Gospel Gleanings: Volume 5 (1905)

No, sir, I would not allow you or anyone else to class me with the vile and degraded sinners around us, such as drunkards, swearers, gamblers, and the like. I consider myself superior to them, for I have ever been upright, honorable and honest, and have sought to keep myself respectable. I am willing to own that I am a sinner, but you must draw a line between refined and cultured people, and those who are coarse, vulgar and reprobate, not caring what they do or say.”

These words were uttered by one who resented my seeking to skew him from the scriptures, that all men are alike lost sinners. "For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." He appeared to treat lightly that, on the other hand, God has made such a rich provision for the sinner, so that the glad tidings can be announced to' all, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

I fear, alas! this man represents many in the present day. Souls seem slow to own that they are bankrupt sinners, ruined and lost; and that if they are to be saved, it must be outside of themselves, on the ground of mercy and grace. They kick against this, for the simple reason that it makes nothing of them, and everything of the One who is ready and willing to save them.

Now, dear reader, I trust you are not among those who thus seek to raise their heads above their fellows, thinking themselves superior. Should you be so, you will do well to search the scriptures, believing them to be the word of God, with a heart willing and ready to bow to what they say about you and to you. One thing is certain, if these are your thoughts, you have never yet seen yourself in the searching light of God's holy presence, for there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight, all things being naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

It might be well for you just to turn up your Bible, and see the effect that the presence of God had upon several of old who were brought there. And you must remember that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity.

We are told of Job, who seeing himself through his own eyes, maintained his integrity, and justified himself, in the face of all that his professed friends sought to charge home to him, But when he got into God's presence, we find everything changed, and he says, " I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in. dust and ashes." Ah! he found nothing to cling to when once all was revealed in the light and holiness of the presence of God, yea, rather he saw himself as that which was worthy only to be hated; and that led to his repentance. He had said to the Lord, Behold, I am vile." This was his true condition.

Then we read of Isaiah, who, when he gets into the presence of God, exclaims, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." His guilt is taken away, and his sin purged by the live coal from off the altar being laid upon his mouth by one of the seraphim.

You will also find an instance of this in the eighth chapter of John. Those who were upright in their own eyes looked down with contempt upon a poor woman who was taken in the very act of sin, and brought her into the presence of Jesus, who was God manifest in flesh, that she might be stoned according to the law of Moses. They had not contemplated the light and holiness of the presence of this lowly One. By the remark He made, He revealed to them that He knew their hearts, and their consciences became uneasy, as He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last; Jesus being left alone with the woman.

No, beloved reader, you may depend upon it, you will not think, yourself better than your neighbor when once you see yourself as God sees you. Even if you think of your own righteousness, the word of God meets you there, saying, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." And filthy rags are lit only for the dunghill. You are a lost sinner, whoever you may be, who are not saved. Morality and respectability, all right in their proper places, do not, before God, raise you one step higher than that platform upon which all are by nature. "There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Oh! if you will only see and own this, it will be glad news to you to hear that, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and the Lord Himself says, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." And why, think you, can God save sinners, seeing He is holy and righteous, and cannot look upon sin? I turn you to that atoning work accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son, upon Calvary's Cross, whereby He has met and satisfied the just claims of God against sin, at the same time revealing the unbounded love for sinners that is in the heart of God. The cross of Christ tells me how repugnant sin is to God, for Christ there being made sin, suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust to bring us to God. Hence God is now righteous in saving you, a poor lost sinner. But mark, dear reader, that God does not, and cannot, save guilty and ruined sinners at the expense of His righteousness and holiness.

The perfect righteousness of God

Is witnessed in the Saviour's blood;

'Tis in the cross of Christ we trace

His righteousness, yet wondrous grace.

God could not pass the sinner by,

His sin demands that He must die;

But in the cross of Christ we see

How God can save, yet righteous be.

We see in the cross of Christ, that man by nature was so evil and corrupt—incurably wicked—that God judges him and punishes him in the person of His Son; hence He can now be just and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 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." He that heareth my word" says Jesus, "and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." Oh! ye sinners, guilty and lost, dare you think there is any escape for you if you neglect so great salvation, when that blessed Saviour who was made sin, had to suffer the mighty wrath and indignation of God upon the cross? He bore the judgment of God (blessed be His holy name), that you and l might go free. Was ever love like this? Surely it was stronger than death. Many waters could not quench it, neither could the floods drown it.

Beloved reader, it will be imputed to you for righteousness, if you believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification, and being justified by faith, you will have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is still a Saviour for sinners, though seated at the right hand of God, and still says, "Come unto me," and may you respond ere it is too late, for soon, He that shall come will come and will not tarry."

"Come ye weary heavy-laden

Lost and ruined by the fall,

If you tarry till you're better

You will never come at all.

Not the righteous,

Sinners, Jesus came to call.”

W. G.

Are Your Eyes Open?

IT is beyond question, that all men by nature are spiritually blind, not only as to their sins, but also to God's requirements of them, and to unbounded love towards them. And it is a sorrowful thought that throngs are blindly hurrying: down the broad road that leadeth to destruction. Oh, that the eyes of many may be opened ere the fearful end of that path is reached!

A thrilling little story was, some time since, flashed to many parts of the globe, of a man who, through a very clever operation, was given his sight at the age of thirty years. And this was all the more wonderful, considering he had never known what sight was before, since he was, thirty years previously, born blind. No one can possibly realize his sensations at the moment when the bandages were removed, after the operation. He clapped his hands for joy at the wonders that met his gaze. "Oh!" he cried, "it is all very, very wonderful Why do not people make more fuss about it?”

Why, dear reader, do you think I relate this to you? Because it aptly illustrates the ecstatic joy, and unbounded delight that fills the heart of the one whose spiritual eyes have been opened to behold the matchless beauty, the infinite perfection, and the unsullied glories of the Christ of God. Oh, wonderful, glorious blessing, to see Him, and to know Him as "The chiefest among ten thousand—altogether lovely."

What a picture this blind man was, before he received his sight, of every unregenerate soul. Blind to their true state before God; blind too, to the love of God, and to the peerless Saviour who longs to open their eyes. This is how the word of God designates such: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." How lamentable indeed to contemplate such a state, and how can it possibly produce any happiness? But have you ever read the words that were addressed to the beloved apostle Paul, who was chosen of God to declare a message of life and love to all in such a condition? Then listen!" I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Oh, beloved reader, blind and dark indeed, you are, if you are still in your sins! Does it not touch your very heart to learn of the unutterable love of Jesus, who went down into the darkness of death, that you might be brought into the light of life? Who bore the storm of God's righteous wrath, that you might know and enjoy the sweet calm of His blessed favor? Who sank in deep mire, where there was no standing, that you might firmly and safely stand upon a rock? Oh, that your heart might immediately respond to such vast and immeasurable love! Turn to Him in all your sins, in all your darkness, and in all your blindness, and He will assuredly give you to know the joy of what it means to have your sins forgiven through faith in His blood turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God. Rest assured, your gladness will then exceed that of the man of whom I have told you and your chief delight will be to learn more and more of the One who, at such an infinite cost to Himself, brought you into such a wonderful place.

We read of Bartimæus brought in contact with the peerless Son of God, who in the tenderest grace and pity, opened his eyes. What an object met his gaze, as those eyelids were first unsealed. Opened, first of all to behold the Christ of God, to contemplate His beauty.

And is not He the first to meet the gaze of every repentant sinner to-day? What a sight indeed! Can you, dear reader, say, "I see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor?" Ah! if so, I know your great delight is to fall down before Him, in gratitude, praise and worship, and adore Him as the dearest object of your heart.

The writer well remembers the first gladsome moment when darkness gave place to light, blindness to sight, and death to life. Words fail to describe the intense joy that was known. And oh, dear reader, the One who opened his eyes has been his blessed friend and companion ever since, comforting and succoring his heart through sorrow and trial. Oh, that you may know Him too!

But should your pride rise up still in rebellion against Him, because you are so far satisfied with yourself, I would just remind you of an intensely solemn word, " But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

W. G.

The Baker and the Butler

IN Genesis 40. we have the history of two men, and it is not too much to say that their fate was sealed by the way they treated the third. It may be said there is not a more beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all scripture than Joseph. And certainly everything as to our eternal destiny depends upon the way in which we treat the Lord Jesus. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Now it mattered not where Joseph was, he became the pre-eminent man. In Potiphar's house he was made overseer, and all that the Egyptian had he put under Joseph. Moreover because he did so, God prospered Potiphar so that it came to pass "he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he knew not aught that he had, save the bread which he did eat." In the prison, it is the same tale; "the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison, and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him [Joseph] and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper."

It is written concerning the Lord Jesus, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand;" also, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." Were such words ever spoken of anyone else?

Now our two men were chief men, but they had offended their lord, the king of Egypt; and of the best of mankind now, as men would speak, God's word says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," and again it says, "God is angry (with the wicked) every day."

These two men were put into the prison, "the place where Joseph was bound." What a way of speaking about it What is this world to God; but a place where the Son of His love has suffered? Thank God though, that He came into it; for, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

These two men dream a dream, "each man according to the interpretation of his dream," for their memories were not to be depended upon to give exactness; only Joseph could do that. And when he came in the next morning to see them, "behold, they were sad." What a summary of this present world and its inability to make men happy! But he, the prisoner who was unjustly there, was not occupied with his own circumstances of sorrow, but says to them, "Wherefore look ye so sadly today?" How like Him who, when His own ministry seemed a failure, could turn round to a weary world, and say, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Have you taken Him at His word, my reader? Oh, do so now; "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

They tell Joseph they have dreamed a dream, but add, "there is no interpreter." No! apart from Christ, by whom alone God is made known to us, there is no interpreter of the scene of sorrow, sickness and death in which we are, however unflattering to the philosophy of men such a statement may be. But Joseph says, "Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you." Joseph did not vaunt himself, but he knew a link with God they had not. Jesus, God over all, blessed forever, humbled Himself to become a man, and He is God's salvation unto the ends of the earth.

The chief butler trusts Joseph, and tells his dream. "In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes; and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand." Shortly stated, the vine (and the Lord Jesus, is the true Vine that has alone brought forth fruit unto God), was the subject of the butler's dream; and all that he had done was to press the pure blood of the grape into the cup, like one whose only trust is the precious blood of Christ which brings us to God Himself, giving us access into His holy presence. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Joseph gives the interpretation to the butler; within three days he was to be restored to his office, adding these touching words, "Think on me when it shall be well with thee; and skew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh.”

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he also tells his dream to Joseph, and there are many like him; their understandings are convinced of the advantages of Christianity: how civilization has followed in its train, etc., but like him, they have never judged self; hence that self's doings are the burden of their hopes, if such you can call them. Well, what says the baker? "I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head; and in the uppermost basket, there was all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head." White is the symbol of purity; bakemeats of works, the works of man; no wonder then that the birds of the air, which signify the power of Satan, had fellowship with them. How little did this man know that "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." No wonder that Joseph told him, "Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee." What an awful portion, to be with the devil and his angels forever in all their awful torments, because on earth Jesus was not trusted nor His precious blood confided in. Verily, "blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.”

Sad as it was that the baker should forget Joseph, yet when he stood before the proud king who had restored him to his favor, and circumstances demanded Joseph should be remembered, he speaks of the young man, the Hebrew servant, thus, "It came to pass as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he [not thou] restored unto mine office, and him he [not thou] hanged.”

So it will be, my reader; we who believe will everlastingly praise and adore our Lord Jesus, not but of course we shall praise the Father too; and in doing thus we shall honor the Father, whilst those who stand before the judgment throne will find it occupied by the One whom they despised or neglected as Saviour, and have their sentence from His own lips. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him." W. N. T.

The Conversion of John R —

IT was very nearly a year ago that I left my work for a day or two to attend a conference in London. Praise be to God, we had a happy time in hearing about our Saviour and our Lord, and in rendering to Him the homage of our hearts. I should have liked to stay for the last day, but I felt compelled to return, and surely it was God's voice that spoke within.

No sooner had I reached my office than I was told that two of the men, working for the contractors who were carrying out certain works under my direction, had been dismissed for absenting themselves without leave and returning in a state of drunkenness; and imagine my distress when I heard that John R—, a young man who had worked steadily and well for many years, whose father I knew and respected, was one of the two delinquents.

I hastily went out to the site where the works were being carried out, and upon inquiring of the foreman I found that the report was only too true. John R—was leaving the works a ruined man! I pleaded that he was led by an evil companion; that I knew him to be steady; that he should have another chance; but the foreman was inexorable, and his reply was, " He'll never work for me again, sir; he's by far the worse of the two." This charge was unfortunately borne out by my own inspector, a good Christian man, who told me that he had never heard worse language than had come from John R.'s lips. Only a few minutes later I met the pair of them coming to claim their tools before leaving the works for good. John R—saw me, lowered his head in shame, and passed me by. I watched my opportunity, and it was not long before I was able to speak to him face to face.

“Jack!" I said, "has it come to this?”

He bit his lips and forced back his tears.

“Don't speak to me now, sir," he stammered. "It's too late now. It's too late now.”

And he went on muttering, as tears flowed copiously from his downcast eyes, " Don't speak to me now, sir; it's too late now; " and so for the time I left him, not knowing what to do or how to help.

After dinner I again visited the works, and, having had my look round, I was returning to my office when I saw John R—and his noisy mate, their tool bags over their shoulders, leaving the precincts for good. I hurried past them, and turning, called out to John R—in an off-hand way, “I wish to see you, Jack, in my office for a minute before you go.”

I reached my office and prayerfully awaited his arrival, and how thankful I was to hear his steps upon the stairs I Once within, I shut the door and bade him be seated, and then as man to man I spoke to him, seeking to touch his heart by appealing to him through his parents, through his young wife and little child, Soon he was sobbing in an agony of mental pain, "O God! my poor wife! O God! my little darling!" and it was indeed pitiful to be a witness of his vented grief. I found that he had been drinking off and on now for six months, that he had spent ₤4 IOS. in drink during the three days of that Whitsun holiday, and that his mate (who was waiting in a public house outside) had been the chief cause of his downfall.

I told him of the love of God in sending Jesus Christ to suffer for our offenses; to die for our sins. But although his repentance was manifestly real, his mind was too much shaken to grasp the full meaning of the message. He felt his powerlessness to resist and hardly dared believe that if he accepted God's salvation, God would be his strength. Indeed, in reply to my question as to what he would do, if his drunken mate asked him to have a drink after leaving me, he cried out that he was not able to refuse. "I've no will now, sir," he stammered.

I managed however to get one promise out of him; that he would not go off "on the roads" with his mate as they had arranged to do, for I knew that, once "on the roads," Satan's victory was practically complete. (You, my readers, who have not had dealings with those who have taken to the roads for their living cannot be aware of all the misery that the term implies). And more than this, John also promised to come to my men's Bible class the next evening. I was powerless to do more, and so, with a prayer that God would bless him, I bade him good-bye.

The morrow came, and at its close the Bible class hour when the usual men arrived, but not John R—. My heart was full of misgivings, and it was a joy to hear the bell ring again and find Mrs. R—at my door with a message from John to say that he was so sorry but that he was too ill to come. The effect of three days' debauch was heavy upon him, and clearly God's hand was in it, for his wife told me that the drunken mate had been hanging around their house all day and constantly asking where John was, until finding that his efforts were wasted he had at last decamped. Poor Mrs. R—was much affected when she spoke of her husband, and especially when she told me that she had never known, before the last few days, that he "did not believe in God." For his drunken mate, who had bent him to his evil will, was a professed anarchist and an atheist as well.

Before allowing her to leave, I told her that I would expect to see John in my office the next morning, and it was with great joy that I found him waiting for me. The effect of the alcohol was now past, and John was ready to listen, and to weigh what words he heard. I saw plainly that God was working in his soul, and, when he broke down in tears over his sin, I told him of the cruel shameful death of Christ, who on the cross was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

No atheism now! He had drunk enough already of its bitter waters. On his knees he called upon God for the promised mercy and the needed grace, and he rose up "a new creature." Old things: had passed away; all things had become new.

Joy filled his heart and mine, and filled the heavens too to the praise of the One who died for all. Oh! that all would own their need of that dying love of Christ. We look around, and wherever we look we are forced to cry, "How few! How few!" John then told me with shame how he had `cheeked' and insulted his foreman, and, as I was anxious to get him work and unwilling to lose his capable services, I was thankful to hear him say, prompted by a hitherto unknown spirit, that he would apologize fully if he were employed again. I approached the contractors who were quite opposed to the idea of giving him another start, but eventually God ordered it otherwise. John offered the foreman a full apology which was accepted, and again he started work.

How different was his behavior now! Not a word against him from any quarter, but a universal acknowledgment of the complete change in his character and behavior. He saw the work through, and so satisfied were his employers now that, having another contract on hand, John was written to and asked if he would accept an offer of employment there. Truly the man of faith, beholding the effect and knowing the cause, could not fail to exclaim, "What hath God wrought.”

But this is not all. There is (and can we refrain from praising God for it?) the other side; tile side of trial and endurance for the Master's sake. And John has had his heavy share. He was engaged upon a great harbor-works, and, having gone to take up his job, he was met at the gates by four men in whose company he would have to work. The fame of his conversion had preceded him, and he was told that he had better return the way he had come as no "bible-thumping" was wanted there. But he threw off the objections, and bravely insisted upon his due. Advantages were taken of him at every turn. His mates laughed and threw epithets at him, and, even when he left his tools behind at the dinner hour, were cruel enough to steal them so that when he came back his bag was empty. And upon another contract, where he was employed subsequently, his mates were so foul-mouthed and addicted to drink that after a hard trial he left the job. Don't think that he himself told me anything about this bearing of the yoke of Christ, this fellowship in His sufferings, of his own accord; for I dragged it from him, and that with the greatest difficulty.

I have just heard from John, and it is a joy to know that he is still rejoicing in his Saviour's love, and still in touch with God.

Well, my prayer is that God will bless this little testimony and skew to all who read it the power of God to save even those who have denied His very name, and having saved them through the blood of Christ, to keep them to His praise and glory.

L.L.

Death: — and After

A MIDST the ceaseless hubbub, restless excitement, and ever-increasing pride of the twentieth century, amidst earth's fleeting pleasures, dreams and fashions, and the hysterical fancies of the so-called "higher critics," one appalling fact ever stands supreme and preeminent, a fact which not all the combined efforts of philosophy and science, nor the higher education of this age of progress (as men say) can ever alter. This fact is that death, the king of terrors, who for nearly six thousand years has stretched out his encircling arms, still goes on with his resistless work, and in his cold embrace still spoils all the dreams of men, and suddenly stops all their wild schemes and reckless ambitions. Slowly, but surely, and every day, he overtakes his victims one by one; yet, for the most part, how little do they think when "the silver cord is loosed," that "after death, there is the judgment." Alas, alas! the world, still lulled to sleep by Satan, profits not by these ceaseless warnings, for the very last thing that men care for or desire, is to be right in their souls with God. Conscience, however, that inward monitor so often stifled and seared, still cries loudly; and, though so frequently unheeded, yet from time to time asserts her sway until her voice is heard.

Reader, how is it with you? If, until this present moment, you have never paused in life's journey to consider what the end will be, then indeed, yours has been a wasted life. Brittle as a thread, scripture compares that life to a vapor, or a shadow that quickly passeth away; for death, death, nothing but death is ever on your track, and may overtake you even now, as you read these lines. How truly blind then must be the man, woman, or child, who looks not beyond this present fleeting moment into the immediate and eternal future! Yes, "after death, the judgment," is God's solemn message to every unrepentant heart to-day. "God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," but what shall the harvest be? Shall it be of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness?

Remember, dear reader, that death does not terminate your relations with God, for again and again come back those same solemn words, "After death the judgment," that day of solemn reckoning between the unsaved sinner and "the Judge of all the earth." No wonder David exclaimed, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O LORD, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Listen, too, to the warning voice of Amos, who, looking clown the stream of time, declares in solemn tones, "Prepare to meet thy God." Think, oh think, of a lifetime's sins meeting you at the great white throne, and the record of a wasted life read out in your ears, from those books of judgment': The murdered Man of Calvary, now risen from among the dead, yea, crowned and glorified, will occupy that throne; "for God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all in that he hath raised him from the dead." How then, dear unsaved reader, can you be indifferent to the awful fact that you will have to stand before God when the wicked dead are "judged every man according to their works?” God makes no mistakes in His book-keeping, for even now if unconverted, are your secret sins in the light of His countenance. Yes, after death the judgment; and after judgment the long dark night of endless sorrow in the lake of fire! How solemn t oh, how solemn for all the Christ-rejecters and Christ-neglecters, and for you also should you die in your sins But ere I close this paper, let me gladly tell you on the authority of the word of God, that there is a bright side to this dark picture; and life, eternal life may yet be yours in Christ, instead of the second death. Yes, thank God, there is a way of escape from coming wrath which God Himself has provided, for Jesus is the way, as well as the truth and the life; and the blood which flowed from His pierced side on Calvary's cross avails for all, and therefore for you.

