The Open Fountain Or, It Cleanseth White As Snow

IN the middle of last century there was a renowned military and religious leader in the Caucasus named Schamyl who was fiercely opposed to Russian aggression. At one time bribery was so prevalent among his followers that he determined on taking drastic measures for its suppression. He enacted a law that in every case discovered a penalty of 100 lashes was to be imposed. His own mother was the first convicted offender. On being informed of it Schamyl was overwhelmed with grief. For several days he shut himself up in his tent, and gave himself to fasting and prayer. On emerging from his retirement he assembled his followers, and gave instructions to the executioner to inflict the penalty. The offender was bound, and the lash was applied to the quivering flesh. As the fifth stroke fell Schamyl ordered the executioner to stop, and his mother was released. Baring his own back, he commanded the executioner to administer the remainder of the penalty—95 lashes—on himself, which was accordingly done.

This is a striking, though of course an imperfect, illustration of the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. Schamyl's mother broke the law, the penalty for the offense being 100 lashes on the back. The Circassian leader sustained two relations to the offender—those of son and ruler. As a son he was doubtless anxious that his mother be spared the indignity and the suffering; as a law-giver and leader he was bound to see that the claims of justice were fully met. If Schamyl had allowed his mother to escape without any satisfaction being rendered to the broken law, his followers would have had good reason to complain. They would doubtless have said that though a loving son Schamyl was an unrighteous ruler, being partial in his dealings. Through the expedient introduced by Schamyl a fraction of the penalty of the broken law was endured by his mother—five lashes—and the remainder—95 lashes—by himself. One can easily understand how that Schamyl's followers would after this be slow to commit the offense.

In this incident we have a faint and feeble illustration of Christ's atonement for us. All of us had sinned. Times without number we had broken the holy law of God and trampled His commands under our feet. The law declares that death is sin's penalty (Ezekiel 18:4). “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). What, then, was to become of us? Was there no way of deliverance? Whilst hating sin with a perfect hatred, God loved, and loves with matchless love, the sinner. It was, and is, His desire that "all men should be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). How could He righteously pardon those who had broken His laws? "Had sin been pardoned without an atonement (to use the words of another), its exceeding evil would not have been displayed; the law which forbids it would not have been magnified; the holiness of God which abominates it would not have been cleared; the glory of God which has been insulted by it would not have been vindicated.”

“We must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person; yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him" (2 Samuel 14:14). What were the "means" devised by God for our restoration to His favor? Calvary's Cross answers the question. As we gaze on the form of that holy, spotless One we see the measure of God's righteous displeasure against sin, and the manifestation of His marvelous love to the sinner. Here we see mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissing each other (Psalm 85:10). Calvary is the solving of the problem as to how God can be a just God and a Savior (Isaiah 45:21). In the sacrificial work of Christ we understand how the "sin question" was eternally settled.

For years the Cross was to us a mystery. Thank God, to some extent we understand the meaning of the wondrous words: "But He was wounded for OUR transgressions, He was bruised for OUR iniquities: the chastisement of (with the view to) OUR peace was upon Him, and WITH HIS STRIPES we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). The substitution of Christ for sinners is the ground on which every blessing flows to us. Through that sacrificial death for us God's righteous claims have been met, the law has been magnified, His justice satisfied, and His glory vindicated. Salvation free, full, present, and eternal is proclaimed to all. It is now proclaimed to you. Christ's death was not a commercial transaction—so much blood for so many souls. This is an imperfect and unscriptural view of the atonement. "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." His death—apart from faith—secures the salvation of none.

Everyone may be saved because of His atoning sacrifice, and saved through simply believing on Him. "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED from all things" (Acts 13:38, 39)

Since God is satisfied with the death of Christ; since He is waiting to save you from going down to the pit, why not Now believe on Him and obtain everlasting life? "He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). A. M.

Eternity! Where?

TRAVELER to Eternity, whither art thou speeding—
Along Life's pathway brief and drawing to an end?
Another year is over, earth's joys are all receding,
Oh, where dost thou mean thine Eternity to spend?

Will it be in Glory, with Christ who died to save you,
Who left His Father's throne to suffer here below,
Who gave Himself a ransom from sin and death to free thee,
That thou may'st never know the depths of endless woe?

To-day His voice is calling. Oh, hear His gracious pleading:
Come, let us reason, sinner-be reconciled to God.
Oh, close with Mercy's offer, cast away all unbelieving,
And shelter, shelter quickly, beneath the precious Blood.

Oh, wilt thou slight His mercy, neglect His great salvation,
And spend this fresh new year as thou hast spent the past,
In sin and worldly pleasure, but under condemnation,
With Eternity, Eternity, nearing, nearing fast?

Before this new year closes thy soul may be required;
Whose then will be the things thine heart is fixed upon?
Perished, and forever, all thou hast admired,
And thy never-dying soul, where will it be gone?

Still, still the day of grace lasts, the time by God accepted;
Oh, haste thee! halt no longer 'twixt joy and endless woe,
Or thou shalt wait in anguish, o'er salvation now rejected,
Because God called, ye refused; said "Come," but ye said
"No."

ALICE OLDROYD.

Saved on Westminster Bridge.

