THE Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone's career as a politician and Prime Minister, is too well known to render it necessary to more than mention his name.
A man of great ability, a scholar of Oxford University, a man of affairs with the vast experience of ripened old age, his testimony commands respect. He said: " If I am asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart—what a man should chiefly look to in progress through life as the power that is to sustain him under trials, and enable him manfully to confront his afflictions—I must point to something which in a well-known hymn is called, The old, old Story,' told in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old teaching, which is the greatest and best gift ever given to mankind.”
It is touching to behold the aged statesman, the overpowering masterful personality of his generation, turning to a child's hymn in order to express what was deepest in his heart.
"Tell me the story slowly,
That I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption,
God's remedy for sin.”
Yes, it is the knowledge of God's wonderful redemption that sustains the believer in Christ as he passes through this world of sadness and trial. Child's hymn as it is, its very simplicity, its earnest tone, are what appeal to strong men, and render the hymn a work of genius.
Again we read:
“Tell me the story softly,
With earnest tones and grave,
Remember! lm the sinner,
Whom Jesus came to save.”
Well was it that "Jesus and His love" formed the pillow for the heart of the aged statesman.
There is a deathless charm about that story. How it suits the sinner. The most lustrous jewel in the Savior's crown is redemption. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth.... from all sin." (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). That was the one object of His death, viz., to make atonement for Thus God can righteously offer salvation to every poor sinner, who will simply put their trust in the Savior of His providing.
See that you do not miss this blessing, dear reader.
It is related of George Whitfield when preaching to a crowded congregation in America, and wishing to emphasize the freeness of God's salvation, that he said, "It is as easy to obtain God's salvation as for me to catch this fly," and suiting the action to the words he made a grab at a fly that had settled on the preaching desk.
On opening his hand he found that the fly had escaped him. "Ah!" he said, "friends, it is easy to obtain salvation, it is easier to miss it.”
My reader, I tremble that YOU should miss the blessing. Make sure of it, here and now, I beseech you.
THE EDITOR.