It is the blood alone which is the believer's shelter from coming judgment; and the very moment that you (a poor lost sinner) trust it, your sins are all forgiven and you pass from death unto life. It is the blood which is the life; the blood which makes atonement for the soul; the blood which cleanses, justifies, and sanctifies every believer; yea, opens up the way through Christ's death and resurrection, into the very holiest of all, so that, forever redeemed by that blood, the believer may worship in spirit and in truth. Yes, the blood of Jesus is the true and precious token of pardon, peace, and full and free salvation, for God Himself declares, When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Reader, time admits of no delay, for "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Close then at once, as you read these lines, with God's wondrous offer of a present and eternal salvation; and you will prove the truth of the words of the little hymn:—

Though the restless foe accuses,

Sins recounting like a flood,

Every charge our God refuses,

Christ hath answered with His blood.”

S. T.

A Death Bed Testimony

WILLIAM B—, a colored man from St. Vincent, West Indies, has recently passed „away to be with Christ; and a missionary who visited him in the London infirmary testifies of his unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus up to the time of his departure.

He says: "I visited Mr. B— twice while he was in the infirmary. I found that his faith in Christ was firmly fixed.

“In reply to a question, he said, My Beloved is mine, and I am His. I do know Him to be a blessed living reality to me now. I do find Him my refuge and strength, a very present help while I lie here.'

“Then, after a moment's quiet, he said, 'Those great exceeding precious promises! oh, how comforting I God has kept His word to me—the most unworthy. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' With beaming face he asked me to tell everybody of the love of God.

“The day before he died we talked together of the goodness of God and His wondrous love, and he wished me to read the last three verses of the eighth of Romans, and as I read, he opened his eyes, and said, s More than conquerors, praise the Lord—nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”

Dear reader, this bright testimony comes from one who had put his trust in God. Will you trust Him now? Your sins will keep you out of heaven unless they are forgiven. "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all sin.”

The Divine

"Being therefore God's offspring, we ought not to think the divine is like gold or silver or stone, graven by man's art and thought." Acts 17:29.

MEN are God's offspring, not because they have a body, as all animals have, nor even a soul and spirit, as they too have, suited to their place and function in creation, but because they have an inner man direct from God by His inbreathing. This we know, as no Athenians did, and as not a few Christians forget, from the only reliable account in Genesis 2:7: "and Jehovah Elohim formed man [of] dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul," or person. This assuredly explains why of all on earth man alone has an immortal soul for good or for ill beyond calculation, and why he must give account to God. But here the apostle used this relationship (from the peculiarity of the immaterial part of his nature) to prove the folly of an idolatrous image to represent God. No doubt, man's body was formed in divine wisdom with a view to the soul and spirit communicated by a subsequent and intimate act of Jehovah Elohim in giving him only the inner man from His own breath. From this fact flows his moral relationship to God; and he alone of earth's beings has it.

But this fact refutes the irrationalism of idol (or image) worship of God. For it is in the immaterialism of his nature that man is thus God's offspring. His soul and spirit only are from God's inbreathing; and in this he stood alone here below. Therefore, as urged, "we ought not to think the divine is like gold or silver or stone„ graven by man's art and thought." The sculpture of these material substances by man's skill and imagination only adds absurdity to absurdity. For the material was but a creature of God; and the shape given to each was man's fancy and manufacture. "God is a spirit," and so can be omnipresent, as man's conscience bears witness to His penetrating energy throughout all mankind, unless stupefied by sin and infidelity, which drown thought of Him. But He is behind all ineffaceably, though Satan poses as the god of the world, deifying men's lusts to gratify them, and the pride of deceased ancestors, and the powers of nature above and below, as he works by demons who personate the various national divinities which are but names to deceive.

But there is a true and perfect image of the invisible God, Jesus the Lord, not only unknown to the Greek and the nations universally, but unwelcome to the Jew in his unbelief, Who revealed God in His essence and attributes and relationship of Father, as He the eternal Word and Son knew Him; Who brought God nigh to man in His life and service, and brought nigh to God all who believe, be they Jew or Gentile. To this end He is, as He must be, both true God, and perfect man, in one Person. And He is the only safe-guard from false gods and from idols, from idols of the mind no less than material images. He too is the one mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, not only God but man; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times, when Jew and Gentile condemned themselves as reprobates and lost sinners by condemning the only Righteous One and hating the God who sent His Son in saving grace.

O what a contrast between the enemy deifying sinful men and their fears and passions and their ideas of vanity, with real demons unseen becoming thus objects of worship; and God the Father giving the Christian fellowship with Himself and His Son by the Holy Ghost! There is God kept in His own supreme place, and man, believing man, put into his true position of dependence and subjection, yet brought even now into the relationship of His child in all the confidence of His perfect love which has cast out our fear through our Lord Jesus. All other images are but the shameless rivals of the great enemy's hatred of Him; the resuscitated spawn of Paganism, which the Lord vanquished in the seeming defeat of His cross, when He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it. And to what is. Christendom returning but homage to these specters of darkness, as the Jews will shortly in these last days, before grace creates the "generation to come?”

A Dying Soldier

IT was in the midst of the battle of Sedan. A thick cloud of smoke, like a funeral pall, enveloped the opposing armies. The roar of the cannon was deafening. The day was declining, and the clouds of night commenced to descend upon the field of battle. The cold wind of the evening blew violently, but not strong enough to drown the groans of the wounded and dying.

In the midst of this heartrending scene, when many souls were passing out of this world into eternity, when others besought that death might put an end to their sufferings, some soldiers, carrying one of their wounded comrades, were making a way for themselves across a heap of dead bodies.

“Leave me," said the wounded man, "I want to die: take no further trouble with me. Leave me, I pray you.”

With regret, they deposited their precious burden, and took their places again in the ranks. Some minutes, which seemed like hours to the poor dying man, passed by. Then, an officer, approaching him, said kindly, "What can I do for you?”

“Nothing, captain, thank you," he replied, endeavoring to salute him.

“Do you want some water?" added the officer, more affected than he cared to show.

“No, thanks, captain. I am dying.”

“What kindness can I do for you? I will willingly write to your parents or friends to inform them of your death.”

“I have no one, captain, to whom you can write," said the dying man, with tears in his eyes. "However, I will make one request. In the haversack which is under my head, you will find a New Testament. Will you open it at John 14.? and, towards the end of the chapter, you will find a verse where it speaks of peace. Please oblige me by reading it to me.”

The officer bent down. With trembling hands he opened the haversack, and took out a well-thumbed New Testament. He looked for the passage, and his eyes quickly fell on the verse. Throwing then a glance on the dying man, whose countenance was illuminated by rays of faith and hope, he turned his head to conceal his tears. The joyful hope which possessed the soldier recalled to the officer the last moments of his mother.

He returned to the verse. It was the very same that his mother had quoted when dying, and now amidst the noise of the battle, he was asked to read the words to a young man who was also dying. Restraining himself, he read the words of Jesus, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

A minute had passed since the New Testament was opened; but during this short instant, how many memories flashed across the minds of him who came to read, and of him who was dying. The latter had been carried in spirit far from the battle. He found himself in the village where he passed his youth. He recalled the days, when he accompanied his dear pastor to a well-known house. He remembered the tears that were shed, and the prayers that were offered to God for the conversion of a young man of his own age, and he rejoiced in the assurance, that he would soon meet in heaven the one who had taught him the way of salvation.

Such were the thoughts which filled the young soldier as he looked back, while, before him, shone the ineffable glory, and he saw Jesus, whose voice he well knew, saying, "Come up hither.”

And what were the officer's thoughts in that moment? For many years he had not opened his Bible, till he had just read those words of Jesus. Those words reminded him of his dear mother, whose hope was in Christ, and whose end was so peaceful. The remembrance of her good counsels had faded from his mind. He had now for companions, men who mocked at the word of God he held in his hand. He had often said himself that a soldier has no time for religion. But now, on the battlefield, he was asked to read to a dying man this New Testament which he had totally neglected. What would his scoffing friends say to him? Shame mounted to his face as he thought of it, but fled quickly as he considered the dying man, whose heart delivered from all fear of judgment, overflowed with peace and joy.

“There is something striking here," said he to himself. "There is certainly something in this religion which is unknown to me. A religion capable of making a dying man rejoice on the battlefield is worth having.” The soldier raised himself up a little on his elbow, and, as if he had read the officer's thoughts said, "Thanks, captain; I possess this peace, and I shall soon be with my Saviour. I need nothing; God is with me.”

“Keep the book," added he, in a faint voice, "it has led me to Jesus, it will lead you also." With these words, he fell back heavily in a pool of blood. The officer placed the book in his pocket, and hastened to rejoin his regiment. "If I am spared," he said to himself, "I will myself know this peace.”

It was by Christ that the soldier of Sedan had been saved, and it is by Christ, that the officer is to day saved also. On the battlefield may now be seen a tombstone, inscribed with the name of the soldier, and the number of his regiment. It was erected by a superior officer who keeps it carefully; and on it may be read this passage: "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever.”

(From the French.)

The Father and the Prodigal

LUKE 15.

THE father does not even give him time to say, “Make me as one of thy hired servants." He lets him say, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," but no more; for he is on his neck kissing him. How can he say, "Make me a hired servant," when the father is producing the consciousness that he was a son? The prodigal's judgment must now be drawn from what the father actually is to him, and not from any abstract reasonings about it. The one was a father, if the other was not a son. And in this way we receive the gospel of the grace of God. It is not the working of the mind of man as to what I am before God, but the revelation by the Holy Ghost of what the Father is to me; and if He is a Father, I am a son.

But there are many who have not received the Spirit of adoption, neither knowing what they are as sons, nor finding their rest in what the Father is. See the manner of the prodigal's reception now. His mind now renewed, he says, "I will arise" &c. But "while he was yet a great way off," we read, his father sees and has compassion on him, runs to meet him, falls on his neck, and kisses him. There is nothing in the son but confession of unworthiness. Once received, we are left as it were to discover what were his thoughts and feelings, and, from knowledge of what the father is, what we are in his love. It is no question of fitness in the son: the father is acting worthily for himself, worthily for himself as father. He is on his neck, while all the rags of the far country are on him, because he loves to be there. But if I know my sins forgiven, and the Father on my neck kissing me, the more I know of my sins, while I know His love, the happier I am. Well, I can say, never was a friend, like this friend of mine!

From Darkness to Light

"LET there be light, and there was light;” such are the first recorded words of Him who, from everlasting to everlasting, is God; and at whose divine command the darkness fled away, and created light came immediately into being, as the precious outcome of His divine will and pleasure. "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." By the word of His mouth, who brought both heaven and earth into existence, created light at once revealed the wide waste of waters, covering the buried world, which, on the third day, came forth from its tomb to become the dwelling place for man, but, alas! proved afterward to be the scene of its Creator's rejection, crucifixion, and murder.

All was very good at the start; and man, into whose nostrils God had breathed the breath of life, whereby he became a living soul, was placed in dominion over all the works of God's hand.

But, alas! the serpent's hiss was soon heard in Eden's fair garden; and our first parents, through disobedience, fell an easy prey to the subtle craft of the enemy. All was gone, as regards man, and moral darkness quickly settled down upon a scene where the devil's lie had usurped the place of God's word in those hearts where it should have reigned without a rival.

Spite of all God's manifold ways of grace, both to Jew and Gentile, which followed His holy judgment on a deluge-swept earth, yet man's heart was set on sin; and, notwithstanding the warning voices of prophets, priests, and kings, the moral darkness ever deepened, until it reached its awful climax with the advent of the One who is Himself the Light of the world. The entrance of God's Holy One into such a scene only served to intensify that darkness, and brought out, in all the stronger contrast, the awful fact that men's hearts were still unchanged, and that they "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

Divine, and not created, light first shone in this dark world in the holy person of the lowly babe of Bethlehem, shedding its everlasting brightness far and wide, till, at the close of three and thirty years of ceaseless grace, boundless love, and divine compassion, the sinless victim went, as the sin-bearer, into a darkness infinitely deeper than that in which the world was found when time's stillness was first broken by the voice that spake those wondrous words, "Let there be light.”

What was even Egypt's darkness (a darkness which might be felt), compared with that into which the man Christ Jesus entered when, during those three solemn hours at Calvary, He was "smitten of God and afflicted," and His holy soul was made an offering for sin? Reproach, too, was breaking that heart of infinite love, as those unfathomable words fell from His lips, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But God was holy, sin must be judged (root and branch), and justice must be satisfied; and hence that will-less man must needs go into darkness beyond all telling.

Never again will this be repeated, for Calvary is passed and gone; and the mighty Conqueror over sin, death, Satan, and all the powers of darkness, now sits triumphant on His Father's throne. Thus, through the shedding of His precious blood, is every true believer "brought out of darkness into marvelous light," and is called to share the rest of God in all that His Christ has done. Yea, "the darkness is passing, and the true light now shineth;" and the blood-bought ones are privileged to say, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Redemption's light now sheds her holy rays on every saint of God, and in its ceaseless luster, as cleansed by that precious blood, the redeemed ones can joyfully exclaim," What hast thou done?”

“One with the risen Christ they stand,

In righteousness and life;

A justified and heavenly band,

With blessings rife.”

No longer of the night, nor of darkness, they are children of the light, and children of day. Standing in the light of God, without a cloud between them, they find, as sons of glory, their everlasting joy and rest in God Himself, for "God is light," but "the wicked shall be silent in darkness." The same Spirit of God who brooded over the dark waters at the beginning now indwells the blood-bought ones, and sheds abroad in their hearts the wondrous love of God. Rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, they are privileged, with the eye of faith, to look onward to that bright and coming day when “there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for and ever an ever." "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

In robes of white, o'er streets of gold,

Beneath a cloudless sky,

They walk in the light of their Father's smile,

But will you be there, and I?

S. T.

From Death to Life

I SUPPOSE that I was like the great majority of boys in most ways. I am sure, however, that I sought gaiety and pleasure more than most. Religion appealed to me from its sentimental aspect, but when my dear grandmother, a sweet venerable Christian, used to come and pray beside my bed, I felt uneasy and anxious for the last “amen.”

I was brought up with a foot in both worlds, so to speak; for I read a scripture portion daily, and esteemed it a sin to give up Sunday church. But during the week I sought to live in a ceaseless round of amusement. Years came and went. From private school I was sent to one of our great public schools, and there again, pleasure was foremost in my thoughts. I think it was at my public school that religious thoughts were first awakened in my mind, but you may judge of their value when I tell you that a few outward observances which had no practical effect upon my daily life, were all the fruit they bore.

Indeed not long after this, I began to question in my mind whether I believed in aught but in one God. I think that the utter deadness of the ceremonial religion, of which I was the constant witness, conduced in a great measure toward this incipient skepticism. Our housemaster, for instance, laid down the Bible and instead read Cardinal Newman's Dream of Gerontius to us at evening prayers, during a considerable portion of one term. Our school supported a mission in the slums of a southern port, and this mission was run upon ultra-ritualistic lines. Our missionary, Father D—, frequently visited the college and the various houses, and by his winning way captivated many hearts. Then, when we emerged from the state of juniority, we were encouraged to spend an occasional week-end at the mission house. Naturally enough, the change from school was looked upon as a sort of holiday, and we were not slow to avail ourselves of the invitation.

I remember well my great surprise upon visiting the mission for the first time. The service was purely ritualistic. The spraying of holy water; the tensing operations; the gorgeous vestments; the acolytes; the perpetual genuflexions; all these things were new and strange to me.

I am grateful to God that He kept my heart away from all these idolatrous observances, for I never ceased to protest against them, even though I could not base my arguments upon His word. My mind was easily swayed; faith I had none, yet all the time I never failed in what I deemed a sacred duty,—the reading of a few verses of my Bible every day, and the repetition of my prayers.

Years came and went, and at last I had to leave the dear old school with all its hoary memories. Sin had made its power very manifest to me, and, though I abhorred it, I felt powerless to resist its influence.

I then went to a technical college where the observance of religious exercises was less strictly enforced; and it was there that God first spoke to me, laid His hand upon me, and bade me repent from my sins. For some time I was very ill, but health coming to me again, I turned my back upon God, and plunged into greater worldliness.

Then suddenly, the season of boyhood with its irresponsibility came to a close, and the sterner side of life appeared. Duty made its voice heard, and it called me across 8000 miles of sea to far South America. In the city of my destination, I found gaieties undreamt of hitherto, and when the hours of work were over, the theater embraced me with its glamorous attractions. God grew further and further from my thoughts, and sin more precious in the due proportion. My heart was ever with the stage; and my spare time was spent in writing plays and songs. Indeed, I looked forward to the time when I should be able to give up my work and take wholly to play-acting for my profession. Yet I had my serious moments; moments given by God for reflection upon the emptiness of life and the vanity of sin. In these moments, I would sit and write verses upon solemn themes; verses that surprise me now. But sin and pleasure, Satan's messengers, conquered; and thus life ebbed and flowed, and the months sped by.

This life told at last, and from the dress rehearsal of an opera in which I was taking a leading part, I went to a hospital bed for six weary weeks. But even this did not affect me, for when at last was well enough to recommence my duties, I plunged again, deaf to the still small voice, into the giddy whirl, and again became a puppet in the hands of Satan. But God's love never changed. I was rehearsing two other plays, when, for the second time, sickness made itself felt, and once again I had to seek my bed. There I lay for several weeks, and beside me lay my Bible. I often read its pages during that memorable illness, but never a word struck home. I was nevertheless more interested in my life than ever before. Thus God began to speak, and I, dimly enough, to hear. To me, nature had ever told of God. Never had I doubted, even in my heart, His existence. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." “In his heart," for even this fool was wise enough not to make his folly known.

As to the Israelites of old, the thunder was to me "the voice of the Lord." I remember vividly a terrific thunder storm, when the black night was lit up by the flaming heavens, and the stillness put to rout by the awful roar and crash of God's artillery, and how cowed I was by a sense of His majestic power. Yet, when the storm was lulled to rest, my conscience fell asleep.

During those days of dreary convalescence however, God spoke, but not in thunder. To the house where I lived, there came a guest to whom I took a deep dislike. His Bible, of which he was never in the least ashamed, bore the evidence of years of use. I remember repeatedly arguing against carrying a Bible openly, and this argument is to me one of the clearest proofs that the book is the word of God. "The darkness comprehended it not,"—would have none of it. To me, the Bible was a book for the secret chamber, and to carry it publicly was to stamp oneself a Pharisee. This unwelcome guest, however, knew more than his Bible. I never met a man to whom the Bible was more precious or by whom it was more deeply studied, but at the same time, I have rarely known one better versed in general literature than he. It was this characteristic that first dispelled the feelings of dislike. I myself was ever scribbling, and here was one who manifested a keen interest in my literary efforts as none had hitherto. I did not know that God had so set a trap for me, and that the stranger guest was becoming all things to me that he might win me to Christ. Yet so it was. My dislike gave place to interest. The critical ability of this messenger of God appealed to me above all things, and whenever opportunity offered I sought his presence.

One night, when I was well enough to walk about, I heard that he was to lecture in a hall close by upon some Bible subject, and knowing his ability in literary things, I went. Nor was I disappointed. I heard a masterly discourse upon the Tabernacle, and the analysis of type and symbol were to me quite new, and a fresh interest was awakened within me.

The next night, impelled I doubt not now by the Spirit of God, I sought the speaker in his room, my Bible in my hand, to ask him to elucidate some point upon which he had touched in his address. He felt that his time was come, and, after scanning over the passage, he closed the book, looked into my face and asked me if I believed that the Bible was the word of God. I was taken wholly aback. Answers refused to come. I felt that a crisis had arrived. Slowly he quoted to me, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life;" repeating his question time after time. The struggle of the next two hours is too solemn to record. Never was man more torn about than I was. I could not get away from the awful fact of sin, nor could I deny that Jesus had come to die for such as me. Upon my knees, eight thousand miles from home, I owned myself a sinner and threw myself upon the mercy of my God.

The travail was very bitter and full of agony, and when I went to bed, I feared the morrow's dawn. And good cause had I to fear it. When I awoke I could scarcely realize that but a few hours before I had committed myself to God. Just as the Amalekites met Israel and fought against them in Rephidim as soon as they had slaked their thirst from that spiritual rock that followed them, so did Satan beset me upon that memorable morn. He was a man of war, and I but just liberated from the bondage of a life-long slavery. He with all the artifice of centuries of cunning; I with all the weakness of a new born babe. I had a revolver in my drawer with just one bullet left. If ever man was tempted to end his days it was I. In an agony of mind I ran downstairs and awakened the only one who had heard my cry to God. He saw at once the conflict that raged within, and knew full well that One who had died for me upon the cross was lifting His hands in intercession to the Father, higher than Horeb's height. He called me to my knees, and together we sought the throne of grace, where God in His infinite mercy heard our cries for help, and sent down His ministering angels to put to flight the hosts of evil.

