MY DEAR C—,
It is all very sad about poor N—, a very deep trouble indeed; and I feel that only God can possibly set it right. Had He not intervened in my case I might have been a great deal worse.
Not that in myself I am a bit better—God forbid the thought!—but that I believe that it was just for those very sins that were laying so firm a hold upon me that Jesus died, suffering "the just for the unjust that H e might bring us to God." What we rebel so utterly against is the idea that we cannot please God, yet He has said that "without faith it is impossible to please" Him, and that the only faith that avails is to believe in the crucified Saviour, the risen Lord.
Strange how good man imagines himself to be! I have had a man, who had been convicted eighty-one times of drunkenness and assault, upon his knees beside me for nearly half-an-hour upon two occasions, yet his one phrase was, "It's only the drink, sir!" Do what I could to convict him of sin, using scripture after scripture, it was no good. He was no worse than his fellows! No straighter man than he when free from liquor I might ask Mr. P. or Mr. G. as to his character as to his promptness in paying the rent I No need of a redemption-work for him!
Of course, it may be urged that many respectable and excellent members of society do not believe and are none the less respectable for that. Absolutely true. But it was not for such that Jesus came. He came "to seek and to save that which was LOST," and until these respectable members of society realize that they come under this category—there's the rub—there is no salvation for them. A hard saying? Of course it is! But God says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
You and I, dear old C—, are not going along this way. For us the way of no self, the way of Christ, and the life of Christ alone. May it be so for poor N. God in mercy grant it soon for Christ's sake.
L.