Gospel Light: Volume 2 (1912)
Table of Contents
As a Christian or a Sinner?
THERE was a lady in my neighborhood who had been in deep anxiety about her soul's salvation. She read her Bible, prayed over and over again, yet could get no rest to her soul.
But one day she came looking so happy that I knew something had occurred.
“You are happy now," I said.
“Yes," she replied, " I am. I found the secret at last. I was endeavoring to make myself out A CHRISTIAN, and to come to God as such; but having dropped the idea of being a Christian, I found redemption for THE SINNER. Now, "said she," I know whom I have believed; now I know what and where I am.”
Ah, dear friend, do not try to make yourself a Christian before you come to Christ. Sinners appear before God accepted, and enter heaven, on the ground that Christ died for sinners (Rom. 5:8). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The blood of Christ is the true ground of peace. When nothing else could save, God spared not His own Son. The death of Christ both satisfies the demands of law and justice, and saves the sinner that believes. It is only in the finished work of the cross that we see salvation for the lost.
As It Was in the Days of Noah.
“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark, and the Flood came, and destroyed them all " (Luke 17:26, 27). LUK 17:26-27
IF these words were but the mere opinions of men, we might disregard them, but since they are the words of the Son of God, they must, and will, be fulfilled to the very letter. Let us then carefully inquire how it was in the days of Noe.
“GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). GEN 6:5Yes, God saw it does not tell us what man thought, but what God saw. There is no deceiving God. God sees all that takes place under the sun. Just think of God seeing the imagination of the thoughts of the heart! Could you, my reader, bear to be in the presence of a fellow-man, if he knew every thought you ever had in your heart? And what was the wickedness of man then compared to the wickedness of man now?
Has not man murdered the Son of God, and for eighteen hundred years rejected Him? and Jesus foretells that this wicked rejection of Himself will go on up to the very day that Christ is revealed.
I dare say man thought the clays of Noah were days of wonderful progress. But “the earth was corrupt BEFORE GOD, and the earth was filled with violence." What is it now?
Let it even speak for itself. The world's newspapers say, We have no sooner recorded one deed of violence, than we are called to report another. But what is it before God?
And what will it be very shortly, when the true Church of God shall be taken up to meet Christ, and Satan shall deceive the whole world? Peace shall then be taken from the earth (Rev. 6). And men shall kill one another, in that day of tribulation, tribulation such as never was, and never will be again.
It will be as literally true, as it was in the days of Noah, when the earth was filled with violence; yes, far more literally true than men expect.
I look upon the translation of Enoch as a type of the translation of the whole Church of God (1 Thess. 4) 1TH 4And then all the world will become infidel, filled with blasphemous wickedness, except a small remnant of godly Jews, who will be saved as Noah and his family. So that it may be asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). LUK 18:8
And God revealed His purpose to Noah, that He would destroy man from the face of the earth. " By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith " (Heb. 11).
And still the world went on; its buildings, its commerce, its pleasures, and its sins. Men would not believe God. The Ark grew larger every day, a witness of the coming judgment.
Certainly there was no appearance of the coming Flood. Indeed, human reason would have said it was impossible. What! God destroy this beautiful world, only just in its infancy? Many of the wise men of this age would have said, “Oh! no, Noah; you are quite mistaken; it is only your opinion; besides, a great many prophecies have to be fulfilled yet; all the world has to be blessed, and filled with righteousness, so that you must be mistaken. Noah; you had better give over working at that great ship, and give up preaching such peculiar views as you hold; come and enjoy yourself, man, and don't be such a narrow-minded bigot; do you think everybody is wrong but you?”
But the Flood came, and destroyed them all. “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh." “And the Lord shut him in.”
Every soul that was not shut in with Noah, was shut out. There was then no hope; it was too late. Yes, and it shall be so in the days of the Son of man. We read in the parable of the Ten Virgins, " They that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us" (Matt. 25:10-11). MAT 25:10-11But it was too late.
A Jew, as he listened to the discourse of Jesus in Luke 21, foretelling the certain destruction of Jerusalem, and the scattering of the Jews amongst all nations, might have said, “Ah! that must be a mistake. Why, this city is to be the center of the whole earth, and blessing shall flow out through it to all nations. We scattered among all nations!
Nay, all nations shall come up, and worship in Jerusalem." But the day of fierce destruction came; and the city is trampled under foot; and they are scattered amongst all nations.
In like manner, men may say now, " Be as it was in the days of Noah, the earth filled with violence, and wickedness, when the Son of man comes,' up to the very day? Oh, that is only your opinion. Why, man, the world is to be converted! ‘Apostate Christendom destroyed'? Why, Christendom has to extend, until all the world are Christians; ay, every man, woman, and child!”
Thus man rejects the word of God, just as blindly and as fatally as in the days of Noah; or when Jesus foretold Judah's awful doom.
Yes, in like manner shall they say, “Peace and safety," up to the very day of Christ.
It is quite true the world shall be filled with blessing; but this did not hinder the Flood, did it? It is quite certain that Jerusalem shall be the metropolis of the whole earth (Isa. 2). But did this hinder its awful destruction?
It is quite certain that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the face of the earth. But will this hinder the words of Jesus being fulfilled? “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.”
How can the future reign of Christ, in blessing over this earth, which shall take place AFTER He comes, hinder the fearful judgments which will surely take place AT His COMING? No, the world will go on increasing in wickedness, until He comes.
Oh! my reader, are you ready to meet the coming Lord? Do you, like Noah, believe God? Or with the world, are you rejecting Him? Are you shut in with Christ, as Noah was shut in the ark? Or are you shut out?
God SAW, and God SEES your every thought.
The gospel still sounds; God grant that you may hear, believe, and live. If my reader is a Christian, let me beg of him to search the Scriptures, and see if these things be so. Jesus says, "Behold, I come quickly" (Rev. 22).
CHARLES STANLEY.
Be Thou Clean.
MARK 1:40-45 MAR 1:40-45
WHAT a wretched being a leper is, afflicted with a horrid disease, which no one can cure, and shut out of society, as too loathsome for the eyes of his fellow-men!
Sad, but true, picture of man's moral condition; fallen, utterly fallen; the very heart filled with the loathsome disease of sin; his whole nature corrupt, incurable!
This little paper may be put into the hands, of one who feels the wretchedness of sin.
Thou hast sinned. The leprosy has broken out; art thou trying to hide it? God knows it, and thou art wretched; oh, how wretched!
What a burden on thy heart!
What is that thou wast saying? I wish I had never been born? Why? Oh! I see; thou hast tried many physicians, but no cure.
The leprosy is still there, and spreads. Thou hast tried temperance, morality, religion.
Thou hast tried to amend, and tried hard, but all in vain; thy case is too bad for these remedies.
God knows thy deep sorrow, thy despairing groans. Who are those two persons there?
A loathsome leper and the Son of God. Well now, look; the leper speaks to Jesus, just as he is. He does not ask what he must do to cleanse himself. He came to Him, “beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
Does Jesus say, Go, and get better first?
No! See! Jesus is moved with compassion; and though no other person would touch that wretched leper, Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, and said, “I will, be thou clean." What a wondrous change! That man, whom no one could cure, was in a moment healed: as soon as Jesus had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, AND HE WAS CLEANSED.
Ah! I see your mistake. You have not yet fully seen the love of God to the ungodly shown in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, trembling sinner! look in the face of Jesus! See Him moved with compassion at the sight of thy leprous wretchedness. Art thou thus brought to Him just as thou art?
It was God who sent Him from heaven, that thy leprosy might be cleansed with His very life's blood: and now, raised from the dead.
He speaks to thee just as thou art, “I will be thou clean.”
My fellow-leper, there never was a poor wretched sinner thus brought and given to Jesus just as he was, but that moment he heard the voice of God in the words of Jesus, and those blessed words were true of him, " and he was cleansed.”
Wouldst thou rob Christ of His glory?
Wouldst thou say that thou must get better before Christ can heal thee? Thou wouldst not give an earthly physician such a character.
Wilt thou then say of the Great Physician, He receiveth none, and cleanseth none, but those who are getting better? The blessed Jesus rejected none. Thou mayest be too great a Pharisee for Him, but thou canst not be too great a sinner.
Oh, reader! if now thine eyes are opened to see Jesus receiving thee just as thou art, and renouncing all pretensions to righteousness in thyself, believing on Jesus, thou, even thou art cleansed, and cleansed forever. “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). HEB 10:14
CHARLES STANLEY.
“How bright there above is the mercy of God!”
“And void of all guilt, and clear of all sin,
Is my conscience and heart, thro' my Saviour's
blood.”
“Not a cloud above," “not a spot within.”
Christ died! then I am clean: " not a spot
within.”
God's mercy and love: "not a cloud above.”
'Tis the Spirit, through faith, thus triumphs
o'er sin:
`Not a cloud above," “not a spot within.”
The Burial of the Ethiopian
WHILST there is life, however ill the patient may be, there is hope; and the anxious friends will naturally get the best medical aid they can; but when the person is dead, then the burial must take place; a town, full of doctors can do no good then.
This is the light in which Scripture now views man's spiritual condition: dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). EPH 2:1
An Ethiopian of great worldly authority was driving through the desert. He had been to worship in the city of God. If anything could have been done, in any city, to improve his spiritual condition, that was the place. It was full of moral doctors; but he was returning as he went. As yet he knew not his dead condition.
Reading the Word of God, where the prophet Isaiah describes the adorable Substitute, he read these words, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened He not His mouth.
In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; and who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth " (Acts 8:32, 33). ACT 8:32-33
At this moment the Spirit of God sent His servant Philip, to give joy to the reader's anxious and troubled soul. Philip opened his mouth, and from the fifty-third of Isaiah, preached unto him JESUS.
Now men of God in those days were wont to show plainly that if Christ died for all, then all were dead (2 Cor. 5:14). 2CO 5:14The Ethiopian might well be no better for going to Jerusalem how could he? What could the Doctors do for a dead man; or what even could the law do for a dead man? Just as much as physic or doctors can do for a corpse.
The death of Christ had shown that man's case was beyond the reach of anything but boundless grace. And what had God done in boundless grace for dead, lost man? He had given His Son to die for him, to take his place in death, that He might be the first-born from the dead, that He might rise from the dead, and be the beginning of a new creation, in which death and sin should be no more.
Yes, men of God in those days did not, preach the death of Christ for the improvement of man, but as the death of man before God; and the resurrection of Christ as the life, and the only life of every believer in Christ.
Now, it always followed in those days that the moment a person believed he was dead, and that Christ had died for him, he had his burial there and then. Indeed, the Lord Jesus expressly taught His disciples to bury everybody that believed. On the day of Pentecost three Now men of God in those days were wont to show plainly that if Christ died for all, then all were dead (2 Cor. 5:14). 2CO 5:14The Ethiopian might well be no better for going to Jerusalem how could he? What could the doctors do for a dead man; or what even could the law do for a dead man? Just as much as physic or doctors can do for a corpse.
The death of Christ had shown that man's case was beyond the reach of anything but boundless grace. And what had God done in boundless grace for dead, lost man? He had given His Son to die for him, to take his place in death, that He might be the first-born from the dead, that He might rise from the dead, and be the beginning of a new creation, in which death and sin should be no more.
Yes, men of God in those days did not, preach the death of Christ for the improvement of man, but as the death of man before God; and the resurrection of Christ as the life, and the only life of every believer in Christ. Now, it always followed in those days that the moment a person believed he was dead, and that Christ had died for him, he had his burial there and then. Indeed, the Lord Jesus expressly taught His disciples to bury everybody that believed. On the day of Pentecost three thousand believed, and there were three thousand buried that very day.
It was just so with the Ethiopian: the moment he believed, he pulled up at once, and said, “See, here is water, what Both hinder me from being buried, or baptized?”
How simple this is! He had learned he was a dead sinner, and what should hinder his burial? The way it was done was this: "They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
That is, he buried him in water, as a dead sinner, a figure of the death and burial of Christ the adorable Substitute. And then he was raised out of the water, and went on his way rejoicing.
He did not surely go down into the water to wash the black man white; no, it was to bury him. The water of baptism surely is not the infusion of some virtue or grace into the dead sinner. And do not for a moment suppose it can wash him from his sins and blackness.
No, it is simply the figure or expression of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; and shows most strikingly how God looks upon every believer as dead, buried, and risen with Christ.
This is fully shown in Rom. 6 “ ROM 6Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection," etc. (vv. 3-5).
Is it not a great blessing that this all-important foundation truth, of death and resurrection, should be set forth so plainly by baptism? No wonder that Satan should use every effort to pervert the use of this striking figure.
Just mark what peace it gives to the soul when once understood. Suppose a person struggling with anxious perplexity, deceived with the notion that to be a Christian means to have the old nature made better. Oh, what years of wearisome disappointment! What doubts and darkness, ending in self- righteousness, infidelity, or despair! What a deliverance for such a one to see the truth as it is in Christ: and to submit gladly at once to the burial of the old man; that is, to the fact that be has been fully judged, condemned, and put to death in the person of Jesus on the cross!
Oh, wonders of wonders, "dead with Christ"; “buried with Him"; "risen with Him"! Oh! my reader, do you believe this in your heart? Is Jesus revealed to your soul as thus bearing your sins and curse on the tree?
Who then shall now condemn you? You believe that your sins have once been laid to the charge of Christ, and borne to the uttermost in the bitterness of death. Nay, more, that precious body, which could only die for others' sins, has been laid in the grave, buried.
Yea, God has raised Him from the dead, and received Him to glory. The glory of God shining in the face of this exalted Jesus shows plainly that your condemnation once laid oil Him is gone, gone forever (2 Cor. 4:6). 2COR 4:6
Precious Jesus; divine, holy Substitute; the wrath of God will never more be laid on Thee;
Thou canst not be condemned again! And yet Thou wouldst have to be so before the least of Thy chosen, believing ones could be. Thou art their SURETY. What a place hast Thou taken. Oh, my precious, bleeding Substitute, now living Surety, all glory and praise be unto Thee!
Believing this, we gladly give our whole old selves to be buried in water, the likeness of His death. What a deliverance! No more vain struggling to wash the black man. I now look at my old self, as a black, dead mass of moral putrefaction, utterly incapable of improvement or amendment, only fit to be buried.
And thus ends the standing of man in the flesh before God. Yes, as one may say, here ends old self as a child of Adam. The first man sinned, and by sin came death, and death is passed upon all men, for all have sinned (Rom. 5:12). ROM 5:12The Lord from heaven descends, takes a human form, and receives the sentence of death, and bears in His own body on the tree the curse due to sins. This, as to man's standing before God, is the end and crucifixion of the whole world before God.
The believer is passed from this old world of sin, darkness, and death, to the new creation, of righteousness, light, and everlasting life. The death of Christ is the end of the old, and His resurrection the beginning of the new world, of which we speak.
Thus, in the burial of baptism, the believer is buried, expressive of the death and burial of Christ, the judgment and end of his old self; and he is raised out of the water, a figure of his blessed resurrection in Christ, the beginning of the new creation.
Oh! my reader, have all things thus passed away with you? Have all things, and all things of God, thus become new with you?
You need not be left in any, no, not the least, uncertainty as to this. The precious words of Jesus left on record are these: "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). JOH 5:24
As certain as these are the words of Jesus, then if you do hear them, if you do believe on God that sent Him, then is it not quite as certain that even you have everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation, but are passed from death unto life?
God be with you now, and give you power to walk as one alive from the dead (Rom. 6:13). ROM 6:13
CHARLES STANLEY.
Eternal Judgment.
Heb. 6:2. HEB 6:2
DID you ever sit down quietly, and, in the solemn stillness of your own soul, think over the two words at the head of this paper? All men have an everlasting existence, and are therefore very different from an animal, which dies, and there is an end of it.
Man is a responsible being, and not “like the beasts that perish "; he dies, but does not cease to exist; he will be raised again for judgment.
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: BUT know thou, that for all these things GOD WILL BRING THEE INTO JUDGMENT "(Eccl. 11:9). ECC 11:9"It is appointed unto men once to die, BUT AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT" (Heb. 9:27). HEB 9:27Death therefore is not ceasing to be, for if it were there would be nothing left to judge; whereas God says, "Die, but after this the judgment.”
And this judgment will take place before "the great white throne," when all whose names are not found written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). REV 20:15
So we see clearly from the Scriptures that there are three things staring every unsaved man in the face, and those three things are, 46 DEATH," "JUDGMENT, "and" THE LAKE OF FIRE "!
Unsaved reader, you are living, eating, drinking, and walking, as it were, upon a trap-door; and at any moment death may draw the bolt, and you would be in a moment launched into ETERNITY, there to endure the "eternal judgment" of God!
Take a slate and sit down and try to calculate ETERNITY; begin with multiplying a unit, and when you have filled one side of the slate, turn it over and begin the other side, and when you have reached the bottom of it, your figures will show many millions. But what is that in comparison with ETERNITY? Suppose it were possible to count every blade of grass, millions of years must roll away before the task could be accomplished; and having counted all the blades of grass, begin to number the drops of the ocean; and the ocean counted, count the grains of sand that girt it; that done, count all the specks of air that by thousands of tons float in space; that done, begin upon the stars that stud the heavens. Oh, how many millions of years must pass away before the task could be performed! and when all the blades of grass, drops of ocean, grains of sand, atoms of air, and stars of the heavens have been numbered, eternity will still be in its infancy; it will still be only just begun, and you will have been all that time enduring the " eternal judgment " of God, and you will be no nearer the end of it than eternity is near its end!
