed: "Lord, I am bound—I'm all wrong—oh, show me what to do!”

Even as she prayed a ray of light from God's Word shone into her soul: "Ought not this woman to be loosed?" "That woman was loosed," she said to herself; "oh, that I might be!”

More and more God's blessed light shone into her repentant heart, showing her that though she was a captive to sin—bound by sin for eighteen years—yet One "mighty to save" had come "to preach deliverance to the captives... to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

When Jesus was on earth, He said to that poor woman, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." He laid His hands on her and she was made straight, and glorified God.

How very simple and natural it all was, Alice thought; and why should He not do the same for her, and even more, now that He was in heaven? She would trust in Him. And though she had been bound by Satan for eighteen years, she too was loosed that very day.

Can you imagine her joy when she realized that she was really set free? And my reason for telling you this story of Alice is that I long for you also to know the gladness of being made free from the dominion of sin, and thus free to serve your Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. For as He Himself said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Satan has all unsaved people bound in his chains, leading them on to an eternal hell of suffering and torment.

The Lord Jesus is the only one who can break those chains, and He is waiting to do so for all who will come to Him and own that they are sinners and accept Him as their Savior. He is the one who suffered on the cross the judgment of God for the sins of all who will come to Him, and accept His forgiveness for their many sins.

"Through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” Acts 10:43.

Eternity

Eternity is beyond our finite minds to comprehend: we fail in our endeavor to realize its scope. Ever and ever-what a thought!

But it is true, and substantial, and cannot be denied. Perpetually will the immortal spirit live. Think, think for one moment and see if futurity does not concern you, if the salvation of your soul does not concern you. Eternity, eternity! May one and all through the merits of Christ and belief in Him, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and finally inherit the realms of heaven forever.

Mother, I Dare Not Pray”

Henry was the son of Christian parents, and so consistent was his way of life that his parents hoped that he was a Christian. At the age of nineteen he was summoned home to his father's funeral.

After they returned from the cemetery the family gathered in the evening in the room where so many pleasant hours had been spent in days gone by. There was Father's empty chair and there were the worn slippers at its foot. There was also the large family Bible from which Father had always read a chapter at bedtime.

The clock struck ten. Henry's mother looked at him. Then, pushing the Bible across the table, she said, "My son, read a chapter.”

He colored slightly, but did as she asked. She then rose and looked at him, as if expecting him to lead in prayer. He understood that glance, and in an instant the full reality of his position rushed upon him. He felt—oh, how keenly!—how totally unprepared he was for it.

He hesitated one moment, then hid his face in his hands and broke forth with, "Mother, I dare not pray.”

One moment more she gazed at him before she seemed to understand it all. Then, falling upon her knees, she poured forth her heart-felt prayer to God for mercy upon the child of her heart. Earnestly she pleaded that the light of divine love should shine into his soul and guide him safely on the pathway of life.

Tenderly she committed him to the Savior of sinners.

Before she had ended, Henry knelt beside her. When he arose it was as a believer in the Lord Jesus—a saved man.

An Impossibility

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him." There is no real communication with God unless God be believed. However religious a man may be, without faith his religious life is in vain, for he does not have dealings with God.

Fragment: Old or Young

Whether you are old or young, the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him.

As Many As Touched

"As many as touched Him were made whole." Mark 6:56. They did touch, and it was as many as touched that received the healing blessing. Some looked on, some heard, some reasoned, but those who touched were healed.

There is a lesson here for the seeking soul which teaches him to get close to Christ. Personal contact with Him is the necessity. It suffices not for the sick man to look at the healing medicine, he must take it if he would be helped thereby. You must come to Christ, not come just a little way towards Him, if you want to be healed. The sinner must needs meet the Savior, his soul must come into contact with Him; and when this is the case, lo, the sinner is "made whole.”

There was no virtue in the touch of these sick persons! Think we, that the finger of a paralyzed man had power in it? Or that in the hand of the leper there was cleansing? Nor is there in us any virtue, or any good thing: the virtue dwells in Jesus, and through the touch the blessing was received. The touch was the evidence of faith; faith led to the touch. It was also the sign that the sick needed the healing of the Great Physician. On the one hand, in Jesus there is stored the fullness of grace and pardon and cleansing; on the other, in us is the absolute need. Faith puts the empty sinner into communication with the aboundings that are in Christ.

Many a soul carries its burden to this hour because there has not been the coming close to Jesus in simple faith. Some are content to hear of His gracious works, others satisfy themselves by looking at Him from afar off; but the healed people—the saved people—have been content with nothing short of getting close to Christ, each one for himself and herself.

"As many as touched Him were made whole!" We do not wonder at this; there is no room for surprise, the only surprise is that so few go to Him. Does it astonish us that we read of a dying thief being saved, or of a blasphemous man, a persecutor and injurious, being made a follower of the meek and lowly Lord? Or that we hear in our own day of the vilest and worst being "made whole,” and living no more the life of sin but living instead the life of faith? Do we lift up our eyes with amazement and say, "How can these things be?" By no means, for Jesus is so wonderful, and His salvation is so complete, and the cleansing efficacy of His once-shed blood is so perfect, that we know He can and does heal as many as come to Him.

"Whithersoever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment." What a sight of power and of pity, of grace and misery! The Son of God, who had come from heaven, surrounded with every type of human woe! And as He walks on, His heart moved in tenderness toward all, hundreds of weak hands stretch out as it were to touch the very skirts of His garments. If our eyes could but see, we should behold in this our day the selfsame Jesus, the Son of God, moving amongst the longing and perishing children of men, and we should see weak and helpless hands outstretched to touch Him, and "as many as touched Him were made whole.”

Before the night closes in, and the Lord has passed by to return in mercy no more, oh! stretch out the hand of faith and touch Him!

Abundantly Pardon”

Some years ago I was talking with an old friend, and I asked him what assurance he had of going to heaven. His answer was a little vague and discouraging, so I asked him more pointedly: "Suppose that you were dying; you might think of yourself, 'In a little while I shall be in heaven or hell forever; the things of time are fast slipping from me: on what do I build my hopes for eternity? How can I make sure of heaven?'”

My friend answered that, strange to say, he had been in exactly the position which I had described. He said, "I was once very ill with inflammation of the lungs, and my condition became critical. The nurse was giving me a spoonful of brandy every two hours to sustain the action of the heart. I felt like a drowning man struggling desperately to keep afloat a little longer. Every breath seemed as if it would be my last. I thought to myself, 'The next time the nurse gives me that dose it will choke me, and I won't be able to swallow it—and I will be gone.'

"A mighty conflict with Satan ensued. My past life flashed before my mind. For a while I was tossed with doubts. But at last two words came before my heart. They were these: 'Abundantly pardon.' Then peace possessed my soul.

" 'But,' said Satan, 'your sins are too great.'

"I answered, 'I have a God who abundantly pardons.'

"But,' he said, 'You do not feel like a Christian; your life as a Christian has been marked as a failure.'

"To all these suggestions, and many more, I had but one reply, 'The Word of God says, "abundantly pardon." '

"The time came for me to receive the much-dreaded dose. I swallowed it safely, and my strength gradually returned. The sweetness of those two words to my soul was indescribable, and even now I never think of them nor hear them without feeling again a thrill of joy.”

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Isa. 55:6, 7.

Dear reader, if unsaved, "seek the Lord while He may be found" soon it will be too late. Make the experiment prove for yourself the abounding grace of God.

Hoping

"Are you a Christian?" we asked a young girl whom we knew to be anxious about her soul's salvation.

"I hope so," she answered.

"Have you eternal life?”

At this second question her face fell and she was silent.

Again we asked, "Did you ever thank God for the gift of eternal life?”

"I pray.”

"Christ is God's gift to sinners: those who possess God's gift have eternal life, and the forgiveness of their sins. Believe in Jesus, and give thanks to God for His gift of eternal life.”

Then we went on to this text: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life"; and having read it we asked our little friend, "Do you believe on the name of the Son of God?”

"I do," she answered; and we believed she did so most truthfully.

"You believe that He died for your sins on the cross?”

"I do.”

"Let us read the text again. 'These things have I written unto you' now put your own name here that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life.'”

The darkness rolled away. God gave faith to her, and she took the gracious word to herself. Long afterward she looked back with thankfulness to that night as the occasion on which she passed out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

Can you put your name there—or are you still just "hoping"?

A True Friend

How much we need true friendship in this world! But how little of it is to be found!

Friendship needs to be shown most of all in the day of adversity, when the clouds are heavy and there is none to help. How often under such circumstances are our earthly expectations blasted! There is One who exactly meets this great need of humanity, one who is a Friend for adversity, one that "sticketh closer than a brother"—Jesus, the true Friend.

"Doctor, what shall I do?" asked a patient.

"My friends are all out of town.”

He said, "You may have one Friend who is never away but ever near and ever true. Jesus is the best friend for earth or heaven.”

The last words of one great man when he came to die were, after bidding his friends good-by, "Now where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and never-failing Friend?" and so saying, he fell asleep. Reader, do you know Jesus as your Friend? Make him so by true and living faith. He will never fail you.

"BEHOLD, I STAND AT
THE DOOR, AND KNOCK:
IF ANY MAN HEAR MY
VOICE, AND OPEN THE
DOOR, I WILL COME IN
TO HIM, AND WILL
SUP WITH HIM,
AND HE WITH ME.”

Rev. 3:20.

March

Presumption”

At the close of a gospel meeting an elderly man kept his seat while others were passing out. A Christian sat down beside him and asked him if he was saved.

"No," was the answer, "but I would like to be.”

For some time the Christian tried to point him to Jesus, through the Word of God, but beyond the stranger's first admission the Christian did not seem to make much headway.

The man's clothing showed that his circumstances were not the most comfortable, so the Christian asked a few questions about his work, etc., and learned from him that he was a mason from another city, and had not been able to get work for several weeks. However, he was very emphatic that he had not come in to beg, and was not "hard up.”

However, the Christian offered him a little help, as trade was so bad. The stranger refused to accept what was offered; and to confirm his statement that he was not hard up, he drew an old worn wallet out of his pocket, and showed a couple of quarters. Before he could close it the Christian popped some coins in and told him to put it in his pocket. This time it was thankfully accepted.

After a further talk, he said, "It seems too much like presumption for me to say I'm saved.”

"Oh, so that's it!" exclaimed the Christian. "Well, but what about that money given—you have you got it?”

"Yes, in my pocket.”

"Are you sure?”

Out came the old wallet, and he showed that he had it safe enough.

After pocketing it, he was again urged to accept Christ, but still he hesitated. Again the question was put: "Are you sure you have that money given you?”

With that he was annoyed, and pulled his wallet out again and said, "You had better take that money back.”

Prevailing on him to pocket it again, the Christian said, "Is it too much presumption for you to say you have that money in your pocket?”

"I see! I see!" he cried, "I see what you are driving at! It's no presumption for me to say I'm saved, if I accept God's gift of salvation." Then with tears in his eyes he said, "And I do believe Jesus died for me, and He is my Savior, and I'm saved.”

That man went away happy that night, for "salvation is of the Lord.” "Are you saved?" The question is not asked to gratify curiosity, but is the outcome of a desire for your soul's salvation.

"Are you saved?" Conscience whispers, "No." Then if you die unsaved you will be unsaved through eternity.

God loves you. God gave His Son to die for your sins. God offers His gift of everlasting life for you, and it's no presumption to say, "I am saved if I accept God's gift of salvation.”

Extract: Every Excuse for Sin

Every excuse for sin charges blame upon God, and virtually accuses Him of tyranny.

From Darkness to Light

I cannot say I love that Name,
It has no charms for me
No value in His blood I own,
No beauty in Him see.

Oft have I heard of cleansing blood,
Of sorrow, suffering, death,
Of judgment from a holy God,
Borne in His dying breath.

