Messenger of Peace: Volume 4 (1885)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; for by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”―Heb. 11:1-7.

WE have, dear reader, in the history of the three men whose names are brought into prominence before us in this Scripture, three points that I wish to bring before you. They are full of blessing if we understand them. They come in the right order, too, in the history of the soul by the spirit of God. They are―(1) How can we approach God? (2) How can we walk with God? and (3) How can we be faithful to God, and give a witness for Him?

Mark, first of all, there was faith in each of these cases. Now what is faith? In verse 1 it says, ― “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The essence of faith is this, ―that I experience nothing, feel nothing. Faith sees nothing by the natural eye; faith is believing, confiding, and trusting in the word of another. It deals with unseen realities.

How, then, can we approach God? You do not want always to be afar off from God, always at a distance from Him? Abel shows how we can approach Him. Turn to Genesis, where we get the history; in Hebrews we have the Divine comment on it. Genesis is well named the seed-plot of the Bible, for we get all the cardinal truths there. In chapter 3 we get a guilty couple turned out of Eden, through the woman’s folly and wickedness in parleying with the devil, and Adam’s guilt in yielding to her. Do you think God can make light of sin? No, my friend. The devil put into the woman’s heart the thought, “You can do a little bit better for yourself than God is doing for you.” And you have the same thought; for like mother, like daughter―like parent, like child.

The fruit is taken―they sin―and then they put the trees of the garden between them and God; for nothing makes a man afraid like sin. Man is the only animal that fears death. Did you ever see a dog fear death? or a horse? Never. An uneasy conscience makes a man afraid to die. Do not forget, my friend, that you come of a fallen stock. You are a fallen sinner, and have committed sins more or less, and you are the child of a fallen man. You may not be such an open sinner as others, but you have sinned. You are a hereditary sinner and you have personally sinned. Now, then, how are you to get back to God?

In process of time Cain and Abel are born. They are remarkable types of two classes of men at this moment. There are two families in the world, Cain’s and Abel’s. God forbid that you should be of Cain’s family, or that it should be true of you, “They have gone in the way of Cain” (Jude 2).

We read in Genesis 4 that “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”

What did Cain bring? I much doubt if any fruit or flower show ever has seen such fruit as Cain brought. The ground brought forth plentifully in those days. How he watered these flowers, and that fruit, and watched and tended them. He was “a tiller of the ground.” His eye was on the ground; he was occupied with that which God had cursed. God had said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” Thus Cain draws near to God with what many a sinner is seeking to present―the fruit of his own labor. It had cost him a good deal, no doubt, ―he had toiled much, had risen early, and sat late, ―but it was a bloodless sacrifice. All these fruits spoke of Cain’s work. It was all Cain, ―Cain did this, and Cain did that, ―and God refused him, “He had not respect” to his offering. Cain had ignored the solemn fact that the ground was cursed for man’s sake, and on account of man’s sin and fall.

How could Abel know to bring his sacrifice? “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Faith is the reception of a Divine testimony. God, before He turned Adam and Eve out of the garden, had said, “I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” And Adam believed His word, and called his wife’s name Eve―i.e., the mother of all living―when as yet there was no child born. They saw there was a coming Deliverer, and faith laid hold of it What is the next thing? “Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Therefore, though nothing is recorded as having been said to explain this symbol, there was a quiet testimony to their hearts whenever they looked on these coats. How different from the aprons of fig-leaves which they had made for themselves! What a contrast between that covering full of their own stitches, and in which God had not put one stitch, and this which they had not touched, but which God had made! What a difference between man’s coat and God’s! Doubtless they told these things to their children; but Cain did not believe, whereas Abel did, and he brought the thing which told of death, feeling sure he could draw near to God through the death of another, not on the ground of what he had done. “Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering” (ver. 4).

To me this is peculiarly sweet. Not only to the offering, but to the offerer God had respect. If you put Christ―the true Lamb of God, who has given His life for us―between your soul and God, you will get the same witness as Abel. Abel says, I am guilty, and the only door of escape is this, the death of another, “by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.” He was as guilty as Cain, but the one draws near on the ground of his own doings, and the other on that of another’s merit. Which are you doing? Are you in the way of Cain? “Oh,” you say, “I have been religious; I have prayed and I have done charitable deeds.” Yes, you begin everything with I. It is all I, I. Do you think God will accept you? Oh, poor deluded soul, may God open your eyes!

How different from Abel! I ask him, “How did you draw near to God?” “Oh!” he replies, “there was a lamb, and I brought him.” “But what did you do Abel?” “I did nothing.” “Had you no good feelings, no good thoughts?” “No, none. I rested on the lamb, and God testified of my gifts.” God let him know that He accepted him. Now, beloved reader, if we seek to draw near to Him who hates sin, who is inviolable in all His judgments, is there anything by which we can come, which we can offer? Indeed there is. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” You do not need to go and seek for a sacrifice, God has provided one, and the deep love of Christ’s heart led Him to the cross. God, who provided the victim, knows the value of His sacrifice, and He has raised Him to His own right hand, and now He gives to the believer who approaches Him through Christ, the same testimony that Abel got. I cannot understand the deep folly of men and women who talk of mending their lives, &c. It is just “the way of Cain.” I have heard of a dissolute drunkard who began to reform his life, and prayed so much per diem, and read the Scriptures for seven years; but at the end of the seven years, he found he was the same as at the beginning. He then turned back to drink, and died and was damned. Oh, turn to Christ, give up your own righteousnesses, they are only filthy rags. Do you think that if you were summoned into Her Majesty’s presence, you would go in filthy rags? No, you would get court apparel. God says of us, “we all do fade as a leaf (and how quickly they fall till all are gone, after having been green for two or three months), and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” You must get on the heavenly court apparel―Christ.

But “Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell.” The worker of today gets wroth too when he hears that he is rejected; and, dear reader, if finding yourself and your fancied good works all rejected, you are angry, you are not the first. God is very pitiful, and says, “Why art thou wroth?” How often I have seen the countenances of self-righteous sinners fall when they see they cannot come to God in their own way! You say, perhaps, that you have been striving and struggling for years, and is all to go for nothing? Yes, look at Paul; he says in Phil 3:9, “Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,” and which every believer has. “Of him,” speaking of God, “are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). That is the believer’s righteousness. God witnessed of Abel that he was righteous, and He will so testify to you if you rest only on Christ, because Christ is made unto you righteousness.

Is it not simple? Oh, how simple! “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The moment you flee to Jesus and trust in Him, you are accepted in Him. The little hymn says―

“By faith I lay my hand

On that dear head of Thin;

While as a penitent I stand,

And there confess my sin.

Believing I rejoice

To see the curse remove;

And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing redeeming love.”

As Abel heard from God that he was righteous, so the believer now has the consciousness that he is accepted too. Abel has been long gone, but still he says, “Sinner, take care you do not draw near to God on any other ground but that of the merits and death of another; and if you do this, understand distinctly that you will be accepted.” The Lord likes us to walk in the full knowledge of our acceptance.

Enoch brings out how to walk with God. I believe he knew he was not going to die, which is the common lot of rap. He had this testimony that he was morally acceptable to God. Cain was the rejected man, Abel the accepted man, Enoch the acceptable man—he walked with God. You know how to gauge your friends—they are not your friends who only say nice words to you, and make nice presents; but those who like your company are your friends.

Enoch prophesied, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all,” &c. (Jude 14).’ The Lord is coming for that purpose judgment; but Enoch knew he should not die, the Lord was going to take him up; and that is the hope of the Christian. I don’t say I shall not die, but that I need not die. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” True, but go on. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.” That is where the believing soul rests. If Christ died for me, then I do not need to die, nothing can be simpler. Then, you say, you do not look for death? No. “Unto them that look for him shall he appear.” He takes us right out of this scene. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” How we ought to walk and watch and look for Him! A Christian lady once said to me, “What is the harm of going to the theater?” I had not been speaking of theaters, but I said, “Would you like the Lord to come while you were there, and catch you up to glory from the stall of a theater?” “Oh, dear, no,” she answered. “I never thought of that before. I am very glad you spoke to me of it.” The Christian feels the incongruity of such things.

Enoch walked with God; “before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God,” even as Abel knew he was accepted by Him. Can we know this in this world? Certainly. Jesus when here upon earth heard the Father say, “Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased;” and we are constantly told in Scripture how to please God, and when we do this He loves to testify to His children of His delight in them and their ways. This Enoch had, and so may you and I.

I used to think that Enoch was a kind of hermit, that he lived by himself away from other men in order to lead this devoted life; but I find that though he walked with God for three hundred years, he was the father of a family, and in consequence had to bear all its cares and worries. “Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah; and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” How blessed. No earthly cares hindered his walking with God. May we do the same.

Noah lets the world know that judgment is coming, but they only disregard him. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” I quite admit that his action seemed folly in the world’s eye. Who would have thought of building a huge shit hundreds of miles from the water? No one but a man of faith. Who flees to Christ from the coming judgment? The man of faith. Unbelief scoffs, or speculates, or at best procrastinates, and eventually is judged, as were all who were not in Noah’s company. Noah witnesses for God towards the world He got no converts that we know of. That only deepens the guilt of those who heard his testimony Are you not converted, reader? Why? Have you never heard the Gospel? Surely. You have just been reading it. Beware, lest judgment overtake. How solemn to go down to hell with a Gospel sermon just ringing in your ears, or a Gospel paper just dropping from your fingers. Yet so would it be if you died in your sins as you read this. Remember God always warns before He judges, and you have been warned.

For myself I am quite unconcerned if I be counted a fool by the world, so long as I can get at them with God’s testimony. Dear reader, may you in future know the blessedness of these three things: 1St, What it is to be accepted by God; 2d, What it is to be acceptable to him; and 3d, What it is to maintain a steady witness and testimony for God, you will then be a follower of Abel, Enoch, and Noah.

W. T. P. W.

Are You Lost?

Traveling in the train the other day, I overheard one of my fellow-passengers telling another that the English nation is the lost ten tribes.

If the reader will turn to 2 Kings 7., he will find the account of the ten tribes being carried into captivity. From that captivity they have never returned.

In Jeremiah 31 we read of their restoration to their own land. “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock” (ver. 10); and, “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither” (ver. 8). Again, in Jeremiah 32:42: “Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.” It is manifest this has never yet been fulfilled. There was a partial restoration of Judah and Benjamin, as detailed in Ezra and Nehemiah; but the ten tribes have never been restored.

We learn from this passage in Jeremiah they will be brought back from the north country, which would be Turkey in Asia, or Russia, and from the coasts of the earth. From Amos 9:9 we find they were to be sifted among all nations, like corn in a sieve. Hence to localize the position at present of the ten tribes is manifestly non-scriptural.

We are living now in the times of the Gentiles. They began when the supreme power was given to Nebuchadnezzar, in Jeremiah 27:1-11; and the supremacy is still held by the Gentiles.

If it were true (what is averred by some) that the English nation is the lost ten tribes, ―and their present power and supremacy pointed to as a proof of this, ―then Jerusalem would no longer be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, for the times of the Gentiles would be ended (Luke 21:24).

While the traveler was talking of the supposed discovery of the lost tribes, I could not help wondering had he ever discovered he was a lost sinner. Have you? Are you lost? I mean, if you died this moment would you drop into hell? Do you deserve to go there? Do you know that both by nature and practice you are unfit for heaven? In fact, you are lost, and you need salvation.

Besides this, you need to be found, as anything lost needs to be. Hence the Lord Jesus says, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Now think of that. He came to seek you; He came to seek the lost. We had wandered away from God, and although He told us to seek Him, as in Isaiah 55:6, we had never done so. It is written, “There is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11).

What love, then, on His part to become the seeker; and in Luke 15 we read of His joy when He finds the sheep He had lost. But more than this, He came to save you. He came to save the lost. How could He save lost sinners? Only by taking their place, by bearing the judgment and wrath due to you and me (who believe on Him) in His own body on the tree. And so I can say He bore my sins, He paid my debt, and He bore too the judgment due to me because of my nature (Rom. 8:3). So I am no longer lost; I am saved. I now stand in Christ (who has passed through the judgment) before God. Reader, can you too say you are saved? or, Are you lost?

Are You Satisfied with Jesus?

HAVE you ever been conscious of a want within, of an undefinable dissatisfaction with yourself, your mode of life, your surroundings? You cannot reasonably account for this aching void, for you have “got on in the world.” You are one whom many might be disposed to envy; loving relatives are around you; the world smiles on you; all is apparently going on really well with you; but the secret of your heart is this, that you are not satisfied. Let me say to such an one, There is no satisfaction apart from Jesus.

God has ordained it so, in His infinite love, that our hearts should feel this want. He means us to feel it, for it is His way of drawing us to find our everlasting satisfaction in that which is His, even Jesus.

It may be that this paper may meet the eye of one who has come to Jesus about the question of his sins, who trusts His precious blood alone for remission of these, who has not a doubt as to God’s acceptance of him in Christ. To you let me put the soul-stirring question, Are you satisfied with Jesus?

Is it rest you are seeking in this weary world? Hear, then, the voice of Jesus saying to you, “Come unto me... and I will give you rest.”

Is it peace of heart you need? “He is our peace.”

Have you a craving after the intellectual things of this world, and cannot bear to leave them? Jesus is the very One for you, for “in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Maybe you are in difficulties; you know not which way to turn; your path seems hedged up. Look to Jesus. He says, “I am the way.” Do you feel your need of an unchanging and unchangeable friend? Jesus is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Oh! if you have Jesus for your Saviour, do give Him your whole heart, and yours will be an ever increasing satisfaction, ―a bliss begun on earth, to be perfected in the presence of Him in whom “all fullness dwells.” Be satisfied with Jesus.

To such as know Him not as Saviour I would say, You are of all men most miserable. Unsaved sinner, consider. The wrath of God abides on you at the present moment, and you have nothing to look forward to but the blackness of darkness forever. How awful is your doom!

E. J. C.

Auld John; or, Grace and Debt.

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”―Rom. 4:4, 5.

THIS lovely and striking scripture was forcibly impressed on my mind, as well as illustrated, a few weeks ago, when calling on an old man who had been for a few weeks under my care, for a malady which, sooner or later, I saw must close his earthly history. I had not seen him for a few days, and on inquiring how he was, he replied― “Weel, doctor, I dinna ken muckle odds. Onyway, I’m nae better, an’ to tell the truth, I’m no making’ muckle o’t.”

John had been a steady hard-working man all his days; had risen to be foreman in the factory where nearly all his life had been spent, and had so gained the esteem and respect of his employer, that for some years, in view of his manifest feebleness and advanced age―nearly seventy―he had given him to understand that his presence or absence at the works was to be a matter of his own choice, his good weekly wage continuing in either case.

As he reclined in his easy-chair, it did not appear to me that his death was near at hand; but his simple confession of an unimproved condition gave me the opportunity I had long wished for of a little quiet talk with him as to his spirits al condition; so to his reply I rejoined, “Do you mean that you don’t think you’ll get better?”

“Weel, I’ve jist ta’en that thocht. Gin I could get to the country, maybe ‘twad set me up a bittie; but ye ken my legs are that poor less the noo I canna gang ava.”

“So I am sorry to see, John; but now tell me, suppose you don’t get better, do you feel sure you’ll ‘gang’ to the heavenly, country? In other words, are you fit to die?”

“‘Deed I’m no se sure aboot that; tho’ I think aboot it whiles.”

“What are you thinking, and how do you expect to get there? Have you been a sinner?”

“Ay, that ha’e I, an’ a muckle yin te.”

“Well, how do you suppose a sinner, and a great one, too, can get to heaven? There is no sin allowed in there, and yet sinners get there?”

“I fancy I’ll jist ha’e to work, an’ de the best I can; the’ I’m feart my time’s short; an’ I haena dune eneuch.”

“Oh, there is no doubt about your not having done enough. If that’s the road you’re on, John, it does not lead to heaven, but to hell.”

“God forbid I should gang there doctor; but suely yin maim work to get to heaven? We canna hope to get to you huffy place withoot wording for’t’?”

“But what eau the sinner do but sin, John?

The Word of God says, ‘We are all as an, unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf’ (Ise. 65:6). Now, if our best doings are as ‘filthy rage’ in God’s sight, how can that help us, or clear away the many sins His all-seeing eye discerns? Depend upon it, my dear fellow, you are upon the wrong tack entirely. For many a long day, I confess, I was on it myself, till I learned that, 1St I could not do anything; 2nd, that God did not want me to do anything; and 3rd that Christ had done everything needed for my salvation when He suffered on the cross, bearing my sins, and God’s judgment of them, and cried ‘IT IS FINISHED,’ before He laid down His life in atonement. Now, if God wanted you and me to do something more for our own salvation, that would be to ignore the value and efficacy of Christ’s finished work. The Gospel is this, that God loves us, Christ died for us, and His blood was shed to wash away our sins, and the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven to tell us this good news, and lead our hearts to trust simply in Jesus and His finished work.”

“But ye ken I’ve been sic a sinner, an’ I aye thocht I maun de something,” said the old man with intense earnestness, as tears filled his eyes.

“Did you never hear that lovely scripture, ‘Now to him that we? worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted fore unrighteousness’?” (Rom. 4:4 ,5.)

“Yon’s no in the Bible, surely?”

“Oh yes, it is, I am glad to say.”

“Whaur? I never heard tell o’t a’ my days.”

“It is in the 4th of Romans, the chapter that tells us how a poor guilty sinner like you or me can be justified before the God we have so sinned against. Is it not beautifully simple?”

“I dinna quite grup the meanin’ o’t.”

“It just means this, that the man who works ought to get his pay; and in no sense regards it as a favor, because he has earned it. On the other hand, if a man ceases working for salvation, and just simply believes in God who justifies the ungodly on the principle of faith, his faith is counted to him for righteousness. Now observe, John, it is the ‘ungodly’ that get the blessing, those who don’t deserve it, and who have not earned it, so that it may be by ‘grace’ or ‘favor,’ which is God’s way of acting towards us now God acts in grace―the activity of His own nature of love after we have ‘sinned and come short of his glory,’ and on the righteous ground which the finished work of His own beloved Son affords Him. That grace blesses and justifies the vilest and most hell-deserving sinner who, turning away from himself and his own doings, trusts simply in Jesus, having faith in His blood, and in God who sent Him to be the Saviour of the world.”

Listening most eagerly, and drinking in the truth as the old man was, nevertheless the freeness of the Gospel, I could see, was his stumbling-block; so having put a few more queries, by which I judged he had really condemned himself as an ungodly sinner before God, and that he truly desired to be saved, I ventured to apply the little bit of his own personal history I have named.

“Did you get your wages last week, John?”

“Oo ay; they aye come reg’lar.”

“But did you work for them?”

“No me; it’s yersel’ kens weel it’s moray a day sin’ I wrocht a haund’s turn.”

“And yet the ‘siller’ has come regularly?”

“Reg’lar as the clock, sir. The maister’s rale guid. He aye sends’t whether I work or no.”

“Now, long ago, when you wrought a good week’s work, did you think it a great act of grace on your master’s part to pay your week’s wage, which you had toiled for?”

“I thocht naething o’ the kind. I had earned it, an’ twas only richt he sud pay me.”

“Just so. In fact, after you had worked he was in your debt until he had paid you, and there could be no question of grace about it at all?”

“Weel, that’s yae way o’ lookin’ at it.”

“But for some months past, though you have done no work, nevertheless, you tell me, the money has come just the same. What do you call that, John?”

“Weel, that’s grace, to be sure,” the old man answered with emphasis, as the tears flowed faster.

“Quite right. Don’t you see how your own master’s kind treatment of you illustrates the verse I have been quoting? What you could not earn he sends, because he knows you need it. In the same way God sends you salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have only got just to believe in Him, and receive thankfully what in grace He sends to you.”

“Oh! I begin to see licht through’t noo. I never heard it explained in this simple way afore,” said the old man softly and slowly.

“Thank God if you do see it, John, even though late in your life. Now tell me, do you really take your place as an ungodly, hell-deserving sinner before God; give up all thoughts of your own works, and simply cast yourself on Him, believing His word, and His Son?”

“That de I, truly. I canna de ocht else after what ye’ve been tellin’ me. I’ll jilt lippen till Him alane. I DAE believe Him!”

“Well, John, then you are a blessed man from this hour; for it says — ‘But unto him that WORKETH NOT but BELIEVETH on him that JUSTIFIETH the ungodly, HIS FAITH not his works) is counted for RIGHTEOUSNESS;’ and you are entitled to know yourself justified before God, and fit for the heavenly country through faith in Jesus’ blood, for the 4th of Romans goes on thus― ‘Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:6-8).

Satisfied that his faith was sincere, and his perception of the Gospel child-like and simple, I gave my medical instructions and left him, saying I would call again in two days.

The next day an urgent message came requesting me to call immediately. I went. John was gone! ― gone to the heavenly country, I could not but believe, the way to which he had so recently learned. He passed away in his chair without warning or struggle, his heart having suddenly failed.

Reader! if you should pass away, just exactly twenty-four hours after reading this, where would You spend eternity? Do not forget that if you slight grate, you will receive what is due to you―your wages. What are they? do you ask. Listen, and never forget― “The wages of sin (and unbelief is sin) is death,” and “after death” ― terrible thought, fearful future― “the judgment.”

What an awful eternity must that man’s be who remembers, while writhing beneath the judgment he feels is the just and righteous wages of sin, that he might have been in the enjoyment of grace forever but for his own folly. Works, “wicked” or “dead,” can never save, and only lead the doer of them to the dreary dungeons of the damned. Grace conducts the vilest sinner, who trusts in Jesus’ blood, right into eternal glory and blessedness. Be persuaded, my friend, to “taste that the Lord is gracious.”

W. T. P. W.

Babylon's Fall.

THERE was once a mighty city, as is well known, called Babylon, the glory of the Chaldean kingdom, and the praise of the whole earth (Jer. 51:41). But her sins rose up to heaven, and judgment from God went forth against her. The very night that her king and his lords, and their ladies, were feasting together, and degrading the holy vessels of the despoiled temple of God at Jerusalem to the level of their own carnal festivities, destruction overwhelmed them. The mysterious handwriting on the wall, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” pronounced the doom. Babylon fell, Belshazzar the king was slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom (Dan. 5.).

In the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Babylon is used figuratively by the Spirit of God to describe a vast system that has long existed and is rapidly developing upon the earth at the present moment, against which the solemn and eternal judgment of God has long gone forth, for He who foreknoweth all things has described the system before it is formed by man’s self-will, and plainly warns men of the fearful consequences of their sin. It is prefigured in two aspects, as a woman, and as a city, and her name is “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” We have not space here, neither would it meet the object before us, to enter into all the details of God’s description of her, and its teaching, but it must suffice us to bring before the reader a few points as to her chief moral characteristics, and to endeavor to gather a few practical lessons for precious souls.

Babylon depicts a vast system built up by man upon the earth, through the exercise of his own will, in rebellion against God, and disobedience to His Word, under the influence and deceitful misleading of Satan. It comprises a vast mixture of natural and religious elements combined, ostensibly for the glory of God, but actually for the glory of man himself. History repeats itself, man practically saying, as at Babel, “Let us build us a city, &c.; Let us make us a name,” &c. But, alas, how little does man remember the solemn words of the Lord, “That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

Protestants apply this Scripture to Romanists, and the latter doubtless have their version of its meaning, but suffice it for us to say here that it has a voice (oh that, men would listen to it) for every one who reads these lines. All Christendom would do well to take heed to the solemn contents of the chapter where it is described. Dear reader, will you?

It is an evil system of things, religious in its character, supported by worldly power, outwardly adorned with imperial raiment, and costly jewelry, holding out to be her votaries a golden cup of intoxicating wickedness, herself drunken with the blood of the true people of God, shed through her persecuting spirit in enmity against God and the truth (Rev. 17:3, 4). Professing to be the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit of God, she becomes in her last phase the habitation of demons, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Rev. 18:2). Nations and kings have been caught in her toils, and have bowed down at her shrines; the merchants of the earth have amassed untold riches through the abundance of her delicacies. The religious, elements of Christendom are one of the most fruitful sources of the world’s wealth.

The professing Christian, proud of his religious successes (but really infidel in heart), and boasting of the progress of the times, and the spread of Christianity (so-called), deludes himself and his fellow, saying, “I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” knowing not that he is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). Those who have eyes to see can at once trace how exact the description of the Spirit of God is when He says, “How much she hath glorified herself and, lived deliciously!” and, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (Rev. 18:7).

Beloved reader; are yew, involved in theme wholesale delusions of the devil? Are you one of the many tarried along ivy the fearful tide of nominal religion, flaunting itself more or less as everything that pleases the religions eye, and that charms the religious senses of the natural man? Are you a votary of fine altars and shrines, candles, and incense, flowers and millinery, stained glass and dim religious light, vestments and banners, processions, gestures, &c. &a, in forgetfulness of the blessed Alan upon the throne of God? Are you, whilst professing to worship God, following mere human customs and arrangements, without one thought as to whether all these things are suited to Him? Have you forgotten those solemn words of warning, “My people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jer. 5:31.) Ah! what indeed!

Hear God’s solemn warning concerning Babylon: “Her sins have reached unto heaven; and God hath remembered her iniquities, &c.... therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Rev. 13:5, 8). And if you should already be one of His people, His word too is plain to you, “Come out of her, my people; that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

In. Rev. 18:21, we have the manner of her fall: “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and east it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shill that great city Babylon he thrown down and shall he found, no more at all.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Yes, there is a moment coming when with violence Babylon shall be utterly overthrown. Her music, her arts and manufactures, her trade, her artificial light, all shall cease. Even the joy of natural relationship shall be known in her no more. God will avenge Himself upon her for her sorceries by which all nations are deceived, and for the blood of His martyred loved ones which lieth at her door. He is strong that executeth His word. Who shall His arm withstand?

Dear reader, again we appeal to you: Are you still exposed to the vengeance of God, or have you found a safe refuge in Christ, the Son of His love? His judgment will come, but His grace still flows. Oh! flee from the coming wrath while you may. Christ is waiting to receive poor sinners such as you. Do you know your need of Him? Will you, own you, go on another day letting the devil delude you with his gilded baits, intoxicating you with worldly or religious pleasures, or any of the various forms of vanity with which he ensnares souls? Listen to the note of warning now. Flee to the Saviour at once. Come to Jesus. ‘Tis not yet too late. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” How then will you escape? But the avenging Judge is the Saviour now.

Next notice the lamentation of those who drank of her intoxicating cup. First, we have the kings of the earth. They bewail and lament as they see the smoke of her burning, saying, “Alas, alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

Secondly, the merchants of the earth join in the same cry, “Alas, alas! that great city that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! for in one hour so great riches is come to naught.”

Thirdly, the shipmasters, sailors, traders, &c., cast dust on their heads, crying, weeping, and wailing, and say, “Alas, alas! that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.”

In one hour her judgment comes; in one hour the rich are impoverished; in one hour man’s religious boast and glory come to naught; in one hour utter vanity is written upon the whole thing. This is the end thereof. What will your end be? Do you vainly reply, “Ah I but though the system itself is judged, men will escape, or how could they bewail her fall?” What does the Scripture show? That man himself is the acting instrument in her fearful downfall (the ecclesiastical corruption being destroyed by the civil power), to be judged himself next, directly at the hand of the Lord (Rev. 17:15-17; 2 Thess. 1:7-9).

Note, too, the description given by the Spirit of God of Babylon’s merchandise: “Gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves (or bodies), and souls of men” (Rev. 18:12, 13). We get in this list things most valuable in the eyes of men. Gold stands first. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” (Luke 18:24.) Why? Because it is such a snare. Mark gold first, and souls last. This is how God sees it. He knoweth the heart, and He knows the order of precedence in man’s estimate. Ah! reader, you need not travel far to prove the truth of it. It is a long list. Jewelry, dress, furniture, perfumery, food, equipage, bodies and souls of men; Babylon’s general store; luxuries and necessaries, used by some, indulged in by others, but with no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:18). How, terrible is the fall of man! So degraded and perverted that he actually traffics religiously in the bodies and souls of men. Shall not God judge for these things? He will.

Remark, too, another striking point about this vast and wicked system. In describing her adornment in chap. 17:4, purple and scarlet color (imperial raiment) are mentioned, but there is a total absence of fine. linen. Now we are told that the fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints―that is, the practical righteousness wrought in the saints, God’s people, by the power of the Spirit of God. This is utterly lacking in Babylon. Those who wear true fine linen are objects of her hate. But when the Spirit of God describes her traffic, fine linen is brought in. She knows how to turn it to account, to get advantage and wealth to herself through the faithfulness of the children of God. How many at that day will be found guilty of this! And the merchants too, bewailing her fall, cry, “Alas, alas! that great city that was clothed in fine linen.” Looking at it morally, we see how they are deceived by Satan, and are color blind. They see not as God sees. They esteem that as fine linen which is but worldly abomination in the sight of God (Luke 16:15).

Beloved reader, this is a dark and solemn picture, but it is no fancy sketch, no overdrawn invention, but the sure and reliable word of God. The colors are exact, the shadows not one whit darker thin the reality. To speak broadly, it is God’s view of Christendom. His thoughts are not as ours. Now how are you looking at it all? Probably you have been brought up to a certain religious order of things, and you do not know anything you would like better, and (as men say) you have done the best you can. But have you ever faced the Word of God? Have you ever come to Scripture to hear what God has to say to you, and to get His thoughts instead of your own? Nothing will stand but the Word. Thoughts, ideas, opinions, theology, religion, are all valueless, unless they answer to “Thus saith the Lord.” God has spoken. He has spoken in creation, and He has also spoken in His Word. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isa. 61:2).

And what saith the Word? That God is about to judge Christendom and the world at large; about to judge you unless you repent. Have you repented? God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Have you obeyed? Dare you disobey? It is at your peril, your eternal peril. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. But “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Have you believed on Him? How blessedly simple the Gospel is! You stand in imminent peril of perishing in hell forever, but such is the wondrous love of God, that He gave His only begotten Son. Think of that. Gave Him for sinners; gave Him for all. He died for all. Put in your claim. Whosoever believeth on Him gets the blessing. Some are troubled, saying, I am not sure whether it means me. Means you? of course it does. What does “whosoever” mean? Everybody except you, eh? You would have hard work to prove that. There is no difficulty in proving that you are inside that word; the difficulty would be to prove that you were outside it. In fact, you could not, for it means everybody everywhere, and anybody anywhere.

Well, now, if whosoever means you―and surely you see by this that it does, do you not? ―what is the next word? Believeth. Whosoever believeth. Not feeleth, worketh, trieth, hopeth, striveth, but believeth. Do you believe? Believe what? Believe in Him; in Christ, God’s only begotten Son. Christ who died, Christ who was buried, Christ who rose again, Christ who is ascended, Christ who is seated in glory, Christ who is coming again. Believeth in Christ, in Him; not in yourself, mind. You are good for nothing. All are alike as to that; all are bad, and only fit to perish in hell, where we should all have been long ago, if we had received what we deserved. But whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. How blessedly simple? Will you be as simple about it? Will you take God at His Word and have everlasting life? There it is, all the blessing in a few words, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Now, then; dear friend, ere we dose, what say you? Now is God’s time, is it your time? What say you (if we may so speak reverently) to closing the bargain this moment? Here are the terms once more; note them carefully―

On your part, “Whosoever believeth in him.”

On God’s part, “should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

You could not have better, then what say you? Dost thou believe? Yes? Is the reply, ‘I do’? Very well, God says, and He cannot lie, you should not perish, but have everlasting life. Have it now, and have it forever. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). In the Son now, and with Him when He comes. (1 John 5:11; 2 Tim. 2:10).

And that is the next thing, Christ is coming. Every believer will be caught up to meet Him before the judgment of Babylon. What are you to be doing till then? Following Christ. He says to every believer on His name, “Follow thou me.”

“O worldling, give ear, while the saints are near!

Soon must the tie be riven;

And men, side by side, God’s hand shall divide,

As far as hell’s depths from heaven.

The children of day are summoned away,

Left are the children of night;

Sealed is their doom, for there’s no more room,

Filled are the mansions of light.”

E. H. C.

The Blood of the Lamb.

“BUT must not I see the blood?” says many a distressed soul. It is well for me to estimate its value aright, and growingly; but no person could have solid peace on this ground. Nor was it what God told His people. It was indeed a token to them; but their assurance was built on this, that “When I [Jehovah] see the blood, I will pass over you.” The Israelite’s business was not to look at it for his safety, but to keep within the shelter of the sprinkled blood, to which God had thus pledged Himself. It is He who sees the blood, and passes over. God alone estimates perfectly the blood of the Lamb, and faith means not our estimate of it, but our confidence in Him. The blood is the token which recalls to us the love of God, as well as His righteousness, but what is shed for sin looks to God, and is for God to look on.

Christ thus presents God to us under three aspects, ―His righteousness that strikes the Substitute for us; His love that provides the Lamb for us; and His glory that has raised Him up when all was clear for us. There is thus entire deliverance. We are in Christ before God. The greatest expression of divine hatred of sin is found in His cross. The stroke of judgment fell; the thunder and lightning are exhausted; the sky is pure and calm for those who believe.

But he who is under the shelter of the Lamb’s blood must eat of the Lamb’s body. It is no question of appetite for it. Doubtless, he who has appetite enjoys more; and it is so much the worse for him who cares not for it. But it is no condition to do so. What accompanies the act of eating the lamb is the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. On the one hand, repentance attends faith, and characterizes the new life, as it takes cognizance of all one has done and is; and in Christ, one tastes, on the other hand, of what is absolutely without sin. One delights in the Holy One; one judges self, and it is a bitter thing.

J. N. D.

The Bright Hope.

IN the month of August 1880 a few Christians casually met at the sea-side. Previously they had been strangers; but the value of the saving name of Jesus was known as a priceless link, and He who had bought them with His own precious blood, and called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, made them long for others to know Him as their Saviour. Many were the opportunities of giving away the little book or tract, or more directly speaking for Christ. Of the latter the following is an interesting instance, the result of which a future day may unfold.

A drive had been arranged to a waterfall some distance from the town. The horse proved very slow; and when at length a stopping place was reached, it became necessary to give the tired animal a long rest, and for the travelers to get some refreshment before walking to the falls, a mile or more further on, the road to which was steep and fatiguing.

An elderly gentleman and two young ladies seated themselves at the opposite side of the refreshment table to the travelers. The elderly gentleman appeared naturally sociable and agreeable. Having glanced at those on the other side, he pleasantly addressed the lady facing him with the inquiry, “I suppose you have done all the climbing?”

“No,” she replied; “we have only just arrived, and it seemed best to get some refreshment first.”

“Oh,” he said, “that is a mistake; you should have done the climbing first. It is such a getting up and down stairs. Have you an Alpenstock?”

“No,” replied the lady; “I prefer to climb without one.”

“Ah,” said the old gentleman, smiling, “to climb after luncheon, and without a staff, is a great mistake. You will certainly have to come again.”

“Well,” replied the lady, “if I do make a mistake this time, I have something brighter to look forward to.”

The elderly gentleman replied, “Indeed?” The young ladies looked interested.

“Yes,” replied the lady, “I have a brighter hope.”

“Are you expecting to go to Italy or Switzerland?” asked one of the young ladies.

“Oh, no!” was the response, “I am looking forward to being with Christ; that is my bright hope. I know Him as my Saviour. He loved me, and gave Himself for me, and I am looking for Him to come and fetch me to be with Him. I have dear ones who have already gone to be with the Lord, and they will come with Him.”

The speaker was young, and one to whom it might be thought this world could give much enjoyment; but she had found an object for her heart outside of it, even One in whom the world sees no form or comeliness, neither any beauty that they should desire Him. He had been rejected and cast out of the world made by Him; He had gone back to heaven, and was her treasure there.

But to return again to the conversation. For a moment there was silence. Those around―the writer was one―were arrested, and felt the power of what was so unmistakably real and precious to the lady. She paused a moment, and then, with an earnest look at the old gentleman, she said, tenderly, “You have heard of the Lord Jesus Christ?”

“Oh, yes,” he replied.

“Well,” she said, “there are some of us sitting here who know He died on the cross to put away our sins, and we know they are all washed away in His precious blood. God’s Word tells us so.”

“Very good! very good!” replied the old gentleman.

Earnestly commending the love of Christ to him the lady asked his acceptance of a small book from her basket, and then left the table, counting on God to own this testimony to the blessed work and worth of His dear Son.

Perhaps some reader may say this kind of conversation was unsuitable at a public dining-table. But God’s Word says to those who know Him, “Be instant in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). And again, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand” (Eccles. 11:6). Man gave the Lord Jesus no place when He was down in this world, and neither time nor mental culture has changed the heart of man. It is respectable to be outwardly religious, but deep down in the heart there is still the rejection of Christ. He came as the Light of the world. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). They put the Light out of the world: Him of whom it is written, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.... He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John 1:3, 10).

Sin had come into the world made by Christ’s own hand. Adam came forth from God made in His own image; but Eve listened to Satan’s lie, and doubted both the word of God and the love of God, and then followed the disobedience that brought in sin. Thus man in innocence broke down. What, then, by nature is our ancestry? Are we not descendants of one who brought sin and death into the world, and for whose sake the ground was cursed? Hear the testimony of one in this long line of descent, who, although he owned an earthly throne, knew his true condition before God, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). Oh, dear reader, do you believe this is alike true of you? true of every child of Adam? We are unfit for God’s presence in our sins. See from God’s Word our true state by nature. The Lord Jesus says of Himself, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Again, the apostle Paul, in writing to believers, says what they were in time past, “Who were dead in trespasses and sins;” “children of disobedience;” “children of wrath, even as others; “without Christ;” “and without God in the world” (Eph. 2.). “When we were yet without strength [being dead in sin], in due time Christ died for the ungodly.... When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:6, 10). Will you bow to God’s estimate of man by nature as thus recorded? Will you take this low but only true place before God? Not to do so is to disregard God’s testimony to your state.

Perhaps you reply, “But I have been brought up religiously.” So were they who planned the death of the Son of God. Let us turn to Matthew 26:3, 4: ― “Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest... and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him.” Contemplate this―mark the place―note its awful purport. See the plot carried out in Matthew 27. I think I hear you say, “I never could have done that.” Ah! my friend, it was but the expression, the outcome of the heart of man. God gives but one description of every heart. He says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer. 27:9.) “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Ps. 14:23; Rom. 3.). The history of man from Adam to the cross is one of sin against God. The “old garment” (Mark 2:21, 22), the Adam condition, is irreparably bad; every patch or repair makes the rent worse. Nothing of the first man will do for God, and hence the Lord Jesus testifies to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.”

Oh, my reader, can you say you have experienced this change? Do you know what it is to have passed out of association with the man who brought sin and death into the world, and know what it is to have life in, and union by, the Holy Ghost, with the second Man, who came into the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? Oh, the magnitude of that sacrifice! the perfection in which it met every claim of God against the sinner! Now the God of all grace is beseeching you to be reconciled. It is not the sinner, but God, who takes the place of beseecher (2 Cor. 5:20). The basis is a finished work. The Lord Jesus Christ is not on the cross now, but seated at God’s right hand. Neither is He now interceding for sinners. On the cross He hung as the sin-bearer, and there too He met the judgment of sin in death. There, “by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” God is now offering salvation, and waiting to welcome poor sinners. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17). Dear reader, this “whosoever” includes you. Take now this offered salvation, and you too will share in the bright hope of waiting for God’s Son from heaven.

“The Lord shall come again,

The Conqueror must reign!

No tongue but shall confess him then,

The Lamb once slain.

Jesus is worthy now

All homage to receive;

Oh, sinner, to the Saviour bow,

The truth believe!”

“In heaven there is ‘nothing that defileth,’ or is unclean. All that remains ‘without’” (Rev. 21:27; 22:15).

A Bright Sunset.

“BLESS the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” These familiar words fell on my ear, rapidly, and repeatedly uttered, as, at noon on Monday, December 22nd last, I drew up at a house where I was attending a lady. Another doctor’s carriage, and a cab standing at the door, made me think that something was amiss, and I was left in no doubt that something had happened, as again and again “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” came from the lobby within.

On the floor of that lobby, his head and snowy locks only supported by a pillow, was the speaker, the owner of the house, my aged and valued friend of many years’ standing, Mr. B —. I soon learned that he had gone out for a walk that morning, and had just been brought home in a cab, and a passing physician called in.

The frost being keen, and the cold intense, we rapidly got the old man, for he was nearly eighty-two, into a bed close at hand, and, surrounding him with hot bottles, hoped, that with other suitable measures, he might get over the deadly chill which was apparent in every member. While thus ministered to, his lips ceased not saying, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” This continued for a little, when he interposed, “Give me air, air, oh for air!” Fanning him briskly with one hand, I rubbed his icy cold hands with the other, which brought forth, “That’s good, that’s good, thank the Lord, that’s fine. Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

Judging that he was capable of replying to my queries, I said, “Open your eyes, Mr. B —; do you know me?”

