GREAT is the hopefulness, well-nigh boundless the aspiration of youth; and the vast Western Continent, more than any other country, perhaps, has attracted youthful enterprise from this side of the Atlantic as affording for it a wider and more unrestricted scope than is found in the home-country.
Urged by such a consideration, some thirty years ago, a young man pushed out from our great metropolis, crossed the stormy ocean, and found employment in a town in New York State on the banks of the Hudson River. He had been trained in the fear of God, and Sunday evening, therefore, found him in a large well-attended church. The preacher, highly favored in having such a service committed to him as the proclamation of God’s glad tidings to so many, was also greatly gifted for it. Possessed of both learning and culture, he was also endowed with fine judgment and fluency of speech, which enabled him to present the truth in an arresting and attractive form. He had, moreover, a fine presence “a self-recommending aspect,” as John Howe said of another. Above all, he was in earnest — the love of Christ constrained him.
The “gift” received from the victorious ascended Lord (Eph. 4:11), and used in obedience to His commission (Mark 16:15), who may tell the result of that preaching? Our young friend, however, was unimpressed by it.
Beyond all human limit is the diligence of the divine Searcher. It was an arrow shot at a venture that killed the king, and no circumstance or opportunity which infinite wisdom can turn to account is allowed to escape His unerring vigilance.
Ere the message of grace had been fully delivered, an acquaintance sitting beside the young man whispered in His ear, “What think ye of Christ?” It was a simple question of five words, but it was the “still, small voice”; it was God’s question to him that day. Yea, verily, it was the word of the living God that possesses a penetrativeness and power to which those of the famed Rontgen ray are as nothing. The Spirit of God seized the opportunity. The word gained entrance, and light flashed into that young man’s soul. What confusion was revealed! But the redemption coin was found, and there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over a sinner that repented (Luke 15:8-10). Conscience now awaked, and deep emotions were stirred which naught of earth could satisfy. No peace had he until he could answer the question without reserve in the quietness of God’s own presence. A moral convulsion was wrought in the young man. He was begotten again by the Word. All things were changed to him — his hope transferred from earth to heaven (Heb. 10:10; 13:14); his aspiration centered in the glorious Person revealed to him through the question; earthly gain no longer a controlling motive; to win Christ where He is, became the dominant desire, the supreme joy set before him. Returning to the home-country, he pursued a quiet path, seeking to grow in the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour, and to set forth to others the unsearchable riches of Christ. Thirty years have since elapsed; but when, recently, the same question was raised with him, his ready answer was, “He is the chiefest among ten thousand, He is the altogether lovely One.”
Reader, suffer us to urge on you the consideration of this question. Its importance is beyond exaggeration. On the character of your answer will depend your future, not for this short span of life alone, but for the eternity beyond. It is not our question. It is
God’s question to you today.
Yea, it is the jealous appeal of a Saviour-God who spared not His Son, His only Son, whom He loved, to provide you a Saviour and Friend — a Saviour from sin, death, and hell; a Friend who, living in the power of an endless life, can love you with an everlasting love and serve you when time is no more.
Wondrous are the testimonies to Him recorded for us in God’s Word. Suffice it here to quote one from the Old Testament and one from the New. In the ninth chapter of Isaiah is found this one: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” What sublime surpassing of the conceptions of men! What a bringing together of time and eternity, of majesty and tenderness! — the Babe born in time, the Father of eternity! the Son given, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace!
The following precious declaration we have chosen from the New Testament: “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). A devoted servant of the Lord has thus sweetly commented on it: “We are in weakness, we are guilty, we could not bring ourselves near to God. We needed a mediator, who, while maintaining the glory of God, should put us into such a position that He could present us to God in righteousness according to that glory.... Christ has revealed God, and all that He is in His own Person, in all the circumstances wherein man could have need either in body or soul. He came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be none even of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near him and was entirely accessible to him — come down to him — His love finding occasion in misery; and that there was no need to which He was not present, which He could not meet. No tenderness, no power of sympathy, no humanity like His; no human heart that can so understand, so feel with us, whatever the burden may be that oppresses the heart of man.”
“All that God or man could wish
In Jesus richly meet.”
God’s first question to fallen men (Himself, thus early, the Seeker) was,
Where art thou?
The shedding of man’s blood drew from Him the further question, What hast thou done? The Son of man having come to seek and to save that which was lost; Christ having once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God; God having made full provision for our state and for our sins in the Person and work of His beloved Son, of whom and of which He has testified His delight and acceptance, His question now is,
What think ye of Christ?
The work acceptable to God is “to believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:29). And He is now declared “the Son of God, with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead for the obedience of faith among all nations” (Rom. 1:4, 5).
A. J. H.