Gospel Light: Volume 11 (1921)

GOSPEL Light is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Con 4:6.) "God is light," and the entrance of His word, by faith, gives light and understanding to the simple. (Psa. 119)

In one of my morning walks, I met an old man on the roadside. After bidding him “Good morning," I found he was very deaf, and for some time I could not make him understand my words.

But when I mentioned the name of "Jesus," his face lit up, and he said, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds"!

The hearing of that name had called to his mind the line of 'the well-known hymn, and now he seemed able to understand my words. The entrance of that name had called forth a response, and he was willing to walk with me to his house.

Some months after I called upon him again, and at first he did not remember me, but when I recalled to his memory the line of the hymn, "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!" the old man remembered our former conversation.

He then asked me if he was right in saying that the name of Jesus was the password into heaven. He told me of a little incident in his early life, when living near Portsmouth. He sometimes went with a friend to visit some of the Naval Marines who were stationed in their huts.

He said it was necessary to give the right password current at the time, and then they were admitted into the huts.

“Yes," I said, in reply to his question, “through this man (Christ Jesus) is preached (or proclaimed) the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39.)

The apostle Peter, by the Spirit, when he stood before the Council of the Jews at Jerusalem, said: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him Both, this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

Yes, the name of Jesus is the only name in which salvation is found. It is the sinner's password “into heaven," for life, for liberty, and soon for

“Blest name, the rock on which we build,

Our shield and hiding-place,

Our never-failing treasury filled

With boundless stores of grace.”

The Only Word He Remembered

WE have read of someone who said that the only word he remembered of a sermon he had heard was the word ETERNITY. This word he could never shake off from his mind; it was a distress to him, until he knew that he was saved, and had assurance from the infallible word of truth that he would be forever in glory with the Lord Jesus.

And marvelous it is that many more are not equally arrested by the telling, solemn word ETERNITY. It may be that the ear is dull of hearing, because the word is so often brought before them. However, men may treat the word, it is certain that everyone who reads these pages will be either a partaker of "eternal glory" with God and the Lamb, or be in "eternal fire" with the devil and his angels. Men may reason about it, and try all their powers to endeavor to turn and twist these divine statements, nevertheless the facts remain the same. The word of God endures forever; the counsels of God are unaltered; and it is the attentive consideration of these realities that arouses the conscience, and leads the sin-convicted soul to cry out, “What must I do to be saved?”

The possibility of persons being consigned to that place "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," was abundantly taught by the sinner-loving Saviour. He faithfully warned the Careless. He touchingly appealed to their consciences as to whether it would not be “better to enter into life maimed, than having two hands go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched." (Mark 9:43-48.) He knew the awful eternity that awaits the unbelieving.' He saw how diligently men were cultivating present gratification and gain, at the sacrifice of eternal blessings and the loss of their own souls. He, therefore, on another occasion, faithfully declared, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3.) How incalculably weighty, then, is the subject of ETERNITY, and how small the most momentous matters of time are when contrasted with it!

Whither are we bound? To which of these, destinations are we hastening? Are we at this moment treading the broad road which leads to everlasting destruction? Or have we discovered the mistake, repented, and turned to God through Jesus, who was crucified for sinners, and thus entered by the "strait gate" into the "narrow road" which leadeth unto life? Which is it?

Are we venturing our hopes as to ETERNITY on our works, feelings, self-improvement, or other forms of building "upon the sand"? Or have we entirely renounced self in every form as being totally unfit for God, and wholly accepted the Son of God, who was crucified for sinners, as the only foundation, the alone ground of salvation and way of peace? If the latter, your hopes are built securely on that rock from which nothing shall ever dislodge you. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, Which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:11.) And whosoever believeth on Him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter 2:5.)

But many are indifferent. They neither ask themselves, nor will they permit others to ask them, the question, "Where will you spend eternity?" But it must, sooner or later, be answered. The momentous subject must be realized, either in everlasting misery or in everlasting happiness. Then why not face it now? Why not?

“Where will you spend eternity?

Say not, I cannot tell;

The question means but good to thee,

And will be answered still.

To shun the light, or shut the sight,

The cup of wrath may fill;

ETERNITY, where wilt thou spend?

Don't say, I cannot tell;

The life thou leadest now will end

In HEAVEN or in HELL." Which?

No words can possibly convey the importance of the subject. It needs no argument. It is a simple question for the conscience before God. To be in hell-fire, lifting up the eyes in torments, and longing for a drop of water to cool the parched tongue of one tormented in that flame, is the Saviour's own description of the misery of lost soul. This, you know. Then is it not worth a serious thought, a moment's solemn consideration, a quiet calculation, according to God's word, whether you will be there forever of not? Is it possible you can thus refuse to listen to the voice of the Son of God? Or can you think lightly of the apostle's question, "How shall we escape, it we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 3:3.)

Be, then, like a wise man, who builds his house upon a rock. Be as a wise virgin, and take oil in the vessel with the lamp; and so rest in the faithfulness of God to His own word, that, like Timothy, through the Scriptures, you may be “wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15.)

God saw us, because of our sins, justly exposed to condemnation, to eternal misery, and His love moved in deepest compassion toward us. He provided a Saviour, who made peace by the blood of His cross; “He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.)

Thus God, instead of condemning us, has, in deepest love to us, condemned our sin in His own holy, well-beloved Son, that, by His death, we might be reconciled to God, by His blood be cleansed from sin, and stand, by faith in Him, righteous and accepted before God. This God gives to every one that believes the gospel.

Through the Lord Jesus is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things. (Acts 13:38, 39.)

Well, then, might the apostle say, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”

“ETERNITY! Eternity!

How long art thou, eternity?

As long as God is God, so long

Endures the pain of hell and wrong;

So long the joys of heaven remain.

Oh, lasting joy! Oh, lasting pain!

Ponder, O man, ETERNITY!”

A Daughter's Recollection of Her Father's Conversion

ONE evening he came home from business complaining that his leg was troubling him, and on examination we found a neglected wound on the front of his leg, caused by his falling over something in the office.

Although the leg had been bad for several months, my father had not said anything to anyone about it; and now, through the long neglect, it was indeed in a very serious condition, for erysipelas had set in. The doctor was sent for, and he pronounced my father's life to be in danger.

Every remedy was tried, and even an operation was performed on the leg; nourishment was given night and day every fifteen minutes; but, in spite of all our care and labor, he grew weaker and weaker.

Our greatest trouble was that we had no evidence of his soul's salvation. But what a mercy at such a time as that to know that our Lord knows all about it.

I was resting one afternoon at my dear father's side when that precious word came to me, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." (John 11:4.) I thought perhaps it meant that our dear father's life would be spared, but the Lord meant something far more precious than that, as the reader will see.

Just nine days after my father's illness commenced, the doctor came in the morning, and, to our great distress, said that our dear one would only be with us about twenty-four hours. It was a great shock to us all, as we naturally clung to the hope that he would eventually recover. But now what was to be done? One thing we felt was that we must tell him. This was done, and I cannot describe the alarm of our dear father. He called for me, and when I entered the room he was getting out of bed, although he had scarcely been allowed to move on account of his bad leg.

He said as I came in: “They tell me I have only a few hours to live, and I am not ready. What shall I do?”

I went to him, and tried to quiet him down, and got him into bed again. But his distress of mind was dreadful. "What was he to do? He was not ready.”

What a mercy in such a case and at such a time to be able to say there is nothing one can do but to cast one's self on the Lord Jesus, and trust in His finished work on the cross.

I spoke of the thief on the cross. What could he do?

I said, “Dear father, throw yourself on the love of God, cast yourself on the Lord Jesus.”

All at once his arms went up, and with a very loud voice he cried, "Lord Jesus, save me, a sinner.”

After that he swooned from the extra exertion, and being so weak. But oh, the joy of it! I shall never forget it. To know that our dear one had cried to the Lord, and if we had not been allowed to hear his voice again, it would have been sufficient; we should have been quite sure our dear Lord answered that cry. (Rom. 10:13.)

My father was in an unconscious state for several hours, but when he recovered, he was indeed a new creature in Christ Jesus. He said, “Old things had passed away and all things had become new, and all things are of God." (2 Cor. 5:17, 18.)

All through the rest of that day (the Lord's, Day) he was praising God for His boundless love to him, and longing to see that precious Saviour who had saved him, and kept asking how long it would be before he saw His face.

All through the night he was full of joy; it was wonderful and beautiful to hear him; and at nine o'clock on the Monday morning he fell asleep so, sweetly and quietly.

It was so good of the Lord to give us such a testimony from one who, although a good husband and father, had, as he said, lived away from God all his life. (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9.)

God so Loved the World.

John 3:16.

'THESE words seem to me to unfold in the fullest sense the gospel of the grace of God. They are indeed beautiful; and what makes them inexpressibly so to the heart of the believer is that they fell from the lips of that blessed One whose words were of the deepest meaning.

Think then, reader, that these words are the very Words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In this verse we see the measure of God's love. Christ Jesus came into this world to reveal the Father; and at the opening of this gospel we have the forceful words we are now considering. Then the first aspect in which God is revealed in the gospel is love, love unconditional, unmerited and free.

Let us look for a moment or two at the way in which this love of God is manifested in the gospel. What is the measure of it? Even the giving up of His only begotten Son: “God so loved.”

If I want to see how dreadful a thing sin is in the sight of God, I must look at the cross. What was the result of God's giving His Son? Why, by wicked hands He was crucified and slain; and there, I say, we see the love of God displayed as we never see it anywhere else. The cross of Christ is the measure of God's perfect love, and of man's utter ruin.

There was no other way of saving sinners, or God would not have given up to a death of shame His well-beloved Son. So deep, dear reader, is the ruin you and I are in by nature; so far are we separated from a holy God; so far have we gone astray, that nothing less than God's gift of His Son, nothing less than the shed blood of Christ, can ever take us out of our ruined condition, or bring us nigh to God.

Even "while we were yet sinners," God gave His Son to die for us. It is love unequaled, unbounded, a divine mystery that time and eternity will never unravel, that God should choose such objects as we are, upon whom to pour forth the inexhaustible love of His heart! Will you not come and take shelter beneath God's banner, LOVE? There is room in His heart for you. Oh, come! respond to such love as this, by casting yourself at the feet of Jesus. You cannot say, This is not for me; for it is to “whosoever believeth." You have nothing whatever to do in the matter of the salvation of your soul, but to cast yourself down at the feet of the Lord Jesus, owning yourself a lost sinner, and receiving Him as your Saviour, and "everlasting life" is yours.

Time is short; eternity is near; how near to the reader of this paper we cannot tell, and the Lord Jesus is quickly coming to take all those who have believed on His name to dwell with Him forever. Then let me beseech you to decide for Christ at once. It is a question of life or death, of heaven or hell. To reject Christ is to receive just condemnation, but to receive Him is to possess eternal life, to have a hope of glory, and to have a fadeless portion with that ransomed host who shall praise the Lord forever in the realms of the blest.

Dear reader, before it is too late, embrace this message of mercy; avail yourself of the pardon which is offered you in the gospel; and then, when the Lord Jesus comes, you shall go to dwell forever with Him in the glory of God, instead of spending, as a rejecter of Christ, your eternity in the regions of woe. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

(Acts 16:31.) J. A. B.

A Moment Too Late!

HAVING arrived at a shop recently just as the door was closed for the night, I found myself too late to gain admission.

I had business to do at two other places first, but thought I should be in time for this particular shop, and I specially wanted something done that evening.

Seeing a customer inside, I asked the person who was drawing the blinds if I might come in, but was told I was too late.

I felt perplexed for a moment, but then thought, “Perhaps I can go elsewhere, or I must come to-morrow.”

But it suddenly brought to my mind very solemnly the thought of another door which is about to be closed. The day of God's grace is fast drawing to an end, and then the DOOR OF MERCY will be shut-not just for a night-but Forever.

How many will be just a moment too late?

Dear one, if you have not yet come to the Saviour, come now, without delay. Don't think, “I will just go to this amusement," or "I must just have one more dance, and then I will think about my soul; I shall have time enough then.”

You may be just a moment too late. The door of mercy may be closed, and you (like me at the shop) will have to remain outside—not for one night, but for all eternity.

Oh! the anguish when you see others inside, where you might have been had you come in time!

“They that were ready went in... and the door was shut." (Matt. 25:10.)

You will plead in vain for admission then:

“Lord, Lord, open to us"; only to be answered by: "I know you not." (Matt. 25:11, 12.) You will have judgment staring you in the face, and nowhere to flee for refuge.

Do, dear one, I beseech you, come to the Saviour NOW.

“Ere night that gate may close, and seal your ' doom;

Then the last low, long, woeful cry,

'NO ROOM.' "

C. L. W.

Grace Reigning Through Righteousness

A GENTLEMAN lay dying, not from the infirmities of age, for he had just reached the meridian of life, but from dire disease.

Having been well educated, and his position in society having afforded him ample means of "enjoying himself" (as the phrase is), he had availed himself of his social advantages to enter freely into the pleasures of the world; not, indeed, in their grosser forms; but he had lived to himself, with but an occasional thought of God.

At length, however, being laid upon a bed of suffering, and knowing that the issue of his sickness must be death, he began to reflect upon the solemnity of his having to meet God; and he could not look forward to that meeting without serious apprehension.

An evangelist friend, who cared for his soul, called upon him, and in earnest language set before the dying man the boundless love and infinite mercy of God, as manifested in the gift of His dear Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16.)

He spoke, too, of the willingness of God to receive all who come to Him in the name of His Son, however much they might hitherto have rejected His great salvation, and however much they might have hardened their hearts against the reception of His grace.

He then urged the anxious sinner to accept without delay of the full and rich mercy of God presented to him, without money and without price, in the precious Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The gentleman, who had listened attentively to the weighty words and earnest entreaty of his friend, said to him at the close: "I have no doubt that what you have been saying is perfectly true; but somehow or other it does not allay my anxiety. I know that I am dying. I am conscious that I am a sinful man, and that I am soon to appear in the presence of God. What I fail to perceive is, how God, who is infinitely holy, can maintain His holiness in its integrity and at the same time show mercy to me, a sinner. If, now, you can clear that difficulty to me, you will be doing me an invaluable service.”

The visitor, perceiving the real question which troubled the soul of his friend, looked to the Lord to enable him to meet it from His Word.

He began by pointing out to him the utter ruin of man as a sinner; that "there is none righteous, no, not one"; that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3); and that “as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." (Gal. 3:10.)

He also showed that one fault was fatal, for whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all "(James 2:10); and, besides all one's actual offenses, there is the fountain from which they spring, the corrupt nature and evil heart; so that in himself the sinner is utterly helpless before God, and" without hope "; and that if he die in his sins, and be judged according to his works, it must result in his being cast into" the lake of fire, which is the second death." (Rev. 20)

Having traced the course of man, as a sinner, to his awful end of everlasting woe, he endeavored to show what God, who is love, and " rich in mercy, “has wrought, in order to bring salvation to His rebellious creatures," alienated, and enemies in mind by wicked works,” and altogether unable to deliver themselves from the “righteous judgment of God"; having" commended His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5)

He then set forth the personal glory of the Son, who was ever with the Father, "daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him," showing that "all things were created by Him, and for Him"; and yet "that He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, 'and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2)

He set before the dying man the truth that God made Christ, "who knew no sin, to be sin for us"; that as the sin-offering, He bore on the cross the judgment of God against sin, a judgment so fearful that when He, the spotless Lamb, of God, endured it, He cried in the deep agony of His soul, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken ME?”

He enlarged upon the preciousness of the blood of Christ, without the shedding of which there could have been no remission of sins; dwelling, too, upon the wondrous fact of His laying down His life; no man taking it from Him, but laying it down of Himself, having power to lay it down, and power to take it again. (John 10)

His concluding remarks were upon the glorious theme of Christ's resurrection and ascension to “the right hand of the Majesty on high," He having finished the work which God gave Him to do, in the putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and of the declaration of God of His delight in His Son; and of His perfect satisfaction with the work which He had thus accomplished, by seating Him, who had been the sin Bearer, on His throne, and crowning Him with glory and honor.

Thus the evangelist sought to show the anxious sinner that the holiness of God was perfectly satisfied and glorified in respect of sin in the sacrifice of Christ; that the judgment of God, for sin, had been visited upon Him; and that so infinitely precious is that sacrifice in the sight of God that He could now, consistently with His intense holiness, not only showing all grace and mercy to the sinner coming to Him in the name of His Son, but He could be "just" and at the same time " the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."(Rom. 3)" Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:21.)

The discourse, of which this is but an outline, was blessed by the Spirit of God to the soul of the evangelist's dying friend, who shortly afterward departed this life as one having “peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1.)

Dear reader, have you this peace?

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

7 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Degeneration & Regeneration

AFTER counting out some of the new silver issued to the bank, the cashier said to his customer, "The new silver is not equal to the old coinage; there is more alloy in it, and the true ring is wanting.”

To give proof of his statement, he took a, six-penny coin, together with a half-crown piece, and sounded them in my presence; but the true ring was absent. He remarked, "It will be difficult to detect the coin of the realm from base coinage.”

I replied, "Degeneration is a sign of the times.”

“Absolutely!" was his rejoinder.

This calls to mind the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.”

And, mark, material degeneracy follows moral degeneracy, for the prophet had previously said of Israel, "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward!” (Isa. 1:4.)

The Lord had corrected them in measure, but they had not ceased to do evil, nor learned to do well. They were outwardly religious, but inwardly rebellious. The whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint. (Isa. 1:5.) And out of the heart were the issues of life, and therefore the life was tainted and corrupt. (Prov. 4:23.) Hence the growing degeneracy of the nation of Israel.

This degeneration is true of man individually and collectively. Adam fell from his state of innocence; Nimrod became a masterful man; Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and Israel; Nebuchadnezzar was abased on account of his pride.

National decay leads to disaster and ruin. We have read of "the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.” This was preceded by the rise and fall of Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. These are object lessons in history. And this is being repeated in the history of nations to-day, especially where the light of the gospel has shone once brightly, and where the truth has been given upon, let us heed the warning of the Lord in Matt. 6:22, 23: "The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" "The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble." (Prov. 4:19.) The Scriptures plainly declare the growth and increase of evil in every shape and form. They also declare the coming of the Lord in judgment upon the ungodly, and the way in which He will clear this scene by His righteous judgments.

Listen to the testimony of Enoch, the seventh from Adam: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken again Him." (Jude 14, 15.) again, the prophet Isaiah says, "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." (Isa. 26:9.) This will be true not only of the world at large, but of those portions of the earth containing apostate Christians and Jews. Meanwhile, in the first three chapters of the Revelation we see the Lord Jesus attired as a judge, making scrutiny into that which professes His Name now.

He sees the departure from first love in Ephesus. He notes after this the Church settling down in the world, in the case of Pergamos, and then allowing Jezebel to teach and to seduce His servants in Thyatira. He warns Sardis to be watchful, and to strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die, for their works were not found perfect before God. He notices the little strength of the Philadelphians, and exposes the lukewarm state of Laodicea, and describes the last state of the Church as "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Here is spiritual degeneracy in the Church portrayed by Him whose eyes were as a flame of fire!

Adverting once more to the degeneration of the Muse of Israel and Judah, we find that, as the evil increased, the Lord spoke to His people by the prophets, "rising up betimes, and sending, because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy." (2 Chron. 36:15, 16.) There were temporary revivals under Hezekiah and Josiah, but at last Israel and Judah were sent into their long captivity, and they are scattered and peeled over the face of the earth.

We now come to the second part of our subject "Regeneration." This word indicates not only the need of the new birth for the individual, but also the new order of things to be established in the earth, when Christ comes to take the kingdom. First, the word "regeneration" tells the absolute necessity of a new birth or nature. From whence comes this new life? It is entirely born of God; it is the gift of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the new nature which cannot sin, because it is born of God.

It is entirely distinct from that which is born of the flesh, which is opposed to God in principle and act. It is, in fact, a new creation, for if any man be in Christ he is a new creature (or, there is a new creation), old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. The believer is no longer looked at as "in Adam"; he is in Christ, and Christ is his life. “For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation." (Gal. 6:15)

This is a new order of things indeed, "that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye IN CHRIST JESUS, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. 1:29-31.) The old order of things is set aside altogether, and the believer in Christ is justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for he has become dead to law by the body of Christ, that he might live to God. "For I, through law, am dead to law [as a principle of life] that I might live unto God." "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which, I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.)

In the Gospel of Matthew we have the kingdom of heaven proclaimed (Gal. 4:17, 23), and the powers of the age to come are manifested, in the healing of all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people (Gal. 4:23-25). Then in chapters 5. to 7. we have the principles of the kingdom of heaven set forth; during the times of the rejection of the King, the practice of which leads to suffering, shame, and loss in this world. But in Matt. 19, we have the question of rewards for those who suffer for righteousness sake, or for Christ's sake. The Lord Jesus replied to Peter's question, "What shall we have therefore? “and the answer is given, "Verily, I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me in the REGENERATION when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matt. 19:27-30.)

Here is the new order of things for the earthly kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

“The first shall be last, and the last first." The Church will have her unique place in the heavenly part of the kingdom, in Christ Jesus, according to that word, "Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Eph. 3:21; Rev. 21:5, 6.)

T. B. N.

The Saviour and the Sinner

LUKE 7:29-50.

THIS is one of the passages found here and there in Scripture which bring out in strong relief the sovereign grace of God, and what is in man's heart, too.

Here we get the Pharisee, this poor sinner, and the Lord Himself. We see these three characters, these three hearts all together: the man righteous in his own eyes; a person outwardly in wickedness; and then the heart of God, and the way in. which He looks at and judges these two cases.

What precedes in the history is this: John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to ask, "Art thou He that should come; or look we for another?” (Luke 7:19), and this gives occasion to Jesus to speak of God's ways and dealings, the principles of which are of all importance to us.

John had come with his solemn testimony; but the conscience did not bow to it. Then came the gracious testimony of Christ; but the heart was not moved by it. “But wisdom is justified of all her. children " (Luke 7:35). God's ways, whether in the testimony of John the Baptist, or in that of the Lord Jesus, are justified by the children of wisdom. The Pharisee is here, and the poor sinner: then comes the question, Which is the child of wisdom?

We have a most important principle here: these publicans and sinners "justified God" both in the testimony of John, and in that of the gospel.

When we know what we are as sinners, we justify God, never ourselves; and then in His ways with us He justifies us. The moment we begin to justify ourselves, it is only the utter darkness of the human heart.

We find these two testimonies.

John the Baptist came requiring fruit, calling to repentance: the publicans and sinners justified God in this: the ax vas laid at the root of the trees; these poor sinners acknowledged it, and repented: they justified God. The first good fruit that is produced is always the acknowledgment that we produce bad fruit.

Then came the blessed Lord Jesus, telling of sovereign grace that rose above all their sins; they justified God in this, too. The man that justifies God in condemning him most thankfully justifies God in sending His Son to save him.

Those who owned the truth of God's judgment, and that they deserved it, confessed their sins (Matt. 3:6.) Are we all willing to justify God in condemning us?

“There is none righteous; no, not one." (Rom. 3:10). This is plain enough; the "great white throne” will not make it plainer. (Rev. 20:11.)

“That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Rom. 3:19.) This is God's testimony, and in the gospel of grace, too.

Now, we see around us numbers of religious people, going on decently and reverently; but their delight is not in God. Take such a person, and see where his heart is; leave a man alone three or four hours, and he thinks of his cares, games, pleasures, never of Christ. Christ has no place at all in his heart. We all have the idea that we shall be happy in heaven; so we shall, perfectly, blessedly happy. But put the natural man there, and he would get out as quickly as ever he could: there is nothing in heaven he would like. When the blessed Lord came down' from heaven in grace, man would not have Him.

Take man as man, and every mouth is stopped. Do we, justify God in condemning us? The child of wisdom says, "It is true; I deserve to be cut down: I am a child of wrath; I justify God!" When that is the case, at once we are thankful for God's grace. When I am personally convinced that I deserve condemnation, I say, "I justify God in the grace that rises up above all my sins: I do not justify myself.”

The Son of man came in grace carrying the testimony of goodness wherever there was a poor sinner who would receive Him. God's wisdom in this double way is justified. Wherever there is truth in the inward parts, we justify God. (Psa. 2:6.)

Then as to the fact of the history, we find who this child of wisdom was. We see it was not the Pharisee who set up to have a righteousness for God. The woman justified God's testimony by John (I do not mean in fact, but it was the same testimony); she acknowledged her condemnation; but she justified God, too, in another way.

We cannot pretend to be righteous (I do not speak of what grace produces, but of the natural man); we do not love our neighbor as ourselves; we are not troubled if our neighbor's house is burned down as if it were our own. If I take the law of God, we may deceive ourselves about loving God with all our hearts, but a man must be a dishonest man if he says he loves his neighbor as himself.

Paul could say of himself, "Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless” (Phil. 3:6), but the moment the law said, "Thou shalt not lust," it might as well say, "Thou shalt not be a man."

If I take the law, you see it is most useful; it probes the heart and bring the consciousness that we have not kept it. God has said, "There is none righteous; no, not one." Can any one say He is mistaken? It is perfectly true that, unless we are probed, we are all disposed to have a good opinion of ourselves; we are all disposed to be Pharisees. When a man is in this state, Christ is not the object of his heart at all: he calls himself a Christian, but, if he is honest, he will have to acknowledge that Christ has no place in his heart.

In this wonderful history in Luke 7 we get these three hearts unveiled: the man's heart, not that of an open profligate sinner; the heart of the woman who was such; and God's heart. We see, too, who was the child of wisdom.

The Pharisee, who is curious to know about Christ, asks Him to dinner; but he gives Him no water for His feet, and no oil to anoint His head. He is curious to know this preacher, and he thinks himself perfectly competent to judge about religion. The Lord Jesus noticed it all.

There, into this fine house, the woman comes, confounded as to her sins, but her heart fixed by what is in Jesus; her whole heart going out to the blessed One. The Pharisee sees the woman washing the Lord's feet with tear's, and anointing them with ointment, and he says within himself, "That is no prophet.”

When the conscience is reached, it is under judgment; but when it is not reached a man thinks he is perfectly competent to judge whether God is right or wrong.