“Know you? of course I do. You are my kind friend Dr. W―. You’ve come at the right time, the Lord sent you, I am sure, and He’s taught you just what to do for me. Rub away, rub away, that’s fine, and doing me good. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul.’ Bless Him, bless Him, ‘and forget not all his benefits.’”

“Ay, that’s right, we can’t bless Him too heartily,” I replied; “but tell me what has happened, have you had a fall?”

“No, I did not fall; I was just quietly walking over George IV. Bridge when I felt something queer at my heart, so I just slid gently to the ground, and when I came to, I asked a gentleman who came to me, to call a cab and bring me home, and here I am, and you’re looking after me,” and “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” again rang through the chamber. It was a touching and never-to-be forgotten scene, for the joyous and praiseful spirit of the old saint was lovely to witness.

After a little while he again said, “Air, air, give me air;” and putting his hand to his heart, added, “What is this heavy weight I feel here, Doctor? I feel something I never felt before, but my dear wife, just before she passed away, said she felt it. Doctor, I think I’m going to follow her. I think I’m going now, going to be with Jesus, going to see my precious Lord Jesus, who loved me and died for me. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul.’ I should like to say ‘good-bye’ to my dear children, but if I can’t, never mind. I shall meet them again in glory. I’m only going a little before. The Lord is coming soon, and then we’ll all meet again. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.”

His strength now began to fail, he said little more, and, as the clock struck one, he quietly passed away to be with his Lord and Saviour, whose love he had known for nearly half-a-century here, and will taste forever on high.

The worshipful departure of this dear old saint reminds one of the patriarch, of whom it is written, “By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph: and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff” (Heb. 11:21).

Reader, could you depart thus? I have little doubt you say, “I would like to.” But, let me remind you, it is of no use joining company with Balaam, and saying like him, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” unless you are numbered with those whom God counts righteous now, by faith in Christ Jesus. As a man lives so does he usually die. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked.”

How different to what I have narrated may be your end. Auld Peggie’s was different. A Christian friend of mine called, and pressed Christ on her. She put down her pipe, and weighed the matter a while; then, with callous unmoved face resumed her smoking, as she slowly said, “Na, na; I’ve lived without Him seventy years, and I can live without Him the rest o’ my days.” Shortly after she was found dead in bed, the pipe broken on the floor, and her withered arms thrown above her head, as if there had been fearful conflict with some unseen foe.

Will you imitate Caesar Borgia? who said, “I have provided, in the course of my life, for everything except death; and now, alas, I am to die, although entirely unprepared.”

A dying colonel said, “I would gladly give thirty thousand pounds to have it proved to my satisfaction that there is no such place as hell.” Friend, are you going there?

A wealthy manufacturer hearing of the death of an acquaintance said, “Is he dead? It is very different with me; for my part I am so engaged in business that I could not find time to die.” Scarcely were the words uttered than he fell on the floor, a corpse. Sharp work this, my reader; are you ready? You may go next, mind.

A dying queen’s last words were, “All my possessions for a moment of time.” She had it not, and you may not have another granted to you. How solemn for an unsaved soul!

How terrible to die like Gibbon, saying, “All is dark and doubtful.”

Better far be like the one whose sudden and unlooked-for end I have narrated. Another dear friend of mine passed away saying, “As I may not be able to express myself distinctly by and by, I wish now to state that I am in perfect peace, resting alone on the blood of Christ. O precious blood of God’s Son, which cleanseth from all sin I find this amply sufficient to enter the presence of God with. ‘When I see the blood I will pass over.’ Oh the precious, precious blood of Christ!”

Friend, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” is God’s way of salvation. You have only to believe. Works cannot save. Faith in Jesus can. Trust Him then. Trust Him now, just now, as you read this. Delay is dangerous, nay more, it is the veritable doorway to hell. Millions are there who never meant to be, but died just before they believed the truth. They believe it now, fast enough, when it is too late to avail them. Don’t join their company, I beseech you.

W. T. P. W.

The Burnmouth Barometer.

A THRILL of horror and a wave of sympathy swept over the land, when it learned of the wreck of the fishing fleet, and the consequent loss of scores of lives through the storm of the 14th October 1881.

Sometime afterward I was at Burumouth―the village on which the brunt of the storm fell, and where the greatest losses were suffered. I was speaking with an elderly woman, a widow and mother, and happened to pass a remark on the beauty of the ocean that washed the rocks beneath us. The scene was indeed charming-there lay the waters basking in the summer sun, returning a ripple of smile to his radiant beams, and disclosing varied hues and forms that charmed the eye of the spectator.

A shudder passed over her frame as she heard my remark― “Ah,” said she, “there’s no beauty to me in that which is the grave of my dearest. My husband and my bonnie lads lie, at the bottom of that water; and not mine alone, for about fifty more from this place were lost in that awful storm.

A wild, weird, horror-stricken manner gave peculiar pathos to her sad story. That the, shook and the anguish of that day should have affected her mind was no wonder to me. What wife and mother amid look out on that awful tempest, and calmly witness the frail boats being tossed on the bosom of the angry waves, and driven on the ironbound coast by the force of the hurricane! These fragile barks contained their all, husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, bread-winners, companions, lovers, ―and on the inevitable destruction of such by those raging waters, without possibility of help, had those on shore now to look. A more heartrending spectacle it is impossible to conceive.

“What is so fair to you,” she continued, “has no beauty to me―fain would I go from what only reminds me of my sorrow―I would hide it from my eyes, but I cannot;” and more in this strain followed till her heart seemed too full to speak.

How awfully real, thought I―and this is life! We live amid such things―around us are hearts broken, eyes weeping, minds thrown into disorder, a scene of sorrow. I had little to say to her beyond telling of a Home purchased by the death of Jesus for all who trust Him, where the tears are wiped away to flow no more forever, and then I left her.

Alas, what added to the sorrow of that day was the brave foolhardiness of the men themselves. They went to sea spite of warning. The barometer suddenly fell as low as it could fall―but the evidences were all against its prediction; the portents of weather were, to the general judgment, most favorable, and hence the blame was laid to the glass. It must be wrong, broken, incorrect, disordered, or false. The men preferred to believe their judgment of the state of the weather rather than the declaration of the barometer. This contempt of its authentic information cost them their lives, and entailed the sorrow above depicted. Alas, alas, why did they not listen to the true and faithful witness as it pointed at “Stormy,” for it had fallen rapidly to 28°? “Ah,” said they, “the fall is too quick to be true.”

But, then, who was to blame? The glass had borne a faithful record, and given a correct prediction of the coming storm. It had done all that it could; but its warning voice was unheeded, “It is wrong and we are right,” said they; yet the opposite was the case. Man was wrong his thoughts, his judgment was wrong, and the barometer was right.

No new thing in an issue of far greater moment. The divine barometer is set at “stormy,” predicting a sure and certain destruction for all who venture forth on the deep, despite of warning.

God’s pointer indicates a coming storm, and has steadily and unswervingly fixed itself there since the fall of man. From Enoch who prophesied of the Lord coming to execute vengeance on the ungodly, to the latest writer of the Book by whom that storm of wrath is so solemnly depicted—whose last words tell of the lake of fire―the eternal portion and place of the guilty―in all its dread and seething horrors―the divine pointer has unchangeably foretold the doom of the unbelieving and impenitent sinner.

“Impossible,” says stout unbelief, “the evidences are otherwise, God is Love, man is not an immortal being, death closes his existence, the idea of eternal punishment is abominable, and, therefore, as we don’t wish it, we don’t believe in it―we will take our own way. The book must be wrong, and we are right;” and with such reasonings the sinner launches on the deep.

But the storm is coming!

True, “God is Love,” but God is also Light.

True, man is mortal, but mortality does not end his career―he will die, but after this is the judgment, a judgment that is eternal as is the punishment of the sinner.

True, present appearances are against the likelihood of a Coming storm—what streams of grace are flowing, what mercies, what wondrous longsuffering―but withal the warning finger points at “wrath to Rome,” and come it will.

Oh! who will make for shore today? Mercy calls. Soon the billows will rise, the winds will beat, the frail bark be wrecked. Sinner, make for the harbor. Heed’ the warning. Come, oh, come to Jesus. Come wow. “Kiss ye the Son, lost he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little, Blessed, are all they that put their trust in him” (Ps. 2:12).

J. W. S.

Christ, or Hell?

DEAR reader, which is to be your portion―Christ, or hell?

You are in a doomed world. Its population is estimated, roughly, at some twelve hundred millions, and all in their natural state are doomed. Sin is here and sin has ruined all. You belong to Adam’s race Adam fallen. Adam disobeyed God and sinned. All his children were born outside of Paradise. The whole of his posterity are in one condition, ―conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, and sinners by practice (for that “all have sinned”), ―helpless, ruined, lost.

The wages of sin is death. Adam died; his children, all his posterity in the past, have died―with two exceptions, Enoch and Elijah. All his descendants now on earth, who remain in their sins, will die also. Unconverted sinner, you are one. You will die. “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb. 9:27). You may die today. You might die as you read this. Are you ready to die? You shrink at the thought; death fills you with dread. Why? Because of what comes after. If that were all, if that were the end, what have you to fear? Ah! there is a hereafter. Your own conscience tells you so. But, what is infinitely more reliable, God says so. “After this, the judgment.” Nothing could be plainer. After this―after what? After death. Judgment, swift, certain, inexorable, eternal. How will you meet it?

Millions, and millions, and millions of sinners have died since Adam—Jews, heathens, Mohammedans, professing Christians. Where are they? In eternity; and in eternity, lost or saved. Lost now, or saved now. Whilst on earth was the time for that great question to be settled, as to where they would spend eternity. And it is here, and now, that that question must be settled with regard to yourself. “Behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Where is the population that lived before the flood. In eternity. Where is the whole race of Israel, from Abraham to Christ? In eternity. Where are the vast populations of the four great Gentile empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome? In eternity. Where are the vast hordes of barbarians that swept down upon the Roman empire? In eternity. Where are the vast masses of the great nations of Europe up to the present generation? In eternity. Where are the myriads of Asia for hundreds of years past? In eternity. Where are all who have passed from this scene by death in the four quarters of the globe? In eternity. Where are all your relatives and friends who have died? In eternity. Where are all on the globe at the present moment going? Every moment, nearer and nearer, and nearer still, to eternity. And every one of all those myriads, who passed into eternity unsaved, is lost—lost in hell forever. Where and how, dear reader, would you spend eternity if you died this moment? With Christ, or in hell? saved or lost?

You may reason, you may buoy yourself up with false and delusive hopes; but fact it is, that if you die without Christ, you are lost, eternally lost. God has said it; it is written in His imperishable Word. “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). “And shall come forth;... they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15).

The sentence of judgment is already passed. All the world are guilty before (or subject to the judgment of) God (Rom. 3:19). Death, to the sinner, is the portal to eternal woe. All who have died unsaved are in woe now. It is true, they will be raised to judgment, and cast into the lake of fire; but already their spirits are in eternal misery. Millions are in misery now, fixed, eternal. Many, alarmed at this dread reality, fall into the devil’s snare, and close their eyes to the terrible future at their door. They love themselves, the world, their sins, their pleasures. They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, and, blindfolded and duped, rush on to an eternity of woe. They pass by the only way of escape, spurning God’s provision of grace. Christ, if even professed, is refused as a present Saviour. They know they cannot have Christ and sin, and they love sin best.

Again the warning note is sounded. Stop! stop! Stop now on your mad career; you are rushing to hell’s brink. Your back is towards God and His love. And yet He pleads with you to stop. There is one way of escape, and only one―God’s way. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “We all know that,” you say. So much the worse for you, sinner, if you heed it not. The greater your light and knowledge, the greater your responsibility. God will judge in righteousness, and it will be better for a poor ignorant heathen than a nominal Christian in that day. I press it upon you again―you may die today. Die today, and pass tonight in hell―your doom sealed, sealed to all eternity, immutable, irrevocable. Think of that. You, who probably meant to be saved some day―lost, eternally lost. Your life hangs upon a thread.

The glory of man surrounds you on all hands, but man and all his glory are going to the grave. Which is it to be with you? Christ or hell? With the Son of God’s love and His redeemed, or with the devil and his angels? Eternal glory, or the lake of fire? Eternal bliss, or eternal woe? Worshipping round the throne, or wailing in hell? Singing the new song, or weeping and gnashing of teeth? In marvelous light, or the blackness of darkness? It is one or the other for all. If you will have self, the world, and sin now, you must have hell hereafter. If you will accept Christ now, you shall have glory with Him forever. Which is it to be? The pleasures of sin for a season, or pleasures at God’s right hand for evermore.

Nothing can fit you for the presence of God and the company of His Son, but His precious blood.

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

“The sinner who believes is free;

Can say, ‘The Saviour died for me;’

Can point to the atoning blood,

Can say, ‘This made my peace with God.’

As this paper is sent forth for the blessing of souls, the writer little knows whose hands it may fall into. Perhaps an openly wicked man. Ah! you know full well there must be a change in you if you are to be saved. Or it may be a moral, upright, respectable, religious man. Ah! you need the change as much as the other. Morality and religiousness will no more avail you before God than sin. Far better, surely, to be moral and upright, than to live in open disobedience to God’s laws; but if you have not a better title than that to the glory, you will most surely find yourself shut out. Nothing but the blood of Jesus is a title there. Will you, then, trust therein? For ―

“Trusting in that precious blood,

There is perfect peace with God;

Saved for glory, wondrous story,

Saved through Jesus’ precious blood.”

There is scarcely anything more lamentable in the present day than to see kind, amiable, agreeable people going respectably down the broad road. The drunkards, the blasphemers, the immoral, know the consequences of sin, for the Word of God is plain. But tens of thousands are blinded by their respectability and the form of godliness.

What do we behold all around us? Emperors, and kings and queens ruling the nations―noblemen enjoying their privileges and estates―members of Parliament busy passing the laws of the realm―the clergy and other ministers attending to their churches and chapels and congregations―commercial men busy in their banks, and warehouses, and offices―shopkeepers buying and selling their goods―farmers working their lands―soldiers drilling in preparation for war―sailors learning to handle their ships, &c. &c. Many are openly living without God, without Christ, having no hope, indulging in various sins. But tens of thousands of these various classes refuse open wickedness. They care for their families, look after their business, fulfill the duties of their varied spheres, attend their places of worship―may be, have family prayer at home―their moral conduct and ways, according to man’s standard, irreproachable. But whither are they bound? To heaven? They hope so. Hope so! Will that take them there? “But what more is required?” is the hopeless answer that the Christian receives, if he ventures to suggest that all is not right. Or perhaps he is politely told to mind his own business. O poor blinded, deluded world, wake up! wake up from thy terrible delusion ere it be too late. You need Christ. You need an interest in His precious blood. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” of sins (Hob. 9:22). Mark it well―no remission. Oh! this dreadful soul-destroying self-righteousness! “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own, righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3).

A lady, kindly spoken to about her state, replied, quite seriously, that she kept the whole ten commandments, and took the first opportunity of speaking to a relative of the one who spoke to her about it, saying that she was afraid he was likely to go out of his mind. And thus, it is to be feared, she died. O self-righteous sinners, ‘tis yourselves that are mad, not the Christian.

“O earth, earth, earth,” saith the prophet, “hear the word of the Lord” (Jer. 22:29). Oh that men would harken, and hear for the time to come! “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deut32:29.)

Alas! poor blinded world, how little you know of God’s great salvation, and how little you know the doom that awaits you for your unbelief! Not only exposed to the King of Terrors every moment, but this very night, it may be, whilst you are fast asleep, the Lord Himself shall come! In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, every saved one will be gone, and you, poor Christless sinner, left behind. Or else, in the midst of the world’s business or pleasure, when all seems prosperous―a good harvest gathered in, prices high, a large business doing, many getting rich―when suddenly, without a moment’s warning, far and wide men, women, and children will be missed. My reader, would you go―caught up to meet the Lord? (1 Thess. 4:17.) Or would you be left behind? to wake up when it is too late to the awful reality that the long and wide opened door of grace is shut at last―shut close, and shut forever, upon the Christless profession of Christianity, and you with it?

And then comes judgment upon judgment sweeping the scene, followed by the hour of great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time―no, nor ever shall be―and closing with the manifestation of the Son of man, the rejected Christ, with all His saints and angels, to avenge Himself upon His foes, and gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, when every eye shall see Him (Rev. 1:7).

Then shall the bold infidel blanch with fear, as his eye quails before the searching gaze of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. Then shall the poor Christless professor find, with his mask torn from him, the utter worthlessness of his sham religion, and stand a naked sinner before the Judge, to face the awful reality of eternity without Christ. Then shall the poor pleasure-seeker of this world learn the utter vanity of his pursuits, to reap the fruit of his self-pleasing and forgetfulness of God in hopeless misery, where pleasures are unknown.

Reader, again I appeal to you. By the mercies of God, by the solemn realities of eternity, I beseech you― “Be ye reconciled to God.” Perfect love awaits your return. If the solemnities of judgment and hell will not arouse you, may the boundless love of the blessed God break you down. “God so loved”―think of it, ― “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.” O reader, what more could He do? “That whosoever”―that is, you, me, everybody, anybody that― “believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The holiness of God demands the eternal punishment of the impenitent; but the love of God has provided a Saviour, and grace keeps open the door of mercy, lingering over a lost world. Grace without limit or bound, eternal, infinite, awaits all those who bow in self-judgment before God, and now come back to Him. Christ is the way. Believe on Him; believe now. And you, yes, you, who deserve hell, shall never perish, but have―mark, have―everlasting life. Have it now―in Christ, in God’s Son, and with Him when He comes. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). But the fearful―or cowardly, who never decide, for fear of the consequences—and unbelieving, and all classes of sinners, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21:8). Eternity! eternity! lies before you. Will you have Christ? Christ, holiness, and glory? or self, sin, and hell? May God in His infinite grace give you to say now from the heart, ―

“My immortal choice is made―

Christ for me.”

E. H. C.

"Consider, Christ Jesus."

(Read Hebrews 1-3:1.)

THE first chapter of Hebrews presents the Lord Jesus in His character of Son of God; the second chapter gives Him as the Son of Man; while the first verse of the third bids us “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” In the first chapter He is the Apostle, and in the second He is the Priest. As Apostle, He came out from God to us; as Priest, He is gone in to God for us. If you get hold of these two precious truths, your soul will have peace and rest forever.

There is another way of looking at it. The first chapter presents His glories and beauties as the Son of God from all eternity. His Manhood was the vessel in which He displayed them―not merely was He Man, though perfect Man, but God as well. Before He went back to give heaven a new sight―a Man at the right hand of God―He did a work that gives God a righteous title to pick up the vilest sinner, and to set him down washed and cleansed at the very side of the risen Man in glory.

The question which arises now is, Do you know Him? “Oh, I have heard about Jesus,” you reply. I did not ask you that, but―Do you know Him? Have you heard His voice? If not, you are in darkness still, because this scripture opens with this, that God speaks by His Son. It is God who speaks. It is a grand thing to get hold of this. When God speaks, we have just to listen, and when once He gets our ear, He will get our heart. Oh, what grace! It is God who speaks to man, and speaks in the life, the words, and matchless ways of His Son Jesus.

Now we shall see who He is. He is God’s Son (ver. 2). God has no longer sent apostles or prophets. And do you not think that the Son knew the Father? That is the wonderful thing; He has revealed Him. We can say we see Him now, all that He is has been perfectly unfolded in the person of Jesus; who exhibited the moral nature of God in His life, and then, in death, shed His blood on the cross to meet the claims of that nature for others.

He made all things, all belong to Him, and He is the brightness of God’s glory too; the express image of His person. The word image does not convey the idea of likeness; the postage stamp bears the image of the Queen, but it is not her likeness. It is representation, not similarity. Jesus is, the image of God. He represented Him; but, more, He exhibited Him, and seeing Jesus, we see the Father.

If you have got a thought of God, which does not find its counterpart in Jesus, it is what the Apostle John bids us beware of in his first epistle, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” A wrong thought of God is an idol. I got a great lift when I saw that, for I thought Jesus was kind, loving, and gracious; but somehow God seemed to me to be different, more severe, to be kept at arm’s length. Everyone knows the feeling, though they may not put it in so many words, perhaps. Oh, “consider this Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” He came down from the Father’s house, charged with all the love and affection of a Father’s heart. Born in one man’s manger, laid in another man’s tomb, and in His life compelled to say, “Show me a penny,”―not having one of His own, ―He was the personification of absolute grace and goodness, and in Him we see God.

Men try to make out that natural laws keep the world going, and so on. But who made these laws and the worlds they govern? My Saviour, “upholding all things by the word of his power.” Can you say that? Go a little further.” When he had by himself purged our sins. “God comes down from the wonders of creation to talk of sins now. Whose? Yours and mine. What does this mean,” by himself “? It means there was no help from man, none from you or me. But must we not pray? Listen―” When he had by himself purged our sins.” Whose? Mine; faith always says, Mine. Faith is a wonderfully possessive thing. Re came down to put away our sins, and then sat Himself down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. You may look up and see Him there in glory without your sins. That is what I see, thank God!

In Leviticus 16 no man was in the tabernacle of the congregation when Aaron went in “to make atonement.” Christ was all alone in the work of the cross, in the work of atonement. Will He be alone in the glory? Oh no! He is going to have me at any rate. Where are you going to spend eternity? In heaven, I hope, do you say? We must be a little more definite, my friend. Nothing fills hell like “hopes.” Faith seizes the person of Christ, it lays hold of Him, like the blind man in the ninth of John, who said, “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind now I see.” Faith has positive, definite assurance, and rests on the finished work of Christ. Hope rests on self. A man says, I am not what I ought to be, not what I should like to be. It is all I, self. Go to the Christian; he says, Oh, the Lord is so good, He keeps me happy all the day long. It is all the Lord with him. Faith is occupied with the Lord, unbelief with self. Self-occupation is a sorrowful and, alas, widespread disease; the only cure is Christ.

Those to whom God writes here―the Hebrews―were in danger of turning back to the beggarly elements of ceremonies and ordinances, ―the shell, as it were. So He presents Christ, the kernel. The difference between law and Gospel is this, the law appeals to man (and we have got enough of self-conceit to think that we can do something), while the Gospel is another thing entirely, it is all Christ, and what He does. He comes down to where the sinner lies in his sins, and picks him up without them, and, like the shepherd who, when he had found the sheep, carried it home on his shoulders, so Jesus does not let us drop, but brings us home to the Father in safety. If you were to get to heaven by your way, viz., doing something to gain it, you could not sing that beautiful song in Rev. 5, saying to the Lamb, “Thou art worthy... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood”. No, you would say, He is worthy of some credit; but we have prayed, and wept, and given alms, &c. The Lord describes in the Gospel of John the work that is necessary for your salvation: ― “This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”, There are two kinds of works which man can bring forth. If you have been wild and fast-living, sowing wild oats, these are wicked works. But you get awakened up to see such a life will not do for God; you go to a mission, perhaps, and think you will be better, you cease this habit, and give up that one, you become religious; in fact, your life is changed, you read the Bible and pray. True, the outside is changed, but what of the inside? “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?” No! “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” These works are “dead works,” as the ninth of Hebrews tells us. The first were “wicked” works, now these are “dead” works. What you do cannot save you. Suppose you were to break a window; well, you may put in a new one, but that does not repair the old. If you were to turn over a new leaf that would not undo the past. The Gospel tells us, that Christ has gone into death to purge away our sins, and has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It bids us look there; He is no longer here, He has been here but has gone to glory. Oh, make much of Him, consider Him, turn to Him, and lose yourself in Him.

Oh, the sweet, precious name of Jesus! How it wakes up a thousand memories of His love, His blood, His salvation. Has it any charm for you? Or are you insensible to its beauties? Is Jesus a friend of yours? You can soon tell: the believer’s heart responds to that name at once. In Psalm 41:5, the wicked say, “When shall he die, and his name perish?” Perish! no, never! “The memory of the wicked shall rot;” but God says of Him in Psalm 45:17, “I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.” Precious, blessed name. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Oh, how it has soothed many a dying bed, and broken many a hard heart! Truly, it is not the terrors of a broken law, nor the wrath of a sin-hating God, but the love of Jesus that breaks the sinner’s heart. Will you not let the One, who by Himself purged our sins, save you? You cannot save yourself, only yield yourself to Him. Delay is dangerous.

I do not dwell on all that is in the first chapter, but pass on to a solemn word in chapter 2― “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” What was the word spoken by angels? The law. Have you not transgressed? What is the just recompense of reward? It is sin that gets its reward. The sinner is sent from the presence of the Lord into blackness of darkness, eternal damnation. You who have sinned with a high hand, who have lived without Christ in sin, whom Present things have commanded, you will get your just recompense; it is death, and after death the judgment. What that is no tongue can tell. Do you say you do not believe it? Ah! my friend, you will be converted someday―not to Christ, not to the Lord, but to the truth of that solemn scene in Luke 16, of the rich man in hell. “Oh, a picture!” you say. Do you think that my Lord paints pictures to tickle sinners’ ears? Oh no! If the picture is so terrible, what must the reality be? O sinner, how blind and infatuated you must be, not to believe it. Answer this. If you neglect so great salvation, how shall you escape? YOU CANNOT.

Angels might tell men they would die if they sinned; but Jesus comes, and says that you will be saved if you believe in Him. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?” Go back to the Gospels and look when He began; He was always speaking it. He speaks yet from the glory― “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” “I am the bread of life.” “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.” Be like the woman who touched Him and was healed. The moment you touch you are healed, then will you not confess Him too? She was going away without doing it (and if you do, Satan may, very likely, tempt you that you were not rightly saved), but Jesus said, “Daughter!” She had never been called that before. He cures her out and out, and promises she shall never have a relapse. “Be whole of thy plague.” What a sweet gospel!

I want you to look to Him, let nothing come in to hinder your simple acceptance of Him. And then we have Him only to look on. “We see Jesus.” We do not want to see anything else; the more you look, the brighter will all get. If you want to be miserable look in; if distracted, look around; if happy, then look up. May you henceforth simply “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.”

W. T. P. W.

The Cross of Christ.

BY that truly magnificent work, the Cross in which God poured out His heart, we have three blessings gifted to the sinner believing on Jesus:

1. The thorough and unsparing judgment of sin.

2. Complete victory over Satan-over him who had the power of death.

3. The Holy Ghost given―the seal of a present salvation.

The weakest character of faith presented in Scripture is that of a man fleeing from judgment to Jesus, the “Refuge” from coming wrath (Heb. 6.). Some are attracted to Him by the power of His love; others by the virtue of His work upon the Cross; or again, by the moral glories of His person; but by far the greater number reach Him through their desperate need, apprehending Him simply as a “Resource” and “Refuge.” The faith of the reader may be feeble, but it is not that which saves. The point is, Have you fled to Jesus? Have you believed on the Son of God? Do you rest on His finished work? If so, you are saved. The Apostle Paul in the presence of Christ for eighteen hundred years, and the saved thief of the Cross in Paradise, there for eighteen centuries, are not safer, nor more beyond doom and judgment, than is the weakest saint on earth.

Well, by whatever path we may have traveled, we have got to Christ; that after all is the point of vital interest for our souls. Now, we want you, dear reader, so to know the value of Christ’s work on the Cross―the value of that work to God, that no shadow of doubt will ever rest on the soul; we want you to know as a present fact, —not a truth merely for head or heart, ―that you stand before God in the full and infinite value of Christ’s blood, and with conscience eternally purged. God willed your salvation. Christ has done the mighty work. The Holy Ghost in the Scriptures to the sinner, and in the conscience to the believer, witnesses to its perfection and glory. O, believer on Jesus! sheltered by God in the rock that was smitten by the hand of judgment, neither wave nor billow of wrath can ever reach thee; if so, if but one ripple of judgment could wash thy feet, then must Calvary be a thing of the past with God, and the precious blood of God’s Son have lost its value in His sight; but that were impossible.

Because of the personal purity of Jesus, because His holiness rebuked the evil of man in heart and life, because His heart was such that guilty sinners could lay their heads on His bosom of infinite love, and there sob out their tale of misery to the only heart whence no reproach ever came, men hated Him “without a cause.” Such was Christ, such is Christ; such was and is man.

But the iniquity of man in awarding to the Son of God the Cross, because He was light in repelling sin, and love in attracting the sinner, was God’s truly wonderful way of dealing with our sins in love and righteousness. Who was Christ whom man hated without a cause and God forsook on the cross? He was the Eternal Son of God, the Creator too of the ends of the earth, yet the wearied man of Sychar’s Well. He was the Prince of Life, yet the Man who in grace stooped to death. He was the King of Glory, yet the Holy One crowned with thorns, the emblem of man’s sin and guilt. His birth had been heralded by angels; at His baptism the heavens were cleft over Him, the Father uttered His expression of delight, and the Spirit found a resting-place on Him, on earth, the seal and witness of His personal purity.

The strong and mighty of earth gathered around the Cross of Christ. Yes; around Him in mockery, before whose countenance the winged and burning Seraphim cover their faces and announce His glory (Isa. 6.; John 12:41). Yet God, in presence of the insult and contempt poured out upon Him, forsook the only perfect Man who ever did His will. Oh, how can it be that the only Holy One, who never once swerved from obedience to Jehovah’s will, should bear the very agony of abandonment? Thou perfect One of God, ever perfect in the Father’s bosom, and as divinely so in the womb of the Virgin; perfect, too, in all Thy ways, words, and actions; Thou, wouldst maintain Thy perfectness in that awful moment when the wrath of God, the sins of men, and the enmity of Satan pressed upon Thee! Thou didst justify God in that which was the very strength of the agony Thou didst bear. He forsook Thee, but Thou didst say, “Thou art holy,” and “I am a worm and no man.” Thus, then, the glory of His person, and the perfection of His nature, have been brought to the Cross, and Jesus said, “It is finished.” The work is done, not doing; finished, not finishing; accomplished, not accomplishing.

At the cry of the conquering Saviour, “It is finished,” God could no longer keep silent. The words of the Victim, for sin, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” was answered by silence; but His cry as the Victor over sin is answered by God rending the temple veil and opening the tombs of the saints. Our souls, as the fruit of Christ’s victory and work, may now pass into the presence of God, while our bodies are sure of resurrection; for the tombs were rent, our sin all gone, and Satan eternally silenced. Now we can calmly contemplate the Cross as standing between the throne of God and the grave―power of Satan―giving us access to the one and deliverance from the other.

Now, as to the effect of all this grace upon our souls. The Lord who hung upon the Cross is now the glorified Man in God’s glory. It is now due to His heavenly position above that the Holy Ghost should witness to Him and His finished work here below. Consequently, the gift of the Holy Ghost to the believer on his reception of God’s testimony as to forgiveness, through faith in Christ’s name, is the full blessing of Christianity. But a mistake here may prove fatal to your soul, dear reader. Christ is God’s gift to the sinner; the Holy Ghost is God’s gift to the believer. The Spirit’s work in thee reveals thy sin; Christ’s work for thee shows it put away. The coming of the Spirit of God waited upon the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to God’s right hand. Jesus glorified as man was absolutely needful ere the gift of the Spirit could be bestowed (John 7:39). The Spirit has, therefore, come down from the glory where Jesus is, without our sins, He having put them away on the. Cross. The Holy Ghost comes to us laden with the wealth of God, the true Eliezer, freighted with the love-gifts and tokens of our heavenly Isaac’s affections (Gen. Judy.). He has come with the precious spoils gathered from God’s paradise, and as the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Of old the Holy Ghost had been the strength of Judges, the voice of Prophets, the power of service, the energy of faith; but the world could afford Him no home or dwelling-place, for He can only take up His abode when and where the blood of Christ―the witness of accomplished redemption―has been applied. But now, as the consequence of Christ’s heavenly place and glory, the Spirit dwells in the Church at large (1 Cor. 3.), forms the body (1 Cor. 12.), and dwells in the individual believer (1 Cor. 6.); that too forever (John 14:16).

The following are a few of the actions and services of the Holy Ghost: ―

1. He leads into communion with the Father and the Son.

2. He is the witness on God’s part of His eternal forgetfulness of our sins.

3. He makes intercession in our bodies for us.

4. He is the power by which we worship the Father.

5. He is the power of all testimony and of true service in life.

6. He is the power of walk and of life.

7. He is the seal of salvation and earnest of glory.

8. He imparts the consciousness of our sonship.

9. He is the distributor of gifts and teacher of the Church and of individuals.

May the Lord lead thee on, dear reader, knowing God as source of thy blessing, Christ on high thine eternal object, and the Holy Ghost on earth the power of Christianity.

“Thou hast bestowed the earnest

Of that we shall inherit:

Till Thou shalt come to take us home,

We’re sealed by God the Spirit.

We wait for Thine appearing.

When we shall know more fully

The grace divine that made us Thine,

Thou Lamb of God most holy.”

W. S.

Daniel.

THERE are two persons the Gospel of God seeks to bring together. It is concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 1:3), and in it He is presented as the Saviour to the sinner. Thus, the Saviour and the sinner are in question, and it is to bring the Saviour to the sinner, or the sinner to the Saviour, that is the object in its being preached in this world. The same as when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He sought the sinner, and to bring him to Himself, and often do we see in the account of the gospels, the Saviour and the sinner in company. To you, my reader, the Gospel comes just now, and seeks to bring you to Christ, the Saviour, who, though no longer below, but in heavenly glory today, is the same as yesterday, and forever (Heb. 13:8). It addresses you as a sinner, taking no account in this matter, which concerns your eternity, of any of the varied differences found in comparing man with his fellow―but as God sees all men alike, for there is no difference in His sight, all have sinned, and come short of His glory: there is none good, no not one (Rom. 3:10), not even yourself, as you may think you are an exception to the rule.

Now, in the sixth chapter of the prophet Daniel, we may look at him by way of type, or illustration of the truth, as setting forth, first the Saviour, and secondly the sinner, the two persons spoken of afore. In reading the chapter, we find the purpose of King Darius, who was on the throne of this world of that day, to exalt and set Daniel over the whole of his realm (ver. 3). Of Daniel, we read an excellent spirit was in him; no occasion, nor fault, nor error were found in him (vers. 3, 4), but innocence was found in him (ver. 22); for he was faithful (ver. 4); not even when he was tested, and occasion was sought by his enemies, could evil be discovered. Like another typical man, Joseph, in Genesis, only good is spoken of him. Now God has a man, whom He has purposed to set over the whole realm of His inheritance in a coming day, and that blessed man, when found down here, Jesus His name, was the one that was found faithful in the midst of unfaithfulness. He was holy; and before Pilate, when occasion was sought against Him, no fault was found in Him at all (John 18:38; 19:4), as the representative of the world’s power of that day had to own, when He was arraigned before its bar.

But before Daniel was set over the whole realm, he had to suffer: so Jesus had to suffer many things, and be killed, and be raised again the third day (Matt. 16:21). As soon as the purpose of the king was manifest, then all the presidents and princes of the kingdom (ver. 7) confederated together against Daniel. So did the kings and rulers of this world take counsel together against Jehovah and against His anointed (Ps. 2:2, and Luke 23:12), and the opposite purpose of the enemy in his subtle wiles comes out. A plot is laid against Daniel, and is allowed to succeed, and as far as man could do it, he was got rid of, and cast into the den of lions.

Let us pause, and look at the character of this plot. In it is seen an attempt of the enemy to carry out a purpose, which will be yet fully manifested in a coming day. As we read in Gen. 3:5, he had said to Eve at the first, “Ye shall be as gods;” in 2 Thess. 2:4, at the last, man is seen sitting in the temple of God, shoving himself that he is God. And this latter, note it well, is the future of this so-called enlightened age. We hear today of man’s boasted progress, even too, of the Gospel going to convert the world. Christendom makes its boast, and rears its head; but be not deceived, my reader, by man’s thoughts: let the light of the revealed Word of God, who knows all, tell you what the end will be. No God, the fool will say (Ps. 53:1), and many an infidel does say this today; then man takes the place of God. How awful, but such is the issue that all is going on to around us. It is high time to awake out of sleep, and not to look charitably on all the direct work of the enemy of God and man, working towards such an end. Our resource is the Word of God, and to bow to it, and so to Him who speaks therein.

Well, in Daniel’s day, Satan, through his instruments, sought to exalt man into the place of God for thirty days. By their flatteries, the presidents and princes of King Darius entrapped the poor man into signing a decree, to the effect that whosoever should ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of himself, should be cast into the den of lions (ver. 7). Deceived, he signed the writing and the decree; and through this the enemies of Daniel gained their ends. Daniel, not overcome by the fear of man, but faithful to his God, took no notice of the unrighteous decree, but continued as aforetime (ver. 10): he does well, and suffers for it, as Jesus did; and he finds his place in the den of lions. So man’s confederacy against Christ succeeded; their cry was, “Away with him, crucify him” (Luke 23:18-21). He was delivered over by wicked hands to the power of the roaring lion, the power of death, as far as they were concerned; man thus showing out his true character, not only in his own acts of sin, but in rejecting the Saviour, whom God had sent as the remedy for his case.

All closes in death, the stone is placed on the den (ver. 17), as on the sepulcher of Jesus in a later day; thus man played his sad part, and filled up the cup of his iniquity. And, dear reader, if you are still unsaved, still a stranger to God and to Christ, you are on the world’s side, you are, as all are by nature, an enemy of God (Rom. 5:10); it is for or against in this matter, there can be no compromise. Art thou then for Christ, or for His adversary? But if man did his worst, God has done His best; there is His side. He allowed Daniel to suffer, even unto death, so to speak, as He also allowed His Son. Then, as the mouths of the lions were shut, so it was not possible that Jesus should be holden of death, or the grave (Acts 13: 35; 2:24). The morning succeeds the night, the bright resurrection morn succeeds the darkness of man’s day; and God entered the scene, and raised up His Son, as Daniel was cast into the den, and brought up out of the den. So has Jesus died, but God has raised and exalted Him, and today we behold Him at God’s right hand in heavenly glory.

On Calvary’s cross, God dealt with the whole question of sin, judged His Son instead of the sinner; peace was made by the shedding of His precious blood, every question between God and the sinner, man, was raised and settled. So that just as King Darius, in the delight of his heart in having Daniel safely back again, publishes another decree, “Peace be multiplied to all” (ver. 25), God has now caused the proclamation of His Gospel to go forth, presenting the exalted Saviour to the sinner, preaching peace in all its fullness by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). We invite you to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20); He is the living God, who delivers and rescues (Dan. 6:26, 27), yea, the sinner from the power of Satan. You cannot save yourself, you need a Saviour; God sets forth Christ. Believe on Him who has raised up from the dead that blessed One. Daniel believed in his God (ver. 23), and was delivered because he trusted in Him. Trust ye, sinner, in the living God forever, and His Son, Jesus Christ; He is the God. Faith gets the blessing, it is on no other principle. And to remain unsaved is to ensure future judgment after death (Heb. 9:27), so, be not deceived; now, while ‘tis called today avail yourself of the opportunity, look unto Jesus, and be ye saved (Isa. 45:22).

This brings us to look at Daniel as type of the sinner. There are two decrees named in this chapter; the one ensuring the condemnation of the one who breaks the law of the Medes and Persians; the other, one of peace and plenty. We are here reminded of God’s two ways of dealing with man, the one that is past, the other now going on in the Gospel, or law and grace. And as someone, who reads this, may be on the ground of seeking to please God, or to be saved by works of law, there is a word for such from this chapter. God once gave His law to a people, Israel: it was like that of the Medes and Persians here, it altereth not, nor can be changed (ver. 8); no, not to suit you, my rea der. God’s law admits of no breach of it. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). Here we have a bad law condemning a good man; but in God’s law we have a good law condemning a bad man; you are this latter. Measure yourself by it. Perhaps you say, I do the best I can to keep the commandments, and God is merciful, and I trust it will be all right. But have you offended in one point? (James 2:10;) if so, believe God. You are condemned on that ground.

Daniel broke the law, was condemned, the penalty was enforced, and he was cast into the den of lions. So will it be with you for eternity, to be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), unless you abandon this ground. Remember, before God there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom. 3:12). Neither could Daniel deliver himself, nor could the greatest man, the king, do it, though he labored till the going down of the sun (ver. 4). Not all men’s works that ever were, past, present, or future, can deliver a single soul; only the finished work of Christ on the cross avails for this, and it is enough. Then, trust it sinner, by faith in His precious blood, and believe on Christ who shed it, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth (Rom. 10:4). So it is not of works of law, but of faith. The second decree speaks of peace on this ground alone: thus shall blessings be multiplied to you, and you shall prosper (Dan. 6: 28), as Daniel did, now and forever, and know what it is to be already accepted in the beloved Son, sharing the joys of the Father’s house in spirit and by faith, whilst waiting for the time to reign with Christ, when He will appear in glory, and be set over the whole realm of God’s inheritance.