The conscious happiness of the saved and punishment of the damned run parallel with the existence of God Himself, and the same word is used to express the three things (Matt. 25:46; MAT 25:46 John 3:16; JOH 3:16 Rom. 16:26 ROM 16:26).
A friend of mine once told me a very remarkable dream that he had. He dreamed that he was transported to heaven, and there he saw a magnificent gold clock, constructed upon the principle of perpetual motion, but it had no dial plate to it. He saw a group of bright, beautiful, and happy beings gazing upon it, of whom he asked the question, “What is the time?" when immediately they joyfully answered him, " There is no time here; do you not hear what the pendulum of the clock says as it swings to and fro? Salvation EVER, damnation NEVER! " He was then transported to hell, where he saw another large clock, constructed upon the same principle as the first one, upon which he saw unhappy beings looking, to whom he put the question, "What time is it?" Sadly they looked at him, and shrieked back the answer, “There is no time here; do you not hear what the pendulum of our clock says? Damnation EVER, salvation NEVER!”
God used this solemn and awful, but too true, dream to my friend's conversion, and he has now for many years been working for the living and everlasting Lover of his immortal soul.
“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). ROM 6:23Which will you have: eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord, or reject Him and have in the lake of fire "ETERNAL JUDGMENT?
“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (John 7:37). JOH 7:37
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; 23:39-43; LUK 7:36-50;23:39-43 John 4; 6:37 JOH 4;6:37).
JOHN BUNYAN.
The Four Horses
TWO beautiful horses were drawing the vehicle on which I was seated: one was red, the other white. Turning to the driver I said, " These horses, my friend, remind me of great things about to take place on the earth, and there are needed only two more to complete the representation of what I have read in that much neglected book, the Revelation of St. John.”
The driver looked surprised, and said, “Do you think we shall have war, sir?”
“I am quite sure of it, "I answered.
“Well, sir, I have not as yet heard anything about it.”
“Ah! no. Satan takes great care you shall not; but like the midnight assassin it will come suddenly. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them (1 Thess. 5). 1TH 5 Satan tries to hide from men the knowledge of the judgments which are coming. I will endeavor to explain my meaning. In the sixth chapter of Revelation we read of FOUR HORSES, which show forth the commencement of God's righteous judgments on the earth.
“Horses in Scripture are the emblem of power. We read that the first horse is white; the second red; the third black; and the fourth pale. The white horse is the symbol of triumph and victory; the red that of war and bloodshed; the black represents scarcity and famine, the result of war; the pale horse, death, the result of famine and starvation.
“The commanding officer, speaking in a military phrase, rides on a white horse. The rider of this white horse is a very great power, and it may be the future ruler who will uphold the false prophet that will then deceive the people. In Rev. 19 REV 19we read of the Lord Jesus coming out of heaven on a white horse. He will then come as the CONQUEROR.
But Satan always seeks to imitate that which is of God. Men now will not have Christ for their Saviour, therefore they will then be carried away by the dreadful delusion of that day. The reign of Antichrist will be fearful.”
“Well, sir," said the driver," I have not heard any one speak of this before.” “Very likely, my friend.
Many do not know it themselves, for they do not read the Book of the Revelation. God says, ' Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein; for the time is at hand' (Rev. 1:3). REV 1:3
“Sir, when will this take place?”
“Very suddenly, my friend. As I have said, when people shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.”
“Will not a man have time to wish his friends good-bye?”
No, certainly not.”
“Then perhaps he may have time to say his prayers?”
“No, it will then be too late. Read the closing verse of the sixth chapter. They will then say to the mountains and rocks, ' Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.' Ah! how many a poor fellow has been deceived by waiting until the last moment to say his prayers! How many hope to be saved, like the thief on the cross, at the eleventh hour! But this day of grace will then be passed. ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation ' (2 Cor. 6:2). 2CO 6:2Before these sad events take place all true believers will have been taken up to be with the Lord (see 1 Thess. 4:16 1TH 4:16 to the end; 1 Cor. 15:50 1CO 15:50). How dreadful the case then of those who have now heard the word, and neglected it! Let me ask you, How will it be with your soul when this day comes? Will it be heaven or hell for you?”
“I hope I shall go to heaven, sir. I have done no one any harm; but I do not think it possible for anyone to know this while they are down here.”
“.Ah! yes; the word of God tells us plainly that ' he that believeth hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life ' (John 5:24). JOH 5:24I believe His word, and therefore am saved; so that were I to die to-night I should be with the Lord.”
“Ah! sir, I seldom go to church, and am not much of a scholar.”
“Perhaps riot, my friend, but the gospel is very plain. To the poor the gospel is preached.'”
“It will, indeed, be an awful time, sir, for those who are not prepared: I hope it will not be in my time. How fortunate for those who, are ready.”
“Yes, I am happy to say a remnant will be ready, and they will come into blessings.
Christ will come to take His great power, and reign. The Jews will then own Him as their Messiah, whom they have crucified. Perhaps, my friend, you are not aware that now all good ' people are lost; and poor lost sinners, who believe in Christ are saved?”
“I never heard that before, sir; I thought we had to do the best we could.”
“My friend, there is not one good, no not one. You cannot find me one person who cart stand before God in his own righteousness.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,' of whom the apostle Paul says, am chief'; and the Lord Himself said, came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' Now, a poor sinner coming to Christ just as he is, will in no wise be cast out and Christ is made unto him righteousness, sanctification, and redemptions so that he can stand before God faultless. ' There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus ' (Rom. 8:1).” ROM 8:1
Arriving at our destination we separated.
Gospel Light
"THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.”
(1 PETER 1:19). 1PE 1:19
THERE is but one common road to salvation, peace and glory, and that is through the precious blood of Christ." When Adam fell, he lost innocence, and departed from God, and neither he nor any of his posterity have ever been able to regain it or find their way back to God. But God has devised a way whereby sins shall be put away, sin judged, and the sinner be brought back to Himself.
“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). 1PE 3:18
I remember being once asked to go and see a dying man on the Surrey side of London.
Arrived at his house, his kind, hard-working wife opened the door to me, and invited me to walk in, and take a seat, whilst she made known my arrival to her husband, who was resting in an inner room.
Before ever he came into my presence, the hollow cough which indicates consumption made me acquainted with the nature of his disease. Feebly he crept into the room where I was sitting; and as soon as he had recovered himself a little he began to tell me how long he had been ill, how much he had suffered, and that the doctor said that there was no chance of his recovery.
I asked him how he stood in relation to ETERNITY; and he told me he was quite ready to die. I then asked if he would kindly tell me what had made him ready.
He replied, "I weep over my sins, I say my prayers, and do the best I can.”
His reply made me sigh from the deepest depths of my heart, and after a moment's silence I said: “Forgive me for being faithful with you, but you are laboring under a terrible delusion, and in trusting to your own doings, you are trusting to a rope of sand. God says, The BLOOD shall be to you for a token... where ye are, and when I see the BLOOD, I will pass over you ' (Ex. 12:13). EXO 12:13
“Now mark, God does not say one word about your tears, prayers, or your doing your best. God's word is all about the Blood. Again God says, It is the BLOOD that maketh an atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11). LEV 17:11Now, there is no BLOOD in your tears, prayers, or your best doings, consequently they are not God's token,' and they can never make an atonement for your soul.”
The poor dying man sat silent and pale, evidently eagerly drinking in the words of God.
I continued: " God says, Without shedding of BLOOD is no remission ' (Heb. 9:22); HEB 9:22 and, 'The BLOOD of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin ' (1 John 1:7). 1JO 1:7Notice, not the tears, prayers, or even the blessed lifeworks of Jesus could or did put away our sins; no, nothing less than His BLOOD would do for God or the sinner; and if the holy tears, prayers, and life-works of Jesus never put away our sins, is it at all possible that our unholy tears, prayers, or works could ever put them away?
Having commended the man to God in prayer, I left him.
I soon repeated my visit; the anxious wife let me in, and in a few moments her husband and I were in earnest conversation about his eternal salvation. I was not long in discovering that a great change had taken place in him and his thoughts about preparing for eternity.
His words were few, but sufficed to show the mighty change God had wrought in him. He told me that after I had left him, the words of God about the Lord Jesus and His BLOOD kept ringing in his ears, and that God had shown him where he was wrong, had delivered him from the sad delusion he had so long been under, and that now he was trusting simply, wholly, and alone to the precious BLOOD of Christ (1 Peter 1:19), PET 1:19and that now he could truthfully and thankfully say, “On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
We praised God and the Lamb, in the language of Scripture, for having saved his soul, and made him fit for glory. " Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath, translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His BLOOD, even the forgiveness of sins "(Col. 1:12-14)." 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). REV 1:5-6
With deep emotion I took my leave of him now as a brother in Christ, for I felt sure his days in this sin-stricken, sorrowful world were few. I was unable to go and see him again, being called away to labor in the gospel in Scotland; but I heard, from a Christian who visited him to the last, that he died happy in Christ, with unshaken and unswerving faith in the precious BLOOD of God's dear Son.
And now I would most affectionately ask the reader of this narrative if he or she is on the only road that the Redeemer has made by His BLOOD to God and glory? If not, I would urge you at once to have “faith in His BLOOD," which alone can free you from sins and make you "whiter than snow." H. M. H.
The Handcuffs; or, the Deserter
I WAS walking along the Birmingham platform for a few minutes before the train started for Bristol, when my attention was drawn to a deserter, handcuffed, and seated between a private and a sergeant. His features betrayed distress of mind.
The thought suddenly occurred to me, If my Master were here, He would take His seat by the side of this man. Yes, blessed Jesus, Thy heart was too full of compassion ever to pass by a distressed sufferer.
These thoughts led me to take my seat opposite the poor man. I sat some time in silence, thinking of the mercy of God, in delivering me from Sergeant Satan, and the handcuffs of sin. Reader, if you are delivered, thank God; if not, then sit down with me a little, and listen attentively.
The poor deserter appeared to be about forty years of age. He had been a deserter many years, but had become so exceedingly miserable that he had given himself up to the authorities. Having been thus severed from those most dear to him on earth, and that probably forever, I found his heart was too full of sorrow to bear much conversation; but the following, as nearly as I can remember, took place with the sergeant.
“You seem to have brought your captive some distance?”
“Oh! yes, sir, from beyond Glasgow.”
“Indeed! It must be very painful to have had the hands in that bound position so far.”
“Oh! yes, sir.”
The man's heart seemed nearly as hard as the bayonet by his side.
“Well, sergeant," said I, "have you got your handcuffs off yet, or are you still led captive by the devil? He knows that sin will handcuff a man, and drag him along to judgment and to hell. It's sore work, sergeant, to be dragged like that, eh?”
“Well, sir, I'll tell you, I think a soldier will have less to answer for than anybody. He is not tempted to rob and cheat like the commercial man; and, indeed, he's a good-hearted, fellow; only he gets a little sup too much grog sometimes.”
“Ah, there you may be mistaken. I think I can show you a greater sin than taking the drink. I will suppose this prisoner first to have been led to enlist through the influence of drink. Granted, then, that drink has made him what he is. He may cast a look far behind him, and say, My sin in drinking has broken the heart of my poor wife, has dragged me from my crying children"; (here the tears began to run clown the face of the poor deserter).
“Well now, sergeant, if an officer from the Horse Guards were to meet you on your way, say at Cheltenham, with the good news for our friend here that a great ransom had been paid; that the Queen had sent down his discharge; now, sergeant, which would be the greater sin, the drunkenness that has brought all this misery on himself and his poor family, or the hard-hearted, cruel sin of refusing to trust to the ransom purchased at so great a price?
Oh! let me tell you, sin has brought us into bondage, misery, and death. Satan has thus handcuffed man to himself. This man might sleep and dream there was no sergeant here, and no handcuffs; but when he wakes up he finds it is only a dream. You are still there.”
“And men may dream there is no devil to whom they are bound by sin, and dragged by lust; but when they truly awake they find this bondage a terrible reality. But, ah! if you knew the love of God to us poor handcuffed sinners! Even whilst we were yet sinners God gave a great price for our ransom. Yes; whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us'
(Rom. 5:8). The ransom price is paid; God has accepted it, even ' the precious blood of Christ; for God path raised Him from the dead, and sends a free discharge to every sinner that believeth (Rom. 4:23-25). ROM 4:23-25And now, sergeant, how long would it take you to unfasten the handcuffs of this poor man?
Here the sergeant took out a little key, and showed me how soon it could be done.
“That little key is like faith. Yes, even so -soon, the soul that believes God's testimony, that on the cross the ransom has been paid, that through Jesus is preached the forgiveness of sins, that by Him all that believe are justified, yes, even so soon, that soul is free (Acts 13:38). ACT 13:38The chains of sin and condemnation are broken forever. Now sergeant, which is the worse sin, that which brought the guilt and condemnation, and which is hurrying man to judgment and to everlasting destruction, or that cruel sin of rejecting and despising the wondrous love of God in giving His only begotten Son? Yes, rejecting the only ransom, even the blood of the Son of God?”
The sergeant seemed never before to have heard these "words of life." And oh! how comforting it was to my heart to see the face of the poor deserter brighten up with joy.
The Lord opened his ear at least, to hear the gospel of the grace of God.
Reader, are you still a bond-slave of Satan, hurrying on to hell? Let me ask you, Who can deliver you but Christ? The handcuffed prisoner could not deliver himself. I asked him what he could do. Ah, he could scarcely get his hand to his eyes to wipe off the tears asked the sergeant what he would think of a would-be officer who should deny the sufficiency of that ransom which had been accepted by the Queen, and should begin to speak thus: " Ah, true, it was a great price; but do not believe the Queen will discharge you with-out you do something to increase the value of that ransom, and when you have done all that you can you may merely hope for liberty. Do not be so presumptuous as to believe that message of the Queen.”
The sergeant could not endure even the thought of such cruel lies.
Ah! this reminds one of Paul, who said, Let such perverters of the gospel be accursed. It was with this loyal zeal for God he wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. And is not this the great lie of the day? You are virtually told not to believe the all-sufficiency of the finished work of Christ, though God Himself has accepted the ransom, and proved this by raising Him who offered it from the dead. These wolves in sheep's clothing tell you that God will not pardon your sins for Christ's sake only; that He will not give you a free discharge from the power of sin and Satan; through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone. Oh! flee, flee from such dreaming liars.
“Do the best you can!" Best, eh! when there is no best in a handcuffed sinner.
“Keep the law!" when God Himself says, If that were possible, Christ has died in vain.
Away with such lies! Turn to the word of 'God. Read Rom. 3; ROM 3 1 John 4; 1JO 4
Heb. 10 HEB 10 Believe the testimony of God to the value of the blood of Christ. He is sincere. It is true that he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved (Acts 4:12). ACT 4:12
But you ask, Are there to be no good works Oh! yes. But are the handcuffs on or of I? that is the question. The soul that has really been delivered from the power of Satan will never forget its liberation. "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). 1JO 4:19 "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). 1JO 4:16 Believe, then, believe and live.
CHARLES STANLEY.
There is eternal life for thee in Christ, Why not accept this choice gift of heaven? Why delay this great business? It ought to be the one business of thy earthly clays. Why not now accept from the hands of perfect love this priceless treasure, THE SALVATION OF THY SOUL Christ died for sinners, and His love is the same TO-DAY as it was THE DAY HE DIED at Calvary. Still He waits, and still He says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden; and I will give you rest." Still His blessed assurance is, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Oh! that He may have thy immediate, heart-felt response, "Lord Jesus, to Thee I come.”
Have I Repented Enough?
I DO not know a more perplexing question than this, to a really anxious soul. I met a person lately who had spent years in trying to ascertain how much repentance is required before a person may be quite sure he is saved.
“Which of the two repentances have you been trying?" said I.
“Why, are there two kinds?" he inquired.
“Oh! yes, "I replied:" the repentance of the law, was a man trying to forsake all sin, and do all righteousness, and thus be saved.
(See Ezek. 18:30). EZE 18:30But the repentance of the gospel is the giving up all pretensions to righteousness.”
The meaning of the word we translate “repentance" is simply a change of mind.
The kind of change of mind depends on the connection in which it stands. It may be of sorrow, or it may be of joy, unto death or unto life.
The change of mind, or the repentance of the law, was on the principle of works. The change of mind, or repentance of the gospel, is not of works at all, but entirely of grace.
Sorrow for sin, and forsaking sin, and living to God; if anything are works, these are.
If thus seeking salvation by works, you can never have enough of this repentance to get saved. It is a thorough mistake to think of getting saved by the good works of the repentance of the law.
You may think it a light thing to go on in sin. Oh, you can easily repent some day!
Fearful, fatal, delusion! You are becoming more hardened every day.
Let me now turn to the repentance of the gospel.
God is a God of truth, and the truth is that man is a lost sinner, utterly without righteousness; as it is written, “There is none righteous, no not one" (Rom. 3:10). ROM 3:10Now man's mind is in total darkness as to this. He thinks he is not so bad as to be past mending.
And there is another thing. God loves man in this lost and guilty condition. He sent His beloved Son from the throne of glory; and, with burning 'rove for the poor, guilty sinner He died on the cross, “the Just for the unjust.”