"And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon 'answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.”

He says to Simon, You are right (showing that He was more than a prophet). "Seest thou this woman?" Her whole heart is upon me.

We see, too, e person who has the Lord Himself in his house, and he is settling that He could not be a prophet! Where the conscience is exercised, it never judges, but it is judged.

We all have a natural conscience, that is perfectly true. God took care man should have that. But the intellect of man knows nothing of the things of God. H my intellect could measure God, I must then be the master of my subject. If I understand mathematics, I am master of that subject; if my mind were capable of judging of God, my mind would be the master of God.

When conscience awakes and says, "Thou art the man," you have been sinning against God; there is no attempt then to judge. All true knowledge, of God comes in through the conscience. Nothing but faith, which is the eye of the conscience, can put man in his right place with God, God brings me to justify Him: He is a holy God, I am not holy. That is the way the knowledge of God comes in. God is love: that is true, of course, but this is the way true knowledge of Him comes. The Pharisee thought he was all right, but in the presence of the Lord in grace he settled that He was no prophet. The mind of man is pitch darkness when he justifies himself, and not God.

When we turn to the poor woman, we find her owning in the fullest way her sinfulness, confounded by it. But what had she found in Christ?

What does Christ mean? Who was He? What brought Him here? Was it our wishing, our asking? We rejected and crucified Him when He came. I find God acting when, man was an utter sinner, all mouths stopped, then God manifest in flesh comes down amongst men. What brought Him down? I see in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and more fully still in His death, that "God so loved the world." This love of God had come into the world, so that sinners could look to and trust Him, while owning their sins.

The two names of God which express what He essentially is are LIGHT and LOVE. The law did not reveal God. It gave a perfect rule for the children of Adam, but Christ is not that (I do not say that He is not a model for Christians): but He is God Himself come into this world as light and love, showing me my sins because He is light. Show me any society you please where men are enjoying themselves, bring in Christ, and this spoils it all.

But then if God is light He is love, too. When God has shown me, as light, all that I am, I find I am in the presence of the perfect love which brought Him here; and now, instead of fancying I can meet the judgment, I have God Himself here showing me what I am.

The heart of this poor woman and the heart of God had perfectly met. "God is light," and the woman has not a word to say for herself. But God is also love, and so she goes into the Pharisee’s house. The light and the love manifested in God are both revealed to this woman's heart.

The light showed her that she was an utter sinner; the love was what brought her there. She did not yet know that she was forgiven, but there was this blessed revelation of God which required nothing from her, but which was for her just what she wanted.

Christ wage God in this world come to win back the confidence of man's heart to God. I see this blessed One in this world, and He says, "Are you ashamed to show yourself to a decent person?

Well, come to Me.”

He was here in this world, using the holiness that could not be defiled to carry the perfectness of His love to every poor sinner. We see a perfect example of this in the poor leper of Matt. 8:1-4. If a man touched a leper he must be put out, according to the law. Well, this poor leper saw the power that was in Christ, but he did not know His heart, and he says, " If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched him. I find the blessed Lord using the holiness that could not be soiled, that He might touch man in His sins! When my heart has seen that, I have got both truth and grace; truth in the knowledge that I am a sinner, and grace in Christ. The poor leper might have said, “I am vile, not fit to show myself to God or man, but I find One who can touch me.”

Christ is God come down to sinners in their sins. The law could only say, "If you do not do this, you are cursed." Christ comes to these sinners, and He shows us what we are; but He shows us also what He is, love; love that brought Him down to us as we are, the vilest, the most willful sinners.

Have not you committed sins? Well, how much sin will shut you out of heaven? Why did you sin? Because you liked it Your conscience tells you so. You cannot say to me, "You are a big sinner, and I am a little one." Suppose you have committed ten sins, and I eleven, then am I to be shut out and you let in? If I find two crab trees, one bearing one crab and the other one hundred, I say the one is a crab as well as the other.

How many sins had Adam committed when he was driven out of paradise? One. That one sin proved his distrust of God, and his confidence in Satan. One crab proves the tree. It is quite true that some are living in flagrant sin, like the poor woman: it would be well if they were like her here. There is no good in sin, but there is good in being convinced of it as she was. God must deal with all sin, and this is what He does. If you have not found Christ, if you have not been washed in the blood of the Lamb, you are under judgment.

The woman could not talk about theology, but she has found God, and what is in God's heart.

The Lord could say to the Pharisee, "You are perfectly dark as to your own heart and as to God's heart. If you gave no water for My feet, this woman has washed them with tears; if yet gave Me no kiss, she has not ceased to kiss My feet. Everything she had she has given Me. You had the Lord in your house, and you did not know it.”

Then He says of the woman, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”

She had really met God's heart, as expressed in Christ, though she could not explain how it was Light was in her heart; love, too; and they met.

Why do I go to the cross? God manifests there His righteousness against sin, and His love to the sinner, and I justify God in His blessed love: as a child of wisdom I justify wisdom.

Then we hear Christ's answer to the woman's faith: "Thy sins are forgiven." She did not know it when she came in, but she loved Christ, she trusted Christ; and now the sins are all gone. He said to her (it was not a mere doctrine in the airy but He gives her the comfort of it), "Thy sins are forgiven." God has sent love and light here, but He has sent forgiveness here also, "according to the riches of His grace," not narrowly, closely, measuring our need. He pronounces this judgment upon her, "Thy sins are forgiven"; as He did to the thief, who was fit to go to paradise, "Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." (Luke 23:43.) The dying robber was bearing he fruit of his ways before man, but Christ was bearing it before God, and therefore he was a fit companion, for Christ in paradise.

This is true of every believer. " Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light " (Col. 1:12). "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). This sanctification is entirely uninterrupted, because Christ gives it perfection.

People call in question what the Lord has said to the woman, "Who is this that forgiveth, sins also?" What is the good of preaching the remission of sins if you do not believe it? Do you think, when God calls you by His grace that He means you to be happy with Him or not? If we do not know we are forgiven, it is impossible to be happy. John, writing to all Christians, says, "I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2:12.)

You will not find after the day of Pentecost any hint of unforgiven sins in a believer. Did Christ die for half my sins? I believe what is said in Hebrews 10, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Though I deserve death and condemnation, I believe that Christ, in the fullest grace, has taken my place, and He did not sit down till the work was perfectly finished. If the work that puts away your sins has not been done perfectly, when is it to be done? Can Christ die over again? Can another Christ come and die?

“Without shedding of blood is no remission." Christ cannot shed His blood over again, but the work by which He put away our sins never loses its value in the presence of God. (Heb. 9, 10.) All through the Gospels we see that it is the soul that clings to Christ, touched by His love and grace, that learns most: that is where light and understanding come in, and so here the first full testimony of the gospel is given to this woman: "Thy sins are forgiven." Did He deceive her? "Thy faith hath saved thee"; a blessed word! If you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved. What did He come for but "to seek and to save that which was lost." It is an accomplished work, that can never be repeated. We are brought into God's presence by Christ's work. If our sins were as scarlet, they are now as white as snow, because this work of Christ, perfectly accomplished, puts me before God in the value of it. (Isa. 1:18; Heb. 10:17-22.)

Finally, He says to the woman, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." So, when about to leave the world, He said to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you." Are you before God in the perfect peace He was in? He has made peace by the blood of His cross. (Col. 1:20.) He met God there on the cross, and the testimony of the gospel is that of a finished work. Now, let us remember, the Lord's love takes all pains that He might do this Rm. us. His sweat was as it were great drops of blood when He was only thinking of the cup He was about to drink. I justify God in condemning me, but I justify Him also in saving me. He is righteous and holy, and He could not bear the sins; but He is love too, so He puts away the sins.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

I Cannot Get Away From God.

MANY years ago, a young coachman was living in a gentleman's family near London. He had good wages, a kind master, and a comfortable place; but there was one thing which troubled and annoyed him. It was that his old mother lived in a village close by, and from her he had constant visits.

You may wonder that this was such a trouble to him. But the reason was that, whenever she came, she spoke to him about Christ and the salvation of his soul.

“Mother," he at last said,” I cannot stand this any longer. Unless you drop that subject altogether, I shall give up my place, and go out of your reach, when I shall hear no more of such cant."

“My son, “said his mother," as long as I have a tongue I shall never cease to speak to you about the Lord, and to the Lord about 'you.”

The young coachman was as good as his word.

He wrote to a friend in the Highlands of Scotland, and asked him to find him a place in that part of the world. He knew that his mother could not write, and could not follow him; and, though he was sorry to lose a good place, he said to himself, "Anything for a quiet life.”

His friend soon got him a place in a gentleman's stables, and he did not hide from his mother that he was glad and thankful to get out of her way.

You may think it was a pity she thus drove him to a distance. Would it not have been wiser to say less, and thus not to lose the opportunity of putting in a word in season? put she believed, in her simplicity, that she was to keep to the directions given her in the word of God; that she was to "be instant," not "in season" only, but also "out of season." (2 Tim. 4:2.) And true it is, that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men." (1 Cor. 1:25.)

The coachman was ordered to drive out the carriage and pair the first day after his arrival in Scotland.

His master did not get into the carriage with the rest of the party, but said he meant to go on the box instead of the footman.

“He wishes to see how I drive," thought the coachman, who was quite prepared to give satisfaction.

Scarcely had they driven from the door, when the master spoke to the coachman for the first time. He said, “Tell me if you are saved.”

Had the question come to the coachman direct from heaven it could scarcely have struck him with greater consternation. He simply felt terrified.

“God has followed me to Scotland!" he said to himself. “I could get away from my mother; but I cannot get away from God.”

And at that moment he knew what Adam must have felt when he went to hide himself from the presence of God behind the trees of the garden.

He could make no answer to his master, and scarcely could he drive the horses, for he trembled from head to foot.

His master went on to speak of Christ, and again he heard "the old, old story," so often told him by his mother. But this time it sounded new; it had become a real thing to him. It did not seem to him then to be glad tidings of great joy, but a message of terror and condemnation. He felt that it was Christ, the Son of God, whom he had rejected and despised. Be felt for the first time that he was a lost sinner.

By the time the drive was over he was so ill, from the terrible fear that had come upon him, that he could do nothing more. For some days he could not leave his bed, but they were blessed days to him! His master came to speak to him, to read the word of God, and to pray; and soon the love and grace of the Saviour he had rejected became a reality to him, as the terror of the Lord had been at first. He saw that there was mercy for the scoffer and despiser; he saw that the blood of Christ is the answer before God even for such sin as his had been; and he now felt in his soul the sweetness of those blessed words, "We love Him, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19.) He saw that Christ had borne his punishment, and that he, who had tried to harden his heart against God and against his own mother, was now without spot or stain in the sight of that God who had so loved him as to give for him His only Son.

The first letter he wrote to his mother was to tell her the joyful tidings: "God has followed me to Scotland, and has saved my soul.”

“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if 1 make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee."(Psa. 139:7-12.)

“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psa. 16:11.)

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,

I knew not my danger, I felt not my load;

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,

“Jehovah, Tsidkenu" was nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me by light from on high,

Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;

No refuge, no safety, in self could I see;

“Jehovah Tsidkenu “my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet Name;

My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came

To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free;

“Jehovah-Tsidkenu “is all things to me.

the King of Terrors.

(Job 18:14.)

HAS the reader ever considered what a mighty king and conqueror DEATH is? Victors, men of renown, there have been ever since the days of Nimrod, that mighty hunter before the Lord. (Gen. 10:9, 10.) Scripture itself tells us of a Pharaoh and' a Sennacherib, a Nebuchadnezzar and a Cyrus, who overran countries, captured cities, and slew their thousands and tens of thousands; each, as the prophet says, causing his terror in the land of the living. (Ezek. 32:24.)

And if we turn aside to mere human history, none so figure in its pages as those who have deluged the earth with human blood.

But what has become of all these mighty conquerors? They have all had to bow to one mightier still. “Like sheep they are laid in the grave," and death feeds on them. (Psa. 49:14.) And not only does death conquer the mightiest conquerors of others, he conquers all mankind. The strongest cannot resist him; the wisest cannot elude his stroke. Those who live the longest have to die at last. Death has no pity either for helpless infancy or decrepit old age.

The richest cannot bribe him to allow them a single hour; and the poorest fall beneath his resistless stroke. For near six thousand years he has reigned over Adam's race, and relentlessly swept into the grave the millions and millions of each successive generation, old and young, rich and poor, prince and peasant.

But mighty as death is, and universal and long continued as is his reign, there is One infinitely stronger, who has encountered and vanquished death, and who will in due time display the full fruits of His victory both in heaven and on earth.

And how was it that He gained the victory over this mighty conqueror, death?

In contests among men we hear of armies and navies; battles by land, and battles by sea; weapons of attack, and weapons of defense; while everything depends on numbers, and discipline, and skill, and wealth, and courage. Those who can muster the most, and 'strike the hardest, and endure the longest, generally win the day.

But not so in the conflict between death and its glorious Victor, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How did He conquer death?

By undergoing it Himself. He “became obedient unto death."(Phil. 2:8.) “That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death." (Heb. 2:4.)

What was the secret of death's power over the human race?

It was sin. "The wages of sin is death"; and it is because all men are sinners that death has universal power. (Rom. 6:23.)

And what has the blessed Saviour done?

Sinless Himself, so that death had no claim upon Him, He became the Substitute for sinners, and died in their stead. God as well as man, His death was of infinite value, and destroyed death's claim on those who are sheltered by Christ's precious blood. But more than this, so completely was death vanquished by Christ, that though He was laid in the grave, death could not detain Him there. God's Holy One saw no corruption. From the grave He came forth victorious, and now, seated at God's right hand, He awaits the moment appointed for His return to release from death, and raise up and glorify with Himself, all who are His. "Every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming." (1 Cor. 15:23.)

That will indeed be a glorious moment when the Saviour shall descend, and the grave be obliged to disgorge its prey; and death, the vanquished one, be forced to yield up to his Conqueror the millions of believers who have fallen under his resistless might. (1 Thess. 4:16.) Death will indeed be swallowed up in victory then. All thanks and praise to the blessed Conqueror! (1 Cor. 15:55-57.)

His be the Victor's Name

Who fought the fight alone:

He hell in hell laid low;

Made sin, He sin o'erthrew;

Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,

And Death, by dying, slew.

Lord, e'en to death Thy love could go,

A death of shame and loss;

To vanquish for us ev'ry foe,

And break the strong man's force.

Oh! what a load was Thine to bear

Alone in that dark hour;

Our sins in all their terror there,

God's wrath, and Satan's power!

The storm that bowed Thy blessed head

Is hushed forever now;

And rest divine is ours instead,

Whilst glory crowns Thy brow.

Profit and Loss

IN studying any subject from the Word of God, it is well to go back to the beginning, and to see how every principle of truth concerning our moral and spiritual welfare is to be found, in germ or essence, in the first book of the Bible. This is why the Book of Genesis has been called "the seed-plot of the Bible," for therein are contained the beginnings or elements of alt those great truths which are afterward unfolded in plan, type or history, for our instruction. It is well when, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit's teaching, we trace God's ways with man in the unfolding of truths so important to our present and eternal welfare. Of wisdom it is said, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way." He is the Alpha and the Omega, and our whole story comes between.

Now, in the serpent's saying to the woman, "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," we can see the question of profit and loss by which the serpent deceived Eve through his subtlety.

The same question is spoken of by Judah to his brethren, in Gen. 37:26, concerning Joseph. Judah said, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites," and they drew him, out of the pit, and sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. They dipped his coat in the blood of a kid, and sent it to their father, with a lie on their lips; and they brought the coat of many colors, now stained with blood, and said, " This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or not" Here is the result of envy and hatred, culminating in wicked heartlessness and the loss of a beloved son and brother.

The same question of profit and loss is to be seen in the case of Judas Iscariot (Matt. 26:15), who said to the chief priests, “What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?

And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Judas Iscariot, having betrayed his Master with a kiss, receives the reward of iniquity; and, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." All pleasure in the money was now gone, “and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." Here, indeed, is eternal loss.

Job describes the prosperity of the wicked, (Job. 21:7-14), and how they speak against God, even in the moment of their death, saying, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? “job shows, by the Spirit, that their prosperity is not in their hand but that God lays up punishment for the wicked man's children, who shall drink of the fury of the Almighty (Job 21:20). Here, we see, there is judgment in store for the wicked, as there is surely a reward for the righteous. It is “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily "that" the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccl. 8:11)

In the Book of the Preacher (or Ecclesiastes) the question of profit and loss is fully told out. After pronouncing all things to be vanity under the sun; creation itself subject to vanity, man's labor, man's wisdom, man's pleasures, whether physical enjoyments (of which thirteen are named in (Job 2:18), or intellectual enjoyments (Job 2:12-17), all is vanity and vexation of spirit. The heart is too big for the portion. All is measured, and found insufficient. The cry is, "Who will show us any good?" "For who knoweth what is good for a man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him, under the sun?" This is the whole of man as seen "under the sun"; and in the end of the book, the preacher sums up the whole matter, and declares that man's chief good is to fear God, and to keep His commandments. This amounts to owning that there is no good in man; but all good is to be found in God and His word.

In the last outpouring of the minor prophets, we find Malachi addressing the returned remnant from Babylon with these words: Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken... against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?”

They were measuring their professed service to God by personal profit, instead of doing all to the: glory of God. What loss, in that coming day of judgment, for the proud, and those who did wickedly! But even then there was a company of God-fearing ones, who "spoke often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." These were to be His special treasure, and He would spare them in the midst of the coming judgment, and they shall shine in His beauty in the day of His glory. "Verily there is a reward for the righteous!”

The Lord Jesus, at the time of His announcement of His sufferings in Matt. 16, when He began to show to His disciples the necessity of His death and resurrection, and the path of shame and loss which lay before Him, was compelled to rebuke Peter (who sought to dissuade ' Him from taking the path), by turning and saying to Peter, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense to Me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Then, inviting the true disciple to come after Him, to deny himself, and to take up his cross, and to follow Him, Jesus uttered those memorable words: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Here we get the solemn question of profit and loss propounded by the Son of God Himself. It is no question of the amount of worldly gain. Twenty or thirty pieces of silver may have seemed a goodly price to avaricious and covetous men; but here the Son of the living God puts the whole world in one scale, and the loss of an immortal soul in the other. And what is His verdict?

Surely, that nothing under the sun can measure the intrinsic value of your soul and mine, dear reader. God gave to Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, power and strength and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwelt, He gave the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven into his hand, and made him ruler over them all. "Thou art this head of gold." Universal dominion was Nebuchadnezzar's; but, alas; sentence was soon afterward pronounced against this monarch of the world; and the word came to him, "Hew down the tree and destroy it.” Yet God tempered with mercy the sentence. “Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass ... and let seven times pass over him." There was space given for repentance; but, at the end of twelve months, King Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the Kingdom of Babylon, and in the pride of his heart said, "Is not this great Babylon, that have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty " His heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, and Nebuchadnezzar was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him, and he was driven from men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the beasts of the field; they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will. (Dan. 5:20-21.)

Here is judgment mingled with mercy; for we know that at the end of the days Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven, and his understanding returned unto him, and he blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him that liveth forever and ever. He had been raised to the pinnacle of earthly greatness, and he had been degraded to the level of the beasts of the earth, to learn that God's works and ways are truth and judgment, " and those that walk in pride He is able to abase God, in His grace, condescends to reason with us. He sets before us good and evil, profit and loss, life and death, wisdom and folly. He yearned over His people Israel: "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." (Deut. 32:29.) "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) Yet He had to say of some: "Ye also have seen Me, and believe not." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. Some, went back and walked no more with Him, but when Jesus said to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" then Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."

Thou art the everlasting Word,

The Father's only Son;

God manifest, God seen and heard,

The Heaven's beloved One;

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow.

None Cast Out

“He, everyone that thirsteth, come." (Isa. 55:1.)

(1) TO WHOM SHALL I COME?

(a) NOT TO MAN.

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isa. 2:22; Jer. 17:5.)

(b) COME TO JESUS CHRIST.

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28.)

(2) FOR WHAT AM I TO COME?

(a) COME FOR PARDON.

To Him (Jesus Christ) give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.

Through this man (Jesus Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. (Acts 10:43; Acts 13:38, 39.)

In whom (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Eph. 1:7.)

(b) COME FOR LIFE.

"He that hath the Son hath life; her that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:12.)

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." (John 14:27.)

"He [Jesus Christ] is our Peace." (Eph. 2:14.) Christ "came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." (Eph. 1:17.)

Christ "having made peace through the blood of His cross." (Col. 1:20.)

(3) HOW AM I TO COME?

(a) COME AS A SINNER.

Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous but SINNERS to repentance." (Luke 5:32.)

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save SINNERS." (1 Tim. 1:15.)

(b) COME BELIEVING.

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

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

(4) THE TERMS OF COMING.

“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." (John 7:37.)

“Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever, will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17.)

(5) WHEN AM I TO COME?

"Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2.)

(6) ENCOURAGEMENT TO COME.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." (Isa. 1:18.)

“Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." (1 Tim. 1:15, 16.)

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

“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and' drink.” (John 7:37.)

“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37.)

But I am a great sinner, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

But I am an old sinner, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

But I am a hard-hearted sinner, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

I have served Satan all my days, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

But I have sinned against light, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

But I have sinned against mercy, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

I have no good thing to bring, sayest thou.

I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.

Luke 7:36-50; Luke 23:39-42; John 4

JOHN BUNYAN.

Hark! the voice of Jesus calling,

“Come, ye laden, come to me;

I have rest and peace to offer,

Rest, thou laboring one, for thee:

Take salvation;

Take it now and happy be.”

Yes; though high in heavenly glory,

Still the Saviour calls to thee;

Faith can hear His gracious accents,

“Come, ye laden, come to me.

Take salvation;

Take it now and happy be.”

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him:'

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8,16. 1 John 4:9.

Ordinances, or Christ: Which?

THERE lived in a village in Cornwall a man who attended the church services regularly, who sang in the choir, and, being musical, played an instrument in the band, and was looked upon as a respectable inhabitant of the county.

When he got to be over sixty years old his health broke down, and a friend visited him during his illness, and asked him concerning his hope in Christ.

In his reply he spoke of the "water of baptism" as the ground of his confidence.

His friend and neighbor referred him to the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, verse 10, where Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, "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.”

"What water was this?" asked his friend.

The man did not know what to say in reply; and his friend told him that it was the same water as that spoken of by the Lord in the third chapter of John.

When talking to Nicodemus, Jesus said,

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Peter also tells us, by the Spirit, in the first chapter of his first Epistle, verse 23, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of GOD, which liveth and abideth forever.”

The man listened attentively, and the light of God's word shone into his soul.

On the occasion of the last visit to the sick man, his friend saw that he was so far gone in his illness as to be almost speechless. The breathing of the dying man was evidently painful and difficult.

His friend waited in silent prayer for him to speak.

After waiting for more than half an hour, the sick man broke the silence, and said fervently, “Lord Jesus Christ!" as if speaking to the Lord in prayer.

His friend then stepped forward to the bedside, and said to the dying man, "Nothing but Christ,” now; referring to his former confidence in water baptism.

He replied, "Nothing but Christ, no shilly-shally, now.”

Thus his soul was resting peacefully on the Rock (Matt. 7:24, 25), "Christ Himself, the Rock of Ages," instead of upon the shifting sands of ordinances.

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST." (1 Cor. 3:11.)

About four hours after this the dear man passed away in perfect peace, to be with Christ, his Saviour and Lord.

What Made the Difference?

WHILE staying in the country with a Christian friend, I heard of a village, about two miles off, whose inhabitants were not allowed to hold religious meetings of any kind. The whole village was under the control of one man; and if any of the cottagers had a few of their neighbors come together into their cottage for prayer, there was only one law for them, and that was, they must give up their cottage and so leave the village.

I therefore went with some tracts, thinking to leave one at every house, and also hoped that I might be able to speak a few words to the inhabitants individually about their souls, by telling them of Jesus and His love, how He left His throne of glory, and came into this world, and died that they might have everlasting life.

The village consisted of about forty houses, very pleasantly situated on the side of a little hill facing the west. The men were mostly in the fields at work, and some of the cottage doors were fastened, the, cottagers being out doing their appointed tasks in various ways; while some few were employed at home. Those I could get access to received me very kindly, and accepted with thankfulness the little papers and books I had to give.

On my offering a tract to one old lady, and at the same time repeating to her that beautiful verse in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," she looked at me very gravely, and said, "Yes, this is love indeed! How unlike it is to everything of earth! What does the world do for you? What has it done for me? I have been bustling about in it all my days, and it has left me a poor old woman, scarcely able to help myself, or walk across the room. But I have nothing to complain of; my needs are all supplied; I enjoy my morsel with God, and am happy!" Then putting her right hand on her breast, with her eyes beaming with joy, she said, "I have Christ here!" And then, raising the same hand, with her eyes toward heaven, she said, "I also have Christ up there, and I value a kind word spoken for Him in this world more than I do all the treasures of earth!”

I said, "This delights me very much, to hear you speak in this way. How long have you known the Lord Jesus, and been so happy?”

She replied, "I have, through mercy, known Him many years; but I was so fully occupied with the world while I was able to work, that I had but little time for reading God's precious word; but now I can do so to my heart's content, and my joy is indeed full. I long to behold Him who loved me, and washed me from my sins in His own blood; and I know I shall soon do so. When a few more days are ended, I shall see His face, and be with Him forever.”

Having spoken a few more words together of that blessed Saviour who was so precious to each of our souls, and whose face we both longed to see, I took my leave of her, and left her humble abode with feeling of the greatest delight, knowing I should surely meet her again in everlasting glory: because the Lord Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life." (John 5:24.) We could therefore rejoice together in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. 5:2; Col. 3:3, 4.)

I called at a few more cottages, giving a tract, and speaking to each individual as I had opportunity.

Soon I came to another clean old lady's door, and, offering her a little book, I smilingly said, “We are going to heaven; will you go with us?

She did not smile again, but mournfully replied, "I hope I am going to heaven, sir; but sometimes I am very much afraid I am not.”