Let me add a closing word, one of warning. What became of the enemies of Daniel? (ver. 24.) They were cast into the den of lions, and, or ever they came to the bottom of it, the lions had the mastery over them, and brake all their bones in pieces. How solemn, yet nothing to be compared to the judgment of the wicked for eternity, which, as we have already said, is to be cast into the lake of fire. If you are still unsaved, there is a mighty power that holds you a captive, and death and judgment will soon claim you as their prey, and have the mastery over you forever and forever. Thus must God deal with His enemies, who refuse or neglect to be reconciled to Him in this the day of His grace. Be wise then, my reader, hear His voice; acquaint thyself with Him, and be at peace. Believe on Christ and be saved. Failing this, be sure your sin will find you out, and that in the day of His judgment.

J. S. C.

Do You Plead Guilty?

WE read in Romans 3:19 that all the world is guilty before God. We have not to wait for the judgment to find if we are guilty or not. God tells us now, All are guilty.

Unfortunately people dispute the truth contained in this verse, and say they are not guilty. The result is, that they will be proved guilty before the great white throne. When a sinner pleads “Guilty,” and comes to Jesus, God justifies him. When he pleads “Not guilty,” and won’t come, God condemns him. To illustrate this I will tell you something that happened lately. Some men were put on their trial in S―, in Ireland, for complicity in a murder in a neighboring county.

All pleaded guilty except one, who asked the minister of his parish (who had come to give evidence) to give him a character.

“If you plead ‘Guilty,’” was the reply, “I will give you a character; but if you plead ‘Not guilty,’ I will not.”

What an illustration of the Gospel! only it is in righteousness God gives the sinner, who pleads guilty at the feet of Jesus, a character. And He can do so, because Christ was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Reader, do you plead guilty?

The Eye of God.

THE eyes of the Lord,” we read in Scripture, “are in every place beholding the evil and the good”; and if this simple truth were but apprehended in power, it would both encourage the believer, and deter the sinner from his sin. Very recently I met with a most remarkable illustration of its effect upon the conscience. Calling to see a young person who had attracted my attention in the meetings, I inquired if she were in the enjoyment of peace with God. She assured me that she was, and had been for some years. After some further conversation upon the blessedness of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, I asked―

“When and how were you converted?”

“It was many years ago,” she replied, “and in a most remarkable way.”

She then proceeded to narrate the following striking tale: ―As a child she had been brought up in a Sunday school, so that her mind was stored with Scripture truths, although she was not then converted. When she had reached the age of fourteen, or thereabouts, she conceived a great desire to go to a theater. She knew it was wrong, but, as is often the case, she determined to gratify, if possible, her inclination. She at length persuaded her father to take her, and on the evening arranged this foolish father aided his child to attain the desire of her sinful heart. Arriving early they proceeded to their seats, and, as the curtain was down, the place was almost in darkness. In the seat before them were two women conversing together, while waiting for the performance to commence. One of them suddenly said to the other, pointing to the curtain,

“Do you see that small hole at the top, through which the light shines?”

“Yes,” answered her companion.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No,” was the reply; “do you?”

“Yes,” said the other woman, “it is the eye of God looking down upon you and me.”

The child behind them heard these words, and instantly she was made to feel that the eye of God was resting upon her wicked heart, and that everything there was revealed before that all-searching gaze. All her expected enjoyment was gone, for she was brought in that moment, and in this way, face to face with God. The consequence was, as it always is when God meets the sinner, that she was convicted of her sin. In the light of His holy presence, that omniscient Eye piercing down into the depths of her heart, and discovering all the secrets of her life to herself, she felt herself arraigned before the judgment seat, and she confessed to the truth of the sentence, that she had sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The work of grace proceeded no further that night. She remained with her father till the close of the performance, which, if she saw, was now without significance or attraction, and then she returned home. But He who had met her in the theater watched over her still, and now the truths which had been lying dormant in her soul were kindled into life and power by the Spirit of God. Very soon she was thus taught that He who had convicted her of her lost and guilty condition had set forth Jesus as a propitiation, THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD, and that it was the delight of God’s heart to justify freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:20-26). Having then believed the word of God as to herself, she was now enabled to believe His testimony concerning Christ and the efficacy of His precious blood, and she was from that time cleansed from the guilt of her sins, made whiter than snow, eternally saved.

And what of you, beloved reader? Do you think that you can escape the eye of God? Hear what another says on this subject: ― “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psalm 139.). No, you cannot hide yourself from God and His eye rests upon you wherever you are, and beholds everything you do. There is not a word on your tongue but He knows it altogether; and hence it is that Be will produce at last, if you die unsaved, His book of works, and confront you with every deed of your life (see Rev. 20:12). Will you not, then, hear His pleading voice of mercy and grace in the Gospel, and come, while the day of salvation still lasts, to the feet of Jesus, and be saved? What more simple? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Then you will no longer fear the eye of God, for you will know Him as your God and Father, and will rejoice in the assurance of His servant that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous―over them now in loving watchfulness and care―and that His ears are open unto their cry, waiting, as He is, to listen to their requests, and to bestow upon them every needed blessing. You will at once enter upon an inheritance of blessing―blessing now, and blessing throughout eternity. For the unsaved sinner three things remain―death, judgment, and the lake of fire; for the saved soul there are in this world pardon, peace, a Father’s and a Saviour’s love, and afterward eternal joy with the Lord in the Father’s house. Whether of the two would you choose?

E. D.

"Father, will You Come and be Washed in Jesus' Precious Blood?"

SOME three years ago, as I sat by the death-bed of a boy of fourteen years, ―who was suffering from a dreadful disease from which there was no hope of his recovery, as the doctors had given him up as incurable, ―anxious to know if he was resting in Jesus, I asked him, “George, do you know your sins are forgiven?”

To my joy and surprise he answered, without a moment’s hesitation, “Oh, yes; Jesus has washed all my sins away in His precious blood, and I am going to heaven to be with Him.”

“I am so glad,” I said. “How long have you known that?”

“About a week. Jesus did it all for me, and I am so happy; quite ready to go to be with Him.”

“Well, dear George, you are going to be with Jesus, and you know your mother and father are not saved, you surely would like them to be with Jesus?”

“Yes, I should,” was his reply.

“You must tell them you are going to be with Jesus, and ask them to come too,” I answered, and thus I left him.

Three or four days after I was sent for a great hurry to go and see him. He was dying. Oh, those eyes! the very sight of them went through all; they were filled with a light, that at once testified that he was resting in the Lord. I took my seat beside him, and said, “You are going home, George.”

“Yes,” he replied; “I’m going home;” and placing his hand in mine, added, “Is it very cold?”

“Yes,” I said, “it is cold.”

“That shows I’m going soon,” he said with joy; and as he longed to be gone, he asked me to feel his hands if they were growing colder; and then with a smile he said, “Good-bye; kiss me; good-bye!” and thus he did to all in the room.

Then he said to me, “You’re coming to be with Jesus too?” and so he asked all in the room.

But when he came to his father (a man that professed not to believe there was a God, eternity, or a soul), he said, “Father, will you come and be washed in Jesus’ precious blood? He will wash all your sins away if you will come.”

A few moments later he said, “It’s all dark down here; I can’t see any of you; but it’s light up there:” Then in a whisper added, “No pain;” and his spirit had flown to be with Him who gave Himself for him, and washed away his sins in His precious blood, while the father was left in ‘tears at Such a message by his son’s mouth from God.

And now, dear reader, may I ask, Have you never received message from God to come and have your sins washed away ‘in Jesus’ precious blood? He says today, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Are you a sinner? Then Jesus came “to call sinners to repentance.” Are you lost? Then Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” Will you come? He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him. Do you fear He will not accept you? He said, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” To “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Would you be a son of God? Then come as you are, with all your sins, and take of the water of life freely, which God now offers to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

Remember, dear reader, it is not now the sinner who seeks God, but Jesus who seeks sinners, lost sinners, and such are you if not saved.

Oh, come Today is the day of salvation; tomorrow may be too late. “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” “The wages of sin is death;... the gift of God is eternal life.”

Which―oh I which―will you have?

J. H.

THE man who trusts his own heart is a fool. He who trusts God is wise. Faith counts on what God is, spite of what I am, or have done; and God always honors faith; for He likes to be trusted. All the resources of love, grace, and glory are open to the one who can say, “Lord, I believe.”

W. T. P. W.

Five Great Things.

Luke 14:16.

WE all know that supper is the last meal of the day; no person expects anything after supper-time, and there is something very striking in the Lord’s presenting the Gospel under the figure of a supper, and of a great supper.

It is the last action of God in grace. If you look back on man’s history, you find first the morning of innocence, and then man became a guilty sinner. Then came the noontide of his history, when man was tested and tried by the law, and he became a law-breaker. Next the eventide, when Jesus came in the fullness of His grace, and all man’s thought was to get rid of Him out of the world. God says then, as it were, I will make a last effort to reach man’s heart; I will attract him by the thought that I want his company, want to have him with Myself.

The thought of the supper is not merely forgiveness, but God coming out in the plenitude of His grace after man’s sin, his law-breaking, and his rejection of Himself, and saying, I want your company for Myself.

The supper is the consequence of Christ’s death, and it is the last action of God’s grace to meet man in the scene where the Son of God has been murdered, and the Holy Ghost rejected, for eighteen hundred years, before the besom of destruction sweeps the whole scene.

I believe that great supper includes every blessing the Holy Ghost can proclaim from an ascended Christ to needy sinners down here. Do you want pardon, peace, righteousness, to know God? You have all in Christ.

This, then, is the last message, God wants you. What do you think is man’s answer? The Holy Ghost says, “They all with one consent began to make excuse.” That is the first effect of the Gospel coming to man, unless he has felt the deep, urgent need of salvation. Here the first man’s excuse was, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it.” This was not a very good excuse, for most people, if they buy land, go and see it beforehand, but it sufficed for an excuse.

The second makes his business his excuse. “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them;” business which was all right in itself, but he put it between his soul and God.

The third makes the relationships of life his excuse, and this is worse still, for if he had wanted to go he would have taken his wife with him, but he says decidedly, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

One makes his pleasure, one his business, and one his relationships his excuse, but all make an excuse.

They are all a polite prayer to God to damn you, my reader, these excuses. God says, I want you for life, I want you for glory, I want you for my Son for everlasting blessing; and you turn and say, “I pray thee have me excused.” Ah, soul, soul, you will pray another prayer when it is too late.

I implore you not to put it oft Now is the moment; if you want salvation now is the time; God is calling on you now to receive the Gospel, to believe on His blessed Son. For only a few short moments God calls you. He would have you this very day give your soul to Him. The man who excuses himself, to him God’s solemn verdict goes out, “None of these men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” How solemn, how awful, when God answers prayer in this way.

But the tidings of the great supper goes out by the servants to others. Still, “yet there is room,” and so another gracious command goes forth, “Compel them to come in, that my house may be full.” This is what the Spirit of God is doing in the urgency of His grace, for God will have His house filled.

Turn now to Acts 8:4-6, and we see how the Word of the Lord was received.

I have no doubt it was the Jew first of all who heard the Word. The Jew had the first offer, then the messages are sent forth far and wide to proclaim the tidings of God’s grace. “They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them, and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake.” What a contrast to Luke 14!

Philip preached Christ; that beautiful word embraces everything. Christ the sinner’s Friend, Christ the Saviour, Christ the Shepherd, Christ our Life, Christ our Peace, Christ everything. “The people with one accord gave heed.... And there was great joy in that city,” because the moment the supper is partaken of, the moment the soul really receives what grace ministers, great joy follows.

Do you not hear the invitation, my reader? And will you not believe now, believe on Christ the One who loves you, the One who gave Himself a Saviour for you, Christ the One who saves on the spot the soul that gives itself to Him.

These people heard, believed, and had great joy. Everything with God is great.

If people have not this joy it is because they are not simple. When I have found out the goodness that is in the heart of God, grace and goodness only greater than the badness of my heart, what can there be but great joy?

Simple faith in Christ saves the soul, but believing the Word of God, joy springs up in the soul. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and that gives the heart joy.

Oh, my reader, would you be without the sphere of God’s joy?

Do you say, “What is my title to the supper?”

Your title is that you are invited. It is not your goodness that gives you a title to be there. The last man to be converted is the man who thinks himself a good man, because he is too full of any good deeds to feel any need of Christ.

You, my readers, who are hesitating, you who are halting, I ask, what are you going to do? You who say, I admit that God has provided on that supper table everything the soul needs; you that admit that the Christian has the best of it, I ask you, when are you going to be a real Christian? Nominally and by profession you may be one now, but that is nothing; you must be born again, you must be really converted, turned to God.

Do you say, I have been a professor these many years? Ah, an imitator of Simon Magus are you? Hear what the Lord has to say to such: “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.” What matter? The salvation of God, the interests of God.

I press these words upon you, unconverted professors of Christianity, if there is one judgment greater than another, I believe it is for those who have gone on with a lifeless profession of Christianity, and who have never known Christ.

But I turn to another great thing, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” There was a great supper, and great joy when it was tasted, and now a great salvation. It was the Lord first spake that “God so loved the world,” then others carried on the message, like Philip, and now we hear, “How shall we escape if we neglect?” Who are the neglecters? Those who put it off; those who are careless.

Why is it called a great salvation? Think what it cost. It was God’s own blessed Son who went to the cross―it was He who gave His life-blood there. It must be a great salvation that could save great sinners like you and me.

It is a present, a personal, a great, and an eternal salvation, and the Holy Ghost says, “How shall we escape if we neglect” it?

Do you ask, Escape what? Ah, my reader, there are other things coming, other ways of God with man besides ways of grace and long-suffering, and Gospel preaching. Do you say, What? Turn to Rev. 6:12, &c. The One whom you have despised is going to enact other scenes on this earth. He is the one who opens the seals, and we read in verse 17: “For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” Believer, you will be able to stand. Feeble believer, you can answer that question, for you can say, “I shall be able to stand, for I shall be by the side of the One who is judging.”

But you who are unconverted, unbelievers, what will you do? Now that the Gospel is proclaimed you despise it―you put it off―you neglect it; but then, then, when the great day of His wrath is come, where will you be? What a moment that will be which Scripture calls “the great and notable day of the Lord!” Not the day when God is preaching pardon and peace, but the day when He is gathering up the reins short, when Christ is taking to Himself His great power and reigning.

Ah, my unconverted reader, you who are ashamed to be seen at a prayer-meeting now, you will yet go to a prayer-meeting―yes, and find your prayer unanswered; they say “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us,” &c. What a foolish prayer, too; but no man is such a fool as the man without Christ.

God offers you eternal life, and you live for time; He offers you everlasting blessing with Himself, and you live only with men on the earth, and die like a beast, as far as earth is concerned, and only rise again for judgment. And if you are alive on the earth when this day comes―and you may be―then you will call on the mountains and rocks to fall on you, and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb. And He would have saved you! You have made light of the blood of the Lamb, and it would have washed your sins away. You have despised the grace of the Lamb; and oh, what will it be when you feel the wrath of the Lamb? “Hide us! hide us!” they cry. Who spake of wrath? Man’s conscience.

What a contrast: A great supper, great joy, great salvation, and great wrath; and who will be able to stand? If you are not in Christ now you will not be able to stand; if you are unconverted, dismiss the thought that you will stand then. No, no; the man who has trusted Christ now is the only one who will stand then.

Now turn to Rev. 20, where we have something else that is great and decisive. A great supper has been despised, great joy has never been tasted, a great salvation never accepted; the great day of His wrath has been long feared, for judgment begins in a man’s conscience long before it really falls. Then at last it falls; there is a “great white throne,” and who sits on it? The One who would have saved you now; the One who shed His blood that He might be able to save you, but the One who then can only judge you. The dead stand before the great white throne, and the books are opened―your book, my reader, and what does it say? Born without Christ, lived without Christ, and died without Christ; born in sin, lived in sin, died in sin. And another book is opened―the book of life―and in vain is its register searched for your name, my unconverted reader. It is not there; and every one whose name is not found there is cast into the lake of fire.

Oh! can you risk it? Can you put off another hour? Come to Christ where you are and as you are. There is salvation for you where you sit. One look of faith at Christ, and everything His great supper provides is yours. May your soul say, Lord, from this moment I believe, I am Thine.

“Jesus, spotless Son of God,

Thou hast bought me with Thy blood;

I am Thine―and Thine alone,

This I gladly, fully own.”

W, T. P. W.

Four Looks.

I WANT to speak to you about four looks — two from God’s side, and two from man’s.

The first is in Psalm 14:2, 3: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

If that had been the only look from God’s side, there would have been no hope for man, no salvation! God made man upright, but he had turned aside! What a sight to meet His eye! All gone aside, not one upright, all revolted against Him!

Has God a good word to say of you? You may have something good to say of yourself, and your neighbor may have something good to say of you, but what has God to say? Perhaps you think and admit that, though you are not very good, still you are not very bad. How many there are who think they occupy a position before God which they do not! When they do wrong they say it is more an error of the head than of the heart. What an awful mistake! God says, “The heart is deceitful all things, and desperately wicked.” And to say, “It is an error of the head and not of the heart,” when there is no good thing in it, is to give God the lie!

God looked down to see if there were―not many, but―any that did understand. Did He find any? No. Just think that man, whom He made with intelligence and reason, does not understand. If you have never been alone with God, or, to speak plainly, if God has never convicted you of your sins, then you do not understand. It is one thing to acknowledge that you have done bad things, and quite another to acknowledge that you yourself are bad. Did you ever meet a man worse than yourself? Look at the publican in the temple. When men are in the presence of God, they are not occupied with other people. He said, “God be merciful to ME, THE sinner,” and smote on his breast, as much as to say, Here lies all the mischief. The Pharisee was looking all round him, and thanking God that he was not like others. If you have never been convicted by God, you do not know what you are. What shall we say of those who hear the Gospel, and go home and lay their heads on their pillows, and think all is right with them, when God says, “There is no peace to the wicked”? They have got Gospel-hardened, they have got a crust on them like a crab; they know all that we can tell them, but we make no impression on them! What a dreadful thing to be without understanding, and like the beasts that perish!

They are all gone aside―all. You may not like that, but what does GOD say? What is the use of differing from God? God says you have “become filthy.” Did you ever think that you were filthy? Perhaps you thought you were pretty good, but where are you in the presence of such a scripture as this? God says, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” You are a sinner in the presence of God, and this is what He says of you. People talk of doing the best they can. What is that? You cannot do good. I asked a man what he thought was the way to get to heaven, and he said, he thought the only chance was to do the best one can and pray. Another, in the north of Ireland, who was dying of a deadly disease, to whom I put the same question, said he thought it was by working, and doing, and striving, the best he could. How much does your best amount to? “There is none that doeth good.” Your best will not save you. All your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. No one thinks his sins are clean, but God says his righteousnesses are filthy. How can God accept filth from you?

What a mercy God hath taken another look from heaven! In Psalm 102:19, we see, “For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death.” In Psalm 14 the Lord was looking down, and He saw that all were filthy and had gone aside; none was good. What a mercy that He took another look, to behold the prisoner, to hear their groaning in worse than Egyptian bondage! He said to Moses, “I have heard their cry; I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them.” Here He looks down. How is it possible that He should deliver them?

In Heb. 9 we read, “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation” (Heb. 9:26-28). Here is the answer to the question. God gave the best thing He had in heaven for the worst thing on earth. O friends, what a glorious thing! The best thing in His heart! “I’m a poor sinner, and nothing at all, and yet I can boast that I have got the best thing in His heart!” But, before the sinner could be loosed, it was necessary for Christ to go down into death, to deliver those who were appointed to die. The Gospel is all from God’s side; it is not God making a bargain with man; it is not God saying, You must do something for Me, and I will do you good. No God draws near to the sinner and gives to him.

Where has this river of blessing its source? Does it spring from the cross? You must go further back than that. You must go to the very heart of God. He gave His only begotten Son to go to the cross. It is entirely from Himself―God’s goodness in spite of man’s badness.

Turn to Isa. 45:21. “There is no God else beside me; a just God and a”―what? What word would you supply, if you had no book, and did not know the passage? A just God and a―judge? It would only be what any intelligent person would say. But no. “A just God and a Saviour.” How can that be? In Rom. 3: 26, we see how He can be just and the justifier of the ungodly. He is just in justifying every sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. He invites you to look unto Him and be saved. O how blessed that He speaks thus!

How can you look to Him? Just in confidence, as you would depend on a person who has undertaken to do something for you. You say, I look to you. That is, you count upon your friend to do what he has promised. It does not mean that you follow him with your eyes wherever he goes. “Look unto me and be ye saved.” You have not a word to say for yourself. Have you ever turned to that blessed One? Have you ever looked to Him who died and rose again? It is so simple, you have only to believe on Him? Suppose I were called into God’s presence, what could I say to Him? I could point to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, “He has borne all my sins; He has taken them all away.”

God took ONE MAN out of the grave (the grave is the lowest place a man can get into in this world). He did not take Noah, nor Abraham, nor David, nor the prophets. He left them all; but this Man He took out of it, and raised Him to His own right hand. What a mark of favor God thus conferred upon Him! That is the One who bore all my sins. He did a work eighteen hundred years ago that is sufficient to save me out ang out, and take me to the glory above. It is Christ who is the Alpha and Omega―the beginning and the end. He says, “Look unto me,” depend on Me; and if I depend on Him, shall I ever find I have made a mistake? Oh, what a thought! Rest on Him, and you will find you are on the only Rock, all else is sinking sand.

Now for another look, and it is for Christians. In Phil. 3:20, we read, “For our conversation― citizenship―is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to come as Saviour, for, though our souls are saved, our bodies are still in the old creation. But we are not always to be held down by them; we look for the Saviour to change them. We shall be like Him them; “now are we the sons of God;” we are children now, as much as ever we shall be in heaven, but waiting in this world for God’s Son from heaven to change our bodies, and make them like His own. Then “shall we be forever with the Lord.”

But some may not be clear as to this. They think that when the Lord comes, He comes to judge. They say every Sunday of the year, “I believe... He sitteth on the right hand of God, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” I believe the Lord Jesus came eighteen hundred years ago, and was Himself judged for my sins, therefore I never can be judged for them. I know believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but that is not to be judged for sins. Suppose that I employ a gardener, or some other workman, and when paying him I give him a discharge, it is not to say that he is a gardener, but what sort of gardener he is. When saints in glorified bodies appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, it is not to see if they are Christians, but to see what sort of Christians they have been. The moment the Lord Jesus leaves the Father’s right hand, the dead will be raised, and the living will be changed, and caught up to meet Him in the air. We all shall have bodies like His own. Will He judge people for their sins who are dike Himself? He could not We look for Jesus the Saviour!

I leave one word in Job with you―a solemn, solemn word― “Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18).

May the Lord give you a blessing, and enable you to receive it, for His own name’s sake!

F. C.

The Future Unveiled.

THERE will be no impaired memories in hell. Each mind will be strong, active, reflective; the past, every stage of it, and the dreadful future will be present to the mind, ―an eternity without God, the thought of which will fill the soul with unutterable woe.

Luke 16:19-31 gives us a sight of eternity. The Lord Jesus draws aside the curtain, and before us lies a scene of unutterable woe on the one hand, and of unspeakable happiness on the other. One man is comforted, the other tormented.

It is not a parable, as some will have it, but a statement of facts, as known by the Son of God, and surely it is our wisdom to learn of Him. But supposing it to be a parable, what of it? It is a parable of something. God never deceives; it is impossible for Him to lie; and if He speaks thus plainly, it is of His mercy that sinners may be warned, “lest they also come to this place of torment.”

It is figurative, highly figurative, say some; but if it is figurative, it is figurative of something, and what is that something? God cannot deceive; He never overdraws, and with Him the reality is never below the figure. Who can suppose that the Holy Son of God, who came into the world to seek and to save sinners, could deliberately deceive them as to the future? No; He loved, He came, He taught, He warned, He pleaded, He reasoned, He spake as never man spake, He bled and died. And what for? To deceive? no, but to save. His purpose was to save; and in giving us these solemn words about the future, it was that we might be warned to flee to the place of eternal safety, in order to escape the just and awful consequence of living and dying in our sins without God and Christ, and being doomed to that outer darkness where light and hope can never come.

The Lord speaks of two men―a rich man and a poor man―the one enjoying all the good things of earth without reference to God; the other, whose lot was hard, as men speak, was one whose trust was in God, and who in the midst of his earthly afflictions drank of a cup, that the rich man, “clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day,” knew nothing of. In the secret of his soul, in his heart of hearts, was a peace that the world’s favors cannot give, nor the afflictions of the world take away.

Mark what is said of the two men. “And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom; the rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.” Each of the men die, for it is appointed unto men once to die; nothing can stop the onward progress of death. But mark at once the awful change, the terrible contrast between the condition of the two menthe one “tormented with the flames,” the other peacefully resting in “Abraham’s bosom.” The one, though surrounded by God’s blessings, had lived and died without recognizing His authority―died without God―and, therefore, an eternity without God was before him; the other, deprived of earthly comforts and blessings―a beggar―had in his heart turned to God, and found Him a gracious Saviour-God, one willing to accept all that come to Him; and now his life of trial, a fit discipline for eternity, is over―an escort of angels wait on the ransomed spirit to take it to the place of plenty, and of everlasting repose.

A gulf, deep and wide, an impassable gulf lies between. No angelic wing can carry the message of mercy from heaven to hell, and no judgment-doomed soul can cross from hell to heaven. All is fixed, eternally fixed! As the tree falls, so it lies. As man dies, so he lives for eternity! Appalling fact! and yet, alas, how few heed it.

The rich man calls for mercy― “Abraham, have mercy on me.” No; in life God’s mercy had been slighted, rejected, and trampled underfoot, and mercy thus treated in time is mercy lost forever. He calls for a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus; but no―the “water of life,” free, flowing, and costless, he had despised all the days of his existence here, and now an eternity in the desert, parched, waterless, gloomy regions of the lost, is the awful consequence!

As to himself, all hope is lost; he yields to the tremendous fact; and though no mercy can reach him, he would fain have some messenger to be sent to his “five brethren” to testify to them, “lest they also come to this place of torment.”

What is the answer? “Reader, you have the same, and more. Have you heeded God’s word through them? Oh, if not, think of the awful and eternal consequence!

The rich man replies, “Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent.”

How solemn and conclusive is Abraham’s answer― “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Beloved reader, I make no comment here. I leave it with you and your conscience. In that heart of thine is there “repentance towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ”? Have you as a needy sinner put your trust for eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, it is well with you, blessedly and eternally well; but if not, it is not well, you are in danger of “dying, and in hell lifting up your eyes being in torments.” I solemnly beseech you to lay these things to heart.

E. A.

Gospel Hymn.

THE holy Lamb has died

A victim on the tree;

For sinners He was crucified,

To set them free;

He bore the righteous stroke

Of God’s right hand of power;

O’er Him the waves and billows broke

In that dark hour.

Our sins were on Him laid,

He bowed beneath the load,

By Him the mighty debt was paid―

The debt we owed;

Now see Him on the throne,

Who once on Calvary bled,

The One who did for guilt atone

O’er all as Head.

See, God can now be just,

And justify the one

Who places his unmingled trust

In His blest Son,

Whose precious blood makes clean

The vilest who believe;

Nor spot nor stain on those is seen

Who Christ receive.

The Father runs to meet

His lost and guilty son;

The robe, the ring, the sandaled feet,

Tell what He’s done:

“The fatted calf bring here,

‘Tis meet we merry be;

My son, far off, is now brought near,

Rejoice with Me.”

Come, guilty sinner, come!

Why wilt thou still delay?

Within the Father’s house there’s room,

Christ is the way;

The Father’s kiss still waits,

For thee His heart doth yearn,

And open wide are heaven’s gates―

Return! return!

G. W. F.

The Gospel Lifeboat.

THE lifeboat is a favorite illustration of God’s provision for perishing sinners, and a very good one if rightly used; but what should we say of the “humanity” of a society that would send out a boat on such conditions as those with which the Gospel, as preached by man, is often hampered?

There is a ship in distress; she has sprung a leak, has lost her masts, rudder, charts, and compass; is fast filling with water, and doomed to sink. All on board will assuredly perish unless rescued in time.

But see! a lifeboat is put out, and draws near to the ship-near, but not quite alongside. No; the rules of her society are that no one is to be saved unless strong enough to jump or swim from the sinking ship to the lifeboat; and even then they must not dare to get into the boat, but must hold on outside by the life-ropes, or whatever they can grasp. However exhausted, they must not relax their hold, for if they let go for a moment they will be left to themselves to struggle back or perish; they must hang on as best they can, and hold out until they get to shore, and then they may hope to be alive and safe.

Well, you say, no society ever sent out a boat on such conditions as these. Surely not, and yet is not this a faithful picture of the Gospel (so-called) of those who, admitting man’s responsibility, ignore God’s sovereignty, and by preaching “free-will” deny the sinner’s utter helplessness? saying in effect that a man can will himself in and will himself out; whereas Scripture declares, that “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom. 9:16), and “of his own will begat he, us with the word of truth” (James 1:18).

A second lifeboat comes up. But when the conditions are made known it is found that they are only authorized to rescue a certain number, and that none are to avail themselves of it but those who happen to know that it is intended for them. Others are not even to be invited, and may even be ruthlessly thrust back if they attempt to get in.

No humane society would ever issue such instructions or impose such conditions; but they are sadly like the terms under which the Gospel is presented by those who, seeing only God’s sovereignty in election, deny man’s responsibility to believe the Gospel or come to Christ, and consequently have but narrow thoughts of “the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men” (Tit. 2:11). While dwelling on the helplessness of man, they fail to set forth the readiness of God to save all who come to Him through Christ without any other warrant than God’s WHOSOEVER.

But now a third lifeboat is seen, and loud voices are heard shouting to the perishing, “Whosoever will, let him come.” “Ho, every one!” “Leave the sinking ship! Let go the rope! Drop in, drop in; the boat is alongside; strong arms are under you! Old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, there’s room for all; and if you do but get into the boat, we promise you, in the name and on the credit of the owner, that you shall be safely landed.”

They hesitate; they are not half aware of their imminent danger, and some seem even to prefer the old ship to the untried boat. But the owner of the boat was bent on saving some; and see! a strong man has boarded the sinking vessel, and is taking up in his arms the poor exhausted passengers, though many are so far gone as still to need rousing to the consciousness of their situation. See how gently he deposits them in that splendid boat, and hear the shout of joy that welcomes each rescued one! The weakest, the worst, the poorest, the most undeserving of the passengers, the most mutinous, the most depraved, the vilest of the crew are invited, entreated, persuaded, compelled (Luke 15:23) to get into that lifeboat. Once in, the weakest babe is as safe as the strongest man, and all get safe to land; for they are borne along by a power that is mightier than winds and waves, and their security is bound up with the honor of a name that never fails.

I ask you now, dear reader, which of these three boats most faithfully illustrates that Gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God, which baffles all attempts of man to depict it by any illustration whatever, in its vastness, fullness, freeness, and stability?

Talk not of Calvinism or Arminianism, but listen to the Word of God. Did the good Samaritan (Luke 10.) only come near to the man who had fallen among thieves and was half-dead? Did he say he would help him to get home? or did he go “to him,” and put him on his own beast and bring him to an inn? Did he afterward leave him to take care of himself? or did he entrust him to the care of a faithful host? This, you will not deny, is a divine illustration of the grace presented in the Gospel.

Had the “impotent man” (John 5) to move hand or foot in order to get the benefit of Christ’s power? Or did Christ alone make him “every whit whole”?

Are the “sheep” (John 10.) told to hold on to the good Shepherd “as best they can?” or does He keep them in His own Almighty hand? Will He let them perish if they are not faithful; or is not He “faithful that promised” “they shall never perish”? (Heb. 10:23, and John 10:28.)

Again, although God doubtless foreknew His own (Rom. 8:29) “who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4), can we say who are the elect? and would not all find themselves elected, if only they came to Christ in response to His invitation? Could He refuse any who did come, on the ground that they were not of the elect, when He has said, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out”? (John 6:37.)

What are we that we should dare to limit the offer of mercy through the blood of Jesus Christ, when God Himself presents it with an all-embracing WHOSOEVER?

Let us, on the one hand, own with thankfulness the sovereign grace which has provided in Christ a remedy for all who acknowledge their guilt and helplessness; and, on the other hand, remember that all are responsible to believe the Gospel, and that “he that believeth not is condemned already,” not because he is not elect, but “because he hath not believed” (John 3:18).

“The grace of God bringeth salvation to all men”―to the guilty, the helpless, the lost; and while it is perfectly true that we are responsible to believe, and can only be saved by grace “through faith,” it is equally true that the faith is not of ourselves. “It is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8); and again, though “whosoever will may come,” we should never be willing did not the Holy Spirit compel us to come in.

Remember―

God provides the Lifeboat;

Christ is the Lifeboat;

The Holy Ghost fills the Lifeboat.

If I am saved, it is simply of God’s grace; if I be lost, it will surely be my own fault.

E. B. G.

The Ground of Old John's Peace.

NEAR the little country village where many of us were brought up, stood a cottage where there lived an old man all by himself. I had been accustomed to see him on the roads from my childhood, therefore felt a great interest in him, and a deep desire that he would know Christ as his Saviour, longing that He who had now made known His love to me, in dying for me, rebel as I was, might give a message for Him of that mighty love.

At length, one fine day, I set out for his cottage, and having reached the door ventured, with fear and trembling, to knock, having lifted up my heart to Him who knows the thoughts of the heart to open up the way Himself. On hearing the knock, the old man came to the door, but could not see me, as he was of late growing quite blind.

After some inquiries as to his health, I asked him if he had peace with God. At this question he stood up quite erect, and never shall I forget his answer, and the great earnestness of his tone.

“Peace with God! Yes, thank God, I have, and if I had not, what should I do now?”

“Well, may I ask you the ground of your peace with God?” said I.

“The ground of my peace with God is the work which my Saviour accomplished for me on Calvary’s cross more than eighteen hundred years ago, that He might clothe me with the robe of God’s righteousness, for righteousness of my own I have none. That’s the ground of my peace, and, thank God, He has revealed it to you, too. What are we more than others that He thus made plain His salvation to us? We never could have comprehended it, for our poor finite minds could not grasp it, had He not in His grace made it known to us by His Holy Spirit. Before ever the world’s foundation was laid God devised the plan―God Himself, the triune God―God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost―and that Holy Spirit has now revealed it to me, and I have often opportunities of telling of that finished work to those around me, and speaking a word for Christ. The One who did the work should have all the praise and the glory.”

He then repeated scripture after scripture telling of man’s ruin and God’s remedy―telling me that it had been his delight, while he could see, to pore over the precious pages of God’s Holy Word, and that now those blessed words kept coming back to him since he could not read.

How, refreshing it was to find such a one, poor in this world yet rich in faith, giving such a testimony, not afraid to confess Christ, and delighting to tell what He had done for Him!

Should this little paper fall into the hands of anyone who would fain cover himself or herself with a robe of their own righteousness, let me tell you, my beloved fellow-sinner, from the unerring Word of the living God, that it is all useless, vain work. Accept now God’s verdict (ere it is too late, while the day of salvation is still here) that “all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” or else by-and-by, when it is too late, you will find the covering narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it (Isa. 28:20), and like Adam and Eve in the garden, the covering they had made for themselves they found useless, for when they heard the voice of God calling them they hid themselves. Adam himself tells us why― “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10), though all the time they had on their fig-leaf covering. Further on we read that the Lord God Himself made them coats of skins, and clothed them, and that is a picture of what He is doing now.

Listen to what He says in Rom. 10:3, 4, ― “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth?” Why, then, waste your time in trying to do what you never can do? You can never fill up the breach between God and yourself. By nature you are so far off, and by practice, too, that nothing can possibly make you nigh but the blood of Christ. God alone could measure the distance, therefore He alone could “devise the means whereby His banished should not be expelled from Him.” A work much greater than man could do, a ransom much greater than man could pay, was needed, and the only one who could meet that need was the Son of God, and that spotless Son of God Himself became the victim, the Lamb of God for the sacrifice, for “without shedding of blood is no remission.” He, blessed be His name, willingly offered Himself, without spot, to God, for He loved us with a love that was stronger than death―a love that many waters could not quench.

“He once a spotless victim

For us on Calvary bled,

Jehovah did afflict Him,

And bruised Him in our stead.”

There on that cross where He shed His blood He said, “It is finished.” Oh! sinner, believe it. The work is done, the debt is paid, and now “God can be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

E. M. M.

Have You a Good Foundation?

WHAT a strange infatuation seems to possess the minds of the mass of people around us with regard to the way of salvation!

The common creed is, “Do the best you can―pay everyone their due―attend the means of grace―pray for forgiveness―and you have nothing to fear.”

It seems almost incredulous that men with the Bible in their hands could be satisfied with such a miserable and unscriptural foundation as this; but, alas! it is so.

While they have health and strength, and death seems far distant from them, they can content themselves with such a flimsy structure on which to build their hopes of heaven. But when the waves of death begin to assail them, and the sights and sounds of earth begin to fade away―when the death dews stand upon their brow, and the light of eternity begins to illuminate the past―ah, then their foundations shake. The structure topples, and falls as the sand upon which it was built is washed away. How oft has the agonizing cry been wrung from the dying lips of such men, “Great God! I have shut Thee out, and deceived myself; and now I am dying, helpless and hopeless, and sinking into hell.”

My reader I sit down for a moment or two, and consider this momentous question, “On what are your hopes of heaven based?”

It will not do to indulge in delusive dreams, like the hungry man recorded in Isa. 29:8. He dreamed that he was eating, and awoke, and his soul was empty; and that he was thirsty, and drank, but he awoke and was faint. Remember, if you have not a divine foundation on which to base your hopes of heaven, sooner or later the floods of judgment will come and awake you, dispelling your miserable dream of security, and sweep away your guilty sin-stained soul into the abyss of everlasting woe.

What has your life been? May be one long course of unrestrained and shameless immorality! You have laid the reins on the neck of your passions and lusts, and, unchecked in any way whatever, you have rushed on and had your fling, ruined your constitution, broken the hearts of your friends, and in the prime of your manhood we behold you an inveterate drunkard, a moral wreck, blighted and woe-begone, sinking into a drunkard’s grave and a drunkard’s hell.

Is this so? And has God been blind to all this? Has He not witnessed your prodigal course? Is it nothing to Him?

Oh, my reader, He has watched you. His eye was upon you. He saw you waste your time, your talents, your money, your health; till, like the prodigal, you had “spent all.” But, forget not, He has appointed the reckoning day; and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:22).

How will you meet the Judge? Where will you hide your guilty head as you are dragged to the bar of divine justice, to meet Him whose very character is bound up in the punishment of your sin? But I forbear saying more. May God have mercy upon you, and lead you to repentance.

Perhaps, my reader, you say―and say truthfully― “Thank God such has not been my life.” Well, I say with you, thank God.

What then characterizes your life? You are respectable, moral, amiable, and, withal, religious. The common creed is yours. “Do the best you can―pay every one their due―attend the means of grace― pray for forgiveness―and hope in the mercy of God.”

Stop, my reader, stop! I doubt not your creed satisfies you in the meantime, but what about your sins and their wages? What about the character of God? What about Jesus, and His precious blood? What about that solemn statement from the lips of the Son of God, “Ye must be born again”? (John 3.) What place have these things in your creed?

Think for one moment how the eye of God penetrates beneath all your religious exterior! How He searches for “truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6). God looks at the heart. He deals with the heart. He demands the heart. “My son, give me thy heart.” Now, what have you given Him? Might He not say of you as He said of some of old. “This people draw near unto me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isa. 29:13).

All you have for God is an empty, religious form. You have never been born again―hence the spring of life is not there. You have never repented’ of your sins, and sought mercy at the hands of the Saviour. And in your religious, self-righteous, self-satisfied state, you are passing on to hell, deluded by Satan, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:3, 4).

Oh, my reader 1 if you desire to have a solid and abiding foundation, on which to rest your soul for eternity, you must have the one God has laid. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). God gave His Son “to be the Saviour of the world,” and Jesus died on the cross to save sinners from “the wrath to come.” The storm of divine wrath and judgment spent itself on Him, when He make atonement for sin on the cross; and now, having raised Him from the dead, God sets Him forth as the only divine foundation, on which man can safely build for eternity.

Would you stand before God in Christ? Then give to the winds all your own righteousness, and as a guilty sinner put your trust alone in Him. Or do you prefer to hold on to the empty forms of a Christless religion? Then know that ere long the waves of death will assail you. The thunderings of divine judgment will be heard. And as the storm of wrath bursts upon you, all your refuges of lies will fail, and your guilty soul will be swept away from its hiding-place into the sea of endless torment and woe. Then will the bitter wail of agony start from your parched lips, “I might have been saved. I was told of the falsity of my position, and the foundation which God had laid; but I believed it not. I thought I was right, and dreamed of security, and now I am awaked, and lost forever!”

“You must be born again.” You must be washed from your sins in the precious blood of Jesus. Religious or profane; there is only one course left for you to pursue to “escape the damnation of hell;” and that is, “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” The Gospel is still God’s power unto salvation to every one that believeth. Trifle no longer, sinner! There is no time to lose. This very moment accept God’s remedy for your awful ruin, and give; Hin the praise.