Ten years have gone since then. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. If I have failed repeatedly, if I am full of failure still, He at least has never failed me once. It is only when the eye is off Christ that failure comes. There is no satisfaction away from Him. The glamor of the world is to me completely vain. Gaiety drives away dull care for a few hours at most, and then it comes back with redoubled weight. Religion is often sought as a means of rest, but there is no rest in this world for a single soul who does not know Christ Jesus as his Saviour and his Lord. Flow few, who go through the form of Christian worship, know the meaning of His words, "I will give you rest." How few understand the meaning of the cross, whereon He suffered, "the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God." L.L.

From Death Unto Life

THE distinguishing mark of all true believers in Christ is the grand and glorious fact that, whether young or old, they have passed "from death unto life;" and our warrant for knowing this is to be found in the words of the Son of God Himself: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." The character of this life may be but little known, but it could not be possessed apart from the knowledge of God, for again Jesus speaks, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.", Now as believers, "we know the Son of God is corn; and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." "And this is the record, that God hath given unto 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."

We also learn that in the family of God there are, however, three grades, or classes, i.e., babes, young men, and fathers; yet all alike possess this new life, which is a life entirely distinct from the old natural life which we all, without exception, inherit as children of Adam. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that ' which is born of the Spirit is spirit," are the words of Him who cannot lie. Hence, none but those who are born again by God's word and Spirit are possessors of this eternal life, which is to be found alone in Christ. The cross where Jesus died for sinners is the moral end of man in the flesh. There, all that belonged to us, as guilty children of Adam, was righteously judged, completely condemned, and eternally set aside. In virtue of Christ's finished work, God no longer looks at the believer as in his sins, seeing Christ has died and risen again; and "as he [the glorified Man in heaven] is, so are we [who believe] in this world." Sin, which is inherent in our old Adam nature, involved death; and after death the judgment. Christ however, in grace, put Himself in the sinner's place, and suffered in his stead; hence He has borne the sins of every believer, gone down into death for every believer, and has exhausted the whole judgment of God against sin for every believer.

"Guilt's bitter cup He drains,

Nothing for us remains,

Nothing but Love.”

Such was the cross; and who shall measure, all its wondrous results? God is satisfied with Jesus; and the throne where Christ now sits crowned and glorified is the everlasting proof of it. The risen Christ is now the believer's life, and three things characterize that life: —

1. It is beyond the reach of sin.

2. It is beyond the reach of death.

3. It is beyond the reach of judgment.

Now this is true of every believer; and though all believers may not, from various causes, be in the full enjoyment of it, yet the truth remains the same that this life is theirs, and that once in possession of it they can never be lost. Scripture emphatically declares' that Christ is our life, and that not only are we, as believers, dead and risen with Him, but that the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Let us then, in closing, briefly quote what scripture says as to the distinguishing features of the three grades into which the family of God is divided.

1. Fathers: —"Ye have known him that is from the beginning."

2. Young Men: —"Ye are strong." "The word of God abideth in you."

"Ye have overcome the wicked one."

3. Babes:—"Ye have known the Father." Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things."

When speaking generally of the whole family of God as "children" (a term common to them all), the apostle thus speaks of them: — “Your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." “If any one sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" "Abide in Him" (Christ).

May we all so abide, till He come, for His name's sake!

S. T.

George Whitefield's Journals

AFTER some 150 years, a new edition of the journals of George Whitefield, the zealous preacher of the gospel, has been published by Mr. Henry J. Drane, under the editorship of Mr. William Wale. The chronicle of his earnest abours for the Lord in this country and in America, where he fell asleep, should prove of Widespread interest to the children of God.

The following extract from his journal, has reference to his service in Bath and Bristol, in 1739.

Tuesday, July 10. Preached yesterday evening at the brickyard to about eight thousand people. Dined to-day with my honored fellow-laborer, Mr. Wesley, and many others at Two Mile Hill in Kingswood; and preached afterward, to several thousand people and colliers in the school-house, which has been carried on so successfully, that the roof is ready to be put up. The design, I think, is good. Old as well as young, are to be instructed. A great and visible alteration is to be seen in the behavior of the colliers. Instead of cursing and swearing, they are heard to sing hymns about the woods; and the rising generation, I hope, will be a generation of Christians. They seem much affected by the word, and attend the churches and societies when Mr. Wesley is absent from them. The prospect of their future welfare filled me with joy. They took a most affectionate leave of me.

“Went immediately after sermon was ended, with Mr. Wesley and several other friends to Bath, and preached there to about three thousand people at seven o'clock in the evening. It rained a little all the while, but the people were patient and attentive, and I never had such power given me to speak to the polite scoffers before. Oh, that the scales were removed from the eyes of their minds!

“Heard to-day that the town-clerk of Bristol did my brother Wesley and me, the honor to desire the grand jury at their quarter sessions to prevent our meetings, and to have the riot act read; but they did not regard him, nay, one who was called to serve on the petty jury, offered to subscribe to any tine, rather than do anything against us, who, he said were true servants of Jesus Christ,

"Wednesday, July 11, preached at eleven in the morning to a larger audience than last night. Hastened to Bristol, and preached in the evening at Baptist Mills to a large congregation. It rained much, but blessed be God, the people's hearts are so far influenced by the gospel of Christ that they care little whether it rains or shines.”

God Speaketh Once, Yea, Twice.

How often the callousness of the natural heart is betrayed, to whom God in grace so often speaks, telling of His love, yet warning of the result of rejecting that love.

It was my purpose, dear reader, to tell you how God solemnly spoke to one young man some years ago, who happily heeded His voice, which to him meant untold blessing. He was an ungodly young man (though the son of Christian parents), and indifferent to his eternal interests.

Lodging away from home, he shared his bed with a young fellow who could peacefully lay down his head at night, assured that, if the Lord came before morning, he would go to be with Him; for he had proved the efficacy and cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, which had cleansed him from all his sins, and he lived in the enjoyment of that blessed truth (blessed only to the believer) that the Lord shall gather His saints, both sleeping and living, to be forever with Himself.

One night they retired to rest, both apparently in the best of health; but in the morning our young friend found his Christian companion lifeless and cold. The Lord had taken him away during the night. Oh, dear reader, rejoice with me that he was ready. He is now with the Lord who loved him and gave Himself for him, and is waiting for that bright and happy resurrection morning, so soon to come.

But his friend trembled. "Oh! thought he," had it been I, I should have gone to hell." He knew he was not ready to die. For a whole fortnight he shrank from going to sleep for fear of awaking in hell; and night after night the bed shook with his trembling. God had spoken to him, and death was now a reality. He meditated upon the goodness of God, in not having taken him away instead of the other, and he had no rest till he, like his companion, was assured that he was ready. The cry came from his heart, like the poor publican, who went up into the temple, "God be merciful to me a sinner." God heard his cry, and though he was such a godless sinner, opened His gracious arms to receive him. He believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and was saved, for he confessed Him as his Lord, and with his heart believed that God had raised him from the dead. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Dear unsaved reader, I am assured that God has spoken to you. Perhaps you have had a serious illness, and more than once been brought down to the point of death; or God may have taken away some cherished object;—a loved companion, a fond wife, a devoted husband, or perhaps your dear little child. If so, it was but to turn your heart to Himself. You may have sorrowed and brooded over it, yet thought not of Him, who gives and takes away too. The writer knows what it means to have loved ones wrenched from one's heart, but through grace this has given him to value more and more the one Friend, dearest of all, who comfortingly says to His own, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end.”

I can sympathise with you, dear reader, if any of these have been your experiences, but the purpose that God has had is to turn you as a lost sinner to Himself, lest you go on in your sins, and eternally perish. Perhaps you have said to your soul, "Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," and God has broken up that false peace, thus calling your attention to eternal realities. Careless sinners in this world have been likened to a company of blind men dancing around a pit. One by one they fall in, no effect being produced thereby upon those still remaining. But why? Oh, they were blind! And the last one, when left alone, still dances as lightly as the others had done, till he falls in.

This reminds one of those solemn words, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

Reader, I plead with you to heed God's warnings, for mark, He warns you in grace. He warns you of the danger you are in, while telling you of the refuge there is in Jesus, His own beloved Son. For He (blessed be His name) has taken the sinner's place, when He was made sin upon Calvary's cross, suffering the awful judgment of sin, as the ancient prophet says, "We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed... the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." God can now say of the repentant sinner," Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom." Jesus has died to deliver from death all who believe in Him, and bring them to God on the ground of perfect righteousness, yet perfect love. And though God has appointed a day in which He will righteously judge the world, yet there is a refuge for every poor sinner in Christ, the Lamb of God. Judgment can never touch any who are sheltered by His precious blood. O my careless friend, be careless no longer, for there is no escape for those who neglect so great salvation. W. G.

He Is Not Here.

LUKE 24:6

LOVING hearts had come to seek One whom they loved: a few short hours had passed since their hearts had been torn with anguish as they saw Him the object of man's scorn and reproach. The deep dark wickedness of man's heart had been manifested at Calvary, where the Lord of life and glory, the sinless One, the holy One, was nailed to the accursed tree. God had attested His delight and joy in Him from the opened heavens; His words, His works, had all given testimony to His holy spotless life. His accusers were unable to lay a finger on an act of sin; His judge had to say, "Why, what evil hath he done?”

Yet He suffered and died the just for the unjust, died in the room and stead of guilty man. "He was delivered for our offenses, and raise d again for our justification."

It is this last truth the Lord would teach us by the open and empty tomb; for the gospel not only tells us that He died, but that He also rose again. "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried, and rose again according to the scriptures." On the cross all was done, the mighty work was finished, full atonement was made, the triumphant cry of the One who had been despised and forsaken was, "It is finished." He bowed His head and died. Man led Him to Calvary, man nailed Him to the cross, man laid Him in the tomb, but God raised Him from amongst the dead.

Thus God set His seal upon that work, the work of His own beloved Son, the work of redemption. By the empty tomb God attests His acceptance of the payment which our Surety has made on our behalf. The One who lay there is now on the throne. The empty tomb speaks to us of the full satisfaction that God has found in the work of His beloved Son. God thereby says to all, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found all my delight." "He is not here; come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

The empty tomb, the Man in the glory, yield a full answer to all the evil accusations of Satan, as well as the dark foreboding and fear of our own trembling hearts. They speak to us, and tell us that all God's claims have been met, all the demands of His holy throne have been fully owned and settled, and now God can be just and the Justifier of all who believe on Jesus.

Oh, unsaved reader, hear the news, the glad tidings of salvation! God can and does now save all who believe in Christ, the One who died and rose again, in perfect keeping with His holiness and righteousness. The foundation of God standeth sure. Nothing can shake that, nor the soul that is resting there.

Dear reader, let me ask you, are you resting there, on the finished work of Christ? On the cross He said, "It is finished;" in the empty tomb we see the seal, God's own seal, of approval of the work of Christ; at the cross we see the full discharge of all our liabilities, and in the risen Christ we have the sign-manual of God Himself that all is eternally and divinely settled. Here all the questionings of an accusing conscience are met, all the trembling’s of a fearful heart are hushed.

A. E.

Hoping or Knowing — Which?

IT was a glorious summer's afternoon, many years ago, when a Christian man might have been seen sauntering along on the top of the cliffs at a favorite sea-side resort in the south of England. The air was balmy; and, while enjoying the golden sunshine and the sweet sea breezes, his thoughts naturally soared upward and heavenward to that bright home above the sun, where his heart's treasure was; even the One whose love he had proved for many a long day.

While thus engaged in quiet communion with his Lord, his eyes were suddenly attracted to an object far away, close down by the waves that sparkled like diamonds as they burst upon the sun-lit shore. This proved to be a middle-aged gentleman who was sitting facing the sea, and apparently reading a book with great interest.

Suddenly, like a voice from the glory, the thought flashed through the Christian's heart that, if there was any way of descending to the beach, it was the Lord's will that he should speak a word for his Master to the stranger in question; so hurrying along, he sought, though in vain, for some way of getting down from the top of the high cliffs.

Continuing his walk for fully half an hour he at length discovered a narrow, well-worn path that led down to the shore; on reaching which he was delighted to find that the object of his search had not moved from his seat, but was still eagerly reading. Quickening his steps across the sands, the Christian drew near to the stranger; and after remarking on the loveliness of the day, he noticed as he cast down his eyes that the gentleman was studying a Greek and English New Testament.

“If I am not mistaken," said he, "I think you have something good there.”

To which the stranger at once replied, "O yes, indeed it is; this is the best book in the world.”

“I am glad to hear you say that," responded the Christian; "for it is the unchanging word of God.”

“Just an hour ago, as I was looking at you from the top of yonder cliff and wondering what you were reading, a voice seemed to say to me, Go and speak to that man. So here I am.”

“I presume you love the Lord," he added, "or you would not be so eagerly reading His word.”

“Oh, yes," was the prompt reply, "I have been a believer in Christ for the last fifteen years.”

“Then," replied the Christian, "I suppose you know you are saved, and that, as a believer, you have eternal life.”

“I hope so," was the reply.

“But do you not know for certain?" asked his unknown friend.

“I could not say that," replied the stranger, with a look of deep interest in his thoughtful eyes.

“Will you kindly lend me that book for a moment?" suggested the Christian; and taking it from the stranger's hand, he read those peace-giving words, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

Emphasizing the last eight words, the Christian stopped; and looking his unknown friend full in the face, exclaimed, "K—n—o—w does not spell hope, does it?”

A bright smile overspread the stranger's face as, almost leaping from his seat, he exclaimed, "Sir, God must have sent you to me to-day, for I never saw that before, though I have read my Bible all these years.”

“Yes," was the rejoinder, "I fully believe He has, for I was deeply impressed with the thought that I must come and speak to you, as I walked on the top of that cliff some while ago.”

Need it be added that two hands were clasped together that day in mutual love and fervent joy, as God's own word, like a golden sunbeam, fell with gladness into a heart evidently prepared by His Spirit to receive it as His own message.

More followed, which has since been forgotten; but the memory of that bright summer's afternoon still lingers in the Christian's heart; and so he asks you, dear reader, "Are you one of the great army of desponding believers who think it humility to trust their own feelings rather than the plain word of God? If so, let me once more repeat in your ears the golden words of that grand and peace-giving text, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life.'”

S. T.

An Hour of Quickening

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, An hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard shall live." John 5:25.

THE rejection of Jesus gave occasion to display the higher glory of His person, and the deeper truth and wider grace of which He was full. The light, and He was the true Light, made manifest the uttermost evil in man, who was not sick and powerless only, but dead; not Gentiles alone but Jews also. The Messiah was, if received, to forgive all the iniquities of Israel, and to heal all their diseases, to redeem their life from the pit, and crown them with loving-kindness and tender mercies. Such will be the fruit of His government on earth; and a signal witness of it He gave in imparting instant strength to the man so impotent that he could not avail himself of the water when troubled by an angel.

The Jew, who could not deny the power of God in grace, pleaded a violated Sabbath; the Lord answered, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Sin and misery made the sabbath to be no sabbath. For man's real rest the Godhead must work, the Father and the Son. This is the truth which the Jew rejected, seeking even to kill Him. Thereon Jesus sets us out His divine glory, but veiled in manhood and that subjection to the Father which is inseparable from it and its perfection. To the unbelieving Jew, as to every unbeliever, this is blasphemy; to the believer it is life eternal. Hence in verse 25 He reveals a wondrous hour come. Let us hear Him.

“Verily, verily, I say to you, An hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard shall live.”

Not that individual souls had not looked to Him since man fell. Such were quickened by His grace, here one and there another, from Abel and one must hope Adam, till our Lord came. But now it is an hour definitely thus characterized; because the Son of God had come, and if rejected as Messiah, here to bestow on faith a blessing incomparably beyond any dispensational or governmental favor. In communion with the Father He quickens whom He will, for He is equally divine. If despised because He deigned in love to become man that He might die for sinners and save them, He alone is the Son of man to whom all judgment is given; and He will judge at the last day all that dishonor Him now.

This is the hour when above all others He is quickening souls. And what is the state of those whom He quickens? Not merely sin-sick, however desperately ailing. He pronounces on the case. They are "the dead;" not "all that are in the tombs," of whom He speaks in verse 28, but consequently (for there is no other meaning) the spiritually dead, the "dead in their offenses and their sins;" so the apostle Paul too describes them in Eph. 2:1-5, children of wrath by nature.

What more true, or more terrible? Both our Lord and His servant imply it to be the state of mankind equally and universally. What can religious ordinances avail? How can institutions, however important and precious, vanquish death? Who can quicken but God? Here too it is not merely death physical but spiritual; as there is a life given by the Son in communion with the Father, which is superior to death (as physical life is not), and abides in its own nature of everlasting blessedness, till we know as we are known in heavenly glory, Hearing unto life is in a moment; and so they that heard shall live. But such hearing abides; for they know His voice, and follow Him.

Alas I my reader, if you have not believed unto life eternal, that dreadful spiritual death is yours now. Human efforts are vain: what can bishops or presbyters do for such a case? What could priests, if there were mediating priests? We know from scripture that Christianity has none such, and that they are simply impostors. Aaron never pretended to give spiritual life; and Christ acts as the Great Priest only for those that are alive from the dead who need not life, but His intercession for their weakness, and His sympathy in their sorrows.

But you are dead toward God, whilst you live naturally. Nothing can meet your need, but a divine operation, and through it a wholly new life. Blessed be God it is in the Son; and the Son came here, true man though immeasurably more, that He might impart it to man, dead as he was and is, that he might live forever to God. If the Lord divulges a truth so overwhelming as your death in sins, He proclaims the truth of unending and ever blessed joy, in that He is the giver of life eternal to everyone that hears His own word and believes God the Father who sent Him, as we saw in verse 24.

Here is an equivalent. It is an hour now, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard shall live. Faith is ever by a report, but the report by God's word. Such pre-eminently is the voice of Jesus, the Son of God. Man's word may have weight in human things, and he was given of God to have dominion over the lower creation. But man is dead in his sins. It is the Son of God who quickens whom He will; and He quickens none but those that hear His voice. For thus only can they honor Him to life eternal, and escape the awful alternative of hearing His voice by-and-by to everlasting judgment.

O hear Him, my fellow-sinner; hear Him, and live, forever. The hour of quickening has gone on for near two thousand years. It will close soon, as surely as it then shone for the blessing of all that believe what God says to you in His Son. You justly feel that no insult is more intolerable than doubting a man's word. But if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. He witnesses concerning His Son, and eternal life in Him for every believer. Why should you die the second death, unutterable woe in the lake of fire, your resurrection for this awful and endless purpose? Listen not to skeptical traitors who dare to subject God's word to a human court of research.

Do not say that it is too hard, or unjust. What sentence can be too hard for not believing God, or making Him a liar? This is what you do, as long as you persist in unbelief. How dare you call it unjust, if you are punished forever, because you neglect, despise, and dishonor the Son of God, who became man in order to become the only propitiation God could accept to save you from your sins, and His own judgment of you? It is the divine glory of His person, and the efficacy of His sacrifice, which account alike for the blessing of all that believe, and the solemn doom of those who defy the saving grace of God in His Son.

O submit to the righteousness of God, as well as rest on His love and His truth. Cease to believe the lie of Satan against the Father and the Son to your own everlasting destruction. Distrust yourself, confide in the God who reconciles us to Himself through Christ our Lord. In human nature, the first man is a total wreck; God's grace has intervened in the Second man to give the believer an imperishable and eternal life. Thus are we made partakers even now of a divine nature.

If I Thought About It.

MANY years ago there was a girl in my class at the Sunday-School, in whom I was especially interested. She was an orphan, having lost both parents when very young, and had been tossed about in a hard, cold world. Very little love had the poor child experienced; and yet, under a rough, half-frozen exterior, she had a warm heart, and seemed to cling to the one or two Christian friends who had taken a kindly interest in her welfare. She was intelligent, and very ready with texts and replies in class; but still I feared she was a stranger to the grace of Him who alone can save.

One day I met her in the street, and, finding her willing to stand and talk a few moments, I seized the opportunity to press home the question of a personal acceptance of Christ.

“Does it not make you sad, Mary," I said, "to feel that, if you were called to die, or the Lord Jesus were to come to take His own people home to heaven, you would not be ready? Does it not make you miserable to go on day after day, knowing your danger?”

“It would, if I thought about it, teacher," was her truthful reply.

How many with equal truthfulness could echo her words; "It would, if I thought about it!”

Is it not your case, unsaved reader? If you were honestly to face, I was going to say the probabilities, but may I not rather say the certainties, of your eternity, you could not help being miserable.

Eternity, away from God, shut out forever from His presence! Eternity, in blackness of darkness, shut out forever from the glorious city where "the Lamb is the light thereof!”

If God's word be true (and you know it is, however much you may try to persuade yourself to the contrary), this is the doom that awaits you.

Poor Mary knew it, but, like the silly ostrich she turned away from it, and tried to fancy she was safe. She sought to banish thought, for she dared not think.

But was the awful future less a fact because she ignored it? Is it less a fact because you ignore it? Look the question fairly in the face, and get it answered by Him who alone is able. "How can a man be just with God?”

How can I, a sinner, meet the holy God?