HOWARD JOHNSTON was led to Christ on the 16th March, 1859. At that time he was about twenty years of age. The means used by God to his awakening was the faithful preaching of C. H. Spurgeon. He had recently attended the services in New Park Street, and it was there the arrows of the Most High had entered his conscience. The broad waters of the Thames that flowed beneath as he stood on Westminster Bridge were as a figure of the stream of Time, which was bearing on its bosom millions of souls—and his amongst them—on to the fathomless ocean of Eternity—on—on to God!

The "happy day" had now dawned upon the young man Howard Johnston, for ere he passed that old bridge at Westminster he had, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, passed from death unto life. All had been made as clear as sunlight to his soul while meditating on the great truth of redeeming love. The sacrifice at Calvary was that perfect atonement in which he saw every claim of Divine righteousness and the deepest need of his soul abundantly satisfied. The words he had often heard and read had a depth of meaning which he had never realized in his soul before—"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He saw that God indeed loved the world, and loved him. He could not doubt it, since he had given His only-begotten Son to die for sinners, had given Him up to such a death, "even the death of the Cross," the full benefits of which he saw were for the guiltiest sinner that walked the earth if he would but receive them; and did it not say, that "WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life"? Could he longer doubt that all this was intended for him—his own very self? Impossible! So, without further hesitancy, he boldly cast himself, there and then, by simple faith, upon Christ for salvation, and knew the unspeakable joy of sins forgiven (Rom. 5:1)

He and sin now parted company. The burden of guilt which had weighed upon his soul had now been rolled off like a mighty load, or like a mountain that had been cast into the depth of the sea of God's forgetfulness to be seen no more. His conscience, which had often spoken in thunder tones of present guilt and future judgment, was now purged by the Blood—"the precious Blood of Christ." What mind can conceive—what tongue express—the ecstatic joy of the soul thus brought to God? None indeed! For it is the supreme delight of one that finds himself lost in the boundless ocean of Divine, unutterable love—a love that bled and died for its object, and which has now thrown its golden chain around its willing captive, and pressed to its beating heart the once unlovely and unloving child. Yea, and as many as have, like Howard Johnston, been brought to know and rest in this wondrous redeeming love of Christ, shall verily be saved, satisfied, and "filled unto all the fullness of God." Let us each ask ourselves, Have I experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost? Am I saved?

Taking God at His Word.

TWENTY years ago a young man who was exercised about the salvation of his soul entered a hall in Manchester. At the conclusion of the service, as he was leaving the place, a gentleman, putting his hand on his shoulder, said: "Are you saved?" "No," was the candid reply. "Would you like to be saved?" was the next question. "I would," responded the anxious enquirer.

Mr. Campbell quietly and solemnly quoted the life-giving words of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." On reaching the word "whosoever," he put his hand on the shoulder of the enquirer and said: "THAT MEANS YOU." The anxious soul left the building pondering the precious words he had heard.

As he walked up and down the street meditating on the Scripture, he soliloquized as follows: "Who spoke these words?" "The Lord Jesus Christ." “Then they are true," was the conclusion he arrived at. The light of the Gospel shone in on his darkened spirit, and he thanked God for saving him." Oh, Lord," he said," you say that ' God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Lord, I believe." There and then he believed on Christ, obtained eternal life, became a child of God, and had the assurance of salvation. At that time he was staying with two maiden aunts. He resolved that he would not tell them of his conversion that night. He had scarcely opened the door, however, when he confessed Christ as his Savior.

If the reader desires to become a true Christian, we are glad to be able to assure him, on the authority of God's Word, that salvation full, vast, present, free, and eternal is at this moment within his reach. Go in at the "whosoever" door of John 3:16, and you will obtain what you desire. Let us look at the verse again. "For God so loved the world." Then God loves me, as I am one of the "world." How much does God love me? "That He gave His only begotten Son." Surely that is a marvelous manifestation of love. Gave His "only begotten Son" to what? Gave Him to bleed and die as a sacrifice for sin. When He was hanging on that tree, He was thinking of me. It was for me that He gave Himself a ransom (1 Tim. 2:6). It was for my sins that He made complete atonement. "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." I am one of the "whosoevers." I believe in Him. I believe He died for me. God's Word declares that on doing so I "shall not perish." Praise His holy Name, I can now say:

“There is no condemnation,
There is no bell for me;
The torment and the fire
Mine eyes shall never see.”

"But have everlasting life." Then I have as a personal possession "everlasting life," on the authority of God's beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not FEEL that I have "everlasting life," but I KNOW I have it because God says so, and what He says MUST be true. Surely I am running no risk in resting my soul on God's Holy Word. "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar" (1 John 5:10, 11) Will you now believe the testimony He has given concerning His Son, and thus have everlasting life? A. M.

Dr. Torrey's Declaration.

I AM firmly persuaded that we live in a time when there is great need that there be a solemn declaration of the fundamental truths of the Gospel.

First of all, let me call your attention to the fundamental importance of the Atonement—that is to say, the death of Christ on the cross for you and me. The death of Jesus Christ is mentioned one hundred and seventy-five times and more in the New Testament, to say nothing of the almost countless references to the death of Christ in the prophecies and types of the Old Testament; so it is evident at once how large a place that death occupies in the thought of God. Some people say, "Oh, don't be talking about the death of Christ all the time. Talk about His life." Well, I believe in talking about His life; I believe in His resurrection, but the fundamental truth of the Gospel is His DEATH.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4: " Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you... how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. "This sums it up in one sentence. What was the Gospel?" That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again. "That is the whole Gospel according to Paul. People come to me and say," These songs about the Blood, I wish you would not sing them." A man went so far as to take one of our hymn-books, and cut out every reference to the Blood, every reference to the Atonement, then he sent it back, and said," Now you have a hymn-book that is worth singing." Why, if that man should go through the Bible in that way, and take out every reference to the death of Christ, he would not have anything but a skeleton left, and if our hymnology is to be along the lines of the Bible, it must abound in references to the atoning death.