Nothing of Jesus thus I know,
Nothing I know of grace,
His call to me finds no response,
No, not a single trace.

"Come let us reason," God thus speaks
In words of tender love,
For sinners such as you I sent
My Son from heaven above.

I know thy sins: they are not hid
From My all-searching eye,
To purge away thy guilty stains
I gave My Son to die.

Lord! I confess with sorrow, shame,
In thought and word and deed
I've sinned, am guilty, lost, undone,
Wilt Thou to me take heed?

Drawn by Thy love, to Thee I come,
Thy blood, Thy name, my plea;
Confess Thee, Lord, with heart believe,
Thus cast myself on Thee.

Darkness is past, the light now shines
On me from Jesus' face,
Jesus is mine, and I am His—
I know I taste God's grace.

I Am Waiting for It to Come

Come with me into a scattered mining district, amongst the miners, where you will find rough manners but warm hearts. Many a kindly greeting meets you, as you go down the village road, from the women who are standing at their doors talking to their neighbors.

Presently we meet a miner sauntering along: he has no work, having only made two days this week.

"Well, John, how are you? I have missed you lately from your seat on Sundays—you used to come so regularly to the services, and your wife too what has happened to keep you away?”

"Well, Mister, you see I have not been lately, I know, but somehow I could not come.”

"Why, John? Have you received no blessing all the many times you have been to hear the gospel?”

"Well, no, Mister, I have not. I have come and come, and I've listened and listened, but it hasn't come.”

What did he mean by "it hasn't come"?

On talking further to him, you could see he expected some outward evidence—an extraordinary shock, or some strange thing to happen to him—to make him receive Christ into his heart.

Poor man! The great enemy had duped him into this notion, and to this day (as far as I know) he has not received the truth as it is in Jesus.

Have you any feeling like this? You go week after week perhaps to the Sunday school, or to the Bible-class, or to the preaching of the gospel, and you find your condition no different from what it always was. There is no sense of reality in what you hear. Are you, too, expecting some strange shock or some extraordinary feeling to make you a child of God? Take care how you let this go on-remember what we read in Luke 16.31:

"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Let God's holy Word enter into your heart, and by it His Spirit will do His quickening work.

How strange it would be thought if you sat inside your house, just at your door; and as knock after knock came, you never opened to let the person who knocked come in, but waited until some unseen hand forced you from your seat to undo the door! You have often acted in this way to the Savior: you have listened, and listened, and listened to the story of His love, but have never opened your heart by faith for Him to enter to give you peace and rest of soul. He has knocked, oh! so many times, at the door of your heart, as you have listened to God's Word; and yet you are "waiting for it to come"!

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20.

Are You Afraid to Trust Christ?

Have you never heard of the man who lost his way one night? He came to the edge of a precipice—as he thought—and fell over. As he fell he clutched at an old tree limb and there he hung, clinging to his frail support with all his might. There he hung until he got desperately afraid lest he should be dashed to pieces. At last his hands could hold up his body no longer; so he dropped and fell—about six inches—on to a smooth, mossy bank, where he lay unhurt and safer.

Now, there are many who think that sure destruction must await them if they confess sin and resign all into the hands of God. It is an idle fear. Give up your hold upon everything but Christ, and drop down. Soft and mossy will be the bank which receives you.

Jesus Christ, by His love and by the efficacy of His precious blood; will give you immediate rest and peace. Only drop now. Drop down at once. This is the major part of faith—the giving up of every other hold, and simply falling upon Christ. That dropping down will bring you present salvation.

It Won't Sink?

The sun had nearly set. As its last rays made a shining path across the sea, my companion, an old sailor, sighed deeply. Suddenly he turned to me and said, "What a mercy it is to be brought to know the God who has made all this!”

He paused a moment, and then went on: "I didn't always know Him, you know; nor appreciate any of the beauties of His creation. I was captain of a smuggling boat and my men and I were always searching every quarter of the horizon to see if there was any man-of-war or any coast guard boat on our tracks. Instead of looking for beauty around us, we were always better satisfied when it was darkest, and often we would have been happy if the night had been several hours longer.

"I remember well one morning, just at daybreak, we discovered a coast guard boat in the distance. We had on board a heavy cargo of tobacco, and we stood to make quite a bit of money if we could land it.

"The coast guard was still a long way off, but we knew that we couldn't possibly get away if she gave chase because our heavy cargo slowed us so much. We hoped at first that we might not be seen, but we gave that up when we saw the coast guard crowding all sail and turning her course toward us.

"We all knew what would happen if we were taken. Not only would the boat and cargo be confiscated, but we would all be sent to prison. We stared at each other in dismay. For a time there was a dead silence while they waited for my command. The coast guard was coming up fast behind us, and we could calculate how little time we had until they would overhaul us. Suddenly I thought of a way out. 'Mates,' I cried, `there is no hope for us by running away—they will soon be on us—but let them come! They will only find an empty ship.'

"My men set up a cheer, and we went right to work. We first rigged a sail at the stern of the ship to screen us from the sight of the customs men; then, sending part of the men below, I set them in line to hand up the packages of tobacco and pitch them overboard as they came up.

"How we did work! It gave us a sore pang to think of the loss of all that tobacco, but we consoled ourselves with thinking of the disappointment the customs people would get when they found the ship empty.

"All was quiet: nothing was heard but the splash of the tobacco dropping into the sea. The cargo was going down fast. 'Cheer up, men,' I cried, 'we'll soon be finished with it.' Just then I saw that the ship's boy, who was working near me, was too tired to go on. I sent him to see if the coast guard was very far off.

"In a minute he came rushing back to me, pale as death, and too frightened to say a word. I gave him a shaking: 'What's the matter? What's happened?'

"He just gasped out, 'It won't sink!' and fled below.

"In a flash we understood what he meant. I ran to the stern of the ship, and what a sight that was! The sun was just rising behind us and there, in that long line of light, were the packages of tobacco bobbing up and down in our wake. And the first package in the line reached right back to that oncoming coast guard boat.

"Helplessly, we stood and stared at it. In our excitement we hadn't once thought that the tobacco wouldn't sink at once in the water. We cursed heaven and earth, and specially the coast guards, but where was the good of it? The proof of our guilt was there spread out for all to see. We were lost, and in our ears rang over and over those fatal words, 'It won't sink.'”

The old sailor stopped speaking. I thought he had finished his story, but he began again: "In those days I little thought that that adventure would end in any good to me. My heart was far from God. I belonged to the world. From time to time, though, I had serious thoughts, and then I would resolve to correct my ways and change my course. But resolving is one thing doing is another. I still went on in the same old ways, and as soon as we were set free I went back to smuggling.

"About three years after all this happened, I went out in a row boat on the river one night. I was out to shoot birds, and while I was waiting for the moon to rise I lay down in the bottom of the boat. Everything around me was silent, except the little splash of the water against the side of the boat. It was New Year's Eve, and after a time I heard the stroke of midnight. 'It is the last night of the year,' I said to myself, and in spite of myself my thoughts went back in a review of my past life. My childhood came back before me, and I saw myself kneeling again at my mother's knee to say my evening prayers. Again I heard her tell me of One who came down from heaven to bring life to the world. At this I sighed deeply, and said, half aloud, 'If I should die this night not a single soul in the world would thank God that I had lived.'

"The more I thought about my past, the more horrified I was. God had created me, and I had lived and was still living as though there was neither God nor eternity. That night I went down on my knees in the boat and prayed that God would come to my help. After this I would be another man. I resolved not to touch a drop of liquor, and to avoid all bad company. I made many more resolutions like that, what I would do, and what I wouldn't do, and soon I began to feel a very good opinion of myself. I was happy in the thought that I had become a new man for, being faithful to my resolutions, I judged I would be almost a saint.

"But on reflection I saw there were still several things that I ought to clean up, or, as we say, lighten the ship. Half measures would not satisfy me. I must throw overboard everything which ought not to be found in my boat, and I saw in my mind quite a list of things that I would need to change. My resolutions were getting more serious and positive every moment, and my heart grew lighter. My life was to be completely changed, and as a finishing stroke I decided to sell my ship and go home, to my mother.

"How blind I was! After having decided to sell my ship it seemed that everything must be in perfect order, but God was still speaking to me. I had taken up the oars to go back to land, when suddenly the moon broke through a cloud and cast its beams right across the rippled water to where my boat was lying. It was like a long band of silver across the water—a beautiful sight—but why should I start and shiver? What did it remind me of? The memory of a certain morning when, chased by the coast guard, I had cast the cargo into the sea came over me with overwhelming power. I saw again the ship's boy's frightened face, and I heard his cry, 'It won't sink!'

"Ah, what had I been trying to do? I had tried to lighten the ship by casting the cargo overboard and there, behold, it was all floating behind me like an accusing line stretched up to the throne of God. All that I had done, said, or thought, was there before the face of God, and 'it would not sink!' Fool that I was, I thought I could drown all my wickedness in the sea of eternal forgetfulness, and I had not a thought of the holiness of God!

"I was completely thrown down. All my trouble would be worthless—all my good resolutions vain— even if faithfully done. If I had been able from that moment on to do only what was good, it would not have changed the evil done in the past. What good was it to be forming good resolutions for the future, and to pitch the old cargo overboard, when it would not sink? Tears of despair filled my eyes and ran down my cheeks. I was lost, hopelessly lost! For me there was no resource, no salvation.

"While I was in this state, seeing neither relief nor safety, my thoughts went back again to my childhood. I remembered the teachings of my faithful mother. Hadn't she often told me about Jesus, the Savior of sinners? Hadn't He died on the cross for sinners? Hadn't one of the thieves who was crucified with Him found pardon at the last hour? And if I should turn now to this Savior wouldn't His precious blood wash away even my many sins? Wasn't there grace and mercy for me even for me?

"All at once everything was clear before me. Yes, the Lord Jesus had died for me. He had borne the punishment of all my sins. If I accepted that, they would all be cast into the depths of the sea. 'Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more' was the passage that came to my mind. Such a joy as filled my heart then! Lighthearted, entirely relieved of my burden, I turned my boat toward the shore and, a new man, I stepped out on the land. I had gone out a lost sinner, but I was coming back redeemed by the Lord.

"That was the good end of my adventure with the coast guard," said the old sailor. "It all turned to my eternal salvation, for it taught me that it was altogether useless to lighten the ship by my own efforts, seeing the cargo will not sink. True deliverance only comes by faith in the testimony of God concerning His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.”

"WHAT SHALL WE DO,
THAT WE MIGHT
WORK THE WORKS
OF GOD?”

"THIS IS THE WORK
OF GOD,
THAT YE BELIEVE
ON HIM WHOM HE
HATH SENT.”

John 6:28, 29

April

A Text That Is Not in the Bible

" 'It is never too late to mend.' Do you believe that, Miss Hunt?”

"Of course I do; I believe everything that is in the Bible.”

"But that saying is not in the Bible; you may search from the first chapter to the last, and you will not find it.”

"Still, it is quite true, isn't it? Everybody believes it.”

"Well, Miss Hunt, I for one do not believe it. It is a flat contradiction of the Word of God.”

"What! Do you mean to say that there is anyone who is past mending?”

"Yes, that is just what I do mean, and the person who is past mending is yourself, and every other sinner on the face of the earth.”

The young lady to whom these words were spoken seemed greatly surprised; she had never thought it possible that any one should be past mending, and little did she know that she herself was one such.

My reader, have you ever thought of this matter? The Bible is plain and positive on this point. It describes us all as "filthy” (Psa. 14:3), and it shows us that nothing that we can do will make us clean (Jer. 2:22). It says that we are all "under sin” (Rom. 3:9), and utterly "without strength” (Rom. 5:6) to deliver ourselves. Once again, it tells us that we are "dead" in trespasses and sins, and altogether without hope. (Eph. 2:1-12.)