The Lord Jesus Christ has answered the solemn question. "I am the way." "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

“The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost;" and "by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

“The Lord Jesus was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.”

Will it make you miserable to think of this?

Miserable! to know that because the Lord Jesus suffered in my stead I may go free?

Miserable! to know, on the authority of God Himself, that He "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Only believe, and you will soon know the joy of God's salvation.

I'm One of His Sheep.

HE was only a pauper—so the world might say! Anyhow he felt his position so much that he asked whether the writer would object to his company in a railway carriage. At first I thought to say, "If you have your ticket, you have as much right here as I have," but presently I understood his meaning, having learned that he was returning to the work-house after a day's holiday.

So I took the opportunity of pointing out that in God's sight there was "no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." But before I could quote much more to him, he interrupted me as follows, "I'm no scholar, but I'm one of His sheep.”

I soon found that I was speaking to one who was practically answering to the word, “Rejoice in the Lord alway." He spoke of his daily task, but only to express his gratitude to the Lord, who gave him the needed strength to perform it.

The writer was truly cheered, both by the clearness of this confession of Christ, as well as by the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. Also, one realized that precious truth, “Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

How real a thing is Christianity! What else could have given such settled enjoyment of heart, in view of that which men look upon as a hard lot? The world is surprised at such a state of soul, and well it may be, for it knows nothing of the source of this blessedness. Some of my readers may, as yet, see little value in that confession, "I'm one of His sheep," but it spoke volumes to me. It came from one who had answered to the Shepherd's voice. He knew that his sins were all forgiven, for had not the Good Shepherd laid down His life in his stead? As for the present, he was provided for, and deeply enjoying the reality of knowing the Good Shepherd. The future was bright with the prospect of soon being at home with the One who had redeemed him at such a cost. With the latter thought on our minds we parted, probably never to meet again on earth.

Unsaved reader, this has a voice to you. In whatever way you may have tried the world you have found it to fail. You know that it will leave you without a hope in view of eternity. The believer can ever face the future with calm assurance, but you dare not think of it, for it can only speak of judgment to those who are yet in their sins. Beware then lest Satan rob your soul of real satisfaction whilst here, and of eternal bliss hereafter. Heed the gospel invitation, “Come; for all things are now ready."'

C. W.

I'm Too Bad for Jesus.

SUCH were the words which fell from the lips of a young woman at the close of a solemn gospel address delivered at H—Room, in the North of London, one Sunday evening in the month of March, 1878. The word preached that night had been in much power and in the demonstration of God's Spirit, as was evidenced by not a few anxious souls who were remaining, to a prayer meeting.

Rose L—(for such was her name), was hurriedly leaving the room, her eyes bathed in tears, when the preacher, as she was passing out, quietly asked her whether she could not stay to the prayer meeting.

“No," was the weeping girl's reply, "I cannot stay to-night, as I might lose my situation if I do.”

“Better that, dear friend," said the preacher, "than to lose your soul.”

“Oh, but I'm too bad for Jesus; He would not have a sinner like me," was the quick response, as the anxious girl burst into a fresh flood of tears.

“Nay," replied the preacher, "you are just the one He wants, for it was sinners like you that Jesus died to save”

“Stay just a moment," he continued; and, opening his Bible as he spoke, he pointed the poor troubled girl to the closing words of verse 24, of Isaiah 43.—"Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.”

“Do not those words describe your state and condition?" said he.

“Indeed, they do," replied the broken-hearted girl, "and well I know I'm too bad for Jesus.”

“Read the next verse," said the preacher; and, drying her eyes, poor Rose read those golden words of love and mercy, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

“That," said the preacher, "is God's gracious and wondrous answer to all those who, like you, have wearied Him with their sins and iniquities. Divine love fills His heart, love that spared not His own dear Son to die for you; and if you really and truly know in your heart how evil you are, you can put your own name into that verse, and you will most surely get the blessing God loves to give, by simply believing what God says.”

Acting on the preacher's suggestion, Rose at once read the precious promise thus: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out [Rose L—'s] transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember [Rose L—'s] sins.”

Light from the glory fell into that troubled heart, for God's Spirit was working mightily, and the good seed took deep root in soul and conscience. The burden fell from Rose's heart; and shortly after, she left the room filled with joy and peace in believing.

Eighteen months rolled away, and grave tidings came by post one morning from what, alas, proved to be Rose's death-bed. Though suffering greatly in body, dear Rose had not forgotten that happy Sunday night when God spoke peace to her wounded soul, for she had taken Him at His word, and all was settled for time and for eternity.

Up to the very end) the dying girl bore the sweetest testimony to the saving grace of Him who had not only blotted out all her transgressions, but had pledged His word that He would never remember her sins. Her joy was boundless; and her ransomed spirit passed away on September 29th 1879, while singing the precious words of that well known hymn,

“High in the Father's house above,

My mansion is prepared;

There is the home, the rest I love,

And there my bright reward.”

S. T.

In Him We Live

"For in him we live and move and are; as also some of the poets among you have said, For we are also his offspring.”

ACTS 17:28.

NOT in ourselves, but in Him do men exercise their activity, and have their being when they no longer live and move as in their existence here below. Death that closes all for every other animated creature on earth does not close man's being. Through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, its present wages, but only in part, before its full payment, judgment, everlasting judgment. This is the second death, neither the first nor the second being extinction; for not only does man's soul exist forever, but the Son of God shall call from the tomb both those that have done good to a resurrection of life, and those that have done ill to a resurrection of judgment: an unchangeable state respectively of bliss or of woe. So says the word of God: how bright for the believer, and how unutterably solemn for him that rejects the Father and the Son!

It is intelligible in a physical point of view to describe man as the sole species of his genus, and the sole representative of his order. But the apostle rises far above the natural philosophy, and regards him in his relation to God, and with that consciousness of it, which no other animated being on earth possesses. This the great enemy of God and man seeks to darken, if he cannot destroy it; but as revealed truth asserts that relation in the clearest terms, so the echo of it was heard even where the true God was not known. Hence the apostle could cite from Greeks themselves, centuries before he spoke: "As also some of the poets among you have said, For we are also his offspring." These precise words occur in the astronomical poem of Aratus, a Cilician like himself, the Phænomena, extant to this day, and again with but one letter different, in the Stoic Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus, also extant.

It is so far infidelity, and very low infidelity, to doubt that man has an immortal soul. As to him only God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the skies, and over the earth, and over the whole earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. And God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Think of so exceptional a dignity given to man. But there is more in Genesis 2:7, where relationship is treated, and not creation only. "And the LORD God formed man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Compare it with Genesis 1:24 "Let the earth bring forth living souls after their kind; cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after their kind." Into none but man did Jehovah Elohim breathe the breath of life. He is thus doubly distinguished from the rest of creation subjected to him as head, and alone brought into relationship with Him who inbreathed. Hence his soul had, by its constitution apart from grace and a new life, an association with Christ morally, peculiar to man. And he alone, while favored beyond all, had a, test of obedience applied in Paradise. Such a creature was responsible to obey God and must give an account to Him. Think of a horse or cow, a dog or a cat, leveled up to man's position, or man leveled down to theirs! Is it not rank insubjection to God's word? The sensuous and sensual Egyptians did not sink so low; they doubted the soul's existence after death, and a future judgment, however crude and debased by their deification of the powers of nature.

Yes, in God man lives, moves, and is of quite another sort than those creatures whose soul is as evanescent as their bodies, and has no moral link with God. Man, no doubt, shares with them the "dust of the ground;" but even so, his position is naturally erect, his eye looks up, not down, his hand is unique as Sir C. Bell proved, to suit a soul, and spirit, and even body peculiar to the race, to fill a responsible relationship with God, or the consequence of rebellion against Him. Hence in scripture "mortal" is never said of the soul, but of the body. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," has a quite different force, and means the person, the living human being, because the individuality lies in the soul, and led to such common phrases as "all the souls:' etc., in Genesis 46:15, 18, 22, 25, 26, 27. They were God's offspring, and so were the Athenians, though pagans, because all mankind shares the relationship, even if they make the grossest use of their natural privilege, deny their responsibility, reject the glad tidings of God's grace in Christ, and become objects of His judgment.

How then is it with you who read these words?

Grace, God's grace, in Christ can alone save you, a guilty and lost sinner. Life for you, whose old life is forfeited through sin, is nowhere but in the Son; and now is proclaimed to sinners everywhere and of every sort, but only to such as believe God about His Son. Do you speak of your sins as fearful, and your state as an active source of evil in His sight? It is sadly true but I rejoice if you own it humbly, frankly, and fully to God. Confess your sins to Him who sent His Son as propitiation for our sins, whose blood cleanseth the believer from every sin. It was He, not you, that paid redemption's price, a price beyond the value of all worlds, the precious blood of God's Son, God's Lamb. What could you offer as a sinner but sins? Are you not altogether sin in your nature as it is? So His word declares: what are your words, your thoughts, your feelings? Redemption lies wholly in the worth and work, not of the redeemed, but of the Redeemer.

Beware of bolstering your case on God's natural Fatherhood. Were not the head fallen and the race sinful, this might plead for living and against death. But as you are, you need a new and eternal life and an everlasting redemption; and the Saviour God of all grace calls you to receive both by faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus.

The Infidel Furniture Dealer

ABOUT two years ago, I went to a village in the garden of Kent to preach the gospel of the grace of God.

As I was walking towards the village, I met a man to whom I gave a tract. I was about to speak to him, when he turned and pointed to a spot twenty or thirty paces from the road-side. There I saw a poor fellow engaged in patching up his tumble-down dwelling.

“Give it to him," exclaimed the man, "go and talk to him. Do you see what he is doing, breaking the commandment and working on the Sabbath? Go and give it to him. He needs it and I don't.”

His attitude surprised me, and although I was somewhat taken aback, I told him that God has bidden us to judge ourselves, and riot others. I told him that Christ came to fulfill the law, and that Christians are in bondage to no law, but in the liberty of the law of the Spirit of life, "which hath made us free from the law of sin and death.”

I soon found that my words were wasted, and that his indignation, which he continued to express against the poor fellow who was patching up his shed, did not arise from any religious principle. Indeed, it was because he himself desired to work on Sunday, but that his shop (he was a second-hand furniture dealer), must perforce remain closed by the law of public opinion. That another man should dare to work while he could not ply his trade and make money, rankled in his breast, and this was the sole reason for his apparent solicitude for the cause of his discomposure.

I persisted in seeking to put the truth before him, but I discovered that he was quite an infidel; so, having given him an invitation to the gospel service, I left him and passed on. He did not come to the service, nor did I ever see him again.

A few days ago, however, I heard about him. A friend of mine who is a doctor in that Kentish village writes as follows, “I have just returned from his deathbed. He had evidently rejected the gospel. He was at his usual work, mending furniture, etc., yesterday, when he was suddenly seized with apoplexy, although only fifty-three. He was completely paralyzed on one side. I saw him again this morning and tried to show him his danger, and how small a thing might turn the scale. I also sought to show him that it was a token of God's mercy that he was alive, and able to speak a little, and to understand. In my own mind I was hoping to point him to Christ at my next visit. Herein I now think I was wrong, although I did what at the time I thought was right; for I did not see him again alive. When I went to him in response to a hurried message just now, I found him dead.

"He had been warned to keep very still, but he had laughed at the caution. The doctor thinks I will not get better,' he said, but I shall be up and about my work very soon.' He was talking cheerfully to a worldly friend an hour before his death." My friend continues, "His last words were ominous in the extreme. From an apparently comfortable sleep, he suddenly turned round to his wife who was sitting beside his bed, and clutching her hand with that of his which still had power, he cried out loudly three times, Look at that big snake.' Suddenly his head sank on the pillow, and he was gone.”

Gone! my reader. Gone! and whither? The words are hard to shape! Gone to a Christless grave! gone to an eternity without hope! gone to everlasting judgment! gone to meet the One whose love he spurned and to await his doom! Is it right for me to judge him so? It is not I who judge. God has written it in letters that time can never efface. "He that believeth not shall be damned." "The wrath of God abideth on him." For he has rejected the holy Son of God, and in the pride of his sinful heart, he has preferred his own deluded ideas of God to the revelation which He has given to us of Himself.

My friend, give heed to these lessons which God is seeking to teach us every day. You have heard of Jesus and His love. Maybe you have thought lightly of that love until to-day. If so, consider it now, and, realizing that it was all for You that He died upon the cross, repent with tears of those sins which nailed Him there, and lift your joyful heart to God in praise, for having given you a Saviour whose name is Wonderful, and who has wrought so marvelous a salvation.

Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ True, or Not?

THE above question presents itself to everyone some time during his life. How will you answer it, dear reader? It is either of no consequence, or it is the most serious question you have ever asked yourself.

You can do no better than look into God's word, and see for yourself. At Berea we read of some who searched the scriptures daily "whether those things were so." If you do this prayerfully, asking God to show you the truth, you will, I am sure, have all doubts taken away. God's message to you is that, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." There are no exceptions at all, therefore you must be included. But there is another message to you, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." You cannot escape from the first message, and you are included in the second.

Perhaps you say, What am I to do, then? Read John 3:16 “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." You have to believe the gospel.

Did you ever think of what everlasting life is? The Lord said in His prayer to the Father, "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”

Let Us Make Much of Christ.

SOME time ago I was traveling by rail between Blackburn and Manchester, when a gentleman who had the appearance of a Romish priest entered the compartment in which I was sitting.

The train steamed out of the busy station, and as we were alone, I desired to converse, with my fellow-passenger about God's boundless love. I respectfully offered him a booklet, which was graciously received.

After a careful perusal of its contents, the gentleman looked up and said, “A very good tract this.”

“Yes, sir; it bears the name of Christ, and testifies to the virtue of His precious blood.”

“Perfectly true.”

“Yes, it is very important to know that man is lost; and the only way to God is through the redemption of Christ Jesus. His blood, which cleanses from all sin, can and does fit the guilty sinner for God's presence; but apart from this, none can enter heaven.”

He asked, "How many belong to your faith?”

I replied, "I don't know the number. You must know, friend, that God's word states that there is 'One Lord, one faith, one baptism,' and it says, `By grace are ye saved through faith.' The Lord Jesus said, I am the door,' and again, 'Ye must be born again.' And mark, friend, these are the words of the Son of God. Remember also that all other ways to God are spurious, even though they be religious and refined.”

“What do you think of the Pope of Rome?"

“The Pope of Rome is but a failing man as you and I are. He was born into this world a sinner, as were all Adam's posterity.”

The Romanist appeared not to like this candid reply, and the silence was broken by my saying to him, "Let us make much of Christ, for God has given Him a name above every name, and crowned Him with glory and honor at His own right hand.”

“That is quite true, but do you not think that Pope Pius X. is the head of the church?”

“Oh, no, for we read that Christ is the Head of the church, and that being true, it is evident that the Pope of Rome is not. If Pope Pius has been born again, and cleansed from his sins by the blood of Christ, he, in common with every believer, is a member of the church which is the body of Christ for we read, 'By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles., Neither your finger nor your thumb is your head, they are but members of your body.”

Our train slackened speed and drew up at the platform, and the Romanist, bidding me good-day, alighted.

O sinner, whatever man may presume to teach, the truth of God remains. "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men." This Mediator is not the Pope, nor the priest, nor the clergy, but "the man Christ Jesus." There is a sure way to heaven, the new and living way, which is Christ, and Him crucified. Therefore, listen to the gracious words of the Saviour, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by

me." W. B.

Letters to Friends

MY DEAR C—,

It is all very sad about poor N—, a very deep trouble indeed; and I feel that only God can possibly set it right. Had He not intervened in my case I might have been a great deal worse.

Not that in myself I am a bit better—God forbid the thought!—but that I believe that it was just for those very sins that were laying so firm a hold upon me that Jesus died, suffering "the just for the unjust that H e might bring us to God." What we rebel so utterly against is the idea that we cannot please God, yet He has said that "without faith it is impossible to please" Him, and that the only faith that avails is to believe in the crucified Saviour, the risen Lord.

Strange how good man imagines himself to be! I have had a man, who had been convicted eighty-one times of drunkenness and assault, upon his knees beside me for nearly half-an-hour upon two occasions, yet his one phrase was, "It's only the drink, sir!" Do what I could to convict him of sin, using scripture after scripture, it was no good. He was no worse than his fellows! No straighter man than he when free from liquor I might ask Mr. P. or Mr. G. as to his character as to his promptness in paying the rent I No need of a redemption-work for him!

Of course, it may be urged that many respectable and excellent members of society do not believe and are none the less respectable for that. Absolutely true. But it was not for such that Jesus came. He came "to seek and to save that which was LOST," and until these respectable members of society realize that they come under this category—there's the rub—there is no salvation for them. A hard saying? Of course it is! But God says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

You and I, dear old C—, are not going along this way. For us the way of no self, the way of Christ, and the life of Christ alone. May it be so for poor N. God in mercy grant it soon for Christ's sake.

Letters to Friends

MY DEAR F—,

Your letter interested me considerably, but I fear that your conclusions clash very harshly with my belief. Imprimis, the question of inspiration which has produced so many theories and doubts is to me the simplest question of all; for whereas I disagree entirely with the inferences and deductions of Bishop Usher and a host of others, I believe that "every scripture is given by the inspiration of God." Hee graphee stands as you are aware in distinction from to grammata throughout the New Testament, and is used in reference to Holy Writ alone, whereas the latter may signify any man-made documents.

The great error seems to me to lie in accepting the arguments of even learned men upon the scriptures, and when these arguments are upset, in imagining that the foundation of the scriptures themselves has been shaken or destroyed, whereas the arguments were fallacious, being of shortsighted man, while "the word of God abideth forever.”

To accept a portion of the Bible and reject the rest is to me most arbitrary and wholly illogical procedure. To state that the scriptures contain inspiration is to create an impossible condition of things. As though God did not trouble Himself over the setting of His precious gems of heavenly truth, and deliberately admitted a garbled account of the historical events chronicled in scripture to form the setting for the vast truth of eternal life! The first result of such a belief would be skepticism, however mild in form, and when doubt begins, where will it end? Mr. X— would seem to be one of those broad-minded men, who believe that when Christ said, "In my Father's house are many mansions," He signified that there were mansions for the zealous votaries of all the creeds. A mansion for Gautama and all earnest Buddhists a mansion for Confucius and his disciples! a mansion for Mahomet, and so on! Indeed the puzzle is to know where to stop, for who shall say that the latest mad Mullah is a whit behind Mahomet himself in heavenly inspiration? And if we go further back, we must admit a mansion for. Thor, for Woden, for Venus, Diana, Bacchus, and all the gods and goddesses of antiquity, who probably all had their origin in fact; or are we to draw a line at the bounds of philosophy, and refuse a mansion for the misguided followers of all sensuous religions?

No, no! If Christ be truly the Son of God, "the true God and eternal life," we must accept every word He spoke; and His references to Moses and the prophets must dismiss once for all every doubt as to the authenticity of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. Its histories, while recording actual fact, should be read in a spiritual light, as illustrating God's dealings with the forces of Satan and the enemies of His chosen people; and its teaching throughout must be understood as "testifying of Christ," whether in the prophecy of figure, type, or symbol, or in the direct utterance of the inspired tongue.

If I doubted the word of God, and that Genesis or the Pauline Epistles were as fully inspired by God as the Sermon on the Mount, I should be a skeptic, a know-nothing, tomorrow. If I doubted, my bible classes would resolve themselves into a. farce, and my men instead of being, as I pray and trust, led to Christ, would be drawn into infidelity.

To me there is no via media. To reject the integrity of scripture, and yet profess belief in Christ is to me a marvelous paradox. I cannot: understand it. It seems to have no meaning at all. To reject Moses is to stamp Christ as merely-human, or to accuse Him, being divine, of misrepresenting facts He must have known. Reject Moses and you rob me and thousands of others of one of the most precious of all the utterances of Christ; for He calls Moses to their minds, and tells them the glorious truth, that "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." My sheet anchor is this, to which I trust I shall hold fast and weather all the gales of time "until He come.”

Yours always affectionately,

L.L.

Letters to Friends

MY DEAR S—,

I fear I have failed to make my meaning clear. I have no grudge against any Roman Catholic. It is the religious system of Popery that I deplore. You are a lawyer and should see the force of my arguments. Here are a few of them.

We Christians found our whole faith upon the Bible which we believe to be the word of God. The position of a man professing to be a Christian and denying the Bible is therefore incongruous and utterly untenable. We have nothing but the Bible to show us the mind and purposes of God. It is only in the Bible that I can read of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, who professed to be the Christ of God. Nowhere but in the Bible do I learn of the foundation of the Christian Church or of its God-ordained practices. In Romanism I find a vast religious system professing the name of Christ, but not a single one of its ceremonial or sacramental usages, which are warp and woof of its fabric, is to be found in the Bible. Most of them are pagan rites, with a good deal of Judaism as well, revivified and labeled with the name of Christ. The office of Pontifex Maximus, to begin at the top, is absolutely such; pagan, both in title and in office. The whole of the hierarchy follows with all its branches and its emanations.