I said, "How is it that you are so uncertain about it? Is not Christ sufficient for you? Does not His blood cleanse from all sin? Is He not now at the right hand of God for us? and is not His love the same at this moment as when He died, and rose again?”

She sorrowfully replied, "Oh! yes, I know His love is unchangeable, and I know that He has done all things well; everything which is needed for our salvation He has accomplished! The fault is my own: I am so unlike Him in every way that I very much doubt whether I ever can be with Him in glory; though the hope I sometimes have of being there fills me with delight, and it is all my joy and all my desire. I ought to be ashamed to tell you, sir, but the truth is, my heart is so deceitful; it is so little stayed on the Lord, and ever ready to run after every little thing but Him, however trifling it may be; and it grieves me continually to know it is so. I strive against it, but seem to have no power.”

“I can truly feel for you," I replied. “I know what it is to have suffered very much from the same thing myself, I therefore know the cause of your misgivings, and also the reason why you have so little power in your soul. You have not vet found your all in Christ by believing in Him; you forget that He is in the presence of God for you. This being the case, how can you do anything else but doubt; because you are looking at what you yourself are and not at what Christ is for you. And you see yourself so unfit for God's presence that 'you think you never can be there. Neither could you ever be, did it depend upon what you are. But it does not; it depends on what Christ is for you, in the presence of God. And He is for you everything you can possibly need, either in this world or in that which is to come. He has borne your grief and carried your sorrows. He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Therefore it is your privilege, and should be your delight, to turn away from yourself altogether, and think of Him and His precious blood. You would then be happy by seeing yourself in Him, who is altogether lovely, because believers are accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6), and are loved of God as He is loved. (John 17:23.) Realizing this, you will have joy and confidence in your soul, and power to walk so as to please Him in this world. We get power to walk for God down here just in proportion as we are occupied with Christ up there.”

She then said, "Ah! sir, but I have not walked for God as I ought. I have not been faithful; indeed, I am just the opposite to what I ought to be. I wish it was not so! Sometimes when I am quite alone, reading my Bible, I am happy, very happy, and can forget this world, and all its cares.

But I so soon lose my joy, and have to go on again in 'sorrow and darkness without any assurance of soul. The Lord Jesus says, ' My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.' But I hear His voice so seldom, and follow Him so feebly, that I often think I am none of His.”

I said, "But I am sure you are; and if I were to be looking at myself and my walk in the way you are, I should be filled with darkness and sorrow, and should have the same doubts and fears which you have. But we are never told in God's word to do so, but to look unto Jesus, and remember that it is in Him we stand, and that it is in His loveliness that we are so lovely and precious in God's sight. We never get any good by looking at ourselves or anything down here upon earth; because our heart always becomes filled with whatever we are looking at.

Therefore, if we are looking at this world, through which we are passing, our hearts get filled with it; and if at ourselves, then our heart becomes full of self; or if with each other, then we get occupied with each other. But if we are looking at Christ, then our hearts are filled with Him; and so beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are thereby changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. We can never walk properly for God, only as we are enjoying Christ in our souls; and if our hearts are not filled with Him, present things are sure to fill them, in one way or another, so producing darkness of mind. But when we are full of Christ, then we are strong and happy. But if with other things, then we are weak and sorrowful. We must have to do with the world as we pass along, but how happy to remember that we are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world! This gives real power.”

She answered, "I know it to be so, and I am a great loser; but I do not think of the world because I delight in it; neither do I look at myself because I am pleased with myself, for I myself am the most loathsome thing I know. I hate my life because of sin; for I seem made up of it. It is interwoven with all I do or say. And as for the world, there is nothing in it but I would be glad to forget forever, if I could. But I cannot; the world seems in my heart.”

I said, "Neither will it be otherwise, until you give Christ His right place. Then you will be able to forget the world and all its cares, knowing that He careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7.) Your heart being filled with Him, there will be no room in it for other things. The world will lose its hold upon you, and you will be able to pass in and out, doing your little duties in it; knowing that you are not of the world, seven as Christ is not of the world. (John 17:14.) It will then be under Your feet, instead of being in your heart, and the joy of the Lord will be your strength to walk so as to please Him. We are told to 'Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.' (Phil. 4:4.) We arc never told in Scripture to rejoice in ourselves, or in circumstances, or in each other; but in the Lord. It is quite right to loathe ourselves because of sin, and those who love God will surely do so; but, on the other hand, believers should be always rejoicing in Christ, knowing that He has died that we might live, and His blood cleanseth from all sin; it makes us whiter than snow before God; we are delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son; so that our proper home is the Father's house, and we are on our way to it. And feeling, as we do, our weakness and infirmities as we pass along, should make us cleave to Him all the more; but we ought not to allow these things to fill us with doubts and fears; but on the other hand it is our privilege to look on with joy to that happy day when the Lord Jesus will come and take us to Himself, change these vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His glorious body. Then we shall be like Him indeed. We shall then have up there that which we have so longed for down here.”

She then said, "You will not understand, sir, that I give way to sin. I thank God this is not the case. They think me very good, and speak of me as such; but it is not, what I do, but it is what I am in myself which gives me so much sorrow.”

I replied, "No, I do not think for one moment that you give way to sin; you hate it too much to do that: but what you want is power to enjoy God in your soul, and honor Christ before men.

And this you will get the very moment you give Him His right place in your heart, by taking Him as your all.”

She answered, "This is what I do desire; and I know He is honored by a happy trust in all He has said and done; and I ought not to dishonor Him by doubting His word. And I do hope, for the future, I shall not be so, but be enabled to look away from myself and sin, and the world, and everything connected with it, and find my rest and joy in Christ alone.”

I said, "I pray God that it may be so with you: so will your remaining clays on earth be more to the glory of God and the blessing of your own soul. And you will also be a blessing to those about you; because when we are enjoying Christ ourselves, God often makes us the happy instrument of helping others to enjoy Him. Being happy ourselves, we help others to be happy.”

Thereupon she thanked me very much, and I took my leave of her, being fully assured that when we met again it would either be in the glory with Christ, or seeking to glorify Him upon earth.

I then went to all the other cottages which I could get access to, and found two more feeble, doubting ones, but who, I fully believe, I shall meet again in that day of glory.

In these two cases which I have' attempted to describe, I think we have a clear description of that which makes the difference between a happy and an unhappy Christian in this world; for they were 'both children of God, both heirs of glory through faith in Christ, and were both on their way to the Father's house,, where they will enjoy His company forever. What made such a great difference to their joy and peace as they passed along through this world was that the one was occupied with herself and the things around her, and therefore was full of weakness and sorrow; but the other was occupied with Christ and glory, and therefore was full of joy and strength.

This is always the case. If you find a Christian who is unhappy, you will always find he is thinking of himself or something down here which is not Christ; but on the other hand, if you find a truly happy Christian, you will find the Lord Jesus to be the great theme of his soul. It must be so if we wish to honor Him; for all our springs are in Him. We need Him for every step of our journey, as well as we do to first take us up.

We can no more walk in His steps by our own strength than we can save our own souls. We need Christ for the one as much as we do for the other. Without Him we can do nothing.

H. T.

The Obedience of Faith

NOTHING can surpass the fullness and freeness of the love of God, as manifested in the gift of His only begotten Son, that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) The freeness of the grace, too, is declared in the gospel, to every creature under heaven. The commission which the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples on the eve of His ascension "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," also expresses the unlimited extent to which it was His gracious mind that the message of mercy should be proclaimed. (Mark 16:15.)

The parable in Luke 14 of the certain man who "made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready," is likewise a declaration of the character of the unconditional grace of God. Thus we might proceed from scripture to scripture to prove that they all combine to show the unbounded love and grace of God toward a sinful world; but we will content ourselves with the full and closing testimony contained in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation: "Let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17.)

That is a very remarkable word in 2 Cor. 5:20, 21, in which the Apostle Paul says, "We are, ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us: we pray in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The expression to which we especially refer is, "as though God did beseech by us." This is a marvelous intimation of the grace of God; that He should allow His servants to take the attitude of as it were beseeching His rebellious creatures to be reconciled to Himself. The parable of the Father's reception of his repentant and returning son, in Luke 15, is also a blessed illustration of the manner in which God receives a poor sinner, who comes to Him in the name of His only begotten Son.

There is, however, one aspect of the message of the gospel to which, perhaps, we are not accustomed to give due heed. That aspect is shown in many places in the word of God, and amongst others in Acts 17:30, 31, where it is written, that "God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He 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 men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”

It is recognized among men that a king's invitation is a command. If, for instance, a monarch desires the presence of a subject, though it may be simply that he may have the honor of dining, or of Conversing, with the king, this request is said to be couched in the language of a command; so that the honored subject is in fact commanded to appear before his sovereign.

And this is as it should be, considering the relative position of the two persons. Such an invitation is not like an ordinary request from an equal, or a fellow-subject, with which one may not feel bound to comply if it should interfere with any previous engagement which we have made.

No; the claim of the sovereign would, to a loyal subject, be paramount; and he would consequently feel himself bound to subordinate his previous arrangements to the commanding invitation which had superseded them.

Though this is but an illustration, it may help us to understand the important and impressive character of the free and unconditional presentation of mercy and grace to the sinner in the gospel. It is made on the ground of the blessed fact that "all things are now ready," through the perfection of the work of Christ in His death for sins upon the cross, and God's raising Him from the dead, and seating Him at His own right hand. Observe that the command of God, in the last, quoted passage, is just as wide as the invitation of the gospel of His grace. Let us look at each of the words contained in the momentous sentence.

First of all, it is GOD who speaks. This of itself ought to arrest the attention of every one. If, while passing along the streets, one were to see a placard upon a public building, headed "A PROCLAMATION," and saw that it was issued by THE KING, one would, I suppose, be induced to stop a few moments in order to make oneself acquainted with its contents; and would without difficulty distinguish it from the many other placards of an ordinary description.

Well, then, when GOD speaks to His sinful and rebellious creatures, let ALL listen to what He says! He NOW commands, yes, at this very time, this day, this hour, this moment. It must, therefore, be something of great importance, that it should require such urgent attention. Yes, it is; and of so grave and obligatory a character, that He issues a COMMAND to "ALL MEN EVERYWHERE.”

It has been said that God gives His commands to His believing people; and that He presents His mercy to the world in the gospel. This is true, so far as those commands relate to the doing of His will, and the walking in His ways, in the power of the life which His saints have in Christ. But here is one command which is given to all men. It is to every creature which is under heaven. It is to the innumerable dwellers in each of the four quarters of the globe. To come nearer, it is to the inhabitants of Europe; and, nearer still, to every individual in the country in which we dwell. Yea; it comes to our very door, for it is addressed to all in the town or village in which we reside, including THYSELF, beloved reader, whoever thou art; rich or poor, learned or ignorant, young or old, moral or otherwise, if thou hast not bowed to it with the obedience of faith.

And what is the command? "TO REPENT.”

We might here anticipate that one might ask, What is repentance? We will not, however, undertake to define it "in the words which man's wisdom teacheth"; but there need be no difficulty to the anxious soul, who is willing to be instructed by means of the various statements and illustrations which are contained in the Scriptures. We can, however, now only refer to a few. In Luke 15:7 we read of there being "joy in heaven” and "in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

In the same chapter we see an instance of repentance in the "younger son," who after having come to himself, and having reached his father's presence, said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”

The testimony of the Holy Ghost to the Jews, by Peter, on the day of Pentecost, terminating with the solemn statement, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ," pricked the hearers to the heart, so that they said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2)

The testimony, likewise, which the Apostle Paul declared, that he had taught publicly, and from house to house, was "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20)

What, then, is the conclusion which we should gather from the word of God on this subject of "the obedience of faith"?

Why, that everyone who listens to the testimony of God concerning His Son, as declared in the gospel of His grace, has not only the precious opportunity given to him of accepting the "SALVATION OF GOD" freely, and thus obtaining the gift of eternal life, hut that he is likewise responsible to God to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, so freely and unconditionally presented to him.

God, who "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” will not, however, allow sinners whom He has thus loved to continue to trifle with Him. He has, indeed, long patience; but take heed, beloved reader, that thou dolt not turn the long-suffering of God against thyself, by refusing (or, what is the same thing, neglecting) His salvation. The solemn word is written, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”

The day is coming when at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2)

Mayest thou now bow to that name, "which is above every name," and it will be salvation and blessing to thee forever.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Mary B — , the Poacher's Wife

IT was a heavy fall of snow; I had watched it from the window for some time, as it shrouded the earth, and mantled the trees and shrubs in the garden; everything outside seemed to make me thankful for the comforts within, and I gladly drew my chair very close to the blazing fire to enjoy its cheering warmth.

My thoughts turned to the many who knew no such comfort, and who could see no attraction in the fast falling snow, or the feathery, fantastic outlines it was giving to everything outside. My reverie was interrupted by a knock at the door, and, "Someone wishes to see you in the kitchen.”

I went at once, and found there a girl from the village I had known for some time. She had come to ask my husband to go and see a poor woman who was dying, and refused to let any of her neighbors go in to see her; " And you could not go, “said the girl," for her room is never cleaned, and never has any air in it. She is a poacher's wife, and her husband is a drunkard, and neglects her.”

“I will see her tomorrow," I said, "if my husband has not returned home.”

But I was restless and uneasy; the burden of that soul was upon me. I repeated again and again, "Tomorrow she might be in hell.”

In a few minutes I had drawn my waterproof closely round me, and was making my way through the storm, praying all the way that the Lord would indeed give me a message from Himself, and also that I might be guided to the right door, as it was getting dark, and the snow falling faster each step I took. It was a poor place I had been directed to, a dirty court surrounded by very poor houses. At the last house on the left side I stood before a closed door, and, asking the Lord to open it for me, I gently knocked, and waited. Slowly the heavy wooden bolt was drawn back, and I found myself inside, and the bolt replaced.

I had to lean upon the wall for a few moments in silence, to recover the overpowering pressure of bad air that met me; and by the feeble light of a small lamp, I saw the emaciated form of a young woman, crouching on a low wooden stool by a few embers of a fire just dying out, which she was vainly endeavoring to stir into life.

Poor woman, I longed after her soul; in poverty, and sickness, and sorrow, and "without Christ.”

How terrible! And yet the moment seemed not to have come for me to give God's message. I drew my stool near her, and taking one of her wasted hands in mine, I asked a few questions as to "How long she had been ill? etc." And as I pointed to little Johnnie, I said, "You can trust me, can't you? Tell me all your trouble, for I want to help you.”

"Well," she said, "you're kind to face the storm in sic a nicht, and sit down here to speak to me, and there's no mono y cares for Mary B—, the poacher's wife.”

“Your husband is a poacher?" I said; "tell me how you came to marry him.”

“Ah, well, I was but a bairn when I married, and I thought as trade was as guid as anither, and he promised I should want for naething; but he and his mither drink all he makes by the game; and it's seldom a feather o' it I see, or a penny that it brings me. And then I daurna let as body into the house, for fear they take the dog and guns, or catch himself; and many a day the bairn and me never sees food or fire, and I'm that weak that I'm ill.”

I saw by the dim lamp light it was a bed of shaving-s, with nothing ox er it but a cotton patch quilt and a piece crf old carpet. "Well," I said, "and what of your child who died?”

I had touched a chord in that weary mother's tearless heart; a few great tears rolled down her sallow cheeks, and she tried to steady her feeble voice and answer my question. "It is five month syne she was born; I was very ill. After the doctor and women that was with me had left, nave came to see after me, and John was out all day, and often all nicht, after the game; and I lo'ed the wean, but I'd naething to gie her,.and I saw her dwine and dwine by my side, till as day she geed a wee short breath and deed, and sync I couldna look after, or care for anything, for my bairn deed o' want, and I kent it weel, and it gid se sair to my heart that I didna greet, and I didna sleep, and I didna eat, and then the cough came, and John brought the doctor, and he said it was the decline, and I wouldna mend; and it was true, forever) day I seem waur and waur, and some days I canna rise ava.”

And then the fragile form was racked by a terrible fit of coughing. I silently prayed that the Lord would now give me the right word. As the paroxysm of coughing a little subsided I took her hand, and said: "Mary, the message I bring you tonight is from the Son of God, the One who died to save sinners like you and me; and His message to you is this, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' (Matt. 11:28.) Dear soul, you are in great need of rest. Will you come to Him tonight?”

“I would fain have the rest," she said, "but I'm no fit to come; and I've no strength left to gae to the kirk or the meeting, so I canna come.”

“Well, Mary, you're very weak and very sinful, but Christ has made provision for just such as you! Have you strength to look at me, Mary?”

“Yes," she said, raising her heavy, sad eyes to mine.

“Well, Mary," I said, "the Lord bids you look unto Him, and live.”

“Does He? Oh, but I'm a poor, weak thing; and I know I'm a sinner, for I was taught that years ago at the school, and I feel it every day. But, there's none to care for me now, and I'm dying, and going I don't know where! Oh, what will become of poor Mary B—, the poacher's wife? “And in an agony of soul she rocked herself to and fro, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

I wept too; for I saw she had judged herself a-sinner, and that the Lord's time for blessing had come. I opened my Bible, and read from Num. 21:9: "And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." After reading this I said nothing, but waited upon God to apply His own would to that sin-stricken one, so near the end of her wilderness journey. A faint smile stole over her lips, and she whispered, "I'm just like one o' them. I've spoken against God, and said hard things of Him many a day when I was starving here and when my baby died; but there's nae serpent o' brass for me to look to now and there's naething but hell for me"; and again she wept.

I opened my Bible, and read John 3:14-17.

“Oh!" she said, clasping her hands together in intense relief, "is it true, is it true? Then I can die happy. He gave His Son for me, and I shall never perish! I know I am a sinner, but Jesus died just for the like o' me! Oh, thank ye, thank ye, for coming to me wi’ sic a message! “and 'she clasped my hand, and kissed it again and again.

Reader, I know not who you are, old or young, rich or poor; but this I know: if you have not accepted Christ you are a lost sinner going to endless woe, but there is salvation for you now, if you will have it, and, like poor Mary, take God at His word. You, too, can be saved this minute, if you rest upon the finished work of Him who gave His life for you.

The Three Aspects of Salvation

NOTES OF AN ADDRESS.

"Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:9.)

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you." (Phil. 2:12, 13.)

"The salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:5.)

1. PRESENT SALVATION. "Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." What an eternally momentous matter is the salvation of the soul! God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:7.) Though God only hath immortality, yet He is able to give immortality; thus man has perpetuity of existence, and must be either in glory forever with the Lord Jesus, or forever enduring the misery and torment of the lost!

And who can tell the unhappiness of a lost soul? Did not our adorable Lord most emphatically appeal to His hearers, saying, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36.) And yet how few seem to believe this? How seldom any are crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" Men know, as a fact of every day occurrence, that people die, and they arrange accordingly as to this life; but is not the old motto very common still, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die"? little thinking that after death is the judgment. But about the soul, how few seem concerned as to whether they are saved or lost! Worldly with this world's wealth; clothed with purple and advancement and ease, with its passing honors and attractions, seem, alas! too frequently the objects which engross the heart. Thus people pull down their barns, and build greater, saying to their souls, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But of such it is added," God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" (Luke 12:16-21.) How solemn this is, and yet how truly it portrays the condition of multitudes around us!

Nor does the picture end here; for our Lord did not leave His hearers in ignorance of the future miseries of a lost soul. He first referred to the ease, and pomp, and luxury of a man abounding with this world's wealth; clothed with purple and, fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day. All was suddenly stopped by the chilly hand of death. "The rich man died, and was buried.”

And what then? Had not his mortal remains been laid in a costly sepulcher? Had not many mourners followed his body to the grave? Had not wealth, and earthly honors, and all that man and means could do, been used to adorn the imposing funeral, and garnish the costly tomb?

But what then? While the body waits the resurrection of judgment, under the eye of Him who is "Lord both of the dead and of the living," where is the soul? Did not our Lord go on to announce the thrilling intelligence, that "in hell," yes, in the flames of hell, "he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom"? And, to give vent to his bitter anguish, "he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he nay dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." (Luke 16:19-24.)

This is the experience of a lost soul; and he is told that there is no comfort, no relief, no mitigation of his sufferings, and no escape from the torments of that flame.

“But this is only a picture," say some.

“gut a picture of what?" we reply. Surely nothing less than a divinely drawn illustration of the misery and suffering of those who have been seeking to gain the world, and have lost their own souls. This man obtained some of its "good things," no doubt; but he care for his body; he fed it sumptuously, and decked it with costly raiment. He cared not for his soul; and now he finds the torments of hell to be a never-ending reality. And we must never forget that God is able to destroy with never-ending destruction both body and soul in hell. What an immeasurable distance there is between a soul lost and a soul saved!

But, blessed be God, Jesus came from heaven to save, "to save sinners. (1 Tim. 1:15) This was the outflow of purest, sweetest love. He came to save, save fully and forever, the lost. To this end justice must be satisfied, the demands of infinite holiness met, righteousness accomplished, and God glorified, so that the Father's eternal purpose may be accomplished in having those who believe in Jesus as "sons before Him in love.”

Jesus, the Son of God, therefore came into the world, and died to save, so that, cleansed by His blood, and raised up with Him, and seated in Him in heavenly places, all who believe might be eternally secure. The grace of God thus brought salvation, and that too in its fullest, widest sense; though at present they receive by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the salvation of our souls. Their sins having been suffered for under the wrath of God by Jesus, and God having condemned sin in the flesh in Him who was made sin for us, and having given to them eternal life in Him risen and 'ascended, they are not only delivered, and that judicially in righteousness, from all guilt and condemnation, but have eternal life in the Son of God, who is now crowned with glory and honor.

All this has been done for us believers; the work has been accomplished, and we are saved in the way of faith. "Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." The finished work of Christ is the ground of faith; the word of God the warrant for faith; Christ Jesus, who was on the cross, but now in the glory; the object of faiths and the soul's salvation now received the end of faith. How blessed, then, it is to be a saved soul! not only securely sheltered from coming wrath, but to have the certainty of peace made, sins forgiven, of being born from above, and now a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus! What praise and worship are due to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for bringing to us this marvelous salvation!

2. Now let us consider the second sense in which this word salvation is used in Scripture "Work out your own salvation.”

When a person is saved, he finds himself surrounded by everything that is opposed to his soul's blessing. "The world lieth in the wicked one." "The flesh profiteth nothing." Satan, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, and men are often the instruments of his evil purposes. Hence the believer is exhorted to "work out his own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Peter said, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." (Acts 2:40.) Again, the Spirit says to the believer, "Let no man take thy crown." (Rev. 3:11.) "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Col. 2:8.) "Put off the old man, and put on the new." (Eph. 4:22-24). "Have no confidence in the flesh." (Phil. 2:3.) "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7.) Thus Christians are instructed to beware of men, to have no confidence in the flesh, to resist the devil, and to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. And surely these, and many other scriptures, show what snares and temptations surround the children of God, and what vigilance and strength they need to save them day by day from everything that would grieve the holy Spirit of God, dishonor the Lord Jesus, and damage their own souls.

It was to the Philippian saints that the apostle thus wrote to work out their own salvation. He addressed them as "saints in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:1.) They were very dear to the heart of Paul.

He calls them his "brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, his joy and crown." When he was with them at Philippi, he so cheered and instructed them, so fed their souls with the "sincere milk of the Word," that he says of them they "always obeyed." But now he was absent from them, they were cast upon God for daily strength, and grace, and vigilance. Being without apostolic care and oversight, he exhorts them to be faithful in their daily walk and conflict, to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and in doing so to realize the fact that, being God's children and His Spirit in them, "it is God that worketh in them, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

What can be more simple? And how destructive and blinding to apply such a scripture to the unconverted! As we have seen, it was addressed to saints. It was their own salvation which should exercise their hearts and consciences while passing through a scene entirely opposed to God, and having to grapple with things which dishonor the Lord and damage souls. For this, God was working in them. Being in Christ, and the Holy Ghost in them, born of God, children of God, they now had a power by which they could overcome; they could do all things through Christ which strengthened them. Hence they were exhorted to be imitators of Christ, to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, shining as lights in the world, and holding forth the Word Of life, etc. (Phil. 2:15,16.)

Thus we see that those who have received the salvation of their souls, and are waiting for the salvation or redemption of their bodies, are now recognized as passing through a world where they are to shine as lights, and to save themselves from the many snares which surround them; to do this, too, not in a presumptuous and self-confident spirit, hut "with fear and trembling," because it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. There is nothing, then, in this passage to justify the feeblest believer having any fear as to his security; for the people thus addressed are 'saints," and "in Christ Jesus"; that is, they have been "perfected forever" by the one offering of Christ; they have passed from death unto life; they are accepted in the Beloved, and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

3. We are waiting for "the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," "the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." This will be when the Lord comes. He will change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. (Phil. 3:21.) Having received the salvation of our souls, and saving ourselves day by day from what is contrary to the Lord's mind (in obedience to His word), we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nothing can be clearer. Everyone knows that redemption is not now applied to the body. The bodies of believers are not different from the bodies of unbelievers; but when Christ comes, the bodies of believers will be changed in a moment, and then translated. The apostle says, "We (believers) shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15:52-54).

What a glorious prospect! How great this salvation, and how perfect! All of God, and all of His grace. "For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." (Titus 2:3.) It is sweet, therefore, to see that our being bodily taken to glory to be with Christ, and like Christ forever, is all of the free favor, the rich, unmerited love of God to us. "We look," then, "for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ," and expect to be caught up to meet Him in the air, and taken bodily into the glory of God, and that entirely because God is rich in mercy in His great kindness tow and us in and through Christ Jesus.

And how full and simple is the testimony of Scripture about this! When it will take place we know not; but it is our unspeakable privilege to wait for God's Son from heaven. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds; to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall be ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4:16-18). What a triumphant future! What a great salvation!

But how appalling is the state of those who neglect this great salvation! They do not, perhaps, neglect to be virtuous, or kind, or to cultivate the proprieties of life, or respect for much that is called religion; but, alas! alas! they do neglect this great salvation. "How," says the apostle, "shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3.)