Oh, look at that dying Lamb of God! See from that pierced side the blood of atonement.
He bowed His head, and died. All was finished.
God hath raised Him from the dead; and now God can meet thee through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He does meet thee. He does love thee, poor broken-hearted sinner. God meets thee in love!
Thou thoughtest He could only meet thee in deserved wrath. He commands thee in the gospel to change thy mind. What is that?
To believe what is true; that thou hast nothing but sin in which to meet Him. Give up, only give up all pretensions to righteousness, and as a lost sinner I point thee to the cross; and I tell thee, as surely as thou art brought to know thyself as a lost sinner, feeling thy utter need of Christ, God meets thee through the finished work of Christ, and, pointing to the cross on which all thy sins were borne, He says, There, sinner; now I have nothing against thee it is not thy meeting God with the works of thy repentance; but God meeting thee through the death of Christ.
May the goodness of God thus lead thee, my reader, to repentance, even to the full moral judgment of thyself in His presence, and the full knowledge of His wondrous love to thee, a lost sinner, and thou shalt find these glad tidings the power of God unto salvation. By the Spirit of God thou shalt have godly sorrow for sin, and power to forsake it; yea, God shall work in thee to will arid to do.
These things certainly accompany salvation, but are never its conditions, otherwise grace would no more be grace.
CHARLES STANLEY
Have You Ever Thanked Him?
AT the close of a gospel meeting, in a town in Worcestershire, I observed a young woman retiring from the meeting with a look of great distress upon her face.
As she was passing me, I spoke to her about her soul, and inquired the cause of her sadness, when she told me that she was anxious, to be saved, but could not see her way clear.
I asked her if she had been anxious any length of time, if she believed she was a poor, lost, helpless, and hell-deserving sinner; and with tears in her eyes she answered, "Yes.”
I then asked her what she was doing to get relief.
She informed me that she was doing the best she could, and asking the Lord to forgive her.
"But," I replied, “Christ has done a complete and sufficient work upon the cross, and then said, ' IT IS FINISHED,' and has also borne the sins of all who believe in Him; and has put them away forever.”
She assured me that she believed all this, but that it brought her no happiness.
I then turned to 1 Peter 2:24, 1PE 2:24 where it says, " Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree "; and endeavored to show her from this scripture that Christ had all our sins upon Him on the tree; that if He had not then, He never would, for He would never be there again; that He then put them all away with His blood; and that if He did not then, He never would, as He could not again shed His blood, having shed it when He was down in this sin-stained and guilty world.
“Do you believe that Christ had all our sins upon Him when He was on the tree?”
I asked.
“Yes, I believe He had.”
“Do you believe that He put them all away with His precious blood before He left the tree?”
“Yes, I believe He did.”
“Do you believe that He was buried, and rose again without them, according to the Scriptures?”
“Scripture says so, and I believe it is true.”
“Do you believe that He is in heaven, and has been for more than eighteen hundred years without them there?”
She answered, with all her heart, "Yes.”
“Well now, does not that make you happy?" I asked.
“No," she answered.
I saw she was an honest soul, and for a moment could not understand her difficulty.
At last I asked her the question at the head of this paper, "Have you ever thanked Him?”
She frankly owned she had not, and at once saw the secret of her unhappiness.
I advised her to do so without delay, assuring her that the Lord would make her happy.
The next evening she was at the meeting again, At the close she came to me, and with a bright and happy face said: “I have thanked Him for what He did for me on the cross, and He has made me so happy.”
Months have rolled away since this dear young woman believed in the Lord and His work, since she confessed it to Him, and thanked Him for it; still she is rejoicing in the knowledge that her body is a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6:19); 1CO 6:19that she is a member of Christ's body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. 5:30); EPH 5:30and that she has been converted to wait for God's Son from heaven (1 Thess. 1:10). 1TH 1:10
How Are You to Be Saved?
WHAT shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). LUK 10:25Who would have thought that that question, which so many ask, would have tempted Christ? It is the language of one “willing to justify himself.”
What shall I do?
No words can more plainly show the ignorance of a fallen sinner. Whilst these words .are on his lips, he knows not his lost, fallen, helpless condition.
The Lord knows the pride of the deceived heart. The religionist can repeat the law, and no doubt thinks he can keep it. "Do it,” says Jesus, "and thou shalt live"; and then .answers his tempting question with one of the most striking parables in the word of God.
This parable of the good Samaritan is the answer to man's question, “What shall I DO to inherit eternal life?” It describes man's condition, yours. Fallen among thieves, stripped, wounded, left half dead.
What a picture! and how true! Man is not innocent, not happy; but fallen, guilty, helpless, undone. Look at that dying man by the toad-side. He cannot walk a yard further; no, not a step. He cannot even call for help. Dc not you see he is dying? Is this the man to talk about doing, eh?
Poor dying man, the law cannot help thee. The priest and the Levite have to pass thee by; they cannot help thee.
Reader, thou art this man; this is thy spiritual state. The law cannot help thee; the priest and the Levite cannot help thee; thine own efforts, thy resolutions, thy struggling. I tell thee there is only One that can help thee.
“A certain Samaritan came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
This is Jesus, the Son of the living God. Infinite love, mighty to save! God so loved, so, pitied fallen, helpless, naked, dying man. He saw him where and as he was. Yes, this is the glory of the gospel. God, full of tender compassion, rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were-dead in sins; yes, even then God SENT His beloved Son to man fallen by the road-side in sin and misery. (See Eph. 1:1-10). EPH 1:1-10
Man could do nothing: Jesus came to him where he was. What a journey of love! He came to do all for the sinner; and He has done it; it is finished. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men” (Luke 2:14). LUK 2:14
Oh! my reader, lost thou thus know Jesus Is it no longer, What shall I Do? But art thou resting on what Jesus has done on the cross? Hast thou been brought to know thy utterly lost condition by the way-side?' Has Jesus come to thee, has He bound up thy broken heart, pouring in oil and wine? Has God revealed to thee Jesus, taking thy place as a sinner, and now giving thee His place in spotless purity forever? Lost thou know that it is not thy taking care of Jesus, but Jesus taking care of thee; yea, and until He cores again that He hath committed thee into the hands of God, who keeps thee with His mighty power; yea, that He will take care of thee forever? (John 17:11 JOH 17:11; 1 Peter 1:5 PET 1:5).
If thou art a doer for eternal life, thou art a 'rejecter, a despiser, a tempter of Christ. But if thou knowest and believest the love of God in thus sending Jesus to thee, thou hast eternal life. It is the GIFT of God. Let thy work now be to show forth the praises of Him who saw thee, and saved thee, and loves thee forever.
' We love Him, because He first loved' us” (1 John 4:19). 1JO 4:19Read the parable over seven times (Luke 10). LUK 10
CHARLES STANLEY.
You never find a single case in which Christ did not receive the sinner with open arms; 'griever.
I Do Believe Now.
SOME time since, after a severe illness, I went to visit some relatives in Nottinghamshire, and though too weak to preach, I was able to visit a few people.
I had not been long with my friends when I heard of a woman, some two miles off, who was dying of dropsy, unsaved, but ' most anxious about her soul's salvation. I found her out without much difficulty, and after hearing from her all about her ailments, I spoke of eternal matters: the holiness of God, the horribleness of sin, the preciousness of the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from every sin, the value of the immortal soul, and the immense importance that, as she was so near eternity, she should seek its immediate salvation.
The dying woman assured me that she was most anxious to be saved; that she had wept, prayed, and done all that she could, but that she was nothing bettered, but had rather grown worse. I showed her from the Scriptures that Jesus had undertaken the whole responsibility of her salvation from first to last, that before He left the cross He said, " It is finished ";" that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures " (John 19:30; JOH 19:30 1 Cor. 15:3, 4). 1CO 15:3-4
She replied that it was all very beautiful, but that she could not "see it.”
I urged that the word of God said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). JOH 3:36
"But I do not feel it," she replied; " and how can I know I am saved until I do?”
I replied, “Jesus said, 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). JOH 5:24
“Well, I hope I am saved," she answered.
I saw God had wrought repentance towards Himself in her soul, but that the devil was trying to hinder “faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). ACT 20:21
I turned my back upon her as she was lying in bed, and whilst in that position I took my watch out of my pocket, and concealing it in my right hand, turned my face towards her again, and said, " Since I turned my back upon you I have taken my watch out of my pocket, and put it into my hand. Do you believe it?”
“Yes, sir, I do," she replied.
“But you did not see me take it out of my pocket, and place it in my hand, neither can you see it in my hand. How is it, then, that you believe me without seeing?”
“Because, sir, you told me so.”
“Then why do you not believe God without seeing when He says, ' He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life '?”
“But I must feel it, sir, first, before I believe I have it.”
“Did you feel me take my watch out of my pocket, and put it into my hand? and do you feel it is in my hand?”
“No, sir; I do not feel it is there.”
“Then why do you believe it is there?”
“Because you told me so.”
“But does not God say that ' your sins are forgiven you for His [Christ's] name's sake'?" (1 John 2:12). 1JO 2:12"Why do you not believe God?”
“I hope I am forgiven now," she replied.
“But do you hope I took my watch out of my pocket, put it into my hand, and that it is in my hand?”
“No, sir: I do believe that you have done with your watch as you have told me.”
“How is it that you find it so easy to believe me, a poor failing man, without seeing, feeling, or hoping, and yet cannot believe the unfailing and loving God?”
The Spirit of God made her ashamed of her wretched unbelief, and blessed the simple illustration to giving her “full assurance of faith.”
She lifted up her voice, and cried, "Blessed God, I will not treat your servant better than you. I do believe you now without seeing, feeling, or hoping; and because you say I have the forgiveness of all my sins and everlasting life, I know it is true.”
I fell on my knees to praise God for His mercy to this poor doubting, but honest, heart; but she was so full of gratitude to God herself that I was obliged gladly to listen to her audible praise; and thus she passed away into His presence who loved her, and gave Himself for her (Gal. 2:20). GAL 2:20
Should this meet the eye of an anxious soul, I would say that the road to peace is simply to believe what God says about Christ and His work, the sinner and his need: that faith is taking God at His word, and believing what He says, just because He says so; therefore, just where you are, as you are, and just now, receive the full, free, everlasting salvation of God as a gift to simple faith, without seeing, feeling, or hoping.
Take the blessing from above,
And bless God for His boundless love.
H. M. H.
A sinner is perfectly justified in believing what God says: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." All is established upon the value of the blood of Christ. "Being justified by His blood.”
An Iron Necessity
WHEN the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus, and arrested him in his-persecuting course by a glorious manifestation of Himself, it at once brought him prostrate on the earth. He says, “Suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me; and I fell unto the ground." But though blinded with the glorious light, humbled at the feet of Jesus, and crying out to Him whom he had so blasphemed, and whose members he had so persecuted, "What shall I do, Lord?” nevertheless, he found the feet of Jesus the place of rich and abundant blessing even for the chief of sinners. The Lord said unto, him, " Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do." Oh, that the Spirit of God might now show sinners that the feet of Jesus is the place of blessing!
Every one of us must have to do with the Lord Jesus. Each person will yet come before Him. Nothing can possibly hinder this. The joyful expectation of the Christian is, that he will see his Saviour's face, and be like Him.
Those who are not born again (unbelievers), will assuredly see Jesus too, but not with joy: as a wicked man once said, “I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh." Many persons NOW turn away from the Saviour's name; they like to banish His blessed gospel from their thoughts; but THEN, “at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." This is God's decree, and it must be accomplished.
“The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.”
There is, therefore, no possibility of escape from having to do with Jesus; and I doubt not that those who will go away into everlasting punishment will send up a cry continually from the lake of fire that Jesus Christ is Lord.
This is very solemn, and makes the gospel a matter of such individual application and importance. Scripture says, "every knee,” "every tongue," " every one of us shall give account of himself to God." “Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him! “plainly showing that men must have to do personally with the Lord Jesus. Now He graciously pardons and saves; THEN He will righteously condemn, and punish with everlasting destruction. What folly, then, it is to neglect His great salvation!
H. H. S.
A Just God and a Saviour
John 8:1-11 JOH 8:1-11
THERE is in all persons a certain knowledge of good and evil. "Such and such things," they say, " are good, and such and such things are evil.”
But perhaps no two persons fix exactly the same standard either of good or evil. What people do is to fix such a standard of good as they can themselves come up to, and such a standard of evil as shall just exclude themselves and include others.
For instance, the drunkard thinks there is no great harm in drinking, but would consider it a great sin to steal he covetous man, who is every day perhaps practicing some cheat or deception "in the way of trade,” satisfies himself by thinking, " It is necessary and customary to do so in business, and at all events, I do not get drunk or curse and swear as others do." The profligate person prides himself upon being generous and kind-hearted to others, or, as he says, “he does nobody any harm but himself." The upright moral man, and the domestic, amiable man, each satisfies himself with doing what he calls his duty, and looks round and pities the open sinners that he sees; but he never considers how many an evil thought, how many a sinful desire, he may have cherished, unknown to others, in his bosom; and that God judges the heart, though man looks only at the outward conduct.
Thus each congratulates himself upon his not having done some evil, and compares himself with some one else who has committed the sin which he thinks he has managed to avoid.
Now, all this proves that men do not judge themselves by one regular fixed standard of right and wrong, but just take that which suits themselves and condemns others. But there is a standard with which all will be compared, and according to which all will be judged, a standard of righteousness, all who fall short of which will be eternally condemned; and that is no less than the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.
When a person begins to find that it is not by comparing himself with others that he is to judge, but by comparing himself with the glory of God; when his conscience begins to be awakened to think of sin as before God, then indeed he finds himself guilty and ruined; he will not then attempt to justify himself by trying to find out some one that is worse than himself, but he will be anxious to know whether it is possible for God, before whom he knows himself condemned, to pardon or forgive him.
Now the scribes and Pharisees mentioned in this eighth chapter of John, being very moral and religious people, were greatly shocked when they found this wretched woman taken in such open sin, and were very indignant against her. Justice and the law of Moses, thought they, demand that she should be made an example of; it is not fit that such a sinner should live.
It comforts and quiets the depraved heart of man if he can only find a person worse than himself; he thinks the greater sin of another excuses himself; and whilst accusing and vehemently blaming another, he forgets his own evil. He thus rejoices in iniquity. s But this is not all; for not only do men thus glory and exult in the fall and ruin of another, but they cannot bear to see, or think of, God exhibiting grace. Grace, which means the full and free forgiveness of every sin, of every evil, without God's demanding or expecting anything from the forgiven one, is a principle so opposed to all man's thoughts and ways, so far above man, that he dislikes it; his own heart often secretly calls it injustice. He does not himself deal in this way, and does not like to think of God's doing so.
It is very humbling to be obliged to own that we are dependent entirely upon grace for salvation; and that nothing we have done, and nothing we can in future do, has made us, or will make us, fit subjects even for grace; but that our misery and sin and ruin are the only claim we have upon grace.
The scribes and Pharisees could not understand this; and not liking to own that they were themselves sinners, they wished to perplex Jesus; and if He acquitted the woman, then say He was unjust; or if He condemned her, then say He was not merciful. "Such should be stoned, "say they," but what sayest Thou?”
True, the sentence was just, the proof of the woman's guilt was undoubted, and the law was clear; but who was to execute the law? Man may easily condemn, but who has a right to execute? So the Lord said to them, " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Who could say he was "without sin"? and if not one of them could say, " I am without sin," they were all under the same sentence as the woman; that is, death; for " the wages of sin is death.”
Here, then, was a strange situation, the accused and her accusers alike involved in the same ruin, criminals all. Not now “Such should be stoned," but, All should be stoned.
From the eldest to the last, all were convicted sinners.
And have you thought of this, that you and all the world are guilty before God? It is not what your amount of sin, as respects others, is; but can you say you are "without sin before God? If not, death then is your sentence. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). EZE 18:4
And in this sad condition what have you done? Perhaps the same as the scribes and Pharisees did, when they were convicted by their own conscience; that is, left the presence of the only One who can pronounce forgiveness.
Adam in the garden had done the same before; he went and hid himself from the presence of the Lord God when he knew himself guilty; he turned away from his only Friend just when he most needed His help.
And so it is still. Man is afraid of the only One who is ready to pardon. You may be able to persuade yourself that you are not so had as others; you may find some manifestly worse; but are you a sinner at all? What is God's thought concerning you? Does not even your own conscience say, “I am not quite without sin "?
Well, then, death is the sentence pronounced by God, who cannot lie. And if we only heard that God was just, there would be no hope. But He is “a just God and a Saviour" (Isa. 45:21). ISA 45:21He has condemned, and He has also the power to execute; the only question that remains is. Can He pardon?
“And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." She was standing before One who could say He was “without sin," and who therefore could cast the stone.
She was alone with One whom she owned as Lord; and what would be His sentence? The law had already condemned her; would He execute it? What a moment of intense anxiety it must have been for her! How all surrounding objects must have been as nothing in her sight! She was alone with One who had the power of life and death. Everything rested on His word. What would He say? Man had not dared to cast the stone; now what would God do? He says: “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.”