The Council of Trent practically hurls its curse at everybody who accepts what the Bible teaches. Were it in the power of Rome to-day to re-establish the Inquisition, we should be haled to-morrow

"To the thumbscrew and the stake

For the glory of the Lord.”

Only four years ago the Bishop of Pernambuco publicly burnt a lot of Bibles in the square that I had traversed a brief year or two previously; and were it not for public opinion, for the race of free thinkers which Rome has bred, and other such hindrances, the priests would act similarly all the wide world over. They condemn the Bible as an evil and dangerous book, and the majority of them know nothing of its sacred contents. Do you remember the Spanish priest whom George Borrow met? This worthy quoted Virgil volubly, fully believing it to be the word of God.

I have no quarrel with the Roman Catholic. It is with the "ism" that I am at daggers drawn. If I believe the Bible to be the word of God and essential to salvation, am I. to hear the priest denouncing it as an evil and dangerous book without a protest? If I believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of every sinner, am I to hear men being taught that the "church," and the church alone, can save them, without uttering a word of rebuke?

I believe that those old-time dignitaries who stigmatized the mass as an abominable heresy and an impious blasphemy were absolutely right, but the spirit of to-day says, "Let pass. Let men believe what they like; what does it matter?" Am I to neglect the lessons of history, and to let England gradually succumb to the influence of Rome without a murmur? I own that my protest, my rebuke, my murmur, do but proceed from one wretched feeble unit; but then England is made up of units, and if all those who believe in Christ, as I believe in Him, were to raise their simultaneous cry and use their shoulder together as one man, the victory of Rome would be less simply won. I love and honor no one more than my Roman Catholic grandmother, but I do not love the system which has robbed her of her reason in religious things, and made her accept unconditionally the unreason of Holy Mother Church.

Do you understand me now? I am jealous of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church places its priesthood upon an equal footing with Himself.

I am jealous of His heavenly glory. The Roman Catholic Church has given to a weak and erring woman an even higher place.

I am jealous of the Bible. Roman Catholicism has substituted the teaching of an "infallible" church!

I am jealous of my simple trust in His finished work of Calvary. The Roman Catholic Church has supplanted it by sacramental observances, by which its coffers are filled and without which, it asserts, is no salvation.

Very best wishes,

Yours always,

L. L.

Life and Judgment

"For even as the Father lath life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is Son of Man." John 5:26, 27.

THESE are the two alternatives for every child of man, One or other must be your portion and mine. There is no third lot, no middle class, for any. They both hang on one Man, the One who being God deigned to become man, that we who were dead in sins might believe on the Son of God and live through Him, the living and life-giving One; or, if we reject Him, we cannot escape His judgment as Son of Man.

Man could not rise to God. It was Satan's temptation to become as God, knowing good and evil; it was man's ruin. But God in boundless grace can come down to man; and this He did in His Son, the woman's Seed, to give life eternal to man dead spiritually, not of course to those who refuse Him but to such as believe on Him whom God sent in love for this purpose. It is Jesus who speaks and this is what He says: —

“For even as the Father hath life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is Son of Man.”

Too well we know that man left His sinless estate to become as God. Alas! it was to do his own will independently against God's will. But the Eternal Word, the Son, became truly man, yea, God's bondman to do His will at all cost, not only that we that believe might live through Him, but that He should die for us, the propitiation for our sins. Is not this love? Not that we loved Him, but that He loved us; and His love creates love in all that believe. We love, because He first loved us.

Yet we could not love after this divine sort, so alien from the fallen and sinful creature, without life divine. But life we receive in receiving Jesus the Lord. For he that believes has life eternal, as is expressly said and repeated in all manner of equivalent terms. No one heard of such a gift as this before Jesus came and was rejected at least in spirit as Messiah. But His rejection as the promised King of Israel was answered even before the cross by unveiling His glory as the Son of God in the highest sense, and His grace in giving life eternal to him that believes, be he who he may,—"whosoever believeth." What indiscriminate goodness! Yet, when received, most separative and exclusive!

To believe on Christ is not only God's way, but the sinner's when in the light he sees Christ and himself as never before. It is the best and only true way in which a poor lost soul honors the Son as be honors the Father. He hears the Son's word, and believes Him that sent the Son. He is quickened by the Son, and confesses Him Lord. He has life eternal, does not come into judgment, and is passed out of death into life. It is not merely that he will not come into "condemnation," as the Authorized Version says. The Lord says that he does not come into "judgment." How could it be otherwise if already he has life eternal, and is justified by faith? Were life conditional, and justification temporary or transient, we might conceive the blessedness precarious. But not so: the Lord always speaks of it as unchanging for the believer; and this is the way in which first he honors the Son.

But is it not written here that "all may honor the Son?" Undoubtedly too it shall be and must be; as surely as "he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that sent Him." How then are the unbelievers, how are men that did evil, to honor the Son?

They availed, and still avail, themselves of His humanity to slight and scorn Him. Had He appeared in His own glory as Son of God, they must have fallen down appalled, prostrate and dead before Him. But because He became a real man in all grace and humility, though never ceasing to be God, they dared to spit in His face and crucify Him. Therefore to vindicate His glory and punish every degree of dishonor to Him, the Father judges not personally, but hath given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Authority to execute judgment He gave to Him, because He is Son of Man.

In the nature for which blind unbelief despised or neglected Him He will sit in judgment. From emperors to slaves with all between, male or female, learned or unlettered, Jews or Gentiles, men white or black, brown or yellow, there is no difference: all will be judged. They dishonored Him who laid aside His glory to make known and do the will of God in love for sinners, and tasted death even on the cross for every one, though they only the more mocked Him for it. But He will judge them all; and that judgment will be as lasting as the life they missed in refusing Him. Those who believed did thus honor Him by their faith and by the fidelity to His word and will which it ensures. Thus they need no judgment to enforce the truth, as they in fact honor Him as they honor the Father. Yet will they surely give account to Him, be manifested before Him, and receive according to what they did in or through the body; but this will only be judgment for those who submitted not to the Son, and thus had the wrath of God abiding on them.

Consider then the wondrous perfection of our Lord in the position of man here below, as indeed above also. Whatever might be His divine right, as for example in quickening whom He will even as the Father, He emptied Himself, becoming man, and a bondman; further He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea death of the cross. So here He receives from the Father whether to have life in Himself, or to execute judgment. He puts His own personal title in abeyance to God's glory. His delight as man is to be nothing but a bondman, and in grace or in judgment to receive all from God in self-abnegation, and do all to His glory, not to His own. It is a dangerous lie against the truth to regard this submissive place as His in the Godhead, but rather as the perfection of the subjection He undertook as man. Here theology ancient and modern is totally at fault. To make science of revealed truth is to lose its life, power and authority, if not to turn it into poison. The blessing is through faith and to faith. Judgment awaits unbelief.

Light and Love

WE are told in the Scriptures that God is both light and love, but the former is sadly overlooked or ignored by the majority in these truth-rejecting days, the latter being gladly accepted in a nominal way by most. But if the assertion of the word of God, that He is love, is so important that it must appeal to every human heart, how equally important must be the declaration of the Scriptures that, "God is Light.”

That He is light can never be gainsaid, for He has declared Himself in this very scene, as a hater of sin, being of purer eyes than to behold evil, and unable to look upon iniquity. Do you ask, When and how? Then, take your Bible, and read the touching, yet awe-inspiring account of the work of the cross. Never did God so declare His utter abhorrence of sin, as when His blessed sinless Son sacrificed Himself under its burden upon that cruel cross. Made sin by a righteous, holy, sin-hating God, the stern hand of His righteous justice in all its spotlessness and purity swept down upon His devoted head, that expiation might be made for sin. If sin, that horrible thing so opposed to the nature of a holy God, was found upon the sinless person of the Christ of God, it must be made the subject of judgment.

Who among the sons and daughters of men shall attempt to fathom the depths of humiliation that such a sacrifice meant for the meek and gentle Lamb of God? Hushed be every voice as that awful hour is contemplated And what are the words that you hear from the lips of that blessed suffering Man Himself? "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." Never for one moment did He, who was one with the Father, forget the impossibility of sin being able to stand in the presence of God. It must be judged; and because God is light, it was judged and punished in the adorable person of His own Son. All the pent-up wrath of the righteous indignation of a sin-hating God burst upon Him who stood in the sinner's place and spent itself in sweeping over His thorn-decked brow. What a moment that was for this world! And what a moment it was for my Lord! Well might the darkness close around Him, and shroud Him from the gaze of the heartless multitude that surrounded that cross.

O thoughtless reader, dare you entertain for one moment the hope that you can ever enter the presence of God with your sins upon you? Then may such a false hope be shattered, for fulfilled it never can be. If there was no escape for Him who, though made sin, was nevertheless sinless, how then shall you escape if that great salvation is neglected which He has secured for you by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross? That cross stands out as an eternal testimony to the fact that He who is Light can never wink at sin.

All adoration and praise, then, be to Him who has sustained the intensity of the glorious light of the presence of God when sin was dealt with in His blessed person, whereby sin has been righteously put away to God's eternal glory, and the deep, sad need of the sinner met, who is now freely invited to come, cleansed and screened by the blood of Christ, into the immediate presence of God without a qualm of conscience or an unholy fear lurking in the heart.

Since the Lord when here in this scene was God manifest in flesh, He could say, "I am the light of the world." And is not this the secret reason why the dark, sin-stained heart of man took offense at Him, in spite of all the tenderness and grace shown to His guilty creatures, remaining unsatisfied and ill at ease till they had extinguished the light, by ignominiously putting to death Him who spake as never man spake?

But "God is love," and the very scene that was the occasion of demonstrating to earth and heaven that He was light declared also the immensity of the love that filled His heart to the throngs of erring humanity that reveled in their guilty rebellion against Him, and that rolled sin under their tongues with the utmost enjoyment.

O reader, God loved such, because He is love He could not help it (I say it reverently). "For God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." But it must be noted that He could never act in mercy at the suppression of His righteousness. His love could never be made known to a sinful and corrupt world till it had been faithfully declared that "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." God has faithfully said to the sinner, "I hate your sins, but I love you. I have punished my Son in your stead, for sin cannot go unpunished. Own Him by faith, as your substitute, and I must, in consistency with my own righteousness, bless and save you; yea, it is my delight to do so,”

O reader, what a Saviour-God! Well may we exclaim, "What hath God wrought?" But that blessed Man who, by His death, revealed all that God is, though rejected by the world, and received back into glory, will yet come again as the Son of Man, with all judgment committed into His hands, to still further press home the solemn truth, that sin in all its darkness can never enter the light of the presence of God. While His coming will be without sin unto salvation for those who are looking for Him, yet it will be the occasion for judgment upon the unrepentant sinner, who has dared to spurn God's rich and gracious provision for his salvation, and who has slighted the compassion and love that prompted God's ever-blessed Son to offer Himself for the purgation of sin, and who, by His death, delivered those who were all their life-time subject to bondage. It will be as great an act of righteousness on the part of God to consign the rejectors of His great salvation to the eternal flames of hell, as it will he to save the repentant sinner through the atoning work of Christ, and have him with Christ forever to the praise of the glory of His grace.

My longing desire is that not a single soul into whose hands this paper may fall may be amongst that benighted throng, who, when found not: written in the book of life, are cast into the lake of fire; but that you, dear reader, whoever you may be, may by faith embrace God's great salvation, knowing Jesus as your Saviour, and Him as your God, who is both Light and Love.

W. G.

No Steps Allowed

To ascend is laborious, and difficult and therefore steps are a contrivance to reach an object which otherwise we could not attain. In material and physical things, this is a great convenience, and often necessary. Not so however in the things of God "neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar." If man would meet God, he must not have steps to do it. This is not allowed: neither is it necessary; because God has come down to meet man, where he is.

This is a thought strange to man's unbelieving heart, who feels himself away from God. No one would make steps or use them to reach that which was near. They would feel that it was not needed. Is not then God near? Is it not "in Him we live, and move, and have our being?”

Shall we say then, “who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down?.... 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 thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Yes, the word of salvation is nigh thee. There is no need to ascend.

No steps are needed to go up to God. Christ has come down; and God meets US through Him where we are, and just as we are. Self-elevation is not necessary.

It would be a false position we should thus occupy before God, and ruinous to us. God has met us in Christ as we are, and where we are. As we are, we must come to God through Christ, and sins being forgiven and consciences purged, worship Him there. This is the place of our altar.

“An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me."

“While we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Yes, as we are, where we are, God meets us in Christ and then we worship Him. He will have no steps. Can the sinner step out of his sins to meet God, as not being such an one? Impossible.

God in His love to us has forbidden it. Do you see this, my friend? Then if you have been approaching God by steps, give it up at once.

The Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, has stepped down from heaven's highest glory; even as low as the cross, to be made sin there: that by faith you might by Him come to God as you are. What love in Him 1 What liberty and joy to the heart to a weary step-maker! "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Will you meet God thus, and praise and thank Him that He has graciously said that your steps are not needed to His altar? G. R.

Old John's Way to Be Saved

“WELL, John, you are getting old and feeble now, and very soon someone else will occupy your place here: do you ever think where you will spend eternity? You know you cannot live here forever. Death will steal a march upon you and overcome you some day; and what then?"

"Sometimes I think about these things, but not very often. You know we must just do the best we can, and leave the rest with the Almighty.”

"Well, John, you have gone to church for a great number of years now, and taken the sacrament too. No matter what the weather has been—wet or dry, cold or hot, you have been regular in your attendance, unless prevented by something very special. And you have heard a great number of sermons, and repeated the creed, and joined in the responses, and all the rest of it. Numbers of times you have said, I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' Now tell me, what do you think you have to do to get your precious soul saved?”

“Oh, I don't know exactly.”

“Now just give me your own thoughts about it.”

“Well, I suppose we must do the best we cans”

“But what do you mean by 'the best we can?'”

“Oh, go to church, and say my prayers, and pay everybody their due, and ask God to forgive me, and try not to commit any more sins.”

“Very good, John, that is the general and common thought-the creed of thousands. But let us look at it for a moment or two.

“Supposing I bought a sheep of you for which I had to pay 6os., and then I ran away and did not pay; of course, I should be a thief and liable to be punished by the law of the land. Then after a while I return and say to you, John, I want to buy another sheep of you, but I will pay ready money for it this time,' how would that suit you?”

“Not at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because I want 6os., for the first, and I'm sure I would not let you have another if you did not pay for the first.”

“But suppose I say, ‘I am very sorry, John, for robbing you of your money and will not do it again'; will that do?”

“No! you ought to be sorry, but that does not pay for the sheep.”

“Then suppose I get down on my knees and not only give expression to my sorrow, but beg and beseech you to forgive me, and I promise to be better for the future, will that do?”

“No, certainly not! I might forgive you, but unless the 6os. is paid it would not be just.”

“Then supposing I had a friend who came and said, 'John, here is 6os. for the sheep and interest for your money. I have taken my friend into partnership with myself, so he has plenty of money now, therefore if he wants to buy any more sheep, you know he has plenty to pay with, so you need not be afraid;' would that do?”

“Oh, yes, that would do very well; indeed, I should be satisfied with that.”

“Well, now, let us apply this to the question of your soul, seeing you understand about the sheep so clearly.

“The wages of sin is death.’ And 'the soul that sinneth it shall die.’ Now you have committed the sins, and you must have the wages, which is death. God is a just God, therefore nothing will meet your case but death. Do you see this now?

“Then going to church is not death. Saying prayers is not death. Paying everybody their due is not death. Asking God to forgive you is not death. Endeavoring to refrain from future sins is not death; and the wages of sin is death.'

“Ah, John, you are on dangerous ground. With all your respectability and religion you see you are just a guilty sinner, and if you die as you are you will drop into hell. Besides, suppose you do not commit any more sins from now till the moment of your death, even that will not do, because there is the back debt still standing, like the 6os. for the sheep. Nothing will do but death.

“You see, the common creed is a bad one after all—rank bad. It deceives people. It lulls them to sleep in the devil's cradle of self-complacent Phariseeism. In other words, it makes them think if they do this, that they are better than those who do not do it, whereas, you see, it is not a question of doing anything at all; it is a question of death. And thus Satan deceives all these religious people, who, like you, John, are working for salvation. I really tremble for you, and would not stand in your place for ten thousand worlds. I only hope that you see your danger and are prepared to accept God's way of deliverance from it.

“The wages of sin is death.' Now what has taken place? Ah, here is where you will find peace. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

“Now instead of the word world, and the word whosoever, let us put your name in, and you will see how nicely it will fit you. 'God so loved John—, that he gave his only begotten Son, that if John—believes in him, he shall not perish, but have everlasting life.'

“You see there is nothing there about church, and prayers, and all that kind of thing; nothing at all. It is all about God's love to you; and God's gift to you. And all you have to do is to believe in Christ and have everlasting life.

“'The wages of sin is death.' Christ has died, the Just for the unjust to bring us to God.’ 'The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ As a just God He demands death. As a God of love He provides the Saviour, and Jesus the Saviour has passed through death. Now do you not see, John, that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour, then His death is put down as yours, and His blood cleanseth you from all your sins. God looks at you as though you had done it all yourself, whereas it is Jesus who has done it all for you. Then you have His word which says you have everlasting life.’ And, 'By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works.’ And, 'He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.’ So that you are associated with Christ in resurrection, standing in the unclouded favor of God.

Thank God, Jesus has received the wages and the believer goes free.”

Reader! if John's thoughts and way of salvation are yours, may you learn your mistake before it is too late, and be persuaded at once to accept God's way of salvation through simple faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. W. E.

Rebellious

STAYING some time since at the sea-side, I became very interested in the landlady of the house. She was a nice woman, very kind and pleasant; but it did not take long to discern she was very dissatisfied and unhappy. It was very difficult to get any conversation with her about divine truths and her soul's need; till one morning, coming unexpectedly into the sitting room, she found me reading my Bible.

Her ready apology for "disturbing" me opened the way for conversation, during which she told me she had known something of the blessedness of Christianity, but the perusal of the books of a well-known modern writer had so grievously poisoned her mind, that the word of God was unbearable to her; she never now opened its covers.

“I know the books do me no good," she said "but I cannot give them up: as soon as a new one comes out I must get it.”

And though I tried to show her her folly and danger, she turned the edge of every statement by denying or explaining away every truth of the word of God quoted to her, and finally wound up the conversation by exclaiming, "It is all very well, but I suppose I am rebellious!" So saying she left the room.

“Rebellious!" I thought, "poor soul indeed you are: but how awful to rebel against the word and the truth of the living God." My Bible was open at Psalm 68. and turning to it again my eye fell on the words in verse 6, "The rebellious dwell in a dry land." Corning so soon after her own confession the words struck me deeply—and oh, how dry that poor woman found her dwelling place. Surrounded by much that pleases the natural heart, yet away from God, refusing the rights of His blessed Son, denying His word about the punishment of sin and deliberately choosing the hazy notions of a fellow woman to the eternal truth of God,—dry indeed was her portion!

And what about yours, my reader? Are you rebellious?" Does your mind revolt at God's statement about you, that you are a lost, guilty, sinner, deserving nothing but the lake of fire for eternity, and hastening thither as fast as time can take you? Do you rebel at His sentence about you, and dare you to deny the truth of His word? If so, I pity you. "The pleasures of sin" may seem sweet for a moment, but they leave an aching dissatisfaction that nothing beneath the sun can remove: earth's streams of pleasure and gratification will soon dry up, and then? "A dry land" forever,—even that place where one drop of cold water to cool your parched tongue shall be denied. Be not deceived, reader; eternal punishment is a reality: the lake of fire is a reality; and your denial of them makes them none the less real.

But continuing the psalm, the same word attracted my attention again in verse 18. "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for man yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell among them.”

Is it possible? Gifts! and for the rebellious.! For those still in their stiff-nakedness and pride I Is there mercy for such? Bless God, there is! There is One come down from heaven ("for in that He ascended, what is it but that He descended first into the lowest parts of the earth?") not to do His own will but the will of Him that sent Him, the perfectly obedient One, "who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Sinless and holy, untainted by the very thought of rebellion, the Christ of God went to Calvary, and there offered Himself without spot to God, the just for the unjust, paying the full penalty due to sin; and having exhausted all the wrath of God, He is risen and has gone back again,—"passed through all heavens," even to the right hand of the Majesty on high; and He has gone there with gifts in His hand,—gifts won by His obedience unto death; gifts purchased by His own blood. And for whom?

Oh, are you rebellious? They are then for you. Gifts which shall turn the barren land into the very dwelling place of God Himself. Gifts free, full, glorious forgiveness, justification, sanctification, eternal life—everything for this world and the next: everything that can satisfy the heart of God, so everything that could satisfy your heart, for it is all comprehended in the Lord Jesus Christ. And "how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Can you rebel in face of this? Can you turn away from the grace of God and spurn His gifts? Can you reject His appointed Saviour and despise His blood purchased blessings? Oh friend, throw down your arms of rebellion, leave your "dry land," and accept from Him all that His loving heart is waiting to lavish upon you.

