THE year 1909 draws to a close—a wonderful year it has been to many, a year of joy and one of sorrow. We have had to bid a long farewell to some near and dear, at whose grave side we have wept.
We have had many a joy in many a way for which we can and do thank God.
To myself the year has been fraught with deep and unexpected exercise.
It was on 20th March that my beloved friend, the editor of this magazine (the Gospel Messenger), sat by my bedside in a private hospital and kindly asked me whether I had set my house in order; because, said he, “the surgeon has resolved to operate in two days; the operation is very serious, and no one can tell what the result may be.”
I valued his frank and brotherly counsel and told him that everything was “in order”; nor could I say that the possibilities which he suggested caused me any alarm.
I thought of the severance of many a tender tie, and a definite end to all labor here. I remembered how often he and I have stood together on the same platform in the preaching of the same precious gospel; and of how frequently, during the eight and thirty years of its existence, I had been permitted to contribute to the pages of his magazine; as also other labors of love in various spheres. All this was possibly coming to a close.
But what of the immediate future? The two days passed swiftly and peacefully away. The moment of the operation came. Fear there was none. I had had plenty of time to anticipate everything, and now the crisis had arrived, and I had to face death or the possibility of dying.
I wish to place on record for all who may read this paper that I proved the divine and perfect solidity of that foundation which, in a feeble way, I have endeavored all along to lay before my readers.
I found Christ enough for the supreme crisis! I found His atoning death a perfect substitute and His resurrection the pledge of victory. The sting of death was gone. Thanks unto God filled my heart. The truth of the Epistle to the Romans was the pillar of my soul. The rod and staff of the Good Shepherd not only supported but comforted me. I know and sweetly felt that He was with me, and I feared no evil; and then... “I laid me down in peace... I awoke, for thou sustainedst me.”
The ordeal was safely overcome, and its lessons were most profitable. “God was my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
My only object in writing the above is to urge others, with all the earnestness and sincerity which one man can use in dealing with his fellows, that they should unhesitatingly and most absolutely build on this only foundation.
“Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid—Christ Jesus.” Sweep to the winds, I beg of you, any and everything but Christ. Your works, merits, doings of any kind whatsoever, are not of the very least value in the matter of atonement.
Fling them all away, and stand on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus as your only ground of confidence.
The day will come, dear friend, when you must face this crisis―perhaps sooner than you think.
Are you ready? Is your house in order? Have you let 1909 slip away without the settlement of this greatest of all personal questions?
Oh! whatever your age, position, rank, or name, build assuredly and now on God’s only foundation. You will never regret this; nay, you will praise God forever for such a Saviour!
J. W. S.