I’M sorry to say a little of that goes a long way with me.” These words were uttered by a doctor who was attending a Christian friend of the writers. Stopping to chat with the nurse on his way out, their conversation turned to the low price of bread, and he rather suddenly exclaimed, “Let me see, doesn’t it say, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone?’” His patient finished quoting the scripture, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). He was silent a moment, then with a touch of sadness in his voice, repeating the words already quoted, he hastily left the house.
About a fortnight after this he was suddenly taken dangerously ill, and after six days’ illness he passed out of this scene.
It is possible, though not very probable, that he turned to the Saviour on his deathbed; for when the brain is weak, and the body racked with pain, there is little if any ability to think of eternal things, even though there may be the desire.
Sincere regret was felt by most if not all of his patients when they heard of his death, for he was kind and gentle always; but his naturally amiable disposition would not fit him for the presence of God. “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), said the Lord to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a master in Israel, and a Pharisee, one who was looked up to no doubt as a “good man.” It was imperative that he should be born again, and every one, to be able to stand unabashed in the presence of Him who is “light” (1 John 1:5), must believe in Him who is the “true light” (John 1:9). He said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). “While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:36).
“I’m sorry to say a little of that goes a long way with me.” What was that? It must have been the scripture. How sad to own that he was satisfied with “a little” of that Word which is so precious to the believer in the Lord Jesus, and which is as necessary for the soul as bread is for the body. How different was the speech of Mr. B― to that of Job, who said, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).
The prophet Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16). And the Psalmist could say, “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver;” and again, “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart” (Psalm 119:72, 111).
Dear reader, I ask you to be warned by the sad end of this young doctor. In the last month of 1886 he was laid in the grave, there either to wait till death and the grave deliver up the dead which are in them, to stand before “the great white throne,” and hear the awful sentence “depart from me,” and finally to be consigned to the “lake of fire,” the place “prepared for the devil and his angels;” or, to awake in response to the shout of the Captain of Salvation (calling His loved ones to Him), “the voice of the archangel and the trump of God” (1 Thess. 4:16).
Unsaved reader, again I beg you to be warned. You are in imminent danger; you may be cut off even more suddenly than the one of whom I have been writing. Oh, search that precious book the Word of God; it is full of Christ—the only Saviour—from Genesis to Revelation. Faith in Christ is sure salvation to you, and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath, everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Believe in Him, and you will delight to read His Word. A little of it will not go a long way with you when you know Him who is the theme of the book; you will find it to be more precious the more you study it.
“He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Oh! come, believe, and be satisfied with the “Bread of Life.” If you once taste, you will never again hunger for the worldling’s portion; real and lasting satisfaction is to be found only in Christ.
Beloved Christian reader, are you as a child of God, “holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:16). The heart of the apostle Paul was filled with joy and thanksgiving by the walk of the Thessalonian saints. He said, “What thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?”
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
They “received the word in, much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost;” and then from them “sounded out the word of the Lord” (1 Thess. 1:6, 8). How is it with you? E. L. C.