Echoes of Grace: 2000

It was about one o’clock in the morning when I boarded the express train and found the coaches full of sleeping travelers. Finding a seat, I noticed a stout, old man behind me. His seat was reclined and his head leaning against the side of the car. He was obviously sound asleep. I followed his example and was soon unconscious of all around.

How long I had been asleep I cannot tell, but suddenly I was awakened by a loud conversation going on behind me. My ears were shocked by the cursing which passed between the old man and two younger men. The old man was demanding money of them, which they refused to give. He declared that they had robbed him. They denied it. At last the young men slipped out to the smoking car, while the old man followed to find the conductor and ask his help.

By this time the sleepers were all aroused and curious to know what was happening. The old man’s reappearance was eagerly looked for. In a few minutes he returned, looked very dejected, and was promptly surrounded by half-a-dozen inquirers.

It was an old story. One of the younger men had awakened him from his sleep and asked him to try a game of “three-card monte.” At first he refused, but he sat and watched them play. Then it looked so easy that he agreed he would “try five dollars on it.” He lost, but the men were so surprised at his “bad luck” that he risked another five dollars.

“And,” interrupted one of the listeners, “you lost ten dollars?”

“Why,” the old man said, “I kept playing to regain my money until I lost one hundred! I thought, as I watched them, that it looked easy, and I made up my mind not to go too far-I never thought of losing,” and he wrung his hands at the thought of his lost dollars.

Poor man! Yes, poor man, indeed. He played a dangerous game, and he lost. But what about you? Are you also playing a dangerous game? What about that soul of yours? Is it saved yet? Or are you still in your sins? My friend, you are playing a dangerous game. You may not mean to lose, but continue as you are and the end will be loss-eternal loss. You know that “the wicked shall be turned into hell,” but you consider yourself to be respectable, moral, maybe even religious. It won’t do. You are playing a dangerous game if you are without Christ-if you have not been born again. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

It is not respectability, it is not morality, it is not even religiousness that can shelter a guilty soul from the wrath of a sin-hating God. But, there is salvation-salvation now and forever-at this moment for you. It is “today if ye will hear His voice” it is today that you must “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “Now is the accepted time...now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

If you postpone the decision, put it off till another time, or just plain neglect it, God has warned, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

The souls in hell never meant to go there. Not one meant to lose, but they played a dangerous game and they lost—lost forever. May you never join them in crying, “I never thought of losing!”

“I’ll Think It Over”

I was talking to a young soldier about accepting the Lord Jesus Christ. Like many people, he tried to evade the straight issue with the promise, “I’ll think it over.”

“Harry,” I said, “let me illustrate. You are out with the boys some night too close to the enemy’s lines, and on the way back you get hard hit. Bill Smith stops long enough to pick you up and carry you back to our lines, and for his trouble gets a bullet in his back. You are both taken to the field hospital, and with much difficulty you are won back from the very jaws of death.

“Some time later the doctor comes along helping a poor fellow who limps badly and moves with difficulty. They stop at your bedside and the doctor says, ‘Harry, I want to introduce you to Bill, the man who risked his own life to save you,’ and you fold your arms and say, ‘I’ll think it over. I don’t know whether I want to make his acquaintance today or not.’

“You wouldn’t say that, Harry, would you? You would grip him by the hand and try to tell him something of the gratitude you felt. I want to introduce you tonight to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man from the glory, who not only risked His life but sacrificed it to save you-and you propose to turn your back on Him and say you’ll think it over!”

“No,” he said, “I’ll accept Him now.” Together we knelt while he told the Lord that he there and then accepted Him as his own personal Savior.

Are you “thinking it over,” or have you faced the issue squarely and decided right like my soldier friend?

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

“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.

Almost

“Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

Acts 26:28

So near to the door-and the door stood wide!

Close to the port-but not inside;

Near to the fold-yet not within;

Almost persuaded to give up sin!

Almost persuaded to count the cost!

Almost a Christian-and yet lost!

Savior, I come, I cry unto Thee;

Oh let not these words be true of me;

I want to come to the point today;

Oh, suffer me not to turn away;

Give me no rest till my soul shall be

Within the refuge-safe in Thee!

Asleep on the Tracks

Asleep on the railroad tracks! How could anyone be so foolish?

Certainly not you! Not me! But-it happens.

Recently a young man was stretched out across the tracks, his head resting on the rail. A freight train was on the track, and the engineer frantically blew his whistle and struggled to brake and stop the train. He knew he could not stop in time, and there was no response from the teenager on the tracks.

Suddenly, at the last minute, the sleeper sat up groggily, a second before the train hit him and hurled him off the tracks. Stunned paramedics reported that his last-minute response was all that kept him from being decapitated by the braking train.

Airlifted by helicopter to the hospital, he was in for a long siege of repair of broken bones and then rehabilitation, but he lived. He will have another opportunity for life on earth and a chance to receive eternal life as well if he will turn to the Savior.

There was once another man-call him “Jim” who slept on the tracks. On his way home one night, very late-and very drunk-Jim had to cross a railroad track. His foot caught on a rail and he stumbled and fell. There he lay on the roadbed, and for some hours he slept, unconscious of his danger.

Suddenly Jim was aroused. Someone had seized his shoulder and he was quickly dragged to one side. Thinking that it was a police officer, Jim muttered “go easy” and promised to go with him quietly. Then a voice cried out to him to lie perfectly still. To Jim’s horror, the next instant a freight train rushed past, car after car, with clicking, grinding steel wheels. Jim was just barely out of their reach!

Now Jim was wide awake and thoroughly sober. Well he might be! Had he remained another minute on those rails his Christless soul would have entered eternity-a lost eternity. Deeply conscious of the inevitable death that must have been his had not that friendly hand rescued him, he staggered to his home. The thought of what might have happened haunted him. He could neither eat nor sleep, and it was impossible to work. Filled with terror, he felt as though hell had opened before him like a yawning pit.

He felt, too, that God had spoken to him, and he could not close his ears to that voice. If it was a warning from God, there must be a purpose in it a purpose of blessing to poor Jim. So he reasoned, and so he found. To escape from that terrible eternal destiny, he could not rest until he had made certain the salvation of his soul and his destiny settled forever. He received the Lord Jesus as his own and only Savior, and at last his restless heart found peace in believing.

If still unsaved, you too may be sleeping on the brink of eternal doom. May God in mercy awaken you to a sense of your danger before it is too late. “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. 13:11)!

“Awake thou that sleepest,...and Christ shall give thee light.” Eph. 5:14

The Bible

Have you ever read the Bible? Really read it? Not just to learn a verse for Sunday school, but seriously, thoughtfully, read it?

The Bible is the “best-seller” of all time-more copies of it have been sold than any other book; it has been translated into more languages than any other, but it is said that 90 million Americans have never read it! (Are you one of them?)

Polls have shown that nine out of ten high school students claim to believe in God-but only one in ten reads the Bible. Believing in God, how can one not read His book? It is the only way to learn about Him-and the truth about humanity (including oneself), for the whole picture of human life is there and the entire scope of history past and future. It is the best and only true guide through this troubled world.

And 90 million Americans have not read it!

The Bible is the oldest book. The five books of Moses were written seven hundred years before Rome was built.

It is the truest book. Others may err; the Bible cannot, simply because its Author is the eternal God the God who cannot lie. All that He says is truth.

It is the best-loved book. Men and women have laid down their lives for it. The rack, the gallows, the stake-even the lions of imperial Rome-have each failed to make the Lord’s saved ones give up, deny or cease to love the Bible. Even today there are places in the world where the mere possession of a Bible can lead to prison-torture-death. Still its wonderful message of hope and deliverance goes on.

Who can stop a river? Men may change its course, men may dam it up, but it flows on. Who can stop the rain? Who can stop the snow? God has promised that His Word shall go forth as the rain and the snow-it shall be irresistible. “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11).

Please...read the Bible!

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4

“Thy [God’s] word is truth.” John 17:17

Blondin

Niagara Falls has always been a challenge to daredevils. One of the first to succeed in crossing the river gorge on a tightrope was a Frenchman known only as “Blondin.” In 1859 he made his first crossing; later he did variations: pushing a wheelbarrow, carrying a man on his back, blindfolded, and once stopping halfway across to cook an omelet!

Great crowds gathered whenever he performed his dangerous stunts. He had a cable across from Canada to the States and a platform built where he could begin and end his walks above the throng. When it was announced that he was going to perform, people lined the banks on both sides of the river, standing in a hushed silence as he grasped his balancing rod and made his way across from Canada to the States. There was nothing to be heard but the roar of the Falls itself until he reached the other side. Then the shouts of the onlookers were almost enough to drown the sound of the Falls!

He went back, and again there was that shout of acclaim. Then his attendant climbed up the ladder to his little platform and gave him a wheelbarrow. He set it on the cable, and then, without his rod, he started again over to the American side. He made it! As they were shouting and cheering, he stood there, and, looking down into the audience, he saw a little freckle-faced boy looking up with worship and awe on his face.

He shouted, “Little boy, do you believe I could put you in this wheelbarrow and take you to Canada?”

“Oh, yes! I believe!”

“Then come on up here!”

The little boy turned and ran, crying, “Mama! Mama!”

How many people hear the Word of God and say, “I believe!” but never really act on it. That little boy didn’t really believe; he just said he did. It is not enough to say, “I believe the Bible.” (“The devils also believe, and tremble.”)

What does it mean to believe? It means to take hold of for yourself. It means to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work He did on Calvary-to receive Him as your Savior-to believe His promises for time and eternity.

“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).

Byron and Paul: A Contrast

The poet Byron wrote before he died:

“My days are in the yellow leaf,

The fruit, the flower of life is gone;

The worm, the canker and the grief

Are mine alone!”

Paul, the Apostle, wrote just before he died:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8)!

Can a Criminal Go to Heaven?

While working as a state probation and parole counselor, a young man I had tried to help in the past asked me to come and visit him in jail. I was glad for the opportunity to talk with him and tell him again about the love of God for him. As we visited he told me that it was too late for him, for he was a criminal and was heading for prison. I tried to tell him that it is never too late to come to God while we are still alive, but he could not be convinced. He had decided that he was too bad and could not be helped. That was the last time I saw him.

This young man was looking inside himself for assurance that he was good enough to be saved, but he could only see there his sin, his helplessness and his failure. He was unable or unwilling to look to Jesus the Savior and away from himself.

I knew his history. His family had failed him, and he would not believe that anyone could or would help him. So in his bitterness he turned to rough friends and lived recklessly and foolishly. He could not lift himself above his past and would not believe in God’s love for him. He did not know that “when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up” (Psa. 27:10), for he did not know his God.

Let me illustrate this. Not long ago my mother died of pneumonia at age 92. When she couldn’t overcome congestion from a cold, we took her to the hospital. The doctor gave her medication, but he said the real test was whether or not she could throw off the congestion in her lungs. For three days we watched her fade away, as she struggled to breathe in an oxygen tent. Finally, like the young man, unable to overcome her condition, she left this life to enter eternity.

My mother’s condition is like sin in our lives. If we are unable to remove it, though we fight it all our days, it will overcome us and bear us down to hell. The young man I visited was one who had given up fighting it and decided there was no hope for him. But God has good news for us. He says there is a remedy for us.

God tells us that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). Thankfully, “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). If we receive God’s remedy, Christ the Savior, we will go to heaven with a full pardon, for Christ died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

No one is good enough to work a way into heaven. No one is so bad that God cannot save them. You and I and the young man need to stand upon the promise of God: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

The Cat Burglar

When I was a youngster in a mill town of the South many years ago, one of my playmates was a small boy known by all of us as “Little Joe.” Many were the good times we had together, and Little Joe usually was along and figured prominently in most of our escapades.

I remember so well how, in the spring, “marbles for keeps” occupied us for hours. Summer brought the whole gang to the swimming hole, and Little Joe was a frequent winner in our stick-diving contests. But years have passed since those days of simple pleasures.

One morning, while reading in my hometown newspaper, I was attracted by an article with bold headlines:

“CAT BURGLAR STILL AT LARGE”

The city was being terrorized by a burglar with extremely sly and catlike abilities, including easily gaining access to upper story windows. Every effort made by the authorities to trap him had been cleverly evaded, and the situation had continued for some time.

Late one evening (true to the word of the everlasting God, “Be sure your sin will find you out”; Numbers 32:23), a man was seen furtively entering a residence. The alarm, quickly sounded, was answered immediately, and a bloody fight followed.

Later that night the “cat burglar” was no longer at large. Shot and seriously wounded, the burglar was carried to a local hospital under guard.

Reading of the wounding and capture of the criminal, I was struck by the name, Joe Davis. Could he possibly be my former playmate, Little Joe? I decided to go and inquire.

At the hospital I was told that I must have permission from the police before entering the room. This was finally granted by the Chief of Police whom I knew personally, and I was allowed to enter the prisoner’s room.

There he lay-motionless-his face turned toward the wall. I approached his bed and softly called his name. He painfully turned his head and opened his eyes. I repeated his name, my name, and the name of our little town, and he recognized me! It was Joe! Little Joe-my friend!

“Joe,” I said softly, though he had closed his eyes again, “if I had seen you ten years ago I could have told you of the Savior’s love. I might have been used by God to have saved you from this terrible condition, for by His grace I have known the Lord Jesus Christ’s saving and teaching power for the last ten years.

“Joe, won’t you accept Jesus as your Savior now? He can save you from your guilt and sins just as His blood washed away the sins of the dying thief on the cross-because he believed. You are in such a critical condition and soon may pass into eternity. Won’t you trust in that blood of Calvary, shed for sinners such as you and me? Then no matter what happens, you will be ready to go to be with Him in the glory above.

“‘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).

I took his hand in mine and waited. With tears slipping down his cheeks, he opened his eyes for a moment and I caught a feeble murmur from his lips: “I do—I do trust Him.”

Kneeling at Joe’s side I prayed to our Savior, thanking Him for saving such sinners as Joe and me and praising Him for His wonderful grace and love.

We parted—never to meet again on earth. But, praise His name, through faith and mutual belief in the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, Joe and I shall meet in the glory.

