Echoes of Grace: 1996

Of all the volcanic eruptions in the twentieth century, possibly the most devastating was the eruption of Mount Pelée in Martinique, when the principal city, St. Pierre, was utterly destroyed with its thirty thousand inhabitants.

When Mount Pelée began erupting in May, 1902, the local paper endeavored to assure the terrified inhabitants that it would probably be but a small affair and that St. Pierre would be a safer place than ever after the volcano had relieved itself a little. The editorial concluded with this reasoning: “Where, then, can we be more secure than in St. Pierre?” Yet within two days the writer and readers were in eternity, and the whole town lay in a heap of smoking ruins.

An Italian ship, Orsolina, lay at anchor loading sugar for the port of Havre. Captain Marina was greatly alarmed by the appearance of the mountain. To his experienced eye there were evident signs of a coming calamity. He went to the shippers and told them his fears, saying he had made up his mind to weigh anchor at once and proceed with what cargo was already on board.

The annoyed shipper said, “You haven’t half the cargo, and cannot go yet!”

The captain replied, “I would rather sail with half a cargo than run the risk of staying here!”

The shippers tried to calm his fears, saying nothing need be feared from Mount Pelée.

“Well,” said the captain, “if Vesuvius were looking as your volcano looks today, I would get away from Naples, and I am going to get out of here!”

They became very angry and said they would have him arrested when he reached Havre. Two officers were sent to the ship with instructions to detain her, but the captain gave orders to weigh anchor. The officers left the ship for the shore, threatening the law’s utmost penalty.

Within twenty-four hours the city was no more. Its thirty thousand inhabitants had been swept into eternity. There was a warning, but the warning went unheeded.

They had thought themselves secure, though the mountain had acted strangely for some time. But now, in the midst of pleasure, business and sin, they were suddenly cut off—the victims of false security.

As to the world, the Word of God says: “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them . . . and they shall not escape.” Ominous signs are seen today that the Judge is at the door, and signs of “the last days” appear everywhere.

The world has grown more expert in sin; man becomes continually more daring in impiety. The day is not far distant when all warning will cease, and swift destruction shall overtake the ungodly in their sins. Where will you be in that awful judgment day? It is still the day of grace. The long-suffering and gracious God still bears with humanity, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Come now, before this day of God’s mercy closes forever. Yield yourself to the Saviour now—tomorrow may be too late. “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1). “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace” (Job 22:21).

Within two days the whole town lay in a heap of smoking ruins!

A Fatal Illness: The Story of Larry

“I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t know Jesus!” These words were recently spoken by a young man who at one time had everything going for him.

Larry was energetic and personable. He decided on dentistry for his career and worked hard, putting himself through college and dental school. Friendly, handsome and an excellent dentist, he soon built up a very successful practice and was doing well. He lived in a beautifully furnished apartment overlooking the city. He owned an expensive sports car and had every comfort and convenience he could desire. He liked to party with his many friends, and all the girls enjoyed Larry’s charming personality and wit. He was caught up in all the pleasures of sin that Satan, the prince of this world, uses to entice souls into hell. But for all this, Larry knew nothing of the love of Jesus.

Many people don’t want to think about what God calls sin. Instead, they give it other agreeable-sounding titles, trying to justify their wrong actions and ease their consciences. This has very solemn consequences, for God says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

One day Larry felt sick. He went to the doctor for a checkup. After running tests to pinpoint his problem, the doctor gave Larry shattering news. He had tested HIV-positive. Larry was facing a dark, terrifying future. His money couldn’t cure him; his friends couldn’t comfort him. He sold his dental practice, got his affairs in order, and tried not to think about dying. In fact, the stigma of having AIDS made him so ashamed that he told his friends he was retiring; he moved to a distant state.

But God had His eye on Larry and wanted his heart for His own. “My son, give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26).

A young Christian man became acquainted with Larry. He didn’t know about Larry’s illness, but he knew that all mankind had the terrible disease of sin, so he spoke to him about the love and forgiveness of the Saviour. He began to read through the Bible with Larry, seeking the Lord’s help to be able to answer Larry’s many questions. When they came to the story of Abraham and Isaac where God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, his son, up into the mountain and offer him up for a sacrifice, this was too much for Larry.

“How could a God of love tell a man to kill his only son?” he asked.

His friend turned to Romans 8:32 and read, “He [God] that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

The Spirit of God had prepared Larry’s heart for these truths, and Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light.” Larry’s eyes were opened. He saw the love of God in sending His only Son to the cross of Calvary, where He willingly gave His life for sinners. (Abraham’s son, Isaac, was spared to live a long life.) Larry saw how the precious blood of Christ could wash him pure and clean, making him spotless before God. He joyfully accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, rejoicing in the fact that he now faced a brilliant future. When his life ended on earth, he would be ushered into the presence of Christ.

The past several years of Larry’s life have been filled with sickness and suffering. Yet, they have also overflowed with intense joy and a desire to learn all he can about the One he will very soon see face to face.

It is so encouraging to visit with Larry. His favorite subject is God’s Word, and he asks many questions or shares what he has enjoyed. His body is ravaged by disease and he is now bedfast, weighing little more than 100 pounds. His eyesight is nearly gone, and he cannot write; it is too painful. But Larry says he is thankful for his illness, because he never would have listened to the Saviour’s voice any other way. His only regret is that he didn’t know Him sooner.

How is it with your future? Can you stand before God, pure and clean, or are you still tarnished by the fatal disease of sin? Remember, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” And Romans 6:23 reminds us that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” You can claim the promise of God’s Word for yourself and be freed from your past. But if you turn away from God and do not settle the question of your sins, you will spend eternity lost in total darkness, bitter weeping and everlasting pain. Choose Christ now!

Note: On September 8, 1995, Larry slipped peacefully into the presence of his Saviour, the One he longed to see.

"Oh, American!"

Near the end of World War II U.S. troops captured one of the Pacific Islands held by the Japanese. Following the invasion, as the medical corps moved among the dead and wounded, they came upon a Japanese soldier with a terribly injured leg. He could have been left to die, but the stretcher bearers carried him to the tender, which subsequently took him to the hospital ship anchored offshore.

The Japanese was terrified on finding himself helpless in enemy hands. He had been solemnly warned by his officers that all Japanese prisoners were tortured unmercifully by their captors, specially by the Americans. With growing apprehension he watched as first one and then another was wheeled into the operating room.

Finally his turn came, and he was placed on the operating table. Words could not describe the terror written on his face as the doctors examined him and prepared to amputate the shattered limb.

A spinal anesthetic was administered and the surgery swiftly performed. The best possible skill was employed, so that the patient on recovery could wear an artificial limb.

When the operation was completed, it suddenly dawned on the Japanese soldier that the torture tales he had been told were utterly false. Instead, his captors had shown him nothing but mercy and kindness.

The surgeon, having completed his task, bent over the patient and smiled.

Overcome with gratitude, the wounded man with what little strength he had, put his arms around the doctor’s neck. Then with tears streaming down his face, and using the only English word he knew, he exclaimed, “American! Oh, American!”

This story on the one hand illustrates man’s unfounded fear and terror of God, and, on the other hand, his complete ignorance of God’s compassion, mercy and love.

The stretcher bearers, who could have left the Japanese soldier to die, brought him to the one he dreaded the most—to the surgeon, who he believed would take advantage of his helplessness to torture him.

How absolutely wrong he was! On the contrary, his condition only served to draw out the kindness and consummate skill of the only one who could save his life.

It illustrates how we, who are by nature enemies, are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. . . . For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:8, 10-11).

"He Can't Send Me to Heaven!"

It was no use. The doctors had done their best to save the woman, but the case was hopeless. At that point a minister was sent for.

The minister came, but what could he do? He could point to the Saviour, that Saviour so long neglected. He could show the road to be travelled, but faith alone can take that road. But the woman had no faith to believe in Him and no desire to look to Him.

He left, and as he left a visitor came in hoping to speak some words of help and comfort, but the patient could not now listen. Her strength was fast failing, and as it failed she cried out to her husband, “I thought the minister could send me to heaven, but he can’t—he can’t!”

The minister could not save, he could only point the way. Every individual must travel that way for himself or herself. Oh, do not hope that when you can enjoy the world no longer you will send for the minister to “send you to heaven.” A few words of counsel and a prayer repeated over you cannot put a lifetime of wrong right. Be warned in time, and turn with all your heart to Him who alone can save you.

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15).

For Me

When all, like sheep, had gone astray,

And sinned against the light of day,

That Justice might with Love agree,

The Friend of Sinners died for me.

Rejected, scourged, and spit upon,

Betrayed, forsaken, left alone,

Accursed of God upon the Tree,

The Man of Sorrows died for me.

Nor can the robes of glory hide

The wounds in hands and feet and side.

The scars are there that all may see

The Lord of Glory died for me.

“The Son of God . . . loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

One Sheep

“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until He find it?”

Luke 15:4

Just one sheep! Who would have thought one sheep would be of so much value to the Lord? And yet it is. You would think a rich stockman who had thousands grazing on the hillsides would not miss one sheep. He would not take it to heart if one should fall and die. What would the loss of one sheep be, where thousands remain in safety?

This may be human reasoning, but it is not the thought of Jesus. One sheep—one person—is precious to Him. Yes, every sheep is as precious to Him as if He had no other. Even though it falls into a muddy pit, still it is precious. He will never abandon it.

Deep was the pit in which the sheep lay—filthy the mud which covered and defiled it. But the Shepherd’s love was towards it even in that condition. His love was strong as death and he went into the lowest pit, into darkness for it. Love braved everything, bore everything, to accomplish its rescue from the wolf—the destroyer who waited to devour. Love gave all—even life itself—to satisfy the holiness of God and to save and wash and bring to life and liberty the fallen sheep.

Love has done its job both fully and perfectly! All that is necessary for the poor sheep’s security has been done for it. And who has done this? Jesus who came from heaven to earth to ransom us. For we were all like sheep, going astray, falling into the pit. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was the only one who could seek and save such as we were. And He did!

He took me out of the pit and from the miry clay,

He set my feet on the rock, establishing my way;

He put a song in my mouth, my God to glorify,

And He’ll take me some day to my home on high!

Almost

So near the door—and the door stood wide!

Close to the port—but not inside!

Near to the fold—but not within!

Almost resolved to give up sin!

Almost persuaded to count the cost!

Almost a Christian—and yet lost!

Saviour, I come, I cry unto Thee,

Oh, let not these words be true of me.

I want to come to Thee today;

Oh, suffer me not to turn away,

Give me no rest till my soul shall be

WITHIN THE REFUGE—SAFE IN THEE!

“That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” John 20:31

I'm Ready!

Two men were sinking the shaft of a deep well. They had come to a large rock which needed to be blasted out. A hole was bored in the rock, the blasting powder put in place, the fuse attached—everything was ready to blow up the rock. All that remained was to cut the fuse off to the proper length and send up to the surface the remainder of the coil, with the powder case and tools in the bucket. This was usually done by the man who ascended getting into the bucket and being drawn up with the tools.

One man, John, was always obliged to remain to fire the fuse after the bucket had been lowered again for him, as it could only take one man at a time. John took hold of the hatchet to cut the fuse and hand it to the other man, Tom. He laid the fuse on the rock and struck the blow to cut the fuse from the coil.

What horror! The stroke of the steel hatchet on the rock produced a spark—and ignited the fuse! Both men faced instant death.

Both scrambled into the bucket and signaled to be hoisted up. It would not do. The hoist could not lift with both men.

John reacted quickly. He leaped out, crying, “Tom, you’re not ready to meet God, but I’m ready!”

Up to the top went the bucket with Tom inside carried to safety. In a few seconds the blast went off and smoke and dust poured from the hole. There was not even a groan heard from the hole.

As soon as all was clear again Tom went down expecting to find the mangled body of his friend. Instead, there was John—absolutely unhurt. The God in whom he trusted, the God he was ready to meet, had caused the rock to split with a large portion standing upright and forming a shield that sheltered him, leaving him unscathed, while the force of the blast was discharged against the opposite side.

When John came up, he was asked how he could ever do what he did. He told them that he knew the Son of God had come down from heaven and died for him in love, washing away his sins in His own blood. He knew that when he was blown to pieces (as he thought he would be), he would go to heaven to be with Him forever. He knew that Tom. if killed, would have been lost in hell forever.

If you were placed in a moment of pressure like this, how would it be with you? Are you ready? You need not be working in a hazardous position to come suddenly face to face with death. Would you step into eternity in the calm consciousness of the Saviour’s love? “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).

Go Home

The young man did not believe in any religion. Living in unbelief, far from all thought of God, he had gained the reputation of being the worst of his wild crowd. However, God used the very excess of his wickedness to strike his soul with terror. Suddenly seeing himself as others saw him, his conscience was aroused and he was horrified at the sight.

He exclaimed, “There is not in the world so guilty a sinner as I am! If it is true that the wicked go to hell and that heaven is reserved for the good, my place will not be uncertain. I am going to hell, for if ever a man deserved it, it is surely me.”

From that time there was no rest; terrible thoughts tortured him night and day. How could he get rid of the guilt? Was there any sin he had not tried? Any vice he had not already sampled? Could he find no thrill that would take his mind off that awful subject for at least a little? No, it was hopeless. The old life had lost all attraction for him. Nothing mattered now but to find any possibility of salvation.

It came to his mind that he had heard of monks who had found the way of expiation of sins through penance, prayers and bodily punishment. This thought gave him courage; he felt that no labor or mortification would be too great, if by it he could gain the slightest hope of pardon. So he decided to become a monk.

He made inquiries everywhere for the monastery which had the severest rules and the hardest penances and decided he would go there and pass the remainder of his days in prayers and penances.

He heard at last that the object of his search was a monastery about fifteen hundred miles away. He resolved to go on foot and to beg his way, for this seemed a beginning of his penance and a step gained on the way to heaven.

The journey was long and painful. Exhausted, he came at last in sight of the ancient monastery where he hoped to find rest for his soul. As to his body, he hardly thought of it. Finally he arrived. He knocked. The door was opened by an aged monk.

“What do you want?” the old man asked.

“To be saved,” replied the traveler. “The fear of hell has driven me here to seek the salvation of my soul.”

The monk invited him to enter, and conducted him to his cell. “Now,” said he, “explain yourself.”

“Well, I will tell you what has led me here. You see before you a lost sinner. My life has been so bad that I dare not tell my history. It seems impossible that I can ever be pardoned, yet I am here to undertake everything and to endure everything to obtain pardon. If you will receive me into your order, I will submit without complaint to all the penance you can impose upon me. Tell me only what I ought to do to be saved, and whatever it may be, I will do it.”

The monk replied: “You say you are ready to do anything I tell you? Very well, return to your home at once, for all that you tell me of was done before you came; there remains nothing for you to do. All is accomplished.”

“Did you say all?”

“Yes, all. Did you not know that the Saviour came into the world for this very purpose? He came to endure in our place the punishment which our sins had brought upon us. He ‘was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification’ (Romans 4:25), having finished the work the Father gave Him to do. It is finished, and now He has returned to His Father. He is seated at His right hand, and He has prepared a place for us in order that where He is we may be also, and rejoice forever in His glory. There is nothing left for you to do but to praise and thank our Saviour. And now, go—return home, dismiss all fear, and trust only in the One who has said, ‘It is finished.’ ”

The traveler trusted in that only Saviour and returned on his journey rejoicing, his heart overflowing with gratitude to the Christ who had borne the penalty of sin for him.

And now, what are you going to do? Have you accepted, like the young man, the payment of your debt to God, or are you trying to pay in some way of your own? It cannot work. If you wish to be saved, only believe. Whosoever believes has eternal life, and has passed from death to life. It is not merely a hope; it is a certainty for the soul that believes. “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

“ Then said they unto [Jesus],
What shall we do, that we might
work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them,
This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him
whom He hath sent.”