Repentance Enjoined

"The times however of ignorance God overlooked, but now enjoineth men that all everywhere repent." Acts 17:30.

THE apostle refers to "the times of ignorance” before the gospel came, not only to believers personally, but is also in all the world bearing fruit and growing. It was an immense change for Gentiles as such, predicted by Simeon as he held the infant Saviour in his arms and said, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou preparedst before the face of all the peoples, a light for revelation of Gentiles [or nations], and glory of thy people Israel." Israel's glory is postponed because of their unbelief, but Christ meanwhile is a light for unveiling Gentiles till Israel's heart turns to the Lord when he shall be saved.

Thus for a season the old condition is reversed. The chosen people who had the only religious privileges enjoyed on earth lost them for their rejection of their own Messiah; and “Be it known therefore to you, that this salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles; they also will hear." Accordingly too, he wrote to the saints in Rome (the then Gentile metropolis), "By their fall [there is] salvation to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. But if their fall [be the] world's wealth, and their loss Gentiles' wealth, how much more their fullness?" And so the fullness of Israel will prove under the Messiah and the new covenant. Truly it will be the glory of His people Israel when their brightest hopes are more than realized, and the earth shall yield her increase, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him, yea, the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.

Here the apostle confines himself to the fact that God, instead of executing judgment on the times of deplorable, inexcusable, ignorance, in His goodness overlooked the past, and now calls to repentance. It was no longer the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea; it was no longer the Twelve sent only to the lost sheep of Israel's house, and expressly not into a way of Gentiles nor into a city of Samaritans. Now that the rejected Christ died as propitiation and was raised up, He Himself marks the change now come: " Go therefore, make disciples of all the Gentiles;" "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation; " "Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the Gentiles, beginning with Jerusalem," the guiltiest of all on earth!

How true it is that the message of God's love in salvation to every one that believes is His own command! The apostle (himself called as apostle of Gentiles by the Lord from heaven) was then acting as His ambassador, when he proclaimed to the Athenians that "God now enjoineth men that all everywhere repent." The Gentiles who ignored the true God, and set up idols to His dishonor and their own shame, are no more ignored of God. "The true light already shineth." Coming into the world it lightens every man. It is true that the world was so blind as not to know Him. But the God of all grace does not leave them to their folly; He sends this charge to them, that they should "all everywhere repent." What compassion for and concern in "all everywhere"!

No sinner, no child of fallen man had ever turned to God in faith as all did from Abel downward without repentance. It is faith that produces it if real and Godward, though it may not be yet for many souls faith in the glad tidings. But faith in God's word invariably causes it; and its character is self-judgment before Him. Not only one's ways, but one's self, is laid naked as seen by His holy eyes with whom we have to do.

Without doubt, there is a changed and new mind about God, which is rather the effect of faith; but this in itself is never repentance. For repentance is by grace the soul's eye turned on itself and seeing only and continually its guilt, its evil. Faith which produces repentance is in no way repentance; it looks away from self to Christ for the remission of the sins which repentance condemns, and condemns one's self for without an excuse before God.

Feeble faith, like the absence of it, shrinks from this moral weighing and estimate of ourselves as God sees us; it is in a hurry to get pardon at once, content with that, or with zeal turning preacher, and thus slurring over so essential a Work in us, because of joy in Christ's work for us. But this negligent haste is as unscriptural as it is a wrong to God and a dangerous lack for our souls.

The apostle, then, having already preached Jesus and the resurrection in the market-place, speaks on the Areopagus of their life of idolatrous rebellion against the One True God, and presses on their conscience God's present injunction to men, that they all everywhere should repent. He waits on all, and graciously welcomes in Christ's name all who repent and believe the gospel.

O my reader, have you repented? Do you repent now of your thoughtless, guilty, selfish life?

You need to repent as truly as the Athenians. The door is open; and Jesus is the door to God and all His grace. The true sense of your badness is morally in you the beginning of goodness. May it be the goodness of God "leading thee to repentance." Repent and believe the gospel.

The Result — Then As Now

And when they heard of resurrection of dead [men], some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again concerning this. Thus Paul went out from their midst. But certain men clave to him; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman by name Damaris, and others with them." Acts 17: 32-34.

RESURRECTION once more aroused resistance and derision. Some mocked; and others said, "We will hear thee again concerning this." To hear the apostle again was more than man can insure. Mockers and doubters shall certainly hear the voice of the risen Jesus, when the hour comes for a "resurrection of judgment," which will vindicate the truth to His glory, and prove the worthlessness of the unbeliever, and his deeds evil in God's sight; as those who believe receive life eternal now, walk in obedience, bear good fruit, and rise to a "resurrection of life."

Creation is a standing witness of God to all mankind, did they but stop to consider. It was in its final shape complete before man (the head by God's appointment of all the earthly sphere) was formed, and formed in full vigor of mind and body to look upon it all around him and to hold converse with God without a cloud or suspicion. Creation was a vast miracle; but Adam was not there to see its several parts. He saw the effects in their beauty where all was very good.

Such is the testimony of the Bible as afterward written by Moses, admitted to divine intercourse beyond others save the Son of man who could say when on earth that He was in heaven; Man but infinitely more than man, who cites Moses as giving God's truth as far as then revealed. And when we think out what we are told of man and every other on earth created not in embryo but in full growth, we cannot but feel how such an account approves itself to us as befitting both God the Creator and the creature.

The most pronounced Freethinkers, the Positivist Mill, and the Agnostic Spencer, admit that secondary causes fail to explain the universe, and that primeval causes (for they own the causa causans) must have operated before, behind and above all that men can apprehend. How much more One who announces His death by lawless hands, and His rising on the third day, with the amplest evidence that so He did rise. Then seen, heard, felt by unimpeachable witnesses, manifestly not a result of natural causes, but God's action for the worthiest reason and His own glory in the midst of this world's evil and unbelief!

But resurrection is a tremendous shock to the race as reversing all the system of causes and effects with which they are familiar day by day, which they call reflective life. Man is painfully familiar with death and tries to think it natural. But it is not, though appearing so now. God made man with provision to live, if he did not disobey Him. Man disobeyed, and death, as God warned, entered as a penalty through his transgression. But even then the LORD God appeared, convicted Adam and Eve respectively of their sin, traced it up to the enemy, the old serpent, and in sentencing the deceiver announced the triumph of grace in the woman's Seed, who, in His body however bruised, should crush the enemy forever.

Thus was the Saviour's death to be turned to endless gain for all who believe, and to the glory of God who gave His Son to be born of woman that it might be so. But His death was followed by His resurrection, as it must be both on His own account as a divine person no less than from the Father's glory, truth, and righteousness, for the peace, joy, and blessing of His own. It is too the witness to His foes that, alive again for evermore, He is coming to judge the habitable earth, where men listened to the old enemy and put Him to death: the awful sin of man, and the wondrous grace of God as the propitiation for our sins. His resurrection and going up into His glory is a pledge that He died a sacrifice for all that believe, and that God has accepted the sacrifice on our behalf, and Him who offered it for His glory.

Christ's resurrection from among the dead is the witness of perfect deliverance from sin and all its consequences, and of entrance on a new life in imperishable blessedness. It is a miracle far transcending creation, which could be and was spoiled through sin. It is not only that the Heir of all things should be glorified; but He now acts in the power of that grace which will bring all who believe to share His absolutely new order of things, in our souls now by faith, next in our bodies, and in the inheritance itself, when He comes again in glory.

Some think like certain Athenians after Plato of the soul's immortality, but forget their responsibility for sin, and look not to God to be saved from their sins and His judgment. Man glorifies himself in that; yet the soul's immortality does not save from everlasting ruin, but "Jesus only." And resurrection then becomes our joyful hope founded on His; "Because I live, ye shall live also:" a life now for our souls, at His coming for our bodies, a life of victory over death and judgment, a life of heavenly and everlasting glory.

The hopes of man are through science, politics, education and the like to ameliorate the old and fallen creation. But they might see if not blinded by Satan that evil men and impostors wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The fashion of this world passeth; yea, the world itself is passing, and its lust; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Resurrection declares the unmistakable power of God in Christ vanquishing Satan. In Him Man has conquered to bring those who believe into His wholly new state according to God's counsels.

Whenever souls fail to apprehend this in the Spirit, they get occupied with man and the world, striving to amend society, and improve the general state. Never did Christ anything of the sort; nor did the apostles and prophets essay such measures. They taught that man is dead, that life is in Christ, that He only is the all and in all, that He is coming to take His own to the Father's house, and that He and they will shortly after appear in glory to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness, before the judgment of the dead.

But man as he dreads God out of a bad conscience, either derides openly or politely puts off. Nevertheless God does His gracious work. A man of weight bowed to the truth and the grace he heard, Dionysius the Areopagite, as did a woman named Damaris and others. But the rest abode in their unbelief, and the apostle went forth from their midst with the message of God's good tidings for such as have an ear to hear.

How is it with you, dear reader, as you scan these lines? By man came sin and death; but by man, the Second man, came the resurrection. This points to the Lord as the Deliverer of those who believe on Him, and the Judge of all who are indifferent and turn away from Him. O then beware! Look to Him and live, I beseech you: why should you perish, when He is at hand, the Life and the Saviour for all that call upon Him? Remain as you are, and you are lost forever. Receive Him, and you are born of God. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and none shall seize out of my hand. My Father who hath given [them] to me is greater than all, and none can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one."

The Risen Judge

"Because he set a day in which he is about to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he appointed, affording proof to all in that he raised him from among the dead," Acts 17:31.

HERE the apostle applies the truth to the conscience. He had preached "Jesus and the resurrection" in the market-place; but in this, whether as wit or ignorance or both, he seemed a setter forth of strange divinities. Now on Areopagus he proclaims the risen Jesus, whom God ordained to be the judge of living men on the earth, after having insulted the One living and true, the Creator and sustainer of the universe, by their many gods and many lords, the dæmons of the Pagan world. But he also points to the new and fatal sin of that generation, which the Gentiles shared with the still more guilty Jews, the crucifixion of His Son and righteous servant Jesus, God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

It was divine love coming down from the height of glory, and deigning, in the person of the Son, to become man in the midst of sinful and wretched men to seek and to save the lost. This they would not have, but disdained. When He fed the hungry, cured the sick and raised the dead, cast out evil spirits, rebuked the wind and the waves, they wondered and admired. Such a man exalted mankind; but it was another thing to convict them of guilt, warn them of everlasting judgment, and speak of giving His life as a ransom in God's grace toward His enemies, that whosoever believed on Him should not perish but have life eternal. For where man did his worst, there also God did His best; and human enmity was far exceeded by divine love; the soldier's insolent spear drew forth from the dead Saviour's heart water and blood: the emblems of what purifies the unclean and what atones for the guilty. Compare John 19:32-37, and 1 John 5:6-8.

O my reader, is not this what the sinner needs? So I have found by faith: if you have not, lose not a moment and submit to the truth. God in His word presents it to you and any other, as to me and every one who has already believed. The Holy Spirit attests it as the third witness in the gospel to every creature. O the sin of despising such love! To refuse it is to make your case worse than a pagan's.

The resurrection of the Lord is alike the ground of faith God has given you, and the warning of a day when He will judge the quick. For Him whom man condemned to the cross God raised up again, as He Himself over and over uttered to the dull ears of His disciples. When He hung on the tree God laid the awful burden of sin upon Him, made the sinless One sin for us, that we who believe might become His righteousness in Christ. It was God's righteousness, not ours, for we were the sinners for whom He became substitute. Then is God just in justifying the believer, who owns his sins and finds Him not sparing His own Son that we might be washed clean for His presence. Jesus is ready to judge the habitable world which cast Him out. The world and all in it inherit this load of guilt unremoved to this day. The only way to escape judgment is to repent and believe the gospel. This God enjoins on all men everywhere, as we saw. Is not this grace to every creature? But grace rejected seals your guilt. Jesus is coming, first to receive His own for His Father's house; secondly, to judge in righteousness the inhabited earth, not yet the dead but living man everywhere, He, knowing well how incredulous most would be, said, "when the Son of man cometh [i.e. for His second and judicial act],, shall he find faith on the earth?”

Beware then that you trifle not, lest you prove. His words true in your everlasting ruin. He tells you in Luke 17 how that day is to be. "As it came to pass in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank; they married, they were given in marriage; until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all. And in like manner as it came to pass in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank; they bought, they sold; they planted, they builded. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven, and destroyed all. After the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed.”

The judgment of the dead is under wholly different conditions, which it is folly to confound with that of the quick. More like it in a slight degree was the destruction of Jerusalem, and on a far smaller scale. But the words added by our Lord are incompatible with either, and describe what will be when He appears for the judgment of living man. "In that day, he who shall be on the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not go down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember the wife of Lot;" and so to the end of the chapter, I might cite words quite inapplicable to' the siege of Titus, still less to the judgment of the dead before the "great White Throne," when the earth and heaven shall have fled before the Judge's face; whereas every word tallies with His coming to judge the living.

Is it not truly ominous—the unbelief of man so nearly concerned, and with issues so incalculable? Jews have no difficulty in looking for a divine judgment on the living, and expect the verification of their national hopes in a destruction to fall on all the nations of the earth when they are gathered to their land for more than pristine glory under David and Solomon. But they are little alive to the clear account of the judgment of the dead. Christendom acknowledges the judgment of the dead, but puts it off indefinitely and mixes it up with the judgment of the quick; so that the power of neither tells, as both ought, on the conscience. Nor can there be a plainer proof of this error than its effect in confounding two scriptures so distinct as Matt. 25:31-46 and Rev. 20:12-18; for in the first is found not one dead man, in the second not one living. Tradition blurs them into one, and makes both interpretations erroneous. Thereby is lost the profit from each, which rightly understood, is very great. A vague muddle takes their place, which is not only inconsistent with what God has revealed, but helps on unbelief in defiance of His word.

But the resurrection of Jesus disarms the believer of all fear, whether from the judgment of the living at the beginning of the Kingdom to come, or from the judgment of the dead at its end. The believer will be manifested before His judgment-seat, and will give account of all done in the body but as the Lord unmistakably declared, he "cometh not into judgment," being already justified. Now it is God that justifieth; and if God he for us, who against? Till the disciples understood it in the light of scripture, they were filled with perplexity and gloom, as we read in the beginning of Matthew 28., Mark 16., Luke 24., and John 20., dispersed at the end by its blessed light and joy. He that was so dear and well-known stood in the midst on the resurrection day, "and saith to them, Peace to you. And having said this, he skewed to them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord." Does He change? or the efficacy of His death? or the' triumphant peace and joy of His resurrection? He that had the power of death was vanquished, the sins blotted out by His blood, the judgment of God borne on the cross, man in Him entering on a new order of being, fit for the presence and glory of God above, and for the Holy Spirit to indwell here below.

Such was the virtue of His death displayed in the power of resurrection, and given as the portion of every Christian thenceforward able to say, His Father and my Father, His God and my God, and looking forward with assurance to a hope as glorious as the faith is certain, both flowing out of God's love from eternity and to eternity, known by His word and enjoyed now in the power of His Spirit.

A Saviour Seeking for the Lost!

A GENTLEMAN relates how he was once traveling home on board ship, when all were feeling the monotony of the days, and were lounging about here and there, not knowing what to do to while away the time. Having got far out on the ocean, they had not seen land or another vessel for many days, and this, of course, made the monotony all the more trying. Some were repeatedly scanning the vast ocean around them, anxious for the first sight of anything to vary their daily routine, when, far away, a black speck was seen, and immediately the cry was raised all over the vessel, "A sail! A sail!”

All was at once excitement, and the good ship altered her course towards the sighted vessel, wondering who she could be, and where she was bound. As they approached nearer and nearer, it was evident that something was wrong, as she was flying the distress signal. All were full of curiosity as to what it could mean. Was it that she had run out of food and water, or had she a leakage? Had a disease broken out on board?

Imagine their surprise when they were within hail, to learn that she was lost! Her compass had failed her, and she knew not where she was, and rather than wander aimlessly about, her crew had decided to wait till some vessel should come along and set them in the right course.

I fancy I hear my reader say, "It was the very wisest thing they could do." Yes, indeed it was, but what a contrast this is, to the countless throngs of poor benighted sinners in this world, who are lost in their sins, and indifferent to the fact, that every step onward is taking them further and further down the broad road that leadeth to destruction.

That all men by nature are lost, is unmistakably declared in the Scripture of truth, for does it not say, "There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Oh, my reader, have you ever taken it to heart, that such is your awful condition, away from God and lost, "dead in trespasses and sins?" Well might you tremble and shudder, as you read in the early pages of God's word, the heart-breaking story of the fall of man on account of sin; of his hiding himself, because of the consciousness of that sin, from the holy presence of God; and of God coming out to seek the lost one, saying, "Where art thou? " Adam says, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." Then you read that he was driven out because God could leave him no longer in that garden, because he was a sinner, for God is holy and righteous; and from that moment man became lost to God.

But oh, how mournful to observe the unconcern that marks so many; the writer's desire is to seek to awaken all his readers to a sense of the solemn reality, which, allow me to repeat, is so forcibly maintained in the word of God, that all, young or old, rich or poor, male or female, are lost! Oh, think of it, dear reader, and be wise like the mariners in that ship, and halt, till you know where you are, and where you are bound. Were it simply mine to tell you this solemn fact alone, and leave you there with no remedy, one might well bow one's head in the dust in deep grief and overwhelming sorrow, and weep at the awful end of sin, and the lamentable doom of the sinner. But oh, joy of all joys, listen! It is mine to tell also of One (blessed for all eternity be His holy and peerless name!) who came to seek and save that which was lost; who came to call the wanderers back to God; who came to arrest the lost ones in their onward, yet downward, course, and set their feet and their hearts right for eternity.

Beloved reader, do you know of whom I speak? It is Jesus, God's spotless holy Son! It is the Christ of God! It is my Saviour! In love to His wandering sheep, He veiled His glory and became a man, that He might seek and find them. Oh, have you ever traced Him in His wonderful pathway through this scene, calling to the lost to come to Him? How few then responded! How few then turned to Him in response to His gracious overtures of love, and yet He still sought! So unwearied was that love of His heart that He wavered not in His yearning after those whom He knew had need of Him, even the lost.

But there is more to tell you. None could ever have been brought to God had He not gone on to that cross that awaited Him at Calvary. Such was His love to the lost, that on He went, even to lay down His life for His sheep, as He so tenderly and touchingly says, “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the Sheep... I lay clown my life for the sheep."

When the Good Shepherd saves, He saves forever; and while you are here in this world, He puts into your hand His blessed word, which is a sure and reliable compass, which will guide and direct you aright, not for one moment failing you, as did the compass of the good ship of which I have told you. Oh, will you come to my blessed Saviour? Do not delay! Soon His happy ransomed sheep will be taken out of this scene to be with their Shepherd forever, to the praise of the glory of the grace of God, who has provided such a Saviour, at such an infinite cost. W. G.

Sins and Sin

1.—Sins

THE apostle Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Glad tidings it is indeed, and that which exactly meets the need of poor, lost, ruined man. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; for in it is revealed the righteousness of God. Thereby He can righteously forgive the most guilty, hell-deserving sinner. Nor has God left the smallest ground for a question in the heart of the pardoned sinner as to His entire satisfaction with the reconciliation effected by the death of His Son. He has given assurance of that satisfaction in raising up Jesus from among the dead,— "Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification."

Who can say that God has made light of sin? Our sins apart from Him must have kept us out of His holy presence forever. "But God, who is rich in mercy," in His great love for us even when we were His enemies, devised means by which He could righteously bring us back to Himself. He found the ransom. He has set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood; and He now declares His righteousness, that He might be just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

But can God righteously count the sinner just? Can He reckon me as righteous who was born in sin, have lived in it, and have loved it? This He does, if I believe Him, and rest by faith on what He declares to faith He has done. Christ, who had no sins of His own, He made sin on the cross for all that believe. There God laid all my sins on His holy head, and He confessed and suffered for them as His own. It is by virtue of the work there and then performed, that I am justified from my sins, neither by Christ's obedience to the law nor by my own. "Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." All is grace, but through righteousness. Sovereign grace undertook in Christ for us in all the wretchedness of our defiled and ruined condition.

Thus the believer finds in the precious blood of Christ that which alone can clear him in the sight of God from all guilt and deliver hind from the consequences of the deeds done in the body to which divine judgment had to say. It is this question of my sins and God's provision in grace for my rescue from the punishment due to them, which is raised and answered in the early portion of the epistle to the Romans, closing with chapter v. verse II. "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice [boast] in hope of the glory of God."

ERRATA. In January No. page 5, line 2 from top, substitute “cattle” for “earth;” page 6, line 1 at top, add “not” after “doubted.”