Do you know Christ as your Savior? You may say, “I’m no thief!” No, but you are a sinner. God has declared that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

There is nothing that can save a sinner but the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him today!

Christ and Nicodemus

If a gardener wishes to test the good of the apples on a given tree, he does not gather for a sample a withered apple nor a worm-eaten one. He picks the largest, the ripest and the best! Then when he has tasted it, if he has found it to be sour and unacceptable, he rightly judges the whole crop of that tree to be sour and worthless.

So has He who is the Truth, the blessed Son of God, judged and condemned what is in man. This we learn when He said to law-keeping, religious Nicodemus, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

Not one bad thing do we hear of Nicodemus in the Bible. He was not a sinner of the Gentiles, like the wicked Corinthians, neither was he a Samaritan, like the sinful woman of Sychar. He was a teacher of Israel, the chosen nation of pure creed and strict orthodoxy. Moreover, being a circumcised man, Nicodemus was outwardly separated to God in his flesh.

More than this, Nicodemus believed that Jesus was a teacher come from God, and he came to learn of Him. And yet the only teaching this model man received from the lips of the Lord Jesus is his own exclusion from the kingdom of God because of his sinful nature.

This excellent specimen of Adam’s fruit is pronounced worthless, unfit for God. There must be a new nature, another life altogether distinct from that which man receives from his natural parents, or man cannot enter the kingdom of God. Adam and his race are flesh, of the earth. God will only have in His kingdom what is born of His Spirit-born from above.

And where is this new nature to be found? It is from that very Man who says to Nicodemus, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

How can that Holy One give His life to sinful man? Hear Him as He unfolds the wonderful news of love to dying souls:

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

He Himself, God’s Son, will bear the judgment of God that is due to man. He Himself must be nailed to the cross-LIFTED UP-in order that He may give His own eternal life to whosoever believes in Him.

Man is born of God by acceptance of and faith in His crucified Son. And by this he lives to God, a new man in Christ.

Have you found life in the Lord Jesus Christ, who as Son of Man was lifted up on the cross, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life?

“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22).

Decide for Christ Now

“Will you decide now?” was the question I asked an elderly man, but no answer followed. I waited, and still waited, but no answer came.

“When will you decide?” was my next question, but still no answer.

“Will you decide twenty years from now?” Twenty years-twenty years-and the man already old!

“No,” he said, “it is not likely that I shall live twenty years.”

“Then will you decide in ten years?”

“No,” said he, “I dare not put it off ten years.”

“Then will you decide in five years?”

“No,” he replied, “I am afraid to delay for five years.”

“Then will you decide this time next year?”

“No,” he said, “I might die before next year.”

“Then will you decide this day next month?”

His answer was slow in coming.

It may be that the devil suggested that four weeks would soon roll around and that he might safely wait that length of time, but at last he said, “No, I should not wait a month.”

“Then will you decide this day next week?”

Again he said, “No.”

“Then will you decide this time tomorrow?”

Tomorrow! So near at hand! Tomorrow, only a few hours away!

Tomorrow! “No,” said the old man. “I ought to decide now.”

Why now? Age, wisdom, conscience, time, eternity and Scripture all furnish the reason why. Their unanimous, loud, long and only cry is NOW! NOW! NOW!

If still undecided, say when shall it be? When? It may be NOW-or NEVER. God says, “NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Decide for Christ NOW!

“Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Prov. 27:1

Do You Really Want to Be a Millionaire?

What a furor! The state lottery has surged to a new high, promising instant millions of dollars to the winner. There are long lines of people willing to risk their last dollar on the slight chance of being the next millionaire.

Is it worth it? They say that everyone wants to be a millionaire and the quickest way possible! The lottery-the stock market-even a television show-all promise instant wealth and gratification. But real happiness?

One man, once called the “luckiest man in Florida” with a $20 million payout, is now trying to dig out of debt by way of Bankruptcy Court. Behind him lies a trail of lost homes, lost business, lost family-nothing is left but the tax debt, which grows bigger every year.

An early millionaire, Cornelius Vanderbilt, spent a lifetime amassing his millions. At his death his heirs divided over $100 million, supposed to be the largest fortune left up to that time. Had it made him happy?

When he was dying, he heard someone mention the old hymn, “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy.”

He exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! Sing that-I am poor and needy!”

It is evident that what people value most wealth-is absolutely worthless in eternity. “For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away” (Psa. 49:17). Our Lord once said, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). He immediately added the story of the rich fool. This man, apparently honest, economical, careful and industrious, gradually accumulated so much that his storehouses were too small to hold all his riches. He resolved to build new and larger ones to provide for many years to come. But he had made the huge blunder of leaving out all thought of God in his calculations. When death claimed his soul, he was totally unprepared to meet God. He was a fool indeed.

Being rich or poor in this world is only a temporary state and not to be compared with the lasting, eternal riches of glory. “As it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

What is the Lord Jesus Christ to you?

Does Prayer Work?

Yes, prayer does work! Major Allen Lindberg of Westfield, New Jersey, is convinced of that. He was pilot of a Boeing Flying Fortress forced down at sea while on his way to Australia. He and his crew of nine were given up for lost.

“It was before dawn when we crashed,” Major Lindberg reports. “We had just time to shove off on two rubber rafts, without a crumb of food or a drop of water. The boys were pretty worried-all except Sergeant Albert Hernandez. Right away that lad from Dallas started praying, and pretty soon he startled us by announcing that he knew God had heard him and would help us out.”

Drifting beneath a broiling sun, their lips were too cracked and their tongues too swollen to join Hernandez in singing hymns, but their prayers continued just the same. On the third day just before nightfall they saw the outline of a small island. Soon after that they saw the almost unbelievable spectacle of three long canoes filled with men coming toward them.

The men proved to be aborigines from Australia. They told Lindberg and his crew that the day before they had been fishing far from home. Turning homeward with their catch, a strange urge came over them. Something impelled them to change their course and steer for this uninhabited coral atoll. And from that atoll they spied Lindberg and his companions.

What relief for the airmen! Water-and food and rescue from the lonely sea. We can believe that these men who had such an experience of the providence of God learned to know Him personally. Hopefully, they not only realized that the God who is able to save from physical death can also be trusted with the vastly more important matter of life AFTER DEATH. Physical death is a small matter compared with the eternal, everlasting loss of a soul.

Sergeant Hernandez knew the power of prayer, and the other eight men learned it in a way they could never forget. You may never be adrift on the Pacific Ocean, but unless you turn to the Lord Jesus as your Savior and guide, you are drifting dangerously in the turbulence of the world-and may be sucked under its waves at any moment. Why not turn to the Lord and prove for yourself that He hears, He cares and He saves? “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

Don’t Forget!

Don’t forget that you are MORE than a mass of breathing clay (Gen. 2:7).

Don’t forget that there is SOMETHING WITHIN YOU which the grave digger cannot bury (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Don’t forget that YOUR SOUL will outlast the hills which look eternal (Matt. 10:28).

Don’t forget that YOU will soon be and live in that ETERNITY which lies before you (Job 14:2).

Don’t forget that HEAVEN and HELL are eternal realities (Luke 16:22-23).

Don’t forget that those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ will be LOST FOREVER (John 8:21).

Don’t forget that NOW is the accepted time... NOW is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).

Drifting!

Joe Vinson was found lying in the bottom of a small boat when he was picked up by the S. S. Eldorado. Naked and delirious, he was chewing on what was left of his clothing-part he had already eaten. A storm had come up while he was fishing with two of his friends, and the boat, anchored out in the bay, broke loose from its mooring. His companions swam ashore, but Joe, unable to swim, stayed in the boat and was carried out to sea.

The boat drifted for nearly a week. Joe, exposed to wind and weather and burning sun, suffered intensely. When picked up, he had drifted 530 miles!

He only drifted; that was all. He did nothing but just went with the wind and the tide, and that drifting nearly cost him his life. When we once get loose away from God’s Word, we may drift anywhere!

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard” (Heb. 2:1). If we do not, we may drift away from them.

Drifting away from hope’s blessed shore...

Drifting away where wild breakers roar...

Drifting, and stranded, and wrecked evermore...

Far from the light of God!

Why will you drift on billows of shame...

Spurning His grace again and again?

Soon you’ll be lost, in sin to remain...

Drifting away from God.

Faith

Can you take the barren soil

And with all your pains and toil

Make lilies grow?

You cannot, O helpless man;

Have faith in God-He can.

Can you paint the clouds at eve?

And all the sunset colors weave

Into the sky?

You cannot, O powerless man:

Have faith in God-He can.

Can you still your troubled heart,

And make all cares and doubts depart

From out your soul?

You cannot, O faithless man;

Have faith in God-He can.

God Is Love

Some people say that they can’t see how God can “hate sin” and yet “love the sinner.” It isn’t that hard to understand! The Bible tells us that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Please notice the words “while we were yet sinners.” It does not say, “After we became saints,” nor does it say, “When we were trying to be saints.” That is how some would try to read the gospel story, but God loved us when we were still sinners, and He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us in order that we might be delivered from our sin.

God’s love for mankind-sinful mankind-has never failed since the day that man came forth from his Creator’s hand, but sin has entered and separated us from God. And the wages of sin is death. Justice has entered; penalties and punishments have fallen on transgressors, but love remains.

A poor woman whom I once met told me that after she had lost her husband and everything seemed dark to her, she happened one day to turn over the pages of a Bible without paying much attention to what she was reading. Suddenly a verse stood from the page before her: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3). It was like a stream of sunlight shining into her soul.

She closed the book to think of everlasting love, and just then it dawned upon her that she had forgotten to notice where these wonderful words were. It was a long time before she found them again, but the light and comfort that then entered her heart never left her.

To all who read this we would say, “God loves you, and longs to bless and save you. Why not, then, take Him at His word and receive that everlasting love?”

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

The Greatest Tragedy

When we hear of catastrophes, earthquakes, floods, airplane crashes-disasters of all kinds-we are shocked at the loss of so many human lives. But the greatest tragedy is for someone to die who could have been saved!

The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah was terrible. Suddenly all the inhabitants were destroyed by fire and brimstone falling from heaven. Lot warned his family, but “he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.” And they died, although they could have been saved.

It was a tremendous catastrophe when the flood broke out. We read in the Bible, “The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Gen. 7:11-12).

How desperately the people must have fought to save their lives! But Jesus said long after, “The flood came, and took them all away.”

Was that the greatest tragedy? No, what was worse was the fact that they had had the opportunity of salvation before their eyes for one hundred and twenty years, but they let the Lord Himself close the door of the ark without ever having used it.

We must see this clearly. According to the law of the Bible, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). But God, in His great love with which He has loved us, sent His Son-Jesus Christ-and accomplished the greatest thing in the history of mankind. He brought forth salvation when He shed His blood for your sins and mine on Calvary’s cross. Not only did He die, but He also rose from the dead for our justification.

Now you can avoid the greatest tragedy. For almost 2000 years God has caused the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached throughout the world. The appeal is going out even to this day: “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

The commission of the church of Jesus Christ on earth will soon reach its conclusion. The events which are taking place before our eyes fulfill so precisely the prophetic word that even the simple cannot fail to see that we are living in the last times.

The question now is, Have you accepted God’s offer of mercy? Have you received the Lord Jesus, who shed His blood for your sins, as your own personal Savior? Are you saved for eternity? Perhaps you will say, “No,” or, “I don’t know.” Then you are in danger of the greatest tragedy.

What is that? You will be eternally lost wood such tragedy and come to Jesus this very day. The Bible says in Isa. 55:6, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.”

If there is darkness in your heart, if you are tormented by the thought of your past failures and sins, if your conscience is sin-burdened, you are being offered in Jesus Christ full forgiveness and a glorious salvation. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

If you are reading this and know that this means you, then go down on your knees now and call on God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell Him in truth and repentance, “Yes, Lord Jesus, I accept you as my Savior and Redeemer.” You will avert the greatest tragedy in your life, namely, to be lost forever when you could have been eternally saved.

Of those in Noah’s day, it is said that they “knew not.” Of those in Lot’s time, the Bible says, “He seemed as one that mocked.”

What do you say?

“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matt. 16:26

He Came!

Into a world of misery and shame,

Into a scene of sorrow and pain,

Into the realm of a rebel’s reign,

The Lord of glory came.

Came with a message of love and cheer,

Came with words that banish our fear,

Came with power for all who would hear-

Power to set them free.

Taking our sorrows only to groan,

Taking our burdens in love alone,

Taking our sin to be judged as His own,

Kinsman-Redeemer He!

Passing the rich and calling the poor,

Passing self-righteousness for the publican’s door,

Passing by angels, to man He drew near-

Savior of sinners He!

He Died for Me!

A shipwrecked sailor in a heavily over-loaded boat deliberately jumped overboard in order to lighten the boat; consequently his eleven shipmates were saved. For which of the eleven did he die?

If Christ died for all, He died for each-for one no more than another. So Christ loved ME and gave Himself for ME.

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

He Said It

A poor, sinful woman once came to Jesus when He was here on earth. There was no question as to her guilt; she was notorious in the city where she lived. Ashamed both for her sin and for herself, with an aching heart she followed the Lord into the Pharisee’s house. There, with tears of penitence, she washed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with the hairs of her head. (See Luke 7:36-50.)

What a picture! Was there ever such a contrast? There was the holy, sinless Son of God, and there was an unholy, sinful, degraded woman-and they met!

How should we have acted in such a case, if such a one entered our house while we were entertaining guests? Wouldn’t we have done our best to quietly get rid of her, to prevent at any cost our most honored guest from even a glimpse of her polluting presence?

Not so Jesus! He was not ignorant of the character of the woman who knelt to wash His feet. Well did He know her sins were many. Well did He know the conflict raging in her heart between hope and fear. Well did He know the change which had taken place in the heart of that poor, sinful, penitent woman. He needed no information as to all that. He knew it all, and He allowed her to have her own way and to express what was in her heart.

And what shall we say of Jesus now? Is He changed at all?

No, truly! He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). The most degraded and abandoned may come to Him still and find the truth of His own words, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Jesus did not make light of nor excuse the woman’s sin. No. He said, “Her sins, which are many, ARE FORGIVEN.” Then turning to the woman herself, He gave her the assurance in her own soul of forgiveness-salvation-peace. He made no demands. He gave these blessings and gave them ungrudgingly.