We are told in Luke 9:30, 31 in the story of the appearance of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration that Moses and Elias, the representatives of prophecy and of the law, came back and talked with Him. What did they talk about? "And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." That is the one thing they talked about, our Lord's sacrifice. Such a conversation was never held on any other occasion on earth, and the one subject of that conversation was the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Could anything make more for the fundamental importance of His death?

We are told in Hebrews 2:14 "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Now we are going to hear why Jesus Christ took flesh and blood, why the eternal Son of God became incarnate. People are constantly asking, "Why did the eternal God become a man?" Listen. "He took part of the same that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Here we are told in the inspired Word of God that the purpose for which Jesus Christ was incarnate was that He might die. When Jesus came into the world, He came into the world for the purpose of dying. The Bible teaching is that the death of Christ was no mere incident of His incarnation, but the very purpose of His incarnation; that He was born as a Man, that He died as a Man. He Himself said the same thing.

In Matthew 20:28 He says: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." We are told in 1 Peter 1:10-12 that the prophecies of the Old Testament revealed by the Holy Spirit of God concerning the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow them after the death of Christ, was a subject of intense interest to the inspired men of the Old Testament, and in verse 12 we are told that the angels desire to look into these things. No subject is more interesting to the angelic world than the subject of the Atonement.

In the picture of heaven and heaven's choir in Revelation 5:8-12, "They sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." The atoning death of Jesus Christ is the one great central theme of heaven's choir. That man who cut the hymn-book, and cut out all reference to the Atonement, all reference to the atoning death, all reference to the Blood, he will be very lonesome when he gets to heaven, for that is the one theme of heaven's song.

In the second place, What was the purpose of Christ's death? Let us hear His own statement: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20: 28). Jesus Christ Himself here declares that the purpose of His death was to provide a ransom for many; that His death was the price paid to purchase our life. Christ died that you and I might live. "The wages of sin is death." He provided a ransom. He died that He might pay the price that was necessary to purchase life for you and me.

To sum up: When Jesus Christ died upon the Cross of Calvary a perfect satisfaction to God's holiness was made regarding your sin and mine. A basis was provided upon which God could pass over and blot out the sins of the vilest sinner; and now, on the ground of the perfect satisfaction that Christ made on the Cross of Calvary, pardon is offered to everyone. Some of you want to do something to atone for sin. You cannot, and you don't need to. There is nothing to be done; it is all done; you have simply to accept as your personal Savior the perfect Sin-bearer whom God has provided. The moment you do so; the moment you accept God's testimony regarding Christ, that every one of your sins was laid upon Him, and that God is ready to forgive you on the ground of Jesus having died in your place—the moment you do it, every sin you ever committed is blotted out, and you stand before God clean and white, without one sin to your account.

Would you like to know that there was not a cloud between you and God, knowing that every sin you ever committed was atoned for and put away, knowing that God had blotted out every sin, and that you stood perfectly just in God's sight? Well, you can do it. How? Believe what God says about the death of Christ; that Christ's death was the propitiation for your sins, satisfying all God's wrath on account of your sin, and simply trust God to forgive you because Jesus died in your place. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

But listen. There is absolutely no other ground upon which any man or woman can ever be accepted before God, except on the ground of the atoning death. The forgiven sinners are all who believe on Jesus, and the unforgiven sinners are all who do not believe on Jesus. To WHICH CLASS DO YOU BELONG? R. A. TORREY.

The Toll-Keeper's Theory.

ONE fine winter afternoon some years ago four men, three of them young and one past middle age, were driving along a turnpike road. One of the toll-gates on the road was tended by a very old and feeble man who came forward, hobbling on a stick, to receive the few pennies demanded. His form was sadly bent, and his white hair indicated that the snows of many winters had left their indelible mark upon him.

Having paid him his money, the eldest of the four men politely offered him a neat booklet, saying as he did so that it was "something interesting and important about God's way of salvation," and expressed the hope that the old man knew he was saved. An angry flush mantled the faded cheek of the toll-keeper as he savagely retorted: "No, I don't want your book, and I am not saved, nor is anyone else in this world. And it's my opinion that there's plenty of time, and everything is beautiful in its season." Having thus, relieved himself, he went in, slamming the door behind him.

Poor old man! One foot in the grave, and saying, "Time enough yet." His sun almost set, and he had not yet found the "beautiful season" for God's salvation. "But thus it is all over. God's warnings and invitations alike fall unheeded on the ear and heart, and youth gives place to middle age, and middle age to old age, decrepitude and death, and the" beautiful season "for everything else is eagerly sought and found, and accounted worthy of attention, but the things of God and Eternity are looked upon as subjects unimportant, or at the best to be deferred to a death-bed when it is hoped some mysterious change will take place by which men will be made fit for heaven. What a delusion! God says:" Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth “(Proverbs 27:1).