There are many other verses in Scripture which teach us that we are past mending, past reforming, past improving. We are past mending, but thank God, we are not past saving! We are sunk deep in the mire and filth of sin, but the strong arm of Jesus is able to save us, though no power in heaven or earth can mend us.

Reader, do you want that arm of power to save you? Then I will tell you what to do: get down upon your knees and tell it all out to Jesus. Take the low place of a poor unworthy sinner at His feet, and put your whole-hearted trust in Him as your Savior.

Remember it was for sinners like you that He died. Look up to Him and say from your heart, "Lord Jesus, I am guilty and helpless, but Thou art able to save; Thou halt shed Thy blood for me, and I, a poor sinner, rely upon the merits of that precious blood.

I trust in Thee, I confide in Thy love, and I flee to Thee for pardon.”

If words like these come from your heart, they will reach the Savior's ear. And what will be the result?

You will be pardoned and saved forever! Yes, for the Bible says, "Believe [or trust] on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

I Know Whom I Have Believed”

2 Tim. 1:12

A man of subtle reasoning asked
A peasant if he knew
"Where is the internal evidence
That proves the Bible true?”
The terms of disputative art
Had never reached his ear;
He laid his hand upon his heart,
And simply answered, "Here”

The Silent Cylinder

"And the Lord's Day?" asked the preacher. "I have no Sunday," answered the man. "That's the day when I have most to do. We almost always have a picnic. I have no time for religion. And after all, it means nothing to me.”

The car continued to run smoothly. Without effort they overtook and passed one car after another. The preacher said to himself, "I must get at this man, but how?" And indeed the chauffeur was a fine specimen of manhood. He and his car seemed made for each other, but neither God nor his soul had any place in his thoughts.

"You have a splendid engine," remarked the preacher, after awhile, hoping to draw his man out a little.

"You won't find a better one, sir.”

"How many cylinders?”

"Six.”

"And your speed?”

The man turned to the speaker and winked.

At that moment there was heard an almost imperceptible change in the sound of the engine. The practiced ear of the driver caught it at once, and the car slowed down and stopped.

"What is the matter?" asked the passenger.

The chauffeur did not answer; but got out, and made some adjustments, and waited until he got back into his seat before saying,

"Oh, nothing much—one of the cylinders wasn't working.”

They went on again, and soon reached a greater speed than before.

"But why didn't you run on with the five remaining cylinders?" asked the traveler. "They would have been enough for the trip, wouldn't they?”

"Well, sir, we are not satisfied unless all parts of the engine are working.”

"All six cylinders have to be working?”

"Yes, sir.”

There was a short pause. Then, "I know a machine that runs on three cylinders,” remarked the preacher.

"Who makes that one?" asked the man, quickly interested.

"Never mind that for the present," was the answer. "It has three cylinders, but the driver runs only on two.”

"What, all the time, sir?”

"Yes, all the time.”

"Then the man must be a fool. No machine could stand it. Does his boss know about it?”

“yes.”

"And he keeps him on without saying anything?”

"He speaks about it now and then, but the man will not listen to anything he says,” replied the traveler sadly. "He is a good master, and very patient, but he says he will punish the man some day, and I know he will keep his word.”

"Excuse me, sir, but that master must be yourself," said the driver, greatly puzzled.

The preacher smiled. "No, it is someone who has much more love and patience than I. Let me tell you what I mean. God is our master. He has made us, and we are the machines with three cylinders. They are called spirit, soul, and body. Now you, my friend, are running on only two, the spirit (or your feelings and emotions) and your body, and let the third, your soul, stay silent and dead, and prevent it from doing its proper work.”

"Ah!" said the man, "you've got me there!”

"But God is full of love and patience,” the preacher went on. "He has not dismissed you yet. But don't trifle with so kind a master. Accept the pardon He offers you through the Lord Jesus Christ, and get your three cylinders running together.”

They had reached their destination. The preacher shook hands heartily with his man, who said as they parted: "Sir, I've been a fool, but I see it now. Thank you for telling me.”

Is the reader also running on two cylinders and forgetting the third, the soul? What makes men so careless, of the welfare of their never-dying souls? Simply that they do not believe the solemn warnings of God's Word, which says, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:18.

Water of Life

Broken heart! the fountain's open,
Christ hath died upon the tree;
All the powers of hell are shaken,
Grace flows down from God to thee.

God Himself, the Source, the Fountain,
Christ the Way the waters flow,
By the Spirit, down from heaven
To the thirsty heart below.

Now's the time, the time accepted,
Now to thee God's light hath shone,
Christ God's love hath manifested,
He the finished work hath done.

By one righteousness completed,
Adam's life receives its doom;
Jesus Christ, in glory seated,
Everlasting life hath won.

Broken heart! the river's flowing,
Haste! delay not! yet there's room;
Hear the Word of God beseeching,
"Whosoever thirsts may come.”

Too Many Hypocrites

"There are too many hypocrites about. I prefer a man who professes nothing and goes nowhere on a Sunday. When I was a billiard-marker I used to see a man on Saturday night playing till two in the morning, drinking and swearing and betting, and then he was a deacon in church the next morning'.

The fact was, he went to church because it was good for his business.”

Yes, my friend, there are plenty who talk like that, but such talk is illogical and foolish. Let us put it to the test. You find a man tearing up bank notes, saying that he has seen too many forgeries ever to wish to see a bank note again, and that he infinitely prefers a blank sheet of paper which makes no promises and breaks none. If you could find such a man, you would say his mental condition was more than doubtful, and that he should be carefully looked after in an insane asylum, and you would be right. And yet his argument is exactly on all fours with yours.

The fact is, most men who use this argument—or, to give it a correct description, pure sophistry—do so as an excuse; and the worst of it all is that in doing so they are going the right way to insure their own eternal destruction.

The truth is this: the more numerous the forgeries, the more valuable it proves that which is forged to be. The counterfeit is sure proof of the real. The more numerous the hypocrites, the more it proves the reality of the real article. The paste diamond proves the existence of the real diamond and the hypocrite proves the existence of the real Christian.

One thing is certain: the Bible does not make hypocrites. It tells us that "the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,” and that the "hypocrite's hope shall perish.”

It warns us against them. They are an ancient breed. They existed plentifully in the days of our Lord on earth, and with strong denunciation He rebuked them. In one recorded speech of Christ He uses the word "hypocrite" seven times, and ends up with language that could scarcely be stronger, and a warning that could not be more serious: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

What about you, my reader? Will you play the man, or will you allow the hypocrite to turn you away from that which is real, and from that wherein your true and eternal blessing lies?

I was talking to an intelligent man one day, and he expressed his opinion that he would have to be very Christ-like in behavior before he could call himself a Christian. I replied that a man had to become a soldier first, before he became soldierly. Once a man enlists he is as much a soldier as he ever will be. He may not have received his uniform and equipment, nor learned his first drill; but he never can be more a soldier than he is. He may become a soldierly soldier or a famous soldier, but he is a soldier all the time. Not all the drills nor any ability to be soldierly before enlisting would make him a soldier.

So it is with the gospel. We must begin as poor, lost, sinful men and women accepting Christ as our Savior. Salvation is a matter of grace. "The gift of God is eternal life." No man ever received salvation on the ground of merit. It is "not of works, lest any man should boast.”

The hypocrite puts on the uniform, but does not enlist. He masquerades. He is a sham. The true believer enlists and puts on the uniform in other words he truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior.

One thing is certain: if you are in earnest the following verses from God's holy Word will bring your soul into the knowledge of the gospel. Note two things. It is simple, wholehearted faith in a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, that saves. The receiving the testimony of these scriptures will bring you the knowledge of salvation.

Here are the scriptures. Let them speak for themselves. Let there be no addition of ours to them. They stand in all their sublimity and trustworthiness.

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7.

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart

that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. 10:9.

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13.

In Thy Youth

Yes! In your youth, the bright, fresh springtime of your life, while all is sunny before you, and while you are strong, remember your Creator. Give God your early days, your best days. How many have lamented in middle life that they did not give themselves up to God in youth!

"I am brought to God," said one not long ago, "but I have one deep regret; I have lived till my hair has grown gray and my strength has failed without Him. Oh, that I had turned to God in my youth!”

A few months afterward this man told us he was unable to fulfill his little service in helping on the work of the gospel, as age was telling on him. His heart was sound, but his strength had failed.

"In thy youth—in thy youth.”

Where Is Happiness to Be Found?

Not in infidelity. Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: "I wish I had never been born.”

Not in pleasure. Byron lived a life of pleasure, if anyone did. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone.”

Not in money. Gould, the millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”

Not in position and fame. Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake, manhood a struggle, old age a regret.”

Not in military glory. Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, because he said: "There are no more worlds to conquer.”

One and all they confirm Solomon's verdict: "All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

Where then is happiness to be found?

Jesus said, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." The answer is simple: happiness is found in Christ alone.

Taste for yourself, and you will say,

"None other name for me,
There's love and light and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”

The Blessed Result

God never separates justification from faith; we cannot have justification without having our souls brought into living connection with God by the exercise of individual faith. The first result of this faith will be peace with God; second, we have access into the grace, that present divine favor wherein we stand; and third, rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

All the past connected with the old man, all our sins and offenses put away, a new place being given before God, instead of the judgment we deserved, and there is perfect peace. Second, present personal introduction into the full favor of God; but we have not got all yet in possession, therefore we rejoice in hope. Christ has borne all that deserved judgment and entirely left our sins behind as regards the believer, who can never come into judgment before God for them, although of course there will be the Father's chastening for sin, but it is impossible that judgment can be the portion of those whose sins Christ has wholly borne away, entering, and placing them in virtue of it, in a new place of righteousness before God. The judgment of my sins has all been settled between the All-seeing God and His spotless Son; therefore we have not merely a hope but settled peace.

Fragment

Upon a tablet in the cathedral in Lubeck, Germany, are found the following words:

Christ the Lord says, (forget it not):

You call Me Savior, yet saved you are not;

You call Me the Light, yet believest Me not;

You call Me the Way, yet interest it not;

You call Me the Life, yet seekest Me not;

You call Me "Master," yet followest Me not;

You call me Lovely, yet lovest Me not

You call Me wise, yet inquire of Me not

You call Me "Lord," yet servest Me not;

You call Me Almighty, yet trustest Me not;

Therefore if sometime "I know thee not,”

Let it astonish thy hardened heart not.

(Translated)

"WHAT SHALL I RENDER
UNTO THE LORD
FOR ALL HIS BENEFITS
TOWARD ME?”

"I WILL TAKE THE
CUP OF SALVATION,
AND CALL UPON
THE NAME OF
THE LORD.”

Psa. 116:12,13.

May

Reconciled

The testimony of Scripture is as distinct as possible—it never speaks of God's being reconciled to us, but "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." The death of Christ was essential to the reconciliation but man was the enemy of God and needed to be reconciled. We read in Col. 1:21, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." The ground of this is stated, in the previous verse, to be "the blood of His cross." So also in 2 Cor. 5, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." It does not say, "reconciling Himself to the world.”

Thus to anyone who bows to Scripture the truth is as clear as can be, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." "It pleased the LORD to bruise Him.” It is of the utmost importance to maintain the true aspect of God's nature and character in the presentation of the gospel. To say that Christ died to reconcile the Father to us is to falsify the divine character as seen in the mission and death of His Son. God was not man's enemy but his friend.

It is true that sin had to be condemned; God's holiness, truth, and majesty had to be vindicated. All this was done in a divine way at the cross, where we read both God's hatred of sin, and His love to the sinner. Atonement is the necessary basis of reconciliation, but it is of the very greatest importance to see that it is God who reconciles us to Himself. This He does, blessed be His name, at no less a cost than the death of His Son. Such was His love to man—His kindness—His goodness—His deep compassion, that when there was no other way possible in which man, the guilty enemy and rebel, could be reconciled to Him, He gave His Son from His bosom and bruised Him on Calvary's cross. Eternal and universal praise to His name!