Such is still the gracious message to the ruined sinner, pronounced by the very Judge Himself. But it is only to the ruined sinner, standing consciously convicted before the Judge, that it is spoken. The righteous Pharisees did not hear it. They were indeed convicted; but they did not like to confess their sin, and they sought to get rid of their convictions, to bury them in some good works of their own; and they would not put themselves in the same condemnation with the wretched woman, who got this blessed word of peace.
And so it is still. If you desire to have God's full and free pardon, it must be your place to stand first as the guilty sinner. To be alone with Jesus, consciously self-condemned. To have no one else to trust to; no one else to compare yourself with. Not to make resolutions of amendment, not to try to get better before you come to Him; but to be brought to Him by your very sins, to stand in the very place of condemnation, and before the very Person who has the power to condemn. To make your very guilt the reason of being alone with Him.
And the Lord did not give her any conditional pardon. He did not say, “Neither will I condemn you, if you will not sin any more.”
No; He grants her full and complete forgiveness first, and that He knew would enable her to avoid the sin in future. If you desire to have power over your sins, you must first know them all pardoned by God through Christ. But if you try to master your evil before you know the forgiveness of God, you will obtain neither the one nor the other.
Through faith in the Lord Jesus you must be justified freely from all things, before you will ever be better as before God.
Now, some who really believe on the Lord Jesus do not clearly see this, and are seeking to have peace by holiness of life, or the fruits of the Spirit, instead of first acknowledging themselves as ruined sinners fully and freely pardoned, and then letting their life and conduct be guided by the knowledge of that pardon and the love to God which the knowledge of His mercy must necessarily create.
Begin with, "Neither do I condemn thee.”
Let your peace come from faith in the blood of His cross, by which He has made peace.
God's knowledge and estimate of your sin is much deeper than your own, but He has provided the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. He says that blood cleanses from ALL sin (1 John 1:7). 1JO 1:7
The more I know my own sin, the more I shall value that precious blood by which it is put away; and the more anxious I shall be not to grieve the heart of Him who, in His own love, has provided such a wonderful sacrifice on account of my sins. Hence, the deeper I know my own guilt, the more secure will be my peace; for the greater will be my value for the blood, through which peace has been made.
May you know the peace and joy of having all your sins forgiven through faith in the blood of Jesus, and the consequent victory over the power of those very sins by which you have been led captive.
J. N. D.
Righteousness of man for God cannot be found; but the gospel proclaims righteousness of God for man (Rom. 3:20-22). ROM 3:20
Just in Time
SOMETIMES God is pleased to use a few words in the awakening of a soul. Such was the case some years ago, in the following remarkable manner.
The porters at the Sheffield station had cried, “Take your seats for Derby and the South," when I observed a man making the utmost exertion to reach the train before it started. It was a struggle.
“All right!" shouted the guard. The driver answered with a whistle. The train moved. The man was just in time.
He took his seat by my side; smack went the door. I said, “AND THE DOOR SHALL BE SHUT.”
I do not remember that another word passed between us.
Two years afterward, when I had quite forgotten the circumstance, a friend of mine met with the same man, who told him that those words, "And the door shall be shut," produced such a solemn impression on his mind that he could not by any means forget them.
When he awoke in the morning, and all day long, they sounded in his ears. The madness and danger of delaying his salvation to the last moment became so evident that he believed that circumstance had been used of God in bringing him to Christ.
Reader, those are indeed solemn words in that prophetic parable of the ten virgins, “And the door was shut." The gospel train is fast filling; the last person will soon be in it; and then, can you tell what you would feel, not to be just in time, but just too late? Would you like to be one who shall cry, " Lord, Lord, open unto us? " when the only answer will be, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity; I know you not.”
Hark you, the gospel porters cry, “Take your seats.”
But you say, “I have not paid my fare; and worse still, I cannot pay it.”
Do you really own this to be true? Have you tried to pay your fare to heaven by good works, and do you own that you are still a vile and worthless sinner? Whether you say so or not, God says so: “The Scripture, hath concluded all under sin." Yes, you stand at the station, and though the price required is immense to pass you from the kingdom and power of Satan to God, yet, strange as it may seem, those only can take their seats who have nothing of their own to pay. The full price has been paid, even the precious blood of Christ. That which many a poor soul wants to be done has been done. "IT IS FINISHED!”
Yes, the full fare has been paid. Ask God Himself if the death of Christ for your sins is not enough to justify you in taking your seat, and enough to justify Him in receiving you to glory? The resurrection of Christ is God's answer to both these questions. If God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and thus to pay the fare in the giving up of His own life, God also raised Him from the dead for our very justification (Rom. 4:25). Take your seat, then, and who shall condemn you? " It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us " (Rom. 8:34). ROM 8:37
Take YOUR SEAT, rest in the finished work of Christ. Who dare, or can, take us out of God's train of grace? “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
But you say, “This is very strange; a porter told me that I had to do much by prayer and amendment of life, and by deep repentance, before ever I could take my seat in God's train. I have been trying for years, but I do not know how much would satisfy God for my fare. I never before heard that it was all done, and that my ticket must be a free gift, because my fare has been paid, even the blood of God's Son.”
The porter that told you this story of works for salvation belongs to another company, and you will not find a passenger in his train who knows his fare is paid for heaven. I was once on that line myself, but I never was happy.
I found it all tunnel, and we had no light in our carriage; and then it was downhill, and so fast, and all uncertainty as to where we were going, that I do thank God for stopping the train, and making known to me His free grace..
But you say, "There must be repentance.”
Yes, and what repentance is like that change of mind when a person believes the testimony of God to the death and resurrection of Christ; that is, that all who believe ARE justified from all things? (Acts 3:38). ACT 3:18
And you say, “There must be a forsaking of sin and the world.”
True, but I never saw a person get faster away from the place than by taking his seat in a train. Would you really give up sin and the world?
Then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and„ without money and without price, take your seat in a finished salvation. Do you want to be fifty miles from a given place in two hours? The power of steam can take you; you quietly trust this power; the train takes you. It is not you who take the train.
Ah! men can trust anything but God! You want to be far away from sin, then take your seat, believing the death of Christ has paid your fare, and the mighty power of God shall bear you onward far away.
The devil has many lines, all of which lead to hell. There is only one to heaven. Jesus alone is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
You may say, “Do not bother me. I will not travel on any line.”
In that you are greatly mistaken. Travel you must. Every day is a day nearer heaven or hell. Look at the crowd about you; and let me ask, where is the crowd that thronged this world a hundred years ago?
But, hark again! there is one speaks from heaven: "Behold, I come quickly!" (Rev. 22:7). REV 22:7
His words are fast fulfilling. The professing Church is as He said it would be: "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept "(Matt. 25). MAT 25 Some are saying," We will not believe He is coming." Others, "We will not have Him to reign over us." Few, very few, are waiting for the Son of God from heaven. But the word of God assures us He will suddenly come, and take the world with as great a surprise as the Flood in the days of Noah, or the destroying fire of God that fell when the sun had arisen on Sodom.
Men may laugh now, as men laughed then; and scorners may say, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
But, after years of prayerful searching of the Scriptures, I take God at His word, and tell you plainly that they that are ready shall go in, and the door shall be shut. And how soon no one knows. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with 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 we ever be with the Lord " (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). 1TH 4:16-17
What an event!
Ah, reader! are you ready? Can you say, “Come, Lord Jesus"? You tremble at the thought. Your sins! Ah! you could not bear to meet the Lord with them unpardoned. Oh! bring them at once to the cross. None ever sought forgiveness and were denied. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). ACT 16:31
There are thousands of professors whose lamps are gone out, or going out, and who have no oil in their vessels. Think of the midnight cry! Awake from that fatal slumber!
Fellow-believer, go to Christ for oil. Trim your lamp; gird up your loins; be like one that waits for your Lord. “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry " (Heb. 10:37). HEB 10:37And then, farewell, poor world of sorrow, sin, and death; welcome, bright eternal joy! Forever with the Lord.
A Lesson From an Old School Master
WHEREFORE the law was our school master unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith " (Gal. 3:24). GAL 3:24 The apostle was speaking of the Jews. He does not say the law is a schoolmaster to the Gentiles; but the law was so to the Jews.
In that very ancient school, there were not only the Ten Commandments, which brought to light the wickedness of man (Rom. 3:19; 5:20 ROM 3:19; 5:20; Gal. 3:19 GAL 5:20), but there were also many very wonderful picture lessons, all of which pointed forwards to Christ.
One very striking lesson demands our most serious attention. There was not a man to be found in all the earth fit to come into the presence of the Holy God, without the blood of a slain victim. No, not one; not even the high priest of Israel.
The people of God, once a year, stood one nation out of all the nations of the earth, and out of that nation one man; yet even that one man must not come into the presence of God without blood. “The high priest alone, once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people” (Heb. 9:7). HEB 9:7 And the man that dare approach the mercy-seat of God, without the blood of the sin-offering, that man must die (Lev. 16:2). LEV 16:2
The bullock was slain, and its blood did the high priest carry in, and sprinkle seven times before the mercy-seat. Again I repeat this lesson of the ancient schoolmaster that no man could be allowed to go into the presence of the Holy God without blood. And we are not left to guess what this picture or type meant; a reality; but pointing forward, as the word says, " The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest " (Heb. 9:8). HEB 9:8
We may now go a step further. It was so, and it still is so, for " without shedding of blood Is NO REMISSION” (v. 22); and in this very chapter, the present, the only way into the presence of God, is distinctly set before us.
“Christ, by His own blood, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption “(v. 12).
Surely the death of this Holy One, made sin, the sin-offering, is in itself an everlasting proof that there cannot be mercy and forgiveness to any sinner but by His blood. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved "(Acts 4:12). ACT 4:12
“To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). ACT 10:43There is not one thing any man can say with more certainty that he has than the certainty with which believers in Christ can say, " In whom we HAVE redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Eph. 1:7). EPH 1:7
Assuredly all men are sinners, “for all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). RPM 3:23I learn, then, that there is not one man now in the whole of this world that can either have forgiveness of sins, or be fit for the presence of the Holy God, except by the blood of the Lord Jesus, w he was the Sacrifice once offered for sins. Oh, what swarms of despisers and rejecters of Christ in this day! Art thou one, my reader?
Perhaps thou sayest, "I am not so great a sinner as many; I try to pay all I owe; and do no harm to any one.”
Hold! do no harm to any one! Hast thou believed in Jesus, to the saving of thy soul? Dost thou say, No? Then art thou the greatest of all sinners; for to reject Christ is the greatest of all possible sins, and this thou wilt find to thy cost forever. To disbelieve Jesus is to sin against God, who sent Him to, die for sinners. To sin against that precious.
Christ, who died for sinners; to sin against thyself; oh, sin of all sins; to plunge thyself into eternal torment; is this doing no harm?
This is that monster sin, of which the Holy Ghost convinceth; " of sin, because they believe not on Me "(John 16:9).
But perhaps thou sayest, " I 'do believe in Christ; I believe He was a good man, and if I follow His example, and be good as He was,
I shall be saved" (1 Peter 3:18; 2:24; 1PE 3:18; 2:24 Heb. 9:26 HEB 9:26).
If this is thy Christ, it is a false Christ, an antichrist; of which there are scores. The true Christ is not only perfectly man, but the mighty God; as it is written, " But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever " (Heb. 1:8). HEB 1:8This Christ of the Scriptures " hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God"; "who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree " (1 Peter 3:18; 2:24). 1PE 3:18; 2:24
Art thou following THIS CHRIST? Then the very first step is to believe in His death and resurrection; and to know, for certain, that He “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). ROM 4:25
Yea, to know assuredly, on the testimony of God, who cannot lie, that being justified by His BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Art thou thus justified by faith in the death and resurrection of the only one true Christ, set forth in the Holy Scriptures? then follow on to know Him, and to walk worthy of Him. The God of peace be with thee.
But if thou art trampling under foot the blood of Christ; if thou are still rejecting the peace preached through His precious blood; oh, do not fool thyself to perdition by calling this following the Christ of the Scriptures!
Remember what the old schoolmaster teaches in his picture. No man was then fit for the presence of God without the blood of a victim; and God declares now, “Without shedding of blood Is NO remission” (Heb. 9:22). HEB 9:22 Oh I the utter vanity and delusion of trusting in anything but the BLOOD of Christ for salvation.
It is by nothing but the blood of Jesus that we have boldness to enter into the holiest (Heb. 10:19). HEB 10:19It is not by doing the best we can; and surely it is not by leading a life of sin, that we may ever expect to have boldness in the presence of God. Do the Scriptures say that if you follow the example of Christ then you will be saved? And if it did, do you follow that Holy One, who had not where to lay His head? He was without sin. Are you without sin? Say yes or no.
If you say, "Yes, I am without sin," then you make God a liar. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10). 1JO 1:8-10
If you say, “No, I have sinned, but I believe God is very merciful, and will pass it by.”
Impossible! For when God gave shadow s of these things, no man could approach the mercy-seat without THE BLOOD. And now. "without shedding of blood THERE IS NO REMISSION." God is rich in mercy, but how has that mercy been shown? Was it not in His wondrous love in giving Jesus to die for our sins? May God, by the Holy Spirit, convince thee, as thou readest this little paper, that thou hast deeply sinned, in not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and receiving Him as thy whole salvation.
My reader, if thou hast thus been convinced; if thou hast, by the Holy Ghost, seen that the blood of Jesus does cleanse thee from all sin; if He is thy very life, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, oh! canst thou not say that no tale is so sweet to thee as the wondrous story of His redeeming love? In one word, if thou dost in thy heart believe on Jesus the Son of God, who died for thy sins, and rose again, then know assuredly that thou art saved.
Doubt it not: every doubt dishonors the risen Christ. Thy carnal reason would never have believed thus in Christ's death. The human mind hates the cross. If thou hast true faith in the true Christ, this is God's gift (Eph. 2:8). EPH 2:8 And it is by the Holy Ghost; therefore thou Last the Spirit, and He is the witness and proof that thou art a child of God.
See, oh, see now, that thou walkest as a child of God. But remember the walk is not to get to be one.
THE TELESCOPE; OR, HOW MAY I KNOW THAT I HAVE THE RIGHT FAITH?
I RECEIVED the other day a package of samples of telescopes and other glasses. Of course I examined them to see if they were the right things or articles. When it began to be dark, I unwrapped one of the telescopes, to try it. After arranging the slides, I placed it to my eye, when to my astonishment a star was quite visible.
I took away the glass again, and I found there was no star to be seen with the natural eye; but through the glass it was seen plainly, and seemed to be near.
Well, thought I, the telescope that gives such a sight of a star where to the natural eye there is not one, must be the right sort of glass.
True faith is exactly like this telescope. The mind of fallen man is in darkness as to the things of God; and without faith, man gropes in darkness, and knows not whither he goeth.
Now, the moment the Holy Ghost imparteth faith to the soul, Christ is seen as the star was seen in the sky. And oh! what a sight, when Christ is seen by faith!
If that is the right glass which reveals the unseen star, that only is true faith which reveals the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). JOH 1:5 The natural eye without the glass could not see the star. Man without faith cannot understand why the glory of God shines in the face of a Risen Man in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without faith he cannot see this glorious Christ.
“What is faith?" said a doctor to his patient, who was an evangelist.
“Well, doctor," said he, “when I came to, you I put myself entirely in your hands; that is faith. When a lost sinner trusts himself entirely in the hands of Christ; that is faith.”
Have you, my reader, seen Christ to be your Saviour; crucified for your sins; raised from the dead for your justification? Do you see Him to be all that you need, without a single make-weight?
Oh! the wickedness of thinking of adding anything of our own, such vile worms, as a make weight to the worth of Christ. God sees the sacrifice of Christ, the shedding of His blood, that which puts sin and sins away for ever. Are you in this light of God? And cart you say, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth me from all sin? (1 John 1:7). 1JO 1:7Then most assuredly you have true faith. For the natural man without the faith of Christ will never believe this.
Another thing as to the telescope: it did not make the star; it had nothing to do surely at all in producing the star; it only enabled me to see the star, and know that it was there.
This illustrates a most important fact as to salvation. Many, when seeking salvation, though they know it cannot be had by works, yet suppose that salvation is in some way suspended, or incomplete in itself, until they have believed rightly. And thus they make faith to have something to do with producing salvation, and thus they are led to look at faith, instead of the finished work of Christ. They say, “Oh, that I were sure I had the right faith, or believed enough, then I should be saved!”
This is making faith a saviour. Faith has no more to do with producing salvation than my glass had to do with producing the star.
That star was created and shone in the heavens ages before I was born. I speak now of all those who through grace shall be saved.
These were all certainly foreknown of God in eternity, before ever light twinkled from that distant star. " Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling; not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ " (2 Tim. 1:9). 2TI 1:19Surely it is plain that our faith had nothing to do with producing the grace that was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began. And when Jesus was manifested, it was not our faith that induced Him to become the Substitute and Surety of all who should through grace be saved.
No, not our faith; it was His love. It was.
God who laid on Him the iniquity of us all; and it was God who justified Him from the iniquity of us all, when He raised Him up from the dead. He sat down, having purged our sins from the sight of God, long, long before we were born. Our faith had nothing to do with Christ thus purging our sins, or with God justifying us in Christ. This was absolutely finished long before we had actual existence. God saw in the blood of Christ the perfect and eternal satisfaction for all our sins, and this one sacrifice put away all our sins from the sight of God.
