“ONLY wait a bit,” said an intelligent young Scotchman to a fellow-workman in London, who had just confessed Christ, in reply to some remark of his companion, “wait till you hear what some of our learned scholars say about these things; you’ll not be long here till you learn that those old wives’ tales are out of date, and far behind the age. I know all about it, you know. When I first came here, fresh from Montrose, I had a lot of it in my head. I was brought up as ‘strict as a Covenanter’; as for ‘religion,’ I had it pushed down my throat ever since I can remember. What with psalm-singing, kirk-attending, long prayers, and Sabbath-keeping, my young spirit was almost crushed out of me. Of all the days in the week, the Sunday was the dowdiest and most dreaded. To have the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the prophets administered at regular intervals, like a dose of medicine, only served to embitter me against the whole thing, and I firmly resolved that as soon as I was free from the ‘house of bondage,’ I would bid a long farewell to religion. My belief is that it’s nothing but ‘blind superstition.’”
As we have often heard the candid young Scotch-man’s sentiments expressed by others, and as the writer passed his early days in pretty much the same atmosphere as he describes, we desire to give our judgment plainly as to it.
Somber faces and somber services characterized the Lord’s Day. We almost dreaded their return; but, dear reader, what was the secret of it? It was religion without Christ, nothing more than a Jewish ritual; prayers without life; Christianity misrepresented; Satan’s grand counterfeit for the, precious gospel of Christ. What a hypocrite I often felt as I knelt in that Christless circle, for I knew I was a sinner; and I knew the whole thing, as far as I was concerned, was a solemn mockery. How I longed to know for myself the rest and peace to which Jesus invites all the weary and heavy laden (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). This desire was answered in God’s own good time, and then I learned that the gospel was not a dark, gloomy, dismal ritual, to be hung round your neck to keep you in the dark caverns of despair, but a bright, sunny, joyous reality, which streamed into your whole moral being, and thrilling your soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Ritualism and law keeping, forms and ceremonies, received their death-stroke at the cross. The true believer in Jesus is introduced now, not to a set of doctrines or creeds, or ordinances, but to a living person at the right hand of God.
Reader, do you know this blessed risen Saviour? I don’t say, Have you had a religious training, or bent your knee at the family altar? for you may have had one and done the other, and at this moment be under the just judgment of a Holy God. But do you know the Man who trod the winepress of the wrath of a sin-hating God? He stood ALONE in the darkness of Calvary, and drained the cup of judgment to its bitter dregs, and that fierce storm He voluntarily went into that you, poor sinner, might never feel its withering blast.
Children of religious, but unconverted parents, will you throw away the casket where the most priceless jewels are stored because they have failed to unlock its treasures to your gaze? Will you turn your back on the Scriptures of truth which bring you life, light, and salvation, and which unfold the heart of God towards you, because they have never tasted its living streams? Happy indeed that family circle, where Christ is known and appreciated! Nothing more lovely on earth surely than a home-gathering around the Word of life, whether for prayer or edification, praise or worship. But God will have reality, He is not mocked. Soon our little sand-glass will have run out, and we shall pass off the Dear reader, can you look up and say, “Yonder is my home”? if not, He still invites you. Keep Him outside no longer. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:2020Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)). He will not only come into your circumstances to share your joys and sorrows, but He will make you His guest to share His joys, to participate in all the delights of the Father’s house, and the Father’s bosom, and all this to be entered upon and enjoyed in an ever-increasing measure. While yet your pilgrim feet tread life’s rough highway, delay not another moment; your weal or woe for eternity may hang upon your immediate acceptance of Christ, so freely offered to you in the gospel. Do you know your need? Do you confess your guilt? Have your learned your helpless condition? Then heaven’s royal feast is spread for YOU (Luke 14). “And all things are ready.” Come.
G. F. E.