Now, suppose we had met that woman on her way from the Pharisee’s house and had asked her how she knew she was forgiven and saved. What do you think she would have answered?

She would not have spoken of her tears, nor the ointment she put on the Lord’s feet, nor would she have spoken of her feelings or experiences. No! She would only have said, “He said it!”

What did He say to her? He said, “Thy sins are forgiven.” He said, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” And He said, “Go in peace” (Luke 7:48,50). Wouldn’t that be assurance sufficient for anyone?

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

High Risk

A very attractive and healthy-looking young woman walked into the doctor’s office one day to have a routine physical examination. The doctor examined her a bit and then began to ask some routine questions about herself and her family’s health. One question he asked was, “Is there any history of cardiovascular disease in your family? In other words, does anyone in your family have trouble with their heart or blood vessels?”

“Oh yes. None of the women in my family lived more than 35 years.”

“None of them?” asked the doctor in surprise.

“None,” she answered.

“Well, we’d certainly better check your cholesterol level,” said the doctor.

Cholesterol is a necessary substance that everyone manufactures in his or her own body. We also get it from some of the foods we eat. It forms a part of the membrane of every cell; the problems come when we get too much of it and it begins to clog our blood vessels and puts us at high risk of having a heart attack.

When the laboratory tested this young woman’s blood, they found her cholesterol to be over 400 more than twice as high as it should have been! She looked healthy and felt healthy, but regardless of looks and feelings, she was in great danger. Her cholesterol level had to be brought down to 200 or less immediately.

Neither you nor I may have a cholesterol problem, but every one of us has something that puts us at certain risk of death. And the Great Physician says the level must be brought down to zero right now. The problem is the sin in our lives, for “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Yet not one sin will ever enter heaven to spoil it as sin spoiled the earth and started it on the downward course to disaster that it is still on today.

For that healthy-looking young woman, the doctor had a remedy. He gave her some pills that inhibited the manufacture of cholesterol within her own body and soon her cholesterol level dropped to normal. The doctor saved her life!

The Lord has a wonderful remedy for us too. “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). Christ has already died for us, and if we trust Him and accept His payment for our sins, the level of our sins in God’s sight is immediately brought down to zero. I have accepted His remedy; the Lord Jesus has saved my soul.

Have you taken God’s remedy? Have you trusted the Lord Jesus to wash away your sins in His precious blood? If you do, you will bring glory to God and happiness to your own soul.

“Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” Luke 15:7

How Long?

How long did Rahab the harlot wait before she tied the scarlet line in the window, when the spies told her that the house, which was marked by the scarlet line, should be spared when the city was destroyed? And how long did Cornelius wait before he sent his servants to fetch the Apostle Peter when the angel told him to do so?

Oh, you who say you would like to be saved and still put it off to a “more convenient season,” will you not both take courage and take warning? Do you think God doesn’t mean what He says when He speaks those blessed words: “NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2)? Does the God who sent His Son to die for us not care about your salvation? The hindrance is not on His side; it is on yours.

Perhaps you will think that Rahab and Cornelius belong to a specially favored class and that you are not like them. But have you done as they did? Have you gone to Jesus when you heard His word?

See in the book of Joshua how Rahab bound the line in the window immediately after she let down the spies. Nothing would do for her but to be right at once, and her house from that moment was marked for salvation.

Did Cornelius delay one hour after he heard the angel’s message? No, he felt there was no time to be lost.

“GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE” (Luke 10:37).

How Strange It Is That

How strange it is that, while the world is making so much progress in science and inventions, it makes none at all in righteousness or even in morality! Some people persuade themselves that the world is growing better, but when brought face to face with the actual facts, they are forced to admit that “evil men and seducers [are waxing] worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13).

The records of prisons, detention centers, courts and the plain proofs of increasing crime fully confirm the truth of the Word of God. Sad to say, the world’s progress is not in or toward goodness. The wonderful advances in inventions and discoveries, all the scientific achievements and triumphs of this day, cannot bring a soul nearer to God or blot out a single sin.

The world’s real progress is progress in pride and lust, in casting off the fear of God, in rejecting His precious Word. In these things humanity is making swift and sure progress. The world is converting the church to its own infidel views of worship of nature and scoffing at Scripture. God and His grace in Christ are being thrown aside by the fables of progressive theology, liberal views and the teachings of the so-called modern school.

Where do you find yourself today? Are you going on to eternity with the great multitude, through the wide gate and down the broad road?

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).

The Lord Jesus Christ warns us as to what is at the end of this broad, easy way in which the world is traveling. It’s the easiest way in the world to find. You need only to follow the crowd, take the easy way, be “broad-minded” and liberal in your views! The unerring Word of the Son of God tells you where it will end-“destruction.”

That is a hard word: DESTRUCTION. But it is the Word of the Son of God. He died to save you from it, and it is in mercy that He speaks this terrible word. It is a word of solemn warning. It stands at the end of the world’s progress.

It is not annihilation. The same One warns us, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

He who spoke this warning loved sinners so much that He left His place in glory and came into this world of ruin to die for them, to bear God’s holy wrath against sin. It is love that warns those who are following the broad road to destruction.

The narrow path, entered through the strait gate, leads to life. In this path there is real progress—progress in love, in faith and in the knowledge of God and of His grace. It is not progress that leads to destruction, but progress that ends in the blessed presence of the Son of God in glory.

All this rests on the work of redemption, finished by Christ on the cross. It is offered to you now, “without money and without price.”

“He, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isa. 55:1

The Hunter's Surprise

The man in the elevator was dressed in hunting clothes.

“Going hunting?” asked another passenger in the elevator.

“Yep,” said the hunter, and then in a confidential whisper he added, “Getting my dog into this hotel was the slickest trick I ever pulled. Nobody saw us, and the dog is up there in my room right now! Are you a hunter too?”

“Oh, no,” beamed the other fellow with his best smile. “I’m the manager of this hotel.” And the hunter was shocked and ashamed.

Dogs were not allowed in the hotel, but the hunter had managed to sneak his dog in anyway, regardless of the rules. But he gave himself away with his own tongue.

And many people today ignore God and break His laws and think they are getting away with something. They do not understand that God sees everything they do and say and even knows their secret thoughts.

What a surprise they have coming someday, for God will certainly bring them into judgment; they are not getting away with anything at all. The reason God does not do anything about it right now is because He is long-suffering toward us, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13

I Am Eighty-Eight Years Old!

A little while ago a poor old woman on crutches sat down beside me. Pointing to the Bible in my hand, she asked, “Been to church, my dear?”

“No,” I answered, “I have been reading the Bible to some dear old Christians who love to hear it but who cannot read it for themselves because they are blind.”

Here she interrupted me, exclaiming, “What would you think of a minister, if you had sent to him three or four times over, and he refused to come to you? Isn’t that a shame?”

“Did you particularly want to see the minister?” I asked, wondering whether her needs were physical, financial or spiritual.

“Yes, I did,” she replied and began pouring into my ears a list of complaints.

I listened for a few minutes, then I asked her, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?”

Angrily she spoke, “What a foolish question to ask anyone of my age! Do you know how old I am?”

“Age has nothing to do with it,” I answered. “There are many people as old as-and older than-you are who do not know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. It is one thing to say, He is the Savior, but quite another thing to be able to say, He is my Savior.”

“Don’t say another word! I know all about these things a great deal better than you do. I knew them before you were born. I am eighty years old!”

As I started to say something more to her, she stopped me, saying, “I don’t want to hear another word. Don’t say anything more.”

How strange to trust to her age alone for salvation! If she lived to be 100, would she find the secret of eternal life? Age alone will not tell her, nor will good deeds and living a “moral life” open that gate for her. Anything apart from Christ and His finished work is a false foundation. Jesus died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). There is no other way.

I Don’t Think About the End

“I Don’t Think About the End!”

“It’s all luck, and the end I don’t think about; I’m going to take my chance” was the statement of Captain Webb, the champion swimmer who became world famous by his successful swim across the English Channel.

Visiting the United States and viewing the Niagara Rapids, he declared his intention to swim across them. Some people thought this heroic, but those who knew the Rapids called him a fool.

One bright July day, in the presence of a crowd of cheering spectators, Webb leaped into the rushing waters. For a while he swam with the whirling torrent, but the eddying waters were more than a match for the strongest swimmer, and he was swept like a straw into the violent current and carried to his death. Men searched for miles for the body, and after four days it was found a mile and a half below the little town of Lewiston, New York.

How foolish! To risk his life for the sake of applause-applause which he did not live to enjoy! “It’s all luck” was the Captain’s word, but is it? He risked his life and lost it! He had said, “The END I don’t think about,” but was this wise?

Like the Captain, you may be “taking a chance,” but remember the words of Scripture: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). There is no answer, for what advantage could everything under the sun offer when man is called into eternity by—DEATH? “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

What advantage could fame, riches, honor and glory be, when the spirit leaves the body to spend eternity—WHERE? You may say, “Death ends all,” but the unerring Word of God declares:

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but AFTER THIS the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Captain Webb said, “The end I don’t think about.” Could you be as foolish?

Stop and THINK now, and get these eternal issues settled now while God waits to welcome the returning soul who will say, “I have sinned.” Why should you die in your sins? Why should you be eternally lost? Why not turn to Him NOW, and hear Him say, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”

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

Is Your Name Here?

An Englishman was visiting some friends in Wales. The son of his host took him to see a museum there, a very fine one. Before they left, one of the attendants asked the Englishman to sign what he called the “Distinguished Visitors Book.” He did so, noticing that the attendant took care to turn the pages of the book back to show the names of others written in it.

As the two men were leaving the museum, the younger one asked, “Did you ask the attendant if his name was written in the Lamb’s book of life?”

“No,” said the Englishman, “I did not!”

He went back and said to the attendant, “Did you see that young fellow who was with me in the museum?”

“Yes,” he answered, “I did.”

The Englishman said, “As we were going down the steps outside, he asked a very strange question. He inquired if I had asked you if your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. And so I have come back to ask you. Is it written there?”

“No, sir, it is not.”

“What age are you?”

“Sixty-five.”

“And you have been collecting names for some time in this museum, and your own name has not been put in a far greater Book! Sixty-five! Why, I have known that my name was written in that Book for sixty years, almost the length of your life! Now, everything in this museum has been made by man for a purpose. It stands to reason that God has not made and placed you and me in this world without a purpose! You and I are nearing eternity; is it not time that you had your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?”

Then he went on to tell the attendant of the love of God and of His Son, Christ Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit, all so vitally interested in our salvation. In a few words he told him WHY these divine Persons are so interested in sinners such as we. He said, “God Himself gives the only and sufficient answer: ‘God so loved...that He gave.’”

THIS IS IMPORTANT! That Book which he spoke of is the Lamb’s book of life. He who is the creator of heaven and earth was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Because He shed His own precious blood and died for sinners, He has the right to put down the name of everyone who comes to Him for forgiveness of sins. He has promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). In His Book our Savior who died for us writes our names; once written there by an eternal pen, they can never be erased.

But it must be your name, my friend, not someone else’s. You have to do with God for yourself. He who died to save dying sinners wants to inscribe every name He can in that glorious Book. If your name is not there, it is not the fault of the Lamb of God. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

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

It Is Finished!

Were Jesus on the cross,

The work were not completed,

But He to glory’s gone,

Above the heavens now seated.

Were Jesus in the grave,

Death had not been defeated,

But God has raised Him up,

And now the work’s completed.

Were Jesus not on high,

We had been doubting, fearing,

But every doubt is stilled

By Christ in heaven appearing.

Oh, ’tis a finished work,

And God delights to view it;

Oh, ’tis a wondrous work,

And none but Christ could do it!

And God is glorified;

Oh, wondrous, blessed story!

And rebel man is saved

And rendered fit for glory!

Justice and Mercy

A young man, a first offender, was given a very stiff sentence by the judge. A newspaper writer commented on the harsh sentence: “One gets sick of the everlasting cant about justice. The best of us does not want justice. The best of us could not look in the face of justice and bid it judge us. What is wanted in this world is a little less justice and a little more mercy.... Justice is not Christianity. Christianity is mercy.”

Some of this is true. Certainly none of us could face full justice! We could not face justice if it were only a question of how we have treated our fellow-men. What then could we expect if we were faced with the far greater question of our duty towards our great Creator-God? The Bible says, “In Thy [God’s] sight shall no man living be justified” (Psa. 143:2).

But should we forget the claims of justice? Definitely not! If it is announced tomorrow that for the next six months there will be no more “cant about justice” in the courts of the land-the very word “justice” will be banned-what would be your reaction? How would you feel? Pretty shaky!

You would expect unrestrained violence in the world, and that “mob law” would rule. You might be thinking of deadbolt locks and burglar bars, a good watchdog in the yard, and perhaps a revolver by the bedside!

But is it true that “justice is not Christianity”? Is Christianity only mercy? Is it a scheme by which God arranges to hand out benefits without regard to what is really right? A thousand times NO! If God the Judge of all does not adhere to strict justice in all His dealings, who of all His creatures could be trusted?

What, then, is Christianity? It is neither justice at the expense of mercy, nor mercy at the expense of justice, but both mercy and justice. In the very words of Scripture, it is “grace [reigning] through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). Is not this exactly what you need?

The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was God’s righteous settlement of the awful debt of sin. The glorious fact of the Savior’s own deity invests it with infinite value. Upon this all-sufficient basis God declares Himself to be ready to justify rather than to condemn-to justify in strict accord with every demand of justice. Thus it is that He can be “just, and the justifier.”

But He is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,” and of no others. The atoning work is truly done, but not the careless, the indifferent or the rejecters of His great offer of salvation obtain this blessing. Only the believer is the receiver of this mercy. Oh, are you one of these?

To believe in Jesus is not merely to believe about Him, but to personally trust Him as your Savior in true repentance. Do you believe in Him in this way? If not, whether or not men call it “cant” you may depend on receiving that evenhanded justice which you cannot face. If you do believe, you will rejoice that “mercy and truth are met together” and that Christianity is mercy and justice.

“Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [sacrifice] through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness...that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:24-26

A Lantern, but No Light

Crossing the canal that morning, I saw men searching the water. I asked what the matter was, and the old Christian who kept the narrow bridge told us the sad story. An 80-year-old man had drowned in the canal during the dense fog the night before. He ended with, “Aye, the poor old man, he had a lantern, but no light. If only he had come to me, I would have lit it for him gladly.”

That reminded me of the story in Matt. 25:3: “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them.”

Have you ever noticed the verse, “Five of them were wise, and five were foolish” (Matt. 25:2)? It is a sad thought that one half of those who went out to meet the bridegroom only appeared to be ready. They had lamps, but no oil. Outwardly, they were all just the same. All ten carried lamps, but only the coming of the bridegroom revealed the lack of the five. One could say that they were professors of religion, but they were not possessors.

How many people say, “Well, I am as good as the rest of them,” and so those five foolish virgins might have said, for all had “slumbered and slept” while they waited, but the test came at last and showed that the five foolish ones were not ready to meet him. Then “they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.”

The Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom of Matthew 25, will return to earth one day. Are you ready to meet Him? Have you received Christ Himself as your own personal Savior? Does the name of Jesus and the bright hope of His coming again bring a happy, loving response in your heart? Oh, do not rest until you can say from your heart, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

“Prepare to meet thy God.” Amos 4:12

Lay Hold!

Many years ago, as an engineer building bridges in New Zealand, I had a dangerous experience. Bridges in that country are short and subject to frequent and sudden flooding. The country is mountainous, and in the South Island much snow falls on the highlands in the winter months. Then a rain will bring the snow down with it, and within a few hours the rivers in the lowlands become swollen torrents.

Late one winter night it was necessary for me to cross a certain river in the South Island. Heavy rain had fallen and the river was running a “banker.” Less than half a mile downstream could be heard the roar of a cataract where the floodwater swept in a seething torrent over and around great rocks in a narrow pass in the converging hills. A short distance upstream there were other rapids. Between the two the waters of the broad river, although quiet on the surface, were deep and running strongly.

A small Maori canoe, rather leaky and not very “seaworthy,” was my only means of crossing, but I was young and strong and had had considerable experience in handling canoes. I was not afraid to take the risk, so I set out.

The night was cold and pitch dark, but all was going well until, when about halfway across, the canoe suddenly struck an unseen obstacle. In a second it was overturned and was swept away. I was left, fully clothed, struggling under water. I came to the surface half-drowned. With an effort I calmed myself and got my breath.

My plight was desperate. If I did not drown before being carried down into the rapids, certain death awaited me there unless by some means I could reach the far bank of the river. I struck out for the other side. Never a strong swimmer, with all my clothes and boots on I seemed to make very little headway, and all the time I was being carried nearer and nearer the dreadful rapids and certain death. Still I swam, and in the goodness of God I drew near a steep bank. There I dimly saw against the sky the outline of a tree from which a branch hung out over the river. Could I reach it? Could I lay hold of it? Would it bear my weight?

I was near the rapids. The angry roar of the swirling waters made me put forth all my strength, and I gained a few feet that brought me near the overhanging branch. As I was being carried past the branch I clutched at it with both hands. Through God’s mercy I did lay hold of it. The pull of the water sweeping down over the rapids and the weight of myself in sodden clothing drew the branch lower and lower till it seemed it would surely break and let me go. However, being green and tough, it held. It bore my weight! With a final effort I drew myself hand over hand to land and safety. It was with difficulty that I reached camp, but when I got there I heartily thanked God for His providential care and mercy. I soon had a fire lighted, and in its warmth I knew that all was well. We are all in the fast-flowing stream of time and being carried down to the great rapids of death. The Lord Jesus said: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” The word “strive” here really means to “agonize”-to be desperately in earnest. That exactly describes the state of mind I was in and the efforts I put forth that dark winter night in the flooded river. It was no halfhearted struggle on my part. Knowing it was a case of life or death for me, and no human aid at hand, I literally “agonized” to reach the branch of the tree. God knew all about it long before my need arose, and He caused that tree to grow on the bank of the river and its branch to extend out over the water. He had met my need, but it was essential that I lay hold of His means of safety. God knew from the past eternity that we would need a Savior, and “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. 4:4). The Son of God has done all that is necessary to save you. He has come all the way from the heights of glory to the depths of pain and shame and death on Calvary to save your poor lost soul. He is now in reach of you. Paul said in Acts 17:27, “They should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.” If I had not accepted God’s opportunity offered me that night in the river long ago, this story would never have been written. You are in the stream of time being carried down to the rapids of death. You may be almost there at this moment. Will you be swept away to a lost eternity? I beg you to accept the Savior now.

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

“Strive [agonize] to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24).

Lay Hold!

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

“Strive [agonize] to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24).

Lifted From the Sea

The Gulf Majesty was an ocean-going tugboat. Towing a 750-foot barge, it was on its regular run to Puerto Rico. Hurricane Floyd was approaching, but, “not to worry,” they would avoid the storm center and they had a pretty sturdy craft.

But-Hurricane Floyd was big and strong too, as large as Florida and Georgia combined, and soon they were confronted by waves of thirty-five feet or more and winds rising from sixty knots.

The tug began to take on water, and then the engine room flooded. With their ship powerless “dead in the water”-the eight men aboard realized the ship was doomed. They cut loose the barge and notified the Coast Guard that they were abandoning ship.

Five of the men clambered onto a bright orange raft just as an even higher wave washed over the deck. Snapping the lines that held the raft to the tug, the raft with the five men aboard was swept overboard. The three men left behind could only go into the water. Wearing their orange life jackets, they leaped into the water too. Fifteen minutes later they saw their ship sink.

The Coast Guard had immediately begun trying to contact any rescue vessel that might be within reach, but all were fleeing the oncoming storm. At last they contacted the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy—140 miles away.

The captain of the Kennedy and the admiral commander of the group decided to turn the huge carrier back into the hurricane and search for the men. Two Seahawk helicopters went up into the storm. The helicopters fought the wind for an hour, following the radio beacon one of the men from the lost ship had clutched before leaping into the waves. At last the helicopter crews saw, not the big raft with eight men aboard, but “three orange dots” in the water.

“Like rag dolls in a washing machine,” the men were being tossed and tumbled in the waves. Still they clutched the emergency locator beacon-their only hope of rescue-and a broken broom stick to keep themselves together. They had been four hours beaten about by the tumultuous waves.

Staring at those waves, fighting the wind, the leader of the rescue mission shook his head. He had told his men, “Swimmers in the water only as a last resort-and only if you are comfortable with it!”

But there was no other option. The exhausted men struggling in the waves had to be lifted by a stronger power. And Petty Officer Shad Hernandez responded to their plight. He jumped into the dark waters at great risk to himself. “When I first went in, I didn’t know how big the waves were!” he said but he managed to swim to the men and attach rescue straps to two of the men. Then he rode up with the third.

A fearful experience-great danger for all involved, both seamen and flyers. It faintly echoes the whole human race, adrift and lost in a turbulent world, and the One who came from above to save and rescue-“to seek and to save.” The flyers were safe on the enormous aircraft carrier, far from the center of the hurricane-but they came back through the storm to where the exhausted men were, and then they had to go into the raging waves themselves to lift them to safety.

There was no possibility the men could reach up to the hovering helicopter, even as we can build no ladder to heaven! Only the Lord Jesus Christ could make the way, and at great cost to Himself. He had to go all the way into the cold, dark waters of death and He did it for as many as would accept His way of life and peace.

“He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters” (2 Sam. 22:17). That was our side, and we can understand the despair of the men in the water and the almost unbelieving joy and relief when they were lifted to the deck of the John F. Kennedy, but who can ever, ever know what our salvation cost the Lord Jesus?

But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed,

Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through.

Like the men from the tugboat, we have nothing to offer but our grateful thanks and praise, but what does He ask of us? Only that we believe and receive!

The Little Frogs

Mr. Howard was getting ready one morning to mow the lawn, and as he was preparing to go outside his wife said to him, “Look down in the cellar window well.” You know, sometimes if the basement is deep, there’s a piece of metal that makes a wall around the window to keep the earth and grass away, and Mr. Howard had a fairly deep window well. Some little frogs had jumped into that deep window well. They couldn’t jump out, though when Mr. Howard saw them they were jumping up with all their might.

(You know, there are people in this world right now doing everything they can think of to get rid of their sins and to get into heaven. It won’t work! There is no way to climb, jump or fly to heaven by any human effort. Jesus only is the way.)

Well, these frogs were jumping. Some of them could jump oh-so-high, but they couldn’t jump quite high enough to escape from that slippery well.

Mr. Howard thought, Well, this will be no problem. So he got down in the grass, and he reached his arm down-down into that window well. The frogs jumped up toward his hand, but he found that the well was still too deep and his arm was too short. He could not get hold of those frogs. As much as he wanted to reach down and save those frogs from certain death, he couldn’t get hold of them. But the sinner who recognizes the need of a Savior will never find the Lord Jesus unable to reach him. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save” (Isa. 59:1).

He decided he would have to do something more, something other than just reach down in that window well. He would have to go down where they were. He stood up and he put one foot ever so carefully down into the window well without crushing those frogs. He took the other foot, and ever so carefully he put the other foot inside the window well, and he got right down in there with those little frogs.

Now there was no difficulty. Now he could just reach down and pick up those frogs. He picked them up, one by one, and let them go on the grass. Off they hopped across the lawn, without a moment’s hesitation.

Mr. Howard had to get right down where the little frogs were, even as the Lord Jesus had to come down to earth where we were. And the little frogs were lifted out one by one, even as we must be saved-one by one. But how far short the story comes! Mr. Howard had to step down very carefully and one by one save those little frogs, but really it didn’t cost him anything more than a few minutes of his time.

But oh! the Lord Jesus! What it cost Him to save us! He came down into this world it’s true there was that beautiful pathway of healing the sick, cleansing the leper, giving sight to the blind, speaking words of comfort and cheer-but that didn’t save my soul. That won’t save your soul either. He had to go all the way to the cross of Calvary, all the way to that terrible, shameful death (“He laid down His life for us”!) before He could reach out and lift one of His poor, miserable, sinful creatures. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psa. 40:2).

Have you accepted His outstretched hand?

Lost in the Woods

Another blinding flash of lightning-another crashing roar of thunder-and the four shivering children huddled closer to each other and to the old, rotten tree that they were clinging to for shelter. Pitifully inadequate was that shelter, as the rain beat down more strongly. In the shrieking darkness of midnight around them, the children were terrified.

Lost in the woods at midnight, drenched with rain, scratched and bruised and hungry-four six-year-olds waited-and feared.

Why didn’t someone come? Didn’t anybody care?

Of course they cared-many people cared. Many people were also out in that driving rainstorm, pressing through the thick, wet underbrush-searching, searching, searching for the children. Helicopters roared overhead whenever the rain slackened; floodlights probed through the brush-and the children were more terrified than ever. Would no one come?

Hours earlier they had been with eleven other children on a field trip to Alderman Ford Park. There are many nature trails through the thick woods. Leaving the picnic pavilion, the children followed, with two chaperones, along one trail and then another. What a great change from the routine of their day care center! But when the little group gathered at last at the pavilion, four were missing: Alexis, Cody, Rachel and Zachery.

First the chaperones searched, then police-then relatives and scores of volunteers were searching on foot and on horseback through the thick woods.

Jeff Brombeloe was one of the volunteers. He said, “I’ve got two young ones of my own....No way I could go to sleep knowing there were four kids out there lost!”

With two others he walked through the woods, shouting and looking for the children.

Midnight came-and at last an answer from the children. They were found! They were safe! And Jeff’s cell phone sent the good news back instantly to weary searchers and relieved families.

How could it have happened? Rachel said they followed Cody into the woods, believing he knew where he was going. He did not! The trails through the woods can be very, very confusing, and in no time all four were hopelessly lost. How like most of us! Instead of following the One who is “the way” (and the truth and the life!), it is so easy to “follow the crowd” and be lost in the mazes of this world. But little Rachel learned something! Safe in her mother’s arms, she said firmly, “I will never follow those little boys again!”

What a wise decision! There is one way-and only one-that is right; one way that is “narrow” but straight leads on truly and clearly. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). Cody thought he was right; the other three believed he knew the way, but it led only to a miserable experience. If the children had not been found as soon as they were, there could have been serious consequences.

Who was most happy that the children were found? Of course the children were glad-taken to shelter and safety (and chocolate bars!), but think of the joy of their parents! When we read that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10), do we realize who has the greatest joy when the lost soul is “found”? It is not the saved sinner, happy though he or she may be-it is not the angels-it is in the presence of the angels-God Himself! Can you realize that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents? Isn’t it wonderful!

“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Prov. 28:26

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart.” Prov. 3:5

Major Whipple’s Conversion

When the war broke out I was a young man, just out of school and all on fire with patriotism. I enlisted at once and went away thrilled with the thought of the action before me. I had little thought for the needs of my soul.

My mother was a devout Christian and parted from me with many a tear and with many a prayer. She slipped a New Testament in a pocket of the knapsack she had prepared for me on the morning I left. That little book was almost constantly with me, but nearly a year passed before I opened it.

We were in many engagements, and I saw many sad sights but was unmoved by it all. Sometimes we had letters from home, and my mother’s one theme was, “Oh, my dear boy, if only I could know that your soul was saved, that you had given your heart to Jesus!” I thought that was “just Mother” and felt rather complacent over the fact that she had so much love for me and was so anxious on my account.

At last my turn came. We had been through so much and I had escaped unhurt, so I began to think I would be spared. I was careless about exposure, until one day a sharp shock in my right arm knocked me to the ground. I lay stunned for a while and came back to consciousness to find medics bending over me. I was soon in a hospital, and that night my arm was amputated above the elbow.

Days and nights of suffering followed. At last feeling well enough and wanting something to read, I brought out the little Testament my mother had given me. For the first time I opened its pages. It was not that I had any desire or purpose to seek God. If there had been anything else to read I would not have opened the Testament. I began to read that Book with no more idea of seeking salvation than I would have had if I had been reading a magazine.