You will say then, “If Christ thus finished the work of salvation for all who through grace shall believe, what does take place when the sinner believes?”
Just what took place when I looked through my glass; I saw the star I had never seen before, and I knew it to be there. Just so when the Holy Ghost reveals the salvation already finished by Christ. I know now salvation; my salvation is there, though I never knew it before. Sin was purged from before God, when Christ died, and arose from the dead. This saved me. It is now purged from my conscience by faith in that blood, when God calls me. God, who justified me then in my Representative, Christ, now gives me, by faith, the blessed knowledge of justification in my own soul.
Faith does not produce this complete salvation, but sees it to be in Christ, and knows it is mine on the testimony of God. " Be it known unto you, that through this man [Christ crucified and risen] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses " (Acts 13:38). ACT 13:38
Do you believe what the Word of God says here? I do not ask what sort of faith have you. There is only one true faith; all else is unbelief; but I ask, Do you know in power this forgiveness of sins through Christ Jesus? Do you thus see Jesus? If you do, you have true faith as certainly as I had a good glass, when I saw the star. Oh! look nowhere but to Jesus. Is He seen? Do you believe the forgiveness through Him, not through the merit of your faith, but through Jesus? If you thus see Him, thus believe in Him, then you are justified. You say from your heart you believe in Jesus; then God says, you are justified.
What do you make of that? Will not that give you peace? Cannot you now say, looking steadily through the glass of faith at Jesus, “Who was delivered FOR OUR Offenses” (hold steady, and look at the cross), " And was raised again FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION” (stretch out your slides, and gaze at His glory) (Rom. 4:25). ROM 4:25Oh let faith take its utmost survey of the glory of the Risen Man; and as you look at Him, remember all you see is yours, as certainly as you see Him by faith; all, all is yours. The peace of Jesus is yours; yours forever.
Can there be condemnation laid on Him now? Never. And you are justified with Him; sanctified with Him; what shall I say? for ever blest with Him? Now, do not let the glass shake with doubts and fears. Look again on His cross and resurrection. Cannot you now say, with holy confidence, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST "? (Rom. 5:1).
ROM 5:1
If you do not thus see Jesus, and know that you are justified, and have peace with God, then, I beg you, do not pretend to have the true faith. There are many in this day who do not know Jesus at all; who do not know that they are justified; who do not know anything, in fact; and yet say they have the only true faith.
If my reader is one of these, wilt thou tell me how it is that all who did believe in the days of the apostles knew they were justified, and had peace with God; whilst thou sayest that thou art a believer, and yet thou neither knowest that thou art justified, nor hast thou peace with God?
May God reveal His Son to thee, so that being justified, and having peace with God, thy whole being, spirit, soul, and body, may be cheerfully devoted to His service of love.
Lift Neither Hand nor Foot
“And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou halt polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon " (Ex. 20:25, 26). EXO 20:25-26
WORKS must flow from salvation. There must be first the fountain, and then the stream; first the tree, and then the fruit; first the fire in the grate, then the smoke from the chimney; first the seed in the ground, and then the crop above ground.
There must be inshining on God's part before there can be the outshining on our part.
There must be inpouring on His part before there can possibly be outpouring on our part.
And yet such is the ignorance and perversity of poor, fallen man, that he tries to lift hand or foot in the matter of his soul's salvation,, because he does not see, or will not see, that God has been before him at the cross of His own Son, and that everything that God required for His glory, and man needed for his salvation, has been done once for all there.
Take two illustrations, one from the Old Testament, and the other from the New.
1. Look at Jonah in the great fish's belly three days and three nights, the waters compassing him about, the depths closing him round, the weeds wrapping themselves round his head, the bottoms of the mountains, the earth and her bars about him forever! What could he do there? He could lift neither hand nor foot, but in conscious guilt and helplessness he cried, "SALVATION IS OF THE LORD,” and immediately the fish vomited out Jonah upon the dry land of God's everlasting salvation, where not a drop of God's judgment would ever be able to reach him. Jonah lifted neither hand nor foot in the matter of his salvation. God did it all, and wrote as it were upon the very forehead of Jonah's salvation, "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD" (2 Cor. 5:17, 18). 2CO 5:17-18
2. Look at the penitent thief on the cross, and listen to his confession: “We receive the due reward of our deeds "; his vindication of Christ: “This Man hath done nothing amiss "; his request:" Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom "; and Christ's answer: “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." What a blessed case of conversion in the teeth of death, and on the verge of eternity! But what did that poor thief do towards it? Nothing I His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and he was therefore totally unable to lift either hand or foot. JESUS DID IT ALL, and the thief got the benefit of it, all through casting himself just as he was upon Jesus and His redeeming work. And what a crown to it all, the Saviour and the sinner that very same day together in the paradise of God!
“To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness "(Rom. 4:4, 5). ROM 4:4-5
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9). EPH 2:8-9
Does this little paper meet the eyes of one whose cry is, "What must I do to be saved?” Then listen to God's answer: " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house"; for be assured that in the momentous matter of your precious soul's everlasting salvation God will suffer you to LIFT NEITHER HAND NOR FOOT.
H. M. H.
One Leak Will Sink a Ship.
ONE leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner." So said Bunyan; and he said right, for he drew his conclusions from the Word of God.
There is an idea find, held by a large number of persons, that unless a man has committed some great crime, such as murder or theft, he is not a sinner. But that is what man thinks; and God has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts" (Isa. 45:8). ISA 45:8
Man judges of sin by the way it touches or affects his fellow-man. God judges of it by His holiness, and by the way it dishonors Him; hence He has said, “The thought of foolishness is sin" (Prov. 24:9). PRO 24:9
Suppose a man takes away the life of his fellow-man: if he is caught, and found guilty, he is hanged. But suppose another man is found guilty of having taken away the lives of several of his fellow-creatures, the law of the land can do no more and no less than hang him, the same as it did the one who only took one human life.
And ONE SIN will expose a man to the ETERNAL JUDGMENT of God as much as one million of sins! How many sins did Adam and Eve commit before God drove them out of the garden of Eden? One, and only one; and for that one act of disobedience they were, by the holiness of God, righteously excluded forever from the earthly paradise.
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4-20). EZE 18:4-20Mark, God does not say, the soul that sinneth a hundred or a million sins shall, die; but, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Again, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). ROM 6:23Observe, again, God does not say the wages of a hundred or a million sins is death, but, "The wages of SIN is death." “And be sure your SIN will find you out" (Num. 32:23). NUM 32:23
The holiness of God has weighed the world in the equal balances of the cross of Christ, and the verdict is, " Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting " (Dan. 5:27). DAN 5:27
The holiness of God has measured man by the just measure of the cross of Christ, and the sentence is, " THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE: for ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God " (Rom. 3:22, 23). ROM 3:22-23
Why has God thus weighed and measured man? In order “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become GUILTY before God" (Rom. 3:19). ROM 3:16SIN, DEATH, and JUDGMENT are the lot of men; because, as we have seen, "all have sinned," and “all the world " is guilty.
But is there no open door of escape?
Blessed be God, there is; for Christ has died, and shed His precious blood. He has borne sin, death, and judgment on the cross; and now all who trust Him get forgiveness, eternal life, divine righteousness, the Holy Ghost, and everlasting glory.
Sin must be measured by the holiness of God, and by the cross of Christ. At the cross, of Christ I learn that the holiness of God required the death and blood-shedding of Christ for one sin, just as much as for one million sins. Nothing less than the death and blood-shedding of Christ would do to put away one sin, and nothing more was necessary to put away one million sins. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7); 1JO 1:7and whether you have sinned few or many sins, forgiveness and justification are to be had only " through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3:24, 25). ROM 3:24-25
Only in Name
WHILE the writer was on a holiday at the town of R., in the far-famed Isle of Man, he accompanied a servant of the Led on a visit to an old lady, whose friends had met him in the road and begged him to go and see.
In an old-fashioned cottage, and in a still more quaint bedroom, we found the object of our visit. She had had several paralytic strokes, and was to all appearances unconscious. Although a person well over sixty, she had given no evidence of her state of soul.
Her name was Mrs. Christian, a surname common in the island. This circumstance added to the sadness of her case, and the irony of it too.
As she lay there, breathing heavily, and with eyes closed, taking apparently no notice of anything, my friend and myself spoke to her of salvation through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and repeated several passages of Scripture. Then, after he had prayed, we left, trusting that some word that we had said would find an entrance to the sick one's heart.
The next morning, as my time had come to go home, I called alone, and found she was still in the same condition. I again spoke to her, and quoted more passages from the Word of God. Before leaving I also prayed with her, and commended the Word to her soul, and her to the mercy of God, who willeth not the death of the sinner, but rather that all should come to Him, and live.
Her son and his wife, who lived with her being believers, were naturally very anxious about her. But as to the person herself, nothing was ever known of any work of grace in her soul. How sad to be in such a state, bearing the name of Christian all those years, yet having no part or lot in these matters!
She had had many opportunities, but had not used them. So it is, the god of this world blinds the eyes or minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the gospel should shine in and dispel the darkness.
So, my dear friend, whoever may read the account of this soul, do not do as she did; do not put off, do not neglect salvation, but come to God to-day, just as you are, through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died to save the sinner from the just consequences of his sins at the hand of a holy and sin-hating God.
“Seek ye are Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near." “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” B. L. N.
“The fearful and unbelieving," those who are afraid to trust God, to take Him at His word, and to appropriate salvation,” shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8). REV 21:8
The Present Salvation
“Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation."—2 Cor. 6:2. 2CO 6:2
I HAVE traveled considerably on both sides of the Atlantic, but I never met a man who wished to go to the lake of fire, there to endure the "eternal judgment" of God. All hoped to be saved some day, and to escape that dreadful doom.
There is a story told of a young man coming to a good old professor of a college (a Christian), and asking him how long before death he thought a man ought to be ready for it.
The professor's answer was, “A few minutes.”
The youth, glad of this reply, determined to have his fling, sow his wild oats, see life in all its aspects, and then, a few moments before death should close his selfish career, ask God to have mercy upon him!
“But," asked the professor, “when are you going to die?”
The youth replied, "I cannot tell.”
“Then," said the dear old man, “GET READY NOW, for you may only have a few moments to live.”
There are many persons who would like to be saved, but they say they are waiting God's time. Surely God knows the best and proper time for a man to be saved, and He says it is NOW.
There is no promise in God's word that a man shall be saved next week, month, or year, or when he comes to a death-bed, or at the eleventh hour, as some people foolishly and unscripturally say.
God pledges His word to save a man when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ; not when he says he believes, but when he does believe. His word is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house "(Acts 16:31). ACT 16:31
“The time is short," eternity is near, the dark clouds of judgment are gathering, and are about to burst upon a Christless, guilty world, in all their crushing and grinding power. But ere this takes place, the word of God rings clearly out: " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation " (2 Cor. 6:2). 2CO 6:2
There is a verse in Isa. 1:18 which is unequaled in Scripture for tender graciousness: “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.”
God's word is "COME"; but He says when you are to come; it is "NOW." And He says how you are to come; it is "JUST AS YOU ARE.” And then He concludes the magnificent verse with the promise of cleansing you from all your sins, and making you like His Son (Dan. 7:9; DAN 7:9 Rev. 1:14 REV 1:14).
There is another strikingly earnest verse in Job 22:21, JOB 22:21which says, " Acquaint NOW thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.”
Again the word "NOW" confronts us, and tells us, that THIS IS THE MOMENT to make the acquaintance of God by Christ Jesus, to be at peace with God through Christ, having made peace for us with His precious blood, and that then and thus good shall come to us in Christ Jesus.
The invitation of Jesus is, “Come, for all things are NOW ready” (Luke 14:17). LUK 14:17There is nothing left for the poor, helpless sinner to do in the matter of the soul's salvation but to believe. Christ did all that the glory of God required to be done on the cross, and then said, "It is finished"; and He is in glory to-day as the proof that it is finished, and that God is satisfied, and can now make known to you by the Holy Ghost through the Scriptures His PRESENT salvation for all lost sinners.
An affecting story is told of a miner who attended a gospel meeting in Cornwall. At the close of the meeting he remained for some personal conversation with the preacher. The miner, though anxious to be saved, was desirous to put it off to a future time; but God's word being quoted to him, " Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation," he bowed to God's word and time, and accepted salvation from God as His gift to faith, and went home praising Him for it. Early in the morning he went to the mine as usual, but he had not been long at his work when a large portion of the roof fell in, and buried him. Loving hearts and willing hands soon removed the rubbish, and brought him to the mine's mouth, when his lips were seen moving. An ear was bent to catch the dying man's last words, which were, “THANK GOD I WAS SAVED LAST NIGHT.”
He accepted the "present salvation" of God, and in less than twelve hours after he was absent from the body, and present with the Lord.
Dear reader, do thou “Take salvation,
Take it now and happy be.”
The devil tempts people to put off the salvation of the soul until to-morrow; but tomorrow is too late, for to-morrow is death, the grave, the lake of fire, the eternal wail of a damned soul. God would not say "NOW" so frequently in His word if He did not mean it, or if there were not awful danger in delaying, or if to-morrow would do. It may be NOW OR NEVER with you. God grant that it may be NOW.
H. M. H.
Repentance.
THERE are two incontestable proofs that man is a responsible being. One is, that God calls upon him, yea, commands him, to repent; and the other, that God is going to judge him.
God never calls upon horses, cows, or dogs to repent; and when they die He will not raise them again, and judge them for the deeds done in the body; but " God... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent"; "and... it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Acts 17:30; ACT 17:30 Heb. 9:27 HEB 9:27).
This is a most solemn consideration for those who deny and teach that man is not a responsible being.
Repentance must not be confounded with conversion, nor with remorse. It is on earth that people must repent and be converted.
There is neither repentance nor conversion in hell; there is nothing but eternal remorse there.
Repentance is turning "from dead works”
(Heb. 6:1). HEB 6:1 There is much more than turning from dead works involved in repentance, as I hope to show from the Scriptures before I have done. Conversion is the turning of the will and heart and life to God (1 Thess. 1:9, 10). 1TH 1:9:10Remorse, like a quenchless fire and undying worm, will be the burning, gnawing portion throughout eternity of the finally impenitent and unconverted.
Repentance, as the word signifies in the Greek, means a change of mind, an afterthought founded upon reflection. To quote a most reliable authority upon the subject, " It is literally an after or changed thought, a judgment formed by the mind on reflection, after it has had another or previous one; habitually, in its use in Scripture, the judgment I form in God's sight of my own previous conduct and sentiments, consequent on the reception of God's testimony, in contrast with my previous natural course of feeling.”
Repentance is always preceded by faith; it takes place in the presence of God, and is produced by the revelation of God through His word to my soul of what I am and what I have done. God shows me that I am lost and guilty. The moment my faith bows to this solemn revelation on the part of God of what I am and what I have done, repentance is produced in my soul.
To say that repentance must come before faith, as some do, is to say that it is produced apart from the word of God, and that it is therefore founded upon unbelief, which is a most unscriptural and mischievous kind of teaching. To quote again from the same sound and scriptural authority: " The setting a certain quantity of repentance first (as some men preach) as a preliminary process to believing, I hold to be utterly mischievous and unscriptural. According to such views, repentance must take place without the word of God; for if it be by the word of God, there must be faith in that word, or else repentance is founded on unbelief, which is absurd.”
Jehovah by His servants in the Old Testament called upon guilty sinners, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, to repent; and repentance was wrought by a testimony rendered, and by their belief of that testimony. See an instance of what I mean in Jonah 3:4, 5. JOH 3:4-5
“And Jonah... cried, and said, Yet forty clays, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way.”
Clearly repentance here was founded upon the word of God about coming judgments, and people's faith in it; that is, faith preceded repentance, as it always does and always must.
Now, if we turn to the New Testament we shall find that Jesus and His apostles preached repentance. See Matt. 3:2; 4:17, MAT 3:2; 4:17where you will find Jesus and His servant John using exactly the same words, " Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." All those who believed this twofold testimony saw and felt their unfitness to receive the kingdom of heaven, and repented, or judged themselves, on account of this moral unfitness.
Turn now to Acts 2, where we shall find a third, and the most advanced, testimony that we have yet considered. It is an open-air meeting; thousands are congregated together.
Peter is the preacher. His subject is Jesus and the resurrection. In the most scathing language he charges home upon their consciences the murder of the Son of God. "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hash raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.”
When they saw and believed their guilt in rejecting Christ, and God's righteous act in raising Him from among the dead, the Holy Ghost used the word to prick them in their hearts, and genuine repentance followed.
In Acts 8:22 ACT 8:22God says, “Repent of this thy wickedness." Surely this is enough to convince anybody that repentance is not believing, though repentance follows believing; neither is it conversion, nor forgiveness, though they invariably follow it. Unless I believe God that I have been guilty of wickedness, I shall most certainly not repent of it.
Let me be clearly understood. I do not mean that saving faith comes before repentance; believe it never does; at any rate, it ought not.
Convicting faith comes before repentance, and saving faith follows it.
Repentance is not only pungent sorrow for what I have done, but also for what I am, my state. Take Job as an instance of the deep, real judgment of state. “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5, 6). JOB 42:5-6
Where did Job's repentance take place? and what produced it?