John 6:28-29

Your Time

Your time on earth is short. Each closing year, each setting sun, each tick of the clock is shortening your days on earth and swiftly, silently carrying you on—on to eternity and to God. The year, the day, the hour, the moment will soon arrive that will close your life on earth and begin your song in heaven—or your wail in hell. No future hour will come to bring you back to earth again; you will be there forever—for eternity.

Today your feet stand on time’s sinking sand; tomorrow your footprints remain, but you are gone—where? Into eternity.

Today God points you to the cross with the Son of God uplifted, bleeding, dying—and all for you. Yes, for you the crown of thorns circled His brow—for you the soldier’s spear brought the blood from His side—for you He cried in triumph, “IT IS FINISHED!” For you there is salvation today. Accept it unconditionally, as a sinner, and you will be saved for eternity.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). 

The Hawksbill Turtle

Out on the sea in a small sailboat, a father and son were on the lookout for turtles, especially hawksbill turtles, as their shells sold at that time for a high price. They were used for the manufacture of tortoiseshell combs, brushes and many other articles. Soon they saw one of these turtles clearly visible in the beautiful transparent waters of the Bahamas. They estimated that its shell would sell for more than $100.00—a great sum for that time.

But the turtle eluded them, hiding under sunken rocks, and all their efforts proved to be in vain. They went out again the next day, and the next, but they didn’t see any more of their wished-for prize. At last the father gave it up as a bad job.

The young man, however, decided to continue the search alone. He told his father that if he stayed home and the turtle was captured, the father would lose his share of the money it brought. But the father was adamant and said it was no use to keep on.

The boy pled with his father, saying, “You know, Dad, very often the day you stay home is the day you would succeed, so you had better come.”

The old man said, “No,” and he meant, “No.” The boy urged and coaxed, but finally had to go alone. That day he caught the turtle, returning in triumph to the little fishing village.

News of the catch had preceded him by means of another boat, which had gotten back before the successful, young turtle-hunter did. When he landed his catch on the wharf, quite a number of the villagers were there to see the prize. Among them was the old man. If he had only gone that morning—but it was too late. His share of the prize money was gone.

“Say, Son,” he cried, “why didn’t you take me with you?”

“You know I asked you, Dad.”

“Yes, but you should have urged me to go,” replied the disappointed old fisherman.

“I did, Father—you know I did.”

“But why didn’t you plead with me?” the old man insisted.

“You know I tried as hard as I knew how to get you to go, Father, but you just simply wouldn’t.”

“But Son,” wailed the old man, “you should have made me go!”

The loss of the prize money was a severe loss to the old man, for money did not come so easy in his life, but after all, it was only money. Have you ever stopped to think that you are in danger of losing something far more valuable?

Your soul! Your soul stands for your life, your real living. You are in danger of losing forever the happiness of really living—of knowing eternally the joy of life, divine life, a life of perfect joy and peace and glory.

Instead you are risking eternal death, eternal grief, the weeping and wailing of which our Lord Jesus speaks. It may be that in the day of judgment you might think of us who are Christians, as you stand before the judgment throne of God and say, “Why, oh why, did you not ask me to come to Christ; why did you not urge me; why didn’t you maKe me come?”

Oh, if we only could, we surely would. We can’t make you come, but we can plead with you. Once more we urge you to come to Christ. Come just as you are, and trust Him as your Saviour. He died for you that you might live forever with Him. Come to Him now; make no delay. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2)! 

“ Whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely.”

Revelation 22:17

"I Am so Tired!"

Mary knew and loved the Lord Jesus. One day she was in her room putting on a jacket to go out with a message, but her mirror did not reflect a happy face. Why should she have to stop what she was doing and go out?

“Mary! Mary!” came the call; “aren’t you ready yet?”

Mary reluctantly started out. It was a lovely morning, and she soon regained her usual good humor. It was very wrong, she thought, to complain because I had to leave my things to go and ask about poor Miss Sally. Here a shade of sadness crossed her face. She mused, They say she is dying, but if she loves the Lord Jesus she has no fear—I am sure of that.

Near one of the windows of the house where Mary was going sat a woman looking out at her, with a heart full of sorrow and bitterness. “Why,” she sighed, “should my daughter have to endure all this suffering, while this young girl is so happy?”

As Mary reached the door she came forward to meet her, and said, “I suppose you have come from Mrs. Evans for news about my daughter. Perhaps your bright and happy face may cheer her a little—come and see her and deliver your message to her yourself.”

Mary followed the woman to the bedroom. There she was left alone with the invalid. Turning to look at the pale, thin face, she was startled. Never had she seen anyone so ill. “Is she asleep?” said Mary.

No, for opening her eyes the sick girl said, partly to herself and partly to Mary, “I am so tired! So tired!”

In a moment all Mary’s timidity vanished. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the poor patient, and approaching the bed, her eyes fixed on the thin and weary face, she said softly, “Don’t you know that Jesus came to give rest? He can give it to you now. He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ ” (Matthew 11:28).

Growing bolder, she picked up a Bible, and, opening to the eleventh chapter of Matthew, she read the same verse slowly.

“Mark the place for me,” said the sick one, “and tell me more about Jesus.”

In a few moments Mary told her all she could of Jesus and His love. As she told how wonderful her Saviour was to her, the sick girl exclaimed, “I understand! I see it now! Oh, how good He is!”

She said no more; her mother returned, and Mary left.

Two weeks went by, and Mary went again to the same house. She had heard that the sick girl had died. As she asked about her, a maid told her that Miss Sally died peacefully. “She was quite changed after your visit,” she added, “and I think they will give you her Bible. She left it for you.”

“Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:21). 

"Jesus"

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise,

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, JESUS.

My soul is night, my heart is steel—

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to JESUS.

He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads,

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in JESUS.

Though some should sneer, and some should blame,

I’ll go with all my guilt and shame,

I’ll go to Him, because His name

Above all names is JESUS.

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

An Ignored Treatment

“ T he fool hath said in his heart,

There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1

“Mrs. Jones, your blood pressure is very high. This condition used to be quite serious, but, fortunately, we now have drugs to correct it. Get this prescription filled and start taking it right away. I think you will improve before long.”

Leaving the doctor’s office with these instructions, the young housewife stopped at the drugstore on the way home. But, somehow, her condition did not get better. It got worse.

Soon she was back in the doctor’s office, followed by an agonizing round of examinations and treatment for malignant hypertension. The doctor prescribed hydralazine and other powerful drugs, both singly and in combination. This should have reduced the pressure and eased demands on the patient’s heart.

But nothing worked. Mrs. Jones’s blood pressure increased to 240/135. Her heart enlarged. And, after a few mystifying months, she died a painful death.

After the funeral her husband had the painful job of going through her belongings. He found, hidden away in a dresser drawer, an amazing collection of medicine bottles. Each bottle contained a carefully filled prescription, but not one of the bottles had ever been opened.

Mrs. Jones had a serious health problem. She went to the doctor, and he provided the treatment needed to save her life. Why she failed to take the lifesaving remedy we do not know. And now, whatever the reason was, it is too late to do anything about it.

Just as Mrs. Jones had a serious problem, requiring a specialist to help her, so do you and I and everyone else born into this world. The problem is sin. The consequences facing each one are the wages of sin—death. The only remedy is the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sadly, Mrs. Jones did not take the remedy and died, for all the medicine in the world is useless unless it is taken. We can only wonder why. What about you? Are you just like her? You know you are a sinner. You know you face death. You know God loves you and sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for you. You have the medicine in your hand, but you have not taken it by faith.

“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). “And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40). “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

"White Rain!"

“White Rain!”

Somewhere in France, one dreary day during the first World War, two Allied soldiers stood looking out of the barracks at the unhappy landscape.

One was Sam, a big native of Africa, who felt the bitter cold more than his British friend. Suddenly Sam’s expression changed and his face was animated with excitement. It had started to snow!

“What’s the matter, Sam?” asked his friend.

“Oh, white rain!” Sam replied in an awed whisper.

“That’s snow, man. Haven’t you seen snow before?”

“Never! We have no snow in our country.”

As the snow continued to fall thick and fast, Sam ventured outside. His delight knew no bounds as the fleecy flakes fell upon him and transformed the bleak countryside into a wonderland of white.

His British friend, a Christian, watched him for several minutes and then asked: “Sam, is there anything whiter than snow?”

“Oh, yes,” answered Sam reverently. “The soul that is washed in my Saviour’s blood is whiter than this beautiful snow.”

“Where did you hear about that?”

“Away in my country. I learned about Jesus—how He shed His blood for me. And we used to sing, ‘Whiter than the snow!’ Oh, the grandness of it! Sins all gone, never to be remembered any more—washed all white in the blood of the Lamb!”

And the two soldiers, black and white together, shook hands as brothers in Christ Jesus. They had learned the great lesson, that no matter what color the skin, the precious blood of Jesus alone can cleanse the sinful heart. 

“ T he blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

"Not a Single Guilty Man"

“ When I see the blood,
I will pass over you.”

Exodus 12:13

A preacher of the gospel had gotten permission to speak to the prisoners in the penitentiary. He stood at the end of a long corridor into which all the cell doors opened.

The preacher spoke of the love of God and of the forgiveness the Lord Jesus came to bring to a lost world. When he had finished speaking, he made a tour of the cells to see if any had been convicted by God through the message.

In the first cell four men were playing a game. They had been condemned, they said, on false witness. In the second and third it was the same: there had been a mistake—it was all a lie—they had been slandered. Not a single one was guilty. The fourth was merely there among the prisoners awaiting his trial; he was sure to be acquitted.

Oh, thought the preacher, Christ cannot save anyone here—there is not a single guilty one. Certainly this prison contains only innocent people. The preacher had never seen so many such. They were all victims, and they all accused someone else.

Finally he came to a cell through the grated door of which he saw a man seated, with bowed head and his face buried in his hands. “What’s the matter with you, my friend?” asked the preacher.

The prisoner raised his head. “Oh,” he said, “are you the man who has been preaching?”

“Yes, I am the man.”

“I am so miserable—I can’t bear the burden of my sins.”

“Well, now, would you be happy if you could find someone able to carry them for you?”

“Who could do that?”

“The Lord Jesus.”

“He wouldn’t do it.”

“And why not?”

“Because I have sinned against God all my life.”

“Yet Christ Jesus died for you, and His blood cleanses from all sin.”

The visitor went on to explain that Jesus came to seek and to save all who were lost, and that He bore the punishment for our sins on the cross. The unhappy man raised his head and listened. He had heard of the Saviour, but had never believed in Him. Now he understood the blessed story and that it was for him.

“Let us pray,” said the preacher. “Will you begin?”

“Oh, I can’t! I can’t! I am not worthy. No, no—you pray.”

And while these two men were on their knees—one in the corridor and one in the cell—a trembling voice was heard from within saying, “My God, have pity on me!”

The next day what a change there was in that prison cell! The face of the prisoner was beaming. The prisoner said, “When I saw the Saviour bearing my sins, all of a sudden the weight was lifted. Now I am so happy. I do not believe that anyone is happier than I am!”

Do you know why the Son of God came down that night to that prison and, visiting every cell, stopped only at the last? Because there was a man who knew he was lost, and He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). 

“Jesus answering said unto them,
They that are whole
need not a physician;
but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31-32

Will You Not Come to Him?

Will you not come to Him for life?

Why will you die, oh, why?

He gave His life for you, for you;

The gift is free, the word is true,

Will you not come? Oh, why will you die?

Will you not come to Him for peace?

Peace through His cross alone?

He shed His precious blood for you;

The gift is free, the word is true!

He is our peace—oh, is He your own?

Will you not come to Him for rest?

All that are weary, come.

The rest He gives is deep and true.

It’s offered now, it’s offered you;

Rest in His love, and rest in His home.

Will you not come to Him for joy?

Will you not come for this?

He laid His joys aside for you,

To give you joy so sweet, so true;

Sorrowing heart, oh, drink of that bliss!

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2

"I Can Make It!"

“I Can Make It!”

The railroad crossing bell was ringing, the approaching train was signaling for the crossing, but the automobile on the highway did not slow down. A boy on the road, seeing the danger, shouted to the driver, “Hey, Mister, the train is coming!”

As the car flashed by, the driver yelled back, “Oh, I can make it!”

A moment later, screams, bell, train whistle and a grinding crash all mingled together—a sound that seemed to echo endlessly in the ears of witnesses. Eight lives were snuffed out—the result of one man’s inexcusable carelessness in his rush to save one minute.

We condemn—and rightly so—a man who would run such a risk. But is it not true that there are countless thousands today who are running a far worse risk than that? In the face of the clearest warnings of coming judgment upon this Christ-rejecting world, men and women carelessly disregard God’s voice and rush into “swift destruction.”

Do you know that this world is guilty of the murder of the Son of God? Do you know that God has never forgotten that tremendous crime?

Do you know that “He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained” (Acts 17:31)?

Do you know that if you have never repented of your sins, you are exposed to the righteous anger of a holy God?

“Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18).

Turn at this very moment to the Lord Jesus Christ who in infinite mercy gave His life for yours on Calvary. He invites you with outstretched hands to come to Him for eternal rest and relief from your sins. He is ready now to remove every sin stain and place you forever beyond any possibility of judgment. 

“Acquaint now thyself with Him,
and be at peace:
thereby good shall come unto thee.”

Job 22:21

Better to Never Have Been Born

“Good were it for that man if he had never been born” (Mark 14:21).

What a sad and solemn word! It was spoken of Judas primarily, but is he the only one of whom these words can be said?

Let us see. What was Judas by profession? A disciple, a follower of Christ. One who had listened to all His wonderful words of grace and truth, who had seen all His wonderful works in blessing upon man. He was one who seemed to be trusted by others. Judas carried “the bag”; he was their treasurer, but he loved money better than Christ. He sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, then died and went to his own place, and the epitaph on his tombstone is this: “Good were it for that man if he had never been born”!

And to think it may be true of you! Are you, like Judas, merely a professed disciple of Christ? Have you received Him as your own personal Saviour? Or are you perhaps selling Christ for a little gain? For a little pleasure? Fame?

Beware! Your day will end here, and if you die without having received Christ as your Saviour, the same epitaph will be true of you: “Good were it for that man if he had never been born”!

We find a second fool in Luke 12:16-21. This was a rich man, one that no doubt many envied. His “ground . . . brought forth plentifully,” so much that he had not room to store all his goods. His mind solved the problem: I will pull down my barns and build greater and enjoy my goods for many years—eat, drink and be merry. But he had made plans without taking God into account. (Is that what you are doing? Are you putting temporal pleasures between you and eternal blessings?)

But God speaks: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee”! So he dies, and we go to the funeral. It is large; the preacher delivers a flowery sermon, but the rich man’s record is on high and there is no adding to it nor taking from it now. God’s verdict is, “Thou fool”! “Good were it for that man if he had never been born.”

The third fool is a man high in the political world. How many would like his position? He is a governor. He heard “concerning the faith in Christ. And as he [Paul] reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled” (Acts 24:24-25). He trembled, as well he might. He was not righteous, so the only thing that Felix could look forward to was the judgment to come. What was his answer to this question? “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.”

Poor man, he passes off the stage. The “convenient season” never came that we read of. His power passed to another; he died, and God’s verdict of him is the same: “Good were it for that man if he had never been born.” (Are you putting it off like Felix for a “convenient season” that may never come?)

