As I was returning from a stroll in the country, enjoying the quiet beauty of the scenery, I met an aged man, who trudged wearily along the dusty road, leaning upon his stick. Beside him jogged along his old donkey, drawing a roughly-made cart. A picturesque group they were, as they came slowly up the hill where the lengthening shadows were falling, and as they drew nearer, I was struck by the look of peace which the face of the old man wore, tired and worn though he was. I accosted him with a friendly “good evening,” and he bade “Betsy,” his donkey, stop, while he courteously answered the few questions which I asked about the surrounding country. His speech was as cheerful as his face. At length I said,
“Well, I suppose you have not many more times to travel along this dusty road; the end must be drawing near?”
“Yes,” he replied, “very near; but it’ll end in the glory.”
“Glory!” said I; “with whom?”
“Glory with Christ, young man glory with Christ.”
“It seems very strange,” I said, “that you should speak so confidently of glory. Is it possible to be so sure of such a wonderful thing?”
Advancing a step, he laid his hand upon my shoulder, and exclaimed,
“Young man, none of those new notions for me, for I’ve got hold of Christ. I get up in the morning thinking about Christ; all day long I feel full of Christ; and when I go to bed at night, I lay and think about Christ.”
His face beamed with joy, as, erect and firm, he rang out his gloriously certain confession of faith. The assurance that I was one with him in his simple faith, and one with him in Christ, drew from him a hearty “Thank God.”
How quick the man was to shelter himself behind Christ at the faintest suspicion of a “new notion.” What a shelter! What a place of safety!
New and strange notions are indeed abroad. Are we equally ready to present Christ as the answer to all? Are our hearts thus occupied with Him?
I would say to every one who may read this paper, Are you living in the happy confidence of the end for you being “glory with Christ?”
“The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1 Peter 5:1010But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:10)).