Many there are who hoped for salvation on a death-bed who never had one. By some accident, or suddenly in the quiet hours of the night, they were cut off, and learned too late the meaning of that awful wail: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jer. 8:20).

There is a time of salvation, a "beautiful season" in which God is waiting to be gracious, but that time is now. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18). Again: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).

Man is lost, ruined, and undone, and all must have miserably perished forever, but God has in grace sent His Son, who undertook and went into the whole case for God and man, and by His death on Calvary opened up the way for the grace and mercy of our God to flow out to the sinner—and that on righteous grounds. "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15). Why not you?

“Dare you hesitate, or longer Soon will grace give way to judgment, Trifle with His loving heart? Now 'tis come, but then depart!”

T. D. W. M.

The Duke of Wellington's Answer.

WHEN the English and the French were at war with each other in the Spanish Peninsula there was an English general who wished to make an attack upon the enemy, and he ordered the officer whose duty it was to provide the troops with food to have the rations ready at a certain place at twelve o'clock on the following day. It was sometimes no easy matter to provide sufficient supplies; and the officer replied that the rations could not be at the place on such short notice. "I cannot march my men without food," said the general; “and I say that the rations must be there at twelve o'clock to-morrow." " But I say it's impossible to do it," replied the officer." Well," said the general," remember this, if the rations are not there at twelve o'clock to-morrow I'll hang you." The officer departed in a rage, saying to himself:" How dare he talk to me in that style? Hang me I hang me! We shall soon see all about that!”

The Duke of Wellington was then Commander-in-Chief of the British armies, and to him the officer went at once to complain of the general. The Duke listened in silence. Presently he inquired: "Did the general really say he'd hang you if the rations were not there by twelve o'clock?" "Yes, your Grace," replied the officer. "Are you sure he said he would hang you?" "He did, indeed, your Grace," replied the officer, thinking that a severe rebuke was in store for his superior. "Well," said the Duke, "I know the general very well, and I know that he is a man of his word. If I were in your place I should take care to have the rations there." The officer went away, and the rations were there punctually at twelve o'clock.

When it is a question of life or death a man generally takes good care to put himself on the right side, even if it cost him a world of pains to do so. Whether for good or for evil, we can believe the word of a fellow-man. Is God less worthy of credit? We can be fully persuaded that a man will keep to his word; do we imagine that God will not keep to His? "All have sinned," says God. Do we believe this? "The soul that sinneth it shall die," says God. Do we believe this? "The wicked shall be cast into hell," says God. Do we believe this?

Yet God truly delights in mercy, and therefore it is that we read: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16)." For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). It was to save sinners, not to send them to hell, that the Son of God hungered and thirsted and toiled upon this earth, and finally poured out His blood for them upon the Cross. Was He a stern and a hard God who sent His Son into the world to make atonement for His lost creation? Was He a cold and pitiless Savior who so freely gave up His life for those who despised and hated Him? No, no. The very fact of His dying proves the fullness of His love? W. C. S.

Saved in a Snowstorm;

OR,

HOW A GREAT SINNER OBTAINED "GREAT PEACE" IN THE MIDST OF A GREAT STORM

“I had had a sharp spin, and was nearing my place of abode in a northern town, where I was holding some meetings, not without manifest tokens of blessing.”

I WAS taking my usual “constitutional” after breakfast. It was snowing heavily; but the walk through the “feathery fall” and the crisp air was delightful. I had a sharp spin, and was nearing my place of abode in a northern town where I was holding some meetings, not without manifest tokens of blessing.

Absorbed with thought and partially blinded by the driving snow, I was very nearly run over by a sleigh. In a moment I heard my name called out—"Is that Dr. Pentecost?" "Yes, I am Dr. Pentecost. Did you wish to speak to me?" "I don't know that I ought to detain you, especially in such a storm but if you could spare me a minute I would be very grateful to you." "Certainly," I replied, and extended my hand to the man.

After the common greeting I put my usual question to him: "Are you a Christian?’ To which he replied:" No, sir but I have been in to several of your meetings with my wife; and last night I wanted to ' confess Christ,' as you explained it; but something seemed to hold me back and I could not; and my wife is much distressed in her mind also, and I don't think she slept an hour last night.”

This was most interesting, and I got a little nearer to the man by putting my foot on the step of his sleigh. "Well, friend," I continued, "I am very glad indeed to hear that you are interested about your soul; but why don't you accept Christ at once? Nothing in earth or hell can prevent you from accepting Christ, if you desire Him and are ready to take Him and yield yourself wholly up to Him. You may do it right here as you sit in your sleigh.”

To this challenge he made answer: "I could not do that, you know; I have been a very hard case; but I do want to know how to be saved, and if you can tell me anything that will make it plain to me, so that I can get hold of it, I will thank you very much; and you will excuse me for stopping you in the snow, won't you, for I am really distressed in my mind?" "Certainly, friend; don't think about me or the snowstorm, for the next greatest joy, after being saved one's self, is to be the means of salvation to someone else. Will you answer me a few questions just as frankly as you can?" "Yes, I will answer any question." "Well, then, first: Are you a sinner?" "I be; and a great one. I tell you I have been a hard case.”