Oh, dear souls, if you continue to despise God's gospel, and refuse this great salvation, how can you escape being left behind for judgment when the Lord comes for His own? How can you escape the eternal miseries of the lost? How can you escape being banished from God's presence forever? Oh, that you may receive the Lord Jesus Christ now! know Him who was dead and is alive again as the object of faith! and then it may truly be said of you, that you receive "the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”

Salvation for the Guilty

Salvation for the guilty,

Salvation for the lost,

Salvation for the wretched,

The sad and sorrow-tossed.

Salvation for the aged,

Salvation for the young,

Salvation e'en for children,

Proclaim with joyful tongue;

Salvation for the wealthy,

Salvation for the poor,

Salvation for the lowly,

E 'en life for evermore.

Salvation without money,

Salvation without price,

Salvation without labor;

Believing doth suffice;

Salvation now, this moment '

Then why, oh! why delay?

You may not see to-morrow;

Now is salvation's day.

Jesus Only.

ON my way home one evening, I noticed that a building (called in this country a church) was brilliantly lighted up, Before I came to it a gentleman touched my arm, and said, "Will you come in to our service at the church?”

"No, thank you," I said.

"I can get you a seat close to the pulpit, if you will come in," said the gentleman.

"No, not to-night.”

"You had better come to-night," said he; "you may never have another opportunity.”

“No, thank you," I said; and I looked up to the Lord to have a word to say to this zealous one.

By this time we had arrived opposite the doors of the' church, and I noticed over the porch these words: "JESUS ONLY.”

I looked at the gentleman, and said, "I see you have 'Jesus only' outside your church, but have you 'Jesus only' inside?”

"Oh, come in," he repeated.

"But tell me, What is the way to be saved from the wrath to come?”

“You must believe in Jesus, enter the church, and lead an upright life.”

“Oh, then," I said, "it is not 'Jesus only.' I must enter the church, and lead an upright life besides. You see it is not 'Jesus only.'”

"No, no; not exactly," he replied.

And so we parted.

This passage came to my mind: "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12.) How sad it is, I thought, that they teach in that church that three things are necessary to salvation! We read nothing in the Scriptures about "entering the church," or "leading an upright life," as a means of salvation.

Every believer is a part of the true Church, "the Church of God," and should seek light from the Word of God as to what Christians he should associate with; but this not that he may be saved, but because he is saved. And surely, too, he should lead an upright life. But for salvation Jesus said, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24.)

How is it with you, my reader? Are you trying to be saved by three things, and two of them your own doing? Or will you let it be "Jesus only"? (Acts 16:31; 1 Thess. 1:10.)

“Jesus ONLY can impart

Peace of conscience, joy of heart;

"Jesus ONLY" can proclaim

Pardon through His blessed name.

“Jesus ONLY" can supply

Constant pleasure, lasting joy;

“JESUS ONLY" can remove

Every thought that makes us rove

“JESUS ONLY"; sweetest plea,

When the soul its state can see;

When its misery it can feel,

"JESUS ONLY" then can heals

“Jesus ONLY" every claim

We can make is in that Name;

Full salvation meets us there;

Elsewhere nothing but despair.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

The Somerset Gardener's Need

WE were walking together, H. and I, on our return from seeing an old saint, Mrs. P., in the little town of Uttoxeter, and were remarking on God's wonderful ways both of grace and discipline, when he began to tell me of his conversion.

Said he, "I was a-sitting in a public-house on the Lord's day afternoon, just as it might be this, drinking with my brother-i'-law, when something quite queer came o'er me which I couldn't get the better of (it was just eight) ears agone 22nd of last March), and I zays to him, ' I must go.'

“' Oh! don't, be in a hurry,' he zays; ' time enough.’

'" Nay,' I zags, ' I must go,' and off I went that minute, feeling all the way as if the ground would open of itself right under me.

“My wife lay i' th' hozpital just then, and thought her would die, and I'd die too, and we'd both go to, hell. Well, I felt so upset, I were fit for no work. I could not go to public-house as I had used to, and I said, Whatever can I do?

"At, last said must go to chapel, must go, an hear the gozpel.'

“So off I went to th' Wezleyans, but I didn't, get anything, I got no help; but it seemed to me that all on 'em seemed happy, and I wished I did. So I kept on going, again and again, and I spoke to some o' them, zays I, ‘I want Christ,' but none o’ them come to see me all the time I went, and for several weeks I got none on.

“But when I told the wile in th' hospital I'd been to chapel (she'd always w anted to lead a good life), she fairly seemed as it she'd jump out o' bed and be well directly, she were so well pleased; for, you know, I'd been one o' th' worst fellows as ever waz; drinking, swearing, fighting, and anything that w ere bad.

“At last she came home, and I said to her, 'I tell you what it is, I can't go on w the likes o' this, we must go home.' For I were at Briztol then, about fifteen miles from where I come from.

" So she zays, ‘Well, I think we'd better'; and next day we got a wagon, and put everything in; and when we got there I told all my companions as I couldn't go on wi' them any longer; and zure enough they couldn't tell whatever had come over I. But I'd got no peace, and were very unhappy. I could not go to work, I were so wretched, and I'd no rest in the house or out, neither night nor day! “At last, one day I zees Mr. M—, a Christian man, who I knowz visited at different cottages, and I said, ' Oh! do go and tell him to come and see I,' as I saw him comin' along down th' field.

“But he didn't want no telling, for he came straight to our place, because the Lord had sent him.

“So after he'd asked how we waz, I zays, 'Oh I want Christ, and Christ I must have!

“Poor fellow! he zays, just like that. So he sits down, and began readin' Scripture, first one and then another; and while he went on I was like Bunyan, you know, the load began to get looser and looser; but I'd not got rid of it yet.

“He saw what a sad case I was in, so he zays, You must come along tonight; we're going to have, a cottage preaching.'

"So I zays, Oh! I will indeed; for I want Christ, and I must have Him tonight.'

“So I went, and as I got in they were all standin' up, and singin' that hymn—

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

O Lamb of God, I come!

“When I heard that, I went right down on the floor azide o' th' sophy just like a bird as had been shot, and I zays, I've got Christ.'

“And I had too, there and then, for I saw as His blood had been shed for me! And a month alter that the Lord brought my dear wife in an' all, and it were such a change wi' uz as all the village knew; it was like heaven upon earth i' our house ex er since. Praise to His name!”

In such simple strains did dear H., the Somerset-shire gardener, tell his homely tale of the grace which had shone into his soul, the sovereign grace of God in laying hold of one of the worst men in the place to make him a striking trophy of mercy, illustrating, as it surely does, the word of the prophet, "I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me"; for, as he was sitting Over his cups in the ale-house, God stirred his hardened conscience, and suffered him thenceforth to get no quietude for his spirit until the blessing was his for eternity. And now in his little measure he is sucking to win souls to Christ by showing them o!' that great love of the Shepherd who went after His lost sheep until He found it; even in the alehouse Reader, dear reader, how is it with you? Have you ever so faced the dread reality of what it is to be a sinner, under the just judgment of a holy God, that you have cried out in the anguish of your soul, "I want Christ, and Christ I must have"? Mark how' in our little narrative (so different from mere humanly produced impressions, as evanescent as the morning cloud) the earnestness of dear H. on the contrary increased and intensified as he went on. He first said to “the Wesleyans, “I want Christ and Christ I mast have"; at length he added, “I must have Him TONIGHT. It showed how really it was the work o! the Spirit of God; and the Lord gave him the blessing according to his faith.

May He Himself, he is so in earnest for the salvation of souls, make you, my reader, in real earnest, too, that the blessing may be yours from this time forth forever.

W. R.

How Three Souls Passed Into Eternity

“GOOD morning, Miss —. How are you today?”

“Oh! very tired. I seem always to feel tired." "What a blessed thing it is to know that there remaineth a rest for the people of God," I replied.

“Oh! if I could only know that I should be happy.”

The one to whom I was speaking (a lady in a business house) was at that moment called away. Knowing that I was a child of God, and that there remained a rest for me, I longed that she might know and rejoice in the same blessed Saviour as myself.

I went home, and picking out two books, sent them, hoping that God might be pleased to use them for her blessing, as they pointed to Christ.

The weeks passed on, and one day she returned the books and thanked me, and to my sorrow asked me to buy some tickets for a concert. I could not get her to talk about Christ, and I did not want to talk, about the concert, so we parted.

Shortly after I heard she was gone, had died suddenly; and those words rang in my ears, "Oh! if I could only know!" Had she allowed Satan to rob her for all eternity for the sake of the pleasures of this world?

Reader, have you ever thought, "If I could only know about eternity?" You may, and know this minute, if you will take to yourself, a sinner, the blessed salvation that God is offering through the 'finished work of His Son.

"Will you come and see my sister? The doctor gives us no hope that she will ever get better. She is very ill.”

“Yes," I replied, "I will come gladly"; and the following day found me beside one of the saddest sights I had ever seen. A young woman, almost a skeleton, the disease from which she was suffering having gone very far, and it was evident that her days were numbered.

“It is good of you to come," she said. "I wanted to see someone, and I know you, though I don't expect you remember me. I came to the Meeting Room where you go about nine months ago, and something came over me while listening to the preaching. I never knew what a sinner I was before, and I did enjoy the singing; but I came home and tried to shake it off, and I did. Now I am dying; but I am not ready. Can you tell me xl hat to do?”

My heart went up to God in thanksgiving that through His blessed Son I could tell her that all had been done. I told her the story of the cross, and asked her to look at her own heart to see there all the sin that made her unfit for God's presence, and then at the grace that had brought the Son of God to the cross to put it away.

She saw it all. She believed it and rejoiced in it. A few days after she said to me, "I wish I had come that night in the meeting. I know I am saved; but oh! my wasted life!”

Soon after, she departed to be with Christ.

A third scene. A dear old woman, well known for her love to the Lord by those of His own brought in contact with her, dying. Can I call it dying? Rather, let me say going home. The way home was through great bodily suffering. Seeing she was trying to speak, I put my ear close o her mouth and heard these words: "I have always been fond of that scripture, I have loved thee with an everlasting, love.' Now I am proving it.”

The next day she knew more about it, for she went to be with the One who had so loved her.

Reader, your last moment on this earth will come. Are on prepared to tiled God? What would your death-bed be? Think! If you are in health and strength, remember, it is only for a season. Something will send you into eternity.

If you are trusting in Christ alone, and know on are saved by Him, are you living for Him? Don't let it be "a wasted life," but live for Him who is worthy of our all.

But if you have learned that everything but Christ is nothing, rejoice, for He has loved thee with an everlasting love.

F. C. C.

How the Change Comes

THE gospel is still the power of God unto salvation. The same power which raised Christ from the dead brings sinners to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It gives spiritual life to the dead, imparts peace to the tormented conscience, delivers from the love, of sin and unholy associations, and makes the soul happy and at rest in the presence of God. Thus a vast change is produced.

You may, perhaps, have seen a drowning man just taken out of the water in a state of senselessness and in animation. The anxious standers feel for the pulse in vain; they place their ears to the mouth, and watch and listen with breathless silence for that bosom once more to heave a sigh; they move the eyelids, but all sense of light seems extinguished; they call aloud, yet not a single feature moves in response.

But powerful remedies are used, and in a little while the apparently lifeless form moves, the features beam with happy intelligence, and fully manifest every faculty of vigor and animation. How great the change! How powerful the remedies! What a vast alteration in the person! Yet this is but a feeble illustration of the power of the gospel of God in those who pass from death unto life.

Those who preach should look for decided effects, and those who hear would do well to consider whether the gospel has wrought a mighty change in them. Why has it not? Because they have not believed. They have heard that Christ shed His blood for the remission of sins, but they have not believed on Him; for the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that beliveth." "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"; but it is not hearing about Christ only, but believing on Christ, that is the way of salvation; not merely knowing, as some say, "the plan of salvation," hut coming to Christ to be saved, that makes the power of the blessed gospel to he experienced in the soul.

H. H. S.

We are to accept salvation from God, because He has accepted satisfaction from Christ.

Boldness in the Day of Judgment.

A FEW months ago, when visiting a young man who was evidently on his death-bed, I felt some difficulty in reaching his conscience, though he professed to be a believer in Christ, and prepared to die.

Those who were nearly related to him, and had the greatest personal interest in him, endeavored to confirm his words with an "Oh, yes, dear D— is prepared.”

With the best intention, no doubt, this was said; the friend was anxious to soothe his mind and keep him quiet, and to make me feel satisfied with his condition. But the religion of the friend was of the same character as his own: generally religious, attentive to the prescribed system of the religious duties of their denomination; but knowing little of sin, or of deliverance from it through the death of Christ, or of the place which the cross gives. (Rom. 5:1.)

This is the religion of unsuspecting, unconcerned thousands; and most difficult to deal with. There is nothing clearly defined or fixed in the mind. There is a general belief in Christ, in His cross, in being religious, in belonging to some church; but there is nothing definite to lay hold on. And the world, it will be found, has a large place in the hearts of such. It has never been judged in the sight of God; indeed, it is a common saving with many that, "It is right to enjoy the world in a reasonable way." But that reasonable way extends to the bent of their own inclination, and is measured by their own thoughts and desires, not by the word of God. This is far, far away from the religion of Christ; it is like another religion altogether, and it is most difficult to touch the consciences of such professors, their lives being outwardly blameless, and their religious duties being fairly attended to.

After some conversation, I at length said to the dying young Marl, 'Were the Lord to take you away, dear D— and you to stand before the judgment-seat of God, what would you say of yourself?'

The dear youth simply answered, "I would say, I am a poor sinner” no doubt thinking this the most humble and proper thing to say of himself.

“But the judgment-seat," I said to him, "has no mercy or pardon for sinners; it could only condemn such, This would be the right thing to say before the cross, but not before the judgment-seat.

If we place a plumb-line against a crooked wall it does not make it straight, but only shows its crookedness. Christ is God's standard, and none can be approved before His tribunal who are not as absolutely perfect as Christ.”

This led to a conversation on the subject of the cross and the judgment-seat, which I need not attempt to repeat, but would only add a few words for the sake of those who survive the dear, amiable young mail, who is now, I trust, resting with the Lord in the paradise above.

The sinner is in his right place when before the cross where God is judging sin in the holy, sinless, Sufferer. It is only there we can learn its evil and malignant nature, and how impossible it is for God to overlook the least stain of sin.

When the sense of sin has thus reached the conscience, the sinner feels that without Christ he is lost forever. But while the cross reveals God's hatred of sin, it also reveals His love to the sinner; if His righteousness condemns sin, His love provides a Saviour for the sinner. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16.) This grand foundation gospel text is divinely fitted to meet the whole condition of the individual sinner, and of all mankind. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of, God.... There is no difference." And the more deeply we feel the sense of sin, and how unbearable it is to God, the more deeply shall we feel the greatness of His love in giving the blessed Jesus to die in our stead. (John 3:16; Rom. 3:22, 23.)

But here God will have reality; the conscience must be exercised; it is more than an intellectual conclusion, more than a vague, general, apprehension of the "gospel plan," and being satisfied 'therewith. There must be definiteness of thought and personal conviction. Sin is a reality; holiness is a reality; the death of Christ is a reality; and the sours exercise must be a reality.

Not that pardon and salvation depend upon any process through which we must pass; for we read that the look of faith saves the soul. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for am "God, and there is none else." (Isa. 45:22.) It is is not said that we shall be saved for looking, or after looking, but in looking; as in the case of the serpent-bitten Israelites. "And if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' (Num. 21) Not merely was he cured, but lived a new life in the very circumstances of death. The blessed Lord applies the same truth in John 3 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life." (Joh. 3:14.)

At the same time, while we rejoice in the glorious freeness of the gospel, We must still affirm that the sinner cannot be too deeply exercised about his sins before God, or in too close quarters with Him as to his guilt. If he has not this kind of exercise before he is saved, he must have it afterward. Without it we Could not appreciate the love of God in the gift of His Son, or the value of the Saviour's blood. It was this that led David to cry out in the bitterness of his soul: "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and clone this evil in Thy sight." (Psa. 2:1.) He lost sight, for the moment, of those against whom he had so grievously sinned, and saw his sin only against God. And this is the sure way of receiving the immediate forgiveness of all our sins. As David further says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (v. 7.) We must be whiter than snow to be approved before the judgment-seat of God.

But there is no question, blessed be God, when the sinner stands before the cross, as to the amount of his guilt. Grace meets him: the rich, free grace of God meets him without a question, and says, "Thy sins," not may, or will be, but "are forgiven." The sinner may be an old transgressor, like the thief on the cross; or he may be in youthful years; the one may owe fifty and the other five hundred pence, but both are "frankly forgiven." (Luke 7:41, 42.) Every case of conversion we read of in the New Testament clearly proves this, and the most hopeless case of all, the thief on the cross, is the finest conversion on record. This is grace, the grace of God, on the ground of the work of Christ to the chief of sinners. Without a word of reproach he is assured of being with Jesus that very day in paradise. And so it was with the father and his prodigal son: without a word of reproach, without a reference to the past, the father fell on the prodigal's neck, and kissed him. The heart was too full for utterance. Words would have been poor indeed, compared with, that silent kiss of peace, and with the ring, the pledge and seal of eternal love. (Luke 15)

But how is it, some may ask, that God can thus receive the sinner without any reference to the past?

The cross alone explains this. Redemption was fully accomplished there; every requirement of heaven, and every need of the sinner, were fully and perfectly met in the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. "It is finished," were His last words in testimony on the cross; so that God is just, and righteous, while He is the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus. (John 14:30; Rom. 3:26.)

When the sinner comes before God as a true believer in the precious blood of Christ, which was shed on the cross, and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, what can God say to him? Were He to condemn him for the past, that would be to deny His own word and the efficacy of the blood. What then will He say to him; what will He do with him? He will receive him in the full credit of the Person and work of His beloved Son; and that means, He will meet him with all that is due to Christ Himself! Oh, wondrous, vast, measureless blessing! To be blessed with all that is due to Christ'.

His place in heaven and His welcome there life, His righteousness, His dignity, His honors, and His glories as the risen and exalted Man, are all ours in Him, and that forever and ever. Amen! Amen! cries responsive faith. The heart is broken and healed, and bows in the melting’s of worship, adoration, and praise.

And this, too, observe, dear reader, is the-righteousness of God. Most truly it is mercy, wondrous mercy; grace, boundless grace; compassion, deep compassion; but God is pleased to call it His righteousness: "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all [set before all] and upon [actually upon] all them that believe: for there is no difference." (Rom. 3:22.), And again, as the apostle says, "We pray you in. Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21.) Surely the righteousness of God is a divine title to the glory of God, and this we most plainly have in Christ.

But if the reader will turn to 1 John 4:9-17 he will have the cross and the judgment-seat before him in a plain and most blessed way. In verses 1 John 4:9, 10, we have the cross, its immediate results, and the love of God as the source of all our blessing— "In this was manifested the' love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Here we have "life" and "propitiation." By the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, all that was ours as children of the first Adam, was put away. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Heb. 9:26.)

“Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." (Rom. 6) That means, the whole system of sin in which we stood is destroyed, judicially, vet absolutely to faith.

We have also life through His death on the cross. "That we might live through Him." He gave Himself for us. Not merely His blood or His life, but Himself. Thus it is all glory to God All that was ours, as guilty and ruined sinners, He put away; and all that is His as risen and glorified, He makes ours, as the fruit of God's love, and on the ground of accomplished righteousness. When this is clearly seen, we shall not be surprised, or find any difficulty, with verse 17, which says, "Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the clay of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world." Surely, if He has put away all that was ours; and has given us all that is His, we must be as He is; we could not be anything else. And this is true to faith now, though still encompassed with many infirmities, and surrounded with the evil of this world; and the blessed Lord in the very center of heaven's brightest glory! yet the marvelous truth remains the same, "As He is, so area e in this world.”

This is true preparation for a sick-bed, a deathbed, the judgment-seat, or for the Lord's coming to take us up collectively to be with Himself. There is nothing vague or indefinite in the word Of God. All truth is absolute and positive.

The intelligent believer can say, "As Christ is in glory, so am I, though still in the world.”

He may be feeble and suffering, poor and needy, or active and vigorous in service, and surrounded with innumerable mercies, but the truth remains unchanged and unchangeable: "As He is so are we in this world." This alone gives boldness in the Day of Judgment.

Oh, that all who read this paper may la) these truths seriously to heart! Nothing less will secure a happy eternity! But what must that heaven be when all are perfect as Christ, and one with Him in His dignities and glories! All that we were as guilty sinners, root and branch, the cross has completely taken away; all that Christ is as the risen and glorified Man is made ours through faith in Him.

We Katie something like an explanation or definition of faith in John 3:33: "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." The testimony, or word of God, is the ground of faith. When the sinner receives God's word as sure and certain truth, just because it is His word, he honors God with the confidence of his heart; he sets to his seal that God is true. He has faith. He believes God. Repose fills the soul. He wants no higher authority. He now, as it were, countersigns the divine document, and the affairs of his soul are settled forever. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 11:17.) If the object is right, the faith cannot be wrong. Divine faith is faith in the divine testimony. Thus a link is formed through faith between the soul and God, a link that shall endure for ever; the word of God is His eternal bond.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1.5. 1 John 4:8, 16, 1 John 4:9.

The Ways of God in Grace

AMONG the many scenes of the past, over which memory loves to dwell, there are none that awaken such tender recollections, or that have a more permanent place in the mind, than the ways of God in grace with precious souls; and just because they are in grace, their fruit will remain and be enjoyed forever. Some I well remember, and love to recall. Death or distance may have separated the chief actors in those scenes, but they will all meet again, and meet to remember the ways of God in grace, and celebrate His praise forever.

After the preaching, on one occasion, while numbers were still lingering, and little companies in conversation throughout the large hall, a man touched me on the shoulder, and said, " Would you come and speak to a poor old man who is sitting alone there by the side of the wall? He seems in great distress about his soul.”

On looking round, I saw the man, and said,” will speak to him immediately,” But before I could leave those I was talking to, he had come to where I was. He was indeed both old and poor, and bore every mark of both. But the tears that rolled down his deeply furrowed face made all about him interesting. There is something especially touching in the conversion of an old man, and still, more in a neglected looking, helpless old man. Re could scarcely speak for emotion. With difficulty he exclaimed, in answer to some question I asked him about his soul, “Oh! I feel as if I could fall down on that floor, and praise God that I am not in the flames of hell to-night.”

“And do you believe," I said," that He has saved YOU from these burning flames now?”

“Oh yes, oh! yes; but I never thought I should be saved. Oh what shall I say? I know now that Jesus died for me, the greatest sinner that ever was; and I am saved; but I never thought I should be saved.”

Believing that God had indeed met the poor old man in the riches of His mercy, I wanted to know a little about him, and why he had thought he never should be saved.

He told me that he had been an agricultural laborer, and that he used to be very passionate, and to swear dreadfully; that he was very ignorant, and did not understand anything about the Bible; and that being such a wicked man, he thought he never could be saved.

“And what are you doing now?" I asked him.

He said he was too old and feeble to do a day's work now; but he stood about the streets, and was ready to go a message for any one, and got a few coppers in that way.

While I was talking to the poor old man, in rushed, at the front door of the hall, a girl about the age of sixteen. "Oh," she exclaimed, as if out of breath, “I was half-way home, but I felt so sorry that I had not spoken to you, that I came running hack. I wanted to tell you that I have found peace with God to-night, and I am so happy: no doubts or fears now; but I have to be at home by — o'clock, and I must run.”

“Stand," I said," stand one moment by the side of this old man, that I may thank the Lord for His rich blessing to you both.”

This was a sight never to be forgotten. The old agricultural laborer, withered, worm leaning on his staff; and the fresh, brisk young maiden: God's rich, sovereign, marvelous grace had fully, and at the same moment met both, met the soul-need of both.

To the human eye, how wide the difference! Who would care for the old farm-laborer now? Nay, rather, who would speak to him? His long, shaggy, gray hair; his unwashed smock-frock; altogether the very picture of old age and want; who would not hurry past him?

God only could linger over such an old man, and shield him with the covert of His wing; pardon his many sins; cleanse him by the blood of Jesus; make him whiter than snow, and fit him for the brightest scenes of heavenly glory. But who can speak of this grace? What had he done to deserve it? The poor man knew but little, but he knew enough to convince him that he only deserved the flames of hell forever. He was not self-righteous; he knew the end of such a life as his. And I have always found that such characters are more easily convinced of sin, and have fewer difficulties to overcome in receiving the truth of the gospel, than the merely religious, well-to-do, church-going people. Like the publicans and harlots of old, they enter the kingdom of heaven before the self-righteous Pharisees.

How encouraging to the heart and strengthening to the faith of the preacher are such instances of God's sovereign grace! But the precious blood of the slain Lamb has been sprinkled or the mercy-seat, God is glorified, and waits to receive all who come in the faith of that blood. The poor, old, ignorant, wicked, worn-out laborer, or the moral maiden, are alike welcome, pardoned, and saved, through faith in the gospel.

But what shall be done to those who refuse to believe, who refuse such a free invitation, who despise such rich provision for the soul? The judgment will surely answer to the guilt. God, in righteousness, will estimate the guilt and award the punishment. But why, why not, O careless, Christless soul, why not believe now that Christ bore the judgment of sin in His own body on the tree, and bore it that thou mightest be free, be saved forever? Believe, believe now; receive the truth; rest in Christ; rejoice in Him. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36.)

Splendid Sins.

I "DO the best I can"; or, "I hope to do, better," are expressions which we often hear when speaking to persons about their souls.

It is the natural thought of a proud heart to do something for salvation. Many are so very ignorant, that they think that though some of their works are bad, yet that others are good, and that God will put the bad works into one scale, and the good ones into the other, and that if the good works preponderate, they will be saved; but if the bad works preponderate, they will be lost. Of course, such persons always flatter themselves that their good works will outweigh the bad, and are thus deceived.

Others compare themselves with their neighbors, and think that they stand as good a chance as most, and a better chance than some; therefore they find no cause for fear.

Again, there are not a few to be found who have so addicted themselves to religious exercises, so diligently attended to various forms, and so regularly observed certain ordinances, as to trust to their Christianity as being of sufficiently good quality to ensure them heaven.