W. E.

Have You a Wedding Garment on?

JESUS, amongst other parables, likened the kingdom of heaven to a certain king, which made a marriage (or wedding feast) for his son. The bidden guests refuse the invitation, make light of the message, go their own ways, and insult and slay the messengers, until the king in righteous wrath destroys them. But resolved that his son should be honored, he again sends forth servants, saying, “Go ye into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.”

We have a striking picture in all this of the invitations of the Gospel, and how they have been treated in the past history of man. God’s purpose is that His Son should be honored. The wedding feast is for Him. Israel were already the bidden guests, as we find in the prophets, but they have refused, and lightly treated the invitations sent to them both by the servants of the Lord when upon earth, and after the Lord had taken His seat in glory. They went their ways, and slew several of His messengers. God sent judgment upon them: Jerusalem fell, and the mass of its people were swept from the earth.

But the Jews having refused His grace, the servants of God are sent to the Gentiles. As saith the apostle, “The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it” (Acts 28:28). The invitation is world-wide now. The servants of the Lord are to bid as many as they shall find. It could not be wider than that. Whosoever, wheresoever, whatsoever, you are invited. High or low, rich or poor, wise or ignorant, great or small, old or young, all are included. Reader, you are bidden; will you come? Take care how you treat the message. The Jews made light of it, and judgment overtook them. If you dare to do the same, how will you escape?

“So the servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.” For eighteen hundred years or more the servants have gone forth with the invitation. Hundreds of thousands have responded to it, and there is no lack of guests. All Christendom is included; all who profess the name of Christ. Are you a professor, my reader? Then are you a guest.

But the guests must have a suited wedding garment. Ordinary clothing will not do for the presence of a king. We read next, “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless” (Matt. 22:12). Picture to yourself a royal palace of magnificent proportions, and in the chief hall, decorated with a splendor worthy of the exalted position of the owner, and lit with a perfect blaze of light, a banquet spread, the tables loaded with the richest viands and the choicest delicacies. The servants have done their work, and from one end to the other the hall is filled with guests. Suddenly the palace doors are thrown wide open, and the king enters to see the guests. Every eye is fixed upon him in a moment, and many hearts beat high. With eagle glance he scans the rows of guests, when suddenly all are conscious that his eye is fixed upon one man. What ails him? His lips quiver, his eye quails, his cheeks pale, he trembles from head to foot. What is it? Has he no business there? Most surely he has Both bad and good―all were invited. What then has he to fear? His character may have been bad, but the bad were included in the invitation. That cannot.be the reason then. “Friend,” says the king, addressing him. Ah, this shows he was welcome. The king had no feeling against him. But he asks him a question, “Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” Well, surely he can answer that simply enough. Surely he would never have dared to intrude upon such a scene without fit clothing, had he not an ample excuse. But no, it adds, “And he was speechless.”

Beloved reader, are you a professor of Christianity? Do you reply, “I go to a place of worship regularly.” Are you a Christian? “I don’t profess to be a religious person.” Then what do you profess? “I’m not an infidel.” Then whatever are you? You object to be called an infidel, you don’t profess to be a Christian, and yet you go, as you say, to a place of worship, and outwardly act as one. “I’m not what you would call a Christian.” Ah, my friend, I fear that, like thousands more, you are not what the Word of God calls a Christian, but a mere nominal professor. And all the guests at the wedding feast are professors. If you take your place from time to time nominally as a Christian, whatever your state, you are a professor. The invitations of grace have gone forth far and wide; for hundreds of years the servants have been busy inviting the guests. All observers of the outward forms of Christianity prevalent throughout Christendom have accepted the invite, and have taken their place at the wedding feast. As compared with heathendom, the light shines from one end of the hall of Christendom to the other. The rich banquet of God’s grace is spread before the eyes of privileged Christendom. Every professor is among the guests.

But there was a moment when the king came in to see the guests. And there is a moment when every professor of the name of Christ must have to do with God. God is Judge Himself (Ps. 1:6). There is a moment fast approaching, when the worth of your profession will be put to a crucial test. You have come into the hall amongst the guests, but are you fit to remain there? No guest was disturbed that had a wedding garment on, but the one that lacked it was cast out, as we shall see. Have you the wedding garment on? No guest could be suffered to remain there without it. No one can remain amongst the people of God for eternity without Christ. He is the robe in which you must be clothed (2 Cor. 5:17). Nothing but the righteousness of God―Christ — is suited clothing for the eye of God.

The foolish man in the parable may have thought to escape notice, but all in vain. The searching gaze of the eye of the king singled him out at once. How will you meet the eye of the Lord? “His eyes are as a flame of fire,” we read (Rev. 19:12). Ah, there is no escaping in the crowd. You heard the invitation, and you accepted it; you took your place, but you omitted to put on the garment. You, like him, will be speechless in the presence of the Lord, When He says to you, “Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” what can you reply? What excuse could you find? You will be without one, and you will be speechless.

It is said to have been the custom for a man of position and wealth to provide the garment for each guest, so that there was not the shadow of an excuse for the one who dared to enter without one. And, friend, God has provided a suited wedding garment for all now. There is one for you. If you fail to put it on, you must take the consequence. The righteousness of God is unto all and upon all them that believe (Rom3:22). If you take your place before God in your own robes, you are like Israel, of whom the apostle said, “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). But if you submit, believing as a guilty, lost sinner, on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are accounted righteous by God Himself, and henceforth found amongst those of whom it is said, “He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). And, too, you may take up the language of Isaiah 61:10, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with garments of salvation; he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”

But the parable continues, “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.” In a moment all is changed. At the command of the king, the servants seize and bind the intruder, and the scene of light and festivity is changed for outer darkness. Bound both hand and foot, so that he can neither deliver himself nor flee, he is cast out, never to return. He dared to come into the presence of the king without a wedding garment, and without it he is banished from Him, cast into outer darkness, there to weep and gnash his teeth for his folly, with misery and woe.

So will it be with you, poor Christless professor, whoever you may be. For a whole lifetime you may have professed to be a Christian, a guest in the enjoyment of the privileges of the house of God, feeding yourself without fear (Jude 11-13); but as assuredly as the judge and the day of judgment are appointed (John 5:22; Acts 17:31), you must have to do with God, and, speechless in His presence, hear the final and irrevocable sentence of eternal banishment (Rev. 20:15). Think of it, ―ere it be too late, think of it. Bind him hand and foot, was the king’s word. Those hands that have served self all your days, those feet that have walked in paths of your own choosing, bound. You, a helpless captive, totally incapable of extricating yourself, unable to lift hand or foot for your deliverance. And cast into outer darkness. Shut out from the light of God’s blessed and holy presence, a Christless sinner, exposed, convicted, speechless, bound, and cast out into the blackness of darkness for eternity (Jude 13), where not a ray of light or love shall ever penetrate. A lost sinner in outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Oh, think of the agony of those tears of remorse and shame, the bitter anguish that shall lead the lost to gnash their teeth in misery and despair.

We beseech you, therefore, ere we close, be wise in time; bow now to the name of God’s beloved Son; submit to the righteousness of God. An hour’s delay may be irreparable. A Christless profession will not do. Every guest must have a wedding garment. God has provided it. Woe to everyone who neglects to put it on. Christ is all; will you receive Him? “He that believeth on him is not condemned” (John 3:18). “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Are you in Him?

E. H. C.

Heaven's Worship Meeting and Earth's Prayer Meeting.

(Read Rev. 5. and 6.)

HOW near at hand the scene of which Rev. 5. speaks may be! To the Christian nothing is more delightful than to think it is near. What is the 5th of Revelation? The joy, the eternal bliss, of the redeemed with the Redeemer, and with God forever. Nothing is there but what is suited to God. All that may now break the heart is gone, and gone forever. But the 6th of Revelation is quite a different scene, and I will tell you who that scene refers to. It refers to those who are not the Lord’s. Rev. 5. unfolds the blessed future of the redeemed, Rev. 6. the terrible future of the unredeemed; the 5th the future of the saved, the 6th that of the unsaved; the 5th of the blessed, the 6th of the unblessed. Which chapter do you belong to? for, mark, the two scenes are coincident.

The moment the lovely scene of Rev. 5. comes, the awful scene of Rev. 6. takes place. The moment of perfect blessedness for the saints of God on high, is the moment when the vials of God’s wrath are poured out on the earth; and if you are on the earth, my unsaved reader, they will fall on you.

Rev. 2. and 3. give us the prophetic description of the journey of the Church of God during her passage through the earth. Between chaps. 3. and 4. the Lord has come into the air, and called up His own to meet him there. Called up by the power of God, they have met their Lord and Saviour. Thus, in chap. 4., the door is opened in heaven, and we see what follows: ― “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold” (ver. 4). Who are these elders? I believe they prefigure the heavenly saints, the redeemed of every time up to the coming of the Lord. I find them clothed in white raiment, suited to the place. I may well ask the question, Will you be there?

But “out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices” (ver. 5). Yet these elders are unmoved and calm. When the Lord begins to speak to you, when you hear His thunderings and see His lightnings, will you be calm and unmoved, my reader? These elders sit unmoved, calm, while the judgments go on. Can nothing move them? Yes; I will show you presently what will move them, but judgments do not.

Let us look at chap. 5. “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals.” It was very full that book. It contained the whole of the counsels of God. And now comes the query, “Who is worthy to open the book?” Is there one in the universe of God who can take from His hand that roll? Can anyone make plain what are the purposes of God from that moment onward.

The challenge goes out, “Who is worthy?” and John says, “I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book.” There was time for him to weep, there was no haste. No worthy one was found. Neither Abraham, the friend of God; nor Moses, the meekest man on earth; nor David, the man after God’s own heart; nor Elijah, the faithful prophet; nor Daniel, the unflinching witness for God; nor one of the apostles, ―is worthy. The universe of God is ransacked, but none is found worthy; and the seer’s tears flowed fast.

“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.” Mark, the speaker is one of the elders, one of the heavenly saints, who are shown here clothed, and at rest, and at home; and he said, “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” Yes, we shall have Him in our midst forever. What is the joy of the Church of God? Jesus in the midst. And, oh, is there no joy to your heart in the thought of His being in the midst? He is going to have us near Him. We shall see that visage that was more marred than any man’s when here, but now is glorified there; and we shall be like Him!

And John turns to look for the Lion, and sees the “Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes.” The marks of death still on His person! The seven horns tell of perfection of power, and the seven eyes equal intelligence. Who, then, can deceive or stand against him? On earth men might despise, and cast Him out; but here He is by God exalted, and surrounded by those who love Him, ―by those whose hearts have leapt ten thousand times on earth at the mention of His name. And your heart, my friend, has it been unmoved, untouched? Ah! the day of your being moved is coming.

“And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” Mark how slow is Jesus to assert His rights and His worthiness. He does not come out to touch that book until He is called out by the witness of His own to His worthiness. Yes, Jesus is worthy; and yet you never thought Him on earth to be worthy of your heart. The One whom men refused, whom God exalted; the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Lamb that had been slain, He is worthy! “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps” (ver. 8). And we shall be bye―you, fellow-believer, and I―in the day when His worth is acknowledged. When His hand goes out to take that book, every soul falls before Him. Why? Ah! that pierced hand that reaches forth to take the book, is the hand that was nailed to the accursed tree for us. “He loved me enough to die for me,” each heart says; “these wounds are the proof of it.” Unmoved by lightnings and thunderings, each redeemed one is moved to adoration and worship by the sight of that wounded hand, that tells of love deeper and stronger than death. But you do not love Him, my unsaved reader. You would be miserable there. It is the scene of love, and you do not love Him. He is everything to every one there, and He is nothing to you. You would be out of tune with the whole scene. Oh, may your heart be broken by His love! Fain would I have your heart prepared now for that scene, broken now by thoughts of His love. “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wart slain, and halt redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” This song is always new, it never grows old. The saints on earth have sung His worth, sung His name, for centuries, but it is ever new. Have you, my friend, ever gone down on your knees, and said in your heart, “Lord, Thou art worthy, for Thou wart slain, and slain for me”? And will you not be there in that bright scene? Oh, I pity you, if you are not there. Do you say, How can I get there? Trust Him, bow down at His blessed feet, cling to Him simply, and you will find yourself by-and-bye at heaven’s blessed worship-meeting, and you will escape earth’s prayer-meeting; for earth has its prayer-meeting while heaven has its worship-meeting.

Now, what is earth’s prayer-meeting for? Is it to seek light from God in difficulty, or on its path? No, no! Earth’s prayer is for anything that will separate from God, hide from Him. When the Lord shall open the seven seals (chap. 6.) there is nothing but sorrow for earth. “Come and see” is the constant cry (vers. 1, 3, 5, 7); and we do see the terrible desolations that God will bring on a Christ-less Christendom. You say, When? Tomorrow may usher it in. The 6th of Revelation is the solemn testimony of God to what will happen to this earth, stained with the Saviour’s blood, and which has resisted the Holy Ghost and rejected every testimony. God will upset everything. That which seems most stable; the oldest monarchies; that which seemed most secure. But look at the effect on men. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15-17.)

What a solemn, awful prayer! You who never bowed to the name, or sought the face of Jesus, really now―roused thus to the terrible consequences of the folly of your course―will pray; not to the Lord, whoever sought to save you, but to the mountains and rocks, saying, “Fall on us, and hide us... from the wrath of the Lamb.”

Oh, where will you be, my reader? at heaven’s worship-meeting, or at earth’s terrible infidel prayer-meeting? It is not the grace of the Lamb there; it is “the wrath of the Lamb.... and who shall be able to stand?”

Thank God, dear believer, you will be able to stand in that day. Simple believer on the Lord, you will be able to stand, ―on your feet for one moment, the next to fall at His feet in worship. Can you say “I do believe he gave Himself for me, and my soul rests on His precious blood shed on Calvary’s cross for me”? Ah, then, you will be able to stand in that day. You will sing this blessed song, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

W. T. P. W.

How a Troubled Soul Found Peace.

I WAS greatly interested in the case of —. He had been for some weeks in deep soul trouble, and I longed for tidings of his salvation.

His family, though reduced lately by the death of two little ones, was still very large, and his circumstances―though not worse than those of many― were considerably straightened.

The wife and mother had recently been brought to the Lord, the immense responsibility of setting a Christian example before her children being one of the various things used by the Spirit of God to her conversion.

But the husband remained undecided. True, he was awakened, convicted of sin, struggling vainly for peace, but only the more wretched as he discovered the utter fruitlessness of those struggles.

Accordingly I took the opportunity of calling upon him, and happened to find him sitting at his frugal dinner, surrounded by his young family.

After a few preliminaries, we fell into a conversation on the most important personal question that can be raised.

“Where are you now looking?” I asked my friend. He made no reply, but from his woeful expression I saw that he had not acted like those in Psalm 34, who “looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed.” No light beamed in his eye, nor joy in his countenance. Oh, the darkening, clouding effect of self-examination!

What can be seen within but an evil befit of unbelief―a seething mass of moral corruption, a soul-sickening sight that can only produce despair. Nay, but one look at Christ and all is bright. What a contrast!

But just as the darkest part of the night immediately precedes the first streak of dawn, so light divine generally bursts in when the clouds of despair have settled the thickest. This is the plan of perfect wisdom. It magnifies the grace of God. The more hopeless my case the more do I prize deliverance, and love the deliverer.

Hence, when a soul is thoroughly down, he is a fit subject for the Gospel. When the Law has done its work in the conscience, Christ, as the end of the Law for righteousness, is taken by the believer, and duly prized. How precious is His work, how dear Himself when the soul, having passed through the valuable process of self-knowledge―that is, of sin-knowledge and weakness-knowledge-discovers the perfect suitability of Christ―His blood meeting the conscience and purging it forever, Himself meeting the heart and filling it forever, furnishing a complete answer to the whole question of sins, and supplying strength wherewith how to serve and worship! “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). Our double need is thus fully met―our weakness and our ungodliness by His work on the cross. Oh! what love, what grace! How the soul can adore Him!

In the hope that the moment had at last come when God would grant light to this troubled one, I turned to Rom. 10, the passage already partly quoted, and pointed out to him verse 9― “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

“Here are two conditions, and on the fulfillment of them,” I said,” God assures salvation.

“1St ‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.’ Now, are you ashamed of the blessed Lord who died for us―afraid to confess that He is Lord?”

“No,” he said, “I am not.”

“Then 2nd ‘If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.’ Do you believe this well-known truth of Christianity, that after Jesus died; and by His blood laid the foundation of peace with God, He was raised again the third day?”

“I do,” said he.

“Truly?”

“Yes, truly.”

“Then you fulfill the two conditions of the verse; and let me read the blessed assurance― ‘thou shalt be saved.’”

“Who says that?”

“God.”

“Thou mayest be saved?”

“No; thou shalt be saved.”

“Thou shalt be damned, as though God would, fail of His promise.”

“No; thou shalt be saved.”

Certainly, certainly; and the promise of God is as sure as the fulfillment. They are part and parcel of the same thing— “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:17, 18).

All is divinely safe.

“Many a troubled soul has found peace through Rom. 10:9, and you need not be afraid to plead humbly and reverently, but faithfully and confidently the terms that God has so graciously made. He binds Himself to the fulfillment of them, and allows you to do the same. He values the faith that takes Him at His word, and that acts boldly upon it. His word shall never pass away. Do you take Him at His word?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Now, I hope to see a friend of yours” (one who, like myself, was interested in the case); “may I tell him that you trust in the Lord?”

“Yes,” said he.

This was his first confession with the mouth of the Lord Jesus.

After the lapse of three weeks, I received from that friend the following cheering lines: ― “I saw—last night. You will be thankful to hear that he is getting on very nicely. He told me, as if it were something wonderful, that after all his struggling and trying he saw the truth just in a moment, and that it was so simple. Thank God, so it is. May more see the simplicity, and know the power of the Gospel!”

Hence you see, dear reader, he had now, like those in Psalm 34., looked unto Him and was lightened, and his face was not ashamed! He had confessed, he had believed, and he now rested happily on the word of God― “Thou shalt be saved.” And if you, like him, are “struggling and trying,” vainly, uselessly, oh, turn to Rom. 10:9, and see that God attaches salvation not to these, but to confession and faith.

J. W. S.

"How am I Justified?"

CLEARLY not by works, for the Apostle Paul says: ― “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the, law” (Rom. 3:24-28).

Beloved reader, the simple fact is this, the Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, left the bright glory above, and came down here into this scene of sin and misery, and human woe. He fully told out the heart of God towards lost, ruined man, and as man did not want Him, but gave Him the cross as the only place man deemed fit for Him, He there became a sacrifice for sin―a substitute for man―enduring the judgment of God against sin, and having put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself, He is raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father, and is seated in the glory at the right hand of God, as the proof of God’s satisfaction with the work He has accomplished for the sinner. Do you want peace with God? “He hath made peace by the blood of his cross,” “He is our peace.” See Him, by faith, on the cross for you―hear that cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Look at the empty tomb, look up into the glory; by faith see Him there for you, beyond death, and you may say, “He loved me,” “He gave Himself for me,” “He was delivered for my offenses, He was raised again for my justification; therefore being justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now you have got to works. “For we (His saved ones) are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we (His saved ones) should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). God grant, dear reader, that you may not read this in vain.

“I would not work my soul to save,

For that my Lord hath done;

But I would work like any slave,

From love to God’s dear Son.”

A. M. T.

"I Am Not Afraid to Die."

SOME time ago I called to see a friend who was dying of consumption. She was a young married woman; had been married a little over a year. She had been bedfast but a short time when I called to see her. As I entered the room I turned to where she was lying. There she was on her bed looking, oh, so pale and so very poor. One look at her face convinced me that she was fast and surely sinking; her pallid face spoke of speedy decay. As I stepped by her bedside she at once recognized me, and gave me a friendly greeting, said she was glad to see me, and told me to take a seat by her bedside, which I did. She told me she was very weak, but was not suffering very much at the present. I then made a few remarks about her sickness, and as I spoke she turned round to me and said, “Mary, I have a great blessing in my sickness, for I have Christ as my Saviour, and He gives me all I need. I know that I cannot live long. But, then, I am not afraid to die. I long to go home.”

“Yes,” I said, “you will soon be at home with Jesus, which is far better than to remain here.” “Oh yes,” she said, “I long to go.” As she spoke she looked so peaceful and happy; there did not seem a shade of fear in her soul as to her soon being with the Lord; but peace, calm as a river, rested in the heart of the dying woman. For she had come to Jesus, and He it was who filled her heart with joy and peace. Now she knew that soon she would be with Him who loved her and gave Himself for her, washed her from her sins in His most precious blood, and had made her fit for the presence of a just and holy God. She could well say, “I am not afraid to die,” for she was going home to Jesus, her precious Saviour, to be forever with Him in a land of pure delight, where all is joy and love. Soon after my visit she fell asleep in Jesus. She had a peaceful death; she quietly passed away to the land where the inhabitants shall not say, “I am sick.” And now it can be said of her that she is absent from the body, present with the Lord, mingling with the saints and the angels, free from all sorrow and pain, happy for evermore.

And now, my reader, I would ask if you were this moment brought face to face with death, with the knowledge that soon you must meet God, would you be as my dying friend, peaceful and happy? Could you say as she did, “I am not afraid to die”? Do you know what it is to have come to Jesus, the friend of sinners, to have found in Him an all-sufficient Saviour, trusted in His blood as sufficient to cover all your sins? If so, then if called to die you could say, I am not afraid to die. Victory through the blood of the Lamb! But, dear reader, it may be that you are yet amongst those who are unsaved, to whom death is a terror. And well it may be; for it is a fearful thing to meet God unprepared, that holy God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and therefore cannot look upon sin. Poor sinner, be not deceived. If you should die in your sins, you could not spend your eternity with Jesus. You would be banished from His holy presence forever, to spend your eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels, where there is torment for evermore.

But oh! unsaved sinner, let me tell you, on the authority of the word of the living God, that word which is forever settled in heaven, that God is not willing that you should perish, but that you should come to repentance; for God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son, that, if you would believe in Him, you should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Now, will you not believe in Jesus, and be saved? Oh do not, I pray you, go on any longer rejecting the Lord Jesus, who died for sinners on Calvary’s cross. He would save you, for He died instead of you. He shed His most precious blood that He might cleanse you from every stain, make you clean every whit.

Take this one word from God Himself, “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Oh the cleansing power of the precious blood of Jesus; it cleanseth us from all sins, it washes us whiter than snow. Oh, sinner, will you not come, then, to Jesus, and be washed in His blood, made clean every whit, fit for the presence of God? You could then look death in the face in perfect peace, and say, like my dying friend, “I am not afraid to die.”

M. R.

"I Am Satisfied Too."

ANNIE B― was the only child of her mother, and she was a widow―a bright intelligent girl, and one who was the subject of many prayers.

For several years I had known her mother and aunt, who were both decided Christians. Annie had been through them in contact with the truth from her very infancy, but it appeared to have made no real impression upon her. She was a thoughtless girl, who when spoken to about her soul was always ready with a light and careless answer― “Time enough to grow good,” or some such expression.

She was not by any means constitutionally strong, and having got a severe cold, she found it difficult to throw it off. Her mother, anxious about her, took her to one of the leading physicians, who prescribed, and said she would be better in a little while.

However, she did not improve, and after a considerable time was taken to another doctor, who declared her to be hopelessly ill, both lungs engaged.

About this time I met her aunt, who told me with tears of the sorrow which had come upon them. I asked if I might go and see her. She thanked me, and said they would be glad.

I called on several occasions, but failed to gain admission to the poor girl, who I heard was rapidly sinking. She did not like to be spoken to, and consequently did not wish to see me, so I could only lift my heart to the Lord, and join with others in prayer for her.

One day a marked change for the worse came, and she feared she was dying, and without Christ. Oh, who can tell the awful solemnity of such a position―the very light and truth she had been so long in contact with only enhancing her condemnation! To pass into eternity from the midst of the Gospel light which shines in this day, in which the truth as to salvation is so widely preached, without having accepted the message which it brings, is indeed awful to contemplate, and thoughts such as these arose within her.

She was now most anxious to see me, and begged of her uncle to send for me. Hearing of the change, and of her desire to see me, I arranged to call that afternoon at an hour which would be convenient to her.

On entering her room I found her propped up in a large chair, her mother seeking to place her in a position in which the poor weary body might find some ease. I sat down beside her, and after a few inquiries as to her state of health, I put the direct question― “And now what about your soul?” Her poor anxious face is now before me as she shook her head and said, “I am not prepared to die.” “Is not that a solemn condition to be in?” I said, ― “a solemn thing to have to do with a holy God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who is now looking into the very secret chambers of your heart. He not only knows all that you have done, but He knows what your thoughts have been, and what He says of your heart is this, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart’ (Jer. 17:9). What a solemn thing that even now He is searching your heart!”

I could see by the play of her features that the Word of God was having its effect upon her, and felt sure that she was having to do with the One who was telling her all that ever she did (John 4:29). I then solemnly asked her, “Now, in the presence of God, who is here, and in the light of what He has said about your heart, what have you to say for yourself?” She lifted herself in the chair, and with an energy which surprised me said, “I deserve to go to hell, Sir.” “Thank God,” I said, “that you have reached this point, and now I want to tell you of another thing. I want to tell you of what God’s heart is, and what His thoughts about you have been.”

I then pointed to the love of God who gave His Son to die, and quoted John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” with several other passages. I then told her of the perfection of the work which the Son had accomplished, and which had so perfectly satisfied God’s holy and righteous claims about sin, that He can now be just, and the Justifier of the ungodly―of the one who believeth in Jesus, and that upon the ground of that work He is sending out a message of peace to every poor sinner who will receive it, a message which comes to us where we are, finding us what we are, and tells us that “through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 39); also, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). “Now,” I said, “are not you a sinner, and does not that word ‘sinners’ describe you far better than if it were Annie B―,’ for I know another of your name, and it might mean her, but that word ‘sinners’ takes you in? Now if God is perfectly satisfied with what Christ has done, I ask you what have you to say?” All this time she was listening as one for whom life and death were hanging on what she heard. I repeated my question, “God is perfectly satisfied with what Christ has done, and I now ask what have you to say?” Again she lifted herself in the chair, and with clasped hands said, “I am satisfied too.” Then falling back in the chair, she burst into a flood of tears. The joy which filled her heart could find no richer way of expressing itself, and the calm, restful expression on her face spoke volumes which words could not convey.

Her mother, aunt, and myself could not refrain from tears of joy; we were a feeble expression of the “friends and neighbors,” who were called to rejoice with Him who found His sheep, or of those who were called to have part in the “music and dancing,” which told out the Father’s joy in having His lost one found―this precious one, who was dead, alive again.

I sat for nearly an hour with her, and deeply did my soul enjoy the power and grace which had so manifestly come in, and brought this precious soul into perfect peace.

I have been since a constant visitor at the house, for as I write the flicker of life is yet there. She is still in the body, and the simplicity of her faith, the fullness of her joy, and the brightness of her testimony to those around her, fill the heart with admiration.

When asked by a friend, who was surprised to find her rejoicing, when she had found peace, she replied, “On last Saturday evening.” “And what gave you peace?” Her answer was, “It was when I came to know that God was satisfied with what Christ had done.”

In speaking to another she said, “I always knew I was a sinner, but until that evening I never felt that God was looking into my heart.” One day, finding her low and seemingly depressed, fearing that Satan was tempting her, I asked if she ever had fears for the future? She looked so reproachfully at me, and said, “Oh no, I am never afraid of anything.”

And now, dear reader, one word to you. As God looks into your heart, and sees all that is there, and tells you what He thinks of it―what have you to say? Is it, “I deserve to go to hell”? And if so, as you hear the blessed tidings that God is perfectly satisfied with what Christ has done, is your answer, “I am satisfied too”? If not, you are yet in your sins, the judgment of God is impending over you, and the wrath of God may at any moment overtake you. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3.)

“Awake! awake! thou sleeper,

No longer slight the call,

Nor trifle with the judgment

Which on thy head may fall;

E’en now the clouds do gather,

Which soon may burst on thee:

Awake! awake! O sinner!

To Christ, the Saviour, flee.”

G. W. F.

"I, Even I."

“I EVEN I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour” (Isa. 43:11). What could be plainer than this simple statement? The Lord was Israel’s Saviour, and He is a Saviour for all today. “We have seen,” says the apostle John, “and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). And there is one Saviour only, Jesus, the Christ, the Lord. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Strange infatuation, in the face of such a plain statement (one among many) in the Word of God, that so many thousands should seek in various ways to save themselves. If you have anything to do, there must be two saviours. But Scripture says there is but One, and that is Jesus, the Lord in glory. “They shall call his name Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins.” “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour.” Is it true, or is it false? True, without question, true. “He who saith it is God, who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). “I, the Lord; and there is no god else beside me―a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isa. 45:21).

Sinner, you need a Saviour; you cannot save yourself. No fellow-man of Adam’s fallen race can save you, for all others are sinners too. No angel can save you; no, nor all the angelic hosts together. Neither can any ordinance save, or help to save you. Who then can save you? Christ Jesus only. He is mighty to save; a Saviour and a great one (Isa. 19:20). A great Saviour for great sinners. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

An elderly man, when asked by an evangelist by the roadside if he knew whether he was saved, replied, “I take the lost sinner’s place, and claim the lost sinner’s Saviour.” Dear reader, will you do the same? A lost sinner you are if still unconverted; but the lost sinner’s Saviour is on the throne of God ready to save every one who believeth in Him. Will you receive Him? “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour.” He is the Saviour today, but may be your Judge tomorrow. The Saviour for lost sinners on earth; but there is no Saviour for lost sinners in hell. If you die without Him, you will prove the truth of this solemn statement to your eternal and unutterable woe (John 8:24; Rev. 20:15).

If you meet Him as the Judge, your sins will testify against you; but take the lost sinner’s place in His holy presence now, and claim Him as your Saviour, and all your sins shall be blotted out by His most precious blood, for He saith, “I, even I, am he that blotted out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” He died for guilty lost ones on the cross. His blood was “shed for many for the remission of sins.” Your transgressions may be multiplied against you, but for His own sake, and to the praise and glory of His own name, He will blot out every one. And though Satan may lay your life-long sins to your charge, and your own conscience upbraid and condemn you, yet saith the Lord, “Thy sins and thine iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17); and that relentless foe shall be silenced with the word, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire.”

A poor old woman, when asked if she knew her sins put away, replied, “I hope so.” “What makes you hope?” “I haven’t committed the unpardonable sin, and there’s no night passes but what I pray.” Poor ignorant soul! A sandy foundation indeed was her house built upon! What an evidence of Satan’s deceit, and of the vain refuges of the poor deceitful flesh! Her hope of heaven based upon not having committed the unpardonable sin, as though all the rest were to be slurred over or not to be reckoned; her prayers, apparently, night by night a kind of atonement for the sins of the day! And she is but the type of many thousands.

Men know God is against sin, but they think of His mercy (and He is merciful indeed), and prop themselves up, even till death cut them off, with the delusive thought that having done the best they can (?) under the circumstances, and prayed, that it will be all right somehow, and that there is no occasion to make so much fuss about religion as some do. Infatuated souls, wake up! No sinner’s sins were ever pardoned thus; no sinner ever did, or ever will escape the lake of fire on such a plea as that (though prayer, of course, is right enough in its place). What saith the Scripture? The devil is blinding you with your own darkened ideas of the claims of the holiness of God and your own wretched doings. Wake up, wake up, and listen to Him who has authority to speak, and who desires your salvation. You cannot save yourself. “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour.” “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” This poor deceived woman thought He would do it for her sake, because she prayed night by night, and though she had committed sins (the least of which, unpardoned, would land her in eternal woe), she had not been guilty of the unpardonable sin. May the Lord bless the word spoken to her, that pointed her to Christ!

Dear reader, come to the Saviour.

“Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, just now;

He will save you, He will save you, just now;

He is able, He is able, just now;

He is willing, He is willing, just now;

Only trust Him, only trust Him, just now.”

And then, not only will you find that He saith,

“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions,” but you will be able also to rejoice in the truth that comes out in Isaiah 43:22― “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.” And what a striking figure of the complete blotting out of the sins of every one that believeth― “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.” We are all familiar with a thick cloud. The storm gathers, and a thick cloud covers the heaven, the whole scene being darkened by it. But suddenly the bright beams of the sun burst through, and the cloud disappears. Not a trace of it is to be found. The same cloud will never be seen again; it is gone forever; it is blotted out. Search heaven, earth, and sea, and it cannot be found. It was, but it is no more. So, poor sinner, will it be with your transgressions, if you only trust Christ. You cannot get rid of them, any more than you can remove the thick cloud. But though they seem to rise up between God and you thicker than the thickest cloud you ever saw, yet, saith the Lord to you, if you take the lost sinner’s place, and claim the lost sinner’s Saviour, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” He does it. Believe on Him, even now, as you read these lines, and He has done it for you. Henceforth your sins are blotted out, and you are redeemed by His precious blood (1 Peter 1:18, 19). Then will arise a morning without clouds in your soul, the thick cloud of your sins being blotted out, and marvelous light both fill and surround you.

And now, note another passage of Scripture before we close. “I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him, I have brought him; and he shall make his way prosperous” (Isa. 48:15). With your sins gone, and your soul redeemed, you will probably be left in this scene a little while, to live to His glory. And the Lord has also spoken as to your way. “I, even I, have spoken.” He has called you; He has brought you to Himself, and He will make your way prosperous. The world’s prosperity is all vanity. He has not left you, when you are saved, to choose your own devices, and to walk your own way; but to every believer on His name, as to Israel of old, He saith, “I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go” (Isa. 48:17).

And, again, in Ezek. 34. we read: “Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out.” And, “Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle.” And what is true of His earthly flock, Israel, is also true with regard to every believer now. “By faith in his name we become his sheep” (John 1:12; 10:26, 30). He searched for us, sought us out, and we are His, the purchase of the Good Shepherd’s life’s blood. And He would have us feeding upon the rich pasture of His Word, “that we may not be lean in soul, but fat.”

Beloved reader, have you come to this Blessed One? Do you know Him? Sooner or later, you will surely find out your need of Him. Time is short; eternity is at your very door; this night thy soul may be required of thee (Luke 12:20). A sinner you are, unsaved one, guilty, ruined, lost, and here is the One you need. “I, even I, am He.” He is worthy of your acceptation. Will you accept Him? Will you have Him now? Will you, before you leave this page, say, “Yes, blessed Lord, I will.”

E. H. C.

"I Go in Peace."

COME with me, in your thoughts, to the chamber of death, and witness a scene, which, I trust, God may bless to your soul. It is no deathbed repentance, as people say, though, thank God, that too is possible; but what meets us on entering is an aged man, of nearly seventy summers, the father of eleven children, lying helpless upon the bed. You can easily tell by his languid eye, his pale face, his emaciated body, that death is not far off. There is something exceedingly calm about the old man, and peaceful about the dying chamber, and those that move about in it. Sadness may be seen upon their faces, but mingled with the sadness is a peace and joy, knowing that all is well with the beloved husband and father. They know that when the spirit leaves the pain-stricken body, it will be present and forever with the Lord, and for that supremely solemn and yet blessed moment they wait.

A neighbor calls to see him. This gives the opportunity for the dying saint to glorify his Master, and bear testimony to the all-cleansing power of His precious blood. It is what angels cannot say, and it is what thousands on earth will not say, though they may: ― “The blood of Christ, shed for me, a poor sinful man, has cleansed my conscience of all guilt, and now I go in peace.”

Yes, blessed be God, he went in peace; and for him it was to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; and absent from the body, present with the Lord. Death but waited on him to open the door into the bright, peaceful presence of the One who had redeemed him with His own blood. We can most emphatically say, “The end of that man was peace.”

How concise, and yet how full were the words of the dying saint― “The blood of Christ.” He began at the right place, not with himself, but with the blood of Christ. Ah, what could meet God’s claims, but the blood of Christ? What could blot out sin, but the blood of Christ? What could stay the hand of judgment, but the blood of Christ? What could atone for the soul, but the blood of Christ? Reader, have you commenced there?

“Shed for me, a poor sinful man.” Ah, when he comes to himself, must speak of himself, this is what he has to say― “A poor sinful man.” He has seen himself in the light of God’s Word, the light of God’s presence has shone upon him, and he has discovered that that good, righteous self is nothing but “a poor sinful man.” But over against what he finds in and knows himself to be, he places what? ― “The blood of Christ shed for me.” This meets the whole difficulty, and settles the question for time and for eternity. “The blood of Christ shed for me―shed for me.” There had been in the deep secret of his soul the individual appropriation, by faith, of that precious blood to himself, a poor sinful man. Not only that it was shed for sinners, but “shed for me.” How important this is. There are many who know that the blood of Christ was shed for sinners, who cannot say― “The blood of Christ shed for me.”

“Has cleansed my conscience of all guilt.” Blessed testimony! That which defiled him; that which made him a poor, guilty, sinful man; that which separated him from God, and merited His divine displeasure, was gone; but how? Ah, listen: “The blood of Christ, shed for me, a poor sinful man, has ‘cleansed my conscience of all guilt.” Oh, reader, if you are not saved, let these blessed words of a dying saint sink into the very depths of your soul. In God’s estimation it is only the precious blood of His Son that can purge your conscience, cleanse your guilty soul, give you peace with God, or entitle you to a place in His blissful unsullied presence. Dream of no other way. “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:2). “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

“And now I go in peace.” Go where? Into the blessed presence of his Lord and Saviour. He had a title without a blot; a prospect without a cloud; and a Friend that never changes.

Let me again quote his dying words in full: ―

“The blood of Christ, shed for me, a poor sinful man, has cleansed my conscience of all guilt, and now I go in peace.” Reader, could you so go?

E. A.

"I Know I'm All Wrong."

RETURNING from preaching the Gospel in Glasgow a few nights ago, I found two young men, the only occupants of the compartment of the train I was in. To each of them I gave a different little book, viz., “The Two Alexanders,” and “The Young Doctor,” but each narrating God’s grace to a young man in the old Edinburgh Infirmary, now pulled down. They each read their respective book carefully, and at the first stopping place one young man got out, first requesting that he might keep the little book, as he would like to read it again―a request I was only too glad to comply with.

Left alone with my other fellow-traveler, who had been-reading “The Young Doctor,” I said, “Well, could you die like that young doctor?”

“No, indeed I couldn’t; I wish I could though.”

“God’s grace it was that saved him: can it not save you also?”

“I’m sure I don’t know. I wish it could. I know I’m not saved, and though I think about it sometimes I can never see through it, I can’t get to the bit somehow.”

“Then evidently you have sometimes thought seriously about your soul, and eternity, and that you have to meet God some day?”

“Yes, and I have had some solemn warnings too.”

“What were they?”

“I work a steam crane, and twice I have fallen off a great height and been badly hurt; and during the summer, the rocks where we were working were struck by lightning. The smell of brimstone was awful, but I was not hurt.”

“And did you not feel that God was speaking to you in all this?”

“Yes, and for a while―about three months―I did my best to be a Christian, but then the impression wore off, and I gave way to temptation and I’m as bad as ever.”

“That is sad but I fear you were trying to be religious as many do, and that’s a grand mistake.”

“Perhaps I did, but, anyway, I know I’m all wrong.”

“That is the first step to getting right, my friend,” I replied; and then putting the Gospel simply before him, I trust he was led to see that Christ saves the lost out-and-out, without any doings on their part, and was led to simply trust in Him.

This young man is just a sample of thousands around us―perhaps the counterpart of your history, my dear reader. Is it so? Have you not had warning after warning from God? How have you heeded them? Have you been endeavoring to turn over a new leaf and lead a better life, in the hope―oh, how vain! ―of fitting yourself for God’s presence? No greater delusion could possibly possess your soul. It will be a great day in your history when you wake up to say, “I know I’m all wrong!” It was the moment of blessing for the prodigal when, in the far country, he said, “I perish with hunger.” Friend, have you ever yet “come to yourself” with this appalling discovery, “I’m all wrong” ―not partly wrong, but “all wrong”? When you discover this you are at one with God’s thoughts about you, for He has said, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that doeth good, no, not one; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3.).

Let me beseech of you, if you have never yet judged yourself according to God’s Word, so to do without one hour’s delay. This year of grace 1885 is fast fleeting by, let it not go past you, and leave you as it found you, “all wrong.” Oh, do come to Jesus. He is waiting to bless and save you. Only trust Him simply. He has done the work that can blot out all your many sins, all you need to do is to cast yourself simply on Him. “Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace, thereby good shall come unto thee.” To delay is folly of the deepest kind. Who can count on tomorrow? A lease of your house, your shop, your farm, you may have; but not of your life. So put not off until tomorrow what, if you are wise you will do today, viz., come as you are to the Saviour and let Him save you. Own your guilt, your need, your misery, and then taste His grace, His love, His mercy. Think not to bring anything, all He wants is an empty heart, that He may fill it with His love, ―a burdened conscience that He may purge it with His blood.

May you be enabled, dear reader, to simply trust Him, and then, truly tasting “that the Lord is gracious,” pass on your way no longer “all wrong,” but all right, happy in His love, and waiting for His coming!

