AMID a grove of tall trees on the hillside overlooking the Bay of Lamlash, in the Isle of Arran, stands the roofless chapel of Kilbride, around which the graves of ten generations lie. Ancient sculptured stones, bearing strange devices, and names of the great of five centuries ago, stand crumbling around the ruined shrine. Concerning a strange stone, on which is the full figure of a kilted Highlander with sword by his side, the following story is told. Two petty chieftains, Walter the fair-haired, and Duncan the dark, were bosom friends and inseparable companions. A jealous chief who feared them both, swore he would alienate their friendship into mortal hatred. First he got Walter’s ear and told him that the friend whom he trusted was secretly aspersing his character, and only waited a chance to take his life. The same day he told Duncan the same villainous story, which was also implicitly believed. Next morning the two chieftains met on the Lamlash shore, and without a word, drawing their swords, closed in a fierce conflict for revenge. Walter the fair-haired was slain, and Duncan, mortally wounded, fell by his companion’s side, to learn how both had been deceived by a common enemy. With his last breath he requested that both might be buried in the same grave, and that rugged sculptured stone marks the spot where they lie. Whether fact or legend, the story aptly illustrates how Satan, the enemy of God and man, succeeded in bringing in that which caused estrangement, and broke the bond which existed between God the great Creator, and man the companion of his God in Eden days. Believing the serpent’s lie, man was estranged by sin from God, and is now by nature and practice His enemy. His very heart and mind are “enmity against God” (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)), and his thoughts are all against Him for evil. But here the similitude ends. No days-man or reconciler interposed between the Arran chiefs, no friendly voice exposed the enemy’s work, or sought to undo it. But blessed be God, in the case of the sinner this has been done. The offended God has become the Reconciler. He it was who said, “Deliver from going down to the pit, I have found a Ransom” (Job 33:2424Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24)), and “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:1616For 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)), “Who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:66Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:6)); and now Himself comes forth to men with the message, “Be ye reconciled to God”. (2 Cor. 5:2020Now 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. (2 Corinthians 5:20)). Some believe the message and become “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:1010For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10)), others despise the grace and continue in enmity against God., and pass on to judgment to find how cruelly they have been misled by that great arch-enemy who “deceiveth the whole world.”
Almost within sight of that nameless grave of Lilbride, a company of sinners saved by grace, reconciled to God, and now seeking to win others to Him, stand on Lamlash shore singing—
“Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.” Then they tell, one after another, how, though once enemies of God, they were saved by means of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” brought from the place of enemies to that of sons, and how the same grace awaits to save others. There is no middle, no neutral place. You are at this moment either, an enemy of God, estranged and ready to perish, or a reconciled and justified sinner, restored to God and brought nigh by the blood of Christ.
Messages of God’s Love 1/19/1908