I started at Matthew, with the words: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” I don’t know how it was but, as I read, everything about the life of Christ became deeply interesting. I had no thought of becoming a Christian, but I was simply drawn toward the character of Jesus as shown in the gospel.

I read right through the book-Matthew, Mark, Luke-all the way to Revelation. Every part was interesting, and when I had finished Revelation, I began again at Matthew and read it through again. With still no thought of becoming a Christian, I clearly saw from what I read the way of salvation through Christ. I saw plainly that God gave Jesus, His Son, to be our Substitute, and that whoever would confess their sins and accept Him would be saved.

While still in this state of mind, yet still with no purpose or plan to repent and accept the Savior, I was awakened one night by the nurse, who said, “There is a boy in the other end of the hospital who is dying. He has been begging me for the last hour to pray for him or to get someone to pray for him, and I can’t stand it. I am a wicked man and can’t pray, and I have come to get you.”

“Why,” said I, “I can’t pray. I never prayed in my life. I am just as bad as you.”

“Can’t pray!” said the nurse. “Why I thought sure from seeing you read the Bible that you were a praying man. What can I do? There is no one else for me to go to. I can’t go back there alone. Won’t you come and see him at any rate?”

Reluctantly, I got up and went with him to see the dying boy. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. There was agony in his face, and he fixed his eyes on me and said, “Pray for me! Oh, pray for me! I’m dying, and I’m not ready to die. I was a good boy at home. My mother and father are members of the church, and I went to Sunday school and tried to be a good boy. But, since I’ve been in the army, I’ve learned to be wicked. I drank and swore and gambled and went with bad men-and now I am dying. Oh, ask God to forgive me! Pray for me! Ask Christ to save me!”

As I stood there and heard the boy, God said to my soul by His Spirit, just as plainly as if He had spoken in my ears, “You know the way of salvation. Get right down on your knees and accept Christ and pray for this boy.”

I dropped down on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine, and in a few broken words I confessed my sin and asked God for Christ’s sake to forgive me. I believed right there that He did forgive me and that I was now God’s child.

Then I prayed earnestly for the boy. He became quiet and pressed my hand as I pleaded the promises. When I looked up, he was dead. A look of peace was on his face, and I can only believe that God, who used him to bring me to my Savior, had used me to lead him to trust in the precious blood of Christ. I expect to meet him in heaven.

From that night I read my New Testament with a new joy. Christ was precious to me, and His promises comforted my heart. Soon after this I was able to go home.

Many years have passed since that night in the hospital, and I am still trusting and confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, and I purpose by God’s grace to continue doing so until He calls me home.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou [too] shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31

Man’s Extremity, Mercy’s Opportunity

We see in the Bible the longing of the heart of God extending even to man’s helpless extremity at the very end of a rebellious course. Think, for example, of that dying robber (Luke 23) and the man befriended by the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). How much they had in common, though one was the robber and the other the robbed!

Both outside Jerusalem, God’s center of blessing.

Both stripped of all they possessed.

Both passed by.

Both utterly friendless.

Both with life ebbing out-“half dead.”

They might both have used the psalmist’s lament to express their friendlessness: “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psa. 142:4). Could you have whispered in the ear of that “certain man” who was half dead between Jerusalem and Jericho, “Be of good cheer; a friend is coming. Let me lift your head that you may see him for yourself.” He would probably have answered, “Oh, but he is no friend of mine; he is a Samaritan. I hate a Samaritan and can expect only hatred in return. If love is impossible on my side, it must be on his side also.” What a mistaken conclusion!

Again, could you have said to that dying thief, “Don’t regard yourself as friendless, for the Friend of publicans and sinners hangs beside you. Did you not hear His prayer just now: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34)?”

Had you urged him to make room in his heart for that Friend, he might naturally have answered, “That is all very well, but how could the righteous One find room in His heart for a doomed rebel like me? Besides, I have only just now been cruelly insulting Him, casting taunts in His teeth!”

You might have said to each of them, “You cannot gauge His feelings about you by yours about Him or measure His goodness by what you deserve, but you may measure His goodness by the way He has come to suffer for your sins in order that He might bring you into the eternal enjoyment of His love. Every conclusion must be false and misleading that makes our goodness the cause of God’s favor.”

Both of these men found the only true source of blessing. One was carried to his Friend’s home, to enjoy his Friend’s company “in Paradise”; the other was carried to the “inn,” placed under the care of the host at the friend’s expense, to wait for his friend’s return.

Is there nothing in such a Friend to attract your heart and win your confidence?

Is there nothing appalling in the thought of being left to die without Him, because you would not accept His grace?

Make your decision quickly, for it is clear that the day of His return is near. May mercy’s last offer be not a lost one for you!

The Most Unpopular Verse

Sara Brown was puzzled. The preacher had just told his audience that he was going to speak on a very important verse, and he called it “The Most Unpopular Verse in the Bible.” Whatever can it be? she thought. I must hear this!

When the time came, the speaker turned to the third chapter of John, then paused at verse seven: “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!”

“Let me read it again,” he said. Sara Brown was surprised. Of course she knew the verse well. But why should it be called unpopular?

The preacher began his message by offering many reasons why people dislike this text. It is too humiliating, too dogmatic. We do not like to be told what we MUST do. Can’t we please ourselves? Surely it does not mean that everybody must be born again! Yet the Lord said it-said it to one of the best men of his day-one of the greatest religious teachers.

Sara was really puzzled. Surely a good woman like her did not need this new birth. As she was leaving she asked if the preacher could visit her, because she wanted to know more about this unpopular verse. So, one evening soon after this, she and the preacher were talking in her house.

“Do you really think that I need to be born again?” she asked. “You know I am not bad. In fact, I am a very good woman. I love to go to church, and see how often I come to hear you.”

“Yes,” said the preacher, “you must be born again.”

She could not understand it.

There was a beautiful dog lying on the rug. “Is this your dog?” asked the preacher.

“Why, of course, and a good dog he is! He follows me wherever I go. Of all the dogs I ever had, this one is the best.”

“Well now,” said the preacher, “suppose you had two dogs, this good one and a very bad one. They would both be dogs, wouldn’t they? One would be a good dog and one would be a bad dog, but still dogs. If they were to live for a hundred years, it could not change them. They were born dogs, and no power in the world can change their nature.

“We are born sinners. Some may be ‘good’ sinners and some are ‘bad’ sinners, but we are all sinners, and there is no power of man that can change our nature-we must have a new birth. Like the dogs, if we lived a thousand years we would still be sinners. We must have a new birth, giving us a new nature.

“This is what the Lord said, and this is what people do not like, especially ‘good’ people like you. Dogs are dogs, and though some are good, still the fact remains. Sinners are sinners, though some may be good. Listen to this: ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh’ (John 3:6). It may be religious flesh or it may be wicked flesh, still nothing can alter its character. Miss Brown, you must be born again.”

Sara Brown was astonished. “I have never heard such things before. Now, tell me, what must I do to experience this new birth, because I am anxious to have it.”

It did not take long to read to her John 1:11-12, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. 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.” Then and there she obeyed God’s Word; she became a new creature. The sinner became a saint. The most unpopular verse became to her one of the most precious.

There are many like Sara Brown. Are you one? It makes little difference what we say or do, “good” or “bad”: “Ye must be born again.”

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

“There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Such an Offer!

Such an offer! Full and free!

Is it really meant for me?

That all my sins on Christ were laid,

That all my debt by Him was paid?

Yes, Jesus says it who has died,

“Believe,” and I am justified.

Such an offer! Pardon now

For hidden sin and broken vow!

For years of cold neglect and scorn;

Can mercy’s day upon me dawn?

Yes, Jesus died instead of me;

His death for mine must be my plea.

Oh, what goodness! Lord, I take

This offer Thou dost freely make!

My one desire shall henceforth be

To live for Him who died for me.

Spread, glad news, through every nation:

Instant-free-and full salvation!

Mount Usu, Volcano

Snow crowned and beautiful, Mount Usu towers above the little resort towns of Date, Sobetsu and Abata-hot springs resorts-on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Most northerly of the islands, Hokkaido is a center for winter sports among its forested mountains. But, lovely though it is, an ominous little plume of steam rises from the center of many of its mountains.

One such is Mount Usu. Under the snow and ice a fire burns, and a not-so-sleeping volcano threatens to erupt. Wise in the ways of volcanoes, the Japanese authorities evacuated thousands of residents from the danger zone.

How many lives will be lost in the next eruption? Hopefully, none. They have seen the danger and acted prudently.

A particular danger is the possibility of a mud slide as snow melts on the sides of the mountain. A previous mud slide in 1822 killed 59 people, and there are many, many more inhabitants of the same area now.

In Columbia, South America, an eruption in 1985 sent racing mud slides through a town and killed almost 25,000 people. There was little warning then and no evacuation ordered.

Lately in another South American country the mayor of a large city was quoted as saying that “the people...will have to learn to live with unstable volcanoes.”

We too seem to be living with an “unstable volcano,” a volcano of violence that erupts with little or no warning and in places considered safe. We are careful, we take precautions, but we cannot conceal from ourselves that “the earth [is] filled with violence,” and that “the wickedness of man [is] great in the earth” (Gen. 6:11,5).

When the evil reached its peak in the world, thousands of years ago, God sent the great flood to destroy all the wicked ones. Since then He has promised that the world will not be destroyed by water again, but that the next judgment will be by fire.

Like the volcano, the warning rumblings can be heard, the rising smoke can be seen, and the time of the end of the day of God’s grace is approaching. Have you listened to the warnings and found a place of safety? There is only one certain refuge; it is found in Rom. 10:9: “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.”

Saved from what? Saved from the wrath of God that is soon to fall on this wicked world, but that is only the beginning. Saved for all eternity in God’s place of light and life and love, saved with joy and happiness forever, saved to so much that we can’t even imagine now-SAVED!

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Heb. 2:3

“Flee from the wrath to come.” Matt. 3:7

A Murderer's Story

A gospel meeting had just been held at a prison. At the close of the service one of the wardens came to the speaker and told him that a man on death row would like to see him. When a meeting had been arranged, the Christian found himself facing a man he thought he had never seen before. But the prisoner told him, “You don’t know me, sir, but I know you. I recognized your name as soon as I heard it.”

“Where did I meet you?” he asked.

“Do you remember speaking at a seaman’s mission and a man staying behind to talk to you? He was real anxious about his soul, and you urged him to accept Jesus as His Savior. I am that man. I put it off, and as I left the building, I met two men in the street who were out of work like myself. They said that if we went to Harlem we might get work.

“In the evening we noticed a peddler going home and thought he might have money with him. We decided to rob him. One of us hit him-just to knock him out-but he died from his injuries. The three of us were tried and convicted of murder, and we are to be executed on Friday. If I had accepted Jesus that night, I would have saved my body as well as my soul!”

How sad. How terribly sad! The man had been awakened to a sense of his guilt and peril by the speaker at the mission, but he delayed accepting God’s pardoning mercy and was overcome by Satan.

The worst sin one can commit is to disbelieve the Lord Jesus Christ. The crowning sin is the fact that God, by His servants, offers His great salvation as a free gift through simple faith in the finished work of Christ, and they will not accept it. They say it is “too easy” or “too simple” a way of being saved, and they must “do their part.”

The unbeliever does not need until the Day of Judgment to be condemned; like the murderer on death row, he is already under condemnation. Why not now believe on the Savior and be eternally saved? Why continue calling God a liar: “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:10). Is that true of you?

But God has no pleasure in your death. He desires that you should believe on Christ and be rescued from eternal sorrow. Believe on Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, and you will be “justified from all things.”

“This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12).

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37

My Favorite Verses

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psa. 34:4).

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psa. 55:22).

“The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it” (Prov. 10:22).

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18).

I hope you like my favorite Bible verses; they are really great! Of course, there are many more wonderful verses to be read in God’s Word-the Bible. Some tell how you may be saved from the consequences of sin against God, which is far more serious than anything that may happen in human relationships. Nothing can please God without faith and belief in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Word clearly states that “without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

Even as a child I knew that I had sinned, and I was told that if I wanted God’s forgiveness, I had to trust Him, trusting in my heart that Jesus had taken upon Himself the punishment which I deserved. I was assured that I would then be forgiven, that I would be received into God’s family, and that He would always take care of me.

I said, “Yes, Lord! I want to be forgiven right now and be on the safe side.” In that minute the Lord Jesus came into my heart.

It was as simple as that. It is so simple that a child can receive the Savior in faith, for, after all, that is what God wants: simple faith and trust in Jesus.

Now that I am older, I am very glad that this matter is all settled. I have discovered that as we get older we want to figure things out our way. However, we just cannot reason out the things of God. It cannot be done through reason and understanding. You must take salvation just as He says: “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” (Eph. 2:8-9).

I have had many ups and downs in my life. Sometimes I thought God was too rough with me. I have experienced sickness, sorrow and depression. I have been through it all, and I know what life is. Being a Christian does not mean being free from trouble! The Lord Himself tells us in John 16:33, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” But read the rest of that verse: “But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Yes, the Christian life is a wonderful life! God has a purpose and program for your life and mine. If we will follow it, we will enjoy a happiness that those without the Lord Jesus can never understand.

I hope you get the idea, friend. He will be as good to you as He has been to me!

My Favorite Verses

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psa. 34:4).

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psa. 55:22).

“The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it” (Prov. 10:22).

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18).

I said, “Yes, Lord! I want to be forgiven right now and be on the safe side.” In that minute the Lord Jesus came into my heart.

It was as simple as that. It is so simple that a child can receive the Savior in faith, for, after all, that is what God wants: simple faith and trust in Jesus.

I hope you get the idea, friend. He will be as good to you as He has been to me!

No Problem?

Way down South, where frost is rare and roads never freeze, pavement is often very thin-and rainfall heavy. So there is one firm rule for drivers: Never drive into water of an unknown depth!

It is tempting, particularly to younger drivers, to put on speed and charge right through the puddles and see the water crest and spray out from the car. It just seems irresistible to some.

Probably the driver we are talking about didn’t really “floor it” at sight of the mammoth puddle across the road, but he did say to himself confidently, “My Jeep can handle that! No problem!” And he drove ahead.