The Lord Himself fill you with the sense of His grace and love, and in conclusion with all my heart can I say, “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever.

AMEN.”

W. T. P. W.

"I Will Come Again."

NEARLY nineteen centuries have rolled away since the above momentous words fell from the lips of Jesus the Son of God. There they stand in the Word of God, the imperishable record of the stupendous fact. Infidels refuse them; mockers mock at them; evil servants push them into an indistinct future (2 Pet. 3:3-4; Luke 12:45, 46); thousands wrest them to their own destruction; yet there they stand, shortly to be fulfilled, with all their momentous results. Dear reader, Jesus, the Son of God, has said it, “I will come again”

All the prophets of old gave witness to Him, and that He should come into the world. He came. Prophets, evangelists, and apostles alike testify that He will come again; come He will. His first advent was in weakness, to witness for God, to suffer, and to die. His second advent will be in power and in glory. Yes, the Lord Himself shall come. It is the long-suffering mercy of God alone that stays off the day of His return, and keeps Him seated, a gracious Saviour, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. God presents Him there to man as the object of faith. On earth He died; upon the cross He bore the judgment of God against sin. There the awful stroke of Divine justice fell once for all upon Calvary’s victim, the Holy Lamb of God, (Matt. 27:46). There was solved once for all the greatest problem that ever exercised the hearts and consciences of men, how God could save, yet righteous be. Jesus died. It is all embraced in those two short words. The vacated cross, the empty tomb, the man Christ Jesus exalted on the throne of God, are His witness to the fact that His glory was vindicated in His death. And now, from that bright scene of unsullied light and perfect love, in the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, proceeds the blessed testimony of the Gospel of the grace of God. Grace, incomparable grace, grace without limit or bound, flows from the throne of God to a guilty and lost world. And the grace of God bringeth salvation. Who will accept the blessed otter of God? Who will say, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord”? (Ps. 116:13.)

The grace of God from glory flows

And brings salvation free;

Oh! blessed news, Christ died for all!

Poor lost one, ‘tis for thee.

Beloved reader, lost thou believe on Him, ―Jesus, the Son of God, the exalted Man in the glory of God? “To him give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). And “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Has the light from the glory streamed into your soul, ―God’s marvelous light? Or does darkness still reign there supreme? Mark the contrast between two classes in 2 Cor. 4., those who are still in the darkness of nature, and those who have been delivered from it through faith in God’s Son. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel (or the gospel of the glory) of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4). And, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Which class are you found amongst?

And now, if found among the latter, what joyful news for you from your Saviour’s lips, “I will come again.” But, oh! what deeply solemn words for all in darkness. Many unceremoniously get rid of the thought of His return, by trying to make it mean something else, often death, which at least they think will not come upon them yet. Ah! poor sinner, it is a vain subterfuge. Death, it is true, will come for the sinner, sooner perhaps for you than you think. But this is not the Lord’s coming. Come He will, for He has said it; when, is known alone to God. No man knoweth the day nor the hour. But ah says one triumphantly, there is a great deal to be fulfilled first. Nay, nay. Plenty indeed to take place, before the Son of man is revealed in power and glory to judge and reign, but nothing to be fulfilled before He shall come in the air (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

Yes, dear reader, at any moment the Lord may return. Without warning, signal, or sign of any kind whatever, the Lord Himself may descend from the throne of God with a shout, to call His loved ones on high. Are you one? Blessed wondrous moment for the redeemed; but awful moment for poor guilty sinners in their sins. Glorious moment for the true confessors of Christ’s name, possessors of eternal life in Him; but fearful moment for all poor Christless professors. Moment of all moments for all who are washed in His most precious blood; but the eternal death knell of the poor formalist, who has nothing more than a name to live, and yet dead. Yes, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the Lord will come, and in that same moment the whole of the saved ones, whether in the grave or alive on the earth, will be caught up. They meet Him in the air. But that same moment the door of grace will be closed, closed finally, once and forever, upon all Christ-less professors. Woe to those who are shut out: Reader, if He were to come this moment, and come He may, would you be shut out, or shut in? It must be the one or the other.

Nothing can be plainer than the 25th of Matthew. The state of all where the name of Christ is professed, and that is where you are found, is there illustrated in the most graphic manner by the Lord. Two classes only are named, the wise and the foolish. What is the great difference between the two? Outwardly there was none. All were virgins with lamps, and all had light, for the foolish say, “Our lamps are gone (or going) out.” A casual observer would not have discerned the difference. In what then did the wisdom of the one company and the folly of the other, consist? Note it well, dear reader; let the Word of God speak to your conscience. “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” The former took their lamps. The lamp was first; the laity was everything, in fact, to them. But they took no oil. Here was the lack. The latter took oil. With them it is the first thing, the all-important. Of what use were their lamps without? “The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” What are we to learn therefrom? Why, the absolute necessity of possessing that of which oil throughout Scripture is the figure, the “Holy Ghost.”

The lamp would denote a person who professes to have light for himself and for others. This is what characterizes every professing Christian. “We are not heathen,” say they, with an air oftentimes of the greatest superiority. Ah men boast of their lamp; but how about the oil? You may have the Bible as a lamp to your feet, you may be trained in Scripture knowledge and theology, but if this is all, where are you but in the ranks of the foolish virgins? If you have not the oil; if you have never learned your own folly in the presence of God, and become wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15), and received the gift of the Holy Ghost; if, in short, you are a mere professor, sad indeed will your portion surely be at the coming of the Lord.

When the bridegroom came, in the passage to which we are referring (Matt. 25:10), we read, “they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” They that were ready; note this also well. None but those who were ready went in, no, not one. Their readiness consisted not in their watchfulness, but in the possession of the oil. Christ may come to―night this moment; are you ready? Have you believed on the Son of God? Are you wise? Have you the Spirit of God? Do you reply, I always believed about Him from a child, and I always attend a place of worship regularly, &c. Ah! I fear you have no part nor lot in the matter. Have you been born again? And is your body the temple of the Holy Ghost? Does the thought run through your mind, ―I don’t like such close questioning; that’s my business; and so on. Ah! my friend, it is only too plain, you have nothing but a lamp. If you were among the saved, you would rejoice at plain dealing. But you shrink from it. Why? Because all is not right. You are without a vessel filled with oil. Your lamp may be ornamented, bright, and attractive; but without Christ and without the Holy Ghost, your profession is nothing worth. And the same door that shuts the wise within, will shut you out amongst the foolish.

And once the door is shut, woe, woe, woe to Christless professors! (Rev. 8:13.) Once it is shut, it will be shut fast, shut close, and shut forever. Tens of thousands will knock in vain for admittance at that closed door. Lord, Lord, open unto us! Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, open unto us! will be the bitter bitter cry. Oh! what an agonizing moment! The Lord has come, and taken His saved ones home, and I, who meant to be saved, am left behind. “I never knew you, I never knew you,” is the only reply.

And whose fault will it be, my reader? Have you never been warned? A thousand times, may be, you have heard that Christ will come; a thousand times you have read the solemn words that tell of it; a thousand times you have resolved to be ready. But on you have gone; the world, its follies, its vanities, its Christless religion, have allured you. Week after week, month after month, year after year, rolled by. In childhood, may be, you put it off to youth; in youth, to manhood or womanhood; or then again to old age. But whatever you thought or did, you went on, without decision for Christ; you were content with an oil less lamp, a religion of form, a dead faith, a sham salvation. You never knew God; you never came back to the Father; you never accepted Christ; you never received the Holy Ghost. Very likely baptized and confirmed, and a regular communicant, yet all an outward observance only. You had the shell, but not the kernel. To sum it up, you professed to be a Christian, but after all you were only a poor imitation of one. Every true Christian round about you knew it well enough, but these were the people of all others you disliked, and had as little to do with as possible. You don’t quite like it put in that way, because it is only too true, and the poor deceived natural heart does not like the plain truth.

Oh! sinner, sinner, wake up! The Lord is at hand. Christ is coming. A moment more, and His mighty assembling shout may ring in the air, and the trump of God summons His loved ones home. Would you go? They that were ready went in. Are you? We entreat you, by the mercies of God, ere it be too late, come to Jesus. None can come in vain. A moment more may be too late. Come to Jesus now. Just as you are, without one plea. He is waiting, He is willing, will you come? Do you hesitate? Do you linger? Oh that we could force you to come at once.

How simple it all is! You, a poor Christless professor; Jesus, a precious and a present Saviour. He wants you. And do you want Him? Yes? Well, if so, then where is the difficulty? Come at once; come now. Come. Do you reply, “O Lamb of God, I come.” Do you? Yes? Yes. Then you are ready. And they that were ready went in. Went in with Him. With Him. And so to be forever, yes, forever, with the Lord.

E. H. C.

"I Wish I Was in Hell, and Out of This Place."

A SERVANT of the Lord staying for a few days in a city renowned for its beauty, started one morning to meet a friend at a railway station. His way led through the spacious and splendid main thoroughfare, and never having seen it before, the eye could not but be struck with the many beautiful objects around. A magnificent street, stately buildings of noble proportions on all hands, handsome shops, lovely gardens, a busy and well-dressed throng, a general air of wealth and prosperity, everything in short to minister to the flesh, to please the eye, and to feed the pride of life. It was a walk through a scene too of historic interest, and where art and man’s device had been freely employed to embellish in varied forms, in order to gratify the cultured taste. It is not only the pride of the inhabitants of the city, but of a nation itself; and the renown of its beauty has gone forth far and wide in the earth. Multitudes, either driving or on foot, passed to and fro in all directions. Man in nature would call it “a noble sight.”

Many thoughts passed through the mind of the visitor (thoughts doubtless strange to the mass), as he walked quickly through it all. Finding on arrival at the station that the train was not yet due, he strolled slowly up one or two neighboring streets, where, if anything, the crowd was denser, when a rough-looking man walked quickly by, muttering out loud as he did so, “I wish I was in hell, and out of this place.”

Here was enough to break the spell in a moment, had not the one who heard the words been already led through grace to learn from the Word of God somewhat of the vanity of this fleeting scene. Ah, my reader, man may embellish and garnish, and charm the senses with everything that is outwardly beautiful; but how about the heart of man? Here was one, who probably was not as affluent in circumstances as many around him, but yet was surrounded by all the glories of a great and flourishing capital. But the lips gave utterance to words which plainly told of the misery within, and which probably he thought fell on no other ear but his own. The ear of one fellow-man, however, heard them, and, dear reader, the ear of God heard them. Think of the wretchedness of a soul that, surrounded with so much that man has devised for his present happiness and enjoyment, wished he was in hell, and out of such a place. Maybe, if challenged, like many more, he would have professed not to believe in hell at all, ―such is the deceitful power of Satan and man’s own heart. But three times the Lord has said it (not to speak of numbers of other passages), that there is a hell, where the fire never shall be quenched, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48).

And do you think that he was the only wretched man in that busy crowd? Nay, not one unconverted soul was truly happy. Are you? Thousands would have shrunk from uttering the words of this poor Christless sinner; but you may rest assured that thousands of weary and discontented hearts were to be found amid that throng. Where is happiness to be found beneath the sun without God? Nowhere. Ah, maybe you brave it out, and say lightly and flippantly, “Oh! I’m happy enough, don’t bother me; I don’t believe in so much religion. Why, you would make the world like a monastery.” And yet you know full well as you speak thus, that it is all put on. You are not happy, unconverted soul. Stay now; be honest with yourself, ―Are you ready to die? Are you ready to meet God? No, you are not; and the very thought of such a thing, a solemn reality that must be faced, takes all your forced happiness away, and makes you miserable. You shrink from such language as that of which you have just read as having fallen from the lips of a poor sinner like yourself, and yet, dear soul, you might be out of all this and in hell tonight!

But how blessed to know that God is for you, and that He desires not that you should die in your sins. He would have you rescued and saved. He would that you should learn the vanity of this world and your lost and needy condition now (for learn it sooner or later you must), that you may De with Him above. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever” (1 Peter 1:24). Oh! listen then to His everlasting word, “Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it” (Isa. 5:14). “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). “And the whole world lieth in wickedness” (or, the wicked one) (1 John 5:19).

Listen yet again, I beseech you, to the solemn warning of the prophet, “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isa. 2:12-19). “Moreover, the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will smite.... In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well-set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty,” &c. (Isa. 3:16-24.) And will the unsaved worldly daughters of Christendom fare better?

We affectionately appeal to you, beloved reader of these lines. Can you afford to pass on your way indifferent to these solemn warnings? If you will persist, it is at your own peril. Be ye sure of this — “Your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23). God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world (Acts 27:31); but now He offers you Christ. The sentence of judgment has already passed upon Him. His death and blood-shedding have met all the claims of the holiness of God, and God has exalted Him as man to His own right hand. There He is presented to all as the object of faith, a Saviour for sinners. Take your place in self-judgment before God, and believe on Him, and the world’s doom will never be yours. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,” &c. (John 3:16.) Dost thou believe? “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Again, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10). This is said to all believers. Again says the same apostle, “And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:14, 15). Do you confess Him thus?

Think of the utter folly of a man in his misery turning his back upon such wondrous love, and wishing himself in hell! Probably, in a land of Bibles, he had heard somewhat about it from his early days. Possibly there was more than one Bible in his house―one, perhaps, as is often the case, covered with dust; another, tossed about as a child’s plaything; a third, bran new, with a family register, bound in gilt, with clasps, and illustrated, covered with an antimacassar, and other things on the top of that, but the precious contents neglected, or rejected―hell preferred to this life, and Christ totally ignored.

But you, maybe, are one who would never dream of treating things in that way. Oh, no! You read the Bible regularly, say your prayers, go to a place of worship (as people say), live honestly, only follow what you consider harmless amusements, and say, “What more can I do?” Well, you may do all this, and much more, and avoid all excess, and yet be far from God. There is no Christ in that kind of religion, and Christ is all (Col. 3:11). Reading the Word, prayer, and honesty, &c., are right enough in their place; but it was only the other day that the writer heard of a man who had read the Bible through eight times, but could not say that he was a Christian. The Gospel is not, whosoever reads his Bible shall be saved―nor, whosoever says his prayers shall be saved―nor, whosoever goes to a place of worship shall be saved-nor, whosoever is honest shall be saved―nor, whosoever abstains from gross evils shall be saved―no, nor whosoever has done all these things together shall be saved; but the plain, clear statement of the Word of God is, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

Satan does not care whether you go on with evil, or trust in things that are accounted good, as long as Christ is shut out. He knows full well Christ is the only way, and he knows full well that every one must believe on Him to be saved. For instance, in the parable of the sower, the Lord described those by the wayside as “they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the seed out of [or from] their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). God’s way is, then, to believe; as a penitent, self-judged sinner, to believe on His Son. “What must I do to be saved?” cried one. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be “saved, and thy house,” was the blessed and simple answer (Acts 16:30, 31). Then why do you not believe? If you follow the world, you will soon be out of it and in hell; but if you confess before God now that you deserve hell, and believe on His Son, you shall not perish (He said so), but have everlasting life. Do you, then, believe? Are you happy?

There was the impassable barrier of sin between God and the sinner, but He gave His Son, who came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). Wherever we turn in Scripture, Christ is presented as the one who alone can meet our deep need; for He alone could meet the claims of God. Therefore, without Christ you must perish; and if you perish, you will find a great gulf fixed, which it is impossible to pass, between you and the blessing of the saved. Christ is the Saviour you must have. His blood, shed on the cross, will cleanse you from all sin (1 John 1:7). You must receive Him as your Saviour first, and then follow in His steps until you see His face.

E. H. C.

"I'll Trust Him."

WHAT is the matter?” I asked of a young woman whom I saw weeping, as she stood on the side-walk, near the door of the hall, where “the Word” had just been preached.

She had been one of the audience.

“My sins! Oh, my sins!” was her sad reply.

The light of a lovely summer evening still lingered, and many a passer-by might thus have witnessed those fast-falling tears. But she seemed wholly unconscious of their gaze. One thing absorbed her thoughts, one fact commanded her very being.

What a terrible thing it is to be convicted of sin―to feel its leaden load―to find yourself before God, guilty, and utterly unable to answer for one of a thousand of your transgressions! The experience is indescribable; and yet there is not one soul but will go through it.

Many will go through conviction of sin when they hear the verdict of the Great White Throne. Then, for the first time, the fact of their personal guilt will seize upon them with overwhelming horror. That which they had admitted in theory in time will assert its dread reality in their consciences in eternity. But then conviction cannot result in happy conversion, nor can the consciousness of guilt be purged by the cleansing blood of Jesus. No, no! conviction on that day is certain condemnation. Ah! the floods of tears that then will unavailingly flow―the piteous wailing and the gnashing of teeth, dire witness of hopeless gloom―the light of summer gone, the glee of harvest over, and the fruit of a misspent life now to be reaped.

Reader, look ahead, and be warned. “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

Yet the life of this young woman had not been misspent; that is, she had not been guilty of such sins as would have warranted so public an avowal as that which I saw and heard. On the contrary, it would have been difficult to have found fault with her outward conduct, But then all have sinned―some more, some less―and she amongst them; and this truth, carried home in the power of God to her conscience, made her condition intolerable. Welcome tears! happy contrition! Forgiveness is near at hand. Grace lingers; love wins. The Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation. It was so in her case.

“Let me read you a verse;” and, turning to 1 John 1:7, I read, “‘The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ Do you believe this?”

“Yes; but I don’t feel that it does me any good.”

“Never mind feelings. Do you believe the fact that the blood of Jesus was shed for you, a sinner, and that it could cleanse you from sin?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then change the word ‘us’ into ‘me,’ and see how the verse reads.”

She wiped the clouding tears away, and slowly read, “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth―” Here she paused. The next word was to be changed from “us” to “me”―from the plural to the singular―from the general to the particular―from mere doctrine to happy appropriation, by simple faith.

“You need not fear to make the change, if you feel yourself a sinner, and wish to be pardoned. That blood was shed for sinners, and therefore shed for you.”

All true; but alas that there should be such distrust of the Word of God as to make souls halt for a moment. However, again looking at the verse, she read its precious words slowly till she reached the crucible. Then, as the Spirit of God opened her heart to appropriate the truth, to my joy did I hear the word “me” clear as a note of music.... “Cleanseth me from all sin.”

The question was settled. God had explained the blessed truth to her soul; and now tears gave place to smiles, and deep anguish to peace and joy in believing. And so sudden; but yet so reasonable. When the criminal hears the royal reprieve, that moment his chains are snapped. When the sinner learns the value of the blood of Jesus, as shed for and as cleansing him, then, that moment, all dread of judgment is gone. He is like Israel in the blood-sprinkled house. When God sees the blood He passes by.

This was the first stage in her spiritual history. She had begun life by faith in the blood of Jesus as meeting her sins. That evening she returned to her cottage with the glad heart of a believer; and

“What tongue can express

The sweet comfort and peace

Of a soul in its earliest love?”

Such a love filled her young heart that night.

On the following evening the meeting was held, not in the hall, but in the open air, and many attended―some curious, others anxious, and others happy in the truth. I hoped to have seen our friend amongst the last; but I was disappointed. True, she came, but her face wore signs of sorrow.

At the close I asked her the cause of this; but she was dumb. “Have all the sins come back,” said I. “Yes, sir,” she replied.

“Well, I don’t believe that; but please tell me the story,” said I.

“Last night, after having trusted the Lord, I felt so happy that I could hardly sleep. I was happy in the morning too; and when I went to the mill I told them that I was converted, but they began to laugh at me and tease me, until I lost my temper, and then I felt as bad as I was before.”

“It is a serious thing for a Christian to lose his temper, or to grieve the Spirit of God in any way,” I replied.

But, perceiving that she had not yet learned the distinction between an evil nature that exists in the believer till the end, and those sins that spring from it, all of which are washed away by the blood of Jesus when there is faith in Him―or which, in the case of a believer, being confessed, are then forgiven governmentally (that is, as a father forgives a child), a distinction of primary importance for the settled peace of every Christian―I asked her what made her happy the previous night.

“I just believed that the blood of Jesus had cleansed me from all sin,” said she.

“And what made you unhappy this morning?” “I lost my temper, and felt as bad as ever.”

“That is, faith made you happy, and feeling made you unhappy? Eh?”

“Yes.”

Then I showed her that the flesh, ever prone to break out, dwells still in the Christian, who must “reckon himself dead to sin,” and live in the power of the Spirit; but that, if our happiness depended on our feelings, it would be a sorry case.

“What made you happy?”

“Believing.”

“What made you unhappy?”

“Feeling.”

“Of course,” said I. “Then, will you live henceforth by feeling or by faith?”

She paused. At last she said, “I’ll trust Him.” Grand confession! “Blessed” are all such.

On the previous night the blood of Christ had sufficed for her sins; this night, Himself, His grace, His truth, became the stay and the object of her life. And what a stay! The blood of Christ for the conscience, the person of Christ for the heart.

Years passed away; changes came. Health broke down; faith was often tested. Trials of various kinds, some unusually severe, pressed upon her; but through all Christ proved her stay. He never fails those who trust Him.

I went to see her on her dying bed. She reminded me of the word “us” being changed to “me” on that fair summer evening sixteen years ago. It was clear in her memory still; conversion is never forgotten. “On going to the mill one morning, soon after that day, I saw,” said she, “a piece of paper on the ground. I picked it up, and saw the verse,’ God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ I took it with me, and pinned it on my loom, where I could always see it; I found it such a comfort.”

Never was loom better ornamented, thought I. Would that every factory girl had such a picture! What a rich and blessed train of thoughts fills the mind from these three words, “God so loved!” With such words constantly in view is to have a bright contrast to the sin and sorrow around. And what was the result of all? I asked her what she could now say for that Lord whom she had so long trusted?

“My blessed Lord!” she replied, with much difficulty of speech. “It’s all grace. I would not change places with anybody.”

What a victory! thought I. Could you, dear reader, say the same were you lying on your dying bed? Perhaps death is the thing you fear the most. But here was one who had lost that fear, from whom death’s sting had been taken, and who would rather “depart and be with Christ” than live in health or wealth. It is victory.

Thus the end came, her last words being an appeal to a loved one to “come to Jesus.”

“It is Jesus who can give

Sweetest pleasure while we live;

It is Jesus can supply

Solid comfort should we die.”

J. W. S.

"It is Finished."

“IT is finished.” What? Is it only the life of the Son of God that is finished? Is it only the climax of agony and shame that has been reached? Is it only the struggle with the powers of darkness that is over? Is it only that the heart that has been breaking so long is at last shattered completely? Ah, yes! all these; but more, in finitely more, It is, that “the work which thou gavest me to do” is finished in its entirety; that there is not one single act more to perform, one single agony more to suffer. The claims of a righteous God are met and satisfied. The blood has been shed, and the atonement is now made, and Judge and criminal are reconciled.

Sinner, does this concern you? If it does not now, it will ere long. Are, you trusting to the mercy of God? If so, you must obtain that mercy in God’s own way; and that is, by pleading the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God has provided a way―only one way―whereby ‘we may obtain mercy. Would you find that way? Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

It is no uncommon thing to meet with, persons who are trusting to a good moral life and self-righteousness to gain them a place in the kingdom. Read what God says: ― “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6); “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19).

Reader, does this include you? You may think not; but unless you are washed in the blood of the Lamb, it does; and until you take the place of a sinner before God you cannot take the sinner’s Saviour. “For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13).

“All things are now ready.” Will you not come? Jesus is waiting, in patience and grace, pleading at the door of your heart. Oh, will you not open and bid Him enter? Life is short, and eternity is at hand; how near, we none of us know. Dare you refuse Him admittance anymore? He will not always be waiting. The time will come when He will say to those who refuse His invitation now, “I never knew you.”

“ ‘Too late!’ ‘Too late!’ will be the cry,

Jesus of Nazareth has passed by.”

Dear reader, pause awhile, and consider the love that prompted the God of glory to send down His Son―brightest and best in heaven to suffer and die for you, ―make it a personal matter, for you! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Will you turn away again, despising such love? Oh, my friend, by all that you hold dear in this life,—by the memory of those dear ones who have “gone before,” and as you value your soul’s eternal welfare,—I bid you rest no more until you shelter in the Rock of Ages. The way of salvation is so easy. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9, 10).

May God by His Spirit enable you to lay hold of this blessed truth, ―that Christ died for you; and that God will not require your death also, if you plead Jesus as your substitute.

“Just as I am―without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,

O, Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am―and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot;

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O, Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am―Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve!

Because Thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am―Thy love, I own,

Has broken every barrier down;

Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,

O, Lamb of God, I come!”

A. I. M.

Jacob's "I Will"; Moses' "Peradventure"; Christ's "It Is Finished."

WHEN Jacob left his father’s house for his uncle Laban’s, he felt that he had sinned against his brother Esau. He had deceived and supplanted him. He was many years in his uncle’s house; but years of absence could not rid his conscience of the sense of his guilt, nor the wrong he had committed against his brother. In his heart he knew that he was not right with Esau, and all those years he carried in his bosom the burden of the wrong. Time could not obliterate it, nor settle the account with his brother; and there is nothing more wretched on earth than a guilty conscience.

An evil and a guilty conscience is what every unsaved sinner has. Every child of Adam has this; and his dread of God, and fear of death and judgment, are proofs of the existence of it.

“I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,” was the language of Adam, fallen and guilty. Sin had wrought this terrible change, from a state of innocence to a state of guilt and dread of the presence and voice of God. “I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” A guilty conscience makes one a coward. The nakedness of our moral state is felt; the crown of innocence is known to be gone forever; and we are afraid of meeting the offended God.

The sinner now in this day of grace seeks to hide from the voice of God in the Gospel, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance and eternal blessing. By and by, in the day of judgment, he will seek to hide from the face of the Lamb, whose word will consign the rebel sinner to divine wrath. Men will cry to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15-17.) Like Jacob, man carries in his own bosom the sense of his sin against God. A smiling face, prosperity in life, the possession of earthly joys, are no proofs of its non-existence. Years do not efface it; and though he labors on for sixty or eighty years, the matter, instead of being settled, is in reality only augmented, and he is afraid to meet Him.

Jacob was afraid to meet Esau. And why? His guilty conscience told of sin against his brother. Esau was coming, and the great question with Jacob was, “How shall I meet him?”

The Lord is coming! and the great question with you and me is, “How shall I meet Him?” Esau was coming with four hundred men; the Lord is coming with myriads of His saints and the armies of heaven. He is coming, clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, to tread the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God. How will you meet Him?

Oh reader, I entreat you, by the truth of the living God who cannot lie, take no rest until you can answer that question in peace!

Jacob said, “I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me” (Gen. 32:20). The present was sent on ahead to be the ground of the brother’s reconciliation. Ah, how little did he understand of the matter. No, Jacob; it was to be all grace. The offended was to give the offender an unconditional pardon. “And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.” It was not until afterward that Esau understood the meaning of Jacob’s present. It was an unqualified forgiveness upon the principles of grace.

Man, to use the language of Jacob, feeling that he is all wrong with God, says, “I will appease Him with a present; I will offer something that will settle the matter between us; I will in good works lay the ground of reconciliation with my God; after which I will see His face, and peradventure He will accept of me.” But like Jacob he has mistaken matters completely. God is not appeased or propitiated in this way. He has revealed the way of reconciliation, the ground of salvation in His Word. Man’s “I will” won’t do.

It is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). “By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9). “We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10).

It is grace, the grace of God, flowing down to us through a crucified Redeemer; and when the sinner returns with the repentant cry, “I have sinned,” God receives, pardons, and saves.

THE “PERADVENTURE” OF MOSES.

Many are the souls in this present day who stand upon legal ground. It is law-keeping with them: the squaring of self with the law, and the making out of a righteousness of their own, that will fit them for heaven.

It is true that God gave the law, and its conditions are, “Do this, and thou shalt live”; “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Moreover, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” It is “spiritual”; it lays hold of what I am; it says, “Thou shalt not lust.” But, alas! for me, “I am carnal, sold under sin.” It can only condemn me. It can only mirror back to me what I am and what I have done, and reiterate the word “cursed.” Thus it is, “By the law is the knowledge of sin; by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20).

Israel proposed to keep the covenant of works. “All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient” (Exod. 24:3-8; 19:8). This was repeated three times. Solemn ground for a sinner to take. It can only result in complete failure. But a little after, when Moses had gone up into the mount, they made the golden calf, and worshipped it, and thereby broke the law ere it reached them on the two tables of stone.

Moses, when he reached the camp, and saw what was done, said unto the people, “Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin” (Exod. 32:30). So Moses went up with a “peradventure” upon his lips.

And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, “O this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin―and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written” (Exod. 32:31, 32).

And what is God’s answer? He answers according to the unbending principles of His holy law, wider which the guilty people stood. “And the Lord answered Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against ne, him will I blot out of my book” (Exod. 32:33). This is the principle of law, and alas for the soul that stands on that ground. Moses’ peradventure would not do, the law of God must take effect. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). To be on law-ground, is to be under the curse, and no peradventure of a Moses will avail.

CHRIST’S “IT IS FINISHED.”

Thank God, He has blessedly espoused the sinner’s cause. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Wonderful difference! It is not the “I will” of a Jacob, nor the “peradventure’ of a Moses, but God’s own Son coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, and on the cross of Calvary baring our sins, receiving our curse and condemnation, shedding His precious blood to make an atonement for our souls, to appease the majesty of Heaven, and secure for all believers the forgiveness of sins, eternal redemption, and present and eternal salvation. In His expiring breath, He cried, “Ii is finished,” and then gave up the ghost. In His prayer to the Father in John 17. He said, I have glorified thee upon the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

When Jesus went to Calvary there was no peradventure upon His lips, as in the case of Jacob and Moses; but, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,” though that will involved the death of the cross. And on that cross of shame, He glorified God about sin, by putting it away, and secured for us eternal blessing. Blessed Lord, Thou didst finish the work, and Thou didst finish it for eternity.

Beloved reader, if ignorant of Christ, it is for you, now to reap the benefits of that work. All is done, done once, done perfectly, done forever. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ is glorified. God is perfectly satisfied, yea glorified. Simple faith in Christ obtains all that God has to give, and all that the sinner needs. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Remember, the work is done, done according to God, and by faith in Christ you become saved. “Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace,” said the Lord Jesus to the woman in Luke vii. 36-50. Read that wonderful story of grace divine.

“I ask no other argument,

I ask no other plea,

It is enough that Jesus died,

And that He died for me.”

E. A.

IT is due to Christ that the one who trusts in Him should reap all the benefit of His finished work. This is only the righteousness of God, and the knowledge of it imparts stable peace to the soul.

W. T. P. W.

The Jubilee Year.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye Anil do no work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.”―Lev. 23:26-28.

“And thou shalt number seven sabbath of years unto thee, seven times seven years: and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the vine undressed. For it is the jubilee: it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.”―Lev. 25:8-13.

WHEN the Lord Jesus commenced His ministry here on earth, when He began to proclaim the glad tidings of the grace of God, He began in His own town of Nazareth, and He took up the Book at the remarkable passage in Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” The blessed Saviour, at the very outset, states what His ministry is. It is the ministry of perfect grace, a ministry that flows from the heart of God in all the goodness that fills that heart, and which divinely meets all the need of man. In plain language, it is God’s glad tidings to needy, ruined man. The two scriptures which head this paper show, first, what is the groundwork of these glad tidings, and, secondly, what those glad tidings are which God sends out, not only in grace, but in perfect righteousness.

The most wonderful moment in the history of Israel was the year of jubilee. It was the year that reversed everything. It was the year that every one looked back to, who knew its emancipating power, the year that every one looked forward to who was in need of emancipation.

The moment the blood was on the mercy-seat, before the eye of God, on the great day of atonement, the silver trumpet sounded throughout the land, and the slave was set free, the poor man got back his land, and returned to his possession. The year of jubilee altered everything. “The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine.” And if you ask me the literal interpretation of this, I believe it is that the land of Israel will yet come back, as it were, into the hands of God, for it is God’s land, and it will come back to Jehovah, and He will inherit it in His earthly people, and they will enjoy it forever.

God’s eye has rested on that land ever since He promised it to Abraham. It was never to be sold: and I believe, by-and-by, the Lord will take that land from the hand of the oppressor, and He will put His earthly people there. And what a land it will be when held by Jehovah the land a free land for His people!

This year of jubilee was celebrated on the day of atonement, and I want you, my friend, to see how everything in the way of blessing is founded on atonement. The Gospel goes out now on the ground of the atoning work of Christ, and it brings to men just what they need. If you are bowed down in acknowledgment of your sins, it brings to you pardon and peace. It brings eternal life to those who are dead in sin: it brings righteousness to the guilty and undone; it brings everything that man could need, or the heart of God bestow.

The 16th chapter of Leviticus is a figure of the atoning death of Christ. You have two goats; you must have two in the figure, for one was killed: but one would not have been enough, for the death of Christ merely is not enough―enough for God, but not enough for me; for if I only know the death of Christ, I do not know that my sins are gone. It is His resurrection that tells me that my sins are put away, for my Substitute, the One who bore my sins, and suffered for them, has gone into heaven without them.

The one goat, then, was slain, and the blood put on the mercy-seat, and this blood upon the mercy-seat gave God a righteous ground for going on with a people who were sinful.

The blood met the eye of God, met the eye of the cherubim, who were above the mercy-seat, gazing inward on the mercy-seat. The cherubim are the expression of the righteous government of God. They are the executive of God in judgment; they look on the mercy-seat, and see the blood.

The blood is put once on the mercy-seat, and seven times before the mercy-seat. God is divinely satisfied with the blood sprinkled once, but it is the gracious provision of God to have it sprinkled seven times before the mercy-seat, because that is what met the eye of the priest. The priest comes in, by faith, in the cloud of incense―a figure, I believe, of the fragrance of the personal and moral excellencies of Christ, in the value of which the believer now appears before God.

The priest retires from the holy place, and the body of the victim is burned outside the camp.

What is this a figure of? The burning of that body to ashes outside the camp tells us what Christ passed through, when, upon the cross, He, who knew no sin, was made sin, and suffered the just for the unjust to bring us to God. It tells me of His sufferings, when, alone upon the cross, He, the Son of God, became the sin-bearer, bore the penalty of my sins, that I might never bear it.

The blood, then, is on the mercy-seat, and the victim’s body burnt outside the camp, and what is gone? The sin that made the sacrifice necessary!

The question of sin was taken up and settled by Gad, there on the cross, between Himself and His Son, according to God’s thoughts of what sin is.

Once in the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and, as far as the work is concerned, He hath perfectly done it to the satisfaction of God, and those ashes outside the camp are the witness, that what would have kept me from the presence of God has been burned and consumed, and put away from the eye of God.

The question, then, is settled about all that exposed me to the righteous judgment of God, but now the scapegoat comes forth, and Aaron lays his hand on the head of it, i.e., complete identification with the offering. Aaron confesses all the sins and iniquities on the head of that goat, and sends it away by a fit man into the wilderness.

I have thus the two things, not alone that atonement has been affected, and propitiation made in the presence of God, but here I get also the truth of substitution. There is the sense that to the One who had not sinned there has been transferred that which made me amenable to the righteous judgment of God, and when that goat went away into the wilderness the Israelite had the full assurance that all the sins of the last twelve months had been divinely settled, and he had a clear conscience.

Look at the fruit of this. Once in fifty years, when this day of atonement came round, God was pleased to connect with it more than the mere putting away of sins. “A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you.” Look at the effect of this upon Israel; then connect it with the blessed tidings of the Saviour’s death, and then see if there is not something for you, my reader.

It is on the ground of the atonement that the trumpet sounds. It is because atonement has been affected, and every claim of God has been met, that the Gospel trumpet sounds.

The gladdest day in all Israel’s history was this jubilee day, and oh, what a day it will be in your history, my reader, when you wake up to learn that you have been delivered by Christ; the day when you know you are saved, the day when you get the sense in your heart that every question between God and you is settled! Do you know already what such a day means, my reader?

At the moment when the blood is put upon the mercy-seat, when the scapegoat goes away, and when the body of the victim is consumed to ashes outside the camp, at that moment the trumpet sounds.

Oh, what a sound of joy must that have been to the captive in the dungeon, to the one sold for debt! It was the sound of his freedom. It was the note that told of his deliverance. Do you know what deliverance is, my friend? Has Christ made you free?

Do you say, like the Jews, I was never in bondage? Ah, my friend, Christ says, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Do you ever commit sin? Then you are the servant of sin. How am I to be made free? do you ask. I am made free by the truth, by the Spirit of God; and if I am not made free by the truth and by the Spirit of God, I am still a slave.

But there has been a wonderful work done for the sinner by the Saviour. Atonement has been affected by the Son of God, and accepted by God Himself; and these tidings having come down, the question is, Have you believed these tidings? Do you say, I am not quite sure? Look at Psalm 79:15, and you will soon know if you have accepted the tidings or not, for “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”

Friend, do you walk in the light of the Lord’s countenance? Is it a joy to you to be near the Lord, near the Saviour? Terrible is the future of the man who knows not the joyful sound.

You may think things are all right with you, and you may scoff at the Gospel now, but one day you will hear another trumpet sound. It will not be a note of grace, but of judgment; it will not be a joyful sound, but a joyless sound, a terrible sound—the sound of that trumpet when the Lord raises the dead, and you have to appear before Him, a sinner in your sins.

Do you ask, Who are the tidings of the Gospel for? I think this picture in Leviticus 25 may tell us. Every corner of the land was to hear this trumpet sound, and the Holy Ghost labors now to bring out the sweet tidings of the value of the Saviour’s death, and to get people to hear the tidings, and those who hear have liberty proclaimed to them.

I do not say everybody will be saved, but I do say everybody may be. A man hears the Gospel and thinks it is for everybody but himself. The joyful sound is for everyone.

It was the fiftieth year and the tenth day of the month that the trumpet sounded in Israel, and on the fiftieth day after the Saviour’s death the Holy Ghost comes forth to proclaim the joyful fruits of the Saviour’s death and resurrection.

Acts 13:38 gives an account of this jubilee note going out. Liberty was the one joyous feeling that filled the land of Israel, and Acts 13:38 tells us of forgiveness, of pardon, of justification.

The Son makes you free in virtue of what He Himself has accomplished. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” It is for all.

If a man refused to enjoy the liberty, and hugged his chains, whose fault would it have been? It would have been the fault of the man who preferred his dungeon to liberty; and if you do not receive and get the benefit of what the Gospel trumpet proclaims to you, whose fault is it? It is not the fault of the Lord Jesus. The fault is all your own. You prefer your bondage to the liberty wherewith Christ would have made you free.

Oh, my unconverted reader, while the Gospel note is still ringing through the land, will you not believe it, and receive it, and walk in the light of the Lord’s countenance, as one of those who are blessed because they have heard the joyful sound?

W. T. P. W.

Love and Trust Reciprocated.

THOU hast loved me, precious Saviour!

Notwithstanding all my sin;

And hast, through the door of mercy,

Sweetly drawn me safely in, ―

Drawn me in to God the Father,

Made me know and own my place;

As, in Thee, redeemed, accepted,

Justified, through reigning grace.

Thou dost trust me, gracious Saviour:

With Thine honor here below;

And wouldst have me striving all the

Riches of Thy grace to show:

Thou wouldst have me, Lord, abounding

In the work of patient love;

Till Thou comest, occupying

Every talent to improve.

* * * * *

I would love Thee, precious Saviour!

Love like Thine must love beget;

And the pathway of Thy sorrow

I would never here forget:

Marred, Thy visage more than others;

Grief profounder ne’er could be;

Then, too, in death’s surging billows

Left and smitten, ―all for me!

I would trust Thee, gracious Saviour!

Trust Thy love and tender care,

As I journey through the desert,

Till I meet Thee in the air:

Till I meet Thee, ―till I see Thee,―

Till there’s naught on earth to do;

It will give me joy to trust Thee,

And refresh Thee, Saviour, too!

March 1888

N. L. N.

Man's Folly and God's Eternity.

Who would think of setting his own house on fire, of running his own ship upon the rocks, of deliberately wrecking his own fortune, of starving himself, or of pointing a dagger and plunging it into his own heart? Men of consummate folly, or driven by blank despair, may do such things, and the human heart may weep as it sympathizes with them. But what can we think of the common madness of the unbelieving part of the world, who deliberately rush on into eternity, and attempt to brave out in the madness of their folly the wrath and judgment of God?

How many thousands hear of their sins from the Word of God, of the love of God, of the agonies of Christ upon the cross, of eternal glory, and everlasting punishment, and yet with the heart closed against it all! They challenge, as it were, the love, glory, and judgment of God to move them. They defy the affecting scenes of Calvary to melt their hearts. Ah, yes! and the workings of God’s Spirit with them, too, they reject; and so they stand, deliberately confronting eternity. With folly that cannot be expressed, they hasten to their doom! What can we think of such? Mark the elements with which they are contending, ―nothing short of the love of God, His truth, and the operations of His Spirit! The mighty river of God’s love carries untold numbers into the haven of rest; but the rejection of that love on the part of any sinner, will inevitably conduct him to the gloomy regions of the damned, ―into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth!