Fragment: Salvation by Works

Every form of salvation by works is a denial and rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of God

Paul calls the gospel to which he was set apart the gospel or glad tidings "of God": the Holy Ghost presents it in its source. It is not that which man ought to be for God, nor yet the means merely by which man can approach Him on His throne. It is the thoughts of God, and His acts, we may add, towards man— His thoughts in goodness, the revelation of Him in Christ His Son. He approaches man according to that which He is and that which He wills in grace. God comes to him; it is the gospel of God. This is the true aspect: the gospel is never rightly understood until it is to us the gospel of God, the activity and revelation of His nature, and of His will in grace towards man.

The Open Door

The door of salvation stands wide open—fastened open—and no man can shut it, not earth's highest dignitary, nor the devil, nor any angel. There it stands, all swung back and wide open, for every sinner to enter it if he will.

The Man Who Liked History

History was the only subject that interested Mr. Burton. Books which treated on this were his only reading. Kings and their mighty deeds; parliaments and their debates; nations and their revolutions; wars and rumors of wars, took complete possession of his mind. In fact, the past had for him more interest than the present, and as to the future—well, he was "no prophet.”

One day a friend succeeded in persuading this amateur historian to read a portion of an ancient writing which he knew nothing of, or had taken no account of. Much persuasion and perseverance were required before he would take the book which contained the history heretofore neglected by him. At last, however, he said: "I will read it to please you," and to himself he added, "And get it over with quickly!”

The part of the book which he had been asked to read was a letter addressed, "To all that be in Rome," but as he read the letter Mr. Burton saw that it concerned everyone. This is what it said: "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.”

He could not deceive himself as to the meaning of the words. All the history that he had read did not touch him personally, but in the pages of this brief writing he saw what was manifestly the portrait of everyone, for there were also these words: "That ... all the world may become guilty before God.”

The details of this portrait impressed him deeply. They were:

The eyes: "There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The mouth: "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

The lips: "The poison of asps is under their lips.”

The tongue: "With their tongues they have used deceit.”

The throat: "Their throat is an open sepulcher.”

The feet: "Their feet are swift to shed blood.”

It was evident that no exception could be made to the number whom this portrait represented, for it said: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." He had never seen a universal history of the human race expressed in so few words. And to it all was added the declaration: "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”

When his friend came back to see him he asked him what he thought of the book.

"What a dreadful picture!" said Mr. Burton. "It has haunted me like a nightmare.”

"Will you read another portion of the book?”

"Yes, if you will promise me that it will be more cheerful.”

"Certainly: you have read the third chapter of Romans; now read the third chapter of John's Gospel.”

As soon as he was alone, Mr. Burton took the Bible and opened to the chapter indicated.

"Ah, now we have a real bit of history,” was his thought as he read the first lines,' but the third verse arrested him: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

"It's evident," he said to himself, "that Nicodemus didn't understand those words.”

And he was glad that Nicodemus had asked for an explanation.

The fourteenth and fifteenth verses seemed a little clearer to him: "And 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.”

Jesus was lifted up! Where? "Upon the cross, in order that if I, bitten by sin and dying, look to Him I may be saved and not perish.”

Then he read the sixteenth verse. "For 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 "guilty before God," was, in spite of all, the object of the love of God who gave His only and well beloved Son.

"Ah, how beautiful this sixteenth verse is!" he exclaimed to his friend, when he came again to visit him. "If I could only believe that it is for me.”

"You believe that the passage which you read in Romans is true, don't you?”

"Yes, and it is that which has made me so unhappy.”

"Well, the second passage comes to you clothed with the same authority as the first; if you believe it you will be happy: the same divine voice which says the one says also the other.”

Mr. Burton believed in the love of God for a guilty world; he claimed that love for himself. He believed that Jesus died for sinners, died for him, and he knew that he would never perish but had now eternal life. After that, he became a man of a single book, and that book the Bible. The Word of God was his constant companion.

The Word of God had been the means of saving his soul; he could not help but love it.

And you, reader, have you seen yourself in the picture traced in the third chapter of Romans? Have you believed the declaration of the love of God? Do you love the Book which has revealed it to you?

Divine Love

Divine love saw lost ones-saw in its full extent the misery which it alone was adequate to relieve; and that misery, so hopeless otherwise, brought it down on their behalf. The Creator becomes the Savior. He "goeth after that which is lost, until He find it.”

With divine power and wisdom in pursuit, there is no uncertainty here as to success. Help is laid upon One who is mighty, with whom to fail would be irretrievable disaster, convulsing heaven and earth in universal ruin. But there can be no failure; the cause of the helpless is become the cause of the Almighty "to the praise of the glory of His grace." God only can tell me what He is, or what Christ did for me, or how my soul can be at peace with Him.

For all this, I must listen to the Word alone. It alone can bring in the true eternal light in which conscience and heart alike find their rest and satisfaction forever.

He’s No Deid”

I was holding a series of meetings in Aberdeen, Scotland. At the close of the meeting one evening I noticed that I was being closely followed by a little girl who kept at my heels like a little puppy. Finally I turned to her and asked a little sharply, "Lassie, what do you want? Why are you not away home with the rest of the folk?”

Then, for the first time, I scanned her a little more carefully, and I saw that tears had been running down her cheeks. Her eyes were large and wistful, and still filled with tears. She was barefooted, and her clothes were of the poorest. When I asked her what she wanted, I fully expected that she was wanting money.

"Lassie, what do you want?" I repeated.

The little lassie stood up on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear, "I want to be saved.”

"You want to be saved?”

"Aye, sir, I do" still in a whisper, and oh, so pathetically.

"And why do you want to get saved?”

Again on her tiptoes she reached up and whispered in my ear, "Because I'm a sinner.”

I drew her to one side. "How do you know you are a sinner? Who told you so?”

"Because God says so in the Book, and I feel it right here," laying her hand on her breast as the publican did.

"Well," I said, "do you think I can save you?”

She had only spoken in a whisper before, but now, drawing away from me, her words rang out short and clear: "Na, na, man! You canna save me. No man can save a sinner; only Jesus can save me.”

"Yes, my dear, you are right. Only Jesus can save. What has He done to save you?”

Again her lips to my ear: "Oh, sir, He died for me.”

I do not know why I made answer as I did. "Then He is dead, is He? How can He save you if He is dead?”

The little thing sprang from her seat. No whisper now—no timid putting of her lips to my ear—but her voice ringing out as before. "Man, Jesus is no deid! He died for me, but He is no a deid man—He is God's Son. Did you no tell us this Vera nicht that God raised Him from the dead? He was died, but He's no deid noo. Oh, man, I want to get saved," and her voice dropped back into the old pathetic tones. "Do but tell me a' aboot it, and how I can get saved.”

I had spoken that night from the text, "Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Here was a little girl who had grasped the whole blessed gospel clearly. She knew that she was a sinner; she knew that only Jesus could save her. He had died, but God had raised Him from the dead, and now He was able to save.

I need not say that the little one soon went away saved and happy.

"He's no died. He died for me; but He is no died." How often these words have come back to me, presenting to me as they do a living, loving Savior who is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him.

Necessary - and Enough

In a hospital ward a Christian woman found an undersized and undeveloped little Irish boy, whose white, wizened face and frail little form excited her deepest sympathy. Perhaps he was about fifteen years of age; he scarcely looked to be twelve. Winning the lad's confidence by gifts of flowers and fruit, she soon found him very willing, and even eager, to listen to the story of the sinner's Savior. At first his interest seemed to be of an impersonal character, but gradually he began to be more concerned about himself. His own soul's need was put before him, and he was aroused to some sense of his lost condition. He began to consider seriously how he might be saved.

One morning the woman came in to see him and found his face aglow with joy. Asking the reason, she was told, "Oh, missis, I always knew that Jesus was necessary; but I never knew till yesterday that He was enough!”

It was a blessed discovery, and I would that every reader of these pages had made it. Mark it well: Jesus is enough! It is believed by most people that Jesus is necessary. The whole fabric of Christendom is built upon that. But alas, how few realize that He is enough! You see, it is not Christ and good works, nor Christ and the Church, that save. It is not through Christ and baptism, or Christ and the confessional, that we may obtain the forgiveness of our sins. It is not Christ and doing our best, or Christ and the Lord's Supper, that will give us new life. It is Christ alone.

Christ and— is a perverted gospel which is not the gospel. Christ without the and is the sinner's hope and the saint's confidence. Trusting Him, eternal life and forgiveness are yours. Then, and not till then, good works and obedience to all that is written in the Word for the guidance of Christians, falls into place. The saved soul is exhorted to maintain good works, and thus to manifest his love for Christ. But for salvation itself, Jesus is not only necessary, but He is enough.

Fragment: An Astonished Universe

If there ever was anything that filled the universe with astonishment, it is the sinner's rejection of mercy.

Thoroughly Sincere

Many people, when spoken to about their soul's relationship to God, and of the importance of being prepared to meet Him, say, "I don't think it matters much what religion a man professes, so long as he is thoroughly sincere!" This is a fearful mistake. No one acts on that principle in regard to earthly things. If he did, the greatest fool would tell him of his folly.

Just let us test the sincerity of such a notion. Your child is taken very ill, and you want to fetch the doctor. Every moment is important you can't stop to put on your top coat, but snatch up your hat and start off at a run.

You know the name of the street he lives in, but have no idea where it is situated. Never mind that, make up for it by sincerity, run all the harder.

"Stop, friend, stop!" cries a neighbor who knows your errand. "You're going the wrong way.”

"I can't stop," you reply, "I'm in too great a hurry.”

"But your hurry is all lost time—you are getting further and further off.”

"Never mind, I'm thoroughly sincere; look how hard I'm running.”

But you never reach the doctor!

Friend, sincerity on the wrong road means traveling the faster to eternal destruction!

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3.

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." John 3:7.

Now!

Thousands are already in eternity—lost! They failed to see the importance of that little word "now." They meant to repent and believe the gospel; but they put it off, and put it off, until it was too late. Therefore I press it upon you: now is God's time; trifle with it, and it may be NEVER!

Unbelief: The Height of Presumption

Unbelief is the height of presumption. It plainly proves that we are seeking for some cause of God's love in the creature, which can never be.

"THERE IS NONE THAT
SEEKETH AFTER GOD.”

Rom. 3:11

"THE SON OF MAN IS
COME TO SEEK AND TO
SAVE THAT WHICH
WAS LOST.”

Luke 19:10

June

Are You Right With God?

In New York, several years ago, a detective went into a drug store, laid his hand upon the shoulder of a young man there who was quietly going about his business, and said, "You are wanted.”

"What do you mean?" the young man exclaimed.

"You know what I mean. You were in the Albany Penitentiary—you escaped—went West—and you married out there. Then you came back here and settled, and we have you now. You needn't deny it.

"It's true I won't deny it but let me go home and say good by to my wife and child.”

They went to his home. He met his wife and said, "Mary, haven't I been a kind husband? Haven't I been a good father, and worked hard to make a living?”

It was true, and she confirmed it. He was all right in his relations with his wife and child—all right in business—all right with his neighbors; but he was all wrong with the state of New York. He had yet to pay for his crime against the state, and his years of blameless living could not atone for that broken law.

It is even so with God's law. "God requireth that which is past," and no reformation can atone for one past sin. But what you and I could never do, Christ has done for us.

"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.... Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him... and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Have you received that atonement?

Christ My All

I claim no merit of my own,
I urge no human plea,
No righteousness have I to bring
To God, to cover me.
My all is found in Christ who died,
I stand in Him alone;
He is my righteousness and peace,
Exalted on the throne.