Two men saw a crack in the asphalt pavement and water gushing up. They ran to warn motorists, but as they waved their arms and shouted for our driver to stop, he thought they wanted a ride. “I don’t pick up hitchhikers,” he said.

So into the “puddle” he went—and down, down into sudden darkness—down into cold water. Ten feet deep and sixteen feet long and wide, the hole just swallowed the Jeep.

And who ran to the rescue? The two who had been spurned as hitchhikers! Plunging into the cold, dark water, one man was able to open a door and pull the driver out. Then, forming a human chain, the two were able to lift the driver to safety.

Lots of us travel the road of life just as the Jeep driver did. Whatever comes, we are confident that we can handle it-no problem! But there are problems-great, black, deep holes-ahead, and sooner or later we find ourselves “in over our heads” and facing that last terrible darkness of eternity.

Who can lift us out of darkness into light? Why, only the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has told us about the danger, the One who warned us that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4) and the certainty that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

And after all the warnings were ignored and people still rushed on into destruction, He did not turn His back and say, “They refused Me—let them go!”

No, the one thing left to do was to go down Himself, down into cold, dark death and the tomb, to accomplish rescue for sinners and to be able to offer life eternal to all who would receive it.

It was “while we were yet sinners” that “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). He didn’t wait for us to pull ourselves up from the hole.

He knew we could never, never succeed.

No Time for God?

No time for God?

What fools we are to clutter up

Our lives with common things,

And leave without heart’s gate

The Lord of life-and Life itself-

Our God.

No time for God?

As soon to say, no time

To eat or sleep or love or die!

Take time for God,

Or you shall dwarf your soul,

And when the angel death

Comes knocking at your door,

A poor misshapen thing you’ll be

To step into Eternity.

No time for God?

That day when sickness comes

Or trouble finds you out

And you cry out for God-

Will He have time for you?

No time for God?

Someday you’ll lay aside

This mortal self, and make your way

To worlds unknown,

And when you meet Him face to face,

Will He-should He-

Have time for you?

Ocean’s Currents

The oceans are never still. Besides the waves, which sometimes whip the surfaces of the great reaches of water so that they resemble seascapes of mountains and valleys, underneath its surface are currents. Whether storm rages or calm persists, these currents never stop moving in their prescribed paths around the world. The surf that washes the coasts of one continent is likely the same water that flowed through some mid-oceanic trench a short time before.

The North Pacific Current travels the greatest stretch of open water on the globe, flowing unhindered across six thousand miles of open ocean from Japan to the northwest coast of the United States. Beachcombers in this part of the United States often find Japanese glass fishing floats that traveled the breadth of the ocean. These currents can carry everything that floats on the sea. They can carry a giant ship as easily as a gull’s feather. In fact, unless an object has a means of propelling itself, the force of the current is irresistible.

The ocean currents are powerful, but there is one current-time-that carries everything before it, and no one has found a way to resist its power. Every single thing in creation is being swept along by it. Not a single person, not a single thing is outside its influence. As every second ticks, as every minute passes, as every day changes to night, you are traveling on this mighty current and are closer to the time when you must leave this world.

One lifetime is the amount of time that God has given each one of us in which to make the most important decision of all: whether or not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This is of ultimate importance, because after death it will be too late to respond to God’s invitation to receive salvation as a free gift. No one will be able to say that he didn’t have enough time to respond to God’s message of love, for each person has been given a lifetime to make that decision. Of course, we don’t know when our lives will be over, so the only wise thing to do is to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus now and receive Him as Lord and Savior immediately.

For everyone who chooses to reject the offer of free salvation this great current of time is inexorably moving him or her to the moment when he or she must die and face God’s fiery judgment against sin. A verse in the Bible reads, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). Another verse reads, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The same Christ through whom men were invited to receive salvation in this life will be the One who sits in judgment and in supreme power sentences unbelievers to eternity in the lake of fire.

That is why it is so important to hear the gospel now. Consider it seriously and in faith receive it. It tells us what God has done in a day of grace so that sinners will not have to face Him in the Day of Judgment.

One More Chance

The old man looked up quickly as the visitor entered his hospital room. Fully dressed, suitcase packed, he was waiting impatiently for his family to come to take him home.

The visitor offered him a little booklet to “show him the way to heaven,” but he shook his head. “No, no! I don’t want it. I want to be with my friends!”

Think of it! Eighty-five years old, standing on the doorstep of eternity, and choosing-deliberately choosing-to go “with his friends,” ignore the gospel message, and risk ending up in hell.

The visitor appealed to the old man not to throw his everlasting soul away, but still the only answer was, “I want to be with my friends.”

Sick at heart, the visitor went on to the other patients. As he left the hospital, a nurse came running after him. “Weren’t you talking to the old man who was going home today?”

“Yes, I was.”

“He’s dead! He just lay down on his bed and was gone before anybody could get to him! You were the last person to speak to him.”

What an example of the patience and grace of God! After eighty-five years of refusing God’s offer, still at the last moment before the door of the day of grace could close behind him forever, God sent one last message of mercy-one more chance to be saved. And he rejected it!

“The Lord...is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

But there came the last time, and the door was shut forever. Now there is nothing left for the stubborn old man but the “blackness of darkness forever,” in the place of weeping and “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” What comfort then will his friends be?

“Turn ye, turn ye...for why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:11).

One Wonderful Verse

A big gospel campaign was going on in the city, conducted by a famous preacher. One young man was curious to see what it was all about. The crowds were too great; he could not get inside at first, but he kept trying, moving a little this way and a little that, until he was inside the big arena. He was just in time to hear one last verse the preacher was quoting: “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). Then the flow of people leaving swept him back out onto the street.

On his way home the words rang in his ears, “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.” He knew that verse! As a child his mother had taught it to him, but like many others he knew nothing of the truth within the words.

The Holy Spirit kept the verse before his mind. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”; well, that is wonderful love!

Why did He give up Jesus to die? “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Really, I have thought very little about this subject! “Should not perish”-I know I am not prepared to meet God; I know I have not everlasting life, and if I were dying now I should perish eternally. Again and again he revolved the verse in his mind. “God so loved the world”-I am one of the “world.” God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son for me, that if I believe in Jesus I shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe what? That God so loved ME as to give up His Son to die for MY SINS on the cross. Whosoever believeth on Jesus shall not perish. I believe on Jesus, and God says that I shall not perish and that I have everlasting life! With this simple reasoning the truth burst on his soul, and peace filled his heart.

On reaching home he told his mother he had gone to hear the famous speaker.

“And how did you like him?”

“I did not hear his address, but, Mother, I am saved and know my sins are forgiven.”

“How do you know that?” asked his mother.

Opening a Bible, he read the verse which had been the means of giving him peace.

On hearing it she said, “There is nothing new in that verse. I knew it before you were born and taught it to you when you were very young.”

“But Mother, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”

“Of course I do; I always believed on Jesus.”

“Then, Mother, if that is so, you are saved.”

“I cannot say that; I cannot say I have everlasting life.”

“Then be sure, Mother, you do NOT believe on Jesus, for God has said in this wonderful verse that all who believe on Jesus are saved and will never perish.”

She took the Bible and read the passage for herself: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The glorious truth that Christ had died in her place and borne her sins in His own body on the cross penetrated her heart, and she saw that, according to the word of Him that cannot lie, she was saved and had everlasting life. That evening the mother and son rejoiced together in the knowledge of sins forgiven through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.

What do you think of this? Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

“Oh, yes,” you reply; “I have always believed in Him.”

Let me say to you, in all love, that no one has ALWAYS believed in Jesus. Let me ask a question: Is your soul safe for eternity?

“I cannot answer that,” you reply.

But the Word of God declares, “Whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus] hath everlasting life,” and, “all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). Everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved and has God’s certain promise that he will not come into judgment for his sins. Isn’t it wonderful?

“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

Pursued by Prayer

Alex thought he had borne enough! His mother, with whom he lived, had recently been converted, and she was so happy in knowing the Lord Jesus that she wanted to share the good news with everyone- especially with her son. That was bad enough, but one night when he came home he found a man in the house, an open Bible in his hand, preaching to as many of their friends and neighbors as could squeeze in. It was too much!

Alex tried to stop his mother from permitting gospel meetings in their house. He failed. The meetings went on, and he told his mother he would leave home. This is his story:

“I left home. I could get away from my mother’s roof; I could not get away from my mother’s prayers! For twenty-three years I went deeper and deeper into sin, until through a severe accident I found myself in the hospital at Cardiff.

“There those prayers truly caught up with me! There I got a view of myself, and you may talk of ‘no hell’ if you will, but that sight was ‘hell upon earth’ to me. I saw myself LOST! Not a little lost, not half lost, but LOST! I could see no chance of mercy for me.

“A Christian visitor came to my bedside to read and pray with me, but I said, ‘Go to someone else and read that book. I’m too bad for anything. I’m lost!’ But grace met me, and I found I was not too bad for Christ. It was sinners like me He died for.

“Before the time I speak of in the hospital, I had often tried to ‘make my peace with God.’ After a drunken binge or on coming out of prison, I would make a fresh determination to be different, but down I went again. Now I see that He “made peace by the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20), and so it is not left for me to make it. How thankful I am for those prayers that followed me for twenty-three years!”

Alex is a testimony to the power of the Word and Spirit of God. When a man realizes that in himself he is utterly lost, he can never rest till, through the work of Another (the Lord Jesus Christ), he is eternally saved.

Saved at Tarawa

During World War II the U.S. Marines made a surprise landing on the island of Tarawa. Among those who took part in the amphibious landing was a young man who wrote home as follows:

“We were in the first wave of troops landing on Tarawa. The enemy seemed to hold their fire until the amphibious tractors got in close. Then they let loose. For the last two hundred yards of our journey, we were under such heavy fire that about one half of our original number were killed or wounded before we ever reached shore.

“The driver of our tractor, which holds about 19 men and operates with a crew of three, drove in against a sea wall about five feet high, and we those of us who were left-piled out.

“The Japanese were only about 10 or 15 feet away on the other side of the sea wall, mostly in machine gun nests. We were fairly safe if close to the barrier, but the enemy could still fire at us from the flanks. We were just pinned down, standing in five or six inches of water. All we could do was hug that wall.

“Once I stood up straight, and I was struck with four machine gun bullets, three of them entering my left leg near the knee, and the fourth just breaking the skin on my right leg. Had I been still kneeling when the blast came, the bullets would have gone through my chest. I put a tourniquet on my leg shortly after I was wounded and didn’t lose much blood, but I was very weak.

“It was about 10 a.m. Saturday when I was hit. With three other fellows, two of whom were wounded, I stayed hugging that wall until 4 p.m. Sunday. Then some tanks came down from our beachhead up the shore and wiped out the machine gun nests. We surely were happy when those tanks came.

“We managed to crawl up the shore to our beachhead. By 5 p.m. Sunday I had been evacuated to a ship and was operated on.

“During the campaign in the Solomon’s I had not given much serious thought to God and eternity, until that Saturday morning when I was shot down on the beach in that terrible battle of Tarawa. As I crawled in near the sea wall, with the battle raging all around and with little hope of ever being picked up alive, my thoughts went to my home far away. I thought of my mother, then of mother’s God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, her Savior.

“Then, as never before, I realized my need of this Savior too. I cried to Him for mercy, and He heard my cry. And, lying there behind the sea wall, I experienced deep peace and joy in knowing I had received this Savior as mine! I could face death with a peace I had never known before.

“I began to think at once of my loved ones and longed for them to know, if I were not taken out alive, that my soul was saved. A wounded Italian boy lying near me promised that if he got out alive and I did not, he would try to get the word to my mother that I had Jesus in my heart, in answer to her prayers.

“Now, I thank God that, even though I had to lose my left leg above the knee, He saved my life as well as my soul.”

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psa. 34:4).

The words of the psalmist are true: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth” (Psa. 145:18). Never has He refused to listen to a contrite cry.

“He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Job 33:27-28

Saved from the Pit

I was brought up in a home where there was a Bible, but it was seldom opened. I was sent to Sunday school, however, where I received my only religious training. When I began to work and to earn my own money, I refused to go anymore. I had no desire for and no interest in eternal things.

I went in for everything my income would afford, trying the “broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” I was totally careless about my soul’s eternal welfare.

I worked with some that said they were saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and had eternal life. I thought I believed in Jesus too, but I had no such assurance. I know now that I only believed about the Lord Jesus, just as I believed about Napoleon or any other great man. Believing about the Lord Jesus never saved anyone, while believing on the Lord Jesus Christ has saved millions. Thank God!

Later I worked in a small coal mine in Cumberland County. I was put on shift work in the pit, and a real Christian was working next to me. At mealtimes he used to tell me of the work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, of conversions of people he had known, and of the realities of eternity. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15;1 “began to be in want.” I had a desire for something better than I had.

I did not let him nor anyone else know I was troubled. I used to slip an old Bible I had up to my bedroom. I had not looked at it for years, and I wouldn’t have let anyone see me with it for anything.

One night I opened my Bible at Rev. 20 and read of a “great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away...and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened...and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:11-12).

I felt uncomfortable in view of this scene; every backward glance only brought sins to my memory. Then the words of God pressed upon me: “Judged... according to their works,” not according to someone else’s, but one’s own, and “God requireth that which is past” (Eccl. 3:15) of each one of us.

One morning while eating our lunch in the pit, the old brother quoted that verse in Rom. 10:8-9: “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that 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.”

How I drank in that life-giving word! There and then I was saved. Yes, in the pit of the coal mine I was saved from the pit of everlasting destruction.

Down in the dark coal mine, where the light of the sun never shines, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus shone into my dark heart and I passed “from death unto life,” “from the power of Satan unto God.” Many years have run their course, and still I can sing:

Now I can call the Savior mine,

Though all unworthy still;

I’m sheltered by His precious blood,

Beyond the reach of ill.

Silent Death

Carbon monoxide. CO. Invisible, odorless, tasteless. Silent but deadly gas; a high enough concentration in the air can kill within 30 minutes. The unsuspecting victims simply go to sleep and do not waken.

