IT had been a terrible gale in the Atlantic, as one ship at least testified. All her three masts had been carried away, and there she rolled helpless and unmanageable in the trough of the sea. And now another terror was added, for she had sprung a leak, and the carpenter announced nine feet of water in the hold. At this last evil news the stoutest heart failed, and the gloom of despair settled on the crew. Just at the moment when all hope seemed to have fled, a vessel was descried in the distance, and instantly all were in an agony of suspense. Mastless, signalless, and almost waterlogged, would she be seen by the approaching vessel? This was the question, for each one well knew that his life depended upon the answer which a few minutes would give. Nearer and nearer drew the ship, until at last a cheer goes up from every parched throat; for see! she alters her course and bears down upon the wreck and backs her yards, and before many moments have passed, her lifeboat is launched and British hands and British hearts speed her upon her errand of mercy, and, returning once and again, conveys the whole ship-wrecked crew to the good ship Edinburgh.
Talking next day to some of those he had so gallantly rescued, “Yours,” said the captain of the Edinburgh, “was not the only wreck with which we had to do. We sighted another vessel flying signals of distress, bore down on her, and sent off our life-boat to her in charge of the first mate, my son. But by the time the life-boat reached her, the captain had persuaded the crew to stick to the vessel, so, after all his risk and trouble, my son had to return as he went. Well, we hoisted up the boat, and squared away out yards and laid the ship on her course, but a presentiment of what was coming kept me looking through my glasses at the doomed ship, and presently she took a great plunge and down she went with every soul on board! Well, I could do no more, I had done my best; I had sent my own son.”
Reader, you who can admire the father’s heart in sending his son on such a perilous mission, and can feel your heart warm towards the gallant son, who so readily jeopardized his life for perfect strangers, and can wonder at the mad folly of those who refused to be saved when salvation was lovingly offered them, did it ever strike you that the Father sent the Son, the Saviour? That just because you were lost and helpless, with the lake of fire beneath your feet, and you about to take your final plunge, God sent His Son―that, in infinite compassion, Jesus came and took the guilty sinner’s place, and died beneath the wrath of a righteous and sin-hating God, and that, now that God’s claims have been fully met by Christ’s sacrifice, God is righteously offering salvation to you? Will you be mad enough to reject the proffered Saviour, preferring to trust the poor old shattered sinking wreck of self? Beware! How will you escape if you neglect so great salvation? Escape there is none. God has done His best, and He can do no more. “Through this Man (the risen and ascended Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,” not through yourself, your prayers, your goodness, your frames, your feelings, but through a Christ who died and is risen again. Yes, through a vacant cross, and an empty tomb, and a throne with its blessed Occupant, whose presence there proves that the believer’s sins are forever gone. “By Him (this risen Man) all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39).)
Oh! the blessed rest in the perfect love of God, manifested in the gift of His Son— a perfect love, which has cast out all fear! and, oh! the blessed confidence of those who hold God’s living receipt for all their sins, beholding by the eye of faith the One who was delivered for their offenses, and raised again for their justification, and seated, in token that His work is done, at God’s right hand. “Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.” (Heb. 10:11,1211And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; (Hebrews 10:11‑12).)
J. F.