One more fool. Higher yet, this is a crowned king, Agrippa. He is surrounded by his courtiers, and before him is Paul, a prisoner in chains. Permitted to speak for himself, Paul tells how God saved his soul; he is full of Christ and the joy that comes through believing. He asks the king, “Believest thou the prophets?” The king replies, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28).

Almost? What is it to be a Christian that we require such pleading and persuasion before we will become one? Do you know that a Christian is a child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven—a joint-heir with Jesus Christ? Must you be persuaded?

Where is King Agrippa’s glory now? All gone. Where is Paul? With the Lord in glory. So the king passes off the scene; and if not fully persuaded before he died to “become a Christian,” though he was a king, “good were it for that man if he had never been born.” 

A Message to a Murderer

Alone in the open air stood the preacher telling God’s good news. Around him surged a mob of angry men, yelling, cursing and threatening violence. Soon a stone was hurled. More stones followed. As the preacher continued to tell of the love of God, a rush was made against him. One powerful man struck him to the ground, where he lay still and silent, apparently dead.

The sight of the still, pale form suddenly quieted the mob. In the silence, a voice spoke up: “I say, there will be hanging for this!”

With one terrified glance around, the man who struck the blow fled. Through alleys and byways he fled till finally, hiding behind a hedge, he waited for the night.

With the darkness he stole back to the town and into the place he called home. Slipping up the rickety stairs, he silently reached the door and entered his room.

“What’s the matter, Daddy?” a frightened child called out of the darkness. It was the voice of his only child, Jimmy, the room’s only other occupant.

“You don’t need to know,” answered his father roughly, then added, “I must hide, Jimmy; where can I go?”

Jimmy peered into the darkness, then pointed towards the bed in the corner. Threatening the child with dire consequences if he made known his whereabouts, the fugitive dragged himself under the bed.

“There’ll be hanging for this.” The words rang like an alarm bell in the ears of the almost-distracted man. Hanging meant death in its most dreadful form. But would even death by hanging be the end? Something whispered that it would not. Then came back four long-forgotten words: “After this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

The preacher whom he had struck down had just been telling them of the way to escape that judgment. If only he had listened instead of striking him dead!

Morning dawned and found him still in hiding. He dared not venture out, but he sent Jimmy to buy him some snuff.

Now a strange thing happened. On the counter in the shop where the snuff was sold lay a large old Bible, the pages of which the shopkeeper used for wrapping paper. A page was torn out of the Bible to wrap the snuff which Jimmy bought and carried home to his father. That page contained the ninth chapter of Hebrews.

Something to read was a welcome break to the man in his hiding place. Anything to break the monotony and the ever-growing suspense! With difficulty he read in the dim light until he reached verse twenty-two, where he abruptly stopped.

“Without shedding of blood is no remission.” What did that mean? Did God also say that he must die? He had forfeited his life to man, he knew, but had his sins forfeited his life to God?

Those were dreadful hours. At last he could bear the suspense no longer, and sent Jimmy once more to the shop for snuff. He hoped that it would be wrapped in another page from the Book and tell him more.

In the meantime other shoppers had come and gone. When Jimmy arrived, the shopkeeper was still tearing pages from the Bible. This time the snuff was folded in 1 John, chapter one. The guilty man carefully unfolded it and read until he came to verse seven: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

What a message from God to his sin-burdened soul! Blood had been shed for his sin—not his blood, but the blood of God’s own Son. God must be satisfied or He would not have sent such a message.

But why did God give His only Son to die? the man asked himself in wonder. Then he remembered hearing, “God is love”—that God loves the sinner, though He hates his sin.

But how much of his sin did the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse away? The words said, “All sin.” Not, surely not, the sin of yesterday—murder? Yes, the words were, “All sin”—past, present, future, all alike. It was, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

And in those words the man who was hiding from human justice found refuge from God’s judgment and rejoiced in the blood that was shed for him.

Soon the glad news reached him that the preacher whom they had left for dead had not been killed as they thought. He had recovered and was preaching again. His almost-murderer went to hear him and afterwards confessed all. He was joyfully welcomed and freely forgiven. 

“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

The Sinner's Dream

Years ago in China a man had a dream in which he saw himself pursued by a tiger. With that strange sense that one often has in dreams, he realized that the tiger represented his wicked, past life. How he hoped to escape! He ran as hard as he could, and sometimes he seemed to have escaped. Then he would pause to catch his breath, only to find the tiger reappearing behind him.

There is within every unsaved person a haunting fear of the wrong he has done in the past. With some, it may be the memory of some outstanding sin, with others it may be an awareness that the whole past has been displeasing to God. God has given us all both conscience and memory, and the deeds of the past cannot be entirely dismissed or forgotten.

Attempts are made to escape from the memory of the past, but just when one feels that the past has been safely eluded, then the “tiger” reappears. How truly God has said, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

So the man ran on, more or less confident that someday, some way, he would manage to escape the tiger. But suddenly he came to a chasm and could run no further. As he stood wondering what to do next, he noticed two vines hanging over the side of the chasm. Perhaps he might yet climb down to safety.

But when He looked down, he saw an even more terrible creature waiting at the bottom. A crocodile! Immediately he recognized this to be his future—judgment and punishment for his sins.

Consider his terrible dilemma: behind him pursued his past, before him God’s judgment. For “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). So he decided to cling to his vines, for there he was safe from both tiger and crocodile—from the sins of the past and from the judgment to come.

The dreamer soon realized that these two vines represented “Time.” Many feel secure when they think of all the years of life that lie ahead. Judgment seems remote when one looks forward to some tens of years of life remaining.

But suddenly he was alarmed by an ominous noise and a strange vibration in the vines. Looking up, he saw to his horror that two rats were busily gnawing at his lifelines. One was white, and the other was black. What could these be? He soon realized that the white rat represented “Day,” and the black rat “Night.” So time was being inexorably consumed.

While busily engaged in our work during the day, time is passing; while sleeping at night, time is steadily passing. The fact that time passes slowly may make us forget that it is nevertheless passing, and that one day time will end—and then comes death and judgment.

How helpless and hopeless is our situation! Is there no escape?

Yes, thank God, there is. There is One, and only one, who can save us from even this extremity of peril. In his dream the man saw near at hand a cross. Ah, he knew the significance of that! The cross stood for Jesus, the Saviour; it was on the cross that He died for our sins. The man knew that if he clung to the cross complete salvation would be his. And this he did.

If Jesus saves us, there will be no fear of the past, for He has borne all the believer’s sins, small and great, and He has promised to remember them no more. If He does not remember them, then I can be free from the terror of my past.

If He saves me, there will be no fear of the future, for He has paid all the penalty for my sins so that I will not be called into judgment.

If He saves me, there will be no fear of time. Whenever my time here ends, eternity with Christ in glory will begin.

How wonderful to live completely free from the remorse of the past! free from the fear of death! free from the fear of judgment! free to enjoy fellowship with this wonderful, living Saviour both now and forever! But remember that the man had to put his complete trust in the Saviour before he could be lifted to safety. It is not enough to recognize Christ as the Saviour, or to be told that He can deliver us from the past and from judgment. We must believe and trust Him for ourselves. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

How foolish to neglect so great salvation!

A Letter From a Hindu Scholar

Professor Gopal Chandra Shastri, M.A., a distinguished Oriental scholar, writes:

“I was a great enemy of Christianity. In my popular Hindi book on the superiority of Hinduism I wrote this: ‘Call me a dishonorable Hindu, and I will bear that with resignation, but do not call me a Christian, however great and good that word may be. Christianity is a term repugnant to my feelings and shocking to my ideas. No man can make me a Christian.’

“But I, the same Gopal Chandra of the Hindus, who was a staunch and strong enemy of Christ, am now a follower of Jesus Christ. My hard heart is converted, the stubborn unbelief is removed, and the grace of God is stealing downward like the dew of heaven—in silence and unseen. During the past three years I carefully read many books bearing upon Christianity and became convinced of its truth.

“I am now a new man in Christ Jesus, and I can now happily hold my life for our dear Lord and Saviour’s service.

“There are times when the heart will, and must, speak for itself, but my poor pen cannot give adequate vent to the feelings of my awakened heart. May our Almighty Father give me more light to know more of Christ Jesus and Him crucified.

“The Book of books has alone converted me; it was not in the power of any man to convert me into Christianity. May the Book convert many millions like me!” 

To the Jew

This is Passover week, my brethren. You will have put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat the matzoh and the roasted lamb; you will attend the synagogue services and carry out the ritual and directions of the Talmud. But you forget, my brethren, that you have everything but that which Jehovah required first of all. He did not say: “When I see the leaven put away, or when I see you eat the matzoh or the lamb, or go to the synagogue.” His word was: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Ah, my brethren, you can substitute nothing for this. You must have the blood!

I was born in Palestine, nearly seventy years ago. I was taught to read the law, the psalms and the prophets. I early attended the synagogue and learned Hebrew from the rabbis.

Again and again I read Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16 and 17. Day and night one verse would ring in my ears: “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).

I knew I needed atonement. I beat my breast as I confessed my need of it. But atonement was to be made by blood, and there was no blood.

In my distress at last I opened my heart to a learned and venerable rabbi. I tried to be satisfied when he told me we must turn to the Talmud, rest on its instruction and trust in the mercy of God and the merits of the fathers. I tried to be satisfied, but I could not.

I was over thirty years of age when I left Palestine and went to Constantinople. I had one great question: Where can I find the blood of atonement?

One night I was walking down one of the narrow streets when I saw a sign telling of a meeting for Jews. Curiosity led me to open the door and go in. Just as I took a seat I heard a man say: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

It was my first introduction to Jesus Christ. I listened breathlessly as the speaker told how God had declared that “without shedding of blood is no remission,” but that He had given His only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to die, and all who trusted in His blood were forgiven all their iniquities.

I had found the blood of atonement at last. I trusted it, and I love to read the New Testament and see how all the shadows of the law are fulfilled in Jesus. 

“How can a man believe that through the blood of the crucified Jesus he can receive the forgiveness of his sins and have peace with God? Isn’t that foolishness?” asked a man of a Christian.

“Surely it is,” answered the believer; “the Apostle Paul calls it that.”

“You are joking,” said the other. “Paul and I cannot agree on that subject.”

“Just read this,” the believer said, opening his Bible. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Now the preaching of the cross is no longer “foolishness” to the first speaker; he has found that it truly is “the power of God unto salvation.”

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

“Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found, call ye upon Him
while He is near.”

Isaiah 55:6

Which Way?

Only two ways. So the Bible tells us—one broad, the other narrow; one leading to destruction, the other to life; many travel the one, few the other. Which is your way?

They are well marked. “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. . . . Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). 

The Guilty World

The world has never been the same

Since Jesus died;

Since He, the perfect, spotless Lamb

Was crucified.

No wonder crime, and hate, and war,

Creation knows;

O’er it there burns the blood-red star

That then arose.

Weep, weep, O Earth, weep bitter tears

For this your crime;

Against you stand two thousand years

Of sin-stained time.

Ere judgment fall, repent your sin

(For He must reign),

And let the cry, “O Lord,” begin—

“Come back again!

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Psalm 34:8

"This Is It!"

“Vancouver, this is it! This is it!”

These were David Johnston’s last-known words. Mount St. Helens had erupted with the worst volcanic explosion in American history.

As a field volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, David was stationed at a monitoring site six miles from the center of the blast. David had told his friends, “I’m sitting on a powder keg, but nobody knows how long the fuse is.”

He told his parents, “I’m convinced that it will erupt,” but to soothe their worries he added, “Oh, the volcano will give a warning before it erupts—enough time to evacuate the danger area.”

Helicopters were on standby at Vancouver, ready to come in to pick him up when the eruption would seem imminent. But there was no warning!

The mountain just exploded—not at the top, where it was expected—but on the side near David’s camp. He grabbed his radio and called the Vancouver rescue station, “Vancouver, this is it!”

Only silence followed. It was too late. A wall of suffocating gas and heat swept toward him, and the camp was wiped out. Trees were flattened, the trailer was demolished, and David’s body disappeared under the layers of ash.

You, too, are sitting on “a powder keg,” and no man knows how long the fuse is. God says, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Just as certainly as Mount St. Helens blasted itself to pieces, this world is doomed to utter destruction. And it is all because of the sin of man.

Remember, “a thief in the night” gives no warning. David Johnston thought there would be a warning, a chance for escape. But there was no warning, and he died. Don’t be like David. “Flee from the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7)!

God has provided a way of escape from the coming judgment. “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” (John 3:16). Do not put off the salvation of your never-dying soul. Tomorrow may be too late!

The Barometer

It was a very fine, very expensive barometer. The buyer felt that a lifelong ambition had been realized, and he took it home proudly. But when he opened the box, what disappointment! It must be defective! The needle seemed to be stuck. It pointed to “Hurricane,” and couldn’t be moved.

After trying again and again to shake the needle loose, the man sat down and wrote a scorching letter to the store from which he had bought it. The next morning on his way to work he mailed the letter.

That evening he struggled homeward through wind and rain to find both the barometer and his home missing. The barometer needle had been right. The hurricane it had tried to warn its owner about had come.

How many people regard the Bible in the same way! When its warning needle points to the sure destruction of the sinner, the unbelieving reader judges the Bible to be wrong and tries to shake the accusing needle into a less-condemning position. Sooner or later he will discover to his sorrow that the Bible warnings are reliable and that he must pay a terrible penalty for his unbelief.

“If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). 

The Worst of Both Worlds

A young man at a beach resort was determined to go out in a little boat, though the sea was much too rough. The boatman strongly urged him not to attempt it, but the young man would not be persuaded and offered to pay double the usual price if he would go.

This tempted the boatman to consent against his better judgment, and they both put out to sea. They had only reached a point just beyond the pier, when their boat was capsized by a violent wave, and both of them were drowned.

Poor man! He thought to get two fares instead of one, but he lost them both and his life too. Do beware of “trying to make the best of both worlds,” lest you lose them both.

Once there was another man that had a friend who was very kind to him. His name was Judas, and he was the “familiar friend” of Jesus the Saviour. Others hated Jesus and wanted to kill Him, and they wanted Judas to sell Him to them for money. He bargained with them to sell Him for thirty pieces of silver—the price of a slave.

Judas thought to get the money and perhaps thought that Jesus would deliver Himself. He got the money, but Jesus did not save Himself. When Judas saw it, he was stricken with remorse and brought back the silver, threw it down in the temple and went and hanged himself. He also had thought to make a good bargain, but he lost the Saviour and the silver and his soul too.

Do you think to have the world now, with all its sin, and then accept the Saviour when you can have no more of it? Be warned against the experiment. The “double fare” may cost you your life and your soul.

Before Judas left the world, he lost the silver, for which he had sold the Saviour and his soul. “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).

You may come to a moment, before you leave the world, when you will feel that all the things for which you bartered your soul are no longer yours to enjoy. You will have done with the world; it will have done with you—and what about the other world? Be wise in time; eternity is near. 

“Seek ye the Lord while He
may be found, call ye upon Him
while He is near.”

Isaiah 55:6

"I Will Give"

How many of the world’s rich say to the ragged, starving, homeless ones, “Come to me, and I will give—” ?

The world does not like poverty and need. It likes those who can give gift for gift—feast for feast.

How many of the happy ones of the earth will say, while their sunshine lasts, to the sad and sorrow-stricken ones, “Come and I will give—” ?

And where will you find for the disappointed and the downtrodden and the heartbroken and the pain-tortured an offer of a free solution to their need, except in the heart of Jesus?

Who wants those who are weary with the sins of others and the fears and cares of their own hearts? Who wants them? Jesus.

Who wants the heavy laden, those laden with sins that they cannot count—the oppression of a guilty conscience towards God and man—the weight of a future reckoning day and a righteous God to meet? Who wants them? JESUS.