Dear reader, are you unsaved? Behold, then, what you are stemming against, ―the love of God! His love is extended to you in the gift of His Son. Behold Him bleeding on the cross for you! And yet you are without that love; you know it not; you are still rejecting it; you have not opened your heart to receive it yet; and as such you are braving out the thought of eternity. Do you ask me what eternity is? Listen awhile and I will tell you. At night gaze into the illuminated heavens, and count every star, and add a thousand years for every star, and when your sum is completed, and the number told out, and these number of years have run their course, then eternity will have but commenced! Again, go to the shore, and count every grain of sand, and add a billion for every grain, then that would be but an unit in the boundless breadths or the infinite lengths of eternity! Could you but count the leaves of every tree, or every blade of grass, or the minute particles of air that fill the infinite space above, then when your numbers are counted, and a trillion added for every leaf, a billion for every blade of grass, and a million for every particle of air, then when those numbers of years have passed by, the redeemed in the glory will have but commenced their joys, or the damned in hell their misery! O Eternity! who can measure thee, or tell thee out? Who can measure out thy joys, or unfold thy woes? O boundless Eternity! thou receptacle of the redeemed! O Eternity! thou vast abyss that engulfs the rejecters of Christ in the rolling billows, the mighty sea of thy judgments, who can unravel thy mysteries? The blood-washed sinner doth hail thee with delight, and anticipate thy immeasurable fullness with inexpressible joy. They say, Come, blest Eternity of God! come and embrace us in the mighty folds of thine everlasting love and glory! But, alas! thou hast no such attraction for the refusers of mercy, the rejecters of the gospel of God’s grace. Dark clouds gather about thy brow in view of such. Thine inexorable hand contemplating such can only grasp the two-edged sword of judgment, and make tempestuous the sea of thy divine wrath. Thy fullness shall swallow them up; thine eternal duration shall only be to their sorrow; thy darkness shall envelop them; and thy fury shall retain them forever!

Dear friend, have you listened? This is something like eternity―boundless, undying, infinite, inexpressible, illimitable! Now, stand upon its shores, and view both its departments. Mount up in your imagination, and survey the mansions of glory and their occupants, ―the white-robed throng which no man can number, that have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hark to those songs of praise, those hallelujahs to the Lamb. The very heavens reverberate therewith! But, again, what do we hear? ―how charming, ravishing, and enrapturing! “Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!” The very pillars of heaven are made to shake at this universal appeal to the worthiness of Christ―the Lamb! Oh! what a sight, what a place!

Dear reader, will you be there? Observe, their robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Have you been to that cleansing fount, which is open for sin and uncleanness? Are your sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb? Observe, again, the Lamb of God forms the center of that scene, and is the theme of their songs of praise. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain escapes every lip. Do you know the Lamb of God as your-Saviour? Can you say, He is my own Saviour? Can you say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain “for me,” and who bore “my sins” in His own body on the tree, and endured the judgment of God in my stead? If so, praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever!

But, again, let your imagination step down from the lofty heights of heavenly glory and from surveying the paradise of God, and view the other department of eternity. Let us enter the thick cloud of outer darkness, the abode of the lost. Oh! what an unutterable contrast! ―from the glories of paradise to the darkness of hell! from being enwrapped in brightness and enraptured with joy, to be enveloped in the impenetrable gloom and to be woe-struck with the utterances of the damned! O Hell, thou engulfer of the lost, how terrible art thou! But stay, is there no door of hope? Not one! One ray of hope is not found throughout the lengths and breadths of the gloomy regions of the lost! But stay, is not yonder gulf passable? It is utterly impassable! Yea, the strongest winged monster in hell is utterly powerless to cross that eternally fixed gulf! Ah, yes! this is the termination of the broad road; this is destruction, but not annihilation; this is the second death, but not extinction of being. Alas for those who enter the wide gate, and tread in the broad road, for it leads to destruction! ―thus said the Son of God.

Dear reader, I affectionately appeal to you. Are you on the broad road? Will you spend an eternity in the last place that we have been viewing? If you are unsaved, I beseech you to flee at once to Jesus, and receive pardon at His hands. Have faith in Him, and then your escape from that woeful place shall be sure, and your title to the glory and paradise of God indisputable. But delay not! Remember Lot’s wife! Linger not, or you may be enwrapped in the flames of Divine wrath! Whilst the door of mercy stands wide open, enter in. Jesus says, Come. Won’t you come? He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock!” Won’t you open to the gracious One, and know the fullness of His love? Believe, then. “Believe (at once) on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30, 31).

God’s house is filling fast―

Yet there is room!

Some guest will be the last―

Yet there is room!

Yes! soon salvation’s day

To you will pass away,

Then grace no more will say―

Yet there is room!

E. A.

The Old Beggar's Confidence.

IT was one of the lovely days of last summer that a child of God went to spend a few hours at the sea-side, some miles from her home. She was just recovering from a long illness, and everything looked so fresh and pleasant to her. The bright blue of the sky was hardly shadowed by a single cloud, the soft summer breeze laden with the perfumed breath of wild flowers fanned her face, the larks sang sweetly over her head, and the gentle monotonous rippling of the waves as they flowed over the sand at her feet, all together made the scene one of delicious enjoyment.

Now this child of God loved the sea, and the scent of the wild flowers, and the wild birds’ song, and she whispered as she threw herself down on the soft grass, “What a bright, beautiful, joyous thing life is, with Christ for one’s Saviour, and God for one’s Friend!” and resting her back against a green hillock, she drew out her Bible to have a quiet read.

She had scarcely begun when she became conscious that somebody was approaching, and looking up saw, at a little distance, an old man walking slowly towards her. He was a very feeble old man, and seemed to walk painfully leaning on a stick. How poor and old and suffering he seemed! and she could not help thinking, as she looked at him, “Surely he does not look as if he thought life ‘a joyous thing’ how little he has got to enjoy! I ought to tell him about Christ.” Then her selfish heart answered, half resenting the thought of being disturbed, “I am sure he would not listen to me, he would not care to hear about Him.”

Again a voice whispered, and this time she recognized from whence it came: “You have got all you want, how selfish you are! how dare you refuse to tell that poor suffering weary old sinner of the only One in heaven or earth who can make him happy?” She answered, “Lord, help me; I know I am very selfish, but I don’t know what to say to him; perhaps he will be angry and say something rude, and I can ill bear that; but if I am to speak to him, bring him over here to me, and just tell me all I am to say.”

Again she looked at the old man, and saw him hobbling straight towards the spot where she sat, and heard him groan with pain as he came along. Presently he stood beside her, and asked, “Have you lost anything, ma’am?”

“I think not; what have you found?”

“Oh, I don’t know, but there’s a bundle over yonder on the grass. I was afraid to lift it, for fear some one would see me and think I was taking it away, and I would not like to touch what does not belong to me.”

“It is well to be afraid of doing wrong, because God sees one, and He always sees us; would you be afraid to meet God?”

“Ah, sure, we must make ourselves worthy to meet Him, and there are a great many things to hinder the poor, but we must strive to be worthy, when our time to meet Him comes,” he said, sitting down on the grass beside her.

“You will never be able to be that, never, for it is quite impossible to make yourself ready to meet Him. Do you know that God is so holy, that He could not even look on His own blessed Son when He was bearing sin on the cross, but turned away His face from Him, so that the Lord Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ That was because He had our sins on Him there. You and I are full of sin, and the very best thing we can do is mixed with sin; even when we kneel down to pray evil thoughts come into our hearts, showing us that even our very prayers are not fit to go up to God.”

“Well, that’s as true as you are living,” the old man said, now looking thoroughly interested, “and I’ll tell you how I know it. Though I’m a very poor man now as you see me, I was once better off, and had a comfortable house. I had three sons, two of them were wild bad boys and went away from me to America, and I never hear from them, for they don’t heed me; but the other! he was the best boy that ever a poor man reared,”―and big bright tears stood in the old man’s dim eyes as he continued,― “he was in the coastguard, and while he lived I never wanted. Yes, though I’m his father, and I say it, there never was a better boy. But one night he went out in his boat, and a storm came on, and I never saw him again, for he was drowned; and now here I am, poor and homeless, for I got this rheumatism, and was turned out of my house and farm. I have no one to do anything for me; and do you know, ma’am, when I go down on my knees to pray, I just think that God was cruel to take away my only good boy to leave me as I am, and that shows me now how bad my heart is.”

“Indeed it does; it was very sad to lose your good son, and I’m very sorry for you. But God never does anything that is not in love, for the Bible says He ‘is love;’ and now I’ll tell you how He has proved it. He had one only Son, in whom His heart delighted; He loved Him far better than you loved your son. Well, He saw poor sinners like you and me down here, and saw that we were so vile and sinful that we could not stand in His holy presence; but in spite of that, He loved us so well that He gave that only beloved Son of His to die instead of us, just that He might make us fit to be with Himself. No sin could be put away unless blood was shed, but God’s own Son has shed His blood for us; and now we have nothing to do but come to God in His name, and He is sure to receive us, because He is satisfied with the sacrifice that Christ offered up for us when He gave Himself.”

“Well, I’m a great sinner; when I look back on my past life and remember, many and many is the wicked thing I have done; yes, I know that I am a very great sinner.”

“But do you know that it was for great sinners that the Lord Jesus came to die! If you were good, you would not want Him to die for you; but it was because we were so wicked and so helpless that we could do nothing at all, even to help ourselves, that the Lord Jesus has borne what you and I deserve; and God does not look on our sins any longer when we believe in His Son, but on Christ who bore them on the cross instead of us. No matter how great your sins are, ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin.’ As I’ve told you before, God never does anything that is not in love, and maybe He just took away your son in order that you might turn to Himself, when everyone else was gone from you. Was it not great love in God to give His only Son to die for you, and great love in the Lord Jesus to give up His glory, and leave His bright home in heaven, to die for you?”

“Ah, that was the love, that was the love, there never was love like that,” he said, moving his head from side to side as he spoke.

“Yes, and the Bible says, that He that spared not His own Son but delivered Lim up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things. Not one thing that is good for us will He withhold; do you believe that?”

“Well, I’m no scholar, but when you tell me I believe it.”

“Well now, tell me, if you believe that God loves you so much, would you be afraid to meet Him if He called you tonight?”

“Not a bit afraid.”

“Why not? on what ground would you meet Him without fear?”

He took off his hat, and lowering it to the ground, said solemnly, “I’d meet Him tonight (and I’d not be a bit afraid) on the ground of the merits of the blood and of the death of His own blessed Son.”

What a beautiful answer that was, dear reader, and very unexpected; it made the heart of the poor feeble child of God dance with joy. Could you give the same answer if you were asked the same question?

The old man then said that he felt so ill that it was impossible for him to live long, and she told him of how the Lord Jesus takes His loved ones straight home to be forever with Himself. She had seen one who was very dear to her, softly, tenderly, lovingly, put to sleep by Him, but a few months before. The old man rose to go, but with a sudden burst of grateful feeling caught up her hand, and kissing it, said, “The Lord bless you, the Lord reward you. I beg your pardon, but I am a stranger here, and you are the only one who has spoken so kindly to me since I came, but He will bless you and reward you.”

After going a few steps, he turned again to smile at her and bless her. Once more she said, “I hope your rheumatism will be cured by the hot baths.” He had told her they had been ordered him.

“Ah, I will be well soon anyway, ma’am, for I can’t be here long now.”

And now just a word with you, my reader. If God were pleased to call you away tonight, would it be to take you to be forever with Himself in that beautiful home of light and love and joy where He dwells, and where every poor blood-washed sinner will dwell forever with Him? or would it be to be banished from His presence, to dwell with Satan in agonies of hopeless endless despair in the awful depths of the lake of fire? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

E. L. W.

On Confessing Christ.

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”―Rom. 10:10.

“Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”―John 12:42, 43.

THERE are not a few, I think, in these days who are precisely in the same state spiritually as these chief rulers spoken of above. They believed on Christ, but would not take a place with Him, because they dreaded the consequences, and it is for the benefit of such that I write the following true story.

A few weeks ago a young man, J. H., nineteen years of age, was dying. His work had been with horses on a farm, and some days previously he had got wet and chilled right through; inflammation had then set in, and there he lay on his bed dying. Now J. H. was the son of godly parents; he was their eldest son, too, and many a time had they cried to God for him, and many a time had they taken him to the preaching of the Gospel that he might be under the sound of the good news message, but up to that day he had never confessed Christ, and had never taken any place for Him in this world. He always was a good lad; by that I mean he did not swear or get drunk, &c., but he had never owned, even to his mother, that there had been any change wrought in his soul by the Spirit of God.

And now he was dying. How solemn! Only nineteen, a stout, hearty young man, and yet dying, and he knew it. He was come to the last day he had to spend on earth, and he was come to it many years before he or his relatives had in the least expected. And what do you think were the feelings of his father and mother at this time, they who had prayed so often and so earnestly for him, but had so little expected such a sudden blow? What could they do save bow to the hand of God in the matter and count upon His grace. This they were enabled to do, and were not to be disappointed. Not many hours before his death J. H. called his mother to his bedside and said: “Mother, don’t fret for me. It is all right with me; I have been a Christian for two years, though I have never confessed Christ. I was converted that night at H., when the preacher was speaking on John 3:16, but I would not take a place for Christ, and now God is taking me away.”

He then called his sister to him, a girl of seventeen, and said solemnly to her, “Louie, I know you are a Christian, but you have never confessed Christ or taken a place for Him here. Take care, or God will take you away too, as He is taking me away, because I would not confess Him.”

Soon after this he fell asleep. I am thankful to be able to add that the sister has confessed Christ, and taken a stand for Him since her brother’s death.

Dear reader, if you are one who has never confessed Christ as your own precious Saviour, let this story speak to you. God has said it, that with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and how sad it would be if, as in this case, a confession of that precious Saviour had to be, as it were, wrung from you, only a few moments before you pass out of this world.

“Help us to confess Thy name,

Bear with joy Thy cross and shame;

Only seek to follow Thee,

Though reproach our portion be.”

A. F. B.

The Poor Man and His Dog; or, Sentenced and Liberated.

NOT long ago I observed an aged man in charge of a policeman enter a railway train at a station in Yorkshire, and, being a little curious to know particulars, went up to the door of the compartment, when to my surprise I found the prisoner to be a person well known to me, whose wife was a dear child of God. At once saluting the old man, I inquired the meaning of his present position, when he replied that he had had the misfortune to be unable to pay the tax on a favorite little dog, having thereby come within the arm of the law of the land, been summoned before the magistrates, and, in default of payment of fine and costs, committed to imprisonment for one month. Being unable to pay, the poor fellow was accordingly being conveyed helpless to prison to work out the sentence. The constable on being asked under what circumstances he could give up his prisoner, said he could not liberate him without receiving full payment of the fine and expenses, which already had amounted to twenty-two shillings and sixpence, and were every hour increasing.

Turning to the pale and trembling prisoner, and asking what he had to say to it all, he replied that he had no money, was out of work, in poor health, and knew not where to turn for a friend to help him―in fact, that he was entirely without the slightest prospect of ever being in a position to help himself out of his dilemma.

I said to him, “The train will be off in about three minutes, but if I pay down now the whole amount for you as a free gift, will you accept it as such?” “Yes,” he said, with tears in his eyes, “I will indeed and shall be only too glad!”

Turning now to the constable in uniform, and seeing there was no time to be lost, I said, “If I pay you the amount required, is it understood that this guilty man be set free, may return home, and you will have no more claim upon him?” “Yes,” was his reply. So the money was forthwith paid, and the helpless one let out on to the platform, to the joy of his heart, and the full satisfaction of the constable.

Upon dispensing with the services of the respectful executioner of the law, I took my old friend on one side, and did not fail to use the occasion to show him that what had happened was a little picture of what the God of all grace had done for poor sinners, pressing home that he had offended against God, and was guilty in His sight, utterly powerless to meet the demands of a holy, righteous, and just God.

Acknowledging he was as powerless to get out of the difficulty he had got into by sin, as he was to extricate himself from the power of the man in whose charge he had been, he took his place as a guilty, helpless, and repentant sinner, and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and God’s gift. He trusted the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin; and is, I believe, on his way now, rejoicing more in deliverance from the consequences of sin, than in being free from the power of the law of his country.

Now, my reader, let me turn to you and ask, How do you stand in regard to this simple Gospel illustration? Do you know yourself in God’s sight condemned, guilty, helpless, and utterly unable to meet the claims of a holy God against whom you have offended?

God, in His word, tells us that, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). Eternity is at hand, my friend, and if still under God’s wrath, are you aware that Satan is hauling you off to the eternal prison-house of hell? Don’t you see you are in the devil’s express train to the lake of fire, and may reach it before you have read this paper? Oh, stop, dear soul, stop one single moment, and pause ere it be too late! Own your guilt; accept God’s terms of love and grace; salvation is to be had now, at this moment, without money and without price. Soon the signal will be given for your train to start, and it will be off; and, think of its destination! ―an eternal hell!!

Christ, God’s gift, has paid down all that God claims, and you may be free on receiving by faith that Blessed One who gave His own life’s blood to pay the debt and cleanse from all sin. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not he Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). God also says, “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). Will you accept it, and go free? Not only free from wrath, but have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, and eternal peace, eternal joy, and ere long a place in glory with the One who “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev. 1:5).

Change carriages, dear friend, and have your destination eternal glory. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Observe this well, ―had the man who was on his way to prison rejected the offer of his friend, he would soon have found himself bearing his penalty himself. If you reject the offer of God’s grace and die in your sins, you will have to bear your burden in that awful lake of fire. “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:11.) Accept God’s present terms. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Receive deliverance, and ere long an eternal home of joy is yours, in His presence who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

J. N.

The Power of the Word of God.

JULIA and Emilia E― were the daughters of refined and educated parents, who had trained them carefully for the social circle in which they hoped to see them shine. Yet there was a blight hanging over this prospect, for Emilia’s health―the younger one―was giving them much anxiety. She was tall and graceful, and had a sweet expression of countenance, but consumption seemed already to have marked her for its victim. A relative visiting the neighborhood, and hearing of the delicate health of Emilia, asked permission for the sisters to visit his home in the country. He was one who knew the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and delighted in making known His love to others. The parents hesitated. The religious influence of the relative was much to be dreaded; on the other hand, the pure country air was most desirable for their child, and they yielded consent.

“The Word of God is quick and powerful,” and this was their relative’s confidence―he counted on God to use His own Word in blessing to their souls. The next morning after their arrival the Gospel by John was begun at family reading. The sisters listened attentively to the precious unfolding of Him who was “from the beginning,” who made all things, who was “the Word,” “the Light of the world,” and “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” To “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” This was the One by whom grace and truth came. The law by Moses had demanded righteousness, and had brought out man’s utter ruin as a sinner (Rom. 3:19); but now God had sent His beloved Son to reveal the Father, and to be the Saviour of all that come unto God by Him.

It was not until the reading of the 3rd chapter that her personal need of salvation was felt by Emilia. She knew it was written― “Ye must be born again;” but why this necessity she could not tell. For the first time man’s irreparable ruin was told out in her ears. His fall in Adam had forfeited everything as to the innocence in which God had created him. Now possessed of nothing but an Adam nature, God’s testimony is that man is lost. All human reforms and patching up of man in his state by nature will not do for God. Hence the need of the solemn “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.” As the chapter went on to tell how the Son of Man must be lifted up, and how God so loved the world that He gave His Son, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” dear Emilia took God at His word, and believed in Christ as her Saviour,. Some days later she wrote in her bedroom the following little poem, which she entitled “Thankfulness:”―

“So great my joy, I cannot keep

My tongue in silence bound;

I’ll sing aloud to let the world

Know that my Christ I’ve found.

One month ago no hope had I

Beyond this world of sin;

But now the love of Christ my Lord

My soul has entered in.

I saw my guilt, my wretched guilt,

And trembled ‘neath the load,

And conscience, wakened, proved to me

A miserable goad.

I knew not then ‘twas God’s own love

Working my soul within,

To make me see the love of Christ

That ransomed me from sin.

It made me feel how weak I was―

Feel I was lost, undone―

And when I cried aloud to Him,

Made me behold His Son.

He showed me from His blessed Word

How Christ had died for me,

How graciously He left His home

From sin to set me free.”

Emlia was now praying for her sister. Julia hung back instead of thinking of the great gain. She was afraid of what the cost would be to have Christ. One day, on hearing the solemn scripture Prov. 1:14-32, she wept much, and said she did believe in Christ as her Saviour. With her it seemed to be fleeing from the wrath to come, and not the heart won by Christ, as with Emilia. The following is an extract from a letter they sent to one who wrote to them rejoicing in their conversion: ―

“We do feel how blessed it is,

‘Our theme of joys but one,’

that we are members of Christ. It is indeed only the work of God’s Holy Spirit has made us such. The scriptures you refer to are very precious and helpful. We are already beginning to experience what a satisfying portion to our souls is our Saviour Jesus Christ. What a blessed thing to know our sins are forgiven us We wrote home yesterday to make known the news to our father and mother. We shall need to cling close to Christ for strength to enable us to show to the dear ones at home by our manner of walking what a change has come to us.”

The letter was signed by both. The writing to their parents was an unsuggested act; but undoubtedly the Spirit of God led them to thus confess Christ. The result was an immediate summons home, and thus abruptly terminated their happy visit of some weeks. They parted from their relative in tears, conscious of the cross that awaited them, yet knowing too where to go for strength.

Emilia was much better for the country air. Months elapsed, during which she bore bright testimony for Christ. How could she now call herself a miserable sinner, and cry, “Lord have mercy upon us; spare us, good Lord,” and similar petitions, when she knew herself justified and standing in the favor of God? (Rom. 5:1, 2.). Delighting too in knowing herself “accepted in the Beloved,” and brought into “the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.”

The returning cough, however, and the hectic flush soon told the incipient disease had not left her. Soon all hope of recovery was gone. But was she afraid to die? Oh no! She knew the One who had conquered death, and removed for her its sting. To an aunt watching beside her she said her eighteenth birthday was the happiest she ever had. This was one of her last days on earth. The Lord lovingly granted her desire to depart to be with Him on a Lord’s Day.

Dear reader, is Jesus your Saviour? “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Tomorrow to you may never come. Truly wrote another, ―

“Salvation without money,

Salvation without price,

Salvation without labor,

Believing doth suffice.

Salvation now―this moment!

Then why, oh! why delay?

You may not see tomorrow;

Now is salvation’s day!”

Right Forward!

COMMON every day occurrences sometimes strike us with special force, as illustrating something more important. Coming home by train one evening, the cry of the porter at one of the stations “Right forward!” made me think of another journey we are all making along the railroad of time to Eternity.

How blessed to know that on that journey it is right forward for us who believe. On the other hand, the thought of so many on this journey, of whom it may be said “Wrong forward,” is very solemn. See how careful all the officials are to have it right for the train as it starts. The porters, guards, engine-drivers, and signalmen, all doing their part to be sure that all is right. The driver looks well ahead for the different signals telling him it is right forward. Forgive me then, dear reader, if I ask you whether you have looked ahead, ―ahead of time into Eternity! If so, is it right forward with you? What madness of you or any one to be on such a journey, all uncertain of your destination. The railroad of time ends in Eternity, and we are all of us bound thither. To have it right forward, we must have it right backward too! Yes, the sin question must be settled.

There are sins past and present (and future too if life be prolonged). If you and I are to have it all right with us for Eternity, our sins must all be met and put away. Oh, ye careless, callous, Christless souls, ye are on the down line; the signals are all against you, and yet you go on! The devil “keepeth his goods in peace.” He does not want you disturbed from your fancied security; but that will not do. We wave the red flag of danger in front of you; we ask you to stop, whatever speed you may be going at in the cars of pleasure, vice, or even religion without Christ. Can it be that you are unconscious of your danger? The engine-driver stops the train as quickly as possible when the signals are against his going on. Why should not you stop then? Oh, think of going into Eternity in your sins. Remember too, once you have reached the terminus, there is no return ticket from Eternity to time; no retracing your steps; no redeeming lost opportunities. “As the tree falls, so must it lie.” As you pass into Eternity, so must you spend it; either possessing Christ and entering into all the joy of being with Him forever, or without Christ. Without Christ! ―oh, what an Eternity! No Christ! ―no pardon! ―no heaven! ―no happiness! ―but the threefold torment of the lost soul, “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth” in the lake of fire (Rev. 16:8).

“Right forward” can only be true of us in one way. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Again He says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). Don’t you wish it to be all right with you my dear friend, for Eternity? Then flee at once to Christ. Believe on Him as your own Saviour. Hear His cry of victory on the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30.) Look up, and behold the same Jesus who died for sinners, now risen, and glorified at God’s right hand. Rest your all for Eternity on Him, and then it will be right forward with you. “Verily, verily, I [Jesus] 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). For the believer, the signals on the way are full of comfort and assurance. Jesus, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). “He is able also to save them to the uttermost [or evermore] that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). The voice of the Good Shepherd too we hear saying, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,” &c. (John 10:27, 28.) Happy they who believe on Jesus! For them, whether the terminus of this life be death, or the Lord’s coming, it will be the ushering in of eternal glory, and “so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

Reader, is it “right forward” with you?

T. E. P.

Running.

THE Holy Scriptures speak of running as expressive of intense earnestness and haste. We call our reader’s attention to five passages.

1. The haste of the Wicked. ― “Their feet run to evil” (Prov. 1:16). What sad haste is this! And what hundreds of our fellow-men are engaged in it! Turning their backs deliberately on God, trampling under foot His Word, deaf alike to entreaty and warning, their feet run to evil. The days are too short for their earnest pursuit of wickedness, and midnight finds them tossing the glass to their lips, without a thought of that cup of wrath of which they must drink, unless God save them. Sin after sin is committed with greediness, each awaking the desire for more. Step after step is hastily trodden in the pathways of pleasure, never heeding the finger-post placed by their side, “The end of these things is DEATH.” Haste! haste! haste! The devil leads the siren strain of exquisite sweetness, and his victims whirl in the mad dance of business, pleasure, or dissipation, till all is silenced in the solemn hush of death. And shortly the Great White Throne will be set up, and these will stand before it, hearing the Voice which they disregarded in life. They had no time to attend to it then, but now eternity is before them, and their haste is ended. Ended! but where? Alas, alas, in the lake of fire! The Voice which once sounded with accent of love in their ears, crying “Come,” now pronounces the word of awful doom, “Depart.” Oh, unsaved soul, see the end of running into evil, and stop thy passionate haste to hell. The rather do thou haste to flee from that coming wrath.

“Haste, haste, haste,

Delay not from wrath to flee;

Oh wherefore the moments in madness waste,

When Jesus is calling thee?”

2. The haste of the Moralist. ―Perhaps our reader exclaims, That is not my portrait at all; I am respectable, moral, and religious. Very good, we will present you with another picture. “There came one running, and kneeled to him [Jesus] and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17.) We have before us now one who is no pleasure-seeker, but an earnest doer of all the things by which he hopes to attain life and happiness. He was of a lovely character, and could speak of having observed all the commandments from his youth. Yet his conscience was not at rest, and he came running to Jesus to know what more he must do. Was he so earnestly intent upon doing all that God would approve? What could delight His heart so much as having him accompanying His own Son in the condition of poverty which He had chosen that He might make poor man rich? This the Lord proposes to him. Alas, alas! his purpose of doing reaches not so far; there stands an idol betwixt his heart and Christ, and he turns away sad and grieved. The thoughts of his heart have been revealed. Christ is the test.

Let us trace afresh the lines of the picture, filling in details of a modern character. A young man grows up, knowing from his youth the commandments, and seeking to keep them. He is a church goer, regular communicant, and Sunday school teacher. He abhors wicked companionship, hates evil ways, and is seldom found in social circles of gaiety. Religion is his choice, and he pursues it with diligent earnestness. He is scorned as an ascetic by his friends, but he heeds it not. Yet his conscience is not at perfect rest. His prayers have never been left unsaid, but as his zeal increases he adds to their number. Early services are never held in his place of worship without his attendance. Often as he hears of fresh institutions in consonance with his religious views, he hastens forward to be a first member. What a devoted, zealous, earnest man! But does Christ fill his heart, or legal doings? Ah, it is the latter. So, the more he hastes, the sadder grows his countenance and the more grieved his heart; and if he thus continues, deepest gloom will rest upon his death-bed, and the blackness of darkness forever will be his awful portion.

Dear religionist, look to Christ and you shall be lightened, and your face shall not be ashamed. As a poor sinner come to Him, to be boundlessly enriched with heavenly treasure, and your joy shall be to follow Him. But if you turn away from Him, hugging your idol to your breast, sad will be your countenance and grieved your heart, and, despite all your earnest endeavors, eternal misery will be your portion.

3. The haste of the Seeker. — “He sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree.... And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully” (Luke 19:1-10). Another runner engages our attention. This is Zaccheus, the little, rich publican. “Whither away, Zaccheus? Why such haste?” “I seek to see Jesus who He is.” And he runs on, and climbs the tree, not allowing any obstacle to come between himself and his object. Happy man! you shall surely gain your purpose, for Jesus has come to seek and save the lost. Jesus calls him, “Make haste, and come down.” Again the earnestness of the little man is displayed, he makes haste, comes down, and receives Him joyfully, with Him receiving the assurance of salvation.

Dear soul, are you “seeking for Jesus”? The seeking sinner will surely be found by the seeking Saviour. In the earnestness of your soul you will permit no obstacle to stand in your way. You attend preachings, read tracts, you pray earnestly; anything to catch a glimpse of Jesus; from this purpose of your heart you will not be dissuaded. One thing more. See how quickly Zaccheus descended from his perch at the call of Jesus. Lose sight of your reading and praying, which you cling to as meritorious, and let Jesus Himself fill your soul. He is the living Saviour, once crucified for our many sins. Receive Him into your heart by faith; believe on His name. Oh, make haste to fall in spirit at His feet, abandoning every thought of yourself and your doings, and confess Him your Saviour, your Lord, and your all!

The Word of God says not, “Believe in the preachings;” nor, “Believe in your reading,” nor yet, “Believe in your prayers and your own endeavors.” But what saith it? ― “Believe on THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,” the Seeker of the lost, the Crucified for sinners, the Victor raised from death, the Crowned One at God’s right hand, the seated, glorified Saviour; believe on Him of whom you read, the One who is preached to you; believe on Him, “AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.” He has brought salvation to the lost, and we accept it, ceasing from our own works.

4. The haste of Love. ― “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:11-32). Dwell now with us upon this wondrous picture of God’s infinite love. It is His haste depicted here. Is it haste to drive the sinner away from His presence, and consign him to eternal destruction? No wonder had it been so; for consider the wretched ways of this man who has arisen and come to his Father. All he possessed he received from his Father, but in willfulness put the greatest distance between that Father and himself, and there abandoned himself to every excess, seeking happiness without restraint. This is the picture of man. Alas, the pursuit of happiness ends in perfect misery. He does his best to mend his condition, but all in vain. As a last resource he determines to return to his Father.

He arises and comes, and his Father sees him a great way off, and bastes. Is it to upbraid him with his wantonness and willfulness? to curse him, and drive him away? Who would wonder if this were his errand? Who could complain? But see! wonder of wonders! He falls on his neck and covers him with kisses. Ah! all His haste was to blot out every inch of the distance which the wicked son had placed between them. His was the eagerness of love which could bear no delay; the space between itself and its object must be obliterated quickly and forever. HE RAN! Oh, how it speaks to our hearts of the eagerness of God’s love to receive and welcome the returning sinner.

Dear reader, can you trust that heart of infinite love? Love, that led Him to put His own Son in the place of distance, making Him sin for us! Love, that can never rest without its objects perfectly near to itself! Love, that hastes to bring them near, brooking no delay; fits them perfectly for being near, and retains them near forever! Confession is made by the prodigal,—but when held fast in the embrace of that love!-and calls forth the expression of the fitness for the Father’s house which He Himself brings about. The best robe from the house is fitted for the house; shoes and ring; the fatted calf for the feast; and endless joy and divine merriment fill out the marvelous picture. Reader, such is God’s love-its eagerness, and its perfect, blessed, eternal provision for our need.

5. The haste of the Pilgrim. ― “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run, with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:1, 2).

Fellow-Christian, a word with you ere we part. You know that the brightness and glory of the Father’s house is yours. Even now, by faith, you taste its joys; but at present you are a pilgrim in a foreign land. Suffer the word of exhortation. Are you as a little child dallying with every flower you see by the wayside? Do you spend your time in vain trifles, or are you carrying along with you as much of this world’s substance as you can command? Are you suffering yourself to be entangled in sinful ways? Do not evade our questions by saying, Why so bold? Shall the wicked run to evil, shall the moralists be in earnest, shall anxious ones use their utmost endeavors in their search, shall our God Himself display His blessed eagerness of love, and thou alone be a trifler? Surely not. Tuck up thy skirts, gird up thy loins, fling aside all that would weigh thee down to earth. Shim every entanglement, and run, run, RUN! Grow not weary, think not of the past steps, regard not difficulties, but with patience RUN! Look not this way nor that, take no mere man as thy model in this race, let not thine eyes roam idly abroad, but looking of unto JESUS, the author and finisher of faith, RUN!

J. R.

Self Destroyed.

NOTHING shows the total depravity of man, and the alienation of his heart, more than the fearful charge that he often hurls at God, making Him responsible for the ruin and misery of man. Nothing could be further from the truth; and the very mention of it causes the renewed soul to shudder, in the realization that it proceeds from the heart of him who is “the father of lies,” and was a “murderer from the beginning,” though it be expressed by human lips.

“God is light” and “God is love;” and neither holiness nor love could possibly be the author of the fallen, sinful, ruined condition of man.

God made man upright, with the crown of innocence upon his brow; he was endowed with every creature perfection, like Satan, of whom it is said, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (Ezek. 28:15). But with only one prohibition, one simple test to his obedience to God, to his allegiance to his Creator, he broke down, ruined and destroyed himself. Sad and awful fall!

God said of Israel at a later day, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself” (Hosea 13:9); so was it with man from the beginning. He is a self-destroyed creature, and the responsibility of the act rests with himself and not with God.

Satan having led man into a course of sin, which is lawlessness, now seeks to blind him still further, by insinuating that God is the author of his fall and consequent misery; and man, already seduced from God, readily accepts the fearful calumny. Ignoring his position as a responsible being, he throws the blame upon God, at whose hands he has received nothing but goodness.

Be it so; nevertheless God is and will be God, and He has sworn by Himself that every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess to God. Everyone must give account of himself to God. “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil” (Eccles. 12:14). O fearful hour, when the rebel sinner shall find himself face to face with God, whom he has charged with being the author of his ruin and misery, but who will place it where it belongs, even with man himself, and as a righteous God judge him according to his works! (Rev. 20:11-15.)

Man has destroyed himself, and there is no hope in what he is, or in what he can do. If left to himself his doom is inevitable and eternal. But blessed be His name there is help in God. “O Israel, thou ha.st destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” Ah, yes; accepting the truth of the matter, that we have morally destroyed ourselves, and ruined ourselves beyond all human remedy, how blessed to turn to God, the God we have sinned against, whom we have despised and traduced, and find that help, yea, salvation itself, is from Him. Turning thus we learn the true nature of God, that He is love, and that when we had destroyed ourselves, and even blackening His holy character, and adding sin to sin, and iniquity to iniquity, “He so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). For our hatred He returned love; and in answer to our calumnies, He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, that we might live through Him.

God’s salvation is great, because it is the production of infinite love, wrought out by an infinite sacrifice, and meant for great and self-destroyed sinners. The death and resurrection of Christ are the true and only basis of the sinner’s salvation. “Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

God saves now all who believe on His Son. “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). “He that believeth on me HATH everlasting life” (John 6:47). He pardons the repentant believing sinner, He justifies him from all things (Acts 13:38, 39), and puts him in a place of present and eternal acceptance in His beloved Son (Eph. 1:6, 7). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Blessed salvation! Who could save thus but God only? To Him be eternal homage and ceaseless praise!

Reader, are you saved?

E. A.

"Stop! I See it All."

AT the close of the usual prayer-meeting at―, Dublin (9th February 1885), I was told there was a person in the hall desiring to see me; and on going out I met a young girl who inquired if I was Miss B—, and if I had formerly been in—. Upon being answered in the affirmative, she said, “My sister is dying, and is most anxious to see you—will you promise to come tonight?” Having taken her name and address, I said I would go at once (she had to get medicine, &c., and could not accompany me); so, going to the railway, I took my seat in the 9:30 train for Lansdowne Road station.

I cannot describe my feelings as the train moved on; the circumstances were all so new to me―the lateness of the hour, going alone to a strange house, where I was certain to be an unwelcome visitor, save to the girl herself, along with the awful responsibility of having to speak to a soul who was just passing into eternity, ―all these things had a most solemnizing effect upon me.

The girl I was going to see was one whom I had only met on three or four occasions, and then, in a passing way, for a few moments at a time. She was a Roman Catholic, and one who appeared to be wholly given to pleasure. On one occasion she came into my then place of business to have a feather cleaned, which she wished to have on a particular day, and on my saying it would be ready for her then, she replied, “I mean to have it on that day without fail, as I know business people have a license to tell lies―promising what they do not perform.” This led me to speak solemnly about what it was to sin against God, and of the uncertainty of life―that either of us might be in eternity before that day.

On another occasion, when speaking of a Sunday excursion she was about to take, I made some remark, and quoted, “All seek their own, not the things, of Jesus Christ, on Sundays as well as on other days.” She replied, “I am a Roman Catholic, and do not listen to these things; I know you are a Protestant.”

I answered, “Well, if you call yourself a Roman Catholic, and me a Protestant, be it so, still we will both come to the one conclusion, we would like to go to heaven when we die, for I suppose you will admit death will someday come to you―God only knows when, and yet there is only one way to heaven―it is through the precious blood of Jesus only.”

“No,” said she, “that is what you think, and are taught to hold, but it is all wrong; it is not that easy, you must work hard for it, and then you may get there. You are very wrong.”

“Not so, my friend,” I replied, “God says the precious blood of Jesus only, and I believe Him.”

“No,” she said, “you are all wrong; but I do not trouble about these things, I am a true Catholic, and attend all my duties; but I am determined to see life and have pleasure whenever I can, and I am off to Bray tomorrow.”

Some six months elapsed ere I again saw or heard of her, and then it was on her deathbed, the circumstances of which I will now relate.

Two days before she sent for me, she had been with some friends at Malahide, when she slipped upon a rock, and in making a great effort to recover, strained herself internally. She was taken home, and the doctor said she had only forty-eight hours to live. Her parents told her she was very ill, and they were going to send for the priest. “No,” said she, “I will not see a priest, send for a lady that I know, for she will tell me about Jesus.” The whole of Sunday they put the matter off, but on Monday she insisted, saying, “If you do not send, I will get up and go myself, no matter how bad I am;” and calling her only sister to her, she said, “Alice, why will you not go for that lady? (she did not even know my name), I am dying, and you are refusing my last request.” Alice went to―, but failing to find me there, brought back word that I had left. Again the dying girl besought her to seek, and not to come back till she had found me. She went to several places, and at last discovered my present address, but found I was absent at the prayer-meeting, to which spot she followed me.

On reaching the house her father opened the door, and I asked if I might see his daughter. He inquired what I knew of her. I replied, “Very little, but I heard this evening she was ill, and I felt I should like to see her.”

“Madam, do you belong to the Catholic Church?”

“No, sir,” I replied; “I belong to the Church of God; I am simply a sinner saved by grace.” He made use of very strong language, and then said, “As she wants to see you, I suppose you must, but it is shocking to have the like of this in one’s house.”

I entered her room, the door of which was open, and there before me lay a face I well-remembered, but so changed, for she looked wild with pain of body and mind. She exclaimed, “Oh, you have come at last! you are welcome! I want you to tell me about Jesus;” her mother adding, “and His blessed mother.”

“No,” she went on; “Jesus only. I am dying; I know where I am, but I do not know where I am going to; it is all dark; it is awful; do tell me about Jesus; sit down and tell me.”

“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6), was my reply to her earnest appeal. “It is God’s word, not mine; man’s words are of little use in these solemn matters; let us have God’s word for it,” and taking my Testament from my pocket I read, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22), and “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). I then continued, “If one thing be more solemn than another, it is to read that ‘it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul’ (Lev. 17:11). It is not the blood of any mere creature which can atone for sin. Then just think of God’s blessed Son, Jesus, shedding His blood for sinners like you and me. Remember Christ’s death must come in to have blood-shedding, and it is His blood alone― not tears, prayers, works, or feelings―nothing but His precious blood, can save you from everlasting hell, ‘where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark 9:44)” The poor mother now looked as if she could stand this no longer, and saying a few things about saints and their goodness, added, “Well, Mary, I think you would like to see this lady without me.”

Mary answered, “I am dying, mother, and I want only to hear about Jesus―that is all I ask her to tell me;” and the mother left the room. Truly God in His own matchless grace cleared the way for me.