It took place in the presence of God, and faith in what his ear heard of God produced it. God has exalted Christ with His own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31). ACT 5:13“Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). ACT 11:18But whether given to the Jews or granted to the Gentiles, it is “toward God," and is followed by" faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), ACT 20:21and it is “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance" (Rom. 2:4). ROM 2:4
When I believe the goodness of God to me, a ruined and guilty sinner, in delivering Christ for my offenses, and raising Him again for my justification (Rom. 4:25), ROM 4:25I sit in judgment upon myself in the presence of God, and abhor myself: I 'repent on account of my God-hating, Christ-rejecting, Holy Ghost resisting, sin-loving, unbelieving, guilty course. “Repentance is the judgment we form, under the effect of God's testimony, of all in ourselves to which that testimony applies. Hence it is always founded on faith: I do not say the faith of the gospel.”
Repentance is not something that takes place in a lump, and then is all over forever.
No; even after we are forgiven, and have got the Holy Ghost indwelling our body as His temple, the closer we walk with God conditionally, the more we shall judge everything in our state and actions that the word of God shows us is unsuitable to God.
To sum up this paper: we have seen that repentance is an afterthought produced upon reflection; that it is produced by the Holy Ghost's application of the word of God to the conscience and heart; that it is founded upon faith in the word of God; that it takes place in the presence of a holy God; that it is the judgment of my state and actions; that it is a gift from the ascended and glorified Christ; that God grants it; that it is toward God; that the goodness of God leads to it; that it is from dead works, and is an ever-deepening thing right into glory.
Thus much may suffice to show the place and importance of repentance in the Scriptures. I pray God, in conclusion, that He would, by His Spirit and His word, work in all who may read this paper genuine REPENTANCE. H. M. H.
Revealed Unto Babes.
IT was in the deep sense of His rejection, yet rejoicing in spirit, that the Lord Jesus uttered those memorable words addressed to his Father in heaven: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth; because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight " (compare Matt. 11:25, 26; MAT 11:25-26Luke 10:21, 22 LUK 10:21-22).
And elsewhere Holy Scripture insists on the necessity of the gospel being received in child-like simplicity of faith. In this fact we find the reason why many worldly wise people fail to obtain such blessings as forgiveness of sins and eternal life, while numbers of children, and other persons of small natural intelligence, hearing the good news of salvation, believe it, pass at once from death into life, and become heirs of the righteousness which is by faith, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
A striking illustration of the truth above expressed is presented in the following touching story, which was related to me by a native of Lancashire, where the incidents occurred.
A little girl, the daughter of drunken and in other respects vicious parents, was permitted from infancy to run the streets, uncared for and untaught. In one of her daily rambles the neglected child fell upon an upturned gutter grating, and badly hurt her cheek. On returning to what was no more than the mockery of a home the poor child was still crying with pain; but nobody took any notice of its cause.
After some time, however, it was observed that there was a hole in her cheek through which she could put her finger into her mouth.
The poor child was then hurried off to a hospital, where she was detained, and put to bed.
The surgeon discovered that gangrene had set in, and that it was rapidly spreading to other parts of the face. Soon indeed one eye and a portion of the face were eaten away by the dreadful disease.
The little sufferer was visited in the hospital by an elder sister, and in conversation was asked if she would like to get well, and go home again. "No!" replied the child, firmly; "I do not want to go home." And then, pointing upward, and with her one eye gazing intently that way, she added, "I AM. GOING HOME TO JESUS!”
In the neighborhood of her parents' abode was a mission-room, to which the little one had been taken by another sister. There she had heard "the old, old story" of the love of God, shown so wondrously in the gift of His Son to die for sinners, in order that, all sins forgiven, because atoned for, they might be with Him forever in His home of glory.
This child of five (truly only a babe), who had not known a real home on earth, drank in by faith the precious truth; and now, with an assurance to which multitudes of elder and wiser persons are utter strangers, she could rejoice on a bed of suffering in the immediate and glorious prospect of going to be in a heavenly home with Him, the story of whose divine and holy love had won her childish heart.
If such a prospect is yours, dear reader, you are incalculably happy. If not, you are beyond expression miserable. But in the gospel a portion in heavenly glory is offered to you, and to be assured of having that portion only requires that you believe in Him whom the gospel proclaims as the Saviour of sinners.
Through Him is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and justification from all things, from which you could not be justified by the works of the law. Salvation is not by human works, or a babe could not have it. It is not 'of works, lest any man should boast. It is of FAITH, that it might be by GRACE. “The WAGES of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Dear reader, HEAR, BELIEVE, and LIVE!
S. O. S.
NOT many weeks ago the whole civilized world was thrilled by the news that the monster liner Titanic had foundered at sea, attended by the loss of some fifteen hundred lives.
The glory of her designers and builders, the pride of her owners, and the confidence of her crew, the great vessel started from Southampton amid the cheers and good wishes of all who watched her departure.
The Titanic was the last word in ship-building. She was a triumph of ingenuity and skill, and withal pronounced unsinkable. She was in fact a floating palace, no expense having been spared to provide, by electric installations and numerous other modern conveniences, for the comfort and luxury of her passengers.
On the bridge stood one of the first captains of the day, his officers the most competent, and his crew the bravest. Among the passengers were men and women in every station of life. Science, art, literature, religion, army, civil government, commerce, etc., were all represented.
After calling at the usual places for passengers and mails, the Titanic steamed into the Atlantic, increasing her speed, and bidding fair to make a good passage. By means of her Marconi wireless apparatus she was continually in communication with other vessels, receiving on one occasion the good wishes of a sister ship, and a warning of the proximity of icebergs. The warning was unhappily not heeded, and consequently she struck a berg that lay in her course, taking in at once vast quantities of water.
Such confidence had been placed in the ship that at first little alarm was felt; but soon the real danger became known, and then all hope of saving the ship was gone.
The order was given to lower the boats with the command, "Women and children first." Here another fatal mistake became known; that while every other convenience had been thought of, provision for saving life had not. During all this time, the operator of the Marconi wireless apparatus had been ceaseless in sending out messages for help and the one which is most striking of all is that which forms the title of this article: S.O.S.”
What does it mean? What does it convey?
It means, "Save our souls," and it conveys the idea that they were utterly unable to save-themselves, that they were dependent on others to save them.
The message was indeed received, but the distance was too great for the receiving ship to reach them in time, and actually only those were saved who had been placed in the life-boats. The remainder were lost in the great ,ocean, while the Titanic sank, and is irrecoverable.
These facts bring before us what is even more important and far-reaching, the fact that men and women are like the vessel named, embarked on the ocean of time, invested with the assurance and self-reliance that only fallen man is capable of, unaware of their lost condition, and the rocks, storms, and icebergs of sin that beset their way. Like the younger son in Luke 15, who gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country. He left his home in possession of a full portion, only to learn that the way of transgressors is hard (Prov. 13:15). PRO 13:15How many there are to-day who are resting in a false security, hoping by their works to obtain a place and favor with God, when God in His word has declared that by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in His sight (Rom. 3:20); ROM 3:20 that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (3:23); ROM 3:23that man is without strength (Rom. 5:6); ROM 5:6having no hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). EPH 2:12
It is to such that God commends His love, telling of a Saviour who is MIGHTY to save, who saves NOW; who says, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out; for who soever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved (John 6:37; JOH 6:37 Rom. 10:13 ROM 10:13). If you call, you will be heard, just as the jailor at Philippi, who cried, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? " received the reply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," with these assuring words, "and thou shalt be saved." The Lord Jesus not only saves from the fear of death and judgment, but saves all along the way. "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). HEB 7:25
W. T.
A Sad Instance of Non-Repentance
I HAVE lately heard of the death of a young woman which I must relate. On a Friday morning the wretched girl in great distress cried out, “I know that I am death-struck, and damned to all eternity; the devil has told me so, and that he will drag me to endless torments at six o'clock, to the pit prepared for me! “Her agonies were inexpressible, and truly heartrending, so that even her companions, whom she earnestly exhorted to repent, and leave their wicked ways, were alarmed and much affected, yet knew not how to meet her need; they knew not JESUS, who is the source of every true comfort, as meeting the sinner's need; they knew not that His BLOOD CLEANSETH FROM ALL SIN (1 John 1:7). 1JO 1:7
The poor, miserable girl, with screams of horror, exclaimed, “Can nothing save me?
Is there no escape? "... She several times jumped out of bed screaming, and in the most dreadful manner exclaimed, “You shall not have me yet; it is not six o'clock." She continued raving thus till the hour she had so often named: the clock struck six, and she expired. H. H. S.
Saved or Lost: Which?
DEAR READER, let me affectionately ask your serious attention to the question which is presented to you above. Though very short, yet the importance of it cannot be over-estimated. Under one or other of the terms you must certainly find yourself, and your eternal happiness or misery depends on which it is.
Believe me, there is no possible escape out of one or the other of these two conditions.
There is no neutral ground upon which you can place your feet. Either you are SAVED, and, therefore, waiting for that moment which shall usher you into a state of eternal blessedness; or (dreadful alternative!) you are in the condition of those who are fast hurrying on to that moment which must settle for eternity their destiny, and consign them beyond the reach of hope, to the region of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We would press upon you the word of God to Israel of old: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways" (Hag. 1:5). HAG 1:15
Most surely you are rapidly advancing on the journey of life, and how near you may be to its close who can tell. Oh! that you, dear reader, if unprepared for the end of the journey, may indeed pause, and think seriously of that important future. The end may be near. But, near or remote, what can be more certain, what can be more solemn, what can be more thy immediate concern, than thine own eternity? Where is it to be spent, and with whom? Amidst the bright glories of heaven, or the dark miseries of hell? In the Father's house, at the Saviour's side, and with all the saved from every land, and with all the holy angels who never sinned? Or (awful thought!) in the prison-house of hell, with the devil and his angels, and all the impenitent wicked of every age? Oh, what an eternity of misery this must be! The very thought of it is overwhelming.
Nov, we may forget our sorrow, or even our misery, for a little while, in welcome sleep; but there will be no sleep in hell. Now, we may find a quiet corner, and weep alone, and find relief in solitude; but no quiet, no solitude, no relief, will ever be found there. The eyes that are distressed at every sight shall never be closed; the ear that is assailed with cries of remorse on every side shall never grow dull of hearing; the weary soul shall never find one moment's rest. All hope shall flee away, and dark despair shall complete its awful work.
But enough, enough; forbear. Bless God, the door of repentance and salvation is open, wide open, open for thee, my reader; yes, open for thyself. Wilt thou not turn to Jesus now?
Wilt thou not flee to Him now, while thy sad case is before thee, and while all the solemn realities of the future are pressing on thy mind? Yet do we again beseech thee. Stay not till thou hast finished this paper. As thou art, where thou art, lift up thy heart to Jesus.
“Come unto Me. I will give you rest” are His own words of tenderest love and richest grace (Matt. 11:28). MAT 11:28“Him that cometh to Me, "He says," I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). JOH 6:37
Thou canst never be more fit to come, or more welcome to the Saviour than now; and never more welcome to the Father's arms, the Father's house, the Father's sweetest welcome there. His joy and delight in receiving the prodigal is a thousand times greater than the prodigal's in being received. What wondrous grace and love! What wondrous longsuffering and mercy! His name alone have all the praise!
It is difficult, more than difficult, for either writer or preacher fully to realize the force of these two words, "SAVED-LOST.”
All that is solemn, weighty, important, all that is blessed or miserable, both for time and eternity, to the immortal soul, is included in these words. Were every reader of these pages, and every hearer of the gospel, to be described according to truth, these two words would suffice for all. There is no third class, no middle ground, in Scripture. Hence we read that “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was LOST” (Luke 9:19). Those who believe in Him are saved; those who believe not are lost.
Not finally, or everlastingly lost, of course, while here; but lost under the guilt and condemnation of sin, and too commonly, alas! lost to all proper sense of the consequences of sin. As one has forcibly said, “Young, brave, polite, intelligent, but LOST! Beautiful, amiable, honored, beloved, but LOST!
Wealthy, idolized, caressed, flattered, but LOST! Serious, courteous, moral, affectionate, but LOST! Discreet, benevolent, educated, a church-goer, but LOST!”
Remember then, O my reader, that although every qualification and advantage here mentioned most truthfully applied to thee, thou art still LOST, if not a believer in Christ Jesus.
Nothing short of His blood can cleanse thy sins away. We are saved through faith in the blood of Christ, which cleanses us from all sin. SAVED! yes, saved, saved with God's great salvation. All blessing is included in the one word SAVED. Eternal life, pardon, justification, sanctification, reconciliation, adoption into God's family, acceptance in the Beloved, the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, standing in grace, waiting for glory.
May this wealthy portion be thine, dear reader. Amen. A. M.
the Common Salvation.
BELOVED, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of THE COMMON SALVATION, it was needful for me to write unto, you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered' unto the saints " (Jude 2). JUD 2
God's salvation is for lost man; but the difficulty lies in this, that man will not believe or own he is lost. The great effort of the day is to improve man; to gild, varnish, and dress him up, so as to make him appear what he is not.
Now, God proposes, not to mend or improve man, but to save him. A man overboard, struggling with the waves, and unable to swim a stroke, needs a lifeboat. A culprit in prison, under sentence of death for murder, needs not to be told to amend his ways; he wants pardon.
A house is on fire, the inmates are well aware of their condition; who would he guilty of the idle mockery of telling them to sit down, and weep over the state they are in? Their pressing need is deliverance.
A man has lost his way in a dense forest.
I meet him, beg him to sit down, and listen to an essay on self-culture. What will such a one say? Will he not exclaim in his distress.
“I am lost! pray tell me how I can find my way out of this terrible forest "?
And you, too, are as surely lost. Whether you are noble or pauper, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, old, middle-aged, or young, you have not to go to hell to be lost. You are born lost, and are therefore in need of salvation; and God has provided it for you.
In Matt. 18, MAT 18where children are the subject, the Lord says He “is come to save that which was lost"; but in Luke 19, LUK 19where a man is the subject, He says that He “is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Whether man or child, both are alike lost, the only sad difference being, that man is not only lost, but GUILTY.
Now, as we are all in the same condition, we need a salvation that suits itself to all, and such you will find God has provided in the gospel.
If you will turn to the scripture given at the head of this paper, you will find three words, "THE COMMON SALVATION)" which show that Christ's death is not for a class, but for alt.
“We thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead.”
To say that His death is only for a few, is to say that only a few were dead, and is to be guilty of a very grave error indeed. Scripture says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.”
When the blessed Lord came into the world, He found all lying under the penalty of death, and in grace He went into death for all; and Scripture goes on to say that " He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again " (Rom. 5:12; ROM 5:122 Cor. 5:14, 15 2CO 5:14-15).
Here we have a class of persons who, raised from among the mass of the lost and dead, have got life through faith in His name. "The common salvation” makes known the will of God and the work of Christ; God as a Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and the “Man Christ Jesus," who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:6). 1TI 2:6 Thus I am taught that the will of God and the work of Christ are co-extensive, that they cover the same area, that the remedy is equal to the ruin.
“The common salvation" of God is free to the needy and helpless; as free as the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the sun that shines upon us. Have you found out that you are lost? Have you confessed it to God?
Have you accepted His remedy? Do you ask what it is?
It is Jesus. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). ACT 4:12 Have you taken Him into your arms by faith, like dear Simeon of old, saying, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation "? (Luke 2:30). LUK 2:30Have you welcomed Him to your heart and home, and heard Him say, “This day is salvation come to this house "? (Luke 19:9). LUK 19:9Have you ever allowed Him to take a seat alongside of you, and to say to your soul, "I am thy salvation "? If not," believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31) ACT 16:31
May "the common salvation" of God be yours, consciously, confessedly, and everlastingly.
H. M. H.
In the Lord we have redemption,
Full remission in His blood;
From the curse entire exemption,
From the curse pronounced by God
What a Saviour Jesus is!
Oh, what grace, what love is His!
Sweet His name, that name transcending
Every name on earth, in heaven;
Praise through ages never-ending,
To the Son of God be given!
He alone the Saviour is,
Everlasting praise be His.
the Plank Bears.
A SHIP was wrecked on the coast of Cornwall. All on board were drowned except one sailor boy, who was washed on shore nearly dead, and who lay for weeks upon a sick bed. A young Christian man visited him, and spoke the gospel to him. “When your vessel was in pieces round about you," he said to the lad, " and you were sinking, if a plank had floated by you, and you had been able to clutch it, and you felt it would bear your weight, you would have thanked God for that plank?”
“Yes," said the boy, and he was led to understand that the "plank" for his sinking soul was CHRIST, and that he had only to commit himself to Christ, as in drowning he would to the plank.
Many years afterward, in a distant city, the same Christian man visited a death bed. The dying person was a stranger to him.
“Is it well with your soul?" he said as he bent over him.
The dying man turned his head; there was a smile of recognition, a grasp of the hand; and he said, “God bless you, sir, the plank bears, THE PLANK BEARS! And in this confidence his spirit passed away.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). 1TI 1:15
the Righteousness of God.
2 COR. 5:21. 2CO 5:21
WHAT a wondrous depth of meaning there is in the thought that the vile, lost sinner should be clothed with, yea, made, the righteousness of God! I only know Of one greater wonder than this, and that is, that God's most precious, holy Son should have been made sin, and have died the accursed death of the cross.