But all such false refuges arc leveled by one sentence of the Scriptures, that salvation is "NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:9.) It is clear, that if a person could be saved by his own' doings, those who think that they have attained to the required amount might reasonably boast over those who have not. But the apostle asks, "Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Rom. 3:27, 28.)

It is a delusion, then, to trust to works of any kind for salvation, and, as we have seen, utterly condemned by the word of God. Besides, it is clear that if man could have done one thing that God could accept at his hands, he could do more, and Christ need not have come into the world to save. Therefore we find the apostle saying, that “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. 2:21.)

Alas! what a fatal mistake some are making.

How often we are met by those who appear to be living proudly on their works. It was well said by an' old Christian, that “man’s good works are only splendid sins. "The fact is, that" a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." A man must be born again before he can render to God acceptable service. He must have eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, before he can rise above the atmosphere of bringing forth “fruit unto death.'' (Rom. 7:5.)

It is humbling to be obliged to take the place of utterly unclean, and thoroughly undone, before God; the whole head sick, and the whole heart faint; to confess, that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head we are full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. (Isa. 1) Such however, is the case; and well it is for those who acknowledge it to be their condition before God; for " the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. 8:7.)

It may be that some will admit that this is the condition of many, but that such persons are capable of being improved, and that by moral training, reformation, and religious duties, may become such good people that, after a well-spent life of usefulness and benevolence, they will die happy, and be found worthy of heaven.

This, however, is a fatal error, entirely opposed to the word of God, and most dishonoring to Christ; it denies that man is a fallen creature, and is infidel in its very essence. Our Lord's words to Nicodemus are applicable to such: "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God '' (John 3:3); or the testimony of an inspired apostle:" They that are in the flesh cannot please God." “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Rom. 3:20; 8:8.) Nothing can more thoroughly expose the folly of putting a patch upon the old garment of fallen humanity, or of going about to establish a righteousness in the flesh, or of doing anything to make oneself acceptable with God. Salvation is therefore "NOT OF WORKS.”

How blessed it is to see God interposing in grace to meet us in this low estate. His arm of power and heart of mercy brought salvation to us while we were enemies and without strength. Love, love to sinners, originating in God, is the spring of all our blessing: "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8.)

The death of Jesus the Son of God on the cross shows us how richly and suitably God met us when in our guilt and helplessness. It brought us everything, and demanded nothing. It manifested that God is for the sinner, and not against him; hating and condemning sin, but (oh how wondrous!) condemning our sin in His own Son, that we might come into His holy presence in the fullest peace and confidence. Precious truth! God in Christ the Saviour of the sinner, the Justifier of the ungodly who believe; as it is written, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom. 4:5)

So long as an anxious soul fails to perceive that he cannot be saved by woks of any kind, but simply and entirely through Christ, he will be constantly making efforts in the flesh, he will be struggling like a drowning man to save himself, instead of clinging to the life-boat by his side. He will turn from one set of duties or ordinances to another, but he will not get rest until he receives Christ for his Saviour, and wholly renounces himself and his doings. The more he knows of Jesus and His finished work, the more he discovers that God has not only fathomed the depths of his evil heart, but fully met his case in every respect.

The following incident, related to me by a servant of Christ, illustrates the subject: "A friend of mine was a very good swimmer, and he had a companion who also was a good swimmer. They both swam so well that there was always a little question as to which was really the better.

“One morning my friend said, I Is ill swim out to that buoy, and go round it, and come back again.

“His companion said, So will I.'

“Well my friend went out, swam round the buoy, and came back again as fresh as possible. Then his friend started, and got just out to the buoy, when his strength failed, and he began to paddle the water.

“Those on shore saw him, and said, He is playing'; but others said, No, he is drowning.' And presently they heard faint cries of Help! help!’

“Going up to my friend, I said, He is drowning; can't you save him?

"When my friend saw he really was drowning, he swam out to him; and just as he came near, his head began to sink, but still he continued to beat the water.

“Now,' said my friend, you're drowning, leave off beating the water'; but still he kept on at it, and in reality, instead of helping him to keep above water, it was sending him under.

“Aly friend said, Now, you must promise me one thing, that you ill leave off doing anything yourself, and then I will save you.'

“But still he kept beating the water.

“My friend swam round him, and said, You're drowning, you're drowning; leave off doing anything, and I will save you.'

“After a long time, when the poor fellow saw he was only drowning himself, he gave up doing anything, and my friend came over to him, and said, Now you have given up trying to save yourself I will save you. Put your hand on my shoulder.'

“He did so, and then he was taken to land safely.”

Happy are those who can reckon all their righteousness as filthy rags, all their wisdom as foolishness, all their fancied strength as real weakness in the sight of God, and simply trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation! These are they who have joy and peace in believing, and their desire and aim is to serve God, to honor Christ, and wait For His coming again. They have present peace, and happy fellowship with God; they render willing service, and rejoice in hope of His glory. (Rom. 5:1.)

Someone may say with Paul. “I am the chief of sinners; I have sinned with a high hand." Well, if you have, you need not wait another minute without being able to join Paul in saying," But the Lord had mercy on me." Can you say it? If this hour were to he the hour of your departure, could you say," I am a subject of His mercy, for Christ died for me, and I believe it Christ is mine, and I know it"? (1 Tim. 1:15, 16).

Do you complain of coldness and deadness, and say you cannot believe? The reason is, you do not go to the truth, the very thing to be believed; you do not go down upon the Rock, the truth; not so much in books, or sermons, or services, but in His Word, where God speaks to you for salvation. Oh! fix your faith on the immutable Word of God, and you are a believer, and have peace in belies in (Rom. 4:23-25, 1).

The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's gift for lost sinners, that moment you are eternally saved; saved from your sins; saved with an everlasting salvation; the One you believe in is the One vs he has saved you (Acts 4:12; 13:23, 39).

The Lost Soul or, Christ Rejected

LOST! lost! and lost forever!

You shrink from the words, and say, Oh! but can it be? Is it a reality? Did you see that soul go down into hell before your eyes, and you had no power to save her? Did you hear her death-cries of agony, and still could do nothing for her?

Yes! yes! it was a terrible reality never to be forgotten by me; and though it is years since, I seldom can think of it without weeping, and the remembrance of it has often sent me with a word of warning to others; and this terrible death scene of which I was an eye witness has often brought from me the cry, "Escape for thy life.”

The story of A., the rejecter of Christ, is no phantom of some fevered imagination; it is no wrought up story to work upon your feelings, and fill you with horror; but may the Lord use it to show you that death is a reality; that hell is a reality; and you, sinner, have to meet both if you reject Christ.

It was in the autumn of 18—, we went to reside in a little villa near—. It was one of a cluster of villas looking upon the distant hills.

Some time after we had come there, a gay young couple came to live next door, and we had watched with some little interest the preparations for their arrival.

A few days after this, I saw the lady walking along the footpath near our windows. She was young, and her dress and bearing marked her as one of the world's chosen ones. As her graceful form passed up and down the shrubbery, I was struck with the delicacy of her appearance and a look of unrest upon her fair young face that told its own tale, No peace! no peace! My heart rose in silent prayer to God, that He might send me a message to her soul.

Next cloy I called. On asking for Mrs.—, the servant told me she was ill, but she thought she would see me. I went in and soon found myself in earnest conversation with Mrs.—.

Her tale was soon told, for she was unreserved and very communicative; finding it, as she said, a great comfort to have any one to speak to, to break the monotony of a country life' in the absence of her husband, who was all day engaged with business.

During my visit she frankly told me that though only a few months married, and her heart thoroughly occupied with the world in every form, its ball-rooms, its concerts, its parties, yet she was very unhappy; and, in a simple child-like way, she said, "We have been watching you and your husband pass up and down, and we think you look so happy!”

The moment had come: I thanked God for the opportunity to speak, and said, "You are right, we are happy; and the secret of our happiness is, we know Christ; we have peace with God, through believing in the finished work of Christ; and we have in Him what the world has never given you, and never can give you; for the end of all its joys is eternal misery.”

As I pressed upon her the necessity of conversion, tears rolled down her cheeks, and she said, "But no one ever told me that before: is it all true?”

"Yes," I answered, “for God's word declares to us, Ye must be born again,' and, Except ye be converted ... ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'" I pressed upon her the necessity of accepting Christ now, and rose to leave.

Slowly and solemnly she said, "Well, I would like to have your Christ, but I love the world; and though I am often unhappy, yet I could never give up my dancing; and you know,'' she said, as a hollow smile played upon her lips," I sing at private concerts, and they say, A.'s voice is the best voice there.”

I shuddered! A little of the world's praise is more to thee, fair A., than the unsearchable riches of Christ. I said, "Remember, they that reject Christ here, will have to spend eternity in hell.”

A few days after this, on returning from a walk, I found Mrs.— had called. I hastened to return her visit, and found her more miserable than before. Struggling to assume a gaiety she did not feel, she met me by saying, "Oh let me tell you about the concert I am to sing at next week.”

“Stop," I said, "there will be no singing in hell!

“Oh," she said," don't speak in that way, I cannot bear it; speak of your Jesus if you like, but not of hell!”

Again I told her of His love for sinners, but her mind was full of her coming concert, her dress, her songs, etc. And as I parted from her, very sad, she said, "When the concert is over I will come and talk to you.”

But weeks passed and she came not.

We were leaving our country home for a time, so I called to say goodbye, and pressed once more upon her the salvation of her precious soul; but she was swamped in a whirlpool of coming gaiety, and had no time for Christ.

It was months before we returned home, and almost immediately I was laid upon a bed of sickness, from which I was just recovering when a message came to me one morning from Mrs.—, whom I had not seen since my return. "Do come at once, I wish to see you.”

I rose quickly, and dressed, and soon found myself at her door. It was opened by a sister, w he said, "Oh! come in; A. is very ill, and is very anxious to see you.”

With noiseless footsteps I went upstairs to her room. Gently I opened the door of that half-darkened chamber, and, oh shall I ever forget the sight! There, on the bed, lay A., in the ravings of fever; her infant son, a few weeks old, on a little bed by her side. Her graceful form was racked by pain, her masses of dark tangled hair lay on the pillow, the dew of death was on her brow; and, as her large dark eyes opened and saw me, her parched and blackened lips parted, and she almost screamed, "Oh! you have come at last; now do not leave me." And sitting up in bed, she grasped me with a strength that only fever gives.

“Have you sent for the doctor?" I whispered to her sister.

“No," said A., wildly, hearing me, "he will only tell me I am very ill, and you know I must be at the choral meeting next week. I am to sing at the concert." And so saying, she fell back on her pillow in a swoon. I pointed to her sister to take my place, and hurried from the room.

In a few minutes my husband was off for the doctor. It seemed long till he carne; never shall I forget that hour, while anxiously listening for his footsteps. I bathed the burning brow, and pleaded with her to let me cut off the tangled web of her once lovely hair; and as she again half swooned, I did so, hearing her murmur all the time, "But the concert! how can I go to the concert without my hair? and it was so beautiful!

Oh they said A.'s hair was so beautiful!”

At last I heard the doctor's hurried footsteps on the stair, and left the room. As he came out I met him; his anxious face told all. “Doctor, is she dying?”

“Yes, dying fast; but don't tell her! I am going for another doctor, but I know it's too late.”

And giving me a few hurried orders about his patient, he left me, with his words ringing in my ears, "Dying fast! don't tell her!”

Yes, I must tell her, was my resolve, for she is unsaved, and does not know it. I could only look up in agony and say, "O God, help me to speak to her!”

The doctor had told me to give her champagne and brandy every quarter of an hour, till he returned. She heard the order, and asked for it whenever I entered the room. Drinking it down she exclaimed, “Oh! I can live a quarter of an hour upon that. Surely I am not dying?”

“Yes, A.," I said," you are dying; but I can tell you of One who died to save just such as you.”

Gently I told her in very simple words of that One who met the prodigal in the far off land; and the dying thief upon the cross; but she almost threw me from her, and said, "I cannot hear it now. When I get better I'll come and sit with you, and hear about your Jesus; but not now.”

And again she swooned.

I prayed, oh! as I had never prayed before, and as I rose from my knees I found her large dark eyes, already glazed by the hand of death, fixed upon me. "Oh!" she said, "pray to your Jesus, He will hear you; but I don't know Him, and I cannot hear about Him now.”

Eagerly I asked, “What shall I pray to Him for, A.?

Horror filled me as I heard her answer, "Pray to Him that I may get well, and go to the concert.”

Again I pleaded with her about her soul; but it was no use. She had rejected Christ all her life, and she would not have Him now. Hours passed, and the doctors came, only to say, "Sinking fast!" Her husband and friends arrived to see the end of the fair A., and I would fain have left a scene so terrible; but she held me in her grasp.

Every quarter of an hour as I gave her her draft she said, "Oh! I can live upon that; it, must make me live; I cannot die! '' And then in plaintive accents she wailed out," I am too young to die; yes, I'm only, twenty-one; yes too young to die!”

"Father," she said, as her father drew near the bed, "will you take me to the concert next week?”

"Yes," said her father, "I will.”

I was a stranger to her friends, and seeing she was sinking fast, I passed away from a scene so awful. In a few moments all was over, and the soul of A., THE REJECTER OF CHRIST, had passed from the world and its pleasures, its balls, and its concerts, into the realities of an endless eternity.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.'

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

The Right Direction at Last!

SOME time since I heard from the lips of a young friend of mine, residing at that time in Ireland, a very interesting statement of the circumstances of his conversion and as it is not unlikely that his case may illustrate the real condition of many readers, I feel led to record it.

My young friend had been trained, from his earliest days, in strict morality, but without one spark of light as to Jesus and His salvation. His religion was cold and dreary. He had nothing to meet the need of the soul. The atmosphere in which he lived was intensely worldly. To make money was the grand object of his parents and friends.

It pleased the Lord, however, to visit this precious soul with the convicting grace of His Holy Spirit. He became really anxious about his eternal interests, and, in his anxiety, he thought he would seek for some spiritual advice from a Christian friend.

Accordingly, he went to his friend, and opened his heart to him. He told him of his exercises, and asked him what he ought to do.

“Well," said this friend, "you can do nothing. All your efforts are useless. You must just wait until God's time comes, and then, but not until then, you will get what you are seeking.”

My young friend inquired how' long he might have to wait; but this, of course, his adviser could not tell; who could?

Nov, there was a measure of truth in this advice; but it was truth entirely out of place. To use a medical figure, the prescription was good enough in itself, but it was not suited for the case, and, consequently, gave the patient no relief whatever. The spiritual adviser was wholly unfit to deal with an exercised soul. He prescribed theology, in place of ministering Christ. Alas! alas! this is too often the case.

Well, my poor young friend was as unhappy as ever; and he thought that he would betake himself to another physician belonging to a totally different school of medicine.

He did so, and opened his heart to him, and asked him what he should do to be saved.

“Oh!" said he, "you must knock. ‘Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'”

“How long am I to knock?" inquired my friend.

Of course, no one can tell that. He must just continue knocking; and, in due time it should be opened.

Here, again, we see misplaced truth. No doubt, it is all quite right, for those who want to get in, to knock at the door; but is this the advice to give to an anxious inquirer after salvation? Is such a one to be told either to wait, in dark uncertainty, on the one hand, or to knock, in hopeless effort, on the other? Are there no glad tidings to declare to poor anxious souls? Has the Son of God died on the cross, and finished there the work of redemption, merely to leave a soul waiting or knocking? For what have I to wait, or to knock? Has not Jesus finished the work? Yes; blessed be His name, all is done, and hence both these spiritual counselors' were defective in their advice, and they left their friend as miserable as they found him. He assured me that he continued for three years knocking, and got nothing.

At length he went to a third adviser, and he at once told him, “You are all wrong together. You have neither to wait nor to knock, but simply to believe, and be saved; saved on the spot; saved forever.”

Blessed news! Precious tidings! How welcome to a poor, harassed soul, just emerging out of a cold, dreary, misty formalism, and perplexed by the conflicting counsel of theological advisers.,

to be told, on God's authority, that all is done, that sin has been put away, that salvation is as free as the air he breathes, free as the sunbeams that fall upon his path, free as the dewdrops that refresh the earth, or as the perfume that emanates from the hedge-rows.

My dear young friend drank in the gladsome message. He found peace. He was set free. The “waiting" and the "knocking" gave place to a joyous "believing." He found Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. (1 Cor. 1:30.) He grasped by faith the precious casket, and found therein all he wanted for time and eternity.

“Salvation in that Name is found,

Cure for my grief and care;

A healing balm for every wound;

All, all I want is there.”

Are You Indeed Saved for All Eternity

BY trade a printer's compositor, working in London, John Brooks early proved the severity of the divine sentence passed upon man after his first disobedience and transgression: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it vast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen. 3:19.)

For long hours both by day and night he stood before his "case" (the framework where the various types are arranged) picking up, one by one, with ready fingers, the little metal letters; and so, placing them together in words, produced line by line, pages of reading for the eager eyes of the public.

Not being a strong man, the late hours and the laborious duties of the compositor's calling, together with the indifferent air of the heated workroom, told severely upon his health, and, while he was yet young, the dreadful disease of consumption attacked him, and he began to languish.

Everyone saw that he was sinking; everyone heard his cough; everyone observed him shrink across the shoulders, and wear away; everyone but himself; for he alone was deluded into fancying that he was getting better, and that he should soon be the man again.

But on, on moved the slow disease. Each day gained some fresh victory o‘er its victim, sapping his strength, and pushing on to the very citadel of his life.

“It is only a question of time," persons would say of him; and "it is only a question of time” may be said of us all. (Heb. 9:27.)

The rough winds of trouble set in sharp upon John Brooks. He sought an entrance into the hospital, that he might find a bed whereon to die; but no, its doors were shut against him.

“Full," was the answer, so he had to turn again to his desolate home. In the passing hour of health, he had sown to folly, to sin; and upon his dying pillow he would frequently confess to the tremendous truth, that what a man sows he shall also reap. (Gal. 6:7.)

But we will not pursue this dark theme further, nor add another grief and vexation of spirit to the oft-told tale of this world's vanity. (Eccles 1:14.) The mercy and grace of God visited this region of darkness and the shadow of death with the dayspring from on high. (Matt. 4:16; Luke 1:78.)

The opportunity which God in His wondrous love had chosen to interpose upon Brooks's behalf as, as people say, "man's extremity"; it was the midnight of his trial. His house was destitute of the needful bread; his resources were dried up, and he knew not which way to turn.

In this extremity his wife begged him to go out and try to borrow a sixpence of a friend, just to buy some food. With an effort, and as it proved for the last time, he went out into the street, and, gathering his wasting strength together, managed to walk slowly towards a neighbor's house.

Shortly after he had left his home a lady, a perfect stranger, called and inquired whether there was a sick man there, and whether he was in want; and then, unasked, put five shillings into his wife's hand, and went away. This money, so evidently sent by God, enabled his wife before he returned to spread their table, pay a small debt, and yet have a slight balance in hand.

Reaching home he found to his surprise that the need for "the bread that perishes" was supplied. But more than hunger was working in him. He felt his need of a Saviour; he had begun to see himself a sinner.

It happened that as he dragged himself along the streets, coughing and aching, a young man who was a Christian saw him, and could not refrain from speaking to him. Gently tapping him upon the shoulder he said, "You look very ill.”

“Indeed I am," was the answer.

“And you are not long for this world, I should think, my friend," continued the stranger in a kind voice. "DO YOU KNOW JESUS?”

To this plain question Brooks replied, "No, I do not indeed; I know too little of Him; and I feel I am not long for this life.”

Placing a tract in Brooks's hand and requesting that he might be allowed to call upon him (which request was readily granted), the stranger went his way.

The arrow had been guided by the blessed Spirit of God, and had pierced the sinner's soul. And these words, "Do YOU KNOW JESUS? took fast hold of him; he could not rid himself of them; and, pondering them, he returned to his home.

New thoughts and new feelings occupied his soul. He did not know Jesus! What did this mean? He was a sinner, and he needed a Saviour. Jesus is the Saviour of sinners; and of the Saviour of sinners Brooks, a sinner, was ignorant! Terrible reality! He did not know Jesus!

"This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The wrath of God abode upon him! Without Jesus, he was lost, lost forever. Without Jesus, hell would be his endless portion, and he did not know Jesus. Death now stared him in the face, not only as that terrible strength which severs man from his fellows, separates husband from wife, and father from child, and closes the door forever upon the world and all that is in it, but as somewhat more awful, even that which seals the sinner's doom, and brings him into the prison of lost spirits to await the judgment; for "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Heb. 9:27.)

He took out the tract which had been placed in his hand, and began to read it. He read it, and read it again, until he could read it no longer; and then he asked his wife to read it to him.

It was about the end of a miser who died with a purse of gold clutched in her withered hand, with "Gold, gold, gold," upon her lips.

Poor Brooks saw himself also dying, with "World, world, world," upon his lips. The awful realities of death, judgment, and hell stared him full in the face, and the dying man beheld himself, to his terror, stepping into death, awaiting the judgment, and doomed to hell-fire. The Spirit of God had made him conscious that "he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36.)

After some time of deep anxiety about his soul, God spoke peace to him. One evening, at half-past eight o'clock, he said to his wife, "Someone is now praying for me. I am sure; I feel it.”

Then he began to think of Jesus dying on the cross for sinners; and all at once it seemed just as if the Saviour hung before him, as it might be, in the corner of his room. He looked upon Him, and believed that Jesus died upon the cross for him; that His blood made atonement for his soul, and he was happy in the Lord. (Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22; Rom. 5:11.)

At the very hour that he felt some one was praying to God for him (as he afterward learned), his friend who net him was so drawn to plead with God for his soul's salvation, that he shut himself up in his room alone, and cried to God on his behalf.

Relating this to the writer, with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks, he said, "I cannot understand it at all; I cannot make it out. Mercy for me! What does it all Mean? Mercy for me! I was living without God in the world, aye, even while I was laid up in this very room, I would read the newspaper all Sunday long; and so I went on until the day in which I met my dear friend. But I don't want the newspaper now, not I; oh! no; I have never wanted it since the day the Lord net me; for I love the Bible now, and my blessed Jesus too.”

A person who had not heard of his conversion, he was unprepared to find him even seeking for mercy, came just at this time with a sorrowful determination to speak to him plainly as to the certain end of every man out of Christ. With a heavy heart he knocked at the door in—Street. Going up-stairs, he found Brooks propped up in an armchair, by the fire-side, worn nearly to a skeleton, and panting for breath.

Seating himself beside him, he mournfully inquired, "How is it with you, Brooks?”

To his unutterable surprise Brooks answered, "HAPPY, HAPPY, OH! SO HAPPY!" and this was said with unmistakable earnestness, while he stretched out his wasted hand to grasp that of his friend. "I am so glad to see you," he went on; "I am so happy; all is changed; I HAVE FOUND JESUS.”

"What! are you indeed saved fur all eternity?" questioned his astonished friend; " just at this last hour! and you who have lived so long without Christ! you who have lived a godless life! is it indeed so that your sins are forgiven?”

So, seeking by every method to test the foundation of Brooks's joy, he laid the long roll of his life's sins before him, unfolding his godless ways, his prayerlessness, his hatred of Christians, and his contempt of the name of Jesus.

But to each charge poor Brooks, while pleading, would only whisper, “HE could not lie.

HE does say, 'Only believe'; ‘I will in no wise cast out.' Yes, there is mercy for me, even for me." (Mark 5:36; John 6:67.)

It was a remarkable instance of divine grace to this sick man, who so heartily disliked gospel tracts, that a tract should have been used in his blessing. Oftentimes in his work at "case" he was obliged to pick up the metal types one by one which spell the name J-E-S-U-S, and thus had been forced through his unwilling fingers, letter by letter, such words as these, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (1 Tim. 1:15.)

Many a tract had been "set up" by him, indeed tracts similar to the very one which he read so eagerly upon his dying bed, he had been obliged to compose, a task he thoroughly disliked, and he would fling the hated tracts across the room. But now how changed! Now how he loved to say, often and often, "Jesus loves me; Jesus died for me; I am the chief of sinners" And now he loved to read the humble tract which spoke of Jesus.

Before he was converted his home was anything but a happy spot, but it all changed when he became a child of God.

His wife would say of him, "There has been no fretting, no complaining, since his friend first met him in the street; but instead, he has been full of joy. Formerly it was always, ' Oh! that I could get out into the street!' or something or other; but now it is never so.”

At the sound of his wife's words about the street, the corner of the room where he seemed to have seen the Lord hanging on the cross before him, came to his mind, and with heavenly joy beaming upon his face, he said, "I never look towards the street now; never. I have clone with it now.

Once upon a time I used to sit in this chair watching the children playing in the street, and longing to have strength myself to be there again, until I fairly cried. But now I sit in my chair, turn my back to the window, and look up in that corner of the room, and think about my blessed Jesus. No more getting out in the street now for me; no, nor do I want it, since I have Jesus.”

The intense way in which he uttered these words will certainly never be forgotten by the hearer of them, nor will that divinely bright joy which beamed upon his face, and triumphed over its pale, wan features, death-stricken and wasting. In every sense, his back was turned upon the street and the children playing there; for his steady gaze was fixed in faith upon Jesus in the glory, and upon the blissful home of the saints of God.

Come, you scoffers; behold the light of heaven shining into the humble room of this working man! Inquire, ye reasoners, whence it is that death is to him a longed-for hour, and find your answer in his FAITH; faith, not only in the blessed work of the Son of God, but faith also in Him who is in the glory at the right hand of God. (Heb. 1:3.)

And come, you anxious soul, stand beside his arm-chair; look at the dying countenance, watch the sunken eye, the distended nostril, the matted hair; see the thin pale hands, with the bones piercing his skin; and hear his words: "They till me I am going to die; the) say they must see me off, they want to watch me go; but I tell them” (and this he said with triumphant smiles), "I shan't die. Oh! no, I shan't die; I shall just fall asleep. There is no death for me, for I am going to Jesus." (1 Cor. 15:6; Acts 7:60.)

One night Satan was permitted to trouble poor Brooks, but God dealt very tenderly with His feeble child, and restrained the malice of the evil one. It was a fearful night, but God delivered him from all his fears. In the morning he said, “I shall know another time what to do when Satan comes to trouble me. I won't listen to him, but I will look up to my blessed Jesus.”