Oh, how the poor would run, if they knew there were bags of gold for nothing—as much as they could carry for the asking!

Oh, how the sick would hurry, if they knew there was healing for them. And yet the sinner carries his burden day by day, although the Lord Jesus is calling, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28). It is a cry of love, not merely from one who will give and then forget, but One who will give eternal life and will “freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).

What wonderful gifts of peace and love will the Son of God give to those whom He came to save and win, coming from such a height to lift us up out of such depths and set us where He is. And what fools we are to refuse such grace—such gifts.

Christ Jesus Really Lived

Christ Jesus really lived!

That is one thing that all agree upon—that this Person who claimed to be the Son of God really lived here on earth among men.

We know when He lived: from about 3 B.C. until about 30 A.D.

We know where He was born: in Bethlehem of Judea, a real town and not a mythological one. We know where He lived for most of the years of His life: in Nazareth, in northern Galilee. There He worked as a carpenter.

We know many of the leaders of His day. Their names appear in other historical writings besides the Bible: Herod the Great, his grandson Herod Agrippa, Salome, Pontius Pilate, Tiberius Caesar, Gamaliel, Felix and Festus.

Every history of the ancient world and every encyclopedia records the fact that Jesus lived during the first century of our era. H. G. Wells had a contempt for almost every article of the Christian faith, but he was compelled to give pages to Jesus of Nazareth in his Outline of History.

All dates of history in our calendar are now designated by the letters B.C. and A.D.—both of which refer to the time of the birth of Christ—not Plato, not Julius Caesar, not Mohammed.

Christ has done more to lift and empower the ethical standards of men than all the philosophers of Greece and Rome combined. He is above all.

And surpassing all that, millions in each generation have had their lives changed by the firm belief that Jesus Christ has given the world the perfect revelation of God, the only gospel that does deliver from the power of sin, the only assurance of forgiveness of sins, the only positive hope of life to come.

Jesus Christ lived!

And Jesus Christ lives! He ever lives to make intercession for those who believe on Him. “Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3). 

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them.”

Hebrews 7:25

A Bad House

This man is in a very bad house. I feel sure that before long that house will fall about his head. The walls are cracked and unstable, the roof full of holes. I want to get the man out of that house into an entirely new one—one firmly built on a solid foundation, perfectly secure against the heaviest storm. What must I do?

Do I go into the old house with paint and paper, and begin to cover up the cracks, stuff the holes in the roof with rags, and make the place look as respectable as possible?

Of course not! That might even persuade him to remain in it to his certain destruction.

No, I go to him and point out the defects of the place in which he is; I warn him that if he stays there he will certainly die when the house collapses. I tell him of the security, comfort and strength of the new house and earnestly plead with him to leave the old for the new right away.

So it is with the gospel. Am I to improve man’s old condition, cutting off this bad habit and adding that good one, trying to make him as respectable a person as possible?

No, for the Word of God says, “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12).

I tell a man that he is lost—that if he remains as he is, he will be lost forever. Then I point him to Christ—the perfect Saviour, the One who has borne the heaviest storm, who has been down into death and risen again. I dwell upon the security, satisfaction and peace to be found in Christ, urging him to give up self and flee to Him. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

“ We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags.”

Isaiah 64:6

“ Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ruby's Dream

Ruby Williams had a dream—a dream she held in her heart through years of farm and field work, chopping cotton and picking peaches. She kept that dream through the long years of share cropping, domestic work and the care of fourteen children to feed and clothe.

After 84 years, free at last to pursue her dream, what did she long for? An easier life? A better home? Comfort?

No, thank you! The dream of her life was to learn to read. And her dream came true, thanks to a literacy program where she lived. What did she want to read? Thrilling fiction—mysteries—lurid tabloid tales? No! “I want to read my Bible,” she said.

She added, “Sometimes I pick up my Bible and read and read and read. I sure do! Glory hallelujah! Thank God!”

Wise Ruby Williams! Nothing in the whole world can give her the joy and satisfaction that she finds reading that wonderful Book and learning more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ, her Saviour. She can read of His life on earth, His death and resurrection, His coming again to take all who are His to that home He is preparing in the Father’s house, and she can know that it is all hers to enjoy forever. Glory hallelujah indeed! 

Out of This Life

Out of this life I cannot take

Things of silver and gold I make;

All that I cherish and hoard away,

After I leave, on earth must stay.

Though I call it mine, and boast its worth,

I must give it up when I quit the earth;

All that I gather and all that I keep

I must leave behind when I fall asleep.

I wonder often just what I shall own

In that other life where I go alone;

What shall He find, and what shall He see

In the soul that answers the call for me?

Shall the great Judge say, when I am through,

That I’ve laid up treasure in heaven too?

Or shall it at last be mine to find

That all I had worked for I left behind?

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

Too Proud

The old couple had not been seen by their neighbors for several days. There was no light in the window—no answer at the door. Finally, worried neighbors broke into the house and found the old man and his wife—unconscious.

They were rushed to the nearest hospital, but in spite of all that doctors and nurses could do, both died without regaining consciousness. “Starvation and exposure” were given as the causes of death by the coroner.

“I tried,” said their next-door neighbor, “I tried to give them food, or money to buy fuel, but the man said they were too proud to accept help. He shut the door in my face!”

“Too proud to accept” the gift of God is the reason why numbers of people are perishing, spiritually, today.

The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s “unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

We are “saved through faith . . . the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

These gifts cannot be bought and they cannot be earned; they must be received as a gift.

Ever since the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again, all things that pertain to life and godliness are free. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

To be too proud to accept such gifts from such a Giver will mean a worse fate than death from starvation. It will mean an eternity of separation from God out in the blackness of darkness forever. 

“But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power
to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe
on His name.”

John 1:12

Swept Out to Sea!

“LORD JESUS CHRIST!”

It was not a curse—it was not blasphemy—it was a desperate cry for help as Mary Garner stood on the shore watching her sister struggle with the outgoing tide.

Mary and her sister were spending their vacation at the beach. One day they went swimming and evidently had not paid attention to the time, for the tide, unnoticed by them, had begun to recede. Everyone else had left the beach, but Mary’s sister went back into the water for one more swim. Now to her dismay she was being swept out to sea by the strong current.

Mary stood on the shore helplessly watching her; she could not swim herself—she dared not venture into the rolling surf. No one else was near to call on for help.

For years Mary had claimed to be an atheist and had insisted that “there is no God,” but as she stood there alone, helpless and terror-stricken, a verse she had often heard her Christian parents quote flashed into her hard, unbelieving heart: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

Like lightning came the thought, Now I will see if there is a God. With no one to turn to, in her agony of mind she cried aloud, “LORD JESUS CHRIST! If there is a living God, save my sister!”

Almost immediately a great wave came rolling into the shore, bearing on its crest her beloved sister and washing her up onto the sands almost at her feet. What joy and relief and thankfulness she felt at receiving her sister safely back again, out of the very jaws of death!

And what joy to know that there is a God—a living God! To Him she confessed the wickedness of her atheistic thoughts and words, and she found pardon and peace through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who had died for her on the cross.

Now you are as helplessly tossed on the waves of sin as Mary’s sister was on the waves of the sea, and none but God can save you. Remember that “whosoever [that means you] shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 

“The name of the Lord is
a strong tower:
the righteous runneth into it,
and is safe.”

Proverbs 18:10

Adrift With One Oar

It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon, and we were down at the shore for a holiday. Several of us wanted to go boating, so we rented a boat and set off. The boatman warned us that we must not go close to the rocks, because the tide was very strong.

All went well for a half hour and we were enjoying ourselves immensely, when one of the oarsmen dropped his oar into the water. Before we could get the boat turned, the oar had floated far away beyond our reach.

Now what was to be done? We could make little progress against the tide with only one oar. To make matters worse, a strong wind was rising. We drifted with the tide toward the shore, and in spite of all our efforts we saw that we would soon be on the rocks.

I never thought I was a coward until that moment of danger and possible death. Every wave seemed as if it would swamp our boat.

Someone on shore saw our danger and sent a boat out to our rescue. Soon we were being towed in to a safe landing—and how thankful we were to reach land again!

That boating incident reminded me how helpless is the position of a soul without Christ, drifting before the power of sin and Satan on to an eternal hell, unable to stop or to alter his course. But help has come from above: the Son of God has come down to save the lost.

The person who has received that salvation has Christ to strengthen and help, and can stand against the tides and current that would rush him on to destruction. Without Christ, one can only drift with the current down to the depths of sin and the deep, dark abyss of the lost.

It may be pleasant sailing now, while all is calm and fair, but there is a time soon to come when the Christless soul must meet death and judgment.

“After the joys of earth—

What then?

After its hours of mirth—

What then?”

“If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us” (2 Kings 7:9).

“If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Ten-Million Dollar Pardon

Ten million dollars is a lot of money. It will buy comfort—luxury—all the trappings of “the good life.” Now there is an offer that goes far beyond mere material possessions. A small island nation in the Indian Ocean, the Republic of the Seychelles, has offered, in exchange for ten million dollars, to give “immunity from all criminal proceedings whatsoever”!

Think of it! It offers a haven for international criminals, a refuge from extradition to face trial for whatever they may be guilty of—embezzlement, smuggling, terrorism—provided, of course, that they have the ten million.

For lesser criminals without the necessary ten million—nothing. Let the law take its course. Let the guilty pay the penalty. Only the magic ten million dollars can purchase immunity.

What a contrast to God’s offer! The very poorest is invited and is welcome and will receive “immunity” from all the guilt of sin. “To the poor the gospel is preached.” In fact, ten million—or a hundred million—cannot purchase God’s pardon for sin. It is offered “without money and without price,” and it is for “whosoever will.”

Nothing on earth is sufficient to purchase that free gift of eternal life—nothing one can give, nothing one can do. Salvation is a gift; it is free and it is given only to those who believe, who accept, who receive. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). 

You say you must “see life”?

The Lord Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

You must have pleasure?

“At Thy [God’s] right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Does your weary heart long for rest?

Then listen to the Saviour’s voice: “Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Just One

“One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner.” So said John Bunyan, and he said right, for he based his words on the Bible—the Word of God.

There is an idea that unless a man has committed some great crime, unless he is a murderer or a thief, he is not a sinner. But that is only a human thought, and God has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”

Mankind judges sin by the way it touches or affects others. God judges it by His holiness and by the way it dishonors Him. He has said, “The thought of foolishness is sin.”

Suppose someone is found guilty of murder and is executed. For one murder or for a dozen, for a murderer of one or for a serial killer of many, the law of the land can do no more than execute the murderer. And one sin will expose the sinner to the judgment of God as much as one million sins!

How many sins did Adam and Eve commit before God put them out of the garden of Eden? One, and only one. For that one act of disobedience they were, by the holiness of God, righteously excluded forever from that earthly paradise.

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” God does not say, The soul that sins a hundred or a million sins shall die, but, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

Again, “The wages of sin is death.” God does not say the wages of a hundred or a million sins is death, but, “The wages of sin is death.”

The holiness of God has measured humanity by the equal balances of the cross of Christ, and the verdict is, “There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23).

Sin, death and judgment are our lot, because “all have sinned,” and “all the world” is guilty. Is there no open door of escape? There is! Thank God, there is!

Christ has died, was buried and has risen again. He has borne sin, death and judgment on the cross, and now all who trust Him get forgiveness, eternal life and righteousness.

Sin must be measured by the holiness of God, and by the cross of Christ. At the cross I learn that the holiness of God required the death of Christ for one sin, just as much as for one million sins. Nothing less would do to put away one sin, and nothing more was necessary to put away one million sins. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), and whether one has sinned few or many sins, forgiveness and justification are to be had through faith in His blood.

Your Future Is Safe

Perhaps you have seen the above words on a billboard in your town, and a picture of a mother with her baby in her arms. The advertisement tries to convey the thought that, if the father is taken suddenly, they are provided for and they are happy because they know “their future is safe”—thanks to their insurance policy.

But for how long? Are we wise if we only look ahead for a few short years? What about eternity? Days are passing quickly and, life insurance or no life insurance, we are passing into eternity. It is possible to be so occupied with the present as to neglect the real future. God calls a man a fool who is not prepared for eternity.

What can make my future—your future—safe? This: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Think—make yourself think—Soon I must leave here! Into eternity you must go. To make your future safe, the holy Son of God left His home in glory and came into this scene of sin and sorrow. He had no place to lay His head (He was homeless!), and finally He was nailed to a cross and laid in a borrowed tomb. To make your future safe, He suffered and bled and died.

Now, if you will come to Him as a needy one, a helpless one, and trust His precious blood, your sins will all be “blotted out” (Isaiah 44:22), “forgiven” (1 John 2:12), and remembered “no more” (Hebrews 10:17). Trust that blood now, just as you are, and then your future will be safe and you will know it is so from God’s own Word, for Jesus says, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

Why Unbelieving?

“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 that ye may believe
on the name of the Son of God.”

1 John 5:13

Why unbelieving? Why will you spurn

Love that so gently pleads your return?

Come, ere your fleeting day

Fades into night away;

Now mercy’s call obey;

To Jesus come.

Why not, believing, come to the Lord?

Trust in the Saviour, doubt not His Word;

Think ’twas for you He died,

Think of Him crucified,

Now to the Glorified—

To Jesus—come.

Why unbelieving? You can be blessed,

Jesus will pardon, He’ll give you rest.

Why will you longer wait?

Haste to the open gate.

Come, ere it be too late!

To Jesus come.

“Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”

2 Corinthians 8:9

Crooked Arm's Bravest Deed

Crooked Arm, a powerful chief of the Cree tribe, was known far and wide for his daring exploits in war. One time, in a battle with the Blackfoot Indians, his arm was badly wounded. When it healed, it remained stiff and crooked. So his people called him “Maskepetoom,” which means “Crooked Arm.”

Chief Maskepetoom had only one son, whom he dearly loved. One day he sent his son and another brave to a green valley where the tribe’s horses were kept. They were to take care of the horses, but the brave treacherously killed Crooked Arm’s son and sold the horses. Then he returned to camp and told the chief that his son had been killed when he fell from a high cliff and the horses had run away.

Somehow Chief Crooked Arm discovered the deception. Fierce anger filled his heart, and he vowed to kill the lying brave.

It was at this time that a missionary visited the Indians. In the evening he sat with them around their fire, talking to them about Jesus. He told them of God’s great love for Indians and for all people. He explained that God had sent His Son to die for them. He told them how, when Jesus was dying on the cross, he prayed for the cruel men who had nailed Him there, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

“God will forgive your sins if you trust in Jesus as your Saviour,” affirmed the missionary. Then he added, “You must forgive others, as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

Chief Crooked Arm listened carefully. The words were beginning to pierce his heart.

One day the chief was riding out on the prairie with some of the men of his tribe. In the distance they could see others approaching. The eagle-like eyes of Crooked Arm spotted among them the brave who had killed his son. Grasping his tomahawk, he urged his horse into a gallop. Pulling up in front of the brave, he stared silently at the young man. His face was impassive, his lips a thin, hard line, his eyes black pools of bitterness. He sat straight and unmoving in the saddle.

The young man trembled before the chief’s gaze and dropped his eyes. Everyone waiting tensely, expecting any moment the chief would lift his arm and deal the fatal blow.

Finally, the chief spoke: “You killed my only son. You deserve to die by the law of the tribe.”

The chief made a valiant effort to control his emotions, then spoke more quietly: “The white man has told us about the Great Spirit. He said that if the Great Spirit forgives us, we must forgive others. We must even forgive our enemies.” The chief’s voice shook. “You are my worst enemy! But, as the Great Spirit has forgiven me, I now freely forgive you.”

So saying, he put his weapon back in his belt, wheeled about and rode off in a cloud of dust.