To combat the danger, there are detectors similar to smoke detectors that will sound an alarm when the carbon monoxide reaches a dangerous level. One detector did go off-repeatedly. How irritating! The homeowner could find no problem; everything seemed perfectly normal around the house, and at last he turned off that “malfunctioning detector” before he went off to work an all-night shift.

It wasn’t malfunctioning. The warning was stopped, but the home was silently filling with the deadly gas. What horror met the head of the little household when he came home from work in the morning! Six people-family members and guests-had slipped into a final sleep in the night, a sleep that could not be broken.

If only he had listened to the warning!

There is a deadlier enemy in the world. It is as silent as the deadly gas, but inexorable. Every man, woman and child alive today is susceptible-in fact, cannot escape. We are talking, of course, of time. It is passing steadily on, though we can neither see nor hear its presence.

Warnings aplenty there are. Another gray hair, a little ache in an unaccustomed muscle, and could that be a wrinkle? Then quick! To the hairdresser, the cosmetician, the fitness center. Silence those age detectors, and never, never think of the eventual result.

Continue this course for a lifetime-ignore every one of the little warnings-and when the end comes will you be too drugged to realize that you are slipping into a Christless eternity-that the “sleep of death” will give way to a terrible awakening when “in hell” you will lift up your eyes? There will be no further warning; it will be too late for help. You will be lost, and lost forever.

The six people in the gas-filled house could not be roused. They were totally, absolutely, finally gone. There was left only the one grieving survivor. His grief is dreadful to think of. And there is One who will grieve for you. Do you know who that will be? It will be God! Can you imagine that? God, who is “not willing that any should perish.” God, who was so anxious for you to be saved that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Unlike the poor man who disconnected the alarm, God has sent every possible warning to you-every possible appeal-every possible invitation. He has done all that can be done for your salvation. Can you refuse it? Can you reject that wonderful love and struggle along trying to ignore the warnings? It is a losing battle!

And there will be no “escape, if we neglect so great salvation” (Heb. 2:3).

A Son of a King

A crowd was passing along through the street. As it swept by, a shoemaker was near his shop door, busily engaged in mending a shoe. Sometimes he would stop a little from his work and sing a verse or two of one of the old hymns which he loved. A young man, a student in the university, was passing this particular evening when he heard the cheerful voice of the shoemaker. He stopped and said to him, “Well, my friend, you seem to be happy and contented.”

“I am happy, sir,” said the old man, “and why shouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know,” said the student. “A great many people are not happy. You seem to be very poor. I suppose you have none but yourself to work for?”

“You are mistaken,” said the shoemaker. “I have a wife and seven children to feed and support with the work of these hands. I am a poor man, it’s true, but that is no reason why I should not work and be happy.” “I am very surprised to see a poor workman like you so content, and I don’t understand what can make you so.” “Stranger,” said the shoemaker, laying down his work and taking hold of the young man’s arm with a serious look, “Stranger, I am not so poor as you think. Let me tell you, I am a son of the King.” The young man turned away, saying to himself, “Poor fellow, he is crazy. He is poor, but he imagines he is rich. This is what makes him happy. I was beginning to think that perhaps he might tell me the secret of true happiness-but I was mistaken.”

A week passed, and the student again had occasion to pass the same street. He found the shoemaker sitting in the same place, still busy with his work and singing as cheerfully as before. As he drew near, the young man lifted his hand in a mocking sort of way and, making a deep bow to the shoemaker, said, “Good morning, Mr. Prince.”

“Stop, my friend,” said the shoemaker, laying down his work, “I want to say a few words to you, if you please. You left me suddenly the other evening, as if you thought I was crazy.”

“To tell you the truth, that is just what I did think,” said the young man.

“Well, my friend,” continued the shoemaker, “I am not crazy. What I then said, I said in earnest. It is true-every word of it. I am a son of the King. Just sit down here and listen while I tell you about it.”

Now this young man was a Jew. He had been taught to read the Old Testament Scriptures when he was a child and to believe them. But since he had grown up he had given up his faith in the Scriptures and had ceased to read them. He was like a sailor out at sea who had lost his compass. He could not tell where he was going or how to steer, and this made him feel very miserable. Just as a drowning man will catch at straws, so this young man was ready to catch at anything that seemed likely to help him in trying to find out how to be happy, so he sat down to listen to the shoemaker.

The shoemaker told him of the promises of the Old Testament and about a glorious King who was to be Savior and Ruler of the world. He showed him that all the things that are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms about this glorious King had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He told how He had suffered and died for the sinner and how He had risen from the grave and had gone up to take His seat in glory at the right hand of God. He told how He had sent His messengers into all the world to tell men the good news of what He had done, and all who repented of their sins and believed would be pardoned and made happy. He told him how this glorious King would return to this world to set up His kingdom and how all who love and serve Him now will share the glories of His kingdom and reign with Him.

The young man sat listening with great interest to what this “poor” man was saying. He had often read the promises of the Old Testament, but he never thought of them in connection with Jesus Christ. This was all new to him. He was astonished at what he heard.

“And now, young man,” said the shoemaker, “don’t you see how truly I could say, ‘I am a son of the King?’ Don’t you see what reason I have to be contented and happy? It is because I belong to Jesus. I believe in Him, and I love Him. The Bible tells me that all things work together for good to me and that all things are mine, because I am Christ’s. Isn’t that enough to make one happy?” “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16).

“Where can I learn more about these things?” asked the young man. “I see that you believe them, and this gives you peace and contentment. Oh, how I need them!” Then the shoemaker gave him a copy of the Bible. He told him to take it home and read it carefully and to pray over its contents. The student read the Bible diligently and found Christ and the secret of true peace of mind.

Afterward, the young man became a missionary and went out to share with others the peace and joy he had found in Jesus.

Sudden Destruction

The Alice had weathered the storm and had brought her crew safely to port. A member of the crew had an interested group around him, listening to his account of the voyage.

“You see, mates,” he began, “the captain was always drunk, and such swearing you never heard! When the storm came on he had drunk so much he hardly knew what he was about. The only thing he was up to was to stagger about the deck and swear. I had heard plenty of rough language in my day, but this beat all that I ever had heard. It was so horrible that it frightened me.

“Well, that storm was so bad that he got a bit sobered up and took a turn at the helm. The rest of the men were throwing some of the deck load overboard, and I was at the wheel with the captain. Ah, mates, if a man’s curses could kill anyone, I don’t know where I would have been that day. He swore at me nearly every minute we were at the wheel together.

“Then we saw a tremendous sea coming right aft. It came on like a wall of water, without a break, as far as I could see. I thought it was all up with us, and I sent up a prayer to God to have mercy on my poor soul. The captain only swore at it, just as if he expected God’s sea was going to be frightened by him!

“Well, on it came, and in a moment it swept the decks. I shut my eyes and held on to the wheel with all my might. When that wave was passed, I looked up not knowing what to except. To my surprise, the Alice was holding on, but the captain was gone. He had been carried right away. And his last word was a terrible oath!

“And how about the crew?” asked one of the sailors who had listened intently.

“They were every one safe, lads. They had all held on to something, and not one of them was lost. Only the captain, poor fellow. He was gone. It wasn’t long before the weather settled a bit, and the Alice made port all right even though she was pretty much knocked about.

“Well, mates, I had had enough of cursing and drinking too, for that matter. I made up my mind that day never to swear or drink again.”

“Then I suppose you expect to go to heaven when you die, because you don’t swear or drink?”

“No, I don’t expect anything of the sort, for it is only by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ and taking Him as our Savior that anyone can be saved.”

“Do you mean to say,” asked one of the men, “if a man doesn’t swear and never gets drunk and is honest and does his duty by his ship and all the rest of it, he isn’t safer than a lazy, drunken thief?”

“I mean to say-leastways it isn’t me that says it, but the Bible-that no one is safe unless he trusts only in the Lord Jesus. If you could leave off every wicked thing and never commit another sin from this very minute, that couldn’t save your soul. There would be all your past sins hanging to you still, and unless they were forgiven they would sink you into hell. The only way to be clear of sin-past, present and future-is to be washed in Jesus’ blood.”

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

Suddenly …

Suddenly-in one moment-all is changed. A rich man, one moment clothed in “purple and fine linen” and faring “sumptuously every day,” has all that life can give. But afterward what?

Death comes, and what then? In a moment, suddenly, all is changed. Gone are the royal robes and kingly fare. Changed is his portion from heights of luxury to the depths of misery in hell, where worlds could not purchase one drop of cold water.

“The rich man...died, and was buried”! His funeral may have had all the ceremony and display that he had in his life, but “in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:22-23).

Long before the pompous ceremony was over, the rich man’s eyes were opened to his awful doom. His state was fixed for eternity, and he knew it. He had willingly closed his eyes and his heart against the truth in his lifetime, but he can close them thus no more forever.

Another change-and what a change! What a change for poor Lazarus, and how sudden! Near the rich man’s gate poor Lazarus was laid, full of sores. See the contrast! The one faring sumptuously and clothed in purple and fine linen; he lived for himself. The other-a poor beggar, loathsome, in poverty, in suffering and friendless. Friendless? “The dogs came and licked his sores.” God took note of him.

A change came, and suddenly the beggar died. There is nothing about his funeral. Perhaps he had none, nor is his burial mentioned. But—he “was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom”—into the place of blessing. The once rich but now poor man who had left God out of his life sees Lazarus. What a sight! Oh, can it be? Shall the lost ones see the saved?

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:23).

Where will be your place-your future-your eternity? Is Christ your happy choice now-your loved portion-your rest your confidence? He died for sinners such as the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar-such as you and me-but only those who put their trust in Him are saved.

“Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa. 2:12).

The Sure Ground

My spirit is sad and perplexed,

I know not the best thing to do;

With doubts and with fears I am vexed,

And Satan harasses me too.

I’ve tried-how I’ve tried!-to believe,

Till the word on my mind is engraved;

Can no one my sorrow relieve?

Oh, what must I do to be saved?

Lord Jesus, I’m full of alarms;

Indeed I’ve no hope left but Thee;

I cast myself into Thy arms,

O Savior! Take pity on me!

I come as a poor little child,

With many a fear and a doubt;

But Thy voice spreads a calm through the wild,

Saying, “I will in no wise cast out!”

No feelings will come to my aid;

This dull heart’s emotions are few;

But I’ll trust Thee and not be afraid-

I’m as safe as the Bible is true!

Time No Longer

God has told us in His Word-the Bible-that “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Eccl. 3:1). He also says that “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). He waits in patience, entreating men and women to repent. He sends warning after warning-appeal after appeal-and the day of grace-God’s NOW-is still lengthened out. The message still goes out: “Yet there is room.” The house is not yet filled; the door is not yet closed, and God is still saying, “Come.”

BUT even as God has appointed a time for every word, 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” (Rev. 10:6), no more delay, no more lingering in grace, no more an open door, no more room. NOW God offers eternal life and forgiveness to “whosoever will.”

THEN it will be too late. Then there will be “time no longer.”

How much time is left?

Tom’s Story

Well, I was the sinner of sinners here in our little town. Everyone knew Tom Morris. His very name stood for wickedness, as many here would still tell you. My poor mother, as far as she knew, tried to train me right, but I started to drink at an early age. As I got older I began to drink more than ever, and my youngest brother was right with me in all kinds of wickedness. But God had mercy in store for me! One day my brother and I decided to go together up into the mountains for a sort of wood-cutting, picnic spree. We took some drink along, and after we had enjoyed ourselves for some time the weather became very calm and still. Suddenly black clouds covered the sky, and a few minutes later came one of the most terrific storms that I ever witnessed. Hail, thunder and lightning-I thought the end of the world had come! I grabbed my brother’s arm and said, “Come away home! The Old Man up in the sky is very mad today!” As I spoke these profane words, I was blinded by a vivid flash of lightning which struck me and threw me some yards. I lay stunned for some time. When I came round my brother was shaking me and anxiously calling my name. The storm was still raging furiously. I got on my feet and ran for a house far down in the valley. I rushed into their front room and fell on my knees, overcome with the thought of where I should have been if an angry God had cut me off in my sins. I promised Him I would be a good man, if He would only spare me. I would sin no more, but be holy. My brother came home with me, and we vowed together that we would give up our evil ways and be holy men from then on. But within three months we had forgotten our vows and were as bad as ever. About this time I got married and settled down a bit. The first year I was very happy and steady; the second year I began farming with my brother-in-law. One day, when quietly working on the farm, I heard a voice. It was perfectly clear, just as if someone spoke to me. I am sure it must have been God’s voice saying, “You have sinned and denied the Lord.” The words never left me, day or night, for six weeks. At last my sleep left me. I could not sleep for one whole week. When Saturday came I said to my wife, “I can’t stand this any longer! Get a few bottles of the strongest wine so that I can get drunk and go to sleep.” My wife refused, thinking I was going mad. I went myself and got two bottles of very strong wine and sat down to drink both off at once. But somehow I could not get what I called drunk, though I felt wild-mad-like a very devil, in fact. My family did not know what was the matter with me; I had told no one of my feelings. My brother came in, and even he said, “Now, Tom, you are going on too badly.” But I just threw him out of the house. My wife tried to speak to me, but I turned her out also. My father next came in and said some very hard things to me. But he had to retreat as the others had done. Last of all my mother came in. Walking towards me slowly, she gently took my hand in hers and asked me to kneel down. Then she prayed for me. I don’t remember what she said, only she cried for mercy for her poor boy and made me promise I would not harm my wife. That was on Saturday night, and I could neither get drunk nor go to sleep. I just lay awake through every hour, crying to God for mercy and for the light of another day. Just before dawn I took a sharp knife and went outside. I planned to end my miserable life. I had no other feeling but misery! misery! misery! I began to blame God. Why had He made me so wicked? Why had He not made me like others? Why should He send me to hell? I grasped the knife to cut my throat. As I did, a thought came. The Bible! I should look at a Bible! I certainly had none, but I went to my sister’s house and asked if she had a Bible. She brought out a New Testament from the bottom of a drawer, and it opened at the seventh chapter of Romans. We read it through once, then a second time. We read it again a third time-and the light broke through! I saw that if the great Apostle Paul could not be what he should be, how could I expect to be? And I saw that it was not a question of my being what I should be for God, but of what Christ is for me! At once I was filled with peace and joy. What Christ was for Paul, He was for me as well! If I was mad before with guilt and despair, I was now almost beside myself with joy. I forgot all about the knife! I told my mother what God had done for my soul, and we knelt down together and thanked Him. Truly, it is “a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15)-even the chief of sinners!