Often would he weep for joy at the grace of God in saving him from the pit. "To think that, alter sinning against Him all my life, He should have met me with His mercy the last time that I was able to walk out. Oh! it is wonderful. There! I cannot make it out," he exclaimed, turning his head away, overcome with emotion.

As death drew, near, he looked straight over the narrow stream to the glory beyond. Often and often he would say, "So happy! oh! so happy! How I wonder that I could have lived so long without Jesus. What will it be to dwell with Him forever, and to be just like Him. The sooner I am off the better for me.”

“Look," said he, to a fellow workman, who rubbed the tear from his eve as he saw his wasted arm, "I can laugh at it, though it makes you grieve to see it; for it show, s me that I am going soon to be with Jesus. It does not make me feel sad, oh! no." We will now turn to that deeply solemn moment, the loosing of the silver cord, and the freeing of the spirit for its flight to God who gave it. (Eccl. 12:6, 7.)

One who had watched with him through the night related how he would awake from his dozings, exclaiming, "Oh! how beautiful! how lovely! and other such exclamations, as if there were bright glories and sweet visions of heaven passing before his eves.

He felt much the blessing of the prayers of his brethren. Grasping both the hands of a Christian friend who had come to bid him farewell, he said, with a beaming face, "I know that you have been praying for me; I FEEL it.”

“Well, John, and how is it with you?" asked his friend.

Happy, happy in the Lord," was the cheerful reply.

Gazing upon his wife who sat near him weeping, he said first, "Look at me, dear, see how happy I am. I am all right." And then, after a pause, "My dear, oh! that I might know before I die that you are in Christ as well as I; but I do believe I shall find it out hereafter.”

There was one among his unconverted friends whom he was particularly anxious to see and who at his request came to his bedside.

“Well, John," said his friend, "how are you getting on?”

Smiling, and taking both the strong man's hands into his wasted ones, he said, "I am so happy; I am so happy. I am going to heaven, Teddy; and you can tell my friends so. Oh! that I had known what I now know before this! Oh! that I had known Jesus earlier, and had not spent my life as, alas! I have done. What is all this world worth when compared to my present peace and joy? Ah! Ted," he continued, still grasping his hand, and still gazing fixedly upon him, "You WILL HAVE TO COME TO THIS! Are you ready? are you ready?”

It was too much for his friend, and he left the room weeping.

Longing for the salvation of sinners came over him, and he begged some of the Christians present to leave him, and preach Christ to others. "Leave me here," he said, “I am right for heaven. Go forth into the streets and tell others of Christ; go, brothers; tell them all of Jesus.”

Just then some other of his brethren in the Lord came into the room, and he asked them to join in singing a hymn of praise.

They began the hymn, "I believe I shall be there.”

“I KNOW I shall," interrupted he; there is no doubt about it; none. I know I shall, for Jesus loves me, and I love Him.”

Then, asking for a hymn-book, he said with a smile, "I can sing too"; and so he did, his voice rising above the sound of the others present.

As his last moment came, he turned his eyes toward the friend who stood by his pillow, and saying, "When we meet again we shall know each other perfectly, and be like Jesus" he felt asleep. (1 John 3:2.)

Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep!!

From which none ever wake to weep;

A calm and undisturbed repose;

Where powerless is the last of foes.

Asleep in Jesus: oh! how sweet

To be for such a slumber meet!

With holy confidence to sing

That death has lost its venomed sting.

Asleep in Jesus, peaceful rest!

Whence waking we're supremely blest;

No fear, no woe shall dim that hour

That manifests the Saviour's power.

What Is Repentance?

Repentance involves the moral judgment of ourselves under the action of the word of God, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the discovery of our utter sinfulness, guilt, and ruin, our hopeless bankruptcy, our undone condition. It expresses itself in these glowing words of Isaiah: "Woe is me; I am undone"; and in that touching utterance of Peter: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Isa. 6:5; Luke 5:8.)

O Repentance is an abiding necessity for the sinner; and the deeper it is the better. It is the plowshare entering the soul, and turning up the fallow ground. The plowshare is not the seed, but the deeper the furrow, the stronger the root.

We delight in a deep work of repentance in the soul. We fear there is far too little of it in what is called "revival" work. Men are so anxious to simplify the gospel, and make salvation easy, that they fail to press upon the sinner's conscience the claims of truth and righteousness.

No doubt salvation is as free as the grace of God can make it. Moreover, it is all of God, from first to last. God is its source; Christ its channel; the Holy Ghost its power of application and enjoyment. All this is blessedly true; but we must never forget that man is a responsible being, a guilty sinner; imperatively called upon to repent and turn to God.

It is not that repentance has any saving virtue in it. As well might we assert that the feelings of a drowning man could save him from drowning; or that a man could make a fortune by a deed of bankruptcy filed against him. Salvation is wholly of grace; it is of the Lord in its every stage and every aspect. We cannot be too emphatic in the statement of all this; but at the same time we must remember that our blessed Lord and His apostles did constantly urge upon men, both Jews and Gentiles, the solemn duty, of repentance.

No doubt there is a vast amount of bad teaching on the subject, a great deal of legality and cloudiness, whereby the blessed gospel of the grace of God is sadly obscured. The soul is led to build upon its own exercises, instead of on the finished work of Christ; to be occupied with a certain process, on the depth of which depends its title to come to Jesus. In short, repentance is viewed as a sort of good work, instead of its being the painful discovery that ALL OUR WORKS are bad, and our nature incorrigible.

Still, we must be careful in guarding the truth of God; and while utterly repudiating Christendom's false teaching on the important subject of repentance, we must not run into the mischievous extreme of denying its abiding and universal necessity. (Matt. 4:17; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; Acts 20:21; Rom. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9.)

Oh! come to the Saviour, He's calling to-day.

How long wilt thou linger? His voice now obey.

He's speaking from heaven, in love to thy soul;

His blood He has given: wilt thou be made whole?

No need now to labor; the work has been done;

To be in God's favor, believe on His Son.

Christ's death has secured salvation all free;

The cross He endured for you and for me.

And Jesus is coming for all who believe;

The Star of the morning, His own to receive;

O sinner! confess Him, the throne-seated Lord;

And thou shalt be with Him, where He is adored.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Trying to Do a Work That Is Done

POOR troubled, weeping one, what would you not give to obtain that peace to which at present you are a stranger? You hove wept, and prayed, and afflicted yourself in various ways, and still, maybe, you are as far off as ever.

Perhaps you were told to pray and wait; and so you have prayed and waited till your load has become unbearable, and it seems as if it would crush you. The language of your troubled heart is, "No one could ever feel as I feel." You are filled with fears by day, and are afraid to close your eyes in sleep at night, lest you should awake in everlasting separation from God.

You may have wondered why God made you, and have said, “Oh! that I had never been born! Oh! that I were someone else, or something else, rather than who I am, and what I am There is hope for every one upon earth, but not for me. If I had been somebody else, I could hope. If I had been a dog, rather than one possessing an immortal soul, I could welcome death; but as it is, I am afraid to live, and I am not prepared to die. Oh! what shall I do?”

Ah! my dear friend, I know all about it. These were once my very words; this was exactly my case. But, blessed be God it is not so now. Now, I can praise Him, and long to be with Him.

But the secret of this long and continuous distress of mind is brought out in the very question, "What shall I do?" This is what I once said: "What shall I no?" And it was not till I saw that I had nothing to do, for that it was all done, that I had peace.

One day, while, with a broken heart, I was reading in the Gospel by John, I came upon these words, "Then said they (the Jews) unto Him (Christ), What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" (John 6:28.)

I cannot tell you what I felt. There seemed to be a whole world of thought passing through my mind between this question and the answer.

“Oh! '' I thought," now for the answer; and from Christ, too; that will do, whatever it is. Oh what did He say in answer?”

I read, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

My dear friend, it is ALL DONE, and you have nothing to do.

I was one day sitting by the bed of a dying woman. After speaking a word or two, so' as to ascertain what she thought of her own bodily state, as to whether she had any hope of getting better; and finding that she had none, I said, "What about the eternal state?”

“Oh! well, I am doing all I can!”

“That is a bad sign," I said, "for all your doing is of no avail. Suppose you were a debtor, and I this morning called and paid the creditor every farthing, and brought the bill receipted with me, and offered it to you, what would you have to do towards paying it?”

I think she saw that she would only have to take it, and be thankful.

I then told her of her ruined state by nature, and of her complete helplessness as to satisfying God; but that ONE on the cross had so fully done it, and had there so fully atoned for sins, that there was nothing to do; it is all done.

Whether she saw and believed or not, I cannot tell, but I want you to see and believe this, and then you will be happy, too, as I am.

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

Confession and Justification

TWO men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." (Luke 18:10.)

In this parable of the Pharisee and the Publican Jesus plainly connects the confession of sins and the justification of the sinner. "God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.”

This is a point of the deepest practical importance. Observe, the poor publican does nothing but confess his own unworthiness, take the ground of a sinner before God, and cast himself entirely on His mercy. Well, now, in such a case what could God do? What could He say? Could He say to the poor helpless soul, "There is no mercy in God for thee?”

Impossible! That would be to deny Himself, and the whole truth of the Bible; for therein we learn that "God is love," and that He "delighteth in mercy.”

What, then, would be the Lord's answer to such a one? We have it from His own lips. "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.”

Oh! mark the precious emphasis of these three words. "I tell you." "I," the truth itself, "I," "the Faithful Witness," "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.”

The same moment that he was in his true place, acknowledging his true condition, and cast entirely on the mercy of God, he was a justified man, an eternally saved sinner. He was pardoned and justified, according to the riches of divine mercy, and the value of the sacrifice of Christ.

Three things seem naturally and inseparably connected in the justification of a sinner, and will actually be experienced, if we simply follow the Scriptures.

1. There is the sinner confessing his sins, and condemning himself.

“God, who is rich in mercy," acting from Himself by virtue of Christ's precious blood, forgives the sins, and declares the sinner “justified from all things." (Acts 13:39.)

Faith listens to this gracious announcement, receives it as the word of God, and the soul finds peace and rest therein. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:9. Rom. 5:1.)

These three things, which go together in the word of God, ought never to be separated in the believer's mind; but alas! they often are. So few know their true place as sinners; and consequently most are ignorant of the true grace of God, and are strangers to that peace, which the knowledge of grace alone can give. Let me beseech you, dear reader, to receive, in the simplicity of faith, these blessed truths. Many go halting nearly all their days from not seeing them; I mean, from not seeing that God immediately justifies the sinner who believes in Jesus.

But, oh! let me ask, Are you a poor publican?

Are you crying out, from the depths of your souls, "God be merciful to me a sinner"?

Is this really the ground you are on? Are you truly crying to Him, the fountain of mercy, in the name of Jesus?

If so, rest assured, my dear friend, that you are justified already, that your many sins are blotted out, and that) on have everlasting life (Rom. 6:23.) But remember, you must believe this in order to have peace. Oh! for mercy's sake, for the truth's sake, for your own soul's sake, do not separate what the blessed Lord here joins together. Mark well these two points, namely, the sinner's true confession, and God's full justification.

Just As I Am.

IT gives great rest to the heart of a sinner to know that the grace of God and the blood of Christ meet him just as he is and where he is.

A sinner does not need to be anything but what he is, in order to know and enjoy the sweetness of divine grace, and the cleansing power of the blood of the cross. All efforts to be anything but just what I am, can only ha\ e the effect of hiding from my view the light of the Dayspring from on high, which has visited us, as sinners, in the darkest depths of our moral ruin. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. 1:15.)

There are three expressions used in the Scriptures to set forth the truth as to a sinner's state before God.

1. “Look not upon me, because I am black." (Song of Sol. 1:6.)

2. “Behold, I am vile." (Job 11:1.)

3. “Woe is me, for I am undone." (Isa. 6:5.) Here, then, we have the plain truth of Holy Scripture in reference to ourselves: "black"; “vile”; and "undone." Our character, "black"; our nature, "vile"; our condition, "undone.”

There is no use in seeking to make it out otherwise. Such is the plain teaching of God's holy word respecting the writer and the reader of these lines; the plain truth as to our character, our nature, and our condition.

Let us repeat the words: "black," "vile," and undone." These are very humbling words.

Man's proud heart does not like them. But they are God's words; and if we do not, from the very inmost depth of our souls, own the truth of this, it is only because we do not see ourselves as God sees us. All who do not see and ow n this are wrapped in the shades of ignorance, enveloped in a mantle of self-conceit, or clad in the rags of their own righteousness.

Now, I want the reader to cast aside the “rags,”

to put off the "mantle," to rise above the "shades," and to see and own, clearly and fully, that he verily is as viewed in that light w here all are seen to be what they really are, "black," "vile," and "undone.”

This is a grand point in the history of the soul.

Very many, from not being thoroughly grounded in this, pursue a zigzag, up-and-down course all their clays. They have not laid hold of the truth of God as to their character, nature, and condition. They have not begun w here God begins; namely, at the very lowest point. They have not fixed the steady, intelligent, earnest gaze of faith upon the sacrifice of the cross, as God's own remedy clear, full, and entire, for their own very character, nature, and condition, as laid bare in the searching light of the divine presence. They have not traveled to the utmost limit of nature's ruin. They have not viewed it as a dead, worthless, judged thing, wholly and forever gone, as regards any confidence in it, or expectation from it. They think there is still something to be done with it, something to be done by it, something to be got from it; and, inasmuch as their thoughts respecting it are never realized, and never can be, they are always in a state of uncertainty as to their acceptance before God.

Intimately connected with this failure in learning the reality of nature's ruin stands another thing, namely, failure in apprehending the reality of God's grace. If divine grace deals with my sins, what must it do? Assuredly, it must put them away. This is what divine grace must do, because it is divine. If divine righteousness were to deal with my sins, it would condemn them.

I have both the one and the other in the cross of Christ. There divine righteousness dealt with my sins; and there divine grace reigns toward me as a sinner. "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:21.) The grace which forgives me is as perfect and as divine as the righteousness which condemns my sin. Nay, more, when the eve of faith rests upon a risen Christ we see that God is not only gracious, but righteous, in accepting as righteous the most ungodly sinner that simply trusts in the blood of Jesus. The entire question of sin and righteousness was gone into, and finally settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross; and when the sinner believes this, he has peace, peace as settled as the work of the cross could make it.

That which must ever produce uneasiness of conscience and anxiety of heart, is the thought that perhaps, after all, there is something between me and divine righteousness which has yet to be settled. This will yield mental anguish and soul-torture just in proportion to my earnestness and sincerity. And hence it is that many truly converted, divinely quickened, godly souls, looking at themselves, and not seeing that the whole question of sin and righteousness has been finally settled, that every divine claim has been answered, that sin has been condemned, that their old man with his deeds has been crucified and set aside forever, and, finally, that a risen Christ in glory is the full definition of what they are before God, are filled at times with terror, doubt, and uneasiness.

I say "at times," for it may be that occasionally they enjoy gleams of sunshine, that at intervals they experience a respite from the terrible workings of legality; and their renewed affections getting, for the time being, occupied with Christ and heavenly things, their whole souls are drawn out in earnest aspirations; and they feel as though they could, now, "read their title clear to mansions in the skies," and they fondly hope that the days of their mourning are ended. But, alas! soon again, the mists and vapors rise around them; the dark shadows of legalism settle down upon them; and they are ready to say that their past joys were all vain and delusive, and that they doubt if they have either part or lot in God's salvation.

Should the above be, in any measure, descriptive of my reader's condition, I would earnestly entreat him to draw nigh once more, and, in the clear light of divine revelation, GAZE UPON THE SACRIFICE. Therein he will see, not an attempt to whiten the blackness of his character, to improve the vileness of his nature, or amend his undone condition.

Oh! no; in the cross he will see God's full salvation erected on the clearly discovered ruins of "ALL FLESH." (Gen. 6:13.) On the cross, the whole question was settled. There was nothing left undone.

Where is the proof? I look down into yonder tomb, where the Victim lay, and I see it empty.

I look up to the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, and I see it filled. Filled by whom?

Filled by the One who hung on the cross, and lay in the tomb. What does this tell me? It tells me that all is done; sin condemned and put away; everlasting righteousness brought in, and secured to the believer; the law magnified and made honorable; God glorified in the putting away of my sins, as He could have never been in the punishment thereof; Satan thoroughly vanquished; marvelously foiled by his own weapons; death robbed of its sting, the grave of its victory.

Such are the wondrous utterances of the vacant sepulcher and the occupied throne.

Then, as to the mission of the Holy Ghost; what did He come to do? Was it to whiten, by His blessed operations, nature's blackness, to improve its vileness, or amend its undone condition? Nay. What then? He came TO TELL OF THE SACRIFICE; to point to a crucified and risen Saviour; to declare that all was clone; to apply, by His resistless energy, "the word of God" to the hearts and consciences of sinners, and so wake them up from nature's death and darkness, and introduce them into the life, light, power, and blessedness of the "new creation," wherein "all things are of God." (2 Con 5:17, 18.)

It is well to see this; well to see that no energy, operation, or influence of the Holy Ghost could whiten my blackness, improve my vileness, or amend my condition. "If any man be in Christ" he is not whitened, improved, or amended "flesh," but a "new creation." (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.) This makes a vast difference. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. (John 3:6.) If I am looking for any improvement in my nature, I am looking for what I shall never find. I am sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind. Hopeless labor! But, if I simply hearken to what the Holy Ghost tells me about Christ; if I believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God; if I believe, through grace, the record which God has given of His Son, then have I eternal life; I am born of God; I am "a new creation." I am no longer looked at as being in the nature, condition, or guilt of the old Adam, but as being in Christ, possessing His nature, standing in divine righteousness, and accepted in all the acceptableness of God's beloved Son. My old nature, with all its guilt and all its liabilities, came to its end in the death of Christ, who, as risen again from the dead, is the measure of what each believer is in the divine presence. (Let the reader look carefully at the following scriptures, which prove all that has been stated: John 1:12, 13; 3:5-8; 5:24, 25; 6:10; 20:31; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; 6:6; 7:5, 6; 8:9; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10; 1 John 3:1; 4:17.)

This makes the whole matter very clear. The believer is no longer to be occupied with the expression "Just as I am." He can now say, "Just as Christ is"; for "as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17.) This is wonderful! But it is worthy of God. He could not have His child in any other condition before Him. Nothing lower than this could satisfy the infinite love of His heart. And, moreover, it is to the glory of His grace that we should be in His presence, in all the perfectness of His own beloved Son; "Complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power." (Col. 2:10.) No human, no angelic mind could ever have conceived such love as this. It could only have had its source in the bosom of God. That one who is "black," "vile," and "undone," should have all his blackness, vileness, and ruin put away by the cross, and he himself linked with a risen, ascended, and glorified Christ in heaven, is what only God Himself could have planned, accomplished, and revealed. But thus it is, and all that is needed in order to enter into, and abide in, the joy and comfort thereof, is an artless faith in God's pure record, in the word which is settled forever in heaven. (Psa. 119:87.)

May God the Holy Ghost, by the application of the truth as it is in Jesus, strengthen the foundations of personal faith, give full deliverance from the dreadful workings of legality, and lead forth the people of God in that sacred liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. (Gal. 5:1.)

Do any inquire, Can God love sin? All answer, No. Can He love the sinner? Many hesitate to answer fearlessly. But what does Scripture say? God commendeth His love in not sparing His own Son. He thus commends, proves, makes manifest, His love by Christ dying for sinners, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. (Rom. 5:8; 8:32; 1 Peter 3:18.)

Hoping and Having

THERE is a vast difference between hoping for salvation, and actually having it. Many never seem to get beyond the former, though it is their privilege to enjoy the latter.

Wherever the gospel is received in its divine fullness it proves itself to be "the power of God unto salvation." (Rom. 1:16.) Its language is, "This day is salvation come to this house." (Luke 19:9.) It "gives knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins." (Luke 1:77.)

In every case in which the gospel is really laid hold of it imparts peace and gladness. When the Ethiopian eunuch received it, through the preaching of Philip, "he went on his way rejoicing." (Acts 8:39.) The Philippian jailer "rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." (Acts 16:34.) "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1.) It could not be the gospel, God's good news, were it to leave one in doubt. How could God send glad tidings to people to leave them in doubt? Impossible. When God speaks, His word must impart a certainty equal to itself. If a truthful person tells us a thing we feel certainty; and our certainty will be in proportion to the truthfulness of the witness. Were we to be uncertain we should simply be calling in question his veracity; or at least we imply that his word is not sufficient to satisfy us. Now, "if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." (1 John 5:9-11.)

And, be it carefully observed, the gospel does not seek to "persuade men" to believe something about themselves it does not call upon me to believe that I am a Christian. It is a serious mistake to suppose that the subject of gospel testimony is anything about oneself. It is something about Christ. It is something that God tells me about His Son; and when I by grace believe it, it makes me quite happy. It gives me life and righteousness, peace and joy, rest and satisfaction. I am called to look away from self altogether, straight to Jesus.

The object which God presents is His Son. There is no uncertainty there.

The One Is he presents the object is God. There is no uncertainty there.

My authority is the Word. There is no uncertainty there. The moment a man looks at himself for the ground of his confidence or peace he is all astray; he is plunged in doubt and confusion. What we really want is to keep close to the word, close to Christ, close to the Sacrifice. This will take us out of self, and fill us with a divine Object in whom we can find all we need. The devil can never shake the confidence of one who has once got thoroughly settled in the gospel of Christ. There may be conflict, trial, exercise, difficulty, depression, sorrow, and the like; but nothing can ever shake the peace that is really founded upon the word of God. It is eternal and divine. IT PARTAKES OF THE CHARACTER OF THAT WORD ON WHICH IT IS FOUNDED, AND OF THE SACRIFICE OF WHICH THAT WORD BEARS WITNESS. "The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Heb. 10:2.) This is plain. To be "once purged" settles everything. "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." (John 13:10.) "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3.)

Some there are who seem to think that the only result of the sacrifice of Christ is to put us into a salvable state; that is, a state in which salvation is possible. The idea of being saved, of knowing salvation, of being assured that we are saved, is, in the opinion of such persons, the very height of presumption, the essence of spiritual pride, a setting up for being holier than one's neighbors, a being righteous overmuch.

This, however, is a great mistake, a mistake arising from not seeing the true ground of salvation and the true authority for knowing that we are saved. The former we have in the blood of Christ; and the latter in the word of God. Self has naught to do with either the one or the other. God declares unto us "glad tidings." He tells us of salvation through the name of Jesus; of perfect remission of sins through the blood of the cross.

Now, the question is, Can God's word give certainty? If He sends us glad tidings, ought they not to be believed? and, if believed, should they not make us glad? How could God's glad tidings leave us in doubt? Impossible. Where doubt exists, God's word is not believed; the fullness of Christ is not seen; the value of the blood is not apprehended. Self, self, self, is the object before the mind, and hence there is no peace, no joy, no happiness, no holiness. The soul that is dwelling in the gloomy region of doubt can neither be holy nor happy.

Dear reader, let me entreat you not to be satisfied with hoping for salvation. Stop not short of having it. Adam knew he was saved, when God clothed him. (Gen. 3) Noah knew he was saved when the Lord shut him in. (Gen. 7:16.) The Israelite knew he was safe with the blood on the door post. (Ex. 12) The manslayer knew he was safe when he entered the city of refuge. (Num. 36) Rahab knew she was safe, under the cover of the scarlet line. (Josh. 2)

Thus it is in every case where God's remedy is revealed and His word believed. There is certainty and peace. It is no longer "hoping," but "having." It is worthy of God and His word to give settled peace to the heart that trusts in Him. It would not be like Him to leave any soul in doubt and uncertainty. I should just possess all the assurance which God's word is capable of imparting.

May God grant to the anxious reader an artless confidence in the divine testimony to the value of the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. (1 John 1:7.)

In the cross of Christ perfect righteousness against sin is displayed and exercised, and infinite love to the sinner. God is glorified in His nature, and salvation to the vilest, and access to God, according to the holiness of that nature, provided for and made good, and this in the knowledge, in the conscious object of it, of the love that had brought it there; a perfect and cleansing work in which that love was known.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Only One More, or, the Last Ball.

NELLIE was very fair. I had often watched her with admiration as she rode up and down the promenade, her golden hair floating in the wind, and her sweet face radiant with smiles. She had much natural amiability and sweetness of temper, and was loved by many.

Her days passed in a whirl of gaiety, in which she was the center of attraction. Young, lovely, and wealthy, her company was sought after and courted; her silvery voice echoed through many a mansion, and her graceful form was constantly to be seen in the many ballrooms and fashionable circles of the very gay town, in which she lived.

To the eye of the inexperienced, Nellie's fair face was blooming and healthy-looking, but there were some who watched her with anxious care, and knew well that the hectic tinge on her cheeks, and the diamond luster of her brilliant eye, gave warning of an early tomb.

Her kind physician had ofttimes warned and pleaded with her to give up a life of gaiety and late hours, which was feeding a disease which human skill had failed to arrest; but she laughingly put away such fears by saying: "Let me have one ball more, and then I shall become religious.”

But the one ball was followed by many; and night after night, Nellie, radiant as ever, was in crowded, heated rooms, as if determined to live in the whirl of pleasure as long as she possibly could.

Poor girl! there were few, if any, in the circle in which she moved to speak to her of Christ; few to tell her of the only One who could give her real joy and satisfaction; and who could, in place of the passing pleasures of a poor fleeting world, give her pleasures that would last forever, and would not pass away.

To one who did speak to her of an eternity which might not be very far off, she answered, “Oh! but I'm not so ill as some people think I am; and I do mean to be religious someday.''

It was a night of intense cold. Nellie's elegant dressing room in L. Crescent was brilliantly lighted, everything in it showing the exquisite taste and refinement of its fair occupant. She lay in her dressing-gown on the sofa, resting from the fatigue of her half-finished toilet. She looked pensive, and a shade of sadness was over her large eyes, as she repeated again and again to the companion who was going with her, "And this is to be my last ball I have made up my mind to have only one more, and then I shall retire into private life, and become religious.”

“Are you sure you are able to go tonight?" said her friend." You don't look quite well.”

