“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:9-11.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel [of Christ]; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16, 17).
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us; we pray in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God. For Him Who knew no sin He hath made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:20, 21).
How lovely and honorable is the office of the evangelist, whether we look at him as the messenger of peace in the Epistle to the Romans, or as the minister of reconciliation in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (chap. v.)! There is no ministry more blessed and glorious than that of the gospel of grace and glory. God honors it highly, both in the great gospel-prophet of the Old and in the grand gospel-Epistle of the New Testament. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation.” And if this be true of the messengers of peace in the sense of the Old Testament, how far more of the messengers of the gospel of peace in the Christian sense, be it for the burdened and troubled sinner in the light of the Epistle to the Romans, or the hostile sinner in the sense of 2 Cor. 5.
Beautiful indeed are the feet of the Lord's messenger of peace, who with his heart glowing with the love of Christ, and his willing steps hastening at the Master's bidding from place to place, be it into the centers and hotbeds of infidelity, corruption, and voluptuousness of the great cities, or into the Egyptian darkness of some out-of-the-way village or hamlet, or to the idolatrous heathen in the dark portions of this globe. Opposed step by step, and thus honored and encouraged in some places, or met by silent indifference in others, where the very stones appear to be ready to cry out against the deadness of the place, the message he carries and delivers faithfully and fearlessly ascends permanently to heaven as a sweet savor of Christ to God, though to the unbeliever a “savor of death onto death,” whilst to the believer a “savor of life unto life.” “Knowing the terror of the Lord,” he “persuades men,” sounding in the very face of the enemy the note of alarm, to warn them to “flee from the wrath to come” to Him Who alone is able and willing to deliver from it. He “standeth in the top of the high places, by the way in the places of the paths.” He “crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of the doors, O ye simple, understand wisdom; and ye fools, be of an understanding heart.”
Guided by the Spirit sent down from heaven for the preaching of the gospel, he is content to be nothing but a mouthpiece of that blessed Spirit, and the “two-edged sword,” being wielded by that Spirit, does its quick and powerful work, “piercing and dividing asunder,” laying hold of consciences and placing them face to face with a thrice holy, sin-hating God, all things being “naked and open unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.”
And, the love of Christ constraining him, he applies the healing balm of the gospel to the wounded and broken-hearted, beseeching, as Christ's ambassador, sinners and enemies to be reconciled to God, pointing to the Lamb slain as the perfect expression of the love of that God to Whom men refused to be reconciled by the life of His Son, when “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;” but hated Him without a cause Who was the perfect expression of that love. He impresses upon his hearers that surpassingly marvelous truth, as high above man's blinded mind and hostile heart as the heavens are above the earth, viz., that the very same blood of God's own Son, which was the final proof of man's entire ruin and consummate guilt, should have been made the means, and the only means, of cleansing from all sin even the vilest sinner against that God Who “made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
And when the “ambassador of Christ,” whilst thus faithfully and lovingly preaching to a crowd of perishing sinners the glad tidings of God's full and free salvation, now perceives the first daybreak of divine light in some sin-benighted face before him as a sign that God Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has begun to shine into the darkness of that heart; or when he beholds in another's face, as in the “mirror of the heart,” a soul just passing from death unto life by faith in the Son of God; or, perhaps, in another sorrow-stricken countenance the tears of repentance changed into tears of “joy and peace in believing,” through the delivering power of a full gospel—does not the evangelist's heart go up in deep joy and silent praise to the God of all grace, whilst his voice continues with increased assurance, power, and liberty to set forth the greatness and completeness of God's salvation through and in Christ Jesus? Behold, another of his hearers, apparently bowed down under the burden of sins and sin, or under the yoke of legal bondage, heaves a deep sigh of relief from its heavy pressure. It is evident that the cry of despair, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” is just about to be followed by the song of deliverance, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And as the evangelist now winds up his address with a powerful appeal to the hearts of his listeners, a man whose face, distorted with passion, gives evidence of the intention of opposition and hostile demonstration with which he had come, can be noticed, his head bowed down, as if crushed by the mighty hammer of the word. His dark, hostile features gradually relax and soften down into an expression of sorrowful tenderness. His eyes begin to be moistened with a dew coming from a higher quarter than that of Hermon. And when the last tone of the “small voice” of God's beseeching love and grace in Christ's words, “I will in no wise cast out,” has died away from the lips of God's messenger in the quiet and solemn night air, that opposers face and bearing have become the literal expression of those lovely lines,
“ Nay, but I yield, I yield!
I can hold out no more;
I sink, by dying love compelled,
And own Thee Conqueror!”
and when the closing Doxology is sung,
“ Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,”
the figure of that Saul, turned into a Paul, is standing upright, with lit up and lifted up face and streaming tears of joy, joining in
'“ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
whilst the Father's house above is ringing with joy.
The crowd disperses. The evangelist goes home pale and fatigued, but with face reflecting the heavenly joy. Sweet will be thy rest, faithful ambassador of Christ! May His peace be with thee, His messenger of peace, until thou enterest into His rest and hearest His “Well done enter into the joy of thy Lord.” Meanwhile may that prayer, “God bless you!” uttered by some of thy hearers on parting, return in abundant blessing upon thy soul and service!
Let us now briefly consider some salient points connected with the testimony and work of the evangelist, especially for the sake of younger laborers in the gospel field, who from want of a fuller acquaintance with the character of the gospel, and from lack of experience as to the dangers besetting his path of service, is exposed to suffering loss and injuries that might have been avoided if he had been forewarned and thus forearmed. I therefore propose to offer a few remarks as to
1. The source of the gospel.
2. Its character.
3. Its subject.
4. Its object.
5. Its effect.
6. The character of its ministry and ministers.
7. Its end and final result; and,
8. The dangers and snares besetting the path of its ministers, and how to avoid them.
The Lord willing, I shall enter upon these important points in my next paper.
Man, who makes himself the center, would have light to have life. God's way is just the opposite: “the life was the light of men.” Life in the person of Christ comes first; and this is right, because it, and it alone, puts God in His place. The law could not do this, being given to man as man.