A Great Supper

It goes without saying that all that God does, and is, must needs be great; for He is a great God, as all His thoughts, words, ways, and works alike prove Him to be from all eternity to all eternity. Hence it is evident that when He opens His bounteous hand, and spreads the gospel feast, the, supper He invites the sinner to partake of must be great too. Yes, the very One who called creation into being—the eternal Son of God—is He from whose blessed lips the glorious fact is declared, "A certain man made a great, supper, and bade many." Here divine love shows its holy activity in the midst of a selfish, dark, and starving world. But, mark it well, it is at "supper time," the last meal at the close of the day, when the shadows of night are falling, that the servant is sent out to say to "them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.”

This glorious invitation was, no doubt, primarily sent to Israel as a nation, after Christ's rejection, in accordance with His divine command that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations," but "beginning. at Jerusalem"; and for nearly twenty centuries have those golden words of grace been ringing in the ears of a lost and guilty world, "Come; for all things are now ready.”

Yes, ever since redemption's mighty work was accomplished at Calvary, followed by Christ's exaltation to the right hand of God, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, the glad tidings of a full and free salvation have gone forth. But how have they been received? Let Scripture answer: "They all with one consent began to make excuse.”

Alas, the heart of the natural man despises grace; and anything, therefore, will do as an excuse; and the three great reasons for non-acceptance of the invitation to God's great supper are as ready today as they were at the beginning. "I have bought a piece of ground," says one, "and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused." Yes, earthly power sways the minds and actions, not only of nations, but of individuals; and the "pride of life" as much shows itself today in the one who wants to explore his worldly possessions as it did in the case of Nebuchadnezzar of old.

Another, equally polite in his refusal, having bought "five yoke of oxen," excuses himself by saying, "I go to prove them." This supposes wealth, and the Lord searchingly points out in His sermon on the Mount, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Was there ever, since the world began, a greater thirst for power, and desire for gold, than now? And so strong a hold have both these things on the hearts of men that they have no desire at all for the great feast which divine love has spread.

But there was yet a third excuse, even more emphatic than the other two, because it was a point-blank refusal. This man, having married a wife, boldly said, "Therefore I cannot come." "Natural affection" comes first, with the natural heart; and well does Satan know how to make that which is right enough in itself a plausible excuse for refusing God's great salvation. There is no greater snare than this, for young or old; and thousands go down to eternal perdition who have deliberately refused the love of God for some mere earthly affection.

But the Provider of the feast, though justly angry, is not to be hindered in the action of His grace; and the overflowings of that grace are further shown by the command to "go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind." Hence those who in themselves have no resources, who are wounded by sin, and have neither strength nor sight—the shipwrecked ones on the shores of time—these are they who make no "vain excuses," but are only too glad to sit down at the royal feast which divine love has spread; there not only to "taste and see" but also to prove that "the Lord is gracious.”

And the servant said, "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.”

Who shall fathom the exceeding riches of God's grace? That mighty heart of infinite compassion knows no bounds; and for the third time the decree goes forth. "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled," for that almighty heart of infinite love will only be satisfied when "He shall see of the travail of His soul" in the coming day of glory. Meanwhile, all those who refuse the invitation to the great supper of God's salvation do so to their own eternal sorrow, and will forever regret the vain excuses once made on earth which caused them to despise and refuse the pleadings of God's grace.

God's house, however, will not be half empty, as some have supposed, but full to overflowing; yet the only sure way of your being there is to accept unreservedly His glorious invitation.

What, may we ask, has God so richly provided for the poor sinner who will just take Jesus now? Let His Word and Spirit supply the answer: Mercy, pardon, peace, justification, eternal life; yes, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and countless blessings more, all will be yours as a free gift if you will only accept them now. Love and light and joy are there; but outside there is nothing but "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Will you then still refuse such royal bounty, and perish in your sin? God forbid!

"Pass in, pass in! That banquet is for thee,
That cup of everlasting love is free,
Room, room, still room!
Oh, enter, enter now.”

Self-Complacency

Two texts, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and "The blood of Jesus Christ His [God's] Son cleanseth us from all sin," hung upon a cottage wall. The eye of a poor woman who had entered the cottage, fell upon them. She remarked, "If a big sinner came in here these texts might do him good.”

This poor woman is but a type of a class of Bible readers whose self-complacency is an indication of their being dead in trespasses and sins. Although the Apostle Paul could say of himself, "Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless," he classed himself among those who were by nature dead in trespasses and sins, saying, "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust, of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Reader, you are either dead in trespasses and sins, or alive in Christ. Which is it?

The Value of a Name

"You may make what use you like of my name," is often said by those who have wealth and influence; and many are thankful to make use of such kindness. I remember being told of a woman who wanted to put her daughter in a certain school, and called one day to make inquiries. The interview was unfavorable; besides other objections, there was not a vacancy. As she was leaving she said, "Mrs. White told me to come to you." At once she was asked to sit down again, and in a little while satisfactory arrangements were made for her daughter to enter the school. What a change was brought about by just mentioning a certain name!

Does my reader know the value of the name of Jesus? How all prevailing and efficacious it is with God? Go to God in your own name, and it will be without success. Go to God in the name of Jesus, and He will save you and bless you. "Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In God the Father's ear;
When sinners at His throne are found
Pleading that name so dear.”

"God... hath given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Bow to the name of Jesus now, in the day of God's grace, or you must bow to it in the day of God's judgment.. God has declared that every knee shall, bow to the name of Jesus and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And if the poor, lost, guilty sinner may come to God in the name of Jesus and obtain salvation, what may not the children of God expect, who ask all in this precious name? Jesus says Himself, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Is not this saying, as it were, "You may make what use you like of My name"? Do we thankfully avail ourselves of this so great a privilege?

To God, the name of Jesus is precious beyond compare. To the believer it is also precious. "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious.”

Dear reader, is the name of Jesus precious to you? He waits to save you. Oh, yield to His love. Turn to Him now in all your sins, and He will save you. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Briefs

It is natural to the heart of man everywhere to think he must do something for salvation. The gospel of God tells us about a work that has been done. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures... He was buried... He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

It was God who willed the salvation of the sinner; Christ the Son of God came to accomplish it, and the sinner receives it by faith. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

For Seeking Souls

"Oh that I knew where I might find Him!”

Is that perhaps the burden of your troubled soul? You have wept as you thought of your sins, and prayed that you might be forgiven but still you have no assurance that your soul is saved—you cannot say, "I have found Him," that "My Beloved is mine, and I am His.”

Why is this? Is it because God does not love you? No, that cannot be, for "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Is it then because He will not save you? Never, for God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." And again, He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

These and other scriptures prove God's great love to poor sinners, and His willingness to save them. The fault then is all your own. You have been occupied with yourself and your doings, trying to improve that which God has condemned; for the sinner is corrupt, root and branch.

To prove this you need only to turn to Rom. 3:10-19, and there you will find, "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." This makes it impossible to obtain salvation by good works, for Scripture says it is "not of works, lest any man should boast." Why then seek to be saved by doing the best you can, since God declares it is "not of works"? "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." Rom. 9:31, 32. Therefore, as long as you seek to be justified by the works of the law you will never be saved. "For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Gal. 2:16.

"How then can I be saved?" you ask. Get your Bible and turn to 1 Tim. 1:15, and there you will read: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" not to help to save them, but to save them. You are a sinner, and Christ is the Savior.

Now look at 1 Peter 2:24: "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." In this verse we see Jesus on the cross suffering for sins, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” What a Savior!

"Oh, why was He there as the bearer of sin
If on Jesus thy guilt was not laid?
Oh, why from His side flowed the sin-cleansing blood,
If His dying thy debt has not paid?”

Yes, the debt is paid; sin has been atoned for and just before He died He said, "It is finished." What was finished? The work of redemption. All has been done. God is satisfied. Are you? "To Him give all the prophets. witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.”Then why delay? Accept Him as your Savior now, and then like Philip of old you will be able to say, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth.”

Honest Doubt

Often when pressing the claims of Christ upon men and urging them to believe the gospel, I have had them seek to parry that by declaring that they could not believe, as they were honest doubters. I suppose there is such a thing as an honest doubter, but I dislike the expression when that which men profess to doubt is the infallible Word of the living God. Tennyson has written,

"There is more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half your creeds.”

I am not so sure that Tennyson was correct; certainly not if it is a question of doubting the truth of the gospel. I would not like to go home and tell my wife something and have her say, "Well, my dear, I am trying to believe you, but honestly, I doubt you. I believe there is more faith in honest doubt than in being too sure you are not trying to put one over on me.”

An "honest doubter" said when I had explained the way of life as clearly as I knew how and shown her some plain, definite pas. sages from the Holy Scriptures, "Well, I am trying to believe.” "Trying to believe whom?" I inquired. "It is God who has spoken in His Word. What do you mean by saying you are trying to believe Him?”

She saw at once her sin and her mistake and exclaimed, "Oh, I didn't realize what I was saying! Yes, I can and do believe what God has declared." And her soul entered into peace. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." 1 John 5:9.

Do You Know?

Can you say, "I know whom I have believed"? "We know that we have passed from death unto life." "We know that we are of God." "We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." "We have received... the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.” The Bible says, "Ye may know that ye have eternal life." May your portion be, "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God,” for, "The Lord knoweth them that are His.”

"CHRIST JESUS CAME
INTO THE WORLD TO
SAVE SINNERS.”

1 Tim. 1:15

"BEHOLD, HE COMETH
WITH CLOUDS; AND
EVERY EYE SHALL SEE
HIM, AND THEY ALSO
WHICH PIERCED HIM.”

Rev. 1:7

July

Count the Cost

A millionaire said to me, "There is no greater humbug than that money can make a man solidly happy; mine never did until I turned to God and began to use it for Him.” The more your devotion to Christ costs you the richer returns it will bring to you.

Let me say to all my readers that if it costs much to be a zealous and fruitful Christian, it will cost infinitely more to live and die an impenitent sinner. Conversion to Christ costs self-denial; sin costs self-destruction.

To be a sober man costs self-restraint, and the scoffing of fools. To be a drinker costs a ruined purse, a ruined body, and a lost soul. The sensualist pays for his vices a tremendous toll. The swearer must pay for his oaths. There is a way that seemeth pleasant to a man; sit down, my friend, and calmly make an honest reckoning. It is worth your while; your weal or woe depends upon it.

Put into one scale some hardships, self-denials, and conflicts, and at the end of them: heaven. Put into the other scale self-indulgence and a sinful life, and at the end: hell.

Weigh the two—weigh them for eternity!—and while you are watching the scales the loving Savior will whisper in your ear the solemn question, What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul? "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Jesus Only

Thy works, not mine, O Christ,
Speak gladness to this heart;
They tell me all is done,
They bid my fear depart.
To whom, save Thee,
Who can alone
For sin atone,
Lord, shall I flee?

Thy pain, not mine, O Christ,
Upon the shameful tree,
Has paid the law's full price
And purchased peace for me!
To none, save Thee,
Who can alone
For sin atone,
Lord, shall I flee!

The Farmer and His Wife

The gospel had been faithfully preached by an evangelist in a large barn in the country. The people had gone home, and a farm hand was putting out the lights and closing up. The preacher had returned for something he had forgotten. On finding it, he said to the young man, "Well, James, have you decided on whose side you are to be for eternity?”

"I hope to go to heaven like other people,” answered the man, looking at his wife beside him, and added, "You see, we are young yet, sir, and have a long life before us, and plenty of time to think about these things.”

The evangelist spoke faithfully to the man about the uncertainty of time, and the danger of putting off his personal salvation, but to no avail. Finally he said, "Will you do me a favor tonight, James

"Anything you want, sir.”

"Take a sheet of paper, and before you go to bed, write on it these words:

`If I die tonight I shall be in hell,' and fasten it over your bed.”