How very sad that this is almost forgotten in our day! It is almost forgotten that the law brought out man's sin, and proved he had no righteousness, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore 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. 3:19, 20). ROM 3:19
Men forget this, and still vainly try to be righteous by keeping the law. If you try to be righteous in this way, instead of finding yourself righteous, you will find that you are in the same condemnation as the devil himself.
But there is another thing as little known, that whilst the law proved man to be without righteousness, in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. “But now the 'righteousness of God without law is manifested, being: witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, WHOM GOD HATH SET FORTH a propitiation through: faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus " (Rom. 3:21-26). ROM 3:21-26
Is it not greatly overlooked that in the salvation of lost sinners the whole transaction is of God? Man cannot do one thing, neither is he asked to do anything, Nit to receive, as the free gift of God, the righteousness already wrought out and accomplished by Christ. The whole thing, from beginning to end, is of God.
It is not, as man would tell you, that if you keep the law, and believe on Christ, then you shall be saved. No, but without law, for man cannot keep it. You cannot keep it. God has, in His own grace (because He so loved poor sinners, who were without strength to keep His law), given Christ to die for the ungodly. Christ crucified has been set forth the great propitiatory Sacrifice.
It was GOD who gave Him to die for sinners, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. IT IS GOD also, who gives faith to believe. IT is Gob who justifies every sinner who does believe. IT IS GOD who shall finally glorify every believer whom He has justified.
The blood of Jesus has been shed, and IT IS GOD who has set it forth for the remission of sins. Is He not just, and the Justifier of him that believeth? All, all this vast transaction has been accomplished to declare His righteousness in bringing the lost sinner to I believe it. I say, fearlessly, that not only is God perfectly righteous in justifying the ungodly sinner in this His own way, but that from eternity to eternity the cross of Christ is the glory of God. Yes, when He raised our adorable Substitute from the dead, it was by the glory of the Father. Man, through sin, had sunk to the lowest depths; God, through redemption, has raised him to the highest glory. All is finished; and is not God divinely righteous? This robe of divine righteousness is "upon all them that believe.”
Art thou, my reader, clothed in this wedding garment? Then thou shalt be a happy guest in the courts above. See now that thou walkest with garments undefiled.
CHARLES STANLEY
Today.
MAN thinks and says, Tomorrow will do just as well as to-day to be saved. GOD says, Today; but where does He say, Tomorrow?
Today the arrow of death is abroad, and it is calculated that every hour one thousand immortal beings pass into eternity.
If death came to you where you are, as you are, and just now, and laying his icy finger upon your pulse, stopped its beating, and laying his hand upon your heart, stopped its throbbing, and breathing upon your now warm blood, froze it in your veins, ARE YOU READY?
“Today" the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may take place; and if it should,
He would raise the bodies of all “the dead in Christ," and change the living bodies of all who have eternal life in Him, accomplishing all "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:52). 1CO 15:52
Should the second coming of the Lord take place whilst you are reading this little paper, ARE YOU READY?
None of those, NO, NOT ONE, that have heard the gospel of salvation "TODAY," and have been guilty of rejecting it, will have the shadow of a chance of being saved after Christ has been and taken His own blood-redeemed ones to glory (see 2 Thess. 2:10-12). 2TH 2:10-12
The Holy Ghost says, in Psa. 95:7, 8 PSA 95:7-8
“TODAY, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart "; and Jesus says, in Luke 19:5, LUK 19:5 "MAKE HASTE, and come down, for TO-DAY I must abide at thy house.”
“TODAY," life, light, and glory forever are offered thee in the gospel, for only believing, as a lost and helpless sinner, in the person and work of Christ.
“Tomorrow," may be death, darkness, and damnation forever should you refuse. Which is it to be?
God grant it may be the first, and not the last! May it be said of you, dear reader, as it was said by the Lord Jesus of Zacchæus, “This day is salvation come to this house"; for “behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.”
“Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth”
(Prov. 27:1). PRO 27:1
H. M. H.
Until
1. The shepherd seeks the lost sheep "UNTIL he find it” (Luke 15:4). LUK 15:4 And it is only the LOST sheep that lies in the pathway of the seeking shepherd. If I take the place of a lost sinner, and nothing else, it is not so much my part to seek Christ as His to seek me.
This is GRACE. He seeks until He finds; He does not stop in His search until He and we meet. Alas! our part is only straying.
The holy, just and good law of God came demanding from man love to God, and proved that what God justly demands from man He has not got, and cannot get; so that, without exception, it may be said of all men who ought to have sought after God, “There is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11). ROM 3:11
GRACE comes in now, and says, I will seek you, and I will seek until I find. Thank God! it is He who breaks in upon us, and not we upon Him. We would willingly remain among those who "forget" God. Our wills are free only to wander, and get further from Him. In fact, the first thing God does in breaking in upon our enmity is “to make us willing.”
Our part is to take the place of a sinner, and 'nothing else. Most people believe they are 'sinners, but comparatively few believe that they are sinners and nothing else but SINNERS.
A s truly as He has shown us that we are lost, and nothing but lost, so surely can we gladly claim that seeking Shepherd, for He seeks UNTIL He finds.
Nothing stops Him in His search; not all the hatred of man nor devils; not all the malice and spite and envy of the chief priests; not all the murmurings of the Pharisees and scribes; not all the waywardness of the wandering sheep; nor the indifference and degradation of those for whom He is searching lie will have His joy, that joy that rejoices not UNTIL it finds.
2. But there is another and an awful "UNTIL" in Luke 17:27: LUK 17:27 "They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, UNTIL the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all; and as it was in the clays of Noe, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.”
That little word "UNTIL" tells out the sad story of what man is. Men will please themselves, let God's claims or God's grace he where they may. And thus they go on "UNTIL"!
But every history has its UNTIL. The course of the vilest infidel is brought to a close by an UNTIL. The world's race to destruction will be consummated in that UNTIL. Vain are the thoughts of those who think of the gradual conversion of the world. They go on as Jesus said they would: careless, and wholly engrossed with their own affairs, UNTIL the Lord comes.
Few I fear realize that there is a way of keeping out of hell, but no way of getting out of it.
That blasphemous infidelity that the punishment of the wicked will not he eternal is sapping the very foundations of Christian action. What is the use of Christian effort? let us take things quietly, if, after suffering for a while in a purgatorial hell, all are to be restored!
May God have mercy on us for our lukewarmness, and stir us all up to believe His simple word, that UNTIL Jesus comes men will go on in their mad career, but that this is the limit to their proud imaginations; for we again read that—
3. The heavens will receive Jesus “UNTIL the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken," etc. And this UNTIL, while being glorious and final salvation to the Christ-receiver, restoration to God's ancient people, and emancipation to a groaning creation, is the time of destruction of all Christ's rejecters. For God says that in the time of the restitution of all things “it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet [JESUS] shall be DESTROYED from among the people” (Acts 3:22, 23). ACT 2:22
"Let God be true, and every man a liar.”
Jesus will remain away UNTIL this time of mingled salvation and destruction: salvation to all who were sought out and found by Him; destruction to all who rejected Him, it being one of God's impossibilities to renew such to repentance. Solemn words! May we make our calling and election sure!
“He came not to call the righteous, but SINNERS." Thus called and thus saved, we can patiently wait, leaning on the precious Word, while even some that profess Christ's name are leaning to their own understandings, and taking their own ideas as their light, or, while a godless, reckless world is posting on to destruction, taking no warning, dancing madly, blindly on, UNTIL (and what an UNTIL it will be!) UNTIL He shall gird His sword on His thigh, to slay, and not to heal; and, in the midst of their calamity and dreadful fear, His word is: " I will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh " (Prov. 1: 26). PRO 1:26
What Is Good News to a Man Who Feels Himself Lost?
I WAS deeply impressed the other day with I a sentence in a letter I received from a person at a distance, in which he states that “the gospel as [sometimes] preached in our day, is of no use to a man WHO FEELS HIMSELF TO BE LOST.”
When a man has broken the laws of his country, and is under sentence of death, he paces the floor of his gloomy cell, looks through the iron grate, and thinks of the fearful morrow. That is something like being LOST as to this world.
Let us go down the dark passage, and speak to him at the iron grate. Hark! how he groans! What will you say to him? Would a lecture on morality do? Would you tell him to be a good man, and keep the laws of his country? Would he not reply, You very much mistake my case? That sort of talk is no help to me at all. My life is forfeited; I am under the sentence of death.
Poor lost one! Would it help him if you engaged to keep the laws of his country for him? Not in the least: the law demands his life, and the day is fixed. The only way of keeping the law for him would he to die in his stead; and the only good news that would meet his case would be the free pardon of his sovereign.
Such is the case of an awakened sinner who feels HIMSELF LOST. This world to him is a condemned cell. The devil roars in his conscience, GUILTY! GUILTY! He has tried to be innocent; he has pleaded, “Not so guilty as my neighbors "; he has tried" to mend” he has tried to keep the law of God, but he has broken it more and more. And now, trembling with guilt and fear, conscience, the devil's jailor, has turned the heavy bolt of the iron gate of despair. And thus, sooner or later, is every saved sinner brought to utter despair as to all help in self, or self's doing.
Now what is the good news that will meet a man who has thus learned the truth about himself, and feels himself lost? Will it meet his case to tell him to amend his life, to love God, and keep His commandments?
Would he not reply, You don't understand' my case at all: if I could do that, I should not be lost: I am lost, I am vile, I am condemned;
I have forfeited my life, heaven, everything! Reader, art thou the man? Have I described thy condition; art thou one who, feelest thyself lost? Then hearken; I will tell thee of One who came to seek and TO SAVE THE LOST. I come not to thy iron gate to tell thee what thou must DO. Nothing that thou canst DO can save thee from thy dark condemned cell, nor thy future fearful doom.
I tell thee, if the Spirit of God has thus made thee feel thou art lost, I have good news from heaven to thee. There SITS Jesus at the right hand of the Majesty on high; that is the blessed One who came in pity to this condemned cell, who took the sinner's place, died the Just for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). 1PE 3:18
Hadst thou forfeited thy life?
He gave up His own, even to the death of the cross.
Hadst thou forfeited heaven?
He left it, and became a man of sorrows on earth. Oh! think of the glory of this mighty Saviour. He knew that nothing short of His very life's blood could meet thy guilty, condemned state. He gave it freely. What plenteous redemption through that precious blood! (Eph. 1:5). EPH 1:5Thou hadst sinned against God; and God is satisfied, justified, glorified by this precious Sacrifice. God hath raised Him from the dead, “and through Him is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins"; free, full, everlasting forgiveness; through Him, not through thy doing: and BY HIM, not by thy doing, thou, and all that believe, ARE JUSTIFIED from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:38, 39). ACT 13:38-39
Thy door is open: come out, and rejoice in the gospel that suits the man who feels HIM-
SELF to be LOST.
C. S.
White As Snow
(ISAIAH 1:18). ISA 1:18
GOOD character is nothing with God. There is not a man that would have all he has done, thought, and said, written on the wall of his house. But it is all out before God.
Leave a man alone for two or three hours, and he must think of something, but he will never think of Christ. When you come to know the real condition of man's heart, Christ has no place in it. It is not Christ he loves at all. Christ came, and passed through this world to carry God's love to every one. He came to sinners in their sins, because they needed Him.
Christ comes and shows us what we are.
The law shows us what we ought to be. If the light comes in, the person is convicted, but Christ is there in perfect grace. I was under death, sin, the curse, and wrath. He came under death, sin, the curse, and wrath.
When I come before the judgment-seat of Christ, whom shall I see there? The Man that put away my sins. God would have us happy, happy in a holy walk, happy -with Himself; and in order that I may be happy, He has put away all my sins, and made me white as snow. Then I can walk with God happily.
The glory is in the Person who bore my sins. I like to look at the glory now; every ray of it is the proof that my sins are gone (1 John 3:5). 1JO 3:5I look at it, think of it, delight in it, and then I am changed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). 2CO 3:18My heart has confidence in Him: that is faith, and I follow Him, and see where He is, and get practically like Him.
God has proved His righteousness by taking Christ to His right hand. My sins are not only put away, but I am in Christ, made the righteousness of God in Him. I have sins, but God says: “I have righteousness for you." Don't tell me I can't know it. Why, Christ says I shall “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). JOH 14:20 I believe what Christ says.
Christ is coming, and I believe the moment is hastening on. Supposing He came tonight. Well, I say, “Thank God, His first coming redeemed me. He is coming again to take me to be with Him in the same glory as Himself.”
What we want to learn is the wonderfulness of this love. “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" (1 John 4:16). 1JO 4:16
We shall see face to face Him whose visage was more marred than any man's. He washed me from my sins the first time He came, and He is only waiting to come and take me to Himself. J. N. D.
Who Is to Blame?
LET us suppose a vessel foundering at sea. We know the vessel to be exceedingly rotten, and so leaky that it is filling fast, that it must shortly go down.
On shore the utmost effort is made. The life-boat, with capacity to hold every person on the sinking ship, is launched. The mariners pull alongside the rotten, sinking vessel. The captain of the life-boat begs every person on board immediately to let go the old rotten ship, and trust himself in his hands in the life-boat, with the certainty of being brought safe to shore.
The people on board resolutely refuse the invitation. One says, “The old vessel is not so bad; she only requires painting," etc.
Another says, “Away with both you and your life-boat! We have a carpenter of our own, whose business it is to mend the old ship.
Who do you think is going to leave this fine old ship, and trust to that poor-looking boat?”
The vessel fills, and sinks. And now tell me, if every fool-hardy despiser on board goes down, who is to blame? Plainly themselves.
The life-boat was sent to them, and they refused.
Man is that rotten ship: fallen, ruined by sin, filling fuller and fuller of sins until he sinks into perdition.
Christ Jesus is the life-boat. God so loved this poor, ruined, sinking world that He sent the life-boat, “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). JON 3:16 Did the world believe God? Oh! no, they rejected even such love, “so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3). HEB 2:3 They murdered the Son of God. The death of Jesus was the offering of Himself, the atoning sacrifice for sin. God raised Him from the dead; and the RISEN Christ becomes the life-boat of every soul that trusts in Him (Rom. 4:25). ROM 4:25
But, my reader, may I ask you a home question? Where are you: in the life-boat or in the old ship? Are you in Christ, or trusting to the self-righteousness of old human nature?
ARE YOU ONE OF THE REDEEMED? Can you say that you “have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins "? (Eph. 1:7). EPH 1:7
Or are you still in and of that world which is guilty of rejecting and murdering the Son of God?
Perhaps you do not care for these things.
Are you filling up the measure of your iniquity? You know when the old ship gets full, it sinks; and when your last sin on earth shall be filled up, and you sink into endless perdition, you will remember who is to blame.
But are you trusting to outward forms and ceremonies of religion? Now what good will this outside paint do? The ship is sinking, and if you stay on it, you will go down with the very paint brush in your hand. Oh, my friend! all the baptisms, and sacraments, and ordinances that man can perform will never keep one ruined sinner from sinking into hell!
Woe be to your poor soul if you trust in them.
Do you say, There are so many opinions; how am I to tell who is right?
Whoever points you to Christ, the life-boat, is right; and whoever keeps you in the old ship, is wrong. Do you not see that?
Are you trying, no matter how, to mend the old ship; that is, your fallen human nature, called in Scripture "the flesh"?
Then you may be quite certain, sooner or later, if you continue in that condition, you will, as the old ship, go down. Think where!
Oh, the bottomless pit: and who is to blame?
Oh! give up the vain attempt to mend the old ship. Own yourself a lost, undone, ruined sinner; believe the grace of God in sending you Christ the life-boat; trust Him with all your heart; confess Him with your lips and life.
You cannot be in both. If you are in the old ship, no matter how self-righteous, you are sinking fast: there is not a moment to be lost. It is indeed great presumption for any one in the old ship to say he knows he is safe.
But if you are in Christ, the life-boat, you cannot be too sure. He never did and never will lose one.
CHARLES STANLEY.
Why Are Ye Troubled?
Luke 24:38, 39. LUK 24:38-39
IF living a stranger to Christ, you may well be troubled. The thought of death, and judgment to come, may well give you trouble.
If this is your condition, God grant that your trouble may be greater and greater, until you find rest in Jesus.
This little paper may be put into the hands of a doubting Christian. To such a one, these words of Jesus have peculiar application.
Jesus, alive from the dead, speaks these words, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet.”
What tender love is this! Blessed Jesus!
He had said to them, "Peace be unto you"; and it touched His tender heart that there should be troubled thoughts in their hearts.
How could such deep, sincere love bear to be doubted? He had loved them unto death;
His very body had been on the cross for them;
His very blood had been shed for the remission of their sins; as their Substitute He had died the accursed death of the cross for them, the Just for the unjust. One had denied Him, and all had forsaken Him.
But now God had raised Him from the dead, FOR THEIR JUSTIFICATION. And now the object of His eternal desire was accomplished, redemption was finished. His heart, overflowing with unutterable joy, had found vent in those ever-precious words, “PEACE BE UNTO YOU." How could He then bear a cloud of trouble, or one doubting thought, in the hearts of those He had so LOVED? Oh! it makes my heart melt while I look at Jesus, and hear those divinely sweet words, " Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet.”