Sins and Sin

2.—Sin

BUT what of the sin which dwells in us, the evil root which produces the terrible fruits called sins? These, we have seen, God has forgiven on faith; but how has He dealt with the corrupt nature, "the flesh,"—with that bad principle which I see at work within me, as it came in by the first man's unrighteous act? The Epistle to the Romans meets and removes these difficulties in the section following Rom. 5:11, and which closes with the eighth chapter. God, in Christ crucified, "condemned sin in the flesh" (chap. 8:3), setting it aside as hopelessly evil, incapable of improvement, and withal impotent against the believer who rests on Christ's sacrifice for sin.

It may be that I, as a quickened soul, have been able to rejoice for a time in the apprehension of the means by which God can righteously forgive my sins. But before long how distressed and wretched I become! For I make the discovery, being now born of the Spirit, that my old self, my very nature, the flesh, can do nothing but sin. If bethink myself of God's holy law, my inward man, which is born of God, delights in its requirements; but to my unspeakable concern I find that "the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do."

Now grace foresaw this dilemma, and provided perfectly for it. For the salvation of God is a complete deliverance, and altogether worthy of Himself. Hence we have set forth in Rom, 5:8-12. God's means of deliverance, in chap'. 6. from sin or the sinful nature, and in chap. 7. from the law which required from one under it a righteousness which his old nature made him utterly unable to produce.

How immense the relief when by grace one is enabled to lay hold on the truth here set forth! Now I cease to count any longer upon any good in myself; for I have learned that "in my flesh dwelleth no good thing," and that "it profiteth nothing." I learn that I am privileged to reckon myself "dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Henceforth, instead of wearing myself out in a useless effort after a righteousness of my own by law-keeping, I am enabled to avail myself of God's own deliverance in Christ dead and risen from all condemnation, and "to thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Therefore for those in Christ Jesus "there is no condemnation.”

There was individual experience in the misery of sin, and the killing power of the law. There is now individual deliverance by faith of what God wrought and gives me in Christ. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death" (lb. 2). Risen life in Christ is mine, which God will never condemn; and sin in the flesh, which is mine, God condemned on the cross when Christ was a sacrifice for sin (lb. 3).

Hence too "we have received the Spirit of adoption or sonship whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Ib. 15). Brought thus into a new and near relationship in Christ," The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (lb. 16, [7).

As a child and son of God, there is now for me a new responsibility. How inconsistent on my part, how unworthy of the place into which I am brought in Christ, would it be if I continued in sin! But far be it from us that we should so continue, for "how shall we, who died to sin, live any longer therein?" In my baptism I confessed that the old thing had passed away. In a figure I washed away my sins, and confessed my old man crucified with Christ, "that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth I should not serve sin."

There my old self by grace in Christ came to its end and was buried, "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (1 b. 4). “For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." Moreover, God holds us responsible that if we live by having the Spirit we should also walk in the Spirit.

God gives me, a Christian, the privilege of having died to sin with Christ; and He calls on me to reckon myself dead unto sin and alive to Himself in Christ Jesus. Not that sin is not still in me, nor that it would not reign did I not keep it under as a condemned evil thing. May He give me and my fellow believers grace to be "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we that live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh."

Sins Under the Blood

GOD said to Israel of old: "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Faith obeyed God in sprinkling the blood on the door posts. God gave His guarantee of safety for the assurance of faith.

We once bent over a poor dying man, and said, "Friend, you are leaving this world. You will very soon appear before God. How is it about your soul? Where are your sins?”

He was too weak to lift a finger, but looked up calmly and whispered, "My sins are under the blood."

Reader, what can you say as to your sins?

Suddenly

THE shepherds were keeping their watch by night, and the firmament, in its majestic brightness, glowed with countless stars, when suddenly, from the courts of glory, poured down the melody of praise; and angelic hosts, with rapturous joy, announced the advent of the Royal Babe, Emmanuel, God with us. Yes; Jesus, the long promised Saviour and Messiah had come; the Word made flesh was manifest, for it was none other than the Christ of God, the loved one of the Father's heart, who had stooped from heavenly glory into the manger of Bethlehem.

The star in the east went before the wise men, and stood still over the very spot where the young child was; and the Magi, pouring gold, frankincense and myrrh at His feet, worshipped the One in whom "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Such were the golden words that suddenly fell on the shepherds' ears, as He, Who was the Good Shepherd, entered a world ruined by sin, to lay down His life for the sheep.

Three and thirty years had rolled away; and the lowly Nazarene, who came into the world by way of the manger, had gone out of it by way of the cross—the willing victim on God's altar, having accomplished a full redemption, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Ere He left this scene, however, He had left these warning words behind Him, "Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.”

His first advent to the earth had been announced suddenly; His return to it, unannounced, would be sudden too! Having died, and risen again, and gone in and out among His own for forty days, He was taken up to heaven, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Yet forgot He not His promise that they should receive power from on high; and, true to His word, "when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and they were all with one accord in one place, suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting;" and, as those cloven tongues of fire sat upon each of them, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.

The Spirit of the living God had-now come from an ascended and glorified Christ to make good in every believer's heart, not only the wonders of redeeming grace, but the infinite glories of the Redeemer Himself. That self-same Spirit had ever, and often, wrought before in various ways; but now His special object was two-fold, the one was to form and indwell the church of God, and the other was to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Mightily did He work that day in eternal blessing to three thousand precious souls, and later on at Philippi, in the bright conversion of the sin-bound jailor.

Suddenly, at the midnight hour, came the earthquake that aroused that sleeping sinner from his carnal ease and slumber; and, drawing his sword, he would fain have killed himself, till the Spirit's voice was heard, speaking through the apostle's lips,. "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." Suddenly, and deeply convicted by that same Spirit, the agonized cry came from the lips of the awakened jailor, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house," was the swift reply; and faith, drinking in the golden meaning of those precious words, brought peace and joy that same hour of the night, not only to the jailor, but to all that were in his house.

Now, as then, however, believers and unbelievers go on together in a day of grace, till suddenly, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God." Then, suddenly, "the dead in Christ shalt rise first; and we [believers], who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The family of God being all gone, the way is prepared for the clay of the Lord, which will surely come as a thief in the night. Alas! alas! how deeply solemn is the thought, the world will then be suddenly taken by surprise, as it was when the flood came, and swept them all away. While men in their blind folly are crying "peace and safety,' then, "sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.”

Ah! dear fellow-believer, as those four solemn words, "they shall not escape," ring in our ears, shall not we at least, be in earnest for the immediate salvation of those we love? As for you, poor unsaved reader, see to it at once that you get right with God, lest these awful words be true of you, "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

S. T.

Suddenly, but Not Without Warning

IN the month of May this year, in the town of—, I asked a young man how his mother was, who had been very ill for years. He said it was not known how soon she might be called away from this life into eternity.

She was an elderly lady; but he was a young man, in good health and spirits. He held a good position, and was looking forward to a long career of activity, after which he meant to retire to the country and spend his last years in the quietness of village life.

I asked him how it would be if he should be taken before his dear mother; for she was greatly beloved by him. Still, while he could not but acknowledge the possibility of such a thing, yet the probability seemed to him so very remote, that the idea had apparently never entered his thoughts.

He replied, "Well, I think it is our duty to do our best, to help those who need it, and do all the good we can, and then at the last all will be right. God is a God of love, and I don't believe He will condemn me to everlasting punishment.”

I quoted to him the scripture which says, " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."

Scripture also says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," and "the soul that sinneth it shall die;" but God so loves the sinner that He provided a substitute who has borne the punishment due to sin, so that God can now righteously say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

What we think will not save us when we stand in God's presence. God's word declares that He is holy, and that without "shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." I told my friend that God did not ask him for his thoughts or opinion, but now commands him and all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.

A fortnight afterward, this young man was away from his work, having caught a cold, and within the following week, he had passed into eternity.

Dear reader, are you looking forward to a long life? It seems very nice to think of working hard and making sufficient means to retire in a quiet way and "enjoy a well-earned rest in old age," and have, it may be, our children and grandchildren round us. But you cannot be sure even of tomorrow; and if you are not prepared and fit for the presence of God at this moment,—yes, this present moment,—you are not saved; and if not saved, you are lost; for there is no middle ground between these two conditions.

The Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life," and you cannot have this life in any other way. You must come to Jesus; He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," said Jesus, and again He said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

Coming to Jesus is believing in Him as God's Son sent by the Father, trusting Him for my eternal salvation, and doubting not that my sins were borne by Him upon the cross, and that I now belong to Him.

There is a time coming when those who neglect or reject this "great salvation" will be cast out.

At the judgment-day all whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. G. K. H.

A Sure Guide

IN a day like the present, in which all the forces of the enemy of man seem joined together to becloud and confuse God's noblest creature, and to rob him of the blessing so freely proffered by a God of infinite love, there is an ever increasing need for a sure and certain guide. Men to-day, led on by Satan, are turning more and more from the fountain of wisdom and knowledge to the dry wells of reason and unbelief.

But, thank God, there is that which He has provided Himself to meet man's need. The psalmist of old could say, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," and to-day the same word, though now more fully made known, is found in all its perfection to give to the soul the direction it needs.

The writer remembers how some few years ago, as he was journeying by boat from Southampton to London, the pilot on boarding the boat at Gravesend was noticed to be very unsteady in his gait. A very vivid recollection is retained of nearly colliding with Greenwich Pier, and when we arrived close to the entrance of the dock, our disgust may be imagined at finding that our unworthy pilot had run us on a mud bank. The services of a tugboat had to be requisitioned before we were free to enter the wished-for dock.

But there is no failure in the heavenly Pilot. His word is sure and certain, and from start to finish it points in unmistakable terms to the only way to God.

From Abel's lamb to the cross of Calvary is indeed a long journey, but the finger-posts of God's providing point unwaveringly on and on till the consummation is reached. There at Calvary alone do we find God's full answer to man's sin. There are we told God's implacable hatred of sin, yet marvelous love to the sinner, for there it was that God's only begotten Son bore the wrath of God against sin, not His own, and opened up the way to God.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me;" were the words of the Son when here on earth; and still the words of Him who is "the same yesterday, and to-clay, and forever," are of all importance; for though man, in his blindness, believes he is progressing towards perfection, he is still a sinner, unfit for God, and needing the "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”

Then come to Him to-day, dear reader, if you feel that your life is in danger of shipwreck, and you fear to miss the heavenly port, and you shall find that as the people of old confessed, " Never man spake like this Man," so to you His word and Himself will become increasingly precious as you grow in the knowledge of God's revealed word.

H. W. R.

the Place Which Is Called Calvary.

LUKE 23:33.

CALVARY shows us a wondrous sight, the death of the Son of God, a death quite of its own kind. Ours is the wages of sin, the due reward of our deeds, the natural moral result of our condition and character. But Jesus was not in this state. He was "separate from sinners." No sin, no principle of death was in Him. "In Him was life." If death, therefore, touch Him, it must do so in a way altogether peculiar.

And so it did. "He was made sin for us." He presented Himself to God, as One, who, though carrying life and title to life, was ready to surrender it for us, who carried death and the righteous sentence of it in ourselves.

It was to God Jesus turned, offering Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and was made sin. And the three hours of darkness were the expression of God's acceptance of this offer. For no darkness need there be at any other death. Death is but the issue of man departed from God, according to the early threatening. The sun may continue to shine then; nature, in all its order, may hold on its way; nothing beyond the ordinary course of an alienated and self-destroying creature goes on then.

But now something new and strange was doing. One had presented Himself to God to die, though He carried in Himself all title to life, and was in no debtorship to death. And He did this that He might destroy him that had the power of death.

Sin, in every other death, was dealing with the creature; but here God was dealing with sin. And God must take His place accordingly. If He accept the offer, He will see sin on the cross, and must withdraw Himself; And the darkness expresses this. It tells us of God's taking His place in relation to this unspeakably solemn object, and thus of His accepting Christ in the sinner's place, as made sin for us.

What strong consolation is this! What solid ground under our feet is here! In the simplest form, God gives witness that He is dealing with sin now. The billows and waves of divine wrath flow in to fill the place, instead of the kindly shining’s of the divine presence. All retires but the soul of Jesus and God's judgment of sin, the victim and the hand that bruised Him. The offer is accepted.

This is of all comfort to poor sinners. This is the first great and solid standing under the feet of the consciously guilty one. He who offered Himself to the righteous God, as sin in the sinner's stead, has the offer here solemnly accepted, as is witnessed by this mysterious darkness in daylight, this desertion of the Son by Him who was judging sin.

But there is more. There is acceptance of the work as well as of the offer. And this is next witnessed to us. For the moment the work was accomplished, its acceptance by God, or the victory of the Lamb of God, is felt in heaven, earth, and hell. As the life was rendered up the veil of the temple is rent from top to bottom, the rocks of the earth are rent, and the graves where the power of death held its prisoners are open. Heaven gladly opens to let sinners in, and the enemy's hold is made to open to let them out. Willing or unwilling, all have to own the victory of the bruised Seed of the woman. The bands were loosed, prison doors forced open, and the captives of darkness walk, in pledge of this victory, in the light of the holy city. And earth owns it also. Its rocks are rent at the same instant of the blood-shedding of this great transaction at Calvary, as heaven delighted to own it, and the grave was forced to own it. The work is accepted.

All this affords further peace and comfort to the sinner that believes. The ground is firm under his feet. He leans the whole burden of his conscience now on the sureness of the accepted work, as before on the sureness of the accepted offer. And the resurrection publishes the confirmation of all.

Thoughts on Pardon

LET those who are careless of it, by all means seek it. Will it at last comfort thee to think of thy mirth and pleasures, how honorable, how rich, or how well stored with friends thou halt been? What should take up thy heart, busy thy thoughts, or employ thy endeavors, but that which concerns thy eternal state? Wilt thou sin away the time of God's patience and thine own happiness? Is it not a time which God hath allotted thee for obtaining pardon? What would Cain, Judas, Pilate, Herod, and all the black catalog have given for the hope of it? O prize that here which thou wilt hereafter esteem infinitely valuable, and call thyself fool and madman a thousand times for neglecting the opportunity of getting.

The anger of a king is as the roaring of a lion. What then are the frowns of an infinitely just God? Why is thy strength and affection spent about other things? Would a forlorn malefactor going to execution listen cheerfully to anything but the news of his prince's clemency? Then seek it earnestly. Pardon is an inestimable blessing, and must not be sought with faint and tired feelings.

Seek it immediately. Is it not full time seriously to set about it? Thou hast lost too many days already, and wilt thou be so senseless as to let another slip? How knowest thou, but if thou refuse it this day, thou mayest be incapable of it to-morrow? There is but a step, a few minutes, between thee and death, and delays in great emergencies are dangerous.

Seek it for all your sins. Content not yourselves with seeking a pardon for greater or more aggravated sins, which frighten the conscience with every look; but seek the pardon of your inward, secret sins. The more you pray against the guilt of them, the more you will hate the filth of them.

Sinners that understand not the evil of sin, think pardon an easy thing, and that forgiveness will be granted of course. But those that groan under the burden of their sins, imagine it more difficult than it is. Presumption wrongs God in His justice, and every degree of despair or doubting wrongs Him in His mercy. God is willing to pardon. Ephraim but desires that God would turn him, and God presently cries out, "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child?" "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus." A penitent Ephraim is instantly a pleasant child. Ephraim strikes upon his thigh with confession, and God speaks to his heart with affection. God, as it were, takes the words out of Ephraim's mouth, as though He watched for the first look of Ephraim towards Him, or the first breath of a supplication.

God is willing to pardon sin. "Therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you." He hath waited all the time of your sinning to have an opportunity to show grace to you; and now you give it Him by repenting, will He lose the fruit of His waiting? It is the end of Christ's exaltation, whether it be meant of His being lifted up on the cross, or His exaltation in heaven; it is true of both that His end is to have mercy upon you.

Humble thyself before God, There must be a conformity between Christ and thee; He was humbled when He purchased remission, and you must be humbled when you receive it. God will not part with that very cheap which cost His Son so dear. When a man comes to be deeply affected with his sin, then God sends a message of peace. Then flew one of the seraphim and laid a live coal upon his mouth, and said, Thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged, when he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because am a man of unclean lips." The way to have a debt forgiven is to acknowledge it "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." God stood as ready to forgive David's unrighteousness, as he was ready to confess it. Mercy will not save a man without making him sensible of, and humbled for, his iniquity.

Thoughts on the Healing of Bartimæus

MARK 10:46-52

IT would appear not an altogether unwarranted conclusion that it was a self-respecting orderly company which is described as accompanying the Lord Jesus out of Jericho when blind Bartimæus made his earnest appeal.

Grace does not disclose their names-but many charged Bartimæus that he should hold his peace who had so disregarded the proprieties that seemed to them due to the occasion. All this we can understand. Our British reserve would probably have resented a "scene" still more, as not being "good form," but the verdict in the light of history is with the blind beggar.

What is however of still greater importance is that this outrage on man's conventionalities was the sweetest music to the One of whom it is said, "He came unto His own, but His own received Him not." Through all the anguish that this rejection carried, this grateful note reaches His ear: "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." No halting apprehension—He is hailed in all His kingly glory; and so once again it is demonstrated that the blind see (physically and spiritually) while of those who thought they saw, it is said their sin remaineth.

"When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him," was being realized in the religious heads and the vast body of Jews.

But as many as received Him (and here indeed was one), to them gave He title to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name.

The blessing must not stop at the temporal needs of Bartimæus. His heart is won, and we find him following Jesus in the way.

Thus we see what happened at the importuning of a wayside beggar. He who stilled the storm with a word was Himself at the command of a needy soul. Jesus stood still." How encouraging to those in need of mercy!

But this is not the only instruction to be gathered from this incident. We will not judge "the many" spoken of, as to whether they were most regarding their own reputation for respectability in the world, or considering what became the dignity of the One they were following. Their judgment was wrong in either case, and Jesus rebukes their misinterpretation of His character to the blind man, to the extent that He stands still.

An act of grace to the blind beggar, it was at the same time a secret rebuke, in the utmost grace, to His followers. Time was when He had stretched forth His own hand in His ministrations, but this does not suit the occasion. They had grievously misrepresented Him, and shown how contrary they were to His spirit. A human master might on this account have been tempted to brush them aside as unwilling servants, and cover them with shame as He personally gave the denial to their misrepresentations, but He is gracious both to His servants and the objects of His ministrations. He would have the servants right too, as it is not His way to humble them before the beggar in this way. He will not readily deprive them of the privilege of being fellow-workers. They shall themselves correct the wrong impression given.

He commanded him to be brought unto Him. At that command, associations which had previously been a source of distress are transformed into a privileged occasion; and so faith, hearing of Him, and entering into the spirit of the command, can clothe the message He sends with the additional grace of their own cordiality and fellowship. "Be of good cheer," they add to the command, "rise; He calleth thee." And this is the true evangelistic spirit. O.

Three Woes; or Unreal, Unrepentant, and Undone

(1) Unreal

UNREALITY and hypocrisy are twin sisters; and the world is full of them; and on-thing was more hateful to Christ's spirit when here below, than the hollow shams with which He was surrounded, Hence His strong and unsparing denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees! "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulcher; which indeed appear beautiful outward; but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." "Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men; but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Alas! alas! a fair exterior was but the cover for inward corruption, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." The bitterest enemies of Christ were these hollow religionists, who for a pretense made long prayers; hence His solemn warning, "therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

Drawing nigh unto God with their lips, while their hearts were far from Him, was nothing but canting hypocrisy which the Lord justly denounced; and their broad phylacteries, carnal egotism, and human religiousness, were truly hateful in His eyes.

What an object lesson for our souls is the Pharisee who went up to the temple to pray I Outwardly pious, yet full of sinful egotism, conceit, and pride; condemning others, but justifying himself, this miserable religionist found fault with everybody except himself. The thin veneer of a sanctimonious pretentiousness covered a conscience defiled and seared by sin as well as a heart that had never yet learned its awful guilt and ruin in the presence of a holy God; whereas the poor publican, who had nothing else to plead but "God be merciful to me a sinner," went home "justified rather than the other.”

But still more striking was that scene inside the temple, when these religious hypocrites brought to Jesus the unfortunate woman taken in adultery. True indeed was it that, under the Mosaic law, such an one should be condemned to death; but the hypocrisy of those who brought her must needs be exposed, and the Master's searching words, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," quickly cleared the temple of the woman's accusers. Searched by light divine, silenced by the Saviour's words, and convicted by their own conscience, these corrupt Pharisees, from the eldest, even unto the last, fled from the presence of the great heart-searcher, while the woman remained in the light to listen to those wondrous words of love, “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more." Reader, art thou real, or unreal? The eyes of God are on thee now; those eyes which are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Thou canst not, if thou wouldst, hide thy real state from Him with whom thou hast to do. It was because the light that shone from God's Holy One exposed these whited sepulchers, and laid bare the corruption of these mere professors, that they plotted His murder, and eventually brought about, through the civil power, His crucifixion and death.

The world of to-day, as then, teems with this hideous, this appalling sin, of which the human heart is the deadly source and spring. Every sin God will surely judge; but the sin that uses religion for its cloak will undoubtedly receive the greater damnation.