To forgive his enemy was the hardest thing he had ever done. It was his bravest deed.

So Chief Maskepetoom became a humble follower of the Lord Jesus. He did not wage war anymore. Instead he learned to read the Bible in the Cree language and began to tell others about Jesus. He even went to evangelize his old enemies, the Blackfoot tribe. Formerly, he made raids on them with hate and murder in his heart. Later he visited them with love and compassion. Christ had transformed the Chief.

God’s holy Son, the Lord Jesus, did something greater—much greater—than what Crooked Arm did to his enemy. Not only did the Saviour forgive those who sought His life, but He actually died on the cross for them. 

“For Christ . . . once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God.”

1 Peter 3:18

"Died Rich"

Some years ago a party of hikers, traveling in a wilderness area, discovered the skeleton of a man—apparently a miner. One arm of the skeleton was thrown over a great piece of metal that looked like gold. It was not gold, but iron pyrite, a metal that strongly resembles gold and has proved a bitter disappointment to many a miner. Because of its deceptive appearance, the term “Fool’s Gold” is applied to it.

Upon a scrap of paper was scrawled two words, “Died rich.” Oh, the pathos—the irony—yes, the tragedy involved in that brief message: “Died rich.”

It was apparent that the man had been deceived, and thought he was in possession of considerable wealth. In reality his discovery was worth almost nothing. But would it have changed his case very much if it had been genuine gold? That which represents value in this world is worth nothing in that region beyond the grave.

Yet there are many, many people who give no thought to this and can see nothing beyond that which is of earth. Men and women all around us are striving and straining for some absorbing object. With some it is money, while others are lured on by fame or pleasure or power. The soul’s need is lost sight of. But life is brief and uncertain, and one who seeks only the earthly treasure often quits this life when the goal seems almost within reach.

What could exceed the poverty and desolation of one who died without Christ? Instead of being a comfort when death is near, possessions and attainments—that for which the soul has been bartered—are only as Fool’s Gold. In that hour it seems a mockery, a counterfeit and worthless.

How then can one be rich toward God? There is a verse that gives us the clue: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The Lord Jesus came from the heights of glory to this world and went down even to the death of the cross, that poor sinners like you and me might be enriched.

This wonderful Saviour was not content to dwell in the glory alone. His great heart of love went out to a lost and fallen humanity. He wanted companions with whom He might share the light and joy of the Father’s house. The cross was the only solution. Only by suffering and dying on the cross could He redeem our lost souls and raise us up to share with Him the blessings and riches that were His by right as the Son of the Father.

Since this great work of redemption was accomplished, all who receive Him with an honest and believing heart are made His fellow-heirs and are henceforth and forever identified with Him. The work of God is always complete and perfect and worthy of Himself. “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory” (1 Samuel 2:8).

It is by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Christ that one may obtain the enduring riches. You are free to choose now, but who can say how long the choice may be open to you?

Let your choice be Christ. Choose Him and your soul will be made glad both now and through eternal ages.

"A Little Old River"

Time for a coffee break! I joined my usual coffee pal in the cafeteria of the big corporation for which we worked. It was Monday morning, and the talk turned to a weekend drowning in a neighboring river.

“I can’t understand how anyone can drown in that little old river!” exclaimed my friend.

He was well acquainted with this river, as he spent most of his weekends in its recreation area. He was an active chap: athletic and a good swimmer. He should know whether it was safe or not.

Monday morning rolled around again. My friend was missing when I went for coffee. Another worker joined me. “Did you hear what happened?”

My heart sank. Our friend, who liked to swim in “that little old river,” had drowned in it the day before!

It could not have been because the river was either deep or swift. It was not. Nor could anyone say our friend couldn’t swim. He had won many swimming and diving contests. Then why had he drowned? The only conclusion at the autopsy was that he must have been stricken with a cramp while in the water. That “little old river” had claimed another victim.

In principle, the same thing could happen to you or to me. We may laugh at a hazard one day, only to have it claim us as a victim the next. And what about the endless eternity into which our souls could be thrust so suddenly? Are we prepared?

God’s Word tells us of only two places for the soul in eternity: heaven or hell. Heaven is a place of purity and holiness and light. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth” (Revelation 21:27). Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Or do you stand before God in your sins?

“Christ died for our sins.” He stands offering you peace and pardon, if you will only receive it. He never turned away anyone in need who came to Him, but He could not heal those who refused to come. He stands with outstretched hands today, saying: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). 

“Boast not thyself
of tomorrow;
for thou Knowest not
what a day may bring forth.”

Proverbs 27:1

Which Side?

“They crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst” (John 19:18).

“So there was a division among the people because of Him” (John 7:43).

What a moment in the world’s history! The crucifixion of the Saviour marks the great dividing point of history. From that day to this the cross of Christ separates the inhabitants of the world into two distinct groups.

This world crucified Christ, but many, confessing their sin, have found mercy and forgiveness. No one can be neutral. You must either accept or reject the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord.

On which side of the cross are you? You are either on the side of the thief who rejected the Lord Jesus, or on the side of the one who repented and said, “Lord, remember me.”

Which?

This may be it! This may be the last gospel message that you will ever have the opportunity to read. This may be your last chance to read the good news that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). This could be your last precious opportunity to read about Him “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

This may be it—the last choice that you will ever make. I do not know—I cannot tell. I hope not, I pray not, but I don’t know.

This grim uncertainty as to life is a terrifying thing without Christ. You cannot know from one hour to another that you may not suddenly be struck down. Death always rides with life.

Is this an old story to you—often heard, but never listened to? Whose fault is that? And who has continued to give you this precious lease on life so that you might hear the story of God’s love time and time again? Can you once again refuse the invitation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”?

You may throw it away. You may forget it. BUT—this may be it! This may be the last time.

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” If this be the last time, there is no remedy!

This may be it! I do not know. I hope not, but who knows—except God?

Whose Mark?

Rows of large mud bricks belonging to a mighty eastern monarch were baking in the scorching midday sun. There could be no mistake as to whom the bricks belonged. Each one was marked with the seal of the king’s name.

One day while the brick makers were away eating their noon meal, a dog silently stole into the brickyard and put one of his paws on the unbaked brick—right over the king’s name.

When the men returned and examined the bricks, now dry and hard, they found one brick which bore, instead of the clear imprint of the king’s name, the unmistakable mark of that dog. Most dogs of the east are dirty and diseased—a brick bearing such a mark could never be used for the king.

When God created man, He made him in His own image. He placed him in a garden where everything grew that was good for food and pleasant to the eye. Like the dog of our story, into the garden crept the serpent and left his mark upon man. Sinful and unclean, man was now unfit for the presence of a holy God.

In that garden was one tree that God had withheld from Adam, saying, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). But Satan, in the form of the serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Man believed Satan, disobeyed God and brought sin and death not only upon himself but upon the whole race of man.

What became of the spoiled brick? It lay useless for many years beneath the walls of Babylon. Hundreds of years later it was unearthed. It may now be seen in the British Museum, but it still has the same despised brand upon it, the mark of a dog.

And what of guilty man? Although God knew that man under sin and death could never make himself fit for His presence, yet for many years He in His wisdom tested man in various ways—in innocence, without law, under law, under judges, under kings and under prophets. The mark of the serpent still remained. Mankind was proved to be under sin, lost and ruined.

Then God said, “I will send My beloved Son.” That holy One came down and was made in the likeness of men. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Even as by Adam’s disobedience sin and death came upon man, so by Christ’s obedience in going into death, all who now receive Him may be set free from sin and death and have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Whose mark do you bear, the serpent’s with the scars of sins unforgiven, or the blessed sign of the cross of Christ? The Apostle Paul said: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Can you say this?

Five Minutes After I Die

Loved ones will weep o’er my silent face,

Dear ones will clasp me in sad embrace,

Shadows and darkness will fill the place

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Faces that sorrow, I will not see;

Voices that murmur will not reach me!

But where, oh where, will my spirit be

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE?

Here I have feasted, and worked and ranged;

Here I have cherished, or grown estranged;

There, and then, it will all be changed

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Naught can repair then the good I lack;

Fixed to the goal of my chosen track;

No room to repent, no turning back,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Now I can stifle a conscience stirred;

Now I can silence the Voice oft heard;

Then, fulfillment of God’s sure Word,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

If I am flinging a fortune away,

If I am wasting salvation’s day,

“Just is my sentence,” my soul shall say,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE

“These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ . . . and that believing ye might have life through His name.” John 20:31

It Can't Happen

Through the month of December one storm after another brought record rainfall to California. Temperatures higher than usual had melted much of the snow in the mountains. Lakes and reservoirs were filled to overflowing, and still the rains came. Rivers ran deeper and soon overflowed their banks.

Higher and higher the water crept. Highways and railroad tracks were covered and then washed away. Houses and other buildings were pushed off their foundations by the force of the water. Some farmers put their livestock into barns, only to have the flood waters come ever higher and destroy both barn and animals. Other farmers drove their animals to hilltops where they were safe.

As the days passed and the storms continued, warnings went out in every news report telling people of the peril and urging them to get out of the danger areas. Groups of men went from house to house and from one farm to another, warning people to flee.

So it was that men stood at the door of a cabin on Bull Creek, waiting to rescue its elderly occupant from the rising waters. They told him that the river was rising so fast that he must leave immediately. But he refused their kindness as he answered them, “I have lived in this cabin for many years. The river has never risen above that peg, and it can’t happen now!”

The rescuers knew that the water was going to rise yet more and would surely reach the very ground on which they were standing. Finding that their warnings were in vain, the men went boldly into the cabin, caught the man up in their arms and carried him up the slope to higher ground. Here he was not only safe from the floodwater but would also be fed and cared for.

What was their astonishment and dismay when they saw the man running back to his cabin! They raced after him, but before they could overtake the man he was back inside. Now again the rescuers were at his door. There was no answer to their knocking, nor to their urgent calling. They tried the door, but it was locked. Then with shoulder to door they tried to force their way in. Again they failed.

The river had continued to rise and now was almost to the cabin. As the rescuers continued their pleading they looked up and saw a large wave bearing down on them. They ran for their lives. From the safe, high ground they looked back and saw the torrent hit the cabin with such force that it was torn from its foundation and smashed to pieces.

What must have been the thoughts then of the foolish man who had locked himself inside his cabin? He had just insisted, “It can’t happen now”—but it did happen! In his self-confidence he lost everything—not just the cabin, but his life as well.

A worse flood is coming on this poor world. God’s judgment is soon to fall on all those who turn a deaf ear to the gospel of His grace and on those who neglect that free salvation which He offers in and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Long ago God said, “Behold . . . and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” The work that God did was to provide a way by which sinners can be forgiven and made fit for heaven. The way of salvation is by faith in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). But “if ye believe not . . . ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). 

“How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation?”

Hebrews 2:3

A College Debate

In a California community college a Christian student was preparing himself for his career. At the college were a number of students who did not believe the Bible, and they took every opportunity to make fun of the Word of God.

One of the professors also took part in these discussions and tried to rob the Christian of his faith in God. On one occasion, after severe abuse had been heaped on the Bible and on the student who defended it, the professor suddenly declared: “The only way to settle this matter is for this Christian to write an article in defense of the Bible and its teachings, and I will choose another from the class to present the other side.”

The professor, of course, was careful to select one of his best students, one whom he thought capable of refuting any argument his opponent would advance.

The date for the contest was set. Both students set to work preparing for the debate. The Christian student sought wisdom from God as he searched the Word of God. The unbelieving student also read the Bible, perhaps more studiously than he had ever thought of doing. In fact, he found himself pouring over the Book far into the night as he sought for evidence to prove the Bible untrue and contradictory.

The day of the debate arrived, and the classroom was filled to capacity with an expectant crowd. After the usual preliminaries, the professor called on the Christian to take the floor and present his findings. Calmly, with dependence upon the God of the Bible for help, he walked to the platform and read his paper. It was composed largely of actual quotations from the Book itself. He made few comments, because the passages quoted were clear in themselves.

The professor now called upon his favorite student to read his paper in refutation of the one the Christian had prepared. Silence gripped the audience as the champion of atheism walked briskly to the front of the room. He too faced his professor and fellow students calmly as he began speaking: “Honored professor and fellow classmates, I thought it unnecessary to prepare a paper on the issue at hand and will give you, orally, the result of my investigation. First, let me assure you, I have spent many hours searching through the Bible in an exhaustive manner for evidence of its untruthfulness. I read the New Testament through three times and the gospel of John sixteen times. I searched carefully for possible contradictions, but found none. The more I read and studied the Bible, the more I became convinced that it was not of human origin . . . I seemed to be reading a Book written directly to me and for me. I saw the sin and folly of my life, and I am now a firm believer in the Bible as the Word of God. Not only do I believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour!”

Imagine the electric effect of this young man’s confession upon that body of students as well as upon the professor who had counted so much upon his defense. After a painful silence while the professor struggled to regain his composure, the class was quickly dismissed.

Have you, like the college student, read the marvelous gospel of John sixteen times—or even once? Have you, like this young man, discovered your “sin and folly”? God’s Word declares: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Since you and I have sinned, we need a Saviour. How wonderful to read in this same book that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

“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).

"It Works!"

I was once on duty at an Army field hospital. One night I was called by a very sick soldier, a boy who looked hardly old enough to be in the service.

The boy looked at me hopefully and said, “I believe I am going to die. I am not a Christian. My mother isn’t a Christian. My father isn’t a Christian. I never had any Christian training. I never did go to church. I did go with a friend to Sunday school just once. A woman taught the class; she read us something out of the Bible about a man—a man who went to see Jesus one night. Jesus told this man he must be born again. The teacher said all people must be born again in order to go to heaven when they die. I have never been born again, and I don’t want to die like this. Won’t you please get the chaplain so he can tell me how to be born again?”

In those days I was an agnostic—at least, that is what I called myself. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t anything but a sinner. So I told the boy, “You don’t need a chaplain. Just be quiet now. Don’t worry, and you’ll be all right.”

I went on around the ward and in about an hour I came back to the boy’s bed. He looked at me out of such sad, staring eyes as he said, “If you won’t get me the chaplain, please get me the doctor. I am choking to death.”

“All right, I’ll get you the doctor,” I said. So I went off and found the doctor and he came and helped the patient so he could breathe just a little easier. I knew the boy was going to die; I had seen so many other cases just like his. The doctor and I went away.

In about an hour I came back, expecting to find the boy dead, but he was still struggling. He looked out of his eyes of death and said, “There’s no use, I have got to die and I haven’t been born again. Whether you believe in it or not, won’t you find the chaplain and let him tell me how to be born again?”

I looked at him for a moment and thought about how helpless he was and how little time he had to live. So I said, “All right, I will get you the chaplain.”

I walked away a few paces, and then turned and went back to the boy’s bedside. I said, “My boy, I am not going to get you the chaplain; I am going to tell you what to do myself. Now, understand, I am an agnostic. I don’t know whether there is any God. I don’t know whether there is any heaven. I don’t know whether there is a hell. I don’t know anything.

“Yes, I do! I do know something! I know if there is a heaven my mother is there. I know if there is a God my mother knew Him. So I will tell you what my mother told me. You can try it and see if it works.

“Now I am going to teach you a verse of the Bible. My mother told me that if I would believe that verse, God would save me. This is the verse—John 3:16:

“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.”

After repeating John 3:16 with me, the boy closed his eyes and whispered softly, “For God so loved the world . . . He gave His only begotten Son . . . that whosoever—whosoever—whosoever believeth—believeth in Him—believeth in Him.” Then he stopped and said with a clear voice, “Praise God, it works! I believe in Him! I have everlasting life! I have been born again! Your mother was right. Why don’t you try it? Do what your mother said. It works! This thing works!”