Two Little Cousins

The birthday party was over. There had been all the usual fun and games, presents and refreshments, even swimming in the backyard pool. Now most of the children and their mothers had gone home, but two little cousins slipped back out to the swimming pool to look at that shining water.

Triston, three years old, was standing near the deep end when he bent over to pick up a ball. Splash! Triston fell into the water.

Six-year-old Dale didn’t hesitate. There was another big splash as he jumped into the pool and pulled his choking, coughing little cousin to the surface. Swimming to the edge of the pool, he helped little Triston out.

Wasn’t Dale a hero? He doesn’t think so! Heroism was the very last of his motives for rescuing his little cousin. His first thought was, “He’s my cousin, and I love him!” Doesn’t that bring to mind the “Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20)?

And there was another reason: “I knew Debbie [Triston’s mother] would be sad” if he drowned. This we seldom think of, but it is true that the One most grieved over one lost soul is God Himself. We read that He “is long-suffering...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Little do we realize how deeply He has cared and how grieved He has been. We still go “every one to his own way,” in spite of the cry that rings down the centuries: “Turn ye, turn ye... for why will ye die?”

We stand on the very brink of destruction and reach out for a plaything, a toy, anything that our hearts are set on-and tumble right on into the water. We never intended to lose life and love and hope so quickly. But without the Savior there will be no hope for all eternity. Now, right now, is the time to make sure of salvation; there may never be another opportunity!

“Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

“THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE”! And choose it now!

An Unconditional Invitation

All shapes and all sizes,

Every color and race,

From all kinds of homes,

And from just any place-

The rich and the poor,

Their need is the same-

And for all such as these

The Lord Jesus came!

“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

What Shall I Do Then with Jesus?

Matt. 27:22

The prisoner had been “hunted from pillar to post,” as they say, in one of the unfairest of trials. From Caiaphas to Pilate, then to Herod, and then back to Pilate again. Washing his hands, Pilate tried to hand Him over to the crowd again. What would they do with Jesus?

But it was not only Jesus who was on trial, but the religious world (represented by the high priest), the political world (represented by Pilate), the military world (represented by Herod), and the popular world (represented by the howling mob).

They all failed. They still do. But always there are some who crown Him Lord of all!

Jesus is standing in Pilate’s hall,

Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all;

Listen! What meaneth this sudden call:

What will you do with Jesus?

Jesus is standing on trial still;

You can be faithful through good or ill,

Or you can be false to Him if you will-

What will you do with Jesus?

Which Is the Way to God?

One of the great battles of the war was over, and the stretcher-bearers were busy at their work. A party of them came upon a soldier badly wounded-dying. As they carefully lifted him up to the stretcher they recognized him, for he was notorious in the regiment for his habits and vices. What a surprise it was to the medics when he opened his eyes and whispered faintly:

“Which is the way to God?”

One of the bearers was a Christian. He bent over the wounded man and said, “Jesus Christ is the way to God.”

“Can I find Him?” murmured the dying soldier.

“He is not far to seek; He is near you. Jesus has been looking for you for many days. Just say to Him: ‘Lord Jesus, forgive my sins and take me to God,’ and He will do it.”

The dying man stiffly folded his hands together. His lips were seen to move, and they bent over him to faintly hear: “Lord Jesus, forgive me and take me to God.”

A hush fell upon the little group, and they stood silently watching while the soldier, exhausted, lay with closed eyes awaiting the end. Suddenly he opened his eyes, half raised himself up, and said in a loud and clear voice, “Thank you, Lord Jesus!” He fell back and was gone-gone, like the dying thief hanging on the cross beside Jesus, to be with the Savior of sinners forever.

“The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

Who Is to Blame?

Let us suppose a ship is sinking at sea. We know it to be exceedingly rotten and so leaky that it is filling fast. It must shortly sink. On shore the utmost effort is made. The lifeboat, with capacity to hold every person in the ship, is launched. The sailors pull alongside the leaking, sinking ship. The captain of the lifeboat begs every person on board immediately to let go of the sinking ship and trust himself to the lifeboat, with the certainty of being brought safely to shore.

The people on board resolutely refuse the invitation. One says, “The old boat is not so bad; she only needs patching!”

Another says, “Away with both you and your lifeboat! We have a carpenter of our own whose business it is to mend the ship. Who do you think is going to leave this fine ship and trust to your odd-looking boat?”

The ship fills and sinks. Now tell me, if every foolhardy soul on board goes down with the ship, who is to blame? Themselves—only themselves. The lifeboat was sent to them, and they refused!

Humanity is that sinking ship-ruined by sin, filling fuller and fuller of sins-until he sinks into perdition. Christ Jesus is the lifeboat. God so loved this poor, ruined, sinking world that He sent the lifeboat, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Did the world believe God? Did they accept Jesus Christ? Oh, no! They rejected even such love, so great salvation. They murdered the Son of God. The death of Jesus was the offering of Himself as the atoning sacrifice for sin. God raised Him from the dead, and the risen Christ becomes the lifeboat for every soul that trusts in Him.

Where are you-in the lifeboat or in the old ship? Are you one of the redeemed? Or are you trusting to the self-righteousness of human nature? Can you say that you “have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14)? Or are you still in and of that world which is guilty of rejecting and murdering the Son of God?

Are you trusting to outward forms and ceremonies of religion? Now, what good will this outside paint do? The ship is sinking, and if you stay on it you will go down with the very paintbrush in your hand. All the sacraments and ordinances that man can perform will never keep one sinner from sinking into hell. Don’t trust them.

Are you trying—no matter how—to mend the old ship, your failing human nature? Then you may be quite certain if you continue in that condition you will sooner or later go down. Think where! Oh, down to the bottomless pit of despair-and who is to blame?

Give up the vain attempt to mend the old ship. Own yourself a lost and ruined sinner-believe the grace of God in sending you Christ the life boat trust Him with all your heart-confess Him with your lips and life!

You cannot be in both. If you are in the old ship, no matter how self-righteous, you are sinking fast; there is not a moment to be lost. You cannot be in both! But if you have accepted Christ, the lifeboat, you are safe and sure. He never did and never will lose one soul that trusts in Him.

“The invisible things of Him... are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20

Why Did He Die?

Yard-master T. J. Wood was dead. His body, terribly mangled, was found on the railroad track at Clopton, Virginia. Had he thrown himself under a moving train and so taken his own life? Was it suicide? Was it an accident caused by his own carelessness? Or had he been thrown on the tracks to hide the fact that he had been murdered? Everyone had his own opinion on the subject; some thought one thing, and some another.

After a careful investigation, however, the true facts of the case were brought to light. The yard-master had deliberately sacrificed his life in order to save the lives of others. He had died the death of a hero.

It happened like this: The “Cannon Ball Express,” the limited passenger train of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, was approaching the junction. Suddenly Wood realized that a switch leading to a string of empty cars was open. Unless something was done, in a few seconds the “Cannon Ball” would rush into the siding, crash into the empty cars, and there would be a terrible wreck. Wood could almost see the ground strewn with dead and dying passengers. Racing to the switch, he threw himself upon it and closed it just in time-but he was struck and killed by the passing train. The train was saved, as were its unwitting passengers, but T. J. Wood was lost.

In like manner, various theories are also afloat as to the manner and cause of the death of the One infinitely greater than the bravest of earth’s heroes. How, and for what reason, did Jesus die?

Unholy speculations have not been lacking as to how He died. Some have attributed His death to mere physical causes. Others, more daring, have asked: Did He really die upon the cross after all or was it only a simulated death, followed by a reviving which His followers palmed off upon the world as a genuine resurrection?

Others agree that He really died. Nevertheless, they argue that His death was merely that of a martyr. They claim that He was one among many who have sealed their testimony to the truth with their life’s blood.

From all such unholy theories and speculations we turn away. The Bible sheds a full and sufficient light upon the subject. It assures us that Christ died, and that His death was infinitely more than the death of a martyr. He died as a Substitute. His sufferings were those of a Sin-bearer. His blood had an atoning value which no other possesses.

Christ died! He died for us-for the ungodly for sinners. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Surely this verse, even if there were no other, is enough to show that in dying upon the cross the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin. Those who believe in Him can say, “He died for me. He bore my sins. His blood has cleansed me and made me whiter than snow.”

What is the death of Christ to you? Have you staked your soul’s eternal welfare on the merits of His blood? What other foundation can you find to rest upon? How else can sins be atoned for? “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).

When we say that Christ died for the ungodly, we have not told the whole story. He who died on Calvary is alive again. He has ascended to heaven, and He now sits upon the throne of God as Lord of all. All that Christ secured for guilty sinners by His work on the cross is now offered freely through faith in Him-forgiveness, righteousness, everlasting life, peace with God. All these would have been impossible for us if Jesus had not died, but they are now all to be found in the risen Christ.

Turn to Him in faith. He will make all these blessings yours and will give you His Holy Spirit through whom you can enjoy them even now.

Why Did He Wear It?

Many years ago lived a great prince, who was a handsome man, imposing in appearance and possessed of enormous wealth. Many famous gems were in his treasury, but there was one jewel that he always wore. It was a magnificent diamond which hung from his turban and rested in the middle of his forehead. People thought he wore it to impress others with his wealth and power, but that was not the real reason.

The real reason was that that prince, that rich and powerful man, had leprosy. Nothing in all his domain-nothing that all his gold and jewels could pay for-could cure its slow working in his body. Outwardly, it was visible in only one spot: the center of his forehead. That was the purpose of the great diamond: It was to hide his leprosy from the eyes of others.

That diamond is like a visible, blameless life which all may see but which is covering up a deceitful and wicked heart. The disease within may be hidden from human eyes, but be sure that God is not deceived. He sees through the fair outward covering and into the secret working of the heart. From what He sees there, He recognizes the moral leper a sinner.

But thank God! There is cleansing and healing for all who will receive it-cleansing and healing for the very worst and lowest.

Where is this healing and cleansing to be found? In the precious blood of Christ. That, and that alone, can cleanse away the sinner’s guilt. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Have you received that cleansing?

“All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:13

The Wrong Diagnosis

Some time ago a nationally known brain surgeon performed an operation on a convict’s brain to curb his desire to steal.

“As far as I am concerned, the operation was a failure,” said the patient, when he was picked up by the police as he pawned a stolen watch. When the officers went to the home of the culprit, they found all sorts of items that had been stolen from various places. Much to the disappointment of the patient’s lawyer, who had arranged the operation, the attempt to remedy the trouble by surgery of the brain was a complete failure.

Little wonder, for the diagnosis was absolutely wrong! In Mark 7:21-23, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, THEFTS, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

From this it is clearly seen that theft is produced by the heart (synonym for the soul) of man. The cause is not in the head but in the heart-not that which is physical, but that which is spiritual.

And the heart is the fountain of every evil thing. Jeremiah the prophet declares: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” It is SIN that has made it so, and the Great Physician who knows man’s heart was apparently not consulted before an attempt was made to remedy the condition without getting at the cause.

Many are the efforts being made today to correct the outward condition of the evil that is all around us by physical, therapeutic, psychological and philanthropic means. All these efforts ignore the basic cause, and so they can result in nothing but failure and disappointment.

When the truth of God’s diagnosis of man’s sinful condition and absolute soul-ruin is refused or ignored, there can be no other end than death and judgment. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). Because of sin, man is helpless to do one thing to remedy his condition. So far as human efforts are concerned, his case is hopeless.

Is There No Hope, No Remedy?

Yes, thank God, there is! The very one against whom man has sinned has provided a remedy. An operation was needed, truly, but it was an operation of divine judgment against sin. And the blessed Lord Jesus came to be made sin for us and underwent on Calvary the knife of God’s righteous wrath against sin. He was the Substitute for sinful men. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

His death and the shedding of His blood met all God’s righteous claims and opened the way for God to come out to man with an offer of grace to all: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezek. 36:26).

This is the remedy! A new birth which gives a new life and a new nature, all of which is divine and eternal. This is what the Lord Jesus proclaimed to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN” (John 3:3,7). It is not the turning over of a new leaf that is needed, but the receiving of a new life is required. It is not reformation, but regeneration.

How Can One Be Born Again?

The Bible tells it plainly: “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.” We become children of God by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ-receiving Him by believing on His name. So a divine nature is given and eternal life is received, for we read, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). Thank God it is so!

Echoes of Grace: 2000

Table of Contents

“I Never Thought of Losing!”

“I’ll Think It Over”

“Jesus”

Almost

Asleep on the Tracks

The Bible

Blondin

Byron and Paul: A Contrast

Can a Criminal Go to Heaven?

The Cat Burglar

Christ and Nicodemus

Decide for Christ Now

Do You Really Want to Be a Millionaire?

Does Prayer Work?

Don’t Forget!

Drifting!

Faith

God Is Love

The Greatest Tragedy

He Came!

He Died for Me!

He Said It

High Risk

How Long?

How Strange It Is That

The Hunter's Surprise

I Am Eighty-Eight Years Old!

I Don’t Think About the End

Is Your Name Here?

It Is Finished!

Justice and Mercy

A Lantern, but No Light

Lay Hold!

Lay Hold!

Lifted From the Sea

The Little Frogs

Lost in the Woods

Major Whipple’s Conversion

Man’s Extremity, Mercy’s Opportunity

The Most Unpopular Verse

Mount Usu, Volcano

A Murderer's Story

My Favorite Verses

My Favorite Verses

No Problem?

No Time for God?

Ocean’s Currents

One More Chance

One Wonderful Verse

Pursued by Prayer

Saved at Tarawa

Saved from the Pit

Silent Death

A Son of a King

Sudden Destruction

Suddenly …

The Sure Ground

Time No Longer

Tom’s Story

Two Little Cousins

An Unconditional Invitation

What Shall I Do Then with Jesus?

Which Is the Way to God?

Who Is to Blame?

Why Did He Die?

Why Did He Wear It?

The Wrong Diagnosis