James answered that he would, thinking little of the matter.

That night, before they went to bed, his wife reminded him of his promise.

"Bring me a pen and ink, and I will do it now," said James. When these had been brought he sat down by the table and wrote,

"If I die tonight.”

Then he stopped, looked at it, and laid down the pen. It looked awfully solemn, more so than he had ever thought anything could be. He might die that very night; yes, before the morning's sun shone again on the hill tops, he might be in eternity. Where he took up the pen to finish the sentence,

"I shall be in hell.”

A tear fell on the last word and blurred it.

It was from the eye of his wife, who was looking over his shoulder at the dreadful words. Sleep fled from their eyes, and at last they were brought to think of their eternal destiny. James took down the Bible, to see if any comfort or any relief could be found there. As the gray light of morning dawned, they were still eagerly searching God's Word. At last they came upon the blessed words in Isa. 43:25, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions... and will not remember thy sins.”

"This is what we want," said James. "This is what we are looking for!”

And that morning, as lost and hell-deserving sinners, they cast themselves on Jesus, the Savior, whose blood cleanseth from all sin, and they were saved! Taking up the pen, the new-born child of God crossed out the word "hell," and wrote above it, "heaven,” and then triumphantly pinned it above his bed.

Have you found out, dear reader, to which of the two eternal destinies time is bearing you? When all is over here, where will your immortal soul be? In heaven or in hell? Now is the day of salvation.

The Religion of the Natural Man

All the religion of the natural man turns the Bible upside down: it begins with works, and then leads men to hope for mercy. Whereas the Bible begins with the pardon of sin, and then enjoins obedience.

A Palestine Harvest Scene

The shepherds of Cana were astir almost before the stars had faded from the brilliant Palestine sky. I was awakened from a refreshing sleep on the rooftop by the pleasant tinkling of innumerable sheep bells, as the flocks moved out in all directions seeking pasture for the day.

Harvesting is about to begin in the fields of Cana and our patriarchal host, in flowing robes such as Abraham might have worn, is busy supervising his kinsmen in their preparations for this great event. Abu Sleiman (father of Solomon) is his name, for in the East men are usually called after the name of the eldest son.

Arriving at the field, one may well imagine himself back in the field of Boaz. (Ruth 2:1-19.) Every detail, as far as one can judge, is but a repetition of Bible scenes. Young men, with narrow sickles, are reaping down the corn, cutting it by handfuls as they sing together. Women are binding up the sheaves with skillful fingers, while boys pass and re-pass with asses laden with corn being carried to the village threshing floor, a rocky piece of ground some five or six acres in extent. In this place all crops must be stacked, by order of the government; for, if it were not assessed and taxed by the government officers before being threshed, there would be little chance of collecting any revenue from some of the more wily inhabitants. One can well understand, also, why Boaz slept at night near his grain on the common threshing floor. A very necessary custom one would say, both then and now.

There was in the day's harvesting an incident which I will pass on. A poor widow has followed up the workers all day, methodically gleaning straw by straw. But alas! there seems to be no kind Boaz in the field this day. None the less, by the time the western sun dips down in the distance behind the Carmel range, filling all Galilee with delicate shades of color, the widow is wending her way homeward with three or four fat sheaves to her credit.

Through faulty reasoning, this modern Ruth has decided to give the threshing floor a wide berth. "What are three or four sheaves worth to a great government?” But that very afternoon the new governor of Galilee, a young Australian, had ridden over from Nazareth, four miles away, to visit, the village. Bowed beneath the sheaves, her eyes bent downward, she is trudging down the last passage to her stone hovel, when she runs right up against the governor.

"What is this?" he demands.

All abashed, the woman pleads her poverty and widowhood; but the governor, an abrupt and outspoken officer of the law, is adamant. He bids her appear without fail before him at the court in Nazareth the following morning.

That night, when some sixty people were gathered in the starlight on the roof of Abu Sleiman's house to hear the gospel message, we knew there was much comment in the village about the severity of the young Australian governor.

Next morning, with her sheaves bound upon a borrowed ass,. the widow trudges over the hill to Nazareth. The governor is still resolute, and she pleads her cause in vain.

"If I acquit you, others will do the same thing. No! The law must be obeyed. You have no right to take wheat home from the harvest field. I fine you twelve piasters."

Then, with a quick, almost unobserved movement as he calls out, "Next case!" he slips twelve piasters from his own pocket and gives it to the clerk, bidding him make out a receipt in favor of the poor lawbreaker.

No wonder there was much more discussion that night both among the Christians and the Moslems in the village of Cana. "These English are very queer people. Who before ever heard of a governor who wanted to fine himself?”

Once more the stars are shining brightly on sleeping Galilee. The flocks of sheep are all safely hushed in the village folds. The women have drawn their jars of water from the spring. Beside the half-built stacks which rise gauntly from the silent threshing floor, men are sleeping in the open as others have done for thousands of years; and I muse again upon the widow and her fine.

Is it not after all but a true, if perhaps feeble, type of the wondrous gospel narrative? We, the poor ones of earth, bowed down with the gleanings from this world's cursed field, our eyes bent earthward as we traverse the crooked byways of sin: we too have each of us run full into the arms of justice. The eternal decree of God has been broken by the waywardness of sin. The penalty must be paid; but who shall pay it? Praise God, the stupendous prophecy of Isaiah has been carried out in every detail; the punishment has been paid in full—at Calvary. There Christ "was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.”

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts 13:38, 39.

True Love

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Jer. 31:3.

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." 1 John 4:9.

Ye Must Be Born Again

Proposition:

Whosoever is born but once,
Must die twice.
But whosoever is born twice will die
but once; and many of those
thus born will never die.
"Believest thou this?”

In other words, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” But all who receive the new birth become the children of God, and are delivered forever from the judgment. They surely will die, if the Lord come not in their day; nevertheless, their dying will be but as a falling asleep in Jesus, to be soon awakened again by the coming of the Lord Himself for His own.

All those who through faith in Him have become His will have part in the first resurrection. "On such the second death hath no power." All can obtain this glorious exemption from that fearful "second death" —or lake of fire—by accepting the blessed ransom God has provided for them in Christ

Jesus. But they who refuse His proffered mercy must take the sad consequences, and will have none but themselves to blame.

God, in this day of grace, "commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and believe the gospel. All who do repent and believe the truth of the gospel are righteously acting in obedience to His commands. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the Author of eternal salvation to all such, and to no others.

And Christ "entered in once, into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”

How is it with you, dear reader? Have you received Him? Have you believed?

If you have not—I beseech you to see to it quickly.

Time is flying fast.

"Flee as a bird to the mountain,
Ye who are weary of sin;
Come to the clear flowing fountain
Where ye may wash and be clean.

Fly, for the Avenger is near thee;
Come, for the Savior will hear thee;
He on His bosom will bear thee,
Oh, thou who art weary of sin.”

Lost for Want of Water

For lack of one drop of water, Coulthard, the great Australian explorer, lost his life. On the hot, sandy desert he was found lying near a tree on which these words were scratched: "The last thing I remember is pulling my saddle off my horse and letting him go. My tongue is sticking to my mouth. I know it is the last time I shall express my feelings. Lost for want of water! My eye dazzles! My tongue burns! I can say no more! God help me!" Poor man, what a dreadful end to an adventurous career! But we have told you the incident, dear reader, by way of illustration.

The precious streams of God's grace and mercy are flowing full today. His love alone can satisfy the thirst of the human soul. Men try all sorts of pleasures to quench this thirst, but satisfaction cannot be found in any earthly streams. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." We have tried the broken cisterns of this world, dear reader, and found the waters fleeting and vanishing ere we had stooped to drink.

But listen to what God's precious Word says: "He every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye... buy wine and milk without money and without price." And again: "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Will you not come and have your soul-thirst satisfied for time and for all eternity?

"Oh, come, poor thirsting sinner,
Come, turn aside and see
The wells of free salvation
O'erflowing now for thee.
Our God is now dispensing
His grace and mercy free;
The Lord Himself is calling -
Calling thee.”

Present Forgiveness of Sin

What joy and blessedness overflows the heart of a poor sinner when, by faith, he gives ear to the sweet sound of grace—to the voice of Jesus, which says to him, "Thy sins are forgiven... go in peace.”

We know that sins are often represented as debts: our creditor is the God of Justice, who has a right to demand of us even to the last farthing. By nature we are all insolvent debtors. Far from being able, even in the smallest degree, to diminish aught of this mighty debt, man can only increase it each day and each moment of the day.

What would have become of us if God had not had compassion on us? "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love where-with He loved us," gave His Son, who has paid all our debt of sin by offering up Him-self a ransom for us. It is in Him that "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." We have to do with a compassionate Master, who has freely forgiven us all our debt. (See Matt. 18:27.)

The death of Jesus has been, so to speak, the payment of this debt. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him." He voluntarily took it upon Himself. For us He tasted the bitterness of death and submitted Himself to the prison-house of the tomb.

"Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”

When a debtor comes out of prison, it is a proof that he has satisfied his creditor. Thus Jesus, who took for us the debtor's place, has fully satisfied the justice of God, who has raised Him up and glorified Him.

"To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43.

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts 13:38, 39.

You May Come

"Let none stand back, as if their sins were too great to be forgiven, or their case too bad to be cured. Jesus is an Advocate who has never lost a case, a Physician who never lost a patient.”

Today

Salvation today. Mercy and pardon for the penitent soul today. The devil suggests putting it off, but Christ says today. "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”

"TODAY IF YE WILL HEAR
HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT
YOUR HEARTS.”

Heb. 4:7.

"NOW IS THE ACCEPTED
TIME;... NOW IS THE DAY
OF SALVATION.”

October

The Greek Statue

Long ago there stood by the wayside, in one of the old Greek towns, a statue of strange design. The writing on it has been preserved, and was in the form of a dialogue, as follows:

"What is thy name, O statue?”

"I am called Opportunity.”

"Why art thou standing on thy toes?”

"To show that I stay but for a moment.”

"Why hast thou wings on thy feet?”

"To show how quickly I pass by.”

"But why is thy hair so long on thy forehead?”

"That men may seize me when they meet me.”

"Why is thy head so bald behind?”

"To show that when I have once passed I cannot be caught.”

Unsaved reader, apply that to your own case. Now is your golden opportunity. Time speeds on: the present is only yours, the past is gone forever, you will never see tomorrow, for tomorrow never comes. Then heed wisdom's voice, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

"There are no pardons in the tomb,
And brief is mercy's day.”

A Drink

Have you drunk the deep drafts of earth's pleasures?
Have you tasted her joy and mirth?
Have you gathered together her treasures,
What the world deems of value and worth?
Have you quaffed with thirst at her fountains —
It may be, the purest and best —
After climbing o'er weary mountains
And seeking in vain for rest?
Have you stooped to drink at earth's rivers?
Oh, you know how true it is then,
"He that drinketh of these waters
Shall thirst again.”
Have you tasted the living waters?
Have you drunk at the living spring?
Have you come to the loving Savior
And asked for a drink from Him?
Have you come to Him, earth-weary,
Forlorn, discouraged, sad?
Have you drunk at the living fountain,
And has He not made you glad?
Ah, well may you sing of His goodness,
And praise from your glad lips burst:
"Whoso drinketh of this water
Shall never thirst.”

J. G. B.

Make It so Plain That I Can Get Hold of It”

On the sixteenth day after the battle of Gettysburg I entered the room where a young wounded colonel— my only son—seemed near death. As I came in he was roused from his stupor, and he beckoned me to his bedside and threw his arms around my neck.

"Oh, Father! How glad I am to see you! I was afraid you would not come till it was too late. I am too weak to say much, so you must do the talking. Tell me about Mother and Sister.”

I soon saw there was little hope of his recovering. But, as I could not endure the agony of suspense, I went to the doctor: "How long do you think he can live '?”