As he drew his last breath he repeated, “It works.”

He was right! I did as he said and I found that it does work. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but has everlasting life. It works! I Know it works! 

The Waiting Train

An engineer brought his train to a standstill at a little town in Massachusetts. A woman came along on the platform to his cab and said: “The conductor tells me the commuter train at the next junction leaves fifteen minutes before our arrival. It is Saturday and that is the last train today. I have a very sick child in the coach and no money to stay over and none to hire a taxi to go such a long way into the country. What shall I do?”

“Well, I wish I could tell you,” said the engineer.

“Would it be possible for you to hurry a little?”

“No, ma’am! I have a schedule and the railroad’s rules, and I must run by them.”

She sorrowfully turned away, leaving the tenderhearted engineer quite distressed. Soon she returned and asked, “Are you a Christian?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Will you pray with me that the Lord may in some way delay the train at the junction?”

“Why, yes! I will pray that with you, but I have not much faith.”

Just then the conductor cried, “All aboard!” The woman hurried back to her sick child and away went the train climbing up a steep grade.

“Somehow or other,” said the engineer, “everything worked like a charm. As I prayed, I couldn’t help letting out my engine. The more I prayed, the faster we seemed to go. Somehow I couldn’t hold her! Knowing that I had the road, I let her go, and we dusted up to the station six minutes ahead of time. There stood the other train!”

“Will you tell me,” said the other engineer, “what I am waiting for? Somehow I felt I must wait till you came tonight, but I don’t know why.”

“I guess,” said the conductor, “it is for this poor woman who has a sick child. She is very anxious to get home tonight.” But the man at the engine and the grateful Christian mother Knew why the train waited! One train was held, the other hurried on, that this child of God might reach her destination. So does our God hear and answer prayer.

This suggests another thought. The delayed train is like the long-suffering of God. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

This is why the gospel of the grace of God is still being preached, why the Lord still waits for sinners to come to Him and why God’s train of grace has not yet moved away. He is “not willing that any should perish,” but “the day of the Lord will come.”

How many are saying, “Where is the sign of His coming?” How many are saying, “The Lord delays His promise. He promised to come nearly 2000 years ago, but there is still no sign of His coming. All things continue as they were.”

They are just doing what people did in the days before the flood. Noah preached one hundred and twenty years, warning them faithfully, but they mocked, laughed, ate and drank, married and were given in marriage, enjoyed life and undoubtedly said, “Where is the sign of a flood? No sign! No sign!”

But the same day that Noah went into the ark the rains came; the heavens were opened, the fountains of the great deep opened up and they were swept away. And “as the days of [Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” They “knew not”—and yet they had been given one hundred and twenty years of warning! And are people any wiser today? There have been 2000 years of warnings. Truly, God is “not willing that any should perish”! There can be no excuse for failing to receive His mercy—failing to accept the sure escape from judgment while it is offered. 

God has told us in His Word, the Bible, that there is a time for every purpose and every work. He further says that “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

He is waiting in patience, urging men to repent. He sends warning after warning by the dreadful catastrophes and unusual weather conditions we are experiencing. Do not let these warnings pass unheeded. “The Lord is . . . not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9).

The day of grace—God’s now—is soon to end. Until the end of that day the invitation will go out, saying: “Yet there is room.” The house is not yet filled; the door is not yet closed. God is still saying, “Come.”

But, even as God has appointed a time for every work, He has also “appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained” (Acts 17:31). When that day has come, when that hour has struck, there will be “time no longer.”

No more delay, no more waiting in grace. No more an open door, no more room. Now God offers eternal life and forgiveness to “whosoever will” on the ground of the work accomplished on the cross by His own beloved Son whose blood “cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Then it will be too late. Now is the “accepted time.” Then there will be “time no longer.” 

Room for Jesus

Have you any room for Jesus,

He who bore the load of sin?

As He knocks and asks admission

Sinner, will you let Him in?

Room for business, room for pleasure,

But for Christ the Crucified,

Not a place that He can enter

In the heart for which He died.

Have you any time for Jesus,

As in grace He calls again?

Oh, today is “time accepted,”

Tomorrow you may call in vain.

Room and time now give to Jesus,

Soon will pass God’s day of grace;

Soon your heart be cold and silent,

And the Saviour’s pleading cease.

“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

Prepared to Survive

Much has been said lately about survival. People everywhere are afraid that “something is going to happen”— a nuclear holocaust—a breakdown of government (lawlessness and anarchy)—a great earthquake or other natural disaster—even something as simple as a cutoff of oil supplies—anything that may disrupt the orderly ongoing of the world as we have known it.

What can be done? Food is a necessity, so people buy “survival packs” of canned and dried food and store them, hidden even from the neighbors.

Neighbors? Hungry neighbors? That would be another danger to those precious food supplies. Maybe it would be better not to have neighbors! Better to buy a bit of land as far from everyone as possible, and there build a miniature fortress to protect those vital supplies.

Finally, in case someone should come demanding food and shelter, there must be a weapon for defense. A gun is added, with a supply of shells, and there he sits, a full-fledged survivalist. Let the earth shake, let nations fall, let come what will, he will survive.

BUT—for how long? His provisions are all for earth, all for time, and if he has made no provision for eternity, what will the end be? Everything he has done has been to protect his body, but in Luke 12:4-5 the Lord Jesus tells us to “be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do . . . but . . . fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell.”

A life on earth, no matter how carefully protected or (if possible) prolonged, is still only “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). How much better if our survivalist had been “laying up in store . . . a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life ” (1 Timothy 6:19).

How could one do that? The Lord Jesus said, “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). It’s as simple as that!

Now, being really prepared for the future—the unending future of eternity—he can say with confidence, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Fullness of joy! Pleasures forevermore! What are a few short years of survival on this earth compared with that?

The Text on the Rock

It was a beautiful summer day when a party of tourists set out to climb Mount Snowdon, one of the highest mountains in the British Isles. On the way, one of their number, Alan, left the party to try a new way of ascent around the northern ridge. He was an experienced mountain climber and had no difficulty for a time. Then, after a long and hard climb along the almost sheer face of the rocks, he found himself in a spot where he could neither advance nor retreat. To add to his danger, a dense fog rose up from the valley and closed in around him. He shouted for help in vain. His voice was muffled by the fog, and only silence answered his shouts.

He clung to the sheer face of the rock till his hands and feet were numb and his muscles ached with the terrible strain of maintaining his precarious foothold. Death stared him in the face. He might fall at any moment and be dashed to pieces on the rocks below.

Would help never come? The minutes were leaden and seemed like hours while his strength was fast ebbing away.

The mist began to clear away, and to his great relief he heard above him the voice of a companion who cautiously lowered a rope until it was in his grasp. How carefully he slipped the noose over his shoulders and under his arms! With the help of the men above, he was drawn to the top of the ridge, completely exhausted. After a long rest, the party descended to the warmth and comfort of the hotel.

As they came down the mountain Alan saw, painted in bold letters on the face of a rock, “John 3:16.” Reaching the hotel, he found a Bible and turned to John 3:16. He read these words: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He was struck by the words, “should not perish,” for had he not nearly perished on the mountainside?

The message went home to his conscience. Alan’s heart was touched, and he opened it to the wonderful message of God’s love.

“God so loved the world”—that includes every man, woman and child in it; it takes in every race, color and condition. Millions have been blessed by that verse. Why not you?

That word, “whosoever,” opens the door wide to you. Will you enter? The issue lies plainly before you—to perish, or to be the happy possessor of eternal life.

The blessing may be yours now as you read these lines. May you believe on the Saviour and find that eternal life is a reality now and forever.

Never Late

“What I do thou Knowest not now; but thou shalt Know hereafter” (John 13:7).

This verse was certainly true in the case of a young sailor during World War II. His ship had been damaged by a torpedo and put into Norfolk, Virginia, for repairs. The sailor phoned his mother and said, “Mom, I’m coming home for a few days.”

She asked him, “How come? What happened?”

“I can’t tell you over the phone, but our ship is in the harbor for a few days. May I bring a buddy home with me?”

“Yes, Son, bring him along.”

After a time they received word to be back in time to sail at a certain day and hour. The boys went to the Union Station in St. Louis to take the train back to Norfolk. The ticket agent told them that another, faster train left twelve hours later than the one they had planned to take and that it would get them to Norfolk two hours before the scheduled sailing.

“But suppose the train is late?” they asked.

The agent inquired at what hour the ship sailed and asked them how long it took to get to the ship from the train. They would have two hours to make the one-hour trip to the ship. The agent assured them that the fast train was never late.

So, lulled into a sense of security by the ticket agent’s confidence, they spent a few more pleasant hours at home. But the fast train was late getting started and somehow seemed to lose a little more time all the way to Norfolk. The boys were uneasy from the start, and when the train finally arrived it was two hours late.

Their ship was just leaving the harbor!

The unhappy sailor wrote to his mother, “Mom, we are in this place [the brig] on bread and water for two weeks.” What a change from home and mother!

But—remember the verse from the Bible at the head of this little story? Little did the boys realize that God was over it all, and it was for their good. While the boys were in the brig, the ship sailed out only about 100 miles and was hit by a second torpedo. This time it went down with all on board. Not one survived. The boys were providentially preserved by God’s mercy. One of them belonged to the Lord, and the other was given another opportunity to receive Christ as his own Saviour.

“Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living” (Job 33:29-30).

God in His grace overruled for these two boys, and their lives were spared. Many of us who have been saved by the precious blood of Jesus can look back and see where the Lord kept us and delivered us from danger. The Lord has promised never to leave nor to forsake those who belong to Him.

You may be faced with unknown danger. How would it be with you if you died today? Do you know that your sins are forgiven?

“The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). 

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that
we are not consumed, because
His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
great is Thy faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:22-23

Nothing Else

An anxious woman, worried about her sins, came to the home of a preacher of the gospel one day to ask for help in finding peace of mind.

“I have prayed and read my Bible,” she said, “and gone to church regularly, yet I do not seem to be any nearer to God than I was before I began. What else can I do to get this salvation?”

Quietly the preacher replied, “Nothing.”

The woman was at first astonished, then disappointed. She sat in silence for a few moments, unable to speak, for she thought all hope was now gone for her.

The preacher, seeing her hopeless look, said: “Jesus did it all. And God is so well pleased with what He did that He sends you a title to eternal glory—for nothing.”

“It seems far too cheap!” exclaimed the woman.

“It cost God His Son, and Christ His blood,” was his reply.

At last she understood how God’s salvation is not earned by any effort of our own, but that we are bought with a great price. “Redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ.” And she found peace for her soul.

We are saved by simply believing and accepting the work which Christ has done for us on the cross. To the old question: “What must I do to be saved?” the answer is still: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

Asleep or Awake?

When a person wants to sleep, he closes his eyes to the light and tries to shut out all noise. When a man wants to continue living in sin, he closes his eyes to the light of God’s truth, shuts his ears to the least sound of the gospel and deadens his conscience lest he should awaken to any concern about his soul’s condition. Satan will help him in this and will draw thick curtains securely around him so that the light of God’s truth should not shine into his heart.

What pains people take to shut out Christ, the Light. It would seem, to hear and see them, that He was a thief and a robber instead of a loving Saviour knocking, knocking at the door of the soul. He longs to bring in rich blessings to a poor, lost, starving one and to give life eternal.

“I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

Are you still sleeping, or have you wakened to life and light?

A Young Fisherman

How wonderful is the story of salvation, if accepted just as it is in simple faith! I was preaching the gospel as simply as I could in a little fishing village. One night, among the inquirers who remained after the close of the meeting was a young man about twenty years old.

During the address I had noticed his earnest gaze fixed on my face as each word seemed to go straight to his heart. Going up to him, I said: “Do you know Jesus as your Saviour?”

“I never heard the likes before,” he exclaimed. He added eagerly, “Oh, tell me more about Him.”

I talked to him about the Lord Jesus as simply as I would have spoken to a child. He was ignorant indeed, but the Holy Spirit had convinced his conscience of the true nature of sin and had touched his heart with a sense of the amazing love of God.

This young man was able to grasp at once the most blessed of all truths—that Christ, the Son of God, had died for him. The beauty and majesty of the person of the One who died for him captivated his heart. “I’ll take Him at His word,” he said happily, as we rose to leave. He accompanied me on my way home, and we still spoke of Him who is the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One.

It was the first time this young fisherman had heard about Jesus, and he had never before been to a meeting where God’s people met. He gladly accepted Christ as His Saviour and went on his way rejoicing in Him.

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

"Christ for Me"

Many believe in the doctrine of the gospel in a general way, as they believe other things they read or hear, but such belief brings no salvation to the soul. Faith is a personal reliance on Jesus Christ, confessing Him as “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

It is a personal decision to receive Him as mine, whom God has given to the whole world to be the Saviour.

“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).

When anyone makes this personal choice, saying, “Christ for me,” receiving Him definitely and decidedly as Redeemer, Saviour and Lord, God answers that faith by making the believing one His own. There is nothing clearer or surer than this in the Bible.

“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Yes, “born of God,” then and there accepted and owned as His children, no longer strangers, but of “the household of God.”

Have you ever definitely and decisively accepted the Christ of God to be your personal Saviour? If not, do so now. Just as and where you are, say to God, “CHRIST FOR ME!”

This is not merely making a resolution; that would be of little value. It would only be another effort to do something toward salvation and, like all other such efforts, it would surely fail. But to accept Christ as Saviour, Deliverer and Lord is to put yourself into living union with the One who is “mighty to save.” That makes the difference between human efforts to obtain salvation, and a personal trust in Another to do all for you. This is saving faith. 

"In Jesus"

“I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, JESUS.

My soul is night, my heart is steel—

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to JESUS.

He died, He lives, He cares, He pleads;

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in JESUS.

Though some may sneer, and some may blame,

I’ll go with all my guilt and shame;

I’ll go to Him because His name,

Above all names, is JESUS.

“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.” Ephesians 2:8-9

"Saved in the Cleft in the Rock"

“ ‘Saved in the cleft in the rock?’ I know what that means. I was saved that way once, and I can never forget it.”

“How did it happen? Tell me about it.”

“You remember when the railroad first came through our town. It was a single track. You know where it runs in that long curve at the foot of the hill, how little space there is between the rocks on the one side and the deep water on the other?”

“Yes, I have often thought what an awful accident it would have been if the train had run off the track there. Just enough space for a train to pass without striking the rocks on the side of the hill.”

“And no place for a person to stand on the other side if a train should come while he was there. It’s an awful place, or it was once, before the second track was laid and the roadbed widened. I shudder whenever I think of what might have happened to me there.

“It was when we were just children. My sister and I were coming home from school, and we thought it would be shorter and easier to try the railroad instead of the long walk over the hill path. We knew that it was after the time for the express and that no other train was due, so we felt safe enough. We hardly thought of danger anyway. She was older than I, and I left everything to her.

“We were going along slowly. I was throwing rocks into the water and she looking on, when suddenly she screamed as she caught my hand, ‘Run! The express is coming!’

“I heard its roar, and then the whistle as it came near the curve, but I could not see it yet. I knew that it was the express by the sound. My heart seemed to stop! Had my sister not dragged me on, I might have been powerless to run. We ran as fast as possible, but what are the feet of children in a race with an express train, and that train behind time and trying to make it up?

“Had we gone back we should have been safe, for we had only just started on the narrow and dangerous stretch when we heard the train. All that long run was ahead before we could reach a spot wide enough to let a train go safely by, and not far behind came that express. It was a cloudy day in early winter, so that it seemed quite dark, specially on that side of the hill. Perhaps it was the darkness, perhaps the curve, that prevented the engineer’s seeing us.

