NOTHING is easier than to perceive and decry the misdeeds of other people, while forgetting all about one's own faults. "Other men's sins" afford a subject for conversation by no means uncongenial to many, who would resent the question, What about your own?
Yet the truest wisdom is to be very personal with regard to this matter, and to begin with number one.
Two clerks, employed at the War Department, were sitting at their desks, when one, gazing out of the office window, remarked to the other: ci just look at that Government workman on the roof over the way. I've been watching the lazy beggar for half an hour, and he hasn't done a stroke of work. That's the way they cheat the Government.”
Meanwhile the workman was remarking to one of his Mates: "Just look at that clerk down there. I've watched him half an hour, and he's done nothing but stare out of the window all the time. That's the sort of chap we have to pay taxes to keep.”
The clerk, while observing the workman's laziness, entirely forgot his own. The workman, while reproaching the clerk, was altogether unmindful that he was himself doing the very thing he complained of.
I do not wish to occupy your mind, reader, with sins which other people commit. We will not discuss that murder of which the newspapers have so much to say; nor that jewel robbery; nor the cases of drunkenness and foul language brought before the magistrate. We will not discuss with mistresses” the delinquencies of servants nor with servants the shortcomings mistresses. We will not touch upon the questionable conduct of Mr. So-and-so. There is a challenge which I would pick up from the pages of Holy Scripture and ring in your ears:
“Are there not with you, even with you, sins
against the Lord your God?”
There can be only one answer to this question. Yes; there are sins that you have committed. Sinful motives, sinful desires, sinful words, sinful deeds—all these are SINS. There are sins of omission as well as sins of commission; secret sins, as well as those about which others know.
This is a most serious matter, for by your sins you are separated from God. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." (Isa. 59:2).
You will, of course, retort, "What about yourself? How does the question apply to
“The blood of Christ, which satisfies the JUSTICE of God, may well satisfy the CONSCIENCE of an awakened sinner.”
Should there be a soul trusting Christ, and yet not sure of his acceptance with God, reading these lines, we feel sure that they may well bring peace and comfort to his mind.
The lesser is included in the greater. The greater is that God's justice should be satisfied. Without that there is no salvation for any. With it there is forgiveness and pardon for all. That God's justice has been gloriously satisfied is claimed by the words of the dying Savior, "It is finished"; and that claim has been most blessedly allowed by God in that He has raised Jesus from the dead, and crowned Him with glory and honor. The same hand of justice that smote the divine Substitute on the tree has crowned the mighty Victor on the everlasting throne.
The lesser is the satisfying of the guilty conscience of the awakened sinner. Once the anxious soul learns that God, is satisfied then it follows that it is proud presumption for the believing sinner not to be satisfied. Faith sets to its seal that God is true. A foundation such as this nothing can shake. "God is just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3:26.) Have you believed in Him? That settles everything.
“Half-way to Christ is a dreadful place. Take you heed—to be NEAR the lifeboat is different to being in it—take you heed.”
In one sense no one can be half-way to Christ. There is no half-way house. You are either in your sins or in Christ. There is no middle ground. On the other hand King Agrippa could say to the Apostle Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Bethsaida was exalted to heaven and yet thrust down to hell.
So you may be the child of a praying mother, know the Gospel as well as the preacher does, and yet perish in your sins. You may often have felt impressed at a Gospel service, and yet die a hardened sinner.
The reflection of such privileges, as we have outlined being theirs, and yet slighted and refused, will but add to the torments of many of the lost. Far better to have died a dark, ignorant heathen, to whom the name of Jesus is unknown, than to pass away into God's presence unrepentant and unsaved from all the light and warmth of Christianity.
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“’It's a very simple way to Heaven,' said a poor, unlettered man, if people would only take it. There are only three steps. Out of self —into Christ —into glory.’”
Alas! it is the very simplicity of the Gospel that stumbles so many. If only we were more simple we should get along better. We are too complex, and judge God by the standard of a man. We say the Gospel is too cheap, or too easy, or too good to be true, and in that way God is insulted and His word refused. The Gospel cheap! Nothing has ever or will ever cost so much. Creation cost a word. Salvation cost God His Son; it cost the Lord. Jesus all the shame of Calvary. The Gospel too easy! If it were not without money and without merit, it could not be universal, for some have no money, and according to Holy Writ, none have merit, for "they are together become 'unprofitable." The Gospel too good to be true! Why, thousands have proved it to be good, superlatively good, but—true!! emphatically true. Oh! reader, take these steps to blessing: Out of self—into Christ. Into glory will come in God's own good time.
“After the death of Mr. Sandeman, a devoted missionary in China, there were found written in large letters in his notebook, ETERNITY, ETERNITY.”
Would that every man and woman in the land lived in the light of eternity! What a difference it would make in their whole outlook. Business would not be everything. Pleasure would not engross. Indeed, our chief business and pleasure would be in connection with eternal things. A gentleman offered a tract to a lady in a train, and received the withering reply, "Please attend to your own business." "That's exactly what I am doing, madam," he replied; "my business is with souls.”
And do not think it is gloomy when one's chief business and pleasure is with eternity, Ask any bright Christian acquaintance of yours, and they will tell you the pleasures of this life are but as "the crackling of thorns under the pot," that in Christ they have "a deep, sweet well of love," to use Samuel Rutherford's quaint but expressive phrase. Only try it, and you will see, and above all let eternity have far more weight in your thoughts than time, for time is like a drop in the ocean; eternity, the ocean, boundless, fathomless, shoreless. ETERNITY! ETERNITY!!
“During the last year it is computed that between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000 of the world's population have died and been buried.” Place them in a long array, and they will give a moving column of more than 1,300 to every mile of the earth's circumference.
Their march began with the cradle and has ended with the grave so far as this earth is concerned. Your march was begun, perhaps twenty, thirty, forty years ago. Each step you take brings you nearer to the fateful end. Longfellow sings sadly enough, but how truly, that
"... our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.”
And after the grave, what then? Resurrection,—eternity, either with Christ in glory or with the lost in despair.
Reader, had you died during last year, where would your soul have been? Do face the question. We are your true friends in urging this upon you.
God is merciful. Christ has died. Salvation is offered. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:22(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 Corinthians 6:2).) Now is the time to face these things, and may the issue be a happy one for you. A. J. P.