By the Editor
FIVE hundred years before Christ—that is, close on two thousand five hundred years ago—the voice of a prophet of God was heard in a godless land, and as he cried his message was: “Your priests have violated God’s law, and you have profaned God’s holy things―you have put no difference between the holy and the profane, between the clean and the unclean” (Ezek. 22). If this man of God were living today, and moved about among us, his voice would proclaim a like message, for in this land of ours the same sins are committed that he denounced so long ago, and worse ones also.
The holy things of God. What are they?
All these “holy things” of God have been “profaned” by men. Many deny these great truths today. And there can be no salvation, according to God’s holy Word, unless these truths are accepted and held.
Violation and Profanation
To violate the holiness of God’s righteous laws, and to profane the holy things that are in the sanctuary of His justice and His mercy, must bring His judgment on nations and on individuals. To break down the hedge that separates the “holy from the profane,” and the “clean from the unclean,” is to face the flaming sword that turns every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The finality of God’s purposes will never be altered to suit the convenience of those who, in this compromising age, “sandwich religious addresses between comic songs.” This is violation and profanation; this is putting no difference between the “holy and the profane,” between “the clean and the unclean.” And yet in God’s sight the difference between them is as the difference between heaven and hell.
“It is Finished”
This is the message that flames from heaven for all the world to see today. Calvary is God’s ultimatum to the world. There love shone out in surpassing radiance―the love of God in Christ―there sin reached its darkest hour when it cried, “Away with Him.”
The decrees of God are fixed and final; the same for the twentieth century as they were for the first. Man’s progress is always away from God. The way of faith is always towards God. Faith is wanted now―to believe and to accept. The weariness and helplessness of the human heart is voiced in that all-important question:
“What must I do to be saved?”
And the glory of the sacrifice of Christ and the completeness of His finished work, shine out in the one and only answer to the question: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
From a Lonely Soldier
This touching letter from the trenches reached me a day or two ago, and it tells out in its simple pathos what thousands of men are feeling and needing now: ― “Dear Sir, ―... I have been out here for five months, and I was a bad lad before I came out. I find it is about time I was doing something for my soul, because my pals are falling every day, and I never know when my time will come. We are only fifty yards off the Germans, so I want to be prepared for what may happen. I have but few friends in this world, and often I think of the only One who will be my friend, and that is our dear Lord.” Within half an hour of receiving his letter a Testament was in the post for him. Oh! Friends, you will help me, I know, to send to hundreds of thousands like him who feel their want of Christ.
Only two in ten Have a Testament
Read carefully this letter which has just come to me by post from the Front. The writer is an eager worker for the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: “Many thanks for all your kind sympathy and prayers. Also for the many packets of post cards and four parcels.
I have also received four from Colonel S―... It is most encouraging how the men continue to be so eager to get any portion of God’s Word. I don’t find more than two in ten who have a Testament ... Ah! if friends could only be here for one day and see, as I do, the men going off daily, and know what awaits so many of them, and also knew that their only hope must be in God through His Word. A man writing from the fighting line a few days ago says: ‘It seemed a small affair, but we lost nearly all our officers, and it was a very small battalion when we marched back after the attack, but we did our job―but at what a price!’ I am afraid people in England are getting used to the War. But these men’s places must be taken by others, hence the continual stream going up. You know how many Testaments there are in one of your parcels. I could have used one hundred and fifty of your parcels yesterday, and many would have gone without then. That is from here alone. Christians at home don’t realize the stream of men that are passing into God’s presence daily. Pray that these dear men may be ready. They are all some mother’s dear boys―or some woman’s husband. Pray, pray. I was among them from 1 p.m. till 12 midnight yesterday.”
Can you read this without tears? And can you wonder at my constant appeals to you for the Word of God? This is only one letter. I get scores telling the same story: men going to death without the Word of God in their pockets. I am sure God will make you send me the 100,000 Testaments I am wanting.
“What About That George III. Sovereign?”
“I had a letter from a friend in which the writer says: ―
“After reading your little book, ‘A Message from God,’ I fait I would like to give you something towards the work, under the Holy Spirit’s power of saving the souls of the dear unsaved soldiers by sending out Testaments, etc., but as I have given as much away lately as I felt I ought to, having such heavy liabilities to meet, I put the thought from me. Continuing to read, I read of the lady who gave the bracelet; then the Holy Spirit said to me, ‘What about that George III. sovereign that has been put away as a treasure for the last twenty years, doing nothing and no use to anybody?’
Now I give it to God, praying for blessing upon His work that you are carrying out. It was considered worth 25/- twenty years ago; it should be worth more today. You will sell it for as much as you can get, and I hope it will be 30/-. You can tell me, if you like, what it realizes. I am one who has been saved from the horrible pit and whose feet are now planted on the Rock, and the horrors of hell that I have been saved from through grace grip me so that I feel I would give all I have if it would save those I love, and my desire goes out for all.”
A Surgeon-Major sends me a check and asks me to send Testaments, etc., to the men of his old brigade. He says: “This is the best present I can send my ‘old brigade.’”
This morning’s post brought me requests from thirty-one soldiers for Testaments. A day or two ago I had requests from seventy in one day. The four weeks that have passed since we commenced sending out the post cards have brought us nearly seven hundred requests for Testaments. This is in addition to the parcels of Testaments that go week by week. The very first Testament which was applied for was used by God to the salvation of the one who received it. We trust to receive by post requests for thousands of these Testaments. Any who wish for packets of post cards to circulate among soldiers at the Front can have them by applying to me for them.
The Blasphemer Cowed
The boldest blasphemers are often the greatest cowards. “I will give you ten shillings,” said a man to a profane swearer, “if you will go into the village graveyard at twelve o’clock tonight, and swear the same oaths you have uttered, when you are alone with God.” “Agreed,” said the man; “an easy way to make ten shillings.” “Well, come tomorrow and say you have done it, and you shall have the money.” Midnight came. It was a night of great darkness. As the swearer entered the cemetery not a sound was heard; all was as still as death. The gentleman’s words came to his mind. “Alone with God!” rang in his ears. He did not dare to utter an oath, but fled from the place crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”