THE true nature of the Scriptures and of man, is markedly seen when the two are brought in contact with each other.
The light of the one, and the blindness of the other, become thus manifested in a way which is often striking. An incident, among many, brings this thought to my mind. One very dear to me by the ties of nature, had been a very earnest professing Christian for many years. She had read and prayed with her children, and toiled and struggled in her spirit for them, that they might be among the company of the blessed in heaven, and on earth escape the corruption that is in the world.
Like Apollos of old, however, she knew only the baptism of John. She spoke much of repentance and its goodly fruits, and kept looking forward for something better. Christ’s sufferings and death moved her to tears, and in his resurrection she believed, but she knew not what those two wonderful events implied. They were spokes in the great wheel of the Christian religion, ―not yet the center and foundation and seal of everything.
Her children grew up like her, for she was true and earnest, and children grow up according to the atmosphere they live in, rather than after a creed they may hear. As they grew up, and got in contact with the world, they shrank from it. They felt God―the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ―was not the one the world worshipped, and the fear this produced only increased the need in their souls. They cried to God, and He heard their cry. Like honest Apollos, He brought them in contact with Aquila and Priscilla, who expounded unto them the way of God more perfectly.
They saw that the death of Jesus was the full payment for all their sins in a lump; that while in death, He was there for us, under the judgment of God against us because of our sin; and that His resurrection, was His release from under that judgment, and therefore our release. Thus the truth became known to them, and it set them free. It was out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of bondage into the liberty of the children of God. Living realities for heart and soul now sprang up on every side, from what before was little more than sacred history. It was a time of feasting, such as utterly beggars all the feasting the world had ever offered them.
Who could now be desired at this blessed board like the beloved mother? Not one on earth! Neither was the throne of grace going to be let alone till she was there. And she is there! Let infidels say, There is no God. God heard and answered these children’s prayer. Let them “seek after truth” all their days, without ever finding it! All these have found it, and are proving day by day what it claims for itself.
But to return to my incident. One of the sons had returned home at the time of these circumstances. Accidentally he noticed a New Testament which belonged to his mother, and which she had used for several years. He was struck to find, on opening it, that it showed much more sign of usage in some parts than in others. The Epistle to the Romans especially so. The margins were entirely gone, and the pages which had from the third to the eighth chapters scarcely held together.
“Mother,” he said, “how is it you could have read these Scriptures so as to wear out the book thus, and yet not know the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works? How could you go on still without the certainty of your salvation, after reading such a passage as this, ‘who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification’?”
“My son,” she said, “I cannot understand it. There was like a veil over the eyes of my soul. I felt there was there something I wanted, some wonderful treasure, but I could not see. I was blind. But now I see; and there, in that word, is the light bright as noonday.”
THE Gospel is a declaration, not of God’s decrees, but of God’s heart.