I did not know exactly what he meant by saying he was a hard case, but did not inquire into his meaning. I pushed on, and inquired: "Do you accept this testimony of God against yourself?" "Yes, sir; God is just saying to me all the time: You are a sinner, and unless you are saved you will lose your soul '." "But," I said, "God tells us something more than that we are sinners. The same Bible tells us that 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). Do you not believe that?" "Oh, yes, sir; but I am a hard case, and I am very ignorant.”

"My friend, don't you see that your ignorance and your sinfulness are the very reasons why God sent His Son into the world to die for us? If you were wise and good you would not need a Savior; but since you are ignorant and sinful you do need one. Now, for whom did Christ die?" "Why, for sinners." "Yes, you are quite right; for the Son of Man came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance' (Matthew 9:13). And this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' Now, this being true, do you believe that, great sinner as you believe yourself to be, Jesus Christ is able to save you?" "Yes, I believe He is." "Do you believe that He is willing to save you?" "Yes; He must be willing, or He would not have come, and that is what you keep saying to us every night, and you read it out of the Bible. Yes, I believe He is willing to save me." "When do you think He is able and willing to save you?" After a moment's hesitation, in which, with downcast eyes, he seemed to be pondering this question, he looked up and said: "Why, if He died for me, and put away my sin,' and is able to save me, He must be willing to do it right away—now—if I am willing to give up to Him." "Well, my friend, are you not willing? Could you have a more loving and gentle Master than One who has died for you? Ought you not to surrender to Him, and at once?”

His hand tightened over mine—for all this time I had been standing there by his side, with my foot on the step of his sleigh, and I thought the surrender was to be made there and then; but one difficulty, and an old and common one, suggested itself to him as a last refuge for his will to entrench itself behind. "But how shall I know that I am saved?" "My friend, had you done me an injury and I had forgiven you it, how would you know that I had so forgiven it?" "Why, I suppose if you should tell me so, or even send me word that you had forgiven me, I would know it." "Exactly. Then why should you accept my word for the forgiveness of an injury, and refuse to accept God's Word? Why not take God's word for forgiveness? Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.' For He hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Cor. 5:19, 20).”

This seemed to clear up his difficulties, or, at least, it showed him that we must know God's mind towards us by what He has done for us, in Christ, and by what He says to us in His Word. In other words, he saw that he was saved by the work of Christ, and must be assured by the word of Christ.

He asked just one more question: "How am I to take Jesus Christ for my Savior? If I will come to-night, will you tell me how?”

“Friend," I said, "you need not wait till the meeting to-night; you may take Him here and now, just where we are, in this snowstorm. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Listen to what God's Word says to you, in Rom. 10:8-10: What saith it (the Gospel). The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart and in thy mouth: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' It only remains for you to decide here and now. Will you have Him, and will you confess Him?”

Tears came into his eyes; his chin quivered, and then, looking me full in the face, and tightening his grip of my hand again, he said: "I confess Him, Jesus Christ, as my Savior, and I take Him with all my heart.”

"Thank God," I replied, and then and there in the snowstorm we lifted our hearts up to God in thanksgiving as I prayed aloud for him that God would keep him steadfast. His distinct and firm response testified that “the great transaction" was completed. G. F. P.

Lord Salisbury's Testimony.

THE following letter, addressed by Lord Salisbury to a Church of England clergyman in 1894, is published in The Record:

“Rev. Sir,—I wish I could assist you, but it is difficult to touch so large a theme in so short a space without doing harm. Everyone has their own point of view from which they look at these things. To me the central point is the Resurrection of Christ, which I believe, Firstly, because it is testified by men who had every opportunity of seeing and knowing, and whose veracity was tested by the most tremendous trials, both of energy and endurance, during long lives. Secondly, because of the marvelous effect it had upon the world. As a moral phenomenon, the spread and mastery of Christianity is without a parallel. I can no more believe that colossal moral effects lasting for 2000 years can be without a cause than I can believe that the various motions of the magnet are without a cause, though I cannot wholly explain them. To anyone who believes the Resurrection of Christ, the rest presents little difficulty. No one who has that belief will doubt that those who were commissioned by Him to speak—Paul, Peter, Mark, John—carried a Divine message. St. Matthew falls into the same category. St. Luke has the warrant of the generation of Christians who saw and heard the others. That is the barest and roughest form the line which the evidence of the inspiration of the New Testament has always taken in my mind. But intellectual arguments, as you well know, are not to be relied upon in such matters.
“Believe me, yours faithfully, SALISBURY.”

“Intellectual arguments," Lord Salisbury said, are not to be relied upon in such matters. "How true! Many who profess to believe the facts of Christianity have never really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior. They believe in Him as a great Savior, as an all-sufficient Savior, as the only Savior, but they cannot yet say that He is THEIR Savior." It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 5:15). Are you a "sinner"? "Yes," you reply. Then it must be true that Christ came to seek and to save you. He died on Calvary, He was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 55:5-3). By His death He made a perfect satisfaction to God. The claims of law and justice have been perfectly met, in proof of which God raised Christ from the dead. "He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). A risen and glorified Christ at God's right hand attests the fact that the sin question was eternally settled. Don't look for inward experiences or happy feelings. Look to Christ. Hesitate no longer." If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). A. M.

The Russian Rebellion.