Therefore, beloved reader, be no longer unreal, nor assume before others, to be what thou really art not; but get thee rather alone with God now in the very secret of thy soul. Well may Jesus say of every hypocrite, "Woe, woe, woe;" and may His words find an entrance even now into thine own heart, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

(2) Unrepentant

“Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for, if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you." Spite of the rich display in those highly favored cities of all Christ's mighty works, spite of His wondrous miracles, His divine ministry, and the glorious gospel which had fallen so often from His gracious lips, yet were they unrepentant still. Not so, however, had it been at Nineveh centuries before, where instead of the bright shining of gospel light and love, the solemn judgment of God announced by Jonah had turned all hearts to repentance, from the greatest to the least; so that, from the king downwards, they all believed God. But lo! a greater than Jonah had visited Chorazin and Bethsaida; and grace and truth had poured in ceaseless streams from the lips of God's Holy One; only, however, to be utterly refused, rejected, and despised.

Such is man, even under the most favored circumstances; and so far as regards the Lord's gracious ministry in these cities was concerned the unrepentant state only left them exposed to a far deeper and more awful judgment, than if they had never listened to the voice of Him, "Who spake as never man spake." Hence, in their careless and indifferent ears, the Lord rings out the same solemn words as He spake to the pharasaical hypocrites, Woe, woe, woe," and declares that in the clay of judgment their doom will be a more awful one than that of Tyre and Sidon.

Reader, has the Saviour's word no voice for thee? Art thou, like thousands more in this bright gospel day, forever listening to the precious tidings of accomplished redemption through a dead and risen Christ, yet unrepentant still; and are the constant wooings of God's Holy Spirit nothing to thy careless, godless soul? If so, thy doom is certain, and the Day of Judgment will surely find thee not only without excuse, but with no possible way of escape. Continued refusal of God's love and mercy only hardens the heart; and if thou diest unrepentant, hopeless despair will be thine everlasting portion, "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

(3) Undone

"Woe is me, for I am undone," were in no sense hypocritical words, as they fell from the lips of one of old who, in a vision, "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." Nay, rather were they the intensely real, and heartfelt expression of Isaiah's true state before God, as he gazed upwards on that wondrous scene of infinite holiness, where the very seraphim in heavenly glory covered their faces, as they cried one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." No pharisaic self-complacency can ever find a place in the presence of Him who occupies that throne; and the prophet, self-judged, self-condemned, and deeply convicted of his sin, and of what he really was in God's sight, can but truthfully exclaim, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." Yes, indeed, Isaiah must needs learn (as should every other sinner), that God is holy, but that he is unholy; that God is clean, but he is unclean; and this he surely proved for himself, as the heart-searching eyes of the Lord of hosts, probed him to his inmost soul. If the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, no wonder was it that the prophet found out, like Uzziah (the guilty king who had just died), that he too was a leper in God's sight, and that in the fullest sense of the word.

Unlike Uzziah, however, he did not remain a leper until death, for God's abounding grace ever works when sinners confess their guilt, and are truly repentant; yea, that very grace brings salvation to all those who truly, and thoroughly, judge themselves. Hence the swiftness and fullness of the blessing that came, with almost lightning speed, from that altar which had already met all the righteous claims of the throne. "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me," saith Isaiah, "having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." Thus conviction led to confession, and complete cleansing followed confession, as swiftly and surely as divine grace could bring it. The live coal brought from off God's altar was the precious seal and token of that mercy which endureth forever, and the prophet had now personally proved it. Slight wonder is it, therefore, that when the question was raised in those heavenly courts, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" that the prophet should promptly answer, "Here am I; send me.”

These are the true messengers whom God wants to-day, even such as have learned their need, and in whose hearts divine grace has wrought a full deliverance. If, however, dear reader, thou art either unreal, or unrepentant, remember that woe, yea, eternal woe, must be thy certain portion amidst the weeping and the wailing of the damned; but if, on the other hand, thou hast in thy soul passed through a like experience to that of Isaiah, then shall it be thine eternal joy to prove, as he did, the glorious meaning and reality of those peace-giving words, "Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

S. T.

Unbeliever's Alleged Interview With Satan

WHAT wonderful revelations of the power of Satan some of his poor dupes have! Such a case has been related to me in Belfast. When speaking to an unsaved sinner about his soul, he told me what he described as a "personal interview with Satan," who directed him to plunge a knife into his wife. This he attempted, fortunately without success, for the bone of her corsets prevented the knife from injuring her.

Her father, who was living in the same house, hearing her screams came to her assistance, and managed with the aid of police to quiet him. He told me he remembered everything that happened quite vividly.

I said I did not in the least wonder, as Satan was the god of this world, and also the prince of the power of the air, and we must either be under the-power of sin and Satan, or belong to the Lord who bought us with His own blood.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:3, 4, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; ire whom the god of this world bath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

“Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light and neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be detected. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they have been wrought in God."

Dear unsaved reader, is it not sufficient to point you to the love of God? You have often heard and read again and again how "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten. Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have life everlasting." “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." Oh, what love to a fallen race! God sent His own Son to suffer for us, who were born in sin and shapen in iniquity. D. W. J.

Waiting for the Son

THE Thessalonians were but recently converted to God, but they had learned the truth of the Lord's speedy return. They had "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven."

The waiting attitude characterized them. They were like men waiting for their Lord. As we all know, as even unconverted men know perfectly well, if saints were waiting for Christ their whole lives would be changed. There is not a man who does not know this. Do you think people would be heaping up money, or dressing themselves in finery, to meet the Lord?

If the truth of the Lord's speedy return were held practically in our souls, it would change our lives. And the Lord communicated the truth that it might so act upon His saints that when He cometh and knocketh they may open to Him immediately.

A Wonderful Capture

THOSE who are accustomed to read the placards of the daily papers must often have observed with interest their announcements during war times, such as "GREAT VICTORY," "SO MANY GUNS CAPTURED," and "SO MANY THOUSAND PRISONERS TAKEN," etc.

Now God's word gives us the name of a very celebrated general, by whom too He had wrought deliverance for a people, but the only captive or spoil of which it speaks is that of "a little maid." Truly, a not very wonderful announcement for a daily paper, but yet a fact fraught with momentous consequences for the captor, and like God's blessed ways, causing the man to know that "no flesh shall glory in His presence," whilst giving him to the full that which he so sorely needed.

Now this Syrian general's name was Naaman, and he stood well with his king, for, in addition to his victories, he was what all generals are not, an honorable man; but he was a leper, and as such, his place was apart from those who were clean. This is what sin has done for us. It has shut us out from God; “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself," said our first parent. And we are all by nature like him; "there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

However, God had thoughts of mercy towards Naaman, unknown to him as He was, and God has the same towards you, my reader, for it is written, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

When the little girl became lady's maid to the general's wife, her heart was not so overcome with sadness for her own captive condition as to be without sympathy for her own poor master's state, and whilst she could not speak to him, she could to her mistress, of that which filled her heart in these words, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy." No wonder that they were repeated to the king, full of importance as they were. And yet there are words more wonderful, such as the Lord Jesus spoke to the guilty Samaritan woman at the well, when He said, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water." This message is good for you, my reader.

Now the king of Syria thought his servant, in going to this channel of blessing from God which the prophet then was, ought to be fortified by a letter from him to the king (mark, not to the prophet), of Israel. How the little maid's word was overlooked, which made everything of the prophet and his grace; and so it is to-day. Had the message been given by a general, say from the land of Israel, it had according to man's notions, been better heeded, but this is just what God will not do, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And if they list not to His word, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Naaman was as foolish as his monarch; off he went with the letter and ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment, to pay for his cleansing forsooth.

No wonder the king of Israel was very indignant at being put in the place of God, "to kill and to make alive;" and mercy it was to Naaman, that Elisha, of whom the little maid had spoken, sent him a message, saying, “Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." And good it is that Jesus says to you, without any question of merit, feeling, or payment of any kind by you, "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

Well, Naaman gets at last to the right person, but with all his gifts, and instead of Elisha coming out to receive them, and heal him by putting his hands on him, as Naaman thought he would do, he sends him a message, "Go and wash (very humbling no doubt) in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.”

In such a river too, so despised in Naaman's eyes, and so unlike those of his surroundings! He turned away in a rage. Graciously for him, his servants now speak, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?”

“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." I Have you looked to Him who once hung there, my reader, but who is now at God's right hand? and who says, "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Look now; there is no time to lose.

“Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." This was the best journey he ever took when he went down; letter, gold, silver, garments, all left behind, and self-judged as worthless.

"Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling."

"He dipped himself;" self-buried, put out of sight perfectly, seven times; no wonder he became like a little child and he was clean! There was, and is nothing surprising in it to faith; the result was "according to the saying of the man of God." God cannot deny His word; He cannot lie.

Oh, my reader, if you feel yourself ever so sinful, and God grant you may, be sure of this though your sins be scarlet you shall be white as snow, for God says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and, " 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, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." W. N.T.

The Word of God

"From end to end its every page reveals

The glories of Christ Jesus, and appeals

To every heart that throbs within the breast

Of mortal man, his conscience to arrest!

To read it, and to heed, yields light divine,

For Christ's fair beauty from its pages shine;

To shun its truths is but to court the woes

Its pages thunder o'er Jehovah's foes!”

ONE is often forced to ask the question as to why the holy scriptures of truth are in these days energetically attacked, not only by the ignorant or illiterate, but by those who claim to have advanced beyond most of their fellows, and who, furthermore, profess to stand for the God whose inspiration of the sacred volume they deny. Have we to seek far to secure an answer to such a question? Is not an explanation found in this: that its blessed pages are never opened without the truth in all its bare and untoned faithfulness confronting the reader? Is not the secret, that there is nothing from cover to cover that pampers the natural propensities of the human heart? More than once have I seen the scornful frown of resentment disfiguring the countenances of those who object to the plain soul-convicting assertions met with in that blessed book.

I readily admit, dear reader, that the word of God wounds, and often acutely, for many times have I been wounded with it myself, and writhed beneath its faithful lash.

But it is the intensest folly to turn away from that which, while it tells me the unpalatable truth about myself, is fraught with blessings for the one who is ready and willing to receive it as the distinct revelation of a God of light and love. Never does God through His word wound a human soul, but what He is, in compassion and pity, ready to administer the healing balm. He wounds, but to heal; He humbles, but to exalt; He causes sorrow, only that real, lasting, eternal joy may be known; He convicts of sin, that the sinner may be happy in hearing the word of forgiveness. An honest soul never resents the truth, hence it is a mark of fearful self-sufficiency on the part of those who depreciate the value of the word of God, simply because flattery is not its aim, but a clear unfolding of the truth of a holy, righteous, sin-abhorring God; truth, concerning themselves, concerning Himself; and the truth concerning that blessed, peerless Man, Christ Jesus, His adorable Son.

While the word tells me of my sin and the dreaded doom thereof, from which I well might shrink, it nevertheless also tells of God's sovereign remedy in and through His blessed Son. My sins were taking me down to the pit of destruction, but the sweet message of the gospel burst upon my ear from the ever gracious heart of a Saviour God; "Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom." I must have met death and eternal judgment on account of my sins, but the word of God assures me that Christ, the Lamb of God, sacrificed Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, suffering the judgment of God due to my sins.

Further, the infinite value of His blood is insisted upon as a worthy foundation for God's reception of me as a guilty, yet repentant sinner, if I plead its merits and eternal efficacy, for it cleanses from all sin; and is a witness to my soul that God has been forever satisfied in the accomplished redemption wrought by His beloved Son.

Oh, dear young reader, I would urge and encourage you to cling at all cost to your Bible, for it not only guides with regard to the salvation of your soul, but will direct you in every detail of life. Read it. Ponder over it. Meditate upon it. Receive it into your soul, and you will find it sweeter than honey to your taste.

W. G.

The Young Gunner; or, in the Midst of Death I Am in Life.

YOUNG F. H. T—was born at Greenwich in the year 1852. He early lost his father, who was the master of a small coasting vessel. Soon after he was ten years old he was apprenticed to the fishing, and sailed out of Harwich in different smacks on their cruises for god and other fish. When about sixteen he left this work and entered the Royal Navy.

Like many more, and perhaps like yourself, my reader, from quite a child something used to tell him it was not all right between his soul and God, and he would make all sorts of good resolutions. Do you know what kind of things these are? and how they are broken nearly as soon as made?

Still he heeded neither these inward admonitions, nor the loving words of his Christian mother, and threw off all restraint, becoming thoroughly reckless, as he himself owned, in word and deed. In this condition of soul he joined H. M. S. B—, and proceeded in her to the North American station.

Not long after his arrival there, a letter reached him telling of the "falling asleep" of his mother, whom he knew to have been a believer in the Lord Jesus; one who knew all her sins had been forgiven, and that she had eternal life in Christ.

This loss not only aroused natural sorrow at the death of a loved parent, but touched T—'s conscience, and made him ask himself what would have been his present and eternal condition had he been taken away instead of his dear old Christian mother; and he became anxious about his soul, being led to see something of his lost and ruined condition as a sinner before the holy God..

About the same time his turn came to perform the duty of showing visitors over one of the finest ironclads in Her Majesty's service, as she lay in harbor. One day, after guiding a party from shore over the ship, as they were leaving the side, one of them, a lady, gave T—a small pocket Testament, and asked him to read it, which he promised to do, but soon forgot both Testament and promise for many days.

At length he took up the book, and turning over the leaves his eye rested upon the passage, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He was arrested, and his former convictions deepened. The concern and anxiety about his soul's salvation returned, and he now tried in real earnestness to set things right, and thus to ease his troubled conscience.

I need not detail them; for I am sure many who read this have gone through, or may be going through, this process, or, as the sailors say, are "on the same tack." It is called, "making one's peace with God," which was never yet made but by one Man; and that one the Son of God. I mean, peace with the holy God, not that false peace which precious souls try to satisfy their poor hearts with, and which reminds one of that passage, where it speaks of men saying, "Peace; and there was no peace," and "daubing with untempered mortar.”

Oh, what a lot of this kind of stuff there is, which will only crack, and chip, and peel off when the guilty soul stands before the great white throne, and all his or her nakedness is exposed. Alas, alas I too late then to obtain that covering which would stand the fire of God's righteous judgment, or satisfy His holy eye. No, dear unsaved reader; peace with God has been made eighteen hundred years ago, when the blessed Lord hung between the two robbers on Calvary's cross, as the word puts it, "having made peace through the blood of his cross."

Well, dear T—tried this, and got laughed at for his pains; gave that up, and for a time became careless. But still the fact of his lost condition would keep coming up before him, and that passage in the lady's Testament speaking of impending judgment would haunt him and make him feel very uncomfortable.

On board the same ship there were three or four Christian seamen. I do not mean mere professors, but I allude to that sort of people who know they are saved, and like whom you long to be, specially when the thought of death, and "after this the judgment," stares you in the face, though you may now join in the laugh and the chaff against them, calling them "blue lights," or "new lights," or "psalm singers," and such like.

To one of these T—was led to open his mind a little, and this man of God gave him a tract to read. In it was this verse, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life."

Have you, my reader, ever looked into this precious passage quietly? What magnificent simplicity, and yet what marvelous force, in those two words, "BELIEVE"—"KNOW!" It is riveting on the other side, if one may be allowed the simile, that word in the Gospel of John: “But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might HAVE life through his name." Now take the passages just quoted, and what do we find in the two? (1) Truth written, that you might believe and HAVE life; and then (2) more truth written to you who do believe, that you may KNOW that you HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. Look at these two passages well, and may God rivet them home to your soul.

T— had scarcely read and pondered that verse when joy filled his soul, and he knew because he believed. In the first burst of his ecstasy he ran up on deck to the sailor who gave him the tract, shouting, "I have found it! I have got it I” to the surprise of his shipmates, who wanted to know what he had found—what he had got. He told them he had got Christ and the forgiveness of his sins.

Of course, he was again well laughed at, but he could afford it now, for it was not his doings or aught of himself, which only produces weariness of the flesh, but what Another had done for him, which, when believed and known, produces rest and peace.

The time came for T—to return to England to be paid off, and go on leave; during which time he was married to a young Christian to whom he had become engaged before he left the country, both being then careless as to their soul's salvation. About the 14th of February, 1874, while expecting what people call a "valentine" from her absent lover, she received a long letter from T—, telling what great things God had done for his soul, and pleading most earnestly with her to "come to Christ," as he put it, and that at once. This was the arrow guided by God through the joint of her harness, and was the commencement of a real work in her soul; so that by the time T—came home, she knew what he knew, because she had believed what he had believed-God's word.

Leave over, T— was ordered to join H.M.S. C—, the coastguard ship, H— harbor, his young and newly-married wife looking to join him shortly. On his arrival in H—, he found out a few believers in the Lord Jesus, meeting simply in His name, and by his bright and happy testimony was used to cheer them on their way. On Lord's day, February 4th, 1877, he was present at the morning meeting, and in the evening preached in the little schoolroom, pressing upon his hearers God's salvation, and that His word is, "Now is the accepted time," remarking that perhaps there were some there who would never hear his voice again.

On the following Tuesday afternoon he was at target practice at the mouth of the harbor, in the steam launch, with a field-piece in the bows; one, two, and three rounds were fired, the' hits and misses marked. When it came to T—'s turn to point and fire the gun, he did so; the eyes of most were fixed on the target to see if the shot had taken effect; but only for a moment, as something on board called their horrified attention. The gun after being discharged had jumped clean out of the chocks, struck dear T—on the chest, knocked him into the stoke-hole, and jammed his head against the boiler.

All was over, as far as life here was concerned. T—was what man calls a lifeless corpse, but his spirit was released, "absent from the body, present with the Lord." Sudden death, sudden bliss! Yes, indeed, how true for him. In the midst of death he was in life.

Sorrowfully the launch was put back to the ship, and T—'s body lifted on board. The Testament which the lady had given him some three or four years ago, and which had been used to deepen the conviction of sin in his soul, he always carried about with him; and inside his blue serge the book was found—all bedaubed with his life's blood; this was tenderly wiped off by one of his shipmates to give to his widow, who had been telegraphed for, but the marks could not be wholly got off; and the book now is in her possession, doubly valuable to her as the truth of God which had often cheered and checked her husband in his Christian course.

You may imagine the solemnizing effect it had on all on board. I myself overheard one officer say, the day the body was interred, while I was waiting to see it brought on shore, " It, was a miracle it was not I, as I fired the preceding round;" but God knew what He was about, and, as his widow said, in the midst of her grief, when taken on board to view the body of her husband, "Well, after all, better he than many another in the ship, for I KNOW HE WAS READY;" and sobs stopped her further utterance. This, too, touched the hearts of those within earshot.

Oh, may this voice reach many a conscience. And dear believer, as you read this, will you look up to God to carry home the testimony T—left behind him to many, at present, thoughtless sailors?

After the funeral, a servant of Christ had the opportunity of preaching the gospel at the open grave. What a pulpit I and in the 'evening, the same little room dear T—spoke in on the previous Lord's day was crowded; also on the succeeding Sunday night, when the love of God and work of Christ were set forth, and precious souls urged to BELIEVE and then they would know they had ETERNAL life.

And now, dear reader, this has not been written to make much of the earthen vessel, not to praise up dear T—, but to speak well of T—'s God and Saviour, and I look to Him to use this simple statement— and, of course, only a very partial one—of His dealings with the one who is now "forever with the Lord," to the souls of those still unsaved, who may read this article; that, like Samson of old, dear T—may slay more in his death than in his life, for truly, "he being dead, yet speaketh.”

May God Himself apply His truth to your soul, so that by simply believing His word—not mere doctrines—you will then KNOW that you will have eternal life; and this life is in His Son, so that you may be able, in His presence, now to say, through His grace, “In the midst of death, I am in life."

S. V. H.

Gospel Gleanings: Volume 5 (1905)

Table of Contents

a Respectable Sinner.

Are Your Eyes Open?

The Baker and the Butler

The Conversion of John R —

Death: — and After

A Death Bed Testimony

The Divine

A Dying Soldier

The Father and the Prodigal

From Darkness to Light

From Death to Life

From Death Unto Life

George Whitefield's Journals

God Speaketh Once, Yea, Twice.

He Is Not Here.

Hoping or Knowing — Which?

An Hour of Quickening

If I Thought About It.

I'm One of His Sheep.

I'm Too Bad for Jesus.

In Him We Live

The Infidel Furniture Dealer

Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ True, or Not?

Let Us Make Much of Christ.

Letters to Friends

Letters to Friends

Letters to Friends

Life and Judgment

Light and Love

No Steps Allowed

Old John's Way to Be Saved

Rebellious

Repentance Enjoined

The Result — Then As Now

The Risen Judge

A Saviour Seeking for the Lost!

Sins and Sin

Sins and Sin

Sins Under the Blood

Suddenly

Suddenly, but Not Without Warning

A Sure Guide

the Place Which Is Called Calvary.

Thoughts on Pardon

Thoughts on the Healing of Bartimæus

Three Woes; or Unreal, Unrepentant, and Undone

Unbeliever's Alleged Interview With Satan

Waiting for the Son

A Wonderful Capture

The Word of God

The Young Gunner; or, in the Midst of Death I Am in Life.