“Not quite well," said Nellie;" but I'm only to have one more." And so saying, she rang the bell for her maid.

Soon the lovely one was dressed in her snowy satin with its rich lace. It had been made on purpose for Nellie's last ball. The freshly gathered hot-house roses were twined through her golden tresses. The white boots and gloves were drawn on those tiny hands and feet; and she was ready.

The carriage was at the door. Nellie's friend had taken her place in it, and she, wrapped in her white cloak, was descending the staircase. The keen blast of a severe winter night had to be faced by that fragile form; the little foot was on the carriage step; Nellie shuddered, and drew back, quickly retraced her steps into the hall, and fell backwards at the foot of the staircase.

She was dead!

Awe-stricken, yet not realizing the fact that this was more than a faint, her friends carried her to her room, and her doctor, who lived very near, was present in a minute; but no power of man could recall life, and horror-stricken friends gathered round to hear that the heart of that gay world/v one had ceased to beat forever.

This is a true story. Many details I refrain from giving. I have told it simply as I got it from one who knew her. I was myself living but a few doors from the house in which she lived at the time she was thus called to meet God in a moment. And for you who are unsaved, I write it as a word of warning. Take heed lest you too be cut off in your sins!

Where is Nellie now? Her silvery laugh never ring again. She had “the pleasures of sin for a season “here without Christ; but let a veil be drawn over her eternity of woe. It is for me now to cry aloud to you, Escape, escape, lest you perish like her! Hearken, ye gay ones! Stop and think! To-morrow you may be in eternity! Your laughter may be turned into weeping and wailing, your mirth into anguish and woe! I would reason with you, I would plead with you, I would beseech you to come to Jesus now! He ready stands to bless you. Flee to Him now! Surely you are not going to wait tor obi); one ball more. The risk is too great. Your whole eternity ma) depend upon it. Cast yourself into those loving arms now, before it be too late. (Matt. 11:28; John 6:37.)

He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, that He might give eternal life without money and without price. (Rom. 6:23.) Did it cost Him little to purchase salvation for guiltily rebels? to leave the brightness of the glory, and come down here to die?

“Ah," you say, "but I shall not die like Nellie. I am not likely to be cut off in a moment. I shall have time to repent, and turn to God, before I die"!

May I ask who has given you this promise? I find none such in God's word. “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."(Matt. 18:3.) There is time, now this moment, for you to turn to God." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2.) I have no promise for tomorrow. There is salvation for everyone who believes in Jesus now, but I dare not say, You may have one ball more, and then come to Christ. The risk of delay is too great: come now, just as you are; delay not a moment.

I was asked lately by one who had heard the gospel, and had been pressed to accept Christ, “But could I not put it off for a year? I am not likely to die.''

Oh! horrible thought! put off the salvation of your precious soul for twelve months more! Thousands of souls go down into hell every year; and why not yours, ye rejecters of Christ? “God is not mocked ": if you live to the world, and refuse Christ, You shall die in your sins. You may be very attractive and very amiable in the world's eves, and you may even make a profession of being Christ's; but if you have never been converted, your mask will be torn off some day, and you will have to stand before God an unveiled liar. How? Oh! how will you stand the gaze of His eyes, who "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth"? (1 Peter 2:23.)

Oh, reader! that would be an evil day for thee, to be found, like one who when called to die cried out, " I would give millions for one moment of time." But too late, too late, then! Your season of grace is past, and you have lost Christ forever, for the sake of the unreality of this world's fleeting joys.

Reader, it is of the Lord's mercy you are still alive: do not trifle with the grace that still pleads with you. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. 1:18.)

Do you wish to spend eternity with Christ, with Christ forever? Look unto Him now. Or do you wish to have only one ball more? One more! One more! It matters not what; only one more of ANYTHING that keeps you away from Christ; one more grain of sand, it may be, from the sirocco of sin; one more breath from the poisoned simoom of pleasure; one more wave from the sea of sunny enjoyments here, bearing you onward, poor victim, upon its deceitful tide to your eternal doom! "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 16:23, 24.) K.

What Is Believing in Christ?

THIS is a vital question; all-important, none more so. To believe in Christ is to be saved. To live and die in unbelief is to be lost, lost forever.

Vet, notwithstanding its unspeakable importance, there are few questions that come before the anxious inquirer more undefined to his own mind than, “What is believing in Christ?”

For such we write.

He thinks he had always believed in Christ; and has never doubted anything that the Scriptures say about Him. And yet he is sure that he is not saved by the belief which he has. Hence he gets occupied with faith itself, 'and soon comes to the conclusion that he has not the right sort.

In this state of mind the young inquirer will be sure to attach a mysterious importance to faith, or believing, which does not belong to it. And in so far as this is the case, Christ Himself, the grand Object of faith, will be lost sight of. This is one of the ways whereby Satan seeks to darken, confuse and perplex the mind.

We have something like an explanation or definition of faith in John 3:33: "He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.”

The testimony, or word of God, is the ground of faith. When the sinner receives God's word as sure and certain truth, just because it is His word, he honors God with the confidence of his heart. "He sets to his seal that God is true." He has faith. He believes God. Repose fills his soul. He wants no higher authority. He now, as it were, countersign's the divine document, and the affairs of his soul are settled forever. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17.) If the object be right, the faith cannot be wrong. Divine faith is faith in the divine testimony. Thus a link is formed, through faith, between the soul and God, that shall endure forever; the word of God is His eternal bond.

Such must ever be the happy fruits of faith in God's word, whatever may be the character of the testimony believed. The standard of man's responsibility must depend on the nature of the revelation made to him. Noah, for example, believed one kind of testimony, and Abraham believed another. But whether it was about an approaching Flood, or the promise to Abraham that his seed would be numerous as the stars of heaven, it mattered not as regards the result; both believed God, and both were justified.

Through doubting God's goodness, and disbelieving God's word, the link of connection between the soul of man and God was broken in the Garden of Eden; and now, through believing in God's goodness, and trusting in God's word, the soul is re-united to Him in Christ, to be separated no more forever. Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? (Rom. 8) None! Heaven will not! Earth and hell cannot! Glory be to His name! And there will be no beguiling serpent in the Paradise of God; no tree of the knowledge of good and evil there. We shall know only good; and fully, perfectly, and eternally enjoy it, in the heavenly Paradise.

These few brief hints as to faith in general may be useful to some. We will now look at the particular question before us, namely, "What is believing in Christ?" Were we to give a direct answer to this question, we should say, To believe in Christ, is to look to Him, the Saviour-God, as the one object of the heart's confidence and affection. He may be comparatively little known to the one who does so look to Him, and the expression of faith in Him may he very feeble, and sometimes assailed with doubts and fears; nevertheless he who has been taught of God to know Christ, once dead and risen for him, as the one object of his faith, will cling confidingly and affectionately to Him, notwithstanding these things.

Comparatively little was known of Christ by either the woman that came to His feet (Luke 7) or the man that was cured of his blindness. (John 9) The great truth of His death and resurrection was not then fully revealed. Yet one can easily see faith and affection in them both.

Neither the deep sense of guilt, nor the difficulties of the Pharisee's house, could hinder the woman from coming personally to Christ. And all the arguments and threatenings of the synagogue wholly tailed to overthrow the confidence of him w he aforetime had been blind; or to withdraw the affections of his heart from Him who had opened his eyes.

The former knew more of the Person of Christ than of His work, the latter knew more of His work than of His Person. But with purpose of heart they both slave unto the Lord, and He revealed Himself to each according to their need.

No heart ever really desired to know the Person of the Lord to which He did not reveal Himself. And no soul ever really desired to know the work of the Lord, that will not stand in the full credit of that finished work, before the throne of God, forever.

Every desire of the heart towards Christ is of the Holy Spirit, and in due time shall be fully satisfied. The soul that has got a glimpse of Christ will ever after desire to know more of Him. Nothing will ever satisfy it but Himself.

How often one has seen this exemplified in persons who were passing through deep distress about their soup' salvation. Nothing we could say gave them relief, or brought peace to the heart. The more touchingly we spoke of the love of Jesus, and of His grace to sinners, the deeper was their distress, because they could not see that He was theirs.

But only suggest if it would not-be better and happier for them to give up Christ altogether, and think no more about those things which only make them unhappy; End, oh! in a moment you would see what a place the Lord had in their hearts. A chord was touched that caused the whole heart to vibrate for Him, and the tears to flow.”

“Oh, no” they would exclaim, “I can never give up seeking after Him. If I perish, I will perish at His feet still seeking to know His love and His great salvation.”

The heart never really desires Christ until the grace of God is at work there. The desire must come from Him.

The consideration of the four following things may be helpful to some of the Lord's precious, though weak ones. He would have them to be rejoicing in Himself, and peacefully resting on His finished work.

1. To believe in Christ is to believe in His love and grace, as revealed to us in the Scriptures.

But individual faith will surely say, His love to me a sinner. To begin with the love of Christ, is to begin at the right place. The believing heart will always make a personal application of Christ to itself.

The love of Christ was manifested in coming-down from heaven to earth, to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10.) His whole mission and work express the greatness of His wondrous love. If I want to know the love of Christ to me, I must not look to myself, but to His manifested love for me a sinner. His love brought Him down. True, His mission was the expression of God's love to the world. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) Hence, if I want to know the heart of God the Father, I must not look into my own, but to the gift of His Son. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins:" (1 John 4:10.) But the love of God, the love of Christ, and the love of the Holy Spirit, is all one and the same love. Only, in the work of redemption, God is represented as the fountain of love, Christ as the channel, and the Holy Spirit as the power that applies it to our hearts. Oh! wondrous, mysterious, marvelous love, the, love of God to sinners.

In so far as this divine love could be expressed or measured, Christ is the measure and expression of it; and individual faith, making a personal application of the Saviour's love, rejoices' in it, as if it all centered on itself. Just as Paul did when he said, Ile "loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.) Here the apostle speaks as personally as if he had been the only one that Christ loved and died for.

And surely this must ever be the language of faith. It never deals in mere generalities. It delights in the Saviour's love specially to itself. Oh! troubled soul, think on this blessed truth! Let your mind dwell upon it, let your heart feed upon it. What more do you want? What more can you desire, than the love of Christ, this perfect love to you? Is there anything you need that is not to be found in His love? In all your meditations on the affairs of your soul, be sure that you make His love your starting-point, and lose sight of yourself in its heights and depths. It is the first note in our song of faith on earth, and the first in our morning song of joy in heaven. "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen." (Rev. 1:5, 6.)

2. To believe in Christ, is to believe that He died for sinners according to the Scriptures. (1 Cor. 6:1-4.) But true faith in Christ is not satisfied with the mere general belief of this blessed truth. Taking the ground of a sinner, it says, "Yes, but Jesus died for me; He died for my sins; and through His death I am saved. He was delivered for my offenses, and where are they? They are all put away. He vas raised for my justification. Hence, if He be a risen Christ, I am a justified sinner. The only proof, or evidence, that I have of pardon, justification, arid peace in the presence of God is a risen Christ.'' (Rom. 4:25; 5:1.)

Faith's question is not, how, or what I feel, but is Christ risen? If He who died for my offenses is indeed risen from the dead, I am perfectly and forever justified before God. No sinner can have settled peace, save on the ground of the DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. He who is seated at God's right hand above the heavens is the living, eternal witness of the believer's full and everlasting salvation.

There are many other passages that plainly teach the same blessed, soul-saving, peace-giving truth. The Holy Spirit never suggests a doubt as to the believer's perfect security. All doubts and fears flow from the wicked insinuations of Satan. Such as "Yea, hath God said, Ye not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen. 3)

This vile insinuation from the serpent suggested a doubt in the mind of Eve, which led to the whole mischief. The tempter tried the same thing with our blessed Lord in the wilderness, when he said, "If thou be the Son of God." But here he was met and vanquished by Scripture. "It is written." (Matt. 4:1-11.)

Nothing but the shield of faith will quench the fiery darts of unbelief. (Eph. 6:16.) Souls must watch against and ever treat all such evil suggestions as coming from the arch-deceiver. Doubts and fears are the prolific offspring of the wicked insinuations of the beguiling serpent. Faith's stronghold is the word of God, in which it securely rests. But should the enemy seek to invade its peaceful repose, it can triumphantly reply, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8.)

The love of God to rue while in my sins, as manifested in the death and resurrection of Christ, satisfies my soul, and settles all for me a sinner. God says it, I believe it, who may question it? Listen to God only. Such is the character of true faith. It is most personal. At the same time, while maintaining its individual place and communion, it rejoices in the common joy of all believers, and glories in the words, "we" and "us.''

3. To believe in Christ is to believe in the cleansing power of His blood, according to the testimony of Scripture, and for my own need as a guilty sinner. Although this truth is implied in what has been said about His death for us, still it gives great relief to the conscience to have the plain direct word of Scripture on this special point. Such as "The blood of Jesus Christ, His (God's) Son, cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7.) Faith takes its place amongst the "us," and knows for certain that all its sins are cleansed away. Hence the following strong language of unquestioning faith: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Eph. 1:7.)

A personal application of the blood of Christ is peace to the conscience in the presence of God. Had the Israelite neglected to apply the blood of the lamb to the lintel and door posts of his own house in the land of Egypt, he would not have been safe. (Ex. 12) It was not enough that he had a lamb, or that he had killed it, and had the blood in the basin. No; it had to be applied to his own individual door, or the destroying angel would have entered, and killed the firstborn. The blood alone on the lintel and door-posts was the safeguard for all that were in the house.

So is it now. Faith answers to the blood-sprinkled door-posts. There must be a personal application of the blood of Christ to our own souls to meet our own need. The mere general belief that Christ died for sinners, and that His blood cleanseth from sin, is not enough. There must be a definite individual application of these blessed realities to our own souls. The language of faith is; “He loves me, He died for me, and His precious-blood hath washed all my sins away." But though this is the language of simple faith, it is not, alas, the language of all who believe in Jesus. Many, of whose faith in Christ we can have no doubt, would be afraid to say so much. Through looking to themselves this fearfulness has great power over them, and keeps them from rejoicing in the Lord, and from enjoying His word. Faith never looks to self, but always to the Saviour.

4. To believe in Christ is to believe that He receives all who come to Him; and, further, true faith in Christ will say, "He has received me.”

Sometimes the young believer who is not well established in the truth, will get into bondage on this point. He thinks that he sees and believes the truth about the love of Jesus to sinners, His dying for them, and the efficacy of His precious blood; but he looks to himself, and sees many things that are contrary to Christ, and he begins to doubt if he has been or can be received. He will say plainly, "I doubt nothing you say about Christ, what I doubt is myself.”

This is a delusion. It is a snare of Satan. For how can you know by looking to yourself whether you can be received or not? You must allow Christ to' say whether He will receive you or not, and believe what He says without questioning. "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 5:37) are His words of gracious assurance to the coming one. The believing heart is satisfied with this assurance, and finds rest in Jesus. Now its every need is met. All fullness dwells in Jesus. He has received me, and fitted me for His presence. Thus faith rejoices in Christ Himself, and in all His wondrous love, His complete salvation, and His coming glory.

In conclusion, allow me to ask, in plain terms, Is my reader a believer in Christ Jesus?

Without faith in Christ there is no salvation. The soul that lives and dies in unbelief is lost forever. Oh! if thou art yet a stranger to Jesus, and living in unbelief, how awfully dangerous thy state is! Eternal danger is treading on thy heels. Another step and all may be over, and all may be lost forever. Oh then, at once, as thou art, and without a moment's delay, flee to Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. Believe in His love, His love for thee a sinner. Believe in His death, His death for thee a sinner. Trust in His precious blood to wash all thy sins away. Rest assured that He is ready and waiting to receive thee. Oh! then, believe in Jesus; receive the truth into thy heart. Come to Himself. Trust in Him.

Oh! with what joy and delight He welcomes home the poor lost sinner whom He loves; the one for whom He bled and died; the one whom He has besought many times by His gospel to return; the one whom the Father's hand of love has guided to His everlasting embrace, that He might "breathe on him," quicken his dead soul, fill it to overflowing with life and love divine.

A. M.

Free was the offer, free to all, of life

And of salvation; but the proud of heart,

Because 'twas free, would not accept; and still

To merit wished; and choosing, thus unshipped,

Encompassed, provisioned, and bestormed,

To swim a sea of breadth immeasurable,

They scorned the goodly bark, whose wings the breath

Of God's eternal Spirit filled for heaven,

That stopped to take them in—and so were lost.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Faded Leaves, Fallen Leaves, and Leaves From the Tree of Life

WHILE waiting under a tree, one autumn day, I noticed the many faded leaves about me, and the fallen leaves beneath me, and the word of the prophet came to my mind, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isa. 64:6.)

This is the confession of God's favored people Israel, and it is true of everyone in the light of God's presence.

There is no strength in a faded leaf; it soon withers, and falls to the ground. There is no power in man to stand before God on the ground of what he is in himself, or anything he has done Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. (Job 14:4.) "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man" (Matt. 15:19.)

In the first psalm, we read of the perfect man, and he is likened to a tree planted by the river of water, who bringeth forth his fruit in his season, whose leaf also shall not 'wither.

Who is this blessed One? It is the Lord Jesus Christ, who could look up to heaven, and say, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29.) He was God's green trey; (Luke 22:21), full of sap, whose leaf never withered, and whatsoever He did prospered. The Son of God has life in Himself, and He is the Giver of eternal life to them that believe in His Name (John 10:28.) The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23.)

It was in vain that Adam and his wife tried to cover their nakedness with fig-leaves fastened together, for when God's voice was heard, "they knew that they were naked." Yes, conscience makes cowards of us all, and they tried to hide themselves behind the trees of the garden. But God brought them out, and after hearing and convicting them both, He traced the evil to its source, and pronounced judgment on the serpent. Then He spoke of the coming Deliverer, "the Seed of the woman," who should bruise the serpent's head. "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18.)

After the judgment of the Flood, the dove returned to the Ark with an olive leaf in her mouth (Gen. 8: 11) which told Noah that the waters were abated from off the face of the earth. So, the risen Christ speaks peace to His disciples, by showing them His hands, and His side, bearing the marks of His sufferings upon the cross. He is the Tree of Life in the midst of the paradise of God. "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the Tree of Life, and may enter in by the gates into the City." (Rev. 22:14, R.V.)

In that bright millennial scene, we see the Tree of Life by the River of the water of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev. 22:1, 2.)

"Lord, haste that day of cloudless ray,

That prospect bright unfailing;

Where GOD shall shine in light divine,

In glory never-fading.”

T. B. N.

The Lord Jesus Christ has died for sinners, ungodly and without strength, so that God might be just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The atoning sufferings of the Lamb have met all that divine justice claimed, and by virtue of which God in the gospel makes Himself known as One who yearns over us in love, call:, us to be reconciled, and is ready to justify us from every charge. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1). "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in, Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).

The Parable of the Marriage Supper

(Matt. 22:1-14.)

IN the parable of the Marriage Supper we have evidence of God's exceeding goodness, on the one hand, and of man's hopeless of position and determined enmity to divine grace, on the other. The truth is here made fully manifest that, if man is to participate at all in the rich and precious grace of God, he must be compelled to do so.

“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." (Matt. 22:2.)

This parable is simply a comparison of the kingdom of heaven. It is like a certain king who made a marriage for his son. The grand object is to show forth the marvelous grace of God, His loving purpose and determination to have to do with us poor sinners, even in spite of ourselves.

If man will not go to work when he is told, if he will not give fruit when he is asked, as set forth in the previous two parables, the question is, Will he come to the marriage feast if he be invited?

This is the question. We shall soon see the answer.

“He sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding; and they would not come." (Matt. 22:3.)

This occurred in our Lord's life here upon earth. He sent forth the twelve and the seventy, sent them exclusively to Israel. They were expressly forbidden to go in the way of the Gentiles, or enter any city of the Samaritans. Their mission was only "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The invitation is one of purest grace. There is no demand made. The precious word is, "Come to the wedding.”

But alas! they would not come. There was no heart for the King, no heart for His Son. If they had been asked to contribute anything toward the feast, they might urge the plea of poverty and inability. But, as everybody knows, when people are invited to a feast, the very thought of bringing anything toward it would be a positive insult to the host.

Now, let the reader distinctly understand that we are not by any means denying man's responsibility. So far from this, we distinctly maintain it. Man is most assuredly responsible. He was responsible to keep the law when he got it He was responsible to yield some return for all those religious advantages placed within his reach under the Levitical ceremonial. To deny human responsibility we should consider a very grave error indeed. Man is not a mere machine. He is a responsible being, with whom God was dealing in bygone ages in various ways, to see if haply anything could be made of him.

But man has been proved a hopeless ruin; yea more, an implacable enemy. He does not want to have anything to do with God or His Son. He has no heart for that nuptial feast, given in honor of the King's Son. This is proved by his conduct, the true index of character, the real proof of the heart's bent. Man, when told to "go work,” might plead want of strength. When asked to give "fruit," he might plead inability to produce it. Not that the plea is admissible for a moment before the throne of God; for we must never lose sight of the solemn, clearly established truth of man's responsibility.

But a call to a wedding affords no possible ground for excuse; and hence the refusal to come only proves that the heart has no interest in the King or His Son. "They would not come.”

It is not said they could not come. They did not want to come. Man never does, until he is compelled. There will not be so much as a single merely invited guest at "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9.) Not one would ever be found there, if he had not been compelled to come.

There is not, in the entire compass of the human heart, a single desire after God or heavenly things, not one atom of taste for what is divine or spiritual.

Man, if left to himself, would never come to God. True, he does not want to go to hell; he shrinks from the thought of pain, torment, and misery; and, seeing that heaven is a place of entire freedom from all such, he would rather go there than to an everlasting hell. Beyond this he has no thought or wish as to heaven; and as to the presence of God, it is the very last place in the wide universe in which he would like to find himself; he could not endure it; it would be absolutely intolerable to him.

In order to enjoy the divine presence there must not only be a divine title, but the divine nature; and the unrenewed man has neither the one nor the other; he has no right to the place, and no capacity for the enjoyment of it. A beggar in in rags would be sadly out of place and uncomfortable in the king's drawing-room; how much more, unrenewed nature in heaven!

The first invitation to the wedding was given in our Lord's own lifetime. But in the second we observe a very considerable advance in the moral ground of the invitation; the king can put forth much stronger claims upon the hearts of those invited. "Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which were bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage." (Matt. 22:4.)

Here we have vividly illustrated the call to the people of Israel, on the ground of accomplished redemption, as in the preaching of the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

During our Lord's ministry the invitation had gone forth. He had sent forth His messengers to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; but, after His death and resurrection, the Holy Ghost came down, and filled the apostles and others with new power to urge upon the people the blessed invitation, grounded upon the glorious fact that the atoning work was done; that God had glorified His Son Jesus; that all things were ready.

“This Jesus," they declared, "hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear ... Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." And again, "Unto you first, God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, by turning away every one of you from his iniquities." (Acts 2:32; 3:25.)

What was the result, as regards the nation and its leaders? Deliberate rejection. Many, indeed, were compelled to come; they were made willing in the day of the Spirit's power. Thousands were bowed in true repentance before God, and thankfully accepted the blessed invitation to come to the wedding. But as regards the great mass of the people it was exactly according to the words of our parable: "They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise." (Matt. 22:5.)

Alas! thus it is to this very day. People "make light” of the precious gospel of Christ. The sweet invitation of divine love is pressed upon them; the grand realities of eternity are presented to them; the joys of heaven; the horrors of an everlasting hell; the unspeakable value of their immortal souls; all these things are solemnly, earnestly, lovingly brought before them, and urged upon their attention; but they make light of them, and go their ways; the farm, the merchandise, the money-making, pleasure, vanity, folly, fashion, and gaiety command their hearts, and engross their energies; they care not for the marriage supper; they have no heart for the King or His Son, or the nuptial feast; no care for the salvation of their immortal souls; no true desire to make their escape from the terrible wrath that must in the end overtake all who refuse the blessed message of God's salvation, all who die in their sins.

There is, however, more than heartless indifference. This we see in the great mass of people; there is positive enmity: "The remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them." (Matt. 22:6.)

This is in full and melancholy keeping with the solemn address of Stephen, in Acts 7, a few moments before his martyrdom: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth . . . . Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him." (Acts 7:51-58.)

This historic record is in perfect unison with the teaching of the parable. Every effort of divine grace, all the painstaking of divine love, is met by the determined hatred of the human heart. The law broken; the prophets stoned; the Son rejected and crucified; the vessel of the Holy Ghost martyred. The case was hopeless, the evil incorrigible; nothing remained but for judgment to take its course. "When the king heard thereof, he was wroth; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." (Matt. 22:7.)

How literally this was fulfilled in the awful history of Jerusalem, we need not say. It is known to all. The horrors of that dreadful siege are enough to make the blood congeal in our veins, even as we read them on the page of history. What must the facts have been! And yet they were as nothing when compared with the sufferings of those who shall find their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. But, be it well remembered, that as surely as Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, as surely as the apostate Jews endured the appalling sufferings which the pen of the historian has recorded, so surely shall all who reject the gospel of the grace of God have to endure the unutterable agony and anguish of that place where hope can never come. The one is as true as the other, and comes out with equal force and solemnity in our parable.

“Then saith the king to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy; go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage.

So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was furnished with guests." (Matt. 22:8-10.)

Here we see the rich and precious grace of God flowing out to the Gentiles. All the barriers are swept away, and the shining river of God's salvation sends its refreshing and life-giving stream to the ends of the earth. "The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it.” (Acts 28:28.)

We have from the inspired pen of the evangelist Luke, a most exquisite point in connection with this subject. "And the Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." (Luke 14:23.)

It is not possible to conceive anything more lovely or more glorious than this. It is pure, absolute, sovereign grace. It is not a question of man's responsibility; all that is closed. It is not, “Go work"; it is not "Give fruit"; it is not even “Come." All these methods have been tried, and tried in vain. He would not work; he would not give; he would not even come.