THE roaring mob surrounded the Winter Palace, threatening death to the Imperial pair, who were watching from within. Suddenly Nicholas took his six-months-old child in his arms and stepped out on the balcony, facing the crowds which surged like a sea in the vast Palace square. He was young and a splendid specimen of a man this Emperor Nicholas, in the heyday of his magnificent strength. He did not speak, but stood there—the baby in his arms. A silence fell on the mob, a silence more awful than its rage.

Then came a tempest of cheers and sobs. The dynasty was saved. The people were ready to die for their Emperor and his heir. That must have been a thrilling spectacle, and great was the courage of Nicholas I. of Russia in thus facing his rebellious subjects.

I wish to show you a contrast to this scene. The world was in rebellion. Men turned their backs upon their God and rightful Monarch, and would not have His will. He sent His servants to them, but they would not hearken; they did not want their God. "I have one Son, I will send Him." This was God's resource. “I will show Myself to men. I will display My grace, My character before them, and I will do this in the Person of My Son. They will reverence Him." From heaven to earth came Jesus—the Son of God—and men beheld Him; with tender heart and gracious mien He walked before them, showing forth the heart of Him who sent Him. But when men saw Him they discerned no beauty in Him; they cried," Let us kill Him," " Away with Him," "Crucify Him." The world's rebellion was not quelled by the sight of God's beloved Son; instead, it found its culmination in His murder. Oh, how exceeding' sinful is the sinfulness of men; how black their base ingratitude!

But how stand you in this matter, so intensely grave? Are you still in the world, rebellious, or have you been reconciled to God, who sent His Son? The murder of the Son of God did not drive back the river of His grace; instead, the death He died at Calvary has opened wide the flood-gates of that river, and to-day there is pardon—full, free, and eternal —for all who, repenting, turn to God. Oh, behold the beauty of the Lord, so full of love and so exceeding fair with every heavenly grace, and know that every gracious word and act He spoke and did was but the setting forth of God. The death He died at Calvary is the proof of God's great love. In His face to-day from heaven's throne there shines the light of God's full grace, and all this is for you. Be no longer rebellious. "We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20).

“I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it" (Eccles. 3:14). How happy, then, is the lot of those who have been justified by God, for His verdict is final; there is no appeal from His decision; it is unchangeable forever. It matters not what men may say of those whom God has justified. They can say "If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:31-34). Soul-emancipating words are these. Can you say that they are true of you? If not, turn to that God who in this bright Gospel day has taken to Himself the wonderful title of "Him that justifieth the ungodly" (Romans 4:5), and you will be justified and saved. J. T. M.

The Man Who Saw His Grave Dug.

JOHN HAMBLEDON, the actor, before his conversion had many narrow escapes from death. In speaking of his experiences on the Pacific Coast at the time of the discovery of gold in California he says: " Once I was delivered from drowning when the long reeds were entwined around my body in deep water and prevented me from swimming; another time I well-nigh perished in crossing a vast desert; another time pistols were loaded, and blood-thirsty men sought my life; another time Mexican bayonets were pointed at my breast; yet another time a terrible disease laid hold of me, and so hopeless did my case appear that my comrades put me down under the shelter of a tree, and felt so sure that my hours were numbered that they began to prepare my grave nearby, into which it was their purpose to cast my poor emaciated body when the spark of life had fled. I shall never forget the horrors of that situation as I seemed to feel life ebbing away, and the dread hereafter, even eternity, looming upon my benighted soul. There I lay without one ray of Gospel hope to cheer my guilty soul, but only a certain looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. There I lay a wreck in the prime of life, and to all appearances drifting fast from the shores of Time toward the vast ocean known as Eternity, for whose dark expanse I had no chart or pilot to guide me.”

Thank God, John Hambledon's life was saved; and better than that, he obtained the forgiveness of sins and became the happy possessor of eternal life as a free gift from God (Romans 6:23). By faith he saw Christ dying in his room and stead, and found joy and peace in believing. He immediately commenced to preach Christ and Him crucified, and God greatly owned his ministry in the conversion of sinners. The same One who delivered John Hambledon from going down to the pit is willing to, save you. Do you believe that you are a guilty sinner deserving of nothing but wrath and woe? If so, He who is "mighty to save" is willing to blot out the past and justify you from all things. Hearken to His royal proclamation: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS" (Acts 13:38, 39). "The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Believe on Him at this moment and be saved for eternity. A. M.

No Message Prom the Other Shore.

ON that night of storm and tempest when the Tay Bridge fell, a railway surface man who lived near to the spot had a strange fear of coming calamity. The Sunday evening train had yet to cross, and would soon be due to start on what proved to be its last run. Just to see how things would go, the surface man clambered up into the signal-box, where he could hear the clicking of the telegraph instruments, and keep the signalman company, for each moment the storm raged with increasing fury. The train came duly into the station, the passengers took their seats as they had often done before, the whistle sounded, and she was out of sight in the darkness—crossing the great Tay Bridge, while the greatest tempest of many days was at the height of its fury. The signalman touched the handle of his instrument and signaled "Train on line" to the cabin on the other side of the raging flood. Then both men waited for the telegraphic signal that the train had covered the intervening "block" and had crossed the river in safety. The silence in that cabin was unbroken save for the howling of the storm without. The minutes dragged themselves slowly on. But the telegraph instrument uttered no sound. "Is the train not due yet on the other side?" said the surface man. "Yes," said his companion, "but we will give her a minute or two yet." There was silence again, until the stillness became oppressive. "Send a message," said the impatient watcher; "ask if she has reached the cabin at the other end of the bridge." The operator at once caught the handle of the telegraph instrument to send his message across; but the needle did not move. Under ordinary circumstances the needle would have clicked responsive to the touch, thus intimating that the current had flashed to the other shore and back again in the twinkling of an eye, but the needle was motionless. "Try another instrument," said his companion. He tried another, and another, but all were silent. There was NO MESSAGE FROM THE OTHER SIDE. The silent needle told to these two men in language more eloquent than words that an awful tragedy had taken place. They looked at each other in consternation, for in that awful moment they knew that the whole train with its living freight must be engulfed by the raging waters.