“Now, Mary,” I said, “you think you are dying?” “I am dying, not because the doctor said it, but I feel and know I am dying.”

“Well, since you know this, it is only waste of time to talk much. You are about to meet God-a solemn position, my dear friend, but I dare not keep it back from you; meet God you must. You must meet Him, against whom you and I have sinned, ‘for all have sinned’ (Rom. 3:23); but see how Jesus, God’s blessed Son, has met all His claims, which you and I outraged. Jesus has ‘made peace through the blood of his cross.’ Jesus has done it all alone, and now all you have to do is to trust that same Jesus. He died for you; accept His offer of salvation, and you are saved forever. Through this man ‘―Jesus―is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things’ (Acts 13:38).”

Then linking three scriptures together to bring Himself before the soul, I said― “Jesus, the Mediator; Jesus, the blood-shedding One; Jesus, the only name whereby we must be saved. He is the only One who can give remission of sins, and the moment you believe in Him you shall receive the forgiveness of your sins.” This brought forth―

“I see it clear, and know well He alone can save my soul, but I can’t venture enough to die; it is awful. I can’t trust; I know I should, and why can’t I?”

“Just because you are not looking to Him, and forgetting everything else. Now, why did you send for me?”

“Because I knew no one else to tell me about Jesus, and I am afraid to die. If I only felt Jesus would have me, I would not care what happened me.”

“But how did you know I would come?”

“I felt sure if you heard I was dying, and wanted you, you would come. From what I knew of you I felt I could trust you.”

“And do you think I am better and more to be trusted than the blessed Lord, who shed His precious blood on the cross for you? Come, now, did I ever die for you? Is my word more to be depended on than His, which will never pass away? Listen to it,” and I read 1 Peter 1:25, and Luke 16:17.

“You are good, but He is far better,” she said.

“Thank God,” I replied, “for these four words, for it shows confidence in Him― ‘He is ‘far better.’ Truly He is ten thousand times better than we give Him credit for.”

“But I can’t feel yet that I could die,” she replied; “it is awful. I see and know well now all that Jesus has done for me, and yet I can’t say I am willing to die. Oh, my―” and here a long struggle ensued. She then went on to say, “I know it was for bad people He died, and I am so bad.”

“That word ‘sinners’ is your grand title to Him. It was for sinners Jesus died. Are you too good to be saved by Him? or are you too bad?”

“No, indeed; how could I be too good for Him? and you read His blood would wash all sins away, and Himself forgive all sins and pardon, and oh! I do want Jesus.”

“Well,” I said, “let us pray, and ask Him to fix your eye ‘now on Himself, where He is in glory. He is not on the cross now. His eye has been on you since you were born, though you may not have thought of Him. May He by the power of the Holy Spirit set your eye on Himself just now. One verse more to let you see God’s love and Jesus’, both on your behalf,” and I read, “‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). God so loved you that He gave Jesus, and it is God’s pleasure to save you the moment you believe in Jesus.”

I knelt in prayer, and about five or six sentences were expressed when she placed her dear dying hand on my arm and said, “STOP! I SEE IT ALL.” Her face told even more than words the joy she had found in Him. “Yes, Lord Jesus I can and will trust You,” she exclaimed. “I know You are well able to carry me over. I do not fear to die; I will trust You, blessed Jesus; Your dear blood was shed for me;” and her hitherto pent-up feelings found relief in tears of joy and gratitude, and she then added, “The Man Lord Jesus―why did I not trust You at first? why did I not believe in You long ago?”

A few scriptures were read, to show that salvation, rest, and peace were hers now to enjoy, and then I said, “Shall we thank Him for coming from the Father’s glory to this sinful world to save sinners like you and me?”

“Oh, but I will soon be with Him,” she replied, “and will thank Him, and thank Him.”

“But let us do it now too,” and I began but soon her voice put mine to silence, for she prayed, and it was prayer, such as I never heard before, the breathings of a new-born and delighted soul, filled with joy and thankfulness: still there was deep true sorrow for the long past waste of time, and not even wanting to know Him till she was afraid to die, and then, even then, He accepted her.

At this point her mother entered the room, and Mary exclaimed, “O mother! O mother! I am going to Jesus. I know where I am going to now―it is all so bright; I am going to Jesus. He shed His own blood; it is His blood I am trusting alone, and He―yes, He is carrying me.”

The poor mother would not permit her to go on without interrupting her about saints, &c., but Mary continued, “Dear mother, it is easy to die with Jesus, but awful! awful! if you do not entirely trust Him. You may, if it is any pleasure to you and father, send for the priest now, for I have got Jesus; he can’t take Him from me, but he never told me of Jesus alone, and His blood. No works, only His own work on the cross.” The mother was still trying to get a word in for the saints, and begging her to look to the “blessed mother” before it would be too late. “No,” said Mary, “she never shed her blood for me, it was Jesus only did that; long enough I was looking, and praying to her and the saints, and so I was near enough indeed, dear mother, of being too late, and having nothing but darkness forever. But for Jesus I should have been, and I will trust Him only, no priest can take Him from me. Sure he can’t,” she said, turning to me;” does not the Bible tell us so? “And once more the precious word,” I am persuaded that neither death nor life.... nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38, 39), was read.

The mother left, refusing to stay whilst I read the Bible, but soon returned again with Alice, when Mary said, “Trust Jesus only; oh, if I had only done it long before this, how happy I would be! Dear mother, will you look only to Jesus, my Saviour? Do promise me! And will you, my Alice? will you? I can’t, no, I can’t forget you, dear Alice, you did it for me; I do love you for it more than I can tell you.” The mother exclaimed, “Stop I stop I child―child, it is damnation to listen to you.” She replied, “Dear mother, it is God, and Jesus, who have promised, and taken bad me, and I am happy, for I am going to Jesus.”

The father called Alice away, and I did not see her again, and I now said, “Mary, I will leave you, as I feel your dear mother, father, and sister are those who should be near you now.” The mother said, “Yes, when you have done her damnation, and sent her to hell, you go; you are bad.”

Mary did not quite catch all she said, and asked what it was. I replied, “It is no matter, dear, I am going; have you any fear of death or meeting God?”

“No, indeed,” she replied, “I am going to Jesus, God’s Son. Nothing to fear now. Yes, mother, to Jesus.”

She took leave of me most affectionately, and said― “I am going to Jesus, and you will come after me; I will meet you again, I know, but speak for Jesus when and wherever you can, no matter to whom.”

I left for the twelve o’clock train. Next morning I called early, but Mary had gone to the Lord between three and four o’clock, and I gathered that she was equally bright to the end, for they spoke of her “stubborn and devilish doctrine,” and firmness in it to the last, and said very hard things of her.

Her parents sent for the priest, but she was gone when he arrived. I asked, “Did she wish for the priest before she died?” “No, indeed,” they replied, “it was only what she said while you were in the room that gave us any hope of getting him, and we sent at once for the first we could get.”

Such, dear reader, are the simple details of the way taken by the God of matchless grace to reach and bring salvation to a precious soul, where so many difficulties stood in the way. The desire which was awakened in her soul to hear about “Jesus” He took means to meet and satisfy―she was in real earnest, and where such is the case, He will move heaven and earth to bring it to pass. My reader may be one of those who are more privileged than was Mary, who have the Word of God in their hands, who hear the Gospel constantly, who may have Christian parents or friends, who have again and again spoken to them on the subject, and yet have never allowed themselves to be really in earnest, and consequently all the privileges only deepen the condemnation which at this moment rests on all those who have not been brought, like this dear girl, to find Jesus only, and His work on the cross alone, as the foundation on which to rest, and which gave her such perfect peace and boldness. If such be the case, may this be the moment when you will be led to see the danger in which you stand, and flee now to that One who is so ready and willing to bless and save.

A. M. B.

"Then I'm Lost!"

IT is said, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,” by which is understood, that where a man comes to his wit’s end, then God comes in to give deliverance. Thus in reference to the salvation of his soul, where man ceases God begins.

“Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord.”

“The salvation, of God is sent to the Gentiles.” Mark, it is “the salvation of God,” and it is “SENT to the Gentiles.” It is SENT to sinners, not to angels, not to devils, but to sinners. They, at the peril of everlasting judgment, refuse it. When a divine work is produced in the soul, men are convinced of their lost and undone condition. Then is God’s deliverance welcome. I say a divine work, otherwise “man’s extremity” may become Satan’s opportunity. As may be seen in the case of money-loving Judas. To what an extremity was he brought when the truth forced itself upon him that he had “betrayed the innocent blood,” and confessing this to the chief priests and elders, he brought back the pieces of money!

With what fiendish indifference did they say, “What is that to us? see thou to that.”

Mocked by the devil, repulsed by man, and having no real conception of the mercy of God, in black despair he went and hanged himself! What a hard master is the devil!

It is not, either, by human efforts that we get peace with God. How often are they put forth! Constantly it is not till the last thing has been tried and found of no avail, that Jesus Christ is trusted in. As with the woman who had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, so with others before they come to Jesus.

Mrs. C―had attended the Gospel preaching, which led to her becoming anxious as to her soul’s condition before God. Her eyes were red with tears when she spoke to me. I assured her that all that had to be done for the obtaining of peace had been done. In her distress, and displaying some knowledge of the Word of God, she said, “Does not the Scripture say, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you’?”

“Yes,” I replied, “the Scripture does say what you quote; but the passage is addressed to the disciples, those who did believe in Him, and not to those who did not believe.”

“Then I’m lost,” she sadly said. The last prop was knocked away. The last flicker of hope of obtaining peace and forgiveness through her own efforts went out. The last shred of human righteousness was to be cast away.

Will it surprise the reader to learn that the lost one―she who felt herself to be lost―was found, and has for some time been a happy Christian?

The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost, and this is what the lost one realized. She experienced that the seeking was on the Lord’s part, not on hers. The Scripture, when speaking of infants, states― “The Son of Man is come to save that which is lost” (Matt. 18:11); not “seek” and “save” here. The reason is obvious. These little ones being born in sin, and at a distance from God, need saving, and but for Christ’s work would all be lost eternally; but grown-up people need not only to be saved, they need to be sought. Infants’ lips have not as yet become defiled by speaking evil things, nor have their feet trodden in the paths of sin. They need saving, but as infants need not seeking. Oh, the active grace of the good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep. He goes after that which is lost.

We go astray as sheep. The Word of God declares, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Why like sheep? A dog that goes astray may return; not so a sheep. Christ is the seeker, and He is the Saviour.

We work not for salvation; we work from it. The believer has rest to his conscience because Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; He rests because He has done the work. The sacrifice has been accepted. The position the Lord occupies indicates to us that the work of our salvation is finished.

“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head,

Our load was laid on Thee;

Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead―

Bear’st all my ill for me.

A victim led Thy blood was shed;

Now there’s no load for me.”

Reader, you are lost now! You cannot save yourself. Do you believe this? Christ can save, yea, He will save you if you trust in Him. Believe God before you believe your own feelings. They may deceive. This God will not, and cannot, do.

W. R. C.

There is None Righteous.

MARIA W― was the youngest of a large family. Whilst a babe she became an orphan, and was brought up by relatives with their own daughter. Her own mother was a Christian, and a woman of prayer; but her relatives made temporal things their first concern. Religion was all very well in its place, ―very right for Sundays, but the other six days it must be secondary.

How varied are man’s thoughts of what he calls “religion.” It is something distasteful to his own heart, something to be had as little as possible of, and yet something man cannot die without. The most common definition of it, according to human thought, is that man has to be reconciled to God by doing his best, keeping up a moral reputation, saying prayers, occasionally reading the Bible, and going to some so-called place of worship on Sundays. Some go even a little further, and add to this the monthly taking of the sacrament; and all with a vain hope that these things will at last make them fit for heaven, and ensure a happy deathbed. But mark, dear reader, in all this Christ has no place, and man has all the place. In it there is no sense of the need for, or value of, Christ’s precious blood, which cleanseth from all sin. Some there are who look upon it as a kind of make-weight, to give balance in the scale with their own merits. But God will never save on the ground of human goodness; the whole history of man, from Adam to the Cross, tells out his utter ruin by sin. At Calvary we see his moral end before God; but there too shine out the riches of God’s grace, in the offering up of His beloved Son to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. For four thousand years man had been tried by God, in every possible way, to prove what was in man. He had been tried in innocence, tried without law, and tried under law; but with every test he had completely broken down, and ended in the rejection of God’s Son from heaven, who had come to seek and to save the lost.

But to return to Maria W―. The religion of which I have spoken was that in which she was trained from her earliest years. When about twenty-eight years of age she married one who had watched and valued her outward moral character. Neither was this less to be observed when she became the mother of seven children. Her great desire was to train them up according to her own thoughts of what was right. And He who knew her heart was about to fulfill her desires according to His thoughts.

Her home was in a remote part of the country. Rural simplicity characterized the home life and training of her children. On Sundays they drove to church, and at home read the Lessons, Psalms, Collects, and Epistles and Gospel for the day. Further than this she knew not how to carry out her best desires for them; and how indeed could she, when she herself was still a stranger to God’s Christ? But His love was set upon her, and His grace yet waiting to abound toward her in her salvation. Truly God did approve of all her moral excellence, and, I believe, loved her, as we read Christ did the young ruler who was hindered by his possessions from following Him. Yet not that which she was outwardly could in the least degree put away her sins. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3.) This is true of all in God’s sight, ― “there is no difference.”

About fifteen years after her marriage an elder sister came to visit her. They had been parted as children, and had seen but little of each other hitherto. This sister was a Christian, and the Lord used her stay in blessing to one after another of the elder children. Only dimly had she hold herself of the perfection and fullness of that wondrous work accomplished at Calvary, but Christ was her only hope of salvation from judgment. How it rejoiced her heart when the Spirit of God taught her, years after this, that Christ had not only died for her, but that she had died with Him, and risen with Him, and was now united to Him by the Holy Ghost.

Maria W―and her husband considered that her sister carried religion too far. “To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, embraced the whole duty of man,” they said.

The excellence of these things who would attempt to deny? But note, dear reader, it was all on the ground of human doings and man’s duty. Who that has not been born again, ―that has not become a new creature in Christ, can do justice, or love mercy, according to God’s thoughts, and much less walk humbly with Him? It is not in man to do this as a child of Adam, otherwise he would not need a Saviour, for he would have that wherein to appear before God. It is the blood (and that alone) that maketh atonement for the soul.

Years rolled on, and the husband became failing in health. Many were the fervent prayers offered by some of his children for clear evidence of his conversion before his removal. The clergyman came, and administered the sacrament; but there was no rest, no pardon, for the soul in this. Increasing feebleness told too plainly that the sands of life had almost run out. At this time one visited him who delighted to proclaim God’s blessed way of saving poor sinners through the precious blood of Christ. He read John 3, dwelling much on “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” Earnestly he pressed the word “hath,” as showing eternal life to be a present thing, to be known now by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God graciously applied the word in peace-giving power to the sick one’s soul. The past life of rectitude was let go now. The word of God had spoken, Man must be born again; the Son of Man must be lifted up on the cross; and he that believeth on Hint hath everlasting life. Oh, what rest! and that in God’s beloved Son. Referring to the servant of the Lord who visited him, he said, “I would like him to come again.” He lived four miles away, but was once again permitted to stand beside the dying man’s bed, and hear him extol the grace that had saved him. A few days later the husband departed to be with Christ.

But what of the faithful wife, whose life had been one of untiring devotedness? Was she too saved? Not as yet could she let go her own righteousness. Was all she had been as a wife and a, mother, and all her kindness to the poor, and readiness to serve everyone, not to go to help to save her? How could she be a poor lost sinner? And thus measuring herself in her own sight, instead of God’s, she justified herself in His sight, and refused to be justified freely by His grace. She could have adopted the language of Job, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” (27:6). But mark the change in Job when the word of God had spoken to him, and he saw himself in God’s presence, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth” (40:4). Job had done with justifying himself then. All the perfectness of his walk and ways he lets go when his eyes are opened to see himself in God’s sight. Then self must altogether go, and he exclaims, “Now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5, 6).

It is only in the wondrous light of God’s presence that we see, not only what we have done (our guilt), but there too is disclosed to us what we are, ―lost, born in sin, and possessing within us hearts “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Well may it be added, “Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). It was just Job’s repentance that Maria W―needed to learn, even the judgment of herself as to what she was before God. Scarcely had a year elapsed after her husband’s death, when she was suddenly struck down with an attack of general paralysis. Total helplessness, and weakness of the most intense kind, left scarcely a ray of hope that she would not succumb to the exhaustion from which there seemed no power to rally.

Well may it be written, “Power belongeth unto God.” Those of her children still about her pleaded earnestly with God that she might be spared, and her soul saved. One night, when each breath seemed to be almost the last, three of them knelt around her bed, and the Lord heard their cry. Gradually she became a little stronger, and then followed a consciousness of sensation in the hands and feet. Later on she was able to stand with support, and weeks after to walk quite well. Still she clung firmly to her own righteousness, working it out more diligently than before. Often, when she had been missing a long time, one of her daughters would go in search of her to her bedroom; but she was not there, but in an adjoining dressing-room, either reading her prayer-book or upon her knees. Often at this time she was known to weep over Romans 3 when read aloud in her hearing. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” This, and the following verses ending with “there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” she could not receive.

Another year passed away. She was delicate, but able to take a daily drive, and to walk about the house and garden. Her eldest son felt deeply concerned about her soul, and arranged a few days visit home. He remained at home with her on the Sunday evening and read to her. Turning to Isaiah 64:6, he read, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Then he enumerated all she had done, and showed her what God’s estimate of it all was, ―nothing, in His sight, but filthy rags! What should we do with such? Cast them away. So does He; He will not have one rag of our righteousness. Salvation is alone by grace. Ephesians 2 plainly shows this. Other scriptures were read to show how God has but one way of saving sinners. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” It is written, “The entrance of thy word giveth light;” and thus at last, by His grace, this dear seeking soul bowed to what God had said, and took her true place before Him as a poor lost sinner. Her confidence in self was gone; she saw, and believed in Christ as her Saviour. Oh! the blessed peace and rest that followed, and that lighted up her countenance. Hitherto, whilst trying to climb to heaven by her own works, she had borne the outward impress of the inward unrest.

The following day her son was leaving. He first went a drive along with his mother, and resumed the conversation of the past evening. It was his delight to hear again from her lips the assurance that she was resting alone on the finished work of Christ. A few more days passed of unbroken trust, when she was again suddenly seized with paralysis. Whilst waiting the arrival of the doctor, she said with difficulty, her speech being much affected, “I am so thankful dear J―came last Sunday, for now I know all my sins are forgiven through the precious blood of Christ.” A further seizure on the Sunday took away the use of both legs and the left arm, and internally affected her seriously. Her absent children were telegraphed for, and during many weeks scarcely left her bedside, as she lay there on the brink of the grave, expecting herself, as well as those about her, that she might depart any moment. But the sting of death was gone, and the unclouded prospect of being soon with the Lord her hope. How her affections now flowed out after His people To two whom she had known in her self-righteous days she sent messages, saying, “Tell them, if I had known the Lord sooner I should have loved them better.”

However, it was not the will of God at this time to take her. One of her children had specially prayed that she might be raised up, if it was the Lord’s will. The scripture was at once brought to mind, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” And His way of glorifying His own name, was not in her recovery, but in seven long years of helplessness and suffering, in which she, and those about her, learned what it is to depend alone upon the living God. Often would she say, “Come and let us have a little prayer,” for this, or that; and if it was to relieve her bodily suffering, when relief came, she would propose a time of thanksgiving, saying, “We must thank Him.” And thus often in the night-watches prayer and praise ascended from disciplined hearts, taught by Him “who giveth songs in the night”

As the eighth year of her illness was advancing she became much worse. Alarming symptoms set in, which at once summoned those of her children away from her. But before they arrived the power of speech was gone; the hand of each was pressed with affectionate recognition, and the muscles of the face moved with emotion. Then all around seemed unobserved, as she lay gazing upward, and her right hand frequently raised, as was her custom in prayer. Gradually unconsciousness came on, and in a heavy sleep she passed away, to be forever with the Lord. Long had she been yearning to go. Sometimes she would inquire, Would it be right to ask the Lord to take me? but the reply, that He would have His own right time, encouraged her to wait with patience.

And now, dear reader, if unsaved, may this true and simple narrative of the triumph of God’s grace speak to your heart. If you are one of those trusting to your own goodness, may the voice of God be heard by you in the very scriptures the Spirit of God applied to those dear souls of whom I have written. It is written of the Lord Jesus, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

"This Year Also."

PLEASE to ask yourself, dear reader, why you have been permitted to enter upon this new year. Put the question plainly to yourself, ― “Why has God allowed me, who am at this moment a guilty sinner, to see the light of another year?” Conscience says that, had you got your desert, you should, long ere now, have been “cut down” because of your sins. Now, is that not true? Those terrible and countless sins―yearly increasing, whilst your heart becomes ever more hard―have long since called loudly for judgment; and, yet, your life has been spared! Why is this? Others younger, stronger, healthier than you have been snatched quickly from their wild career and ushered into the presence of the living God; and, yet, you have been left! Why?

I have no doubt that, when you heard of the sudden death of your neighbor, you said, inwardly, “What a good thing for me that I was not taken.” Again, why did you say this? Just because you were not ready.

Now, my special object, and most anxious wish, in writing this New Year appeal to you, unknown reader, is that you may be called to think seriously of the infinite value of the moment that God has again given you―given you, too, just in order that you should turn to Him and live. In parable, the Lord said of the fruitless tree―the favored tree planted in His vineyard, blest with mercies, advantages, privileges beyond measure, but which, withal, yielded no fruit― “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” Solemn command of justice! “Fruitless,” did I say? Nay, more, it “cumbereth the ground,”―it injures the soil,—it acts as a hinderer of others; it is not only negative as to fruit, but it is positive as to evil; it sustains this double character―it is useless to God, it is mischievous to man. Hence the justice of the command.

Would you not thus treat, in your own garden, a tree that not only yielded you no fruit, but that also used up the ground, and cast a poisonous shadow, to the hurt of surrounding vegetation? Of course you would. But take care lest you are pictured by this tree. Indeed “they are altogether become unprofitable―there is none that doeth good, no, not one,” is the verdict of God, in the double character of which I have spoken, of all who, like yourself, are still unconverted. In fact, you are that tree, and justice has thundered out the command for your death. Yes, reader, for your death. Over and over again has justice cried, with the long catalog of your sins full in view, and the richly deserved judgment of death and hell claiming you as its prey― “Cut it down!” “Cut it down!!” “Cut it down!!!” But year after year has gone by―yes, perhaps twenty of them, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy―until your accumulated load of sins has risen high as a mountain―and, yet, something has always interposed to arrest the stroke. Year after year the patient, gentle, loving hand of Mercy has intervened, and, thus loving, you have been spared. The three words of mercy have, hitherto, counterbalanced the three words of justice― “This year also” has acted as the equivalent, up to this moment, of “Cut it down.” But the year will end―the 31St of December follows slowly, perhaps, but surely, on the 1St of January. The harvest will pass and the summer will end.

“Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain on the earth,” said God to Noah, before the flood; but the seven days ended, and the flood came!

“Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh,” said God, after nine of them had failed to humble that proud monarch; but the tenth plague came, and the first-born of Egypt died!

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” cried Jonah the prophet. Nineveh repented, from the king downwards, and her destruction was averted. Never did Nineveh attire herself in clothing more becoming, than when she “covered herself with sackcloth,” or recline in a more suited chair than when she “sat in ashes.” Her timely humiliation warded off her inevitable doom.

“God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it,” wrote the mysterious hand on the wall of wicked Belshazzar’s palace, on the night of his indictment, because, instead of humbling his heart, he had lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, in whose hand was his breath, and whom he had not glorified. That night he died!

“If thou hadst known,” said One, whose tears told of His sorrow for Jerusalem, “even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.... because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” The charge laid to her door was simply, notice, because she knew not the day of her visitation―when Jesus was in her midst, full of grace and truth, ready to pardon and bless, not lay sin to account, yet she despised that day, and pierced the hand which proffered forgiveness!

“Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it, and, if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:8, 9). Now, this applies, dear reader, not to the world before the flood, nor to Pharaoh, nor to Nineveh, nor to Belshazzar, nor to Jerusalem, but to yourself-yes, whatever wider application it may have had, it most certainly applies to you. Mercy says, in silver tone, “Let it alone; give it further opportunities, greater privileges; dig it about, prune it by the knife of trial, bereavement, loss, in order that it may learn in time to bear fruit; but if, after all this process of education, chastisement, warning, and privilege, it still be fruitless, then, after that, cut it down.”

“This year also!” Ah, soul! how many have you had already? And can I say that you will have the whole of this year? Perhaps not! Perhaps not twelve months more of time! Perhaps not one! And should the ax fall and find you still fruitless, barren, lifeless, Christless what then? A Christless eternity! Can you bear the thought?

But the voice of Mercy, in plaintive eloquence, pleads for time, in the fond hope of your repentance. Yes, God patiently lingers over you in long-forbearing love, bidding you welcome-until, every call refused, every mercy slighted, every warning spurned, His justice, so long withheld, must strike the awful blow, and you, the fruitless tree, be cut down, as fuel for the flames of judgment.

Strong words these, but earnest, and thus I beseech you to begin this year by coming to Christ, for a present and full salvation, through faith in Him, so that the year may be fruitful of His praise by you, and eternity may be spent with Him in glory.

J. W. S.

"Thou Shalt See it With Thine Eyes, but Shalt not Eat Thereof."

(Read 2 Kings 6:24-33, 7.)

THE way this lord, on whose arm the king leaned, died, is a very bad way to die, my reader; for he died an unbeliever; he died, practically speaking, a scoffer. He died as you would die, my unconverted reader, if you were called away at this moment, a sinner in your sins. Would you like to die thus? Perhaps you say, “I hope hot to die like that;” or, like Balaam, may be, you piously think, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” Well, remember that, if you are going to die the death of the righteous, you must live like the righteous, and you have not begun so to live yet.

This 7th of 2nd Kings illustrates the grace of God, illustrates Jonah’s word, “Salvation is of the Lord.” See how beautifully the chapter puts it before us. Nothing could have been more pitiable than the condition of Samaria. A powerful army surrounded it; within famine reigned.

The Samaritans professed to believe in Jehovah, but there was no reality. The king wanted.to take off the head of Elisha, who was the prophet of God, and spake of God and against idolatry; and it is beautiful to see that God’s deliverance did not come in till man had fully shown out all the evil and hatred that was in his heart.

The king, no doubt, had felt that the hand of God was upon him; for the woman (in chap. 6.), in bringing her complaint to him, had brought out the truth. The king had been going about, as it were, in defiance, wearing his kingly raiment; but when the woman told her story, he rent his clothes, and lo! underneath the royal apparel he had sackcloth within on his flesh.

He had not sackcloth outside; outside he was as though he did not own the hand of God in the matter; but within his conscience was at work.

Sackcloth, in Scripture, is the expression of repentance, of owning one’s guilt. But there was something else under the sackcloth; and what was that? Deep-seated hatred of God and of His servant.

“The people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.” But while the people saw the sackcloth, and thought there was repentance, there was no true repentance in his heart; for, instead of owning his own sins as an idolater, he turns round and coolly blames Elisha as the author of all the trouble.

This scripture illustrates what we see constantly in the present day. People are religious—perhaps you are, my reader; but have you been converted yet? Do you know Christ? If not, in spite of your religion, at the bottom of your heart there is downright opposition to God.

A great amount of religion is quite compatible with hatred to Christ. Who put the Lord upon the cross? I grant you the Roman soldiers were used as the actors; but who instigated the act? The scribes and Pharisees―the religious people of the day. Ah, yes! religion may be totally opposed to Christ; and there is not really one iota of difference between the hearts of the men who clamored for the blood of the blessed Lord, and your heart and mine, by nature, my reader.

But when the flood-tide of human evil rose to its height, in thus crucifying the Lord, that was the time God took to show out His heart of love. God lets man show thoroughly what he is, and then He shows what He is.

We get an illustration of this here. Joram sends to take the head of Elisha, and down comes the messenger, and the king himself comes down directly after; and Elisha said, “Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer.” The secret must now be disclosed. “Hear,” said Elisha, “hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” The king had come down to see the deadly deed was executed―to make sure of his victim―and that was the time God took, when man was showing his hatred, to show out His salvation.

Elisha’s word, interpreted, meant this: ― “The Lord will save you tomorrow; the Lord will deliver you.” It was the gospel of the moment for those hungry, dying souls, and it was proclaimed to the chiefest sinner of all; for the king was the worst, he was the ringleader in idolatry. But this is like God; He picks up the worst. There are none too bad for Jesus; alas there are myriads too good for Jesus. Perhaps you, my unsaved reader, are too good for Jesus?

Are you a lost sinner? “No,” you say, “I could not take that ground.” Then you are too good for Jesus; for He came to save the lost. May He open your eyes to see what you are, and where you are, and that salvation is not tomorrow, for a shekel of silver. The Gospel today is salvation this moment, without money and without price. You must have it as a gift; “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“A measure of wheat for a shekel” meant deliverance to those starving people; and, oh what does it mean for you to hear, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”? Say not you do not believe you can have it thus easily; for, if so, I will show you your companion. “Then a lord, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be!” What is that interpreted? “I do not believe it. Do you tell me that, with the hosts of Syria round the city, and those within it who still live reduced to skeletons, while the greater part are dead, that there can come deliverance after this fashion?” But who had spoken? God.

And who speaks to you, my friend? God. Hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, “Look unto me and be ye saved.”

Hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life” (John 5:24).

Hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, “These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Oh, do not join this infidel company, and if you have been with it hitherto, come out, I beseech you; salvation is for you today. There is no gospel for you tomorrow; the Lord may come today. Let me urge you. Now is the day of salvation. The Lord’s salvation is always straightway. What did the Lord say to Zaccheus? “This day is salvation come to this house.”

Join not with this unbelieving lord, or you too will have the solemn answer, “Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” You too will see God’s salvation, but not taste of it.

Oh, my reader, if you ever mean to be saved, be saved now; you only risk sure and certain judgment if you delay it even an hour; the Lord is coming, even if death does not overtake you. How solemn for every halting procrastinating soul are these words― “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.”

Now look at the conduct of the four lepers outside the city, as they say, “Why sit we here till we die?” And why sit you still in your sins till you die? These lepers were outside, miserable outcasts; they had not heard the gospel that the king and the lord had heard inside the city, it was not preached to them, but they had not to wait till the morrow for deliverance, they got it the same day.

It was twilight when they went forth, they had just light enough to go forth, like many a one wanting blessing, and groping for it, with very little light, but still going after it with what light they had, and getting the blessing the same day, for God loves to bless.

When they came to the camp of the Syrians they found the enemies all cleared away. Yes, God clears all the ground before the simple, trustful soul, and they go into the tent, and eat and drink, and carry away gold, and silver, and raiment.

They eat and are filled, and carry away with them provision for the future. The meaning of these three things is sweet. Silver is the symbol of redemption, and gold is the symbol of Divine righteousness, and raiment is that with which God clothes. The prodigal got the best robe, and what is that? The Lord Jesus Christ.

We get redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and more, we stand before God in righteousness, on the ground of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, and then the soul is clothed with Christ Himself.

I get food, and redemption, and righteousness, and raiment, all in Christ.

God has swept every foe out of your way, my reader, and you have only to go out and enrich yourself with all that God offers you in the Gospel.

But what now? The lepers get everything, and when they have got it they do what every Christian should do, they go and tell others.

They were the most lovely preachers the Samaritans had ever heard, because they brought them the news of how they could get the things at once of which they were most in need.

They spoke not because they thought they were preachers, but because they felt they could not hold their peace.

The king sent out messengers to find out the truth of the lepers’ report, but you need not be like the king and send out scouts and spies, those thoughts of unbelief, but receive at once the glad tidings of God’s love to you, that He has only thoughts of love to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ just now, lest it should fall out to you as to this nobleman, lest you should see the truth when too late to profit by it.

It all came true, as it always does, what the Lord had said, the good news, and also the message of judgment.

Oh, unbeliever, think of it! God says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation.” Do not spend eternity in hell with this unbeliever, but come to Jesus. You have said often, “I would fain be on the Lord’s side;” be it from this moment, lest this too be true of you, “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof,” that is, lest you see the one you have loved pass into eternal glory with Jesus, and you yourself are cast out.

Oh, make it impossible to know in the long dark night of eternity the meaning of these words, “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof,” by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ from this very hour.

W. T. P. W.

Twenty Years in a Railway Tunnel.

ONE day in the June of 1885, when only one or two white-speckled clouds appeared in the azure sky, an old man, John B― of B―, while waiting for his train at a station in the north of England, informed me that it had been (and still was) his duty to look after the B― Tunnel, of about three miles long, for over forty years, and that in its dark corridors he had spent more than twenty long years of his short life on earth, having already attained his three-score years and ten. This, together with five years previously in charge of another tunnel, and the twenty of his life taken up in sleep, left the old veteran but twenty-five years of light out of his seventy.

I remarked to him that, as he had spent such a long, dark lifetime in this world, it behooved him, especially at his age, to make sure of a long, bright eternity in the next, to which he was rapidly hastening, and, on the other hand, to take good care not to enter that eternal darkness where light never enters.

With trembling lips and moistened eyes his inquiry was, “How is this to be brought about, as I am very anxious about the matter?”

I explained to him that if, in reality he owned to God that he was in darkness as to his soul through sin, and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who in love left the highest and brightest place in glory, and came down to the darkest place of Calvary’s woe to shed His precious blood to bring poor sinners from darkness to light, he would ere long be forever in that blessed place where there is no darkness at all, where it can never enter―for “there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5). That if he took shelter under His precious blood that cleanseth from all sin, he would never enter those gloomy corridors of the eternal lake of fire, where not one single ray of light can ever come, and where there is only eternal darkness and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

He replied that he saw the reality of it as he never had before, and expressed a wish to dwell with such a Saviour in glory forever. He confessed he was such a sinner as to merit the eternal darkness of hell; and then and there he did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust His precious blood. The train, bearing away dear old John to his duties, ended the conversation.

Beloved reader, pardon me if I ask, “Whither are you bound?”

Is it to the eternal darkness or to the eternal light? I feel quite sure you must know it can only be to one of the two places.

Scripture says, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”... “For God who commanded the light to shine. out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4, 6). Again, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

If you are to dwell forever in the light of God’s presence, you must know those sins of yours washed away in the blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse from all sin, for that blessed place is too holy and bright for the presence of sin.

Oh, do, I beseech you, ponder this awfully solemn question! Don’t, I implore you, lightly put it from you! When Saul of Tarsus was on his dark path to Damascus, the Lord Jesus caused this light to shine from heaven upon him. He was not aware that he was spiritually blind, and had consequently to be made naturally blind for three days. The Lord commissioned him to go to the Gentiles (and in all probability, dear unsaved reader, you are a Gentile) “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).

Soon this glorious light will shine upon you to manifest you eternally either for God or for Satan “This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). I trust, my reader, your happy lot will be in that bright place “where the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. 21:23) through faith in Christ Jesus, and not in that place of “outer darkness;” as a rejecter where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:13).

Do not rest, dear, never-dying soul, till you gel this eternal soul-question settled, and are able truly to say, as true believers only can, ―

“We there shall walk the plains of light:

Will you go?

Far, far from death, and curse, and night.

Will you go?

The crown of life we then shall wear,

The conqueror’s palm we then shall bear,

And all the joys of heaven share: Will you go?

No clouds e’er pass along its sky,

Happy land:

No teardrops glisten in the eye,

Happy land!

They drink the gushing streams of grace,

And gaze upon the Saviour’s face,

Whose brightness fills the holy place,

Happy land!

Two days after the conversation with John B― a railway tunnel under a river in Tennessee, U.S., fell upon a train, owing, it is said, to vibration. Nearly everyone in the train was hurt, twenty severely injured, and six persons “killed outright,” as stated by a Times’ correspondent.

Had the reader been one of the six passengers, which of the two places would your soul have been in today? Yes, WHICH?

J. N.

“They that never yet knew they were without God, and in the way to hell, did never yet know the way to heaven. Can a man find he hath lost his God and his soul, and not cry, ‘I am undone’”?

Whoever sought for that which he knew not he had lost? “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matt. 9:12).

Utterances of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.

(Luke 23:34; Luke 23:42-43; Matthew 27:46; John 19:26, 27; John 19:28; John 19:30; Luke 23:46.)

LET us look at these utterances in their order.

1.―Luke 23:34, ― “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He is now upon the accursed tree, nailed thereto, and then lifted up as the manner of crucifixion was, and jerked into the opened earth prepared for it, when the inaudible cry may have been made, “All my bones are out of joint” (Psa. 22:14). Yet so notably did the antitype fulfill the type, that not a bone of Him was broken (John 19:26). But looking around upon the priests and scribes and Pharisees, and the multitude of the people and the Roman centurions and soldiers, He prays, “Father, forgive them,”―these very ones. Here was His heart of love expressing itself in the time of His own sufferings. We may be sure the Father heard that prayer. The centurion soon after said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Now, we do not say the centurion was saved, for we are not told so; but 1 Cor. 12:3 and 1 John 4:2, show us that confession of Christ, when by the Spirit, is salvation; and if this was the heart’s confession of Jesus as the Son of God, the very thing for which He was condemned and crucified, even for affirming that He was the Son of God,―if this man’s heart received and owned Him as such, believing and confessing (though exactly on the ground of Rom. 10:9 it could not yet be), then he was saved, and I suppose such was the case. Then there were the thousands of those very murderers converted by the preaching of Peter.

But what does Jesus mean when He says, “They know not what they do”? They knew they were putting to death the One who had wrought miracles and signs and wonders. Surely they knew that by wicked hands they crucified Him; but God’s part and intent, God’s counsel and foreknowledge, they did not know. The grace that was in and to come out of the great transaction of the cross, they did not know. They surely knew that they had denied the Holy One and the Just,—the man in whom Pilate, the representative of justice and government, could find no fault, and had desired Barabbas,—but God’s act of substitution they did not know, nor all the possibilities of grace and salvation that came in thereby for themselves and for others; even that they might have eternal life by that death, they did not know.

2.―We now look at verses 42, 43. Jesus was numbered with the transgressors, crucified in the midst of them as one of them. The two malefactors had reviled Him, but one of them comes to distinguish Him from themselves. Whether it was the grace of His prayer, or the benignity of His countenance, that arrested the mind and impressed the heart of the one, we do not know; but he sees in Jesus that which has been denied to Him, ―His divinity, His really being what He had claimed to be, the Son of God. And though all the circumstances are now adverse, this man’s faith is at once above all circumstances, and there comes forth from his soul the full faith and confession of Jesus as the Son of God; the One who, though Himself dying on the cross, could give entrance to His kingdom to whomsoever He would. Wonderful faith and apprehension of Jesus this was! This malefactor rebukes the other and condemns himself, “we indeed justly,” and justifies God, “but this man hath done nothing amiss.”

Now here is one of those contrasts which the Word of God presents which are often so telling. The one malefactor rails and disbelieves, ―the scene closing upon him, as we suppose, only to be reopened at the judgment of the great white throne, ―while the other malefactor, looking to, believing, and confessing Christ, as passing through the humiliation and shame and suffering of the cross, is saved; the first-fruit of the cross historically, though multitudes before had been saved through its fore-reaching efficacy. That was a mighty reach of faith, unparalleled, as we may believe, considering its circumstances, in its simplicity and sublimity, by any other case which the history of salvation will afford.

Reader, what say you to this scene? which of these two are you like? The same Saviour was present to both. There was presentation of Jesus in the same sense to both. But what different use of Jesus, if we may so say, was made. The effect of railing, disbelieving, rejecting, having nothing to do with Jesus, was death. The reverse of this, faith positively, was life. We put you on your responsibility to believe and accept the Gospel presentation of Jesus.

Dost thou believe on the Son of God? This is the present personal and practical question. You see the malefactor owned Jesus, and Jesus owned the malefactor. Just so, Jesus is beforehand with everyone who believes, and therefore straightway comes the response of grace, “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” No uncertainty, no postponement, no ceasing to exist, no purgatory, no separation from the Lord.

3.―We now turn to Matt. 27:46. There had been darkness and silence from the sixth to the ninth hour. Doubtless in these hours the words of many of the Psalms were mentally uttered by the Lord, but there was not any audible utterance. He was alone, and He uttered nothing for man to hear till these words broke the awful silence. And these words were addressed to God, because the Sin-bearer and the great Sacrifice was now alone (though offering Himself by the Eternal Spirit) enduring God’s judgment against sin. God was in government and righteousness here; not as the Father, but as God. God was now displaying justice, and making it possible ever afterward to display equally and in harmony all His attributes. Sin, condemnation, curse, wrath, judgment, all centered now upon Jesus. God was executing all that upon Him. He was forsaken, and alone, ―to bear it all, the full weight of what He had undertaken, the full measure of vicarious and assumed responsibility. Hence His cry. Communion was interrupted. He hid as it were His face from Him. This was indeed the agony of the cross.