“Oh! the terror of that minute, for it was only a minute! We felt that each moment must be our last. We could hear the roar of the train coming nearer and nearer, and we did not know but that it was almost upon us, yet we dared not waste a second to look back, lest we should lose time. We could not even speak. Tightly holding each other’s hands, we ran on.

“Suddenly the whistle blew! The engineer had seen us, but too late to stop the train. Whether or not the whistle made my sister notice, I don’t know, but just then we reached a place where a large piece had been blasted out of the rock by the side of the track. It looked as if the rock had been parted and a wedge taken out. Before I had time to think, my sister let go of my hand and pushed me into that cleft in the rock. Then she threw herself in after me.

“The train rushed by!

“We were safe in the cleft in the rock—saved by a moment only. Had we gone ten steps farther, the train would have caught us, and—well, I would not be here to tell about it.”

“That was a narrow escape!”

“Yes, and I never think of it without shivering. We were saved by that cleft in the rock. If ever children were thankful for anything, we were for that cleft in the rock. I often think, What if it had not been there?”

“But what has all that to do with the sermon of the minister yesterday? I don’t see why that should have such an effect on you. Of course, it was a good sermon, but you and I are good, honest people and we needn’t be concerned about God’s punishing sinners. I believe He will punish some folks, but not people like us.”

“I’ll tell you why it concerns me, and maybe you too. We are in the way of danger, and, unless we are careful, in the way of death. Destruction’s express train is coming along; it will soon overtake us. Then what? That sermon meant me! I cannot forget that Rock that the minister said was cleft for us. It is the cleft in the rock that is on my mind all the time. I know what it means.”

“I don’t quite understand.”

“Had you been saved, as I once was, ‘in the cleft in a rock,’ you would understand. We are both on the wrong track and in the way of destruction. It is coming, too, and not far behind. Running away will not do; we must find some place to hide. Right alongside of where we are is a cleft Rock, and in that is the place to hide. That Rock is Christ, and that is what the minister meant when he said that we must ‘hide in the Rock, Christ.’ That is what is meant by the hymn:

‘Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee!’

“I have made up my mind to hide in that Rock; I know what it means now!”

“Well, it does have more of a meaning to me now than it ever had before.”

Is the Lord Jesus Christ the Rock in which you are hiding?

“That rock was Christ.”

1 Corinthians 10:4

"Granny"

“Granny, hearing of your great age, I have come to see you.”

Granny’s answer was only a grunt. She was evidently not in a good mood. Though the old woman was known in the neighborhood as much for her hard, unfriendly heart as for her great age, the newcomer had ventured to visit her for the sake of Him whose “eye seeth every precious thing” (Job 28:10).

Granny sat still on her chair, offering no seat to her visitor. The old shack itself was not inviting, and the visitor received only silence for her few remarks. Finally, after saying she would come again, she heard a muttered, “You can if you like!” From this unwelcoming atmosphere the visitor departed.

“Granny, I have such good news for you!”

There was her visitor again! Granny looked surprised. It was not often “good news” came to her. She offered her visitor a chair this time. The caller sat down and began to read the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel. As she read, she began to see tears sliding down the dark, wrinkled old cheeks. Still she read on: “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

She read it again: “‘When he was yet a great way off—’ That watching father knew at once, in spite of the rags and the lagging step, who it was!

“‘And had compassion, and ran—’ He cannot wait to welcome his loved one!

“‘And fell on his neck—’ He did not give him time to finish his speech. Love shut his mouth.

“‘And kissed him.’ No matter the rags and dirt; it was the returning heart the father wanted.”

Granny’s hard fist came down upon her knee with a heavy thud. “I never heard the like of that before!”

Granny was saved and changed. She saw Christ in His beauty revealing the love of God. She had the joy of learning of Him, and then went in her great old age to be with Him whom she had kept out of her life so long.

Have you ever heard of such love? When the soul has no plea but “I have sinned,” then God’s love freely flows out. No matter what or who you are, it is yourself God wants, just as you are.

“There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10).

Plaster Pie

A man was walking down Fleet Street in London and saw in the window of a fine restaurant what he thought to be a pie. He was hungry and tired, and the temptation was great. Should he break the glass and take it? He would and he did. But to his unspeakable disgust he found he had stolen an imitation pie—a dish filled with plaster!

What a parable lies in the incident! So many people are weary and hungry and eager to try anything that may appease their inward cravings, only to find them as unsatisfying as a plaster pie.

Do you try to stifle the hunger in your soul by alcohol or drugs—or even by good works? Be assured they are merely plaster pies. They look like something they aren’t.

Now I would like to tell you of something that does really satisfy a hungry soul. Rather, I should say I can tell you of some One. His name is Jesus. He has love to offer; He has eternal life to offer, and He has pleasures forevermore in store for those who put their trust in Him.

Many people have no real idea of the value of what God offers them. Some actually think it would spoil their life and make them miserable if they were to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour. At the same time they have exaggerated notions about the power of worldly things to satisfy.

Let me urge you to go after that which is of real value. Christ is real; His death is real; the power of His blood to cleanse all your sins away is real; His salvation is real.

The day of judgment is coming and then things will be seen at their true value. If you go on unsaved, careless, unready to meet God, you will never forgive yourself for:

(1) Having neglected that which is of true worth, and,

(2) Having been altogether taken up with things of no value.

Seriously ask yourself this question: What is the true value of the things which absorb my time and thought? Am I trying to satisfy my soul with a plaster pie?

“He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9).

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

Drop Down

Have you heard of the man who lost his way one dark night? In the darkness he fell over what he thought was the edge of a cliff. Reaching out he clutched at an old tree limb and hung there, clinging to this frail support with all his might.

He was desperately afraid that he would be dashed in pieces if he let go, but at last his hands could hold up his body no longer and they gradually slipped until he fell—fell about a foot onto a smooth, mossy bank.

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 value of His precious blood, will give you 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—that faith in Christ and Christ alone—will bring you salvation.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

People Stopped Believing

It was June 4 in Grand Island, Nebraska. At the local weather station the radar equipment picked up an approaching tornado, even before it touched down. The city’s warning sirens were turned on twenty minutes before the huge funnel cloud formations struck the city. During the next few minutes seven different tornadoes tore up 150 square blocks of the city. The destruction was almost unbelievable. House after house was destroyed; roofs were torn off, and at least one large motel was completely ruined.

Four people died, and 166 were hurt during the terrible storms. “The city’s tornado sirens were sounded,” said city attorney Keith Sinor. “It is likely that people didn’t heed them because the city has not had any bad tornadoes that anyone can remember. I suppose people stopped believing the sirens.”

How this reminds us of the warnings that God gives us of the coming judgment: “God . . . hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:30-31).

Some did take the warning. Steve Bennett took his wife and two children to the safest place around—his basement. While they huddled together there, three tornadoes struck the house above them. Steve said, “There was a tremendous roar down the furnace pipes, and then there was a screech when the house was torn apart. It sounded like nails being pulled out of wet wood.” His neighbor’s house toppled on top of the Bennett’s car, but the Bennett family was in a safe place and escaped without injury.

And there is a safe place for you, too, to escape the righteous judgment of God against sin: “A Man [Christ Jesus] shall be as an hiding place” (Isaiah 32:2).

“From the end of the earth
will I cry unto Thee, . . . lead me to
the rock that is higher than I.”

Psalm 61:2

Rich and Educated?

Are you rich in this world? Oh, how poor you are, if you do not have Christ!

Are you educated? Only in Christ are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Are you trying to accumulate material possessions? Be careful that it may not be said to you: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20).

Are you trying to drown the thought of judgment to come in the world of pleasure and frivolity? You cannot do it. Beneath a carefree appearance, you carry a heavy heart.

You are an immortal being! You have cravings that none but Christ can satisfy. You need Christ! Satan would trick you into believing a lie, but come to Christ, for He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Remember, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Are you prepared to face this reality? You are not, if your soul is unsaved, your sins unforgiven. You need Christ! Lay hold on the Rock of Ages.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“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” (Romans 10:9).

John 5 and 24

When I was lost and dead in sin

And judgment lay before,

God breathed a precious word to me:

John 5 and 24.

I trusted in His finished work;

What could I ask for more

Than His unchanging Word of truth?

John 5 and 24!

No condemnation now, my soul!

My fear of God is o’er;

That precious verse speaks peace to me—

John 5 and 24.

I know eternal life is mine

Since Christ my judgment bore;

My hope is founded on that verse:

John 5 and 24.

I soon shall see Him face to face,

And then I’ll praise Him more

For pardon through His faithful Word:

John 5 and 24!

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6

"Old Forty-Five"

He hadn’t always been known as “Old Forty-Five.” Once he had had a name—a future—a life before him. Only sixteen years old, he left his home in Providence, Rhode Island, and “rode the rails” west. One night he came into the city of Tacoma, Washington, in a boxcar. That night, in that city, a murder was committed. In the roundup of suspects, this young man was taken. Friendless, with no alibi and none to speak for him, he was charged, tried and sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor.

It was a merciless life that he had been sentenced to, a life that crushed out all previous identity—almost all humanity. Known only by his number, Forty-Five suffered—and survived. At last he came out and, without a friend in the world, he took the train for Portland. For four days he wandered about looking for work. He had nothing to eat, and his only place to sleep was down among the lumber piles.

In despair, he started down to the old Burnside Bridge to throw himself into the river. The bridge-tender seeing him, pulled him down from the railing and said, “You cannot do that!”

As he moved slowly away he saw a light in a nearby building, and he felt compelled to stop and turn and go into a gospel service.

The speaker was preaching that night about the Prodigal Son. At the close of the meeting Forty-Five held up his hand for prayer. He knelt and prayed that God would “wash his sins as white as snow.” Then he fainted from hunger. But now he was among people who cared, and soon he was strong again.

He kept on attending the meetings, and often told of his experiences and of God’s great kindness in saving him at the last. One night as he was telling the story of his life and conversion, a man sat listening in the back of the room. Suddenly he burst into tears and ran outside. A few days later someone who had talked with the stranger told Forty-Five that this stranger knew something about him. Eager to learn something about his long-forgotten people, he obtained a description of the man and found he had gone to San Francisco.

Forty-Five followed him there and, after long searching, learned that he was in the County Hospital, dying of tuberculosis. So anxious was he to talk to the man that Forty-Five went to the superintendent of the hospital and asked for work. When asked where he had been previously employed, he breathed a prayer to God and told his story. The superintendent listened with tears in his eyes. He held out his hand to Forty-Five and told him to report for duty that night at eight o’clock.

It was almost a month later that he had the opportunity to talk with the stranger. He found him suffering from tuberculosis of the spine. Forty-Five was able to read to him from the Bible the story of the Prodigal Son. While they were talking, the man held out his hand to Forty-Five and said, “Can you forgive me for the wrong I have done you?”

The ex-convict answered, “You have done me no wrong. Can you tell me about my mother?”

The man answered, “I know nothing about your people, but I am the man who did the crime that sent you to the penitentiary. I want you to forgive me for all those years you spent behind bars.”

Then he confessed that he was the one who had shot the man who was found dead that night, so long ago, when Forty-Five had ridden a boxcar into the city of Tacoma. Here was the real murderer for whose crime Forty-Five had spent those long years in prison. And he was asking Forty-Five to forgive him!

The thoughts of the old convict went back to all those dreadful years. He thought of the ball and chain he had carried for two years. He thought of the thirty lashes he had received at the whipping post, and of the weeks spent in solitary confinement deep underground. How could he forgive?

He left the sick man and went into a little room alone. Kneeling down on the concrete floor, he prayed. For nearly three hours he forgot everything else and talked and prayed and begged God for a real spirit of forgiveness. At last the thought came, “Forgive him for My sake.”

He went back and put his arms around the man and said, “I forgive you all the injuries you have done me, for Jesus’ sake, but you will have to ask God to forgive you too.”

The criminal was dying. He could not get upon his knees, but Forty-Five could hear him say, over and over, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And God had mercy and saved him.

Three days later the criminal died. Just before he died he asked Forty-Five if he would send his body back to his family in Massachusetts. This was done, and Forty-Five provided part of the money to pay to send the body back to the East.

Many years have passed since then, and Forty-Five too has gone on to be with the Lord. In eternity, with a new name—and no longer just a number—he will meet the man in whose place he suffered those many long years. Both will praise God that their sins were washed away by the blood of the Lamb. The wronged and the one who did the wrong—each called upon God for mercy and received the pardon of a merciful God.

“If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:9

Blood Transfusion

Much has been said of the sulfur mines in the northern end of Iwo Jima and how they constantly reminded one of Dante’s Inferno with billowing smoke sneaking from every crevice, hole or opening in the volcanic soil. Out of this inferno of fire, shell and smoke came litter bearers one morning, during World War II, carrying one of the many marines who had been badly shot up. He seemed to be breathing his last as he was laid gently down in the midst of our makeshift forward aid station. As I saw him lying on the stretcher, his arm almost torn off above his elbow, I knew that, but for a miracle, he would not last long.

His wounds were quickly cared for and his arm amputated carefully, but still we thought we were going to lose him, when all of a sudden a transformation took place. His face gradually began to show signs of life again as the whole blood that had been flown in from San Francisco began to flow in his veins. A miracle was taking place—he was receiving life—a renewed life from the blood given by someone else.

Wouldn’t it have been foolish for this young marine to refuse this gift of life through the transfusion of this blood? And yet, how many others the world over have said “No” to the Christ of Calvary, who died for us, who shed His blood to purchase our forgiveness, who came to give His life a ransom for many.

Have you been rejecting the life Christ can give? If you would know life everlasting—if you would experience peace that passes all understanding, come to know that Christ who said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Survival of the Fittest

If we were to believe in the survival of the fittest there would not be much chance for some of us.

MISSING TEXT

The glory of the gospel is this, that God comes to the unfit, to the marred and spoiled, to those who have thwarted and resisted Him, and that He is prepared to make them over again. If you will let Him, He will make you new, too.

“At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens . . . and strangers . . . having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12-13). 

Even in America!

Even in America! Even where we believed, “It can’t happen here,” the old sense of peace and security is disappearing rapidly. The recent Olympic Games claimed to be “the safest place on earth.” There were 30,000 highly trained security people present. It was not enough.

We look at the daily news: “Schools add metal detectors.” “State troopers to patrol crime-ridden city.” “Tight security to slow down airport traffic.” And we wonder—and worry.

There is a flash—a crash—a great airliner is down in the sea. The first automatic question in every mind: “Was it a bomb?”

It was a terrible, terrible tragedy, but out of all the grief and pain there came one shining statement. One father, losing his daughter and son-in-law, could still say that his comfort was in knowing that they were in heaven. He said, “We woke up to a sunrise, but they woke up to a sunrise many times more glorious. We know where they are, and we will see them again.”

What a comfort to that family! Could those who love you say the same? Should you fall victim to the senseless destruction that has claimed so many lives, would your family be able to say certainly, “We will see them again”?

And would you be sure, if your life on earth ended suddenly, without warning, that there is a better life ahead? Do you know that if you are “absent from the body” you will be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)? “In Thy presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11), and you can be sure that you will be there. He promised absolutely that “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” And just as positively: “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” (Romans 10:9).

We cannot stop all the terror on earth until the Lord Jesus returns, but there is a shelter for you personally and for all who will accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? 

“Safety is of the Lord.”

Proverbs 21:31

Is He Willing?

There is no doubt of God’s power, but the question is, Is He willing? This is a deeply important question and one that the Word of God only can possibly answer.

When the poor leper in Luke 5 came to Christ, the one thought in his mind was, Is He willing? When he saw Jesus he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, “Lord, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”

The blessed Lord was not long in making His reply. Oh, no! His tender, loving heart was touched by the man’s misery and helplessness, and He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will: be thou clean.” And immediately he was healed.