“No message from the other shore!" Often have these words reminded us that a Day is coming when those who have rejected the Christ of God shall want to send a message to "the other shore." Scripture tells us something about this. It tells us of those who shall "stand without," and knock, saying, "Lord, Lord, open unto us." But He from within shall answer saying, "I know you not whence ye are" (Luke 13: 25). Unsaved reader, whether you are concerned about your soul just now I know not; but of this I am certain—you will be concerned some day. You may not be in earnest now; but the day is coming when you shall be in earnest. But it will be too late then. You have had your chances. You have heard of Jesus, and His love untold, and His cleansing blood, and His power to save. Is it to be recorded of you that you rejected the entreaties of His love? You would not have Him as your almighty Savior. Therefore the day draws on apace when you must meet God, and meet Him in your sins! Then shall come to pass what is written in the Scriptures, "Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me" (Prov. 1:28). Then shall you long for a message from the other shore—a message that shall never come, even unto the ages of Eternity!

The two men, feeling certain that the train had gone to its doom, descended from the signal station and crept on hands and knees along the bridge to see if haply they might discover some trace of the train. After proceeding some distance the metals seemed to have disappeared, and as they crept cautiously forward they saw nothing before them but yawning blackness. Far down beneath them poured the raging waters. They understood it all now. The center part of the bridge had been blown over into the river, carrying the whole train into the waters. Not a single soul survived to tell the tale of that awful night. As the bridge went over, every telegraph wire was snapped. No current could travel over these broken wires, and this explained how no message came back from the other shore.

It may be that you have friends on "the other shore." How terrible, then, must be your condition if you shall yet cry out for mercy when mercy's day is forever past, and find no answer but the eternal silence. Think upon it—to be separated forever from the blood-washed throng that surround the throne, and to find your eternal portion "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

Are you prepared for this? Have you counted the cost? Have you weighed what it means to be a lost soul for all eternity? Arouse thee, O unsaved one, and believe the proclamation of God's redeeming love in the gift of His Son. Take your place before Him as a lost and hell-deserving sinner and receive the gift of God, which is eternal life in Jesus Christ the Lord. And the moment you are in Him you shall be in direct communication with "the other shore." Christ is the great Telegraph Wire between heaven and earth—a wire that cannot be broken by any accident of time—an everlasting bond that winds above and waves below can never move.

Are you willing to be saved now on God's terms? Then delay not. Procrastinate no longer. This very hour believe, and receive, and confess Him, for it is written, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10: 9, 10). W. S.

Bishop Hannington's Murderer.

HE is getting old now, for many days have passed since that fatal day, in October, 1885, when, under the orders of the Luba chief, noble James Hannington, who had left peace and plenty in Britain hardness to endure hardness in making known the glad tidings of salvation in Central Africa, was cruelly murdered in cold blood.

Yet he who perpetrated such a dastardly deed, with a view to keep out the white man's Gospel, is now a regular student of the Word of God at a mission station in Uganda. Behold the former murderer, touched by grace, become so docile as to nurse the babe of one of the missionaries. And they have hope that "the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16), will find its way into old Chief Luba's heart.

"What! a murderer saved!!" Yes; if the old chief puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, he will find the Word still true: "The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And if you, whoever you are, with murder, and all other sins, in your heart (Matt. 15:19), put your trust in that same precious blood, you, too, shall be cleansed from all sin, have your heart purified by faith, and may, with the Luba chief, and myriads more, ascribe all glory unto "Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Rev. 1:5).

Shall grace be your happy portion now, or gloom be your eternal portion? Settle it now, for "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." HyP.

The Torn and Tattered Bible.

HERE it is, the soldier's Bible, with the bullet mark in the center, torn and tattered. What must that soldier have felt as he looked at it and remembered that it had turned aside from him the stroke of death? Little he thought that day he placed his Bible in his pocket and went into the battlefield of Tel-el-Kebir it was to receive the bullet that otherwise would have been his death. Think you not that he would ever have had an affection for that Book, and that every time he looked on those tattered leaves they would seem to say to him: "I saved you from death, though it has cost me this." And has not the living Word, the Son of God, done for the believer that which the written Word of God did for this soldier. He has saved—but at what a price! On the Cross He bore the stroke of Divine justice that would have fallen on guilty man, and will yet fall on the Christ—rejector!

Are you one who can say, as you gaze by faith at the Lord Jesus: "He has been smitten and I have escaped?" Has your heart been moved with love as He has shown you His nail-pierced hands and bleeding side, and said to you: "I have saved you, but it has cost Me this"? Through the bitter agony of Calvary's Cross, and that dark hour when the face of God was hidden, He has turned aside the stroke of justice from the believing sinner—that stroke which would have hurled the guilty one from the presence of a holy God, a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, a God who will by no means clear the guilty, and yet in infinite grace and mercy He has accepted His Son in the sinner's stead, so that now there is no more judgment to those that are in Christ Jesus.

