JOHN—— , the saddler, was known in his village as a trustworthy workman, who took an honest pride in doing what he had to do well. But John was in trouble about his soul; he feared death, and, for the unsaved, that awful after death— “the judgment.” Yet John was a religious man, and one who, looking at outward things, stood better than many of his neighbors.
One Saturday evening, a friend of the saddler, who knew his anxiety of soul called in upon him. The week’s work was just over, the last stroke had been given to the piece in hand, and John was putting down his tools, exclaiming, “That job’s done,” and as he set the harness upon the table, his friend observed that he eyed it with the satisfaction of one whose hard week’s labor had ended.
Looking at the work, and then at the workman, his friend exclaimed, “Why, John, how is this? what! you fold your hands, and sit down! Do you mean to call this harness finished!”
“Sir,” cried the saddler, with some little indignation, “when I say a job is done, it is done. It means done, and well and properly done, too.”
“How so, John?” said the friend, in a questioning tone; “what! you call it finished, do you?”
“To be sure I do—I am not one of the stamping sort—and it is finished,” John warmly replied, viewing his work with greater satisfaction.
“Then I am to believe you, am I?” was the question, and again put in an incredulous tone.
Now, John would never allow anyone to question his word, and he was not at all pleased at the insinuations just made. He considered his word true and honest, and his work the very best he could give his customers.
Observing his feeling, his friend continued, “Ah! John, so I am to believe you, am I? and yet you won’t believe the Lord Jesus.’’
Here John was perplexed. What was his friend driving at?
“Yes,” he continued, “you believe Him, and yet doubt His work? He said upon the cross, It is ‘finished.’ He came from heaven to finish the work His Father gave Him to do. He came to work out salvation; neither did He rest till all was done. He is now seated un the right hand of God’s throne on high, in token that all is done. The Scripture tells us.—
“Now,” added he, “I did not really doubt you when you said your work was done: your folded hands proved to me at once that your week’s labor was over. And a pleasant thing it is, on a Saturday night, to sit down and say, It is all done; to-morrow I can rest. But strange it is that you, who speak so confidently upon your own work being done, cannot trust the Son of God.”
John would not allow that he did not trust the Lord; yet when his friend added, “If you do, then, trust Him, how is it that you have not the rest of soul of which He speaks?”
John was silenced.
Jesus said, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God;” and He came from heaven to earth, and died for us upon the cross; “by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once:” and after He had accomplished God’s will, “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.” All is finished, and now it is peace for all who believe.
The simple illustration was used by God to John’s deliverance of soul. May it be to yours also, dear reader. Instead of toiling, striving, laboring, day by day, may you rest in the finished work of Christ. —(Selected.)
ML 11/12/1899