My reader, do you believe that that agony and shameful death of Jesus, the spotless Son of God, on the cross, was for your sins; that He was delivered for your offenses; and that, having endured their utmost penalty, God raised Him from the dead for your justification? (Rom. 4:24, 25). ROM 4:24-25 For this is true of every sinner that believeth. Yes, and if you are brought by the Holy Spirit thus to trust in JESUS ALONE, then it is true of you; and these words are written for you. With a heart still filled with joy, Jesus says, “Peace be unto you." Like Peter, you may have denied Him; or, like the rest, you may have forsaken Him; but look at Him, listen to Him; oh! what words of love; yes, love that cannot bear to be doubted; and words to you: " Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?”
How do you answer these words of Jesus?
Do you say, I am such a vile, ungrateful sinner?
He says, "Behold My hands and My feet.”
Now look at them: what do you think about those wounds on the risen body of Jesus? Do they not speak peace to your troubled conscience? “The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin “(1 John 1:7). 1JO 1:7
Oh! yes, my fellow-believer, Jesus feels keenly every doubting thought that arises in our hearts.
Blessed Jesus! Thy work is finished; here our souls rest. Our sins were laid on Thee; they cannot be laid on us. On our account wrath was on Thee; on Thy account it is peace, endless peace, to us.
May my reader hear the words of Jesus, “Go in peace," and doubt no more. He does not say, Look at your faith or your feeling.
He does not say, Look at your sins or your failings. We might look at them in despair.
But He says, “Behold My hands and My feet"; as though He had said, Is it not enough? Could I love you more?
Faith is always self-renouncing; it brings a broken, empty heart to receive and welcome God's gracious gifts. Faith, therefore, gives all the glory to God. Believing in Christ, we come to Him for all, employ Him in all, trust Him through all, look to Him under all, hope in Him to do all, and to Him ascribe the glory of all.
Why? or, It Was for Me.
I WAS recently asked to go and see a poor bedridden man, who was thought to be nearing his end. I found him in a terrible state of bodily suffering; one leg had been, amputated, and the other was slowly rotting away.
He knew his time was short, and he told me he was doing his utmost to trust in the Lord Jesus. He said he believed in Him, and that he was sure He ought to be believed in by every one, but that his difficulty was that he did not and could not feel that he trusted Him sufficiently.
I spoke to him of the Lord's suffering on the cross, of His infinite love and grace, of His sacrifice of Himself, until the poor dear man wept.
Still he repeated again and again, “Ah, I must trust Him more. I want to put all my trust in Him. I don't trust Him enough yet to be quite safe.”
Seeing he was trying to rest on his own faith in Christ, rather than on Christ Himself, I said to him: “Do you know why our Lord was forsaken when on the cross?”
“Oh!" said he," He was not really forsaken; He only thought He was. He could' never have been forsaken; I am sure of that.”
I read him Mark 15:34, MAR 15:34and part of Psa. 22, PSA 22and asked him if it was not a real forsaking.
“Yes," he replied, after thinking some moments, " I now see it was. Those verses have always been a difficulty to me. I knew He had done nothing to be forsaken of God for; and the only explanation I could find was that He only thought Himself forsaken, and was not really so. Still this never satisfied me. I cannot make it out. Can you tell me why He was forsaken on the cross?”
Feeling this was a question to be answered by God, and by God alone, and that he must really go through it with God, I replied “You know Jesus was the Holy One of God; that He knew no sin; that before He was born, the Holy Spirit spoke of Him as' that holy thing which should be born ' of the Virgin; that His whole life down here was not only spotless, but perfectly acceptable to God in every detail; that the voice from heaven said of Him: ' This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased '; and yet He cried on the cross, ' My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? '”
The poor dear man's attention was absorbed.
“Tell me," he said, " oh, do tell me why!
I cannot make it out. It is beyond me altogether.”
It was now late, about 9 p.m., and so, after a few words of prayer to the Lord to show him, I left him, begging him to ask God simply to show him why His beloved Son was forsaken on the cross; and, at the same time, as he could find no cause in Him, to see if there was any cause to be found elsewhere.
The next morning when I went to see him again, I found him calm, and yet filled with wondrous joy.
“Well, C—," I said, "have you found it out yet?”
He did not need telling what the "it” referred to.
“Oh! yes," he said with tears, " I have indeed. The Lord showed it all to me in the night. I could not sleep. I was in no pain, but yet I felt a sort of pain in me until He showed it all to me. I felt I must know' why, and I prayed to Him to tell me, and He did.
It was for ME, for ME! How wonderful it is! Too wonderful almost to speak of; and when I see Him, I shall see Him who was forsaken for ME! What a sight it will be! And it will last forever too!”
“And what about all your trust now?” I asked.
“Oh! don't speak of it," he said, covering his face with his hands. “Now, when I think of Him, and look at Him, I cannot bear to think about myself and my trust. I can never, no never, trust Him enough; and as to loving Him, well; I don't like to call what I feel about Him love,' for His love is so wonderful, so blessed, so everlasting!”
“Then there is nothing left to try for now,” I said.
“Try!" he exclaimed. “No; nothing! I can't try to love Him, now; I can only rest in His love. And, oh; what rest it is! His wonderful, blessed, unchanging love; and I don't deserve the least bit of it. What time and joy I've lost in trying to deserve it! I see it all now; I was trying to deserve His love, and so I was trying to trust Him. But now, blessed be His name, I can rest in His love; rest there forever and forever, in His love! I can think of nothing else now, but Him and His love.”
A few weeks later, this dear man, a pauper, in receipt of parish relief, passed peacefully away from the scene of his sufferings and poverty, to be with Him who had so loved him as to give Himself for him.
His joy, his peace, remained ever the same; the calm, holy joy and peace of the blessed, undeserved, unwavering love of Jesus for him, a poor, vile, hell-deserving sinner! A pauper in receipt of parish relief, and yet the possessor, of the only true riches! richer than the 'wealthiest or most powerful sovereign who has not for himself the simple answer to that wondrous "Why?”
Reader, can you answer for yourself as to why that blessed One was forsaken? God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for sinners, and God always stands by what He has done. He has glorified "that same Jesus” at His own right hand in heaven; and God is about to bring Him again, and to manifest Him in glory in the very place where He was rejected, despised, spat upon, and crucified by man, and where, in the greatness of His love, and His mercy toward man, God forsook Hine on the cross.
“Every eye shall see Him, and they also, which pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Rev. 1:7). REV 1:17
Dear reader, when you see Him, will it be to gaze upon the One who was FORSAKEN FOR. YOU, or will it be with wailing and sorrow?
God says, "Every eye shall see HIM"; the lost as well as the saved; those for whom He was forsaken, as well as those who pierced Him, and those who are now indifferent to Him.
May God in His mercy give you no rest until you too can say, with rich, though poor; happy, though despised; joyful, though suffering C—, "For me; it was for me!”
P. A. H.
God's absolute righteousness against sin, and perfect love to the sinner, are equally shown in Christ's death.
The Wise Man and the Fool
THE Scripture says that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and that He takes the wise in their own craftiness (1 Cor. 3:19). 1CO 3:19
In a country town there lived a half-witted man, who was a butt for the sport of the idle lads there.
“Billy," they would say, "prove if there be a God, if thee can: we know that there is none.”
“Shame on ye, lads," Billy would shout; “shame; ye should know better talk than that. No God; no food, no clothes! One lives up top, I know; yes, He does though.”
One day poor Billy, in common with several bother persons, heard a preacher telling of God's salvation for ruined sinners. After the sermon was over, a young fellow came swaggering up to half-witted Billy saying, ' Well, Billy, I don't believe a word that he says; he's only talking for pay; that's what `those fellows preach for, just to get a living.
`` No God! ‘that’s the religion for me.”
“You'll find out that there's a God when you're dead, though," said Billy in an instant; “you'll find it out when you are dead, won't you? No God, indeed! why, who gave you your work or your bread? No God! ah! you'll find it out when you're dead.”
Billy tried hard to convince the young man; he followed him to his home, and continued his simple reasoning, but to no avail; and at last left him for his own poor little room.
Early on the Monday morning he hastened to the young man's house; the shutters were closed, and the place was still. He went upstairs, and there stood the young man's wife, weeping bitterly. "He is dead, Billy, he is dead, "wept she." He died in the night; he went off to sleep, and never woke again, poor fellow "; and the poor young woman wept again, “He has found out that there is a God now then, mistress, has he not?" said Billy. And the frightened man hurried downstairs into the street, crying, “Yes, he's found out there is a God now he's dead.”
And so he had in all verity; he had discovered that there is an eternity, a place for bad spirits, and a place for good spirits. The solemn, simple truths of heaven and hell the skeptic had found out. Have you learned these things in the light of God's presence, dear friend? I do not ask you whether you have learned them from the traditions of your parents; doubtless you have. Doubtless you “know all about it"; you have heard all this sort of thing; you know it by heart; or are you an avowed infidel? "The fool hath said in his heart, ' No God.’”
Well, be you infidel, or one supposing yourself acquainted with the whole matter, you need salvation, for if you do not come to Jesus as a little child, you will never enter into the kingdom of God. That is a fact, unalterable; Christ has spoken it, and His words will never be changed.
Come as a little child, and all will be well.
You will find pardon and peace; you will be happy; you will have no fear of death, for Christ has conquered him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Come as a simple child; give up opinions; learn of Jesus. Be content to BE saved, since you cannot save yourself. Let the Lord do it all, as you can do nothing. He has died, been buried, and is risen again. All is complete; all that you have to do is to believe in Him, Let alone hard questions of every sort; you are a sinner; one who deserves death, for "the wages of sin is death." See, then, Jesus under the weight, and bearing the penalty, of sin.
See Him dying at Calvary; hear Him cry, “It is finished." The debt is paid. God has accepted the ransom. This is the simple gospel, and it is for you to believe it.
A Word of Peace
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Col. 2:6). COL 2:6
WHEN the heart feels dull, and no progress seems to be made, how good it is to go back as at the first to Christ Himself!
With these thoughts, I happened to call upon a neighbor.
In answer to the ordinary greeting, she exclaimed, “Oh! I am happier in my soul today," thus showing how earnest were her thoughts on this all-important subject.
Her experience was that of numbers of Christians; one day lifted up, the next desponding; and the very brightness of the fitful light making the dark season seem more dense and dreadful. “Peaceful hours once enjoyed," leaving by their memory an" aching void," is not the standard of true Christianity. The truths of the New Testament allow no place for such uncertainty in God's people.
“If I could only be sure I was saved," said Mrs. S.; "yet sometimes I think I really am.
But then I fear again, lest I am only thinking my thoughts, and that it is not the Spirit of God in me.”
“Just think for a moment of your bright seasons, and say what it is that makes you then feel confident.”
“At those times I am thinking of Christ.”
“Then why do you not continue looking at Christ by faith?”
“Oh! I dare not. Suppose I am not real after all?”
“Now, dear friend, just try to call back what it was that gave you your first hope. No doubt it was something peculiar, some special word of God.”
“It was just this: I was almost worn out with sorrow, and as I was getting into my bed I turned round, and seemed to see CHRIST written upon the wall, and looking at that gave me relief.”
“Well, that is good news, indeed; and now let us turn to your doubting moments, the dark hours. Are you not, then, just taking a sponge full of unbelief, and wiping away the letters of that blessed Name, and writing up your own name in its place? Pray read this plain, this simple text: 'As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.' Now how did you receive Christ?”
“By looking at His Name," responded our friend.
“Exactly. 'And,' says the scripture, ' AS ye received, so walk.' You looked as a poor helpless one, as one wearied out with wretched self. When you received Christ it was as your ALL: all Christ, no self. And AS you received Him so you are to walk in Him.
Your walk must be by still looking off self to Him, by still having no confidence in the flesh. Christ is in glory, look to Him.”
“Well, that makes me feel better," said Mrs. S., with a sigh of relief. “But do you really think I should keep loving Christ if I kept looking to Him like this?”
“Oh! ask yourself how do the little children love you. Is it not by calling to mind your love to them? See what this scripture adds: ' Rooted and built up in Him.' I remember a child in whose little garden some seeds were sown, and how do you think she satisfied herself that the seed was alive?”
With a smile, Mrs. S. said, “I dare say she picked the earth from their roots to see if they were really living.”
“Ah! but why smile at the silly child?
Are not you trying to see if your plant has roots? No wonder the little girl's plant never flourished, and that until she lei it alone, it always was a sickly thing. Give up all thoughts of self, and let your faith be in every way ' IN HIM.'”
Let us put these blessed words together, reader:
Receiving,
Walking in,
Rooted and CHRIST
Built up in,
(Col. 2:6, 7). COL 2:6-7
Worshippers or Wailers?
“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 for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen" (Rev. 1:5-7). REV 1:5-7
THE first song that we read of in the Scriptures is in Ex. 15 EXO 15It was sung by the children of Israel to Jehovah when they were out of Egypt and across the Red Sea that is, when they were redeemed, and knew it.
And that song was not about what they had done, it was all about what Jehovah had done.
Listen to it: “The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea." The Lord had done it all, and they celebrate His work in joyful strains of praise.
Now, "divine worship" can never be rendered to God by any but saved people.
Look at the three things that characterize the worshippers in the first half of our scripture at the head of this paper. First, they are loved; secondly, they are washed; and thirdly, they are made kings and priests to God, and they knew it, were enjoying it, and could worship God for it.
This is not a song which we must wait until we get to heaven to sing. It is the song of the redeemed, composed by the Spirit of God to be sung to God the moment we know that we are redeemed, and all along the road to heaven. It is a song, too, that would test all professing Christians, for none are saved, whatever their profession, but those of whom it is true.
Suppose it were possible to read these words (" Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood ") in the hearing of every congregation assembled for religious purposes next Lord's-day, and to challenge all of whom they were true to stand up, how many would answer to the challenge?
Alas! I fear very few; and yet unless what is expressed in the song of the worshippers in Rev. 1 REV 1is true of them, they are not saved.
“Oh!" says somebody, “I am sure I do not love Him enough, and have not done enough, for Him to entitle me to sing such a blessed song as that.”
But, dear friend, if you will examine the song, you will not find one word in it about the worshipper's love or works; it is all about the Lord's love, the Lord's work, and what He has made them to His God and Father.
Formal worshippers, whose worship is characterized by form without power, by routine without reality, may sing about their love and their works. But true worshippers love to forget their little bit of love and work, and delight in remembering and celebrating, in their hymns of praise, their living, loving Lord's love to them and work for them.
Our love to Him, when compared with His love to us, is like a taper before the sun. Yea; our taper has been lighted, if lighted at all, from the cloudless sun, rolling in the meridian splendor of His love to us. And whilst the sun eclipses the taper light, it never puts it out.
Our love to the Lord is like a drop of water in comparison with the ocean. His love is the ocean, shoreless and bottomless; and if we love Him at all, our drop of love has come from the fathomless ocean of His love to us.
“O Love Divine, thou vast abyss,
My sins are swallowed up in Thee!
Covered is my unrighteousness;
From condemnation I am free:
While Jesus' blood, through earth and skies,
Mercy! free, boundless mercy! cries.”
Come on, dear soul, thou who art satisfied with Christ's love to thee, but rightly dissatisfied with thy love to Him, and give His heart joy by singing in satisfied strains of His everlasting love to thee!
Remember He loves first, loves most, and loves forever. If He loves you at all, He loves you with all His heart, and can never love you more than He does, and will never love you less. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end "(John 13:1). JOH 13:1"The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20.) GAL 2:20 " Unto Him that loveth us... be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
A word upon the second part of our song:
“And washed us from our sins in His own blood." What part had we in the cross except the sins that brought Jesus there? Who ever heard of a sheep washing itself? The Saviour-shepherd is the One who washes us; it is from our sins He washes us, arid it is in His own blood that He does it. But He does it all.
The doctrine that the forgiveness of sins cannot be known on earth is nowhere taught in the Holy Scriptures. The saints at Ephesus knew it, and could sing, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7). EPH 1:7And in our song that we are looking at, the "us" means all the forgiven people in this world, and the Lord expects such to praise Him, this side the glory, for having washed them from their sins in His own blood.
As to the third part of our song, it distinctly states that we are made kings and priests unto God; that is, we are actually brought to God now through Christ, in Christ, and as Christ is in His presence, and are made meet to offer worship to God and our Father.
Peter, speaking by the Holy Ghost, says “Ye, also, as lively [or living] stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to, God by Jesus Christ " (1 Peter 2:5). 1PE 2:5 And this is true of all believers, all saved persons, Paul, speaking by the same Holy Ghost, in his exhortation to this holy priesthood, says “By Him [that is, Christ] let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name " (Heb. 13:15). HEB 13:15
God is the object of worship; Christ is the food and material for worship; the Holy Ghost in the believer is the power of worship; the holiest of all, by virtue of the blood of Jesus, is the place of worship, and all saved persons are the holy, worshipping priesthood, and one of the songs that they sing is the song we have been meditating upon.
Are you one of the worshippers? He who came once to die is coming back again soon for His loved, blood-washed, worshipping people. Would you be translated to glory if He were to come while you are reading this?
If you are not washed from your sins in His own most precious blood, you would be left, and would find your place among the circle of wailers mentioned in the 7th verse of our chapter, whose wail set up on earth will merge into the everlasting wail of the lake of fire.
Oh, where will you spend your ETERNITY?
Among THE WORSHIPPERS or THE WAILERS?
H. M. H.