What remains! just this: God's compelling grace! He as it were says to the sinner, “If you will not have anything to say to me, I am determined to have to say to you. I will save you in spite of yourself. I will compel you to come. I am determined to fill my house with guests. I will fit you and clothe you with a wedding garment. It matters not who you are or what you are; I shall have you in my presence and at my feast in a manner worthy of myself. I have made ample provision; I have made out the title, found the ransom, done all; and not only so, but I shall make you come. I know that, if left, to yourself, you would never come at all; I have proved this, proved it beyond all question; and now I shall not leave you to yourself; I shall not allow you to stay away; I shall give you a clean deliverance from yourself, from your sins, from the devil, from the world, from all your liabilities and responsibilities, as a lost, ruined, guilty sinner; and I shall bring you to my table clothed in garments of salvation, yea, clothed in my righteousness, accepted in all the acceptability of my own Son. I will give you a title, give you a capacity, give you a nature, give you all, make you all, do all for you; you shall be my guest forever; and if anyone shall inquire, How can all this be? the answer is, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. It is all grace from first to last, all to the praise of the glory of my grace. I do not ask you for an atom; I do not ask you to put forth a single effort: I know it would be of no possible use to do so, for if it were all made to depend on your moving your eyelash, you would not do it. I have taken the whole matter into my own hands, from first to last, and you shall be, to all eternity, a monument of my saving, quickening, compelling grace.”

Reader, we ask you, Is not all this most marvelous? Can aught exceed it? May not angels well desire to look into it? May not principalities and powers gaze with wonder at it? Only think of His dealing thus with the being that had broken His law, stoned His prophets, murdered His Son, resisted His Spirit! What matchless, transcendent, adorable grace! God will fill His house with guests who, if left to themselves, would have turned their backs forever upon Him, and rushed headlong to an everlasting hell.

Need we say there are holy responsibilities flowing out of all this marvelous grace, powerful claims upon all those who are the happy, privileged subjects thereof?

Surely there are. If our responsibility, as sinners, has issued in the most complete and hopeless failure and ruin; if it has forever closed in the cross of the Son of God; if grace has compelled us to come within the hallowed circle of God's salvation: if we are saved, blessed, cleansed, clothed, "accepted in the Beloved," endowed with every privilege that God could bestow upon us, if all this is true, and it is true, true as the truth of God can make it, then may we not ask, What manner of persons ought we to be?

If we are saved, ought we not to live as such? If we have got the wedding garment, ought we not to wear it, and to appear in it continually? Are we not called to put on Christ in our daily life? Should not our habits, our manners, our temper, our style, our spirit, our whole practical life and character declare whose we are and whom we serve? Can it be that any one professing to have the wedding garment could be found going after the folly, vanity, frivolity, and ridiculous fashions of this wretched world?

Alas! alas! there is a terrible amount of heartless, worthless profession in our midst. The doctrines of grace are talked about; but where is the fruit? There is nothing more terrible, nothing more sad and humiliating than to see persons professing to be saved by the free grace of God, and yet exhibiting gross selfishness and earthly mindedness in their daily private life. It was this that broke the blessed apostle's heart, and made him weep bitter tears, as he tells us in his Epistle to his beloved Philippians. And if it was so in his day, what is it now?

We may, perhaps, be asked, "What has all this to do with the parable of the Marriage Supper"? We reply, Much every way. Let us read the closing sentences, and see if they do not bear down, in awful solemnity, upon all who take their place professedly among "the guests," but are not really clothed in the wedding garment.

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not a wedding garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few chosen.” (Matt. 22:11-14.)

How solemn! How soul-subduing! How appalling! How dreadful for anyone to appear among the guests, to take a place among the saved, to profess to be a subject of grace, and yet not have on the "wedding garment"!

“How earnest thou in hither?" It is an open, daring insult to the King, to His Son, and to the nuptial feast, the very highest offense against the grace of God. The idea of appearing amongst the Lord's people, being at His table, professing to belong to Him, and yet not being really clothed upon with Christ, the true "wedding garment"; presuming to belong to a scene in which one has neither part nor lot; this is a sin only to be found among the ranks of baptized profession. It is characteristic of Christendom; it is sinning against and despising the very richest, highest, grandest display of grace that ever was or could be made in this world.

“How earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?”

There is no excuse. He cannot say, "I could not afford to buy one." All is free. The garment is as free as the feast. There is no hindrance. All is of grace, free, sovereign, compelling grace.

Otherwise there would be no force in the “How?

But there is tremendous force in it; such force indeed, as leaves the man "speechless." He has nothing to say. His case is desperate.

And be it remembered, this is a sample case; a case, we hesitate not to say, bearing with terrible emphasis upon thousands of professors around us. Let us remember the words, "The kingdom heaven is like." In another place we read, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened." But our parable is a similitude of the kingdom now; and it indicates the sure and dreadful destiny and portion of all those who, though appearing amongst the guests, do not really belong to Christ, are not truly converted, are merely self-indulgent, world-loving professors.

How appalling the end of such There is no hope; no remedy; no plea. It is the utter rejection of Christ; the neglect of the "great salvation"; the refusal of the "wedding garment"; and all the while professing to be a Christian. In fact it is the very highest order of wickedness, the condemning sin of this day of high and wide-spread evangelical profession. As nothing can exceed the grace that shines in the gospel of God, as now preached, so nothing can exceed the guilt of those who in heart neglect it, while professing to have it. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3.)

“Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and, gnashing of teeth." (Mat. 22:13.)

We cannot attempt to dwell upon this. It needs no comment. Human exposition could but weaken its force. The Holy Ghost alone can apply it to all those whom it may concern. But we earnestly pray that the reader of these lines may never be cast into that outer darkness, that place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. God grant that he may not only appear among the guests, but really have on the "wedding garment," to the praise of that compelling grace to which believers owe their present peace and everlasting glory.

Death and Resurrection

A FEW weeks ago, says one writing in the early seventies of the nineteenth century, I saw a handful of corn. It had been grown from some which had lain for three thousand years in the tomb of an Egyptian monarch. As long as it lay there, there was no fruit. It was sown, then two results too place; it died, decayed; then there sprang up fruit; death, then life.

Even when we sit down at the daily board to our meals we are reminded by the food we partake of, that before our life could be sustained there must be death. The Spring-time tells us of it.

Without this death there could be no life.

The Lord Jesus represents Himself as a corn of wheat. He must needs die. He did die, and from that death there sprang up life and fruit.

He said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12:24.)

The Lord Jesus saves by His death and resurrection. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, in order that we poor lost sheep and lambs who are away from God, away from Christ, might be saved. He has loved us so well that He died for us, died that we might live.

This was His great mission, salvation. He saves by death and resurrection. The law of nature and of grace teaches that there must be death before life. We must accept salvation through. Him alone, the sacrifice of God's appointing. His death procured salvation for us; His life secures salvation to us who believe in Him.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

1 John 1:5. 1 John 4:8, 16. 1 John 4:9.

Homeward Bound; or, the Heart Won

FAR away on the trackless ocean, many, many miles from sight of land, a ship is on her homeward passage from Australia. She is the bearer of many a home-sick, weary one, but none so anxious for a sight of home as Jessie, from the hills of Fife.

Years before this, the iron hand of poverty had forced her family to sell their dearly loved little farm, and leave their native land in search of employment over the sea.

With breaking hearts they bade adieu to all that was dear to them, and, after many years of hard toil, they are now homeward bound, having re-purchased their little farm in Fife.

Far up in the bush, in the cold ground, lay, the body of the valued wife and mother of the family, and Jessie had early to take upon her the care and toil of her father's young family. She had left Scotland a blooming girl in her teens; now she is returning, worn from the roughing life in the bush; a fatal disease, too, having laid its relentless grasp upon her still youthful form.

But Jessie heeded little the racking cough that gave her weary days and sleepless nights, and often she would smile, and say, "I shall be well when I get home, and see the hills o' Fife again." Her father's strong arms carried her daily on deck, where she lay watching the waves that bore her onward towards her desired haven; and, when the roughness of the weather or her own weakness made it impossible for her to be on deck, she would watch with an intense yearning for the first sight of land, and at times she fancied she could see the outline of the hills of Fife from her cabin window. As days passed on, the sick one got more weary and faint, and her father saw with sorrow that she must be taken to a hospital as soon as they got to land.

It was hard to convince Jessie that this was necessary; the deceitful nature of her disease giving her fitful gleams of strength, and a little relief from her cough blinding her eyes to the fact that she was so very ill; and when at length she did reach Edinburgh, she could scarcely be persuaded that, for a time at least, she was unfit to continue her journey.

In great grief her friends left her in a ward of the infirmary, while they pursued their journey without her.

I was in the habit of visiting the infirmary, and there I first saw Jessie the very day she was left there by her friends.

I had just entered the ward, and had been greeted by kindly smiles and welcome looks of recognition from some of the suffering ones, when my eye rested upon one, who, though a stranger, at once awakened my deepest sympathy.

She was sitting up in bed. Her face, which was intelligent and pretty, glowed with the excitement almost of despair, as she rocked herself to and fro, from time to time, and then threw herself exhausted on the pillow, in a paroxysm of weeping.

After a word or two with some of my old friends, I quickly crossed the ward to where she lay, and, after a little tender soothing, she told me, through her tears, the story just related, every now and then clasping my hand in almost childish weakness and saving, "Oh! you'll get them to take me home. I must see the hills o' Fife again.”

With a promise that I would speak to the nurse about her, and see what could be done, I left her a little comforted.

As I went out I called the nurse aside, and asked her what the doctors thought of Jessie's case. "Oh!" she said, "both lungs gone, and no hope of recovery; and my own thought is she will never be off that bed.”

A strong desire filled me to return to that sad, lone, sick one, and tell her of Christ. I had listened to her tale of sorrow, and seemed unable to do anything but sympathize, and I had failed to tell her of the only One who could satisfy her weary heart. I remembered I had some grapes with me which I had brought for another patient, so I went back to her, and put them on her pillow, saying as I did so, "Jessie, do you know that Jesus loves you?”

“No! for if He did He would have taken me home to Fife, and not left me amongst strangers.”

“Did anyone ever speak to you about Christ in Fife?”

“No!”

“Did anyone in Australia ever speak to you about Christ?”

“No!”

“Well, Jessie, perhaps God sent you to this hospital to hear about His beloved Son, who loved you so much that He died for you, and He wishes you to be with Him forever, in a land far more beautiful than the lands of Fife.”

She shook her head as if incredulous, and said,

“You never saw my home.”

“No, Jessie, I have not, nor have I yet seen the home that God has prepared for those that love Him, but I have read about it, and I know it is more beautiful than any home on earth. Here you would, if spared a little, have many a weary, suffering day, Jessie; but there God shall wipe away all tears: from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.' (Rev. 21:4.)”

Visiting hours were over, and, having told her of Him who could save her, and make her happy forever, I left with her a little Testament, in which I had marked for her some passages, and came away.

It was not for several days that I could again visit the hospital. I went in prayer that the Lord would give me the right word to meet Jessie's case.

I found her much in the same state as before.

Her father had been seeing her, and she had again passed through the disappointment of being left behind. I felt it was best to try and interest her with something outside her own sorrowful circumstances, so I spoke to her, as I would to a child, of Jesus, of whom she seemed quite ignorant.

Soon she was melted by the tale of what He had suffered for her, and through her tears said softly,

“I never heard of such love. I thought there was no one could love me like Jamie," she said, pointing to a little ring on her finger. "He gave me that when I left Scotland, and he has waited for me all these years, and he came in today to see me; but I never heard of love like Christ's; it's more than any earthly love, far more.”

I rested my head upon my hand, and let my tears have their own way, while I silently thanked God that the exceeding beauty of Christ had won this weary, sorrowful heart. I had felt powerless to help her, but God had given her soul to grasp at once the most blessed of all gospels ... for it was the Person of the One who had died for her that had captivated her heart.

As I was leaving the ward she called me, and said, " Will you write home and tell them I've got One now who is more to me than the hills o' Fife —or Jamie," she whispered, as the color mounted to her cheeks, " though he knows I love him well?”

Then, after a moment's thought, she said, “No, the Lord will give me strength to write myself, for none of them know Christ.”

A week had passed when I saw Jessie again. A great change had come over her face; it was calm and sweet, but the lines of death were on it, and her voice was feeble. She seemed not as usual to notice me as I entered the ward, and I had to lean: over her, and whisper, “Jessie, dear, you're very weak to-day.”

“Yes," she said, smiling," I'll soon be Name.

Not to Fife," she added, quickly, as if fearing I might misunderstand her; “but to see His face.

Oh! tell me more about Him.”

We had a blessed hour together. I shall never forget it. We feasted upon our meditation of Him who is "altogether lovely," “the chiefest among ten thousand." (SoS. 5:10,16.) I felt we should never meet again, for I was to leave Edinburgh for a time. I almost feared to tell her, for she seemed to cling to me; but she answered, “He is enough; He saved, and then He satisfied.”

She seemed exhausted, so I left her for a few moments, to speak to a suffering one at the other end of the ward. As I was going out at the door I turned round to take a last look at Jessie. I saw she was asleep, her sweet face like a piece of chiselled marble, a smile upon her parted lips.

She was "homeward bound" I involuntarily went up to her bed, and gently pressed a last kiss upon her pale forehead.

A few days after I had left home I got a message from a sister in the Lord to say, “Jessie has gone home full of joy.”

Reader, do you know anything of the Christ who first saved and then satisfied Jessie? Has He saved you? or is your heart bound up with some earthly love, or in some cherished home, to the exclusion of Christ? The earthly friend may disappoint, and the earthly home pass away from your hands, and "what then?" You are left desolate, for you have no Christ. As one said, “Give me Christ and I have everything; but give me everything without Him, and I have nothing.”

The Ninth of John; or, One Thing I Know.

IT is always a good thing for our souls to get right back to the foundation truths of Christianity, and to be there often, so that we never lose sight of them. For in the complexities and turmoil of everyday life there is no small danger of a soul that has for the moment lost sight of these foundations, being bewildered, and almost led to doubt the reality and joy of salvation.

We get in this Ninth Chapter of John's Gospel a beautiful example of the way in which the Holy Spirit can use even a 'simple and untaught believer to confound and bring to naught the ablest forces of the enemy of souls.

We see a man "blind from his birth." (Joh. 9:1.) He was therefore past all human aid. Under. God's blessing it has been known that, one who has lost his sight may have it restored, but in this case there never was sight; there was nothing to restore.

What a striking picture of the natural man!

Far off from God by sin and wicked works, without one spark of life toward God, there is nothing man could ever do could bring him back to God. If he is to be saved, there must be an interposition of God in sovereign grace. God must provide the way for a sinner to return to Himself.

And, blessed be His Name, He has done it! “For God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8.) There is now through His grace a free way of access for every one, who, like this blind man, feels and knows his need, and simply trusts the. Saviour to fill it.

We do not find any questions asked or difficulties raised by this poor man. No, indeed, he was too earnest, too eager to be freed from his life-long infirmity. And when a soul is brought into the presence of God, and sees its utter lost and ruined state, there can be but one cry from that soul, even the cry that was wrung from that Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be saved?" Nothing had any weight with him then but his soul's deep need of salvation.

Well, to proceed with our chapter. This poor man goes as directed by the Lord. And with what result?

“And came seeing." (Joh. 9:7.)

What other result should we expect? What other result is possible? It is the sure result of faith in Him that blessing must follow. And it is just the same today. Faith that lays hold of the precious words of the Lord (John 3:16; 5:21, etc.) can rejoice in the possession of a full, free and present salvation from all the dire results of sin and sins; can rejoice in the possession of a son's place with the Father, and can sing,

“The sinner who believes is free;

Can say, The Saviour died for me';

Can point to the atoning blood,

And say, 'This made my peace with God.'”

Happy place! happy people who can say this! Even though it brings reproach, as we get brought out lower down in our chapter, nothing can destroy the link that is formed between the soul and the One to Whom we owe everything, the One Who has died for us, and is coming again to take us to be with Himself, to be with Him, and like Him forever. What a place, what a portion for those who deserved nothing but banishment forever from the presence of a sin-hating God! Ah,! but though He hates sin with a perfect hatred, He loves the sinner, and at such infinite cost to Himself has provided a way of escape. How sad to reflect that man, in his foolish pride and self-will, rejects even such a salvation!

And it is not long before we see man's will at work in this chapter, just as we see it today. Here indeed it is religious man; but man is about the same whether professedly religious (apart from Christ) or outwardly opposed to God. In both cases the enemy has free course in the heart of man, and uses it for his own evil purposes towards the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Hatred to the Lord is manifested by hatred to His people. We see here recorded the fact that for anyone to confess Christ was to be cast out of the synagogue, to be cut off from that which was dear to the Jewish heart, but which had no place; no room, for Jesus in it. So today, the soul that seeks to own the Lord Jesus fully in this world will find that the world has long ago cast out the Lord, and will reject all real testimony to His name.

Instead of the Pharisees rejoicing in the grace of God in healing this poor man, they but seek to make it a pretext for condemning the Lord Himself; and because the happy recipient of this grace does not join them in this nefarious scheme, they join him in their minds with the Lord (happy place to be!) and cast him out too. But it is interesting to note how he meets their arguments and insinuations. Not by counter argument; had he done so he would soon have been vanquished, for with them lay the weight of human learning and skill in disputation. But the Christian position is not one to be defended by argument and logic though we are told always to be ready to give ar answer for the hope that is in us (that every true Christian will delight to do); but one who would seek to engage us in argument as to the truth of God's precious word, and as to the certainty of salvation, will be found to be no honest enquirer, but like these Pharisees, only seeking to use superior command of language and debate for the downfall of the unwary Christian who will fight on this carnal ground like David in Saul's armor. No, we may depend upon it that Satan can bring to his aid very great powers of argument, such as will put us in some very awkward places if we try to meet it with the same weapons. But, as we have said, this is not the Christian ground.

We get a beautiful picture of the Christian attitude here. We see a simple new believer (for such he surely is) attacked by the greatest masters of learning of that day as to the Person of his Saviour; the enemy's favorite point of attack still. What could be more calculated to unsettle and trouble him than to have these men, whom he has looked up to all his life, disputing with him as to the character of the One who saved him.

But how lovely to see the simplicity he shows! He could not explain himself very well, could not refute altogether (as no doubt he would have liked to), the subtle propositions of his opponents, but he stuck to this word: "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." They could not take that from him, for he had actual physical proof; he was assured of positive possession.

And as he points out to them (Joh. 9:30-33), he could see that this One who had performed so much for him was of God; and having these two points clear was enough for him.

With positive knowledge on these essential points he was defended on points still obscure to him. So it should be with us. We know and are sure from God's precious Word, expressed in the simplest language possible, that we have eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that we are thus eternally secure; and assured of this knowledge we are in a position impregnable to the enemy of our souls. When someone, for instance, asks us questions that we feel unable to answer, and we seem to be placed in an untenable position, we can always fall back upon the support, "One thing I know, that whereas I was lost and undone, now I am eternally saved," and this argument puts us in a place above all the enemy can say. For just as this poor man had something in this, knowledge that his opponents had not, so we may say that these agents of Satan who come to us with what the Word calls "foolish and unlearned questions" have not this assurance, and thus being outside of the blessings that are found in Jesus, they know not what they are talking about, inasmuch as this foundation truth is hid from them.

We may be, alas! we often are, found without the knowledge of God's counsels that it is our privilege to have through His revelation of them in His word. If so, we are undoubtedly weak, and in no position to sustain a combat with the foe; but faith to lay hold of these elementary truths will carry us through: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked " (Eph. 6:16); and how sharp and how fiery they are we soon learn when that shield of faith is not in exercise!

Perhaps the world will call us narrow-minded. Very well,

"If to confess our Lord be shame,

Oh then would we be viler still.”

The Christian can afford that the world should think thus of him, can afford to be thought little of, because he knows what lies at the end of his journey; it has been revealed to him through the grace of God. The Apostle Paul, who knew something more of rejection by this world than, most of us (the result of a closer walk with God),, could say, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in Him (Phil. 3:8, 9.) And, apart from the glorious end of the path, who would compare the joy of communion with Him, walking with Him, living with Him, with the fleeting pleasures of the world? Think of the martyrs of the middle ages, who though, they had not the joyful expectation of the Lord's coming ever present to their souls as we may have, yet went triumphantly to' rack and stake sooner than deny the Lord that bought them, even as we read in Acts 5:41, "Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

But we have the sure and certain hope of His corning, and know our sins are forgiven. Why should we not be glad, even though the world thinks us narrow-minded and foolish? Alas! for this world when it awakes to the awful fact that those so long rejected were right after all, when, from the whole world as from one throat goes up the awful cry, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer. 8:20.) Terrible indeed then to reflect upon the offers of mercy that have been slighted, the tender yearnings of grace to ruined man which he has madly spurned, only to awake to the true state of things in the lake of fire, as it has been said, "with a good memory but a bad conscience." (Rev. 20:10, 15.) And yet, awful as it is, it is the portion of all who neglect or reject God's terms to this world. Such loving offers as He had made to such implacable enemies, one wonders how it is possible for even one to stay outside, how it is that every one does not fall at His feet, and say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God." (John 20:28.) Thrice happy they who take this low place, and thus are eligible to be the recipients of all that God in His grace is offering (Rom. 8:22).

Now mark the result on these proud hearts of the simple application of the truth by this simple child of God. It is not to be expected that hearts so hardened in rejection of Christ, so far form God, should be touched by this simple avowal of the Person of Christ (so far as this man had learned it). At the same time the truth was so manifest that it must have effect upon them, and it does. Anger flares up in them at what they are pleased to consider this man's presumption, and they exclaim, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and Most thou teach us? And they cast him out.”

Yes, this man knew he was born in sins, and so were they, and did not know it. The difference now was that he trusted the One who could put those sins away, while the proud Pharisee refused Him. So they cast him out. They had long ago rejected and east out the Lord, so that it was, and is, but a natural sequence that, they cast out those who are the Lord's. But what joy is now about to dawn on that man's soul t He found more outside than ever he would have done in the synagogue, "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him,, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him" (Joh. 9:35-38.)

He could never have had Jesus in the synagogue. There was no room for Him there; no, not in the very place where God's name was outwardly owned where they carried on the ritual that God had appointed, but which had now become only dead forms, which the Lord Jesus had come to abolish; that place formerly the place of the Divine presence, now only a name, had no room for the Light of the World, the One who was the Image of the invisible God. (Col. 1:15.) The Lord Jesus knew all about the conflict this. man had with the Pharisees, but, He did not come-to him then. He knew the straits of difficulty he-was put to in argument with them, but He does, not interfere. No, the Lord could not come in while the man was inside that which had cast Him out, and if the enemy sifts and tries the believer in that place, it is that he may see his place outside.

Is there an "outside" to-ay? Yes, there is an "outside" still, just as there ever will be till the Lord reigns in righteousness over this earth. We read in Heb. 13:13, "Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach," and in Rev. 3:20, in the address to Laodicea (sad, solemn picture of all professing Christendom, that vast system set up by man to which he has attached the Lord's name, to-day), "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." There again the Lord is outside, in this case seeking admission into the individual heart.

Yes, if we want to experience the fullness of the joy of being one with Him, we must be shut up to Him alone. No system of man's can come between the real communion of the soul and the Lord; and if we want to taste the joy of it we must go forth unto Him outside the world and all that it stands for as a vast system of man devised to do without God. Who can deny that this is the avowed purpose of man to-day, to make this earth a pleasant place to dwell in apart from Christ? What folly, what madness, when it is in Him alone that the craving of man's soul can find its need really met. The world can give nothing. It has nothing.

We need only read that address to Laodicea (above quoted) to see where the world has got to. It is, mark, the religious world, that composed of all the various churches and denominations of men that is spoken of here, and if such scathing words are addressed to the mere professor, what shall be said to the open scorner, of whom one finds more and 'more in these "last and closing days"? Is not the world saying to-day more than ever, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"? And never were more true of it the solemn words of the Lord, "And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." What a place for the true believer in Jesus to be found in; to be mixed with that which hates the name of his blessed Saviour, and, as we too often see it, very much at home there! Well, such a believer will of course be saved, will spend eternity with Jesus, but will have to be snatched' out of the place of man's preparing like. Lot was snatched out of Sodom (he had never any business there); everything being lost but life itself.

May the Lord give us to be more and more simple, as this dear man was; to be humble, and in the place He would have us be, with Himself the alone object of the worship of our hearts down here ("and he worshipped Him"),so that when that trumpet sounds, and when that blessed Saviour, the very same One, comes in the clouds to call us to be with Him, we may be ready, and waiting and willing to go, and then

“When left this scene of faith and strife,

The flesh and sense deceive no more,

When we shall see the Prince of life,

And all His works of grace explore

"To hear his voice, to see his face

And know the glories of His grace.”

I once saw on a tombstone a little verse which struck me:—

“Millions of years my wondering soul

Shall o'er my Saviour's beauties rove.”

It was not about the sinner, or even about the salvation; it was the beauties of Christ Himself.

Gospel Light: Volume 11 (1921)

Table of Contents

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Gospel Light

The Only Word He Remembered

A Daughter's Recollection of Her Father's Conversion

God so Loved the World.

A Moment Too Late!

Grace Reigning Through Righteousness

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Degeneration & Regeneration

The Saviour and the Sinner

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

I Cannot Get Away From God.

the King of Terrors.

Profit and Loss

None Cast Out

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Ordinances, or Christ: Which?

What Made the Difference?

The Obedience of Faith

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Mary B — , the Poacher's Wife

The Three Aspects of Salvation

Salvation for the Guilty

Jesus Only.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

The Somerset Gardener's Need

How Three Souls Passed Into Eternity

How the Change Comes

Boldness in the Day of Judgment.

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

The Ways of God in Grace

Splendid Sins.

The Lost Soul or, Christ Rejected

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

The Right Direction at Last!

Are You Indeed Saved for All Eternity

What Is Repentance?

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Trying to Do a Work That Is Done

Confession and Justification

Just As I Am.

Hoping and Having

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Only One More, or, the Last Ball.

What Is Believing in Christ?

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Faded Leaves, Fallen Leaves, and Leaves From the Tree of Life

The Parable of the Marriage Supper

Death and Resurrection

Gospel Light. God Is Light. God Is Love.

Homeward Bound; or, the Heart Won

The Ninth of John; or, One Thing I Know.