Never was there a case of need, whether bodily or spiritual, that Jesus was unable or unwilling to meet. In His presence, and by His love and power, all need was met, whether it was a leper in his leprosy or a sinner in his sins. “I will: be thou clean” was spoken to the leper; “thy sins are forgiven” was spoken to the sinner.

It is always so. The Lord Jesus still says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Is He still willing to save? Come to Him—come and see!

"Listen! What Is That?

Someone knocking? Oh, I wish they would go on and let us rest. We have lost enough already!” So spoke a wife one night to her husband.

They had just been awakened by someone at the door. They lived at a distance from any neighbors and, times being hard, had had many a tramp at their door. Some had taken advantage of their trustfulness and had stolen from their few possessions, so that now there was little left but the tools of his trade. But they were the Lord’s children, and it hurt them to turn away any needy person.

The husband went to the door and unlocked it and brought in the stranger. He was not a very pleasant looking one either, but one that they might well be suspicious of. Still he was allowed to stay and was given such comfort for the night as they could offer.

Said the wife: “Have you really let him stay?”

“Yes, he seemed to need it, and I told him he might,” her husband answered.

“What does he look like?”

“Rather a rough one; that is a fact.”

“Well, we shall probably be robbed of what we have left. Why did you do it? You know how much we have lost.”

“Yes, and I would not have done it, but for the security he gave.”

“What was that?”

“I told him that we had already been robbed of nearly everything, and would rather not have him come in, and asked him what assurance I could have that he would not rob us, and he answered that he gave the Lord as security. I felt that we could take that, and for the Lord’s sake give anyone shelter.”

But, in the morning, they found that their visitor had left them and had taken even their tools with him! Knowing that if he used the name of the Lord he would be likely to be taken as a Christian, the thief had deceived them and taken what he could.

“There!” said the wife. “I was afraid of that and told you we ought not to trust anybody anymore. What can we do?”

“Well,” answered the husband, “he gave the Lord as security, and I will trust the Lord for it.”

And the Lord met this trust. The day was extremely foggy, and the fog was so thick that the tramp with his stolen tools wandered round and round the home of these poor people, thinking that he was going straight on his way. As night came on he saw a lighted window and trudged wearily toward it. Knocking at the very door he had left in the morning, he asked if he could come in.

“Yes—and put down the tools!” shouted his victim, recognizing the voice.

Dropping the tools, the tramp raced away into the darkness and they saw no more of him. Although he had no trust in the Lord when he used His name as security, the Lord Himself took up the case. We cannot trust Him in vain! God has given His Son that we may have One to trust in.

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

“It is better
to trust in the Lord
than to put
confidence in man.”

Psalm 118:8

Who Died for Me?

I will sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me;

How He left His home in glory,

For the cross on Calvary.

Yes, I’ll sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me;

Sing it with the saints in glory,

Gathered by the crystal sea.

I was lost, but Jesus found me—

Found the sheep that went astray;

Threw His loving arms around me,

Drew me back into His way.

Days of darkness still come o’er me,

Sorrow’s paths I often tread,

But the Saviour still is with me;

By His hand I’m safely led.

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

"O God, Please Don't Let Me Drown!"

Heavy summer storms had filled to overflowing the drainage canals in a southern city. So much water was a mercy to the farmers in the parched area, and a delight to all who enjoyed water sports. Yet, unprotected by lifeguards as these streams were, they were a real danger to the careless and a worry for many anxious parents.

Among those playing in her neighborhood canal was a teenage girl. She was not a very strong nor expert swimmer, but she seemed unaware of danger. Even when the swift center current caught and swept her downstream, she believed she could fight her way back to the bank.

How like the soul drifting away from God this is! To enjoy “the pleasures of sin for a season” he drifts in the current of the world, trusting to his own ability to return to the safety of early counsel or Christian teaching. Just so have many made shipwreck of otherwise promising lives.

At last, realizing her inability to overcome the force of the current and seeing the ever-widening expanse of the swift waters, the frightened girl screamed for help. A young fisherman on the bank saw the struggling girl and plunged in, hoping to reach her. He was not a very strong swimmer, but he fought the current in his effort to help until he himself was exhausted and had to be rescued. He said: “I had to try! There was nothing else to do.”

Another observer on the bank threw an empty five-gallon container to the girl. She grabbed it as it bobbed past her, and encircled it with both arms. Yet the relentless flood swept her on.

About two hundred yards further downstream and still in the swift center current, the poor girl seemed to realize fully her helpless situation. Within sight was the great culvert filled to overflowing with the flood-stream from the canal. Once within that watery trap no human help could reach her.

Did the thought of her only possible Helper now come to her? Did He, the soul’s only sure Refuge, present Himself to her?

The few watchers on the bank were startled into action by a desperate scream: “O God, PLEASE don’t let me drown!”

On the banks of the canal stood two men watching the struggle in the water. Neither was a good swimmer, and both were painfully aware of physical disabilities. Yet at the hopeless cry one of the men muttered, “I may die first, but I can’t just let her drown.”

Throwing off his coat and shoes, he plunged into the yellow flood and started swimming. Letting himself be carried by the current as much as possible, he reached the frantic girl. He feared that, in her panic, she might drag both of them beneath the water, but both her arms were still desperately hugging the empty container. Grasping her as best he could, he fought against the rushing water while keeping his grip on the now half-conscious girl. Halfway to the bank, exhausted by his efforts, he was met by his friend and another man. Together they were able to pull both rescuer and rescued to safety.

The course of this world is flowing ever more swiftly towards destruction. Caught in its relentless tide, rushing helplessly onward, why not cry as that girl did, “O God, PLEASE don’t let me drown”? In Christ Jesus alone is eternal life; why not cry to Him now to be your Saviour and your sure Refuge from life’s storms?

He has promised that “him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

“The Son of Man
is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.”

Luke 19:10

An Important Message

God has given us His Word, and in its inspired pages we read: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Notice the phrase, “I delivered unto you first of all.” This is very important, because it shows us just what Paul the Apostle preached first; it gives us his starting point, his first lesson. From Athens he had gone down to Corinth, where the Lord told him He had “much people,” and there he preached and taught for a year and a half. Some years after this he wrote to these Corinthian people reminding them of what he had FIRST taught them. What was it? “Christ died for our sins.” You see it was a message that met their need, for were they not sinners before God?

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). If you turn to Luke 18 you will read there of one who took his true place before God. His very brief prayer is given in verse 13: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He owns himself a sinner, deserving nothing but judgment and immediately the Lord has something encouraging to say of him: “This man went down to his house justified.”

I ask again, Have you realized your lost condition and cried to God as did this man? If you have, then listen: “The wages of sin is death,” but “Christ died for our sins,” and “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” Troubled heart, what a message of gladness to those Corinthian people in that day, and the same word is for you. The question of sin and guilt is forever settled for the believer at the cross. God in His great love meets man’s need at once. He proclaims peace by the blood shed at Calvary. He is in haste with His own remedy for man’s ruin.

Will you accept God’s salvation? Will you believe that the death of Christ is the basis, the only basis, of approach to God? Will you believe that, “first of all,” Christ died for our sins, and that without His death and His resurrection we would still be in our sins? Then you will know that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“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

Nothing Left to Trust in

He lived in and was a native of Southern India. He had been taught from his infancy to worship and pray to the gods of fire and water. In that time and part of India the British Government had a college for teaching English to native young men, so that they might qualify for holding government situations. The head of this college was one who respected and believed God’s written Word. So, in teaching these young men to read English, a portion of the Bible was read regularly each day.

At first, full of prejudice and unbelief, the young man strongly disliked having to do this and would show his contempt and dislike for the Bible by kicking it around when he had opportunity, even spitting upon it to show his fellow students how little he cared for or believed it.

But one day the reading lesson was in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, and somehow one verse fastened itself on his mind in a way that he could not shake off or forget, specially these words: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

He tried to forget them, but they were constantly returning to him and coming up again and again in his mind.

Not very long after this, a fire broke out in the military barracks close by, and he found himself running with others with water to put out the fire. All at once the thought struck him that, as a worshipper of fire and water, here he was running with a bucket of water to put out fire. In other words, trying to quench one god with another god. The absurdity of it so took hold of him that he gave up his old ideas entirely and became an atheist.

One day he went with a friend to swim in the sea not very far from the college. It was usual for them to watch the tide, and when it was lowest to swim a long way out to a sand bar on which they would rest and catch their breath and then turn back and swim ashore again. On this day he had somehow failed to watch the tide. Stripping off his clothes on the shore, he dived into the water and swam as usual to about the distance from shore where he expected to find the sand bar and rest before returning. To his dismay he found the water already over the sand bar, and, when he tried to touch bottom with his feet, found no bottom at all. It dawned upon him that he had mistaken the time, and that the tide was far above the sand bank.

Too exhausted to swim back to shore, he was helpless and hopeless. Nothing but death by drowning was before him. His friend had not followed him and was now too far off to help him. He tried to float but began to sink and, with death staring him in the face, began to look eternity in the face also. All his past life came up before him and here he was, his gods gone, and nothing left to trust in. The dreadful thought of going into eternity unprepared pressed on his terror-stricken soul.

At this point he remembered those words, which had so impressed him in John 6: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” He had tried to reject and forget them then, but now, half doubting and half believing, he cried out: “Lord Jesus, if there is such a person, I come to Thee!”

The Saviour met him just as he was and just where he was, revealing Himself as a living, loving Saviour, as faithful to His own words as He always is, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

Meanwhile, a boat had set out and they reached the spot just in time to save his life.

Saved—not only from drowning, but from eternal misery too. Saved—from a watery grave and saved from an eternity without God and without Christ. At once he confessed Christ to the one who had come down to swim with him.

He soon confessed Christ as his Lord openly and boldly to his own relations, who utterly disowned him for becoming a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to England and became a teacher of oriental languages and also an earnest preacher of the gospel. There he told how the Lord Jesus met and saved his soul.

“When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly.”

Romans 5:6

A Light in the Night

The night of the Christian is lighted by the love of Jesus, and it is ended by a morning that has no evening, “for there shall be no night there.” Think of heaven, that happy scene where “the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof . . . for there shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:23,25). A place of eternal and unfading glory!

“The morning cometh, and also the NIGHT.” Oh, what a night without Christ! Go into eternity without Christ, and what will it be? All night! All night! There will be no morning to that awful night, nothing but “the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13).

The night has not yet come, but who can say how near it is? While it is still day—the day of His grace—Jesus calls in tender love, “Come unto Me.”

A Sleeping City - A Weeping Saviour

It was night. The sun had long since set behind Mt. Carmel in the west, and from mid-heaven the moon shone down upon the great guilty city. The song of the drunkard was ended, and he slept heavily. Weary workers had sought rest from the labor of the day and in sleep would find strength for the day to come. The quiet of night erased the lines of care from the faces of tired mothers, while their little ones slept peacefully near them. Business problems were forgotten; all seemed at rest.

But toward the east, on Mt. Olivet, stood a Stranger, solitary and alone. Travel-weary, wet with the dew. He stood and looked upon the city, and through His eyes, compassion shone. As He looked, He wept.

It was Jesus the Nazarene from the plains of Galilee. Still the city slept; the Weeper and His tears were all unheeded by those for whom He wept. But wakeful heaven looked on in wonder, and multitudes of angels bowed and worshipped at the sight.

Jesus is the Lord of heaven, the eternal Son of God; yet there He stood without a home upon the earth His hands had made. Why? The reason is not far to seek. Men’s hearts were full of sin, and His was full of love. He came to bring them blessing, to flood their land with joy from heaven. He came to shield them from evil, as the mother bird shelters her young beneath her wing when the hawk approaches.

But they would not. They slept indifferently. His words, His works, His tears did not awaken any love for Him. The city slept. How dark was that slumber!

He stood and wept, then passed onward to the cross. He died; His blood was shed. His love passed the test. He died for sinners, for those who hated Him, and being raised from the grave He sent His followers with the word of life into the city over which He wept.

Nearly two thousand years have passed away since then, and still the Saviour-Jesus sends the message of salvation to all. But still there are thousands who sleep indifferently in a dark and dreadful slumber—the sleep of sin. They do not want Christ, nor God, nor heaven. How terrible the awakening will be!

“It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Romans 13:11-12).

“Awake thou that sleepest . . . and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14).

"Take, Take!"

After a gospel meeting, a woman went to the preacher and said, “You are always saying, ‘Take, take!’ Is there any place in the Bible where it says, ‘Take,’ or is it only a word you use? I have been looking in the Bible but cannot find it.”

“Why,” said the preacher, “the Bible is sealed with it; it is almost the last word in the Bible.”

Then he quoted Revelation 22:17: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

“Well,” she said, “I never saw that before. Is that all I have to do?”

“Yes, the Bible says so.”

And she took it right away!

All of us at some time in our life have imagined that we had to give God something, but God cannot accept anything we have done or may do in the future as a means of salvation. God is the GIVER; we must be the receivers, and until we TAKE from Him, all the good deeds which we have done are of no account in His holy eyes.

“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Oh, take with rejoicing from Jesus at once

The life everlasting He gives!

And know with assurance you never can die

Since Jesus, your righteousness, lives.

Christ for Me

We speak of the mercy of God,

So boundless, so rich, and so free!

But what will it profit, my soul,

Unless ’tis relied on by thee?

We speak of salvation and love,

By the Father, in Jesus, made known;

But if I would live unto God,

By faith I must make it my own.

We speak of the Saviour’s dear name,

By which God can sinners receive;

Yet still I am lost and undone,

Unless in that name I believe.

We speak of the blood of the Lamb,

Which frees from pollution and sin;

But its virtues by me must be proved,

Or I shall be ever unclean.

We speak of the glory to come,

Of the heavens so bright and so fair,

But unless I in Jesus believe,

I shall not, I cannot be there

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10

Echoes of Grace: 1996

Table of Contents

Mount Pelée

A Fatal Illness: The Story of Larry

"Oh, American!"

"He Can't Send Me to Heaven!"

For Me

One Sheep

Almost

I'm Ready!

Go Home

Your Time

The Hawksbill Turtle

"I Am so Tired!"

"Jesus"

An Ignored Treatment

"White Rain!"

"Not a Single Guilty Man"

Will You Not Come to Him?

"I Can Make It!"

Better to Never Have Been Born

A Message to a Murderer

The Sinner's Dream

A Letter From a Hindu Scholar

To the Jew

Which Way?

The Guilty World

"This Is It!"

The Barometer

The Worst of Both Worlds

"I Will Give"

Christ Jesus Really Lived

A Bad House

Ruby's Dream

Out of This Life

Too Proud

Swept Out to Sea!

Adrift With One Oar

Ten-Million Dollar Pardon

Just One

Your Future Is Safe

Why Unbelieving?

Crooked Arm's Bravest Deed

"Died Rich"

"A Little Old River"

Which Side?

Whose Mark?

Five Minutes After I Die

It Can't Happen

A College Debate

"It Works!"

The Waiting Train

Room for Jesus

Prepared to Survive

The Text on the Rock

Never Late

Nothing Else

Asleep or Awake?

A Young Fisherman

"Christ for Me"

"In Jesus"

"Saved in the Cleft in the Rock"

"Granny"

Plaster Pie

Drop Down

People Stopped Believing

Rich and Educated?

John 5 and 24

"Old Forty-Five"

Blood Transfusion

Survival of the Fittest

Even in America!

Is He Willing?

"Listen! What Is That?

Who Died for Me?

"O God, Please Don't Let Me Drown!"

An Important Message

Nothing Left to Trust in

A Light in the Night

A Sleeping City - A Weeping Saviour