THE 9:30 a.m. train for the West of England left New Street Station, Birmingham, some years ago, with one of its third-class compartments fully occupied by well-dressed men, most of them deep in a newspaper. At the first stopping station a gentleman who sat on my right, between myself and a venerable Church of England clergyman, who was reading the New Testament, got out, and in stepped a chimney sweep, with bag and brush, fresh from his early morning work. Seeing the crowded state of the carriage, he stood inside the door. The clergyman said, “Sit down, friend; you have paid for your seat, and are entitled to it.” He looked at me, and I said, “All right, sit down,” and he took the vacant seat.
At the next station the sweep got out, and the door was no sooner shut than a gentleman in the compartment raised a vehement outcry at the insult which the Midland Railway offered to its passengers by allowing sweeps to so enter. It was true the sweep had left a grain or two of soot upon the seat, which I gently brushed off, remarking, “There are many worse things than a little clean soot.”
“Yes, indeed there are,” said the clergyman. “There is something infinitely worse.”
“And what may that be, sir?” I inquired.
“The moral degradation of man,” was the startling response, in stentorian tones.
“And what do you mean by that, sir?” said I.
“I mean, sir, the condition of sin in which man, God’s creature, is; for he has been born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, and his moral degradation is indeed deep while he remains in unbelief.”
“And may I inquire how you propose to meet that condition of moral degradation, sir? What remedy have you for it?”
“There is but one remedy, sir—the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,” was his emphatic reply.
Anxious to draw out so evident a defender of the faith of the gospel, I said, “But, sir, are you not aware that you live in a day when the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is very lightly thought of?”
“I know it, sir, I know it, alas, and more is the pity, for the Word of God says, ‘Without shedding of blood is no remission’ (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). But it also says, ‘The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul’ (Lev. 17:1111For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)); ‘And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us 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)). And further, God says, Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot’ (1 Peter 1:18,1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19)). So that if man is going to be delivered from his moral degradation and existing condition as a sinner, it can only be by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; at least, so says the Word of God.”
“I think you forget, sir,” I replied, “that nowadays men are very doubtful as to the statements of that book which you hold in your hand.”
“Yes, sir, alas, it is too true, but men will yet find the truth of this book, and that ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away’ (Mark 13:3131Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31)). ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar’ (Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4)) is in that Word. God will vindicate His veracity, be sure of that.”
The interest in the newspapers evidently had abated temporarily while this conversation was listened to by the occupants of the carriage, and the more so when I now asked this champion of Scripture if he were among those who took the ground of being “saved.” To this he at once replied very firmly, “Yes, by the grace of God, I can say I am saved—saved through faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“And would you mind telling us how you reached that state, sir?”
“I shall be delighted. It took place on a dark, stormy night near Cape Horn. I was a midshipman on board a large merchant vessel, careless and heedless about divine things, but that night, after we had rounded the Horn, a godly mate, in whose watch I was, took occasion to speak to me kindly, seriously, and earnestly about my soul. God blessed his fervent words, and I was turned to the Lord Jesus Christ that night; in plain language, I was converted.”
“What happened then?”
“The Lord kept me in the joy of His love till I reached. England, and then I made at once for my only brother, told him what God had done for my soul, and he, through me, was led to the Lord likewise.”
“That was like Andrew and Peter in John 1,” said I.
“Yes, and Peter was the means of many conversions in his day; and my brother, I know, has been the means of many likewise, and of sending more than eight hundred missionaries to the heathen,” was his response.
“And what became of the mate?” said I.
“Oh, he very soon got a captaincy, and after a while retired from the sea, and now has given himself to mission work on the Thames.”
By this time the train had reached Worcester, and the exodus from that carriage was something remarkable. The parson, one young man, and myself alone were left, while many of our fellow-passengers got into other compartments, having had enough gospel for one day. What they did with it the day of the Lord will declare.
The sin of man is truly “moral degradation,” but this aspect of his condition the natural man resents. It is true, all the same, and the sooner a man finds it out the better.
The question of sin before God must be faced sooner or later. The wise will face it now—in “a day of salvation” through the blood of Jesus. The foolish defer it till too late—the day of the wrath of the Lamb.
Reader, how do you stand with regard to this question of moral degradation? Have you found out yet that you are a lost sinner needing redemption? I trust you will not let this year close over your head without finding God’s salvation, through faith in the blood of His dear Son. Did you begin the year without Jesus? Do not so close it. Come to Him just now. Though your soul have been stained with sin, and be as black as the chimney-sweep’s soot, yet you may be washed whiter than snow in that precious blood, shed on Calvary’s cross for sinners like you and me. Fling your doubts to the winds, receive and taste the Lord’s grace, and then go and do what the young midshipman did—tell others of the blessed Saviour you have found. That will be a grand way in which to close this year of grace, 1905.
W. T. P. W.