I NEVER see the words on a five-pound Bank of England note, “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five pounds,” without thinking of the words, “Whosoever among you that feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent” (Acts 13:26).
Some years ago a Bank of Scotland one-pound note was passing up and down Scotland through the hands of rich and poor, old and young. On the front were the words, “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of one pound;” on the back were the following lines: —
“This piece of paper in your hand
Declares to you that on demand
You twenty shillings shall receive:
This simple promise you believe,
It sets your mind as much at rest
As if the silver you possessed.
So Christ who died, but now doth live
Doth unto you this promise give,
That if you on His name believe
You shall eternal life receive.
Upon the note you calmly rest,
Which is the safest, or the best?
The bank may break, Heaven never can,
‘Tis safer trusting God than man.”
The lines may be more doggerel than poetry, but they contain simple but blessed truth. Have you yet received the simple gospel? “To YOU is the word of this salvation sent,” yes, addressed to you, whosoever you are, God’s salvation is freely offered TO YOU. Whoever the person may be who presents the note over the Bank counter, he receives the money, so whoever simply presents his claim as a sinner, the demand of faith is instantly met by the gift of salvation. How simple for us, yet Christ had to win salvation for us by His death on Calvary’s cross.
Some years ago a poor woman in Glasgow bought a penny stamp, and presented a one-pound note in payment. She was the bearer, and she expected to get the penny stamp and 19s. 11d. change.
To her surprise and distress she could not even get a penny stamp with it, much less twenty shillings. She had worked hard for it, but the Bank had failed, and the promise to pay on its face was worthless. It professed to be worth a pound and was not worth a penny.
Thank God, His promise can never fail. The Bank of Heaven can never break. There is mercy for you. No applicant is refused. “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out,” are the words of the Son of God.
About the year 1820 a cashier of a Liverpool firm was counting a bundle of Bank of England notes just received from abroad. He noticed one of them had a number of red marks, which puzzled him. A close examination showed these marks were words as follows: — “Should this note fall into the hands of John Dean, of Longhill, near Carlisle, let him hereby know that his brother is languishing a prisoner in the hands of the Dey of Algiers.”
This message was sent to John Dean, the matter was brought before the Government, and after a heavy ransom had been paid, the prisoner was released after an imprisonment of eleven years. He only lived one year subsequently, so harshly had he been treated.
After long years of weary waiting he had seized a slender chance. A Bank note had strangely enough come his way, and he traced this appeal with the point of a nail in blood drawn from his arm. Once the appeal came to the right quarters, no time was lost in effecting his release.
Oh! sinner, will you not sue for release? You are a prisoner in the hands of Satan. Christ came to preach “deliverance to the captives.” John Dean seized a strange and slender hope. You have but to cry to the Lord, and He will hear instantly. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Surely you deserve to perish in your sins, if you are so careless as not to avail yourself of the way of escape, of salvation, of forgiveness of sins. Present your claim on God in faith — even the claim of a needy sinner — and you will receive salvation.
W. R.