IN a dingy dismal garret, on a bed in perfect keeping with the apartment, lay a boy of tender years. His parents had to go out to their work, and so poor paralyzed Jamie had to be left alone every day. And there he lay helpless, with his scanty dinner beside him on the bed, alone, ―yet not alone, for light had entered that dark dwelling, and irradiated the yet darker heart of poor Jamie. Oh, the wonders of the grace of God! It can reach the most out-of-the-way places, and give peace to the saddest heart, and so this poor paralytic had peace, for he had Christ. The door opened, and one of the neighbors came in, as was her occasional wont, to render him what assistance she could. She knew as little as Jamie did, but they both knew Christ, so in simple language they spake together of Him. “Jamie,” said the visitor, “d’ye jist gang to Jesus when ye’re lyin’ there alone?” “Oh, Annie woman,” was the reply, “I hinna ony Wier gait t’ gang.”
But what a blessing it was for Jamie that he had that “gait te gang.” The wealthy, educated, and great, were they paralyzed, could doubtless find many sources of amusement, and many friends to sympathize with them in their affliction; but take away the consolation of Christ from Jamie, and what had he left? And yet there are not a few professedly philanthropic and highly educated men, who are doing their utmost, with tongue and pen, to deprive him, and all such as him, of that consolation.
The “gait”―i.e., the way―is there, whether they believe it or not; but oh! how hard-hearted it seems to try to deprive your poor Jamies and Annies of the comfort of knowing it. I imagine Jamie, lying on his bed of languishing and pain, listening eagerly to the slowly advancing footsteps of Annie as she toils up the creaking stair to do some kindly office, and to tell him in simple language “the old, old story of Jesus and His love.” What an amount of moral pathos there is in such a spectacle, and what an act of cruelty it would be to deprive Jamie of the consolation of hearing again and again, and yet again, that tale which never grows old, and Annie of the happiness of telling it for the thousand and first time!
Slightly, but materially, altering a couplet that made some noise many years ago, I say, and I say it emphatically,
“Let ships and commerce, laws and learning die,
But give me still that hope that is on high.”
“The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal.” The rags, the wretchedness, the poverty, the dirt, the poor diet of Jamie, were all temporal, and will pass away like a horrible dream; but the bright and glorious home in heaven, the fellowship in praise of saints and angels, the presence of God and of the Lamb, the joy unspeakable and full of glory, when death will have passed away, and there will be no more sorrow nor sighing nor pain, oh! they are all eternal, and so will continue through the ages of ages. “There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” I would not give up the prospect of that blissful and eternal rest for all the wealth of the Indies, for all the gold of Australia and California, for all the kingdoms of the world and the glories of them.
“Unto the poor the gospel is preached.” What a blessed thing to stand beside Jamie’s lowly bed and to remind him that his Redeemer liveth, and that in the latter day He will stand upon the earth, and he, Jamie, will see Him. Wouldn’t it lighten up his wee wizened face, and cause it to wrinkle into smiles? Wouldn’t it glorify his garret? But suppose Jamie had no faith in the glad tidings; suppose that one of these learned men of whom I spake had (not a very likely circumstance) found his way into his garret, and had taken pains to convince him that the whole story of the love of God in sending His Son to die for sinners was a delusion; suppose Jamie had believed him instead of God, even as Eve believed Satan,— of what avail would it have been to endeavor to give him the consolations of the gospel? Alas, his hope and his happiness would have been gone. Where could he turn to? To the world? Poverty and paralysis had shut him out from every worldly hope; and now that he had given up Christ, he “had nae ither gait to gang.” Well might he exclaim, in the words of the man of Uz regarding all such teachers, “Miserable comforters are ye all.”
“I hinny ony ither gait t’ gang,” which being interpreted means, “I have nowhere else to go.” Do not these touchingly simple words put one in mind of the words of Simon Peter to the Lord, when He said to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” “Lord,” said Peter, “to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” The paralytic boy and the apostle were in complete accord. Jamie, in his lonely garret, had “nae ither gait t’ gang,” if he wanted eternal life and peace of heart, except to Jesus. He was shut up to Jesus. To him it was “Jesus only.” Take away Jesus, and everything became a blank. To him the world, with all its glitter, with all its bustling activities, was nothing; his world was limited to a dismal, dingy, lonely garret, and a crust, with a pauper’s grave for an outlet, into which modern “advanced thought,” and its self-satisfied teachers, would bid him take a leap in the dark forsooth!
It was much the same with the energetic apostle.
It is true he might have returned to the Lake of Galilee and his fishing-boat, but if he wanted “the words of eternal life,” he could only find them by remaining with Him who had them. And where can you or I, dear reader, find them? Have they changed places since the days of the Galilean fisherman? Jesus Himself has indeed done so, for instead of frequenting the shores of the Lake of Galilee He is now seated at the right hand of God, but has He on that account ceased to be “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? On the contrary, His now exalted position affords the most decisive proof that He is so. Then to whom can you go but to Him, if you desire to reach the Father’s house? There is none other name given among men whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus. Pay no regard then to the reasonings of men without faith, however learned they may be. Peter the illiterate fisherman of Galilee, and Jamie the paralytic laddie, both of whom knew Christ, ―and to know Him is life eternal (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)), ―are more to be relied upon in such a matter than all the learned unbelievers that ever set themselves against the truth of God.
H. M.
THE truth is the exact description of what is. God is. Christ is the truth. He, and He only, therefore, can reveal God. Hence to avoid Him, is to remain ever in ignorance of God.
W. T. P. W.