"Not more than four days. He may drop away at any hour.”

"Has anyone told him this?”

"No, we left that for you, since we have been expecting you for several days.”

As I returned to his room, with the message of death on my heart, the eyes of my son fastened on me.

"Come sit by me, Father. Have you been talking with the doctor?”

"Yes.”

"Does he think I'll get better?”

There was a long, painful silence. Then he said, "Don't be afraid to tell me what he said.”

"He told me that you must die.”

"How long does he think I can live?”

"Not more than four days, and that you may die at any hour.”

"Then I must die. No! I cannot! I must not die! I am not prepared. Oh, tell me how I can get ready. Tell me! I know you can Father; I used to hear you explain it to others.”

It was no time for tears, but calmness and light, to bring a soul to Christ.

"My son, I see you are afraid to die.”

"Yes, I am.”

"Well, I suppose you feel guilty?”

"Yes, that is it. I have been wicked. You know how it is in the army.”

"You want to be forgiven, don't you?”

"Oh, yes! Can I be, Father?”

"Certainly.”

"Can I know it before I die?”

"Certainly.”

"Well, now, Father; make it—so plain I can get hold of it so plain that I can understand it.”

At once an incident of his school days came to my mind. I had not thought of it for years, but it now came fresh to me, and was just what was needed to direct my son to Jesus.

"Do you remember While you were a schoolboy you came home one day, and I had reason to rebuke you. You got angry, and abused me with harsh words.”

"Yes, Father. I was thinking it all over as I thought of your coming. I felt so bad about it that I wanted to see you and once more ask you to forgive me.”

"Do you remember—after your temper cooled down—that you came in, and threw your arms around me? You said, 'Oh, Father, I am so sorry that I talked to you like that! I was very angry. Won't you forgive me?"'

"Yes, I remember it.”

"Do you remember what I said as you wept in my arms?”

"You said, 'I forgive you with all my heart,' and kissed me. I have never forgotten it.”

"Did you believe me?”

"Certainly. I have never doubted your word.”

"Did you feel happy again?”

"Yes and since that time, I have loved you better than ever. How it relieved me when you looked at me and said, 'I forgive you with all my heart'!”

"Well, that is just the way to come to Jesus. Tell Him you are sorry, just as you told me. Quicker than a father's love forgave, He will forgive you. He says He will. And you must take Him at His word, as you did me.”

"Oh, Father, is this the way to become a Christian?”

"I don't know of any other way.”

"Why, I can get hold of this. I'm so glad you came and told me.”

He turned his head upon his pillow. I sank back in my chair and wept—my heart could no longer suppress its emotions. I had done what I could, and so committed the case to Jesus. And He too had done His part. The broken heart had believed in Him, heard His voice, and been healed.

I soon felt a shaking 'hand on my head, and heard, "Father," in such a tone of joy that I knew a change had come.

"Father, I don't want you to weep any more," he said. "I am happy. Jesus has forgiven me. I know it. I take His word for it, as I did yours.”

The doctor came in, found him cheerful and happy, felt his pulse, and said, "Why, Colonel, you look better!”

"I am, doctor! I'm going to get well. Father has told me how to be a Christian. God has heard me. Doctor, I want you to be a Christian too. My father can tell you how.”

And he did live for many more years—a happy Christian.

I was made a humbler man—a better evangelist—by that scene. Then and there I resolved never to forget the charge my boy gave me inn the day of his extremity: "Make it so plain that I can get hold of it.”

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3.

Able to Keep

I find very few who question Christ's power to save, but I do find very many who seem to think that when saved they must keep themselves as best they can. Realizing that this is impossible, they simply go on without Christ. But—praise God!—the Lord Jesus saves and keeps.

"He is able also to save them to the uttermost [all the way home to heaven] that come unto God by Him." Heb. 7:25.

He died to save us, He lives to keep us, He proves Himself to be our best and truest Friend.

Thine, Not Mine

Not what these hands have done
Can save this guilty soul;
Not what this toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease the weight of sin:
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.

Thy love to me, O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest,
And set my spirit free.

Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy power alone, O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.

I bless the Christ of God,
I rest on love divine,
And with unfaltering lip and heart,
I call the Savior mine.

Not a Christian

"Yes, I know I am not a Christian; I don't profess to be one," was the light and careless answer given by a young woman not long ago. She seemed to think, poor girl, that really some small credit was due her for not pretending to be what she was not; as if, when brought face to face with her Maker and her Judge, she could by her bold answer, "I have never professed to be a Christian,” escape the reward of her indifference.

Dear reader, I hope these words so lightly spoken, "I know I am not a Christian," will strike you as solemnly as they do me. What an awful thing this would be to know! How strange that anyone can go on eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, taking pleasure in all the trifling things of this poor world, and not at all worried about what is to follow after this earthly life is over. Then, perhaps suddenly, death comes, and the giddy, thoughtless one is snatched away to hear the Lord utter His terrible words, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not." Matt. 25:12.

I want you now to think for a few moments. You know of some—perhaps some whom you love dearly who are waiting for the Lord Jesus to come from heaven and take them to Himself. They are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they can each say, "I know that I am a Christian.”

I should like for you to write down the truth about yourself. Would you have to put down, I know I am, or, I know I am not a Christian? That little word "not" that word makes all the difference.

Should the Lord Jesus come today, do you think that by saying, "I know I am not a Christian, but then I have never pretended to be one," you would be allowed to go up into the glory with His people? No, indeed! and you know it too.

Dear reader, if still unsaved, now is the time to accept of God's wonderful salvation in Christ. Now is the time God gives you to be saved!

"I need no other argument,
I want no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.”

What Faith Is

"What is this 'faith' that preachers talk so much about? I can't get at. it." And yet those who express themselves in this way exercise faith every day of their lives. Why, friends, to use an illustration: the world would be at a standstill if men had no faith in their fellows. The merchant would not transact business if he had no faith in his customers; the workman would not strike a blow did he not believe that his wages would be given him.

Take away faith, and what a change would ensue in all departments of life! No longer would the great ships convey their immense cargoes of valuable merchandise from shore to shore, and the busy hum and clatter of our great factories would give place to a death-like stillness. But the merchant can trust his customers: he sends goods worth many thousands of dollars to the order of a person whom -he has never seen, if his credit is reported to be good. He believes, and he acts.

So with the busy masses of our population: they believe, and they toil on from early morning till evening closes around them. Payday and its hard-earned wages give nerve to the arm and purpose to the mind.

Faith is, therefore, that principle of confidence that we see manifested among men in all the affairs of life. The word, the promise, the agreement of man is believed as a matter of course. Men can trust their property and reputation with their fellows, and yet many have no faith in the Word of God—"who cannot lie"—whose statements, whether threats or promises, are made in the most definite manner. Why should men talk as if God spoke to us in such a mysterious way that we could only hope to make a good guess as to what He means?

Reader, faith is the same in principle whether as to trusting man's word or God's Word, and His message to all men is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:31.

Jesus says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24.

Not One Left

One morning, when starting on a long trip by train, I asked at the bookstall for a copy of the periodical, "The Christian." The attendant replied to me in the words at the heading of this paper, "Not one left.”

As I walked away I pondered those words and thought, Yes, there is a day coming when there will not be a Christian left in this world, when every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will have been caught away, and "not one left." What a solemn thought!

There is a portion of God's Word in which this great fact is plainly declared (1 Thess. 4:14-18), and the end of this Christian dispensation is stated with no uncertainty. The Lord Jesus Christ, whom the heaven has received, will some day (we know not how soon) leave that heaven and descend into the air. There He will meet all His resurrected saints from Adam down to the last who has fallen asleep in Christ, as well as all those saints who are living on the earth at the time, and both companies will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So shall they ever be with the Lord.

Not one true believer will be left behind from every quarter of the globe, from every position of life, the babe of yesterday who has just touched the hem of His garment, the aged saint who has lived in the joy of this hope for many a long day, not one will be forgotten "not one left.”

But what will be the fate of those who have rejected the offer of mercy? What about those who have turned a deaf ear to the many entreaties they have heard to turn from their sins and to trust in the Lord Jesus as their Savior? Those who have listened to addresses and sermons until they were gospel-hardened?

Their awful fate is left in no uncertainty, for we read (in 2 Thess. 2:8-12) that they will be left here to be deceived by that Wicked One, the Antichrist. He will then manifest his Satanic power, with the result that all those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, will be cast out of God's presence. In the solemn words of Scripture, "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth.”

Reader, where will you be? To which company will you belong? Will you be one of those who will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, or among those who will be left to incur the terrible judgment of God's wrath forever and ever?

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36.

Which is your portion?

Extract

I cannot trust my heart or my intellect I can only trust God and His Word. He who knows the path of wisdom from start to finish can alone supply me with the needed instruction to keep in it. We do not have difficulties when we are walking in entire dependence and obedience the difficulties come when we become occupied with that which is evil.

Thank God that I do not have to figure things out I have only to obey the Lord, and leave the results with Him. There alone is peace and happiness. "Whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." Prov. 1:33.

"IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE
LIVE AGAIN?”

Job 14:14

"JESUS SAID... I AM THE
RESURRECTION, AND THE
LIFE: HE THAT BELIEVETH
IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE
DEAD, YET SHALL HE
LIVE.”

John 11:25

December

After Many Days

John Flavel was a minister in Dartmouth, England. One day he preached from these words: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha." 1 Cor. 16:22.

The discourse was unusually solemn, particularly the explanation of the curse. At the conclusion, when Mr. Flavel rose for a final prayer, he paused and said: "How can I ask God to bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loves not the Lord Jesus is Anathema Maranatha?" The solemnity of this address deeply affected the audience.

In the congregation that day was an unsaved lad named Luke Street, about fifteen years old, a native of Dartmouth. Shortly afterward, he went to sea, and sailed to America where he remained the rest of his life.

Luke's life was lengthened far beyond the usual term. When he was a hundred years old he was still able to work his farm, and his mind was not at all impaired. He had lived all this time in carelessness and sin: he was a sinner a hundred years old and likely to die accursed. One day as he sat in his field, he busied himself in reflecting on his past life. He thought of the days of his childhood. His memory fixed on Flavel's sermon, a considerable part of which he remembered. The earnestness of the preacher—the truths spoken—the effect on the people all came fresh to his mind.

He knew that he had not loved the Lord Jesus; he feared the dreadful anathema; he was deeply convinced of sin. At last, through deep exercise, he was brought to trust the blood of Jesus. He lived the rest of his hundred and sixteen years as a "born again soul,"— a real child of God.

"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days." Eccl. 11:1.

"My word... shall not return unto Me void." Isa. 55:11.

Life and Liberty

In the cross of Christ is life; in the way of His precepts, liberty.

The Ark

They dreamed not of danger,
Those sinners of old
Whom Noah was chosen to warn;
By frequent transgressions
Their hearts had grown cold;
They laughed his entreaties to scorn.

Yet daily he called them:
"Oh come, sinners, come!
Believe, and prepare to embark,
Receive ye the message,
And know there is room
For all who will come to the ark.”

He could not arouse them.
Unheeding they stood
Unmoved by his warning and prayer:
The prophet passed in
From the oncoming flood
And left them to hopeless despair.

The flood-gates were opened,
The deluge came on,
The heavens as midnight grew dark.
Too late! Then they turned—
Every foothold was gone!
They perished in sight of the ark.

Oh sinner, the heralds
Of mercy implore;
They cry like the patriarch, "Come!”
The Ark of Salvation
Is moored to your shore:
Oh, enter while yet there is room!

The storm-cloud of justice
Rolls dark o'er your head,
And when by its fury you're tossed,
Alas! Of your perishing
Souls 'twill be said:
"They heard—they refused—and were lost!”