Yet Jesus knew the righteousness of it all, and so could say, ‘My God.’ He glorified God in this, and was Himself really glorified therein. He came under this condemnation, and realized this separation for us, so that we should know the truth of Rom. 8, ―no condemnation, no separation. He is in all this the great Substitute, that all those who believe on Him should be free, ―morally, legally, righteously, gloriously, ―as to God, ―reckoned, according to God’s reckoning, crucified, dead, buried as in Him and with Him; reckoned, according to God’s reckoning, ―risen, and to be glorified as in Him and with Him. And it is God’s reckoning wherewith the believer reckons. Righteousness was thus making ready for the reign of grace. On this ground we who believe enter into and enjoy evermore the light of the countenance of God.

4.― John 19:26. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and two other Marys, “stood by the cross.” When the heart of Jesus was taking so wide a range of sympathies in the midst of His own sufferings, it was not likely He would forget His mother, nor did He; so, pointing to John, the only one of His disciples who seems to have “stood by the cross,” He said to her, “Woman, behold thy son,” and to the disciple, “Behold thy mother,” the one was committed to the care of the other. This was perfect and beautiful. He had taken our nature upon Him, and in that nature His acting’s must needs be perfect. What an acknowledgment of human relationships, and sanction of the exercise of all the love and sympathy, and care and responsibility, which they involve! The disciple whom He loved responded, and henceforth took that mother to his own home. Ready obedience, because he loved Him.

5.―Another cry was needed, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. He had said, “The Scripture cannot be broken.” Now, therefore, He cries, “I thirst.” No doubt He thirsted for the presence of His Father, and to finish the work He had come to do. But this here was natural thirst, as when, weary at the well in His manhood, He said to the woman of Samaria, “Give me to drink.” They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall, of which. He tasted, but would not drink. It was not fitted to allay thirst or to refresh, else He might have taken it; and that which was only to stupify He would not drink, for His obedience and His atonement must needs be perfect.

6.―John 19:30, “It is finished.” Affirmation, proclamation beyond compare, full of glory to God, full of peace to man. The cry, “My God! my God!” had been with a loud voice. This also would appear to have been, but we are not certainly told. But it was gloriously declarative, explicit and distinct. The work undertaken was now all performed. The whirlwind of God’s wrath had swept over Him, and was gone. He had accomplished the reconciliation. He had obtained eternal redemption for us who believe. Deep, sure, solid enduring foundation of all the believer’s hopes, ―of His title to life and glory. Think more of it, ye saints of God. Here, too, is the ground and title of the proclamation of the Gospel of the grace of God to sinners, “It is finished.” The ceremonial law abolished, sacrifices ceased, shadows gone; types over and ended. No more any sacrifice for sin, but that One already offered; no more any mediator, but that One; no more any high priest, but that One. Heaven heard that cry, hell heard it, earth heard it; but earth needs to hear and heed it more.

Dear sinner, hear these words of Jesus, ― “It is finished;” and know surely, that all needed for God’s glory and your salvation has been done by Christ on the cross. It was now righteously possible to proclaim, ― “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Have you yielded obedience to this command?

7.―Luke 23:46. This also He cried with a loud voice, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit;” and having said thus, He gave up the ghost. This was a real death; but, before this, there was restored communion, full and complete. He knew well that His human spirit was now immediately going to His Father, and that His body would be raised by the glory of the Father, ―that the Son of Man was to be henceforth glorified by the Father. Jesus, as substitute standing for us, had met Him as God in righteous judgment, that we might not, ―that is, that we might escape. God had been just in condemning sin, and He would be just in reckoning righteousness. And now it is for the believer, under due title, to say, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;” or as Stephen, calling upon God, and saying to the Son of Man, whom he saw on the right hand of God, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

A word more as to the scenes of the cross. The sun had been darkened, earth shrouded, the rocks rent, the earth quaked, and the graves opened. The veil of the temple had also been rent. But man was unsubdued and unawed still. Man had not yet finished his part. The last insult, the last experience of his enmity, had yet to come out. So, one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. Man’s malignity is now fully shown forth. Man nor Satan could do more. But God’s grace abounds; “where grace abounded, grace much more abounds.” There is blood to redeem, and water to cleanse.

Now, revert for a moment to the conduct of the two malefactors. Reader, which of the two is your representative man? One or the other is, for you take sides with one or the other practically. Again comes the question, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” Neither Jewish priest, nor Gentile centurion, would order a cup of cold water for Jesus when He cried, “I thirst.” They would add to the agony, rather than refresh Him with a little cold water. Your unbelief and action are in spirit and principle the same thing. But the faith of the one malefactor was indeed refreshment to the dying Saviour. His Father gave Him that, ―that first trophy of the cross, ― that first laurel, so to speak, upon the victor’s brow. Will you be another? for now there is joy in heaven before the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. There is no mistaking that repentance is with the case of the malefactor before us. Those three parables―three in one―of Luke 15. show the same truth, the shepherd seeking the lost sheep until he find it, and the father finding his own joy in the return of the prodigal. Now, it avails nothing to honor the cross, the mere gibbet, as many do, and reject the doctrine of the cross, and refuse the Christ of the cross. Reader, may there be saving contact of your soul with the personal Christ; let it be in your case like that of the believing malefactor, ―Jesus seeing of the travail of His soul, and the Father joying over a home-bound prodigal.

T. M. T.

"We Loves Each Other, and It's All Love."

A BROTHER in the Lord, a working-man, living in O―, had been exercised about the condition of people in the neighboring villages, and had prayed about them. One Lord’s-Day morning he was much moved by a word that he heard spoken, on going without the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ (Heb. 13:13), and said in his simple way, “We comes here Sunday after Sunday, taking in and giving out nothing; I’m off this afternoon.” He accordingly started off to B—, with a number of books containing the precious seed of the Gospel. Leaving them at the doors of the different cottages, and here and there speaking a word for his Master, he at last arrived at a small cottage, where, in response to his knock, he heard a feeble voice cry, “Come in.” But instead of going in, he replied that he had brought the occupant a book, and pushed it under the door. On his way home he reproached himself that he had not answered to the invitation, as he had been asking the Lord to give him an open door; and so resolved to repeat the visit the following week.

Arriving a second time at the door of the cottage, the same voice again replied to his knock, saying, “Come in.” Entering now without hesitation, he found a poor aged woman, known in the village as “Old Ann,” weak and suffering, who had been bedridden many years. He saluted her thus, ― “Mother, I be come to speak to you about the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?”

“Know Him! I should think I do; and for over twenty years I’ve been asking Him to send somebody to this dark village to preach the Gospel, and you be come, and the Lord’s going to bless ‘ee, I know He is.”

He thus felt that his coming was an answer to her prayer. Passing on from house to house, the Lord graciously blessed his visits to souls. Other fellow-laborers followed, and a work broke out which resulted in some dozen or more being brought out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, three of whom have since passed away to be with the Lord. The preaching of the Word continues till the present.

One day two went over to visit and preach in the village, calling amongst others upon this poor old bedridden sufferer, whose prayers had been so richly answered in God’s abounding grace. Speaking with her about the Lord, one of them remarked that “all the unsearchable riches are to be found in Him.”

“Ah! that’s where they are to be found,” she replied earnestly, adding in a quaint but emphatic and expressive way, “I loves He, and He loves me, and so we goes on together. We loves each other, and it’s all love.”

Now these were not mere idle words, but the utterance of one whose heart entered into what she said, as many witnesses, who visited her from time to time, could testify. Ah! dear reader, the love of Christ is a blessed reality. Those who know and enjoy it are rich indeed, but those who know it not are indeed to be pitied. For

“His is an unbounded love,

Higher than the heights above,

Deeper than the depths beneath,

Free and faithful, strong as death.”

Love brought Him down from glory to the depths of Calvary’s woe. Love led Him to drink the bitter cup of judgment. ‘Tis His love that breaks the sinner down, and ‘tis His love that wins the heart. Sinner, has it, won yours? This poor old soul knew His love, and rejoiced in it; and out of the abundance of a heart filled with it by the Holy Ghost, in the midst of suffering and poverty, confessed that it was all love.

Some few months after this, as she gradually grew weaker, a Christian who was visiting her said, “Are you happy?”

“As happy as I can be out of heaven,” she replied, though at times, dear reader, this poor woman had a mere crust for her dinner.

A day or two before she fell peacefully asleep through Jesus, she was heard to say, as if musing, “Where is my faith now?”

“Yes,” said her attendant, “where is it, Ann?” “In Christ,” she replied; “and not a bit wavered, neither.”

Shortly before her end here, she said, “I’m going home―to the spirits of the just made perfect.” And the last words that could be understood before her spirit fled, were, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

Beloved reader, how is it with you? Death is at your door (Rom. 6:23). Do you know the Saviour’s love now? Old Ann’s faith was in One who never fails His loved ones. She knew and enjoyed His love for many a long year of suffering, and could say, when death approached, that her faith was in Christ still, and that it wasn’t “a bit wavered.” The glorious Person of Christ, the precious blood of the Lamb of God, and the home above, were the blessed occupation of her heart, on the eve of departure from this world. Where is your faith? Is it in Christ? None other can avail you. Christ is the only Saviour. Believe on Him now (John 3:36). The work is done. All your efforts to save yourself are utterly fruitless. But the “blood of Jesus Christ... cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Believers are “justified by his blood” (Rom. 5: 9). Trust therein now, and you will be enabled to say, like this departing Christian, if called to pass from this scene in the same way, “I’m going home,” and, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

“Trusting in that precious blood,

There is perfect peace with God;

Saved for glory, wondrous story,

Saved through Jesus’ precious blood.”

Then trust therein now, dear reader, and, washed in the blood of the Lamb, soon you will be home, and around the throne of God in glory join with all the redeemed in singing the new song, ascribing worthiness to that blessed One. But, oh! if you trifle with Him, and let the day of grace slip by, you must reap the fruit of your irretrievable folly in endless woe.

Listen to old Ann’s words, spoken to one who came to her bedside to inquire what these people meant who were preaching about “Come now.”

“Don’t you know what they means?”

“No.”

“They means this: If you come today, and die tonight, tomorrow you’ll be in glory; but if you don’t come today, and die tonight, tomorrow you’ll be in hell.”

Christ alone can satisfy your need; His blood alone can cleanse you for the presence of God; His name alone entitle you to the home above.

Only trust Him now.

E. H. C.

What is Faith?

FAITH is my thinking God’s thoughts instead of my own. God says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more;” I think so, too. God says, “Children of God through faith in Christ Jesus;” I think so, too. God says we stand in favor; I think so, too. I do not know how God could prove His favor more than by sending His Son. He says an “heir of glory,” “joint-heir with Christ.” I have everything Christ has, as a child, as a child with my Father. In the “fullness of time” He came. They were servants before He came: but now we are sons, and the Spirit of God is in us the Spirit of adoption.

J. N. D.

What's the Harm?

“A CERTAIN man made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come: for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.”

The nature of the excuses will be seen by reading the 18th 19th and 20th verses of the 14th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.

It will be observed that these excuses are used in connection with temporal mercies and temporal ties― “five yoke of oxen, a piece of ground, and a wife.” These were of more value and interest than was “the great supper.” And worse, he who had so graciously provided it was treated with slight, if not with positive contempt. The serious thing to be noticed here is this, that things right enough in themselves, may so absorb men, that God Himself is shut out, and constantly forgotten. Look at this: making use of the very mercies which He in providence bestows, to exclude the God who bestows them. This is a great sign of depravity, yet many are deluded by supposing that being engaged in right things, attending to what may be termed “duties of life,” they have nothing to fear.

I mean to say, a man need not be a drunkard, or a wife-beater, or a thief, to be lost; he may be kind, temperate, and honest to a degree, and yet be eternally lost “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3.) What harm is there in buying oxen or land, or in marrying a wife? None; but supposing these right things so engross you, that God is slighted, His salvation neglected, and the door of heaven becomes closed upon you, what’s the harm of that, my reader? “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37, 38, and 39).

Now, in these verses is seen the same thing― “eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage.” All perfectly right in themselves, and more, the blessing of God should be asked upon them. Quite so; yet how much did people heed the preaching of Noah? The building of the ark should have aroused them; but they were rocked to a fatal sleep by earthly things, yea, right things! They were aroused, it is true, when too late. Their eyes, which had been fast closed, were now opened, but only to see the judgment of God in the swelling, rising, deadly waters of the deluge, to find escape impossible.

There was only one place of safety then, the ark, the despised ark! There is only one place of refuge now. Does the reader despise or neglect that? The day of judgment is nearing; depend upon the truth of this. Jesus now says, “I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).

There was only one door to the ark, and that was in the side thereof.

Can you say―

“Rock of Ages, cleft for sin,

Grace hath hid me safe within.”

If you are not “safe within,” you are outside, and not safe, not for an hour, not for a minute. Are “right” things hindering you? absorbing your mind. It is wonderful how these do absorb. And the more people possess, the greater the danger. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom.”

A Christian man engaged in business told me, that one Lord’s Day morning he was reading his Bible in one of the London parks, resting on one of the seats in the park. In a short time a man whom he took to be a foreigner approached him, and in broken English asked him if it was the Bible he was reading. “Yes,” was the reply. Conversation was then entered into respecting the things of God, and some interest shown by the foreigner. Also, he began to attend meetings where the Gospel was being preached. On one occasion it was arranged that the now apparently interested man should meet my friend at a meeting for the preaching of the Gospel. However, on this occasion, the stranger failed to keep the engagement, but on meeting a little time after, said he had no excuse to offer; he would tell the truth, he had deliberately refrained from going to the meeting referred to, and then by way of explanation, asked the question: “Do you mean to tell me that no one is saved but through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?” “Certainly; no one,” replied the believer. “Then,” said the other, “I shall not be saved, and for this reason: If what you say is true, my mother is lost, for I am sure my mother never heard of the blood of Jesus Christ, and rather than be in heaven without my mother, I would prefer to be in hell with her.” Here is a terrible instance of how people can be lost forever through right things taking a wrong place. Obedience and love to parents are enjoined in the Word of God. But to love father or mother more than Christ is to be unworthy of Him.

What a hell would that be to the deluded son were he to find, after all, that unknown to him his beloved parent had heard of the blood, and believed in its power and efficacy! It is an awful thing to lose one’s soul for someone else, or for something else? “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”

An eccentric preacher once said, we should be surprised to find a good many in heaven we did not think would be there, and a good number not there we thought would have been there; and lastly, he should be surprised (I suppose in view of his own shortcomings and the difficulties of the way) to find himself there. We can take this for what it is worth. Yet remember, each one will have to stand before God and give account of himself.

“‘All things are ready,’ come,

Oh make no vain excuse;

No yoke of oxen, wife, or field,

Instead of Jesus choose.”

Who can tell, fully tell, what is meant by being eternally lost? Who now can fully describe the agonies of the undying worm. Reader, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe now, and sing

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,

To enter while there’s room,

While thousands make the wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

‘Twas the same grace that spread the feast,

That sweetly forced me in;

Else I had still refused to taste,

And perished in my sin.”

W. R. C.

The Will of God in Saving.

“THEY would not come.”

Who?

Certain people who had been invited to a wedding feast.

Why?

Because they did not choose; it did not suit their tastes, and therefore they merely stayed away.

But was not such conduct highly insolent?

It was.

Could they have understood clearly that they were the subjects of the invitation?

Most certainly, for the wording was as plain as possible.

But were the circumstances of the feast in keeping with the position of the guests?

Yes, for none less than the king had called them, and, moreover, the wedding feast was for his son, and he wished others to share the joys of that happy day. The circumstances were of the best and highest order.

And yet they refused! Such conduct is never heard of amongst men!

No, but the conduct of the guests in question is accounted for very easily.

How so?

By the words “would not.” That is, their will was at work; and, you know, the will is that by which we are governed. Had they wished to come, depend upon it, they would have come. Nothing hindered but their own will. “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Oh, yes; but, in the things of God, can any come except they be drawn?

No, but we are speaking not of their power to come, but of their will. The question of power is easily dealt with when that of will is settled. Hence the Lord Jesus said, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life,”―thus showing that the heart of man was utterly alienated, and all its springs polluted. What more desirable than life, or who more accessible than Jesus? Yet they would not come unto Him! They sinned against their own mercies, and sealed their forlorn condition.

But must not God give both the will and the power? for we read, “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).

Perfectly true, but in what light do you look at your question? in the light that would blame God for your damnation, or in that which, did He save you according to the terms of the verse you quote, would lead you to attribute, with an adoring heart, praise for that salvation for which you were absolutely indebted to Him?

Oh! the second― for I am certain that God does not exercise His omnipotence for the damnation of the lost. It is, assuredly, their own evil works―their sins and unbelief―that procure for them their doom, though I used words which, doubtless, spring from the natural infidelity of the heart when I said “must not God give.” I thankfully own His sovereignty and His perfect right to do as He may please; but I seek instruction on the subject of God’s will in saving, as on that of man’s will in refusing.

Well, the heart of man, his will, is radically opposed to God. From the Fall onwards, the history of man has been an unbroken line of rebellion against God. When “Pilate delivered Jesus to their will,” the awful fact of human enmity against God revealed in fullest grace, was displayed. Jesus was “crucified with wicked hands.” Sin reached its climax there. It could not do more; and that was according to the will of man. I trust, therefore, you own the total depravity of man in will, and that “the carnal mind is enmity against God;” for, when we take our stand on this platform, other truth becomes simple, and a basis is laid for a solid superstructure in the soul. You will find that where the absolute ruin of man is, in any measure, denied, the truth of grace and redemption is not clearly understood nor enjoyed. Ah! perhaps I have failed in a full acknowledgment of this important truth, under the common idea that it is possible to reform, educate, and polish even the roughest character, in such a manner as to make him an ornament to society; for I looked more at him in his relation to his fellows than to God; but, now, I admit that, unless right with God, any external refinement is but the veneering―the painting over that which remains at heart the same.

Forget not that human refinement, most welcome in its place, is equally opposed to God as is the reverse. The three most refined languages of the day were used in writing Christ’s condemnation. Never trust man in the things of God.

Alas, it is so—but now, what of the will of God?

Ah! that is another theme. Well, we read, “Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Here we have the desire of God’s heart, unbounded, unlimited, confined to no class nor community, but universal in its wide embrace. It is not, I grant you, His decree, but it is His desire; and, in keeping with this, how many passages recur to the delighted memory― “God so loved the world”― “The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared”― “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all”― “Whosoever will let him take,” and others of the same nature,―all go to show the impartial breadth and scope of this desire. Now, acting on this, God sends the invitation of the Gospel; but how is it received? Well, “they would not come.” Here is a clash at once. Want of power is not in question, but want of will. The standard of rebellion is raised in bold defiance; nay, the tender entreaty of grace is spurned with base contempt. Such is man.

What then?

Either universal judgment, or, as you said, God must exert His saving power―and this He does. Hence, “all may, many won’t, some shall,”―and these last gladly own their indebtedness to the sovereign grace that sought, found, and keeps them for glory.

“Found of thee before I sought,

Unto Thee in mercy brought,

I have Christ for righteousness;

Of His fullness, grace for grace,

Teach me, Lord, on earth to know

Something of how much I owe.”

It will be, then, one of the most bitter of the memories of the damned, that when they heard of God’s goodness and His desire for their blessing, they deliberately refused to accede.

Alas, yes! to slight and despise mercy is the greatest of all folly and sin. It is not the same kind of sin as drunkenness, &c. Man can condemn such. It violates his sense of morality. But above all these is the desperate foolhardiness, the total want of perception, that leads any to spurn the very hand that would save him. And hence the solemn words in Prov. 1.― “Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.”

Wisdom counsels, loudly, the grasping of that outstretched hand, ere the dire alternative takes place; and how blessed to know that God finds pleasure in saving those who believe the Gospel. What music fills the very courts of glory when one sinner repents. The father runs, kisses, clothes, and welcomes home in royal style, the poor lost one who, brought to his senses by the pangs of destitution, learns his folly, owns his guilt, rises, and comes to the father. The will of the prodigal led him to want. The goodwill of the father ran to his rescue, nor ceased till every trace of prodigality was covered, and every sob of penitential sorrow drowned in glad symphonies of redeeming love.

“God is love.”

J. W. S.

Without Excuse.

GOD in His grace has made Himself known to us in various ways from time to time, and men are responsible for the way in which they have treated the light. Were it not for revelation, all would be darkness. We would know nothing, nor could we find out anything, about God, unless He had been pleased to reveal Himself.

At present God is fully revealed, and professing Christians, with an open Bible in their hands, are “without excuse” if they know Him not.

But there are many now living, who have never seen the Bible nor heard of Christ. Surely, people say, they are not responsible! It is true, the heathen have not the same light as we, but they have been false to what God has given them.

In Romans 1:20-25, I read what God says about the heathen, and the way they have treated God’s revelation of Himself. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

We know the heathen are sunk in gross idolatry, as here said, and know not God’s “eternal power and Godhead.” Mark, it does not say they should know God’s love, ―that cannot be known without knowing Christ, ―but they should know His “eternal power and Godhead,” for they have the testimony of creation; and having this testimony, they are without excuse. In fact, the passage teaches, that they have given up what they once knew; and how true this is of many an infidel in the present day!

Perhaps, reader, you are an infidel, one who scoffingly says, “How can I know God?” Perhaps you were once taught by a Christian mother, and knew the blessed story of redeeming love, as shown in the gift of God’s only begotten Son. But you did not glorify Him as God; you were not thankful for this wondrous gift, and so you became vain in your imaginations, and your foolish heart was darkened; and while you have thought yourself wise, you have really become a fool, one who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1); and instead of worshipping and glorifying God, you are worshipping and honoring man, and his poor little finite wisdom. You are treading in the steps of the heathen, and excuse yourself for your folly by quoting the gods you have made for yourself, but, by and by you will stand before the bar of God, and then your sophistries and arguments will be shown to be worthless, and you will be found “without excuse.”

But now I turn to another thing. We see a great deal of evil around us. We see people “filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Rom. 1:29-31); and although men know the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, they not only ‘do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Reader, is not this true of you? You know right and wrong; you have a conscience, and yet you do wrong yourself, and take pleasure in others who are covetous, proud, boasters, &c.; and you have plenty of excuses, such as, “People cannot be too particular,” “I only do what my neighbors do,” and “I am better than many another;” yet many a time you sit in judgment on your neighbor, and condemn him for doing the very things you do yourself.

And thinkest thou, O man, that judgest others, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? No. In judging another, you not only condemn yourself, but leave yourself without excuse; for since you condemn the evil in your neighbor, you cannot object to be condemned by God for doing the same thing.

It is a solemn thing, that you are going on sinning, and are inexcusable; for you know what is right, and you judge those that do wrong; and soon you will stand before the judgment-seat, and be found without excuse.

But it is not only on account of idolatry and sin that the world will be judged. I read in John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak” (marg., excuse) “for their sin.”

The Lord Jesus has been here, God manifest in the flesh, and by His words and acts He has made known the love of God to us. And how did men treat Him after He had spoken words of love, and proved by His acts how God loved poor sinners? Why, we spat on Him, mocked Him, and crucified Him between two thieves. Every indignity that we could we heaped on Him; and for thus treating Christ, and rejecting God’s love to us, we are without excuse.

Reader, God will yet judge this world for the rejection of His Son. Are you a rejecter of Christ? Do you know God’s love to you? Do you not see it in Him having given up Christ to death, that your sins might be washed away in His blood? Remember, you are without excuse.

Thank God, we live in a Christian country, and have an open Bible, which tells us all that God has been pleased to reveal, and how responsible we are to have that blessed salvation which God has provided for us through the death of Christ.

Reader, most likely you are a professing Christian; but have you got on the wedding garment? Are you saved? Has the blood of Jesus washed your sins away? Ah! you have got excuses. “Plenty of time yet,” “you are not sure,” “no one can know,” &c., are among the commonest. Turn to Matt. 22., where we read of the marriage of the king’s son. The people are gathered in, both bad and good, and the wedding is furnished with guests. But, “when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verses 11-13).

Now, reader, if you have not got on a wedding garment, ―that is, if you are not saved by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and made the righteousness of God in Him, ―why are you a professing Christian? You may make excuses now; but when the King comes in to see the guests, you will be without excuse. You see the King expects to find you with a wedding-garment on. He expects that every one who professes the name of Christ should have salvation, and should know it. You know well you have not got on the wedding-garment, that you are not saved; and I urge you to come to Christ now; He waits to receive you; He offers you the best robe; you have but to take it, and thank Him for it. You cannot say, by and by, you were not offered salvation, or that you could not get it, or that it cost too much, when His words are, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17); and, “He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price” (Isa. 55:1). No. You will be without excuse for your vain profession without the reality; so will the heathen be without excuse for his idolatry, the sinner for his sins, and the Christ-rejecter for his rejection of Christ.

My last words to you are, Come to Him now, who will in no wise cast out; and “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

“‘Come!’ ‘tis Jesus gently calling,

‘Ye with care and toil oppressed,

With your guilt, howe’er appalling―

Come, and I will give you rest.’

“For your sin He once has suffered,

On the cross the work was done;

And the word by God now uttered

To each weary soul is― ‘Come!’”

A Wonderful Conversion.

SHE was thirty years old―had a husband and four children. Her first illness did not bring her to the Lord. But now once more she was struck down with rheumatic fever; and this time her friends and doctor gave her up.

She was dying, and knew it. A long, long eternity was before her; but where was she going? All was dark―not one ray of light. The pain of the body was nothing now to that of the soul. Hell was in front of her, and apparently no way of escape. She was lost―she knew it, and felt it. Terrible state to be in!

A minister of the Church of England daily visited her, and always brought the same message― “You must be born again.” She would tell him he was not wanted; he was no good to her; that she was lost, forever lost. He said he had been sent by God, and she “must be born again.” He never forgot to call, and never forgot to deliver his message, which only increased her anxiety. There seemed no hope for her, no way of escape.

But God’s time had now come, and her eyes would soon be opened.

She was alone; it was the afternoon, and a voice as it were spoke to her― “I’ve died for you-your sins are many, but My blood has washed them all away. Don’t fear; you are Mine forever.”

No words can describe the peace and joy that now rushed into her soul. It filled her; it overwhelmed her; she burst into tears. She was saved, and that on the brink of eternity. What was life or death to her now She longed to go― longed to see and be with Him who had loved her with such manner of love. Yes, she was saved, and knew it. Reader, conversion is a real thing.

The minister returned the next day, and found her weeping. “I see you have not found the pearl of great price yet.”

“No; but the Lord has found me. I’m saved, sir, certain sure of it. He told me Himself.”

“Why, then, do you cry so? The woman in the fifteenth of Luke, when she found the piece of money, rejoiced with all her friends.”

“Did you ever, sir, know a person to cry for joy? I did cry for fear, but now I cry for joy. I’m saved; I know it, sir.”

He continued to come for weeks after. He saw a remarkable change come over her, and believed it real; yet he seemed not to understand it. He would now sit and listen to her telling of the wonderful love of Christ, and how she knew and experienced every bit of it. But when she put the question to him, “Have you been born again, sir?” there was no response. Nearly fifty years have passed, but all is fresh in the memory of the now aged woman.

Just after her conversion a woman upstairs in the same house was taken ill with typhus fever; but though she reached death’s door, she never appeared troubled about her soul. She got well, and arose from her bed as before―unsaved and unconcerned as to eternity.

And now, reader, here are three states of soul. Which one answers to yours? If you feel yourself lost, I point you to a Saviour who “came to seek and to save that which was lost,” and “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Or are you like the minister, who knew the reality of the new birth, and had even been used to wake this woman up to see her lost condition, but as to himself had never made it a personal thing? Salvation, reader, has to do with you. Don’t be content with knowing God’s Word and even believing it, but take it home to yourself. You are to be born again; you need a Saviour. I pray you make it a very personal thing.

But what if you are unconcerned about your soul—asleep as to eternity, careless―what then? Oh, think; you must meet a holy, just God―a consuming fire. You will stand before Him. You must give it a thought―five minutes alone with God might settle all. He is a God of grace. Trust Him, and be saved.

W. B. S.

The Year of Jubilee.

“AND the Lord spake unto Moses,... saying,... Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you.... If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, ... and if the man hath none to redeem it, ... then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.... and if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee,... he shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return” (Lev. 25:1, 8, 9, 10, 25, 26, 28, 39, 40, 41).

This was God’s gracious provision in case any among His people Israel had the misfortune to lose their inheritance or liberty. At the commencement of every fiftieth year, on the evening of the day of atonement, after the blood of the sin-offering had been sprinkled upon and before the golden mercy-seat in the most holy, where Jehovah dwelt, the sweet strains of the trumpet inaugurated the year of jubilee, and announced the redemption of the lost inheritance, the deliverance of the bondsmen.

God thus taught in type a truth of the deepest importance to the sinner of today.

In Luke 4 the Son of God entered into the synagogue at Nazareth, and opening the book of Isaiah the prophet, read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Centuries had elapsed since the appointment of the year of jubilee, and Israel had, by a long course of disobedience and idolatry, grieved and angered God, who in punishment had removed them from Canaan. A remnant had, however, returned, and were now in the land; but the glory of the nation had departed, and they dwelt there merely as vassals of Rome. In His unchanging love, Jehovah had again visited His people, and was sounding the trumpet of jubilee, but their ears were dull, and they would not recognize the sound; they saw no beauty in Him who in patient grace had come to bless and deliver them, and their only answer to His proclamation of love was to lead Him to the brow of the hill, that they might cast Him down headlong.

But He who was thus rejected by Israel went to the cross, that He might become the Saviour of the world, and consequent upon the atonement for sin made there by Him, the Holy Ghost came to the earth, and once again the sweet notes of the trumpet of jubilee were heard, but not merely within the limited borders of Canaan, the glad strains rolling far and wide reached earth’s remotest bounds, announcing that, according to God’s eternal purpose, the Gentiles were brought into the circle of blessing, “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6.). The Spirit of God here quotes from Isa. 49, where the prophet foretells Israel’s rejection of Jesus, who is then given for a light unto the Gentiles, that He might be God’s salvation unto the end of the earth, “to cause to inherit the desolate heritage, and to say to the prisoners, Go forth.”

On the ground of the atonement of Jesus at Calvary, God has sent an offer of pardon and deliverance to a world of ruined sinners, held captives in the chains of sin and Satan. This dispensation is the year of jubilee to the Gentiles, and the Holy Ghost is the announcer of it.

Listen, oh, listen, dear reader, to the sweet music made by the Spirit of grace.

Solemn and sad in their cadence are the notes that first reach our ears, for they tell of the death of God’s Son. “Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death; that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Loud and joyous are the trumpet’s strains that announce the resurrection. “God raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion; and every name that is named, not only in this world, but that which is to come.”

Gladsome and glorious are the notes of the jubilee trumpet as they proclaim to a world of lost sinners the fruits of Christ’s death and resurrection—salvation, and deliverance from the thraldom of the devil and the woe of hell. “The Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Do you understand this wonderful tale, my reader? Do you follow its unraveling’s? Death reigned through sin, and Satan (man’s enemy and master) had the power of it. Man fears death because he is a sinner, and after death is the judgment. The Son of God came into the world, went to the cross, and died, that He might bear sin’s consequences, and free the sinner from them; that by the sacrifice of Himself He might put sin away, destroy Satan, and annul his power over man. From among the dead He rose victorious, and ascended into the glory of God, from whence comes a message to the world that there is now for all who believe in Him deliverance from Satan’s power, forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance that lies the other side of death.

Do you ask how you are to know that the message is addressed to you? Well, how did a Jew know that the trumpet of jubilee was blown for him? Was it not by the fact that he was in bonds, and needed the liberty the trumpet proclaimed? By the same rule you, a poor ruined sinner, may know that the Gospel is addressed to you, for it announces the very salvation you stand in need of.

It is wonderful to see that the trumpet was sounded on the day of atonement. How blessedly this corresponds with the fact that God’s offer of pardon and deliverance to the guilty is founded on the blood of atonement shed by Jesus at Calvary, for as soon as the work of the cross was finished, and Jesus had ascended into the glory of God, the Holy Ghost came down to earth, and the Gospel in all its fullness and freeness was proclaimed.

As the trumpet’s blast penetrated the valleys and rolled on the hills of Canaan, thousands of poor slaves leaped to their feet as free as the air they breathed, and thousands of homeless ones bounded with eager feet to the loved homes of their childhood, which, through Jehovah’s grace, had become theirs once more.

Yes, it was grace, based upon atonement, that gave back in the year of jubilee the lost inheritance and liberty to the Jew. And it is grace, the free boundless grace of God based upon the atoning blood of Jesus, that delivers the believing sinner from Satan, and sin, saves him from hell, and gives him a home in heaven.

Observe, the year of jubilee was for all who had lost their liberty, and were unable to redeem themselves, for those who had lost their patrimony and were unable to recover it. When the trumpet sounded it mattered not that they were poor, or that their poverty was the fruit of their misconduct, their liberty and their homes were theirs again, for Jehovah had spoken, and none could dispute their title. The ruin that had befallen them was an occasion for the showing forth of His merciful care. And this day of grace wherein salvation is offered without money and without price, is for the benefit of all the poor slaves of sin and Satan, none of whom can ever free themselves from the awful yoke. Their misery is the reason of God’s intervention in grace, His opportunity for proving that He is LOVE.

It matters not, my readers, how sinful you are, nor how much you have merited judgment, and proved your unworthiness of heaven; JESUS HAS DIED, has died for you, and the Spirit of God is pointing you to Him, and inviting you as a poor lost sinner to come to Him, owning and hating your sins, and trusting to Him for salvation. Hark, He still says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

The trumpet proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof, and God’s salvation is now announced throughout all the world for the acceptance of “whosoever will.” All may come, all need it, and Christ has said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” Have you tried Him, my reader?

God gave Adam an inheritance in Paradise, but through sin he lost it, and neither he nor his family has ever recovered the forfeited possession. Jesus died that men might receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them.

The Jew who had none to redeem him, and was unable to redeem himself, was absolutely dependent upon Jehovah’s grace, as exhibited in the year of jubilee, when he regained his liberty and inheritance without payment. And that is just where you are, sinner; you have none to redeem you, and are utterly unable to redeem yourself, and consequently are thrown upon God’s grace, as displayed in His offer to you of deliverance from sin, Satan, and hell, through the atoning work of His own dear Son. It is your only resource, but, blessed be His name, it is an unfailing one. God is glorified in the salvation of sinners, His love is exhibited in saving them. He is saying to you, “Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation,” i.e., this is the day, the hour, the moment in which I am accepting and saving sinners. Oh, it is wonderful, God actually pleading with sinners, and assuring them that He will accept them now, that He will save them now! Not the sinner seeking God, but God seeking and pleading with the sinner! Why, the angels marvel as they listen to the amazing offer, and their wonder increases to see men so indifferent to such incomparable love.

And the cross of Jesus is the groundwork of it all, there He laid down as the sinner’s ransom price His own precious blood. It was as though He said, “My Father, these poor sinners cannot do anything to satisfy Thy righteous claims, or to put away their sins; here is My life blood, accept that.” And the Father did accept it, and now nothing is left for you to do but to accept the truth about your lost and ruined condition, and come to Him with your sins, and He, in answer to the work of the Son of His love, will instantly put them all away, and give you pardon, salvation, eternal life, and heaven. Oh, poor perishing soul, will you not come?

What would have been thought of the Jew who when the trumpet proclaimed his liberty declined to accept it, preferring to remain a slave? And what shall be thought of you, my reader, if you this day refuse to accept this wonderful offer which God by His Spirit is making to you. “For the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

The Jew’s rejection of the acceptable year of Jehovah, as announced by Jesus, brought terrible judgment upon them, from the effects of which they are even now suffering. The sinner’s rejection of God’s salvation in this day of grace will bring eternal judgment upon him.

My reader, you have to choose between eternal judgment and salvation. Which is your choice?

W. H. S.

"You Are Getting Old."

SOME few weeks since, as a servant of the Lord was traveling by train, he handed a little book to his fellow-passenger―a man between fifty and sixty years of age. The book was gratefully received, and soon a conversation commenced, by the latter speaking of the sudden destruction of two notoriously wicked men he knew. An old stable had fallen in upon them, and killed both them and the horses that were in it. Then followed a solemn reference to their having to meet God. This led to the man relating how he had been delivered from the coming wrath―of how God in His rich grace and mercy had rescued him as a brand from the burning.

He said, “I was spending my evenings as usual at the public-house with my companions, when the woman who drew the beer for us looked me in the face and said, ‘Why, you are getting old.’ The words struck me to the heart, ‘You are getting old;’ and from within was added, ‘You are going wrong, and you are doing wrong.’”

Death and eternity came with horror before him; he knew he was not ready. The words unceasingly rung in his ears, “You are getting old; you are going wrong and doing wrong.” Nevertheless he finished the evening with his companions; and when at a late hour he left the public-house with them, singing, shouting, and bawling as usual, he tried shouting louder than ever to drown those incessantly repeating words, “You are getting old; you are going wrong and doing wrong.”

Months rolled on, but these words were not to be stifled; and oh! the intense misery and wretchedness as they conducted him in thought to that eternity he so dreaded. During this time no Christian ever spoke to him, and had they done so he said, “I would not have listened.” The public-house was at times frequented as an opiate, but it proved in vain to smother the voice of an awakened conscience. Nine months thus passed away, when one night he felt terrified to go to bed. He paced the house, he occupied himself in any way he could, and it was not until nearly daybreak that he desired to lie down. The following night the same terror came again. In the horror that accompanied it he felt he must pray or perish. He threw himself on his knees, and cried in anguish of spirit to God for mercy, and God answered him according to His own faithful word, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Then upon his knees the work of Christ in all its saving efficacy was revealed to his soul, and to use his own words, he said, “I got up from my knees a new man in Christ.”

Dear reader, this man knew his own worthlessness. Do you? Mercy was all he could plead for. He knew nothing of the grace of God told out in Eph. 2:8, 9, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” He knew nothing of that wondrous love told out in John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He knew nothing of the fullness of forgiveness in Acts 13:38, 39, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” All this poor man knew of was the mercy of God, and “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,” gave him to know His salvation.

It may be these precious scriptures are familiar to your ears, but that your heart has never been reached by them. Wake up, dear soul, to your responsibility for your knowledge of the Word of God. This man could not get away from his responsibility for the knowledge of eternity; yet how much greater yours if you treat lightly the Word of God, and neglect the Son of God. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

Let it not seem from this narrative that prayer is the way to get salvation. God in His grace and mercy thus met the cry of this earnest seeking soul. But His Word tells us that instead of man beseeching, the blessed God has Himself taken this place towards us. The Lord Jesus Christ has so fully and perfectly met every claim of a holy and righteous God against the sinner that the apostle Paul can thus write, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:20, 21). It is then the sinner, not God, who has to be reconciled, and He against whom he has sinned comes out as the Beseecher. Oh, matchless, amazing grace! Will you, reader, if unsaved, refuse such an Offerer—One who says He will abundantly pardon?

Messenger of Peace: Volume 4 (1885)

Table of Contents

Abel, Enoch, and Noah.

Are You Lost?

Are You Satisfied with Jesus?

Auld John; or, Grace and Debt.

Babylon's Fall.

The Blood of the Lamb.

The Bright Hope.

A Bright Sunset.

The Burnmouth Barometer.

Christ, or Hell?

"Consider, Christ Jesus."

The Cross of Christ.

Daniel.

Do You Plead Guilty?

The Eye of God.

"Father, will You Come and be Washed in Jesus' Precious Blood?"

Five Great Things.

Four Looks.

The Future Unveiled.

Gospel Hymn.

The Gospel Lifeboat.

The Ground of Old John's Peace.

Have You a Good Foundation?

Have You a Wedding Garment on?

Heaven's Worship Meeting and Earth's Prayer Meeting.

How a Troubled Soul Found Peace.

"How am I Justified?"

"I Am Not Afraid to Die."

"I Am Satisfied Too."

"I, Even I."

"I Go in Peace."

"I Know I'm All Wrong."

"I Will Come Again."

"I Wish I Was in Hell, and Out of This Place."

"I'll Trust Him."

"It is Finished."

Jacob's "I Will"; Moses' "Peradventure"; Christ's "It Is Finished."

The Jubilee Year.

Love and Trust Reciprocated.

Man's Folly and God's Eternity.

The Old Beggar's Confidence.

On Confessing Christ.

The Poor Man and His Dog; or, Sentenced and Liberated.

The Power of the Word of God.

Right Forward!

Running.

Self Destroyed.

"Stop! I See it All."

"Then I'm Lost!"

There is None Righteous.

"This Year Also."

"Thou Shalt See it With Thine Eyes, but Shalt not Eat Thereof."

Twenty Years in a Railway Tunnel.

Utterances of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.

"We Loves Each Other, and It's All Love."

What is Faith?

What's the Harm?

The Will of God in Saving.

Without Excuse.

A Wonderful Conversion.

The Year of Jubilee.

"You Are Getting Old."