A Contrast

Under the Law, they labored first and rested after (Ex. 20:8, 11); but under the gospel we rest first, by faith in Jesus, and then work.

Fragment: The Work of Self-Destruction

The natural man has no apprehension of the gospel. "What must I do?" is ever his cry. Man has done his work perfectly—that of self-destruction. He is wholly bent upon evil, altogether ruined. Hence he is a fitting object for the gospel of God.

A Miner's Sermon

It took but three minutes to deliver the sermon I want to tell you about. It was preached in no church or chapel, and it had no "firstly, secondly, thirdly," in it.

Had it a text?

Yes, it had. It was a three-minute sermon on a three-worded text, and it was given to a congregation numbering only ten. But the result of that one little sermon will be known only in eternity.

A small group of coal miners were standing by the office of a large coal mine. It was pay day, and they were waiting to receive their wages. A fine, well-built man of six feet two inches joined them, his pick on his shoulder, and his lamp in his hand.

"Why, Fred," exclaimed one of the group, "we were just talking about you. They say you've turned saint since last week.”

"Or is it angel?" said another. "If it is, you will soon have white wings, and must never go down to blacken them in a coal mine.”

"No, no, don't razz him," said a third miner. "I tell you it's a preacher he'll be turning, and he'll be preaching to us all.”

"Good, let him start at once!" exclaimed the oldest man among them. "Come, Fred, here's your congregation before you can you make out with this block of coal for a pulpit, and preach us a sermon?”

"Yes, yes," echoed a little chorus of voices. "There's five minutes before they begin to pay the wages.”

"Now then, Fred: mount the pulpit, and preach us a three minutes' sermon," said one. "I'll be clerk.”

All this time, the miner addressed as "Fred" had not spoken, but just stood listening with a good-natured smile to the lively banter of his mates. Very quietly he stepped on the block of coal, amid exclamations of, "Ah! ah! What a good joke that is! Fred Sharpe, of all people, turning preacher.”

The bright light from a large iron basket of burning coals lit up the face of the tall miner, showing the peaceful, happy look in his dark eyes. For a moment he bowed his head, and a silent cry went up for help; then he said quietly, "Well, fellows, I —”

"No, no! That won't do for a sermon,” they cried. "You must begin with a text, your reverence.”

There was a moment's pause; again a swift upward glance, and the miner said in a low, earnest tone, "My text will be Christ's words to Saul of Tarsus: 'I am Jesus,' for during the last ten days those words have been always in my mind. You said, boys, that you wanted to know about the change in me, and I've been wanting to tell you what God has done for me. You may well say Fred Sharpe is the last man you would expect to see on the Lord's side. Two weeks ago I was cursing and swearing, and saying I didn't believe there was a God. Now, today, by His grace, I can say I know there is a God, and I know that He's my Father; I know there is a Savior, and that He has saved me; I know there is a Holy Spirit, and that He is willing to teach and enlighten me.”

By this time the little group of miners had gradually drawn nearer to the speaker, listening in amazement to their fellow-work-man as he continued: "Boys, do you say, `How did all this happen?' Well, I can scarcely tell you; but do you remember how Saul was changed into the Apostle Paul? Do you remember how he suddenly heard a voice speaking from heaven? Well, fellows, it was like that with me. I was journeying fast on the wrong road; I'd had warnings and kind words from my friends, but I wouldn't listen to them. Then God spoke to me!

"You have heard, maybe, that on last Wednesday I missed the last train from town. For a wonder I was quite sober; it was a pitch-black night, and I had to walk that nine miles back. You know how bad the road is, and a bad time I had of it to find my way. In the bitter cold and snow I thought I'd never get through.

"Suddenly there flashed into my mind a few words my old mother—bless her!—once said to me, something about two roads, and the one that led to God being lighted by His presence. Then all at once came the thought, 'Fred, you are certainly not on that; your life won't bear God's light on it,' and then, boys, I shall never forget how I seemed to see before me all my sins. As I stumbled along in the dark, my whole past life seemed spread out before me, and I couldn't bear the sight. For hours I stumbled on. Once or twice I cried out yes, and the words came from my very soul—`Lord, it's true, all true, but Oh, Lord, save me!'

"I don't know how time passed, but suddenly I seemed to be a little boy again, standing at my mother's knee; and to hear her teaching me to say, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' And I, who had cursed His name and persecuted His people, heard Him saying unto me: 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.' And with those words light came into my soul. Ah, and I was rescued, too, as you know, and brought home.”

Not one of Fred's congregation moved or spoke; the falling of the burning coals in the fire basket was the only sound heard as he continued earnestly: "And now, boys, you know I'm no preacher. I would I were, if I could reach your hearts, and just compel you to come to this wonderful Savior. He's standing by your side, and He says, 'I am Jesus,' and Jesus means Savior. Oh, boys, you know what I've been, and yet He has saved me, as He did the persecutor Saul; and I tell you, He longs to do the same for you. Oh, won't you let Him?”

The sermon was done. There was a hush as the miner stopped speaking; he buried his face in his hands and prayed earnestly, then quietly slipped down from his block pulpit. As he did so, one of the men went up to him, saying: "You said, 'Won't you let the Lord Jesus save you, as He has done me?' and I want to say before them all, 'I will.' That is, if He will have the likes of me.”

"He said, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,' " answered Fred, warmly grasping his friend's hand. "You've got His word to depend on.”

Before six months had passed Fred knew that, through God's blessing on his words that afternoon, three of his companions were happily serving and following Christ.

"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8.

Extract: Making God a Liar

To disbelieve God's message is in reality to make God a liar; while on the other hand those who believe His Word in all simplicity of mind, who renounce all thoughts of saving themselves, and give the glory of their salvation to Jesus, "shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I Was a Wandering Sheep”

by Horatius Bonar, 1808-1889

Horatius Bonar, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, was the writer of a great many hymns that are widely used. In his hymn, "I Was a Wandering Sheep," he has told the story of salvation in simple terms that a child can understand.

During some special meetings held in a girls' school in Massachusetts, many of the girls showed utter indifference to the claims of Christ. Among those who scoffed at the meetings and their results was Helen Brown. Her Christian friends in the school sought to interest her in attending the prayer meetings, but she refused. She thus became their special object for prayer.

One evening the little band were amazed to see Helen enter the prayer room with eyes downcast and face very pale. After a few hymns and prayers, each girl quoted some favorite hymn verses. When Helen's turn came there was a silence. Then she began:

"I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold.”

Her voice was low but distinct; and every word, as she uttered it, thrilled the hearts of the listeners. She repeated one stanza after another of that beautiful hymn of Bonar's, and not an eye, save her own, was dry as with sweet emphasis she pronounced the last lines:

"No more a wayward child,
I seek no more to roam.”

That single hymn told all. The wandering sheep, the wayward child, had returned.

"I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold,
I did not love my Shepherd's voice,
I would not be controlled:
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home,
I did not love my Father's voice,
I loved afar to roam.

The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child;
They followed me o'er vale and hill,
O'er deserts waste and wild:
They found me nigh to death,
Famished, and faint and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wandering one.

Jesus my Shepherd is,
'Twas He that loved my soul;
'Twas He that washed me in His blood,
'Twas He that made me whole:
'Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wand'ring sheep;
'Twas He that brought me to the fold,
'Tis He that still doth keep.

I was a wand'ring sheep,
I would not be controlled;
But now I love my Savior's voice,
I love, I love the fold.
No more a wayward child,
I seek no more to roam,
I love, I love my Father's voice,
I love, I love, His home.”

Only a Step

"Truly, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death." 1 Sam. 20:3. So said David to Jonathan when he fled from King Saul. The king sought his life, and David realized his danger.

Reader, may it not be said of you, that there is but a step between you and death?

Have you ever yet, like David, realized that such is really the case—that the brittle thread of your life may snap at any moment? And what then? Perhaps, like thousands more, you think there is no danger. Well, Nabal the Carmelite did not think there was but a step between him and death when he sent the contemptuous message to David, "Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?" But a few days later God smote Nabal and he died.

Neither did the rich man, whose ground brought forth abundantly, think there was any danger when he proposed to himself in the midst of his prosperity to eat, drink, and be merry. Yet God said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

But, even should your life not be cut short, it is at the longest but "a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Oh, if you have never realized your danger, be persuaded to consider it now.

But if, on the one hand, there is only a step between you and death, there is—thank God—a Savior at hand. He is willing to receive you, for He has said, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

John 6:37.

"Only a step to Jesus;
Then why not take it now?
Come, and thy sin confessing,
To Him, thy Savior, bow.

Only a step to Jesus!
A step from sin to grace—
What has thy heart decided?
The moments fly apace.

Only a step to Jesus!
Oh, why not come and say,
`Gladly to Thee, my Savior,
I give myself away'?”

Awake then! Awake before it is too late! Hear the Word of the Lord: "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" Ezek. 33:11.

The Savior's Appeal

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20.

I am standing outside thy door tonight,
Seeking thy heart to win;
The world, for a while, has withdrawn its light,
Wilt thou open and let Me in?
I have traveled far on a lonely road,
In sorrow and agony;
I have borne sin's heavy, crushing load,
All for the sake of thee!

I am standing to plead with thee tonight,
While the dews of evening fall;
O'er the moaning and surging waves of life
Dost thou hear My yearning call?
I would free thy soul from the chains of earth,
From its care, its sorrow, its sin,
I would give thee joy, for its hollow mirth
Wilt thou open, and let Me in?

From the glorious heights of heaven I came,
To seek thee, and to save;
But the world, it gave Me a cross of shame
And a lonely, borrowed grave.
I left My radiant home above,
All for the sake of thee;
I have died to prove My deep, deep love,
Wilt thou open the door to me?

Thou hast wandered far in the paths of sin,
Thou art weary and sad and lone;
But My blood can cleanse, and My love can win,
May I make thine heart My own?
The world it has given thee care and pain—
Oft famine and misery;
I offer thee treasures of priceless gain,
Wilt thou open the door to Me?

"I AM THE DOOR: BY ME IF ANY MAN ENTER IN, HE SHALL BE SAVED, AND SHALL GO IN AND OUT, AND FIND PASTURE.”

John 10:9

"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

Echoes of Grace: 1950

Table of Contents

January

The New Year

The Word of God

Rest

"I'll Keep Ye Out Nae Mair"

It Is the Gospel of God

This Year Thou Shalt Die”

Fragment: God's Grace

February

The Reality of It

Still Room

Her Eighteenth Birthday

Eternity

Mother, I Dare Not Pray”

An Impossibility

Fragment: Old or Young

As Many As Touched

Abundantly Pardon”

Hoping

A True Friend

March

Presumption”

Extract: Every Excuse for Sin

From Darkness to Light

I Am Waiting for It to Come

Are You Afraid to Trust Christ?

It Won't Sink?

April

A Text That Is Not in the Bible

I Know Whom I Have Believed”

The Silent Cylinder

Water of Life

Too Many Hypocrites

In Thy Youth

Where Is Happiness to Be Found?

The Blessed Result

Fragment

May

Reconciled

Fragment: Salvation by Works

The Gospel of God

The Open Door

The Man Who Liked History

Divine Love

He’s No Deid”

Necessary - and Enough

Fragment: An Astonished Universe

Thoroughly Sincere

Now!

Unbelief: The Height of Presumption

June

Are You Right With God?

Christ My All

A Great Supper

Self-Complacency

The Value of a Name

Briefs

For Seeking Souls

Honest Doubt

Do You Know?

July

Count the Cost

Jesus Only

The Farmer and His Wife

The Religion of the Natural Man

A Palestine Harvest Scene

True Love

Ye Must Be Born Again

Lost for Want of Water

Present Forgiveness of Sin

You May Come

Today

October

The Greek Statue

A Drink

Make It so Plain That I Can Get Hold of It”

Able to Keep

Thine, Not Mine