No more judgment—what a thought! No more terror then of the great white-throne day, for, wondrous thought, on that very throne will be seated, not only the world's Judge, not only the One before whom the angels veil their faces, but the One who has so loved us as to give Himself for us. "Who is He that condemneth?, It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 8:34). But you say, "I have no love." Have you ever believed His love to you? Have you ever seen yourself as a guilty, lost one, and heard the solemn sentence passed on you: "The wicked shall be turned into hell?" (Psalm 9:17).

But you may say: "I don't believe there is a hell. God is too kind a God to permit His creatures to perish; the text that you have mentioned means but the grave." Are you thus deluding yourself as thousands are? Why does God say THE WICKED shall be cast into hell if it means but the grave? Are only the wicked put there? Are not the best of men and women laid in the grave day by day?

Have you ever thought of these solemn words: "And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire"? (Rev. 20:14). Where will the Christ-rejector be then? Memory will have wakened up and brought back all the dreary past, the broken vows, the secret sins. Hope will have flown, and not a ray of light will enter to cheer that endless gloom. Why not now "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved?"

J. A. B

“That's Me;”

Or,

How a Highland Soldier Was Led to the Lord Jesus Christ.

YOUNG officer in the year 1844 was quartered with his regiment in one of the West India islands. Yellow fever had overtaken them, and several of the soldiers had died. Fast following on the death of the men came the death of one of his brother officer's, who was also attacked by fever. In five short days he was no more seen—was buried!

The subject of this narrative was appointed to command the firing-party over the grave of his late comrade. A Presbyterian minister read the burial service, after which the regiment marched back to barracks. During the march the commanding officer fell to the rear and got into conversation with the minister, who after a little while suddenly turned towards him, saying, "Where do you think your soul would have been had you died instead of him?" The officer hesitated, and then answered, "I think I should have been in hell." "That is a very solemn answer, and God will remember it," replied the other, adding, "I trust you will remember it too.”

Five years passed away, and this same officer found himself with his regiment in another quarter of the globe, having passed through many vicissitudes, many dangers, in seasons of small-pox, ship-fever, and cholera, which had sobered his mind and often recalled his own words, "I think I should have been in hell.”

About this time he fell in with a brother officer of his father's, who, seeing him in mourning, received him into his quarters one evening and said to him, "In the next room there is going to be a Bible-reading for young officers; if you like to come in, you are welcome; if not, here are your candles and plenty of books, and you can amuse yourself here until we have finished." However, he preferred going in, and sat down amongst them. All this was very new to him, and he understood little of what passed, but had to own, "These men have something, a happiness I have not." This made a great impression on him.

One evening, as he sat thinking over his life he asked himself, "What is my life? It is eat, drink, die, and be lost!" Why not ask the same question, What is your life? and what will your end be? It is worth reflecting upon, surely. So soon our journey here will be over. Whither bound? Well, thank God, this officer did think it worth pondering, and so asked himself, "What is my life?" The conclusion arrived at was, “It is eat, drink, die, and be lost! “Now, on that evening he was thoroughly in earnest. But he was without a guide; he was sailing on Life's sea without a chart. He did not possess a single copy of God's Book—God's Word—the only words that can give light.

On the next morning following this memorable evening of downright earnest thought, he went and bought a Reference Bible and began to read the Gospel of Matthew, with the references, accompanied by prayer that God would open his eyes. He read with deep interest, being in real earnest about his soul, trying all the time to mend his ways so as to please God, and in this way to get to heaven. His soul was deeply exercised, at the same time discouraged about himself. His failures disheartened him—so soon the "new leaf" turned over was blotted by sin. He was about three weeks reading Matthew. When he had finished that gospel he turned to the Epistle to the Galatians. On coming to the third chapter he stopped at the tenth verse, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." After reading the verse he exclaimed, "THAT'S ME! I am keeping myself under the curse by trusting to the works I am doing.

He then prayed, "Lord, what shall I do? I am trying to do my best." Thus he continued on his knees. On rising, he took his Bible and read on to the thirteenth verse, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Again he exclaimed, "That's me, too! I am redeemed from the curse of the law, Christ being made a curse—HE TOOK MY PLACE." The scales fell from his eyes. God had answered his prayer and opened his eyes. Opened his eyes on what? on whom? On Christ! on Christ on the Cross! His eyes were turned from himself to the Savior, and joyfully he cried, "He took my place.”

Can you say with him, "He took my place"? If not, why not? Your sins are your only title to the Savior, for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; and the precious Blood is our only title to the presence of God.

May God bless this true story to your soul, so that you too may be able to say, "He took my place." L.

What a Meeting That Will Be!

“THOUGH 3500 miles of sea and land intervene, it is grand to think that we are members of the same family, with common hopes and aspirations; and that throughout eternity we shall see Him whom our souls love. Hallelujah!”

So writes a dear brother who is spreading a savor of the name of Jesus on the other side of the ocean. And well may he say "Hallelujah!" What signifies a few thousand miles of sea and land, when yet a "little while" and we shall be forever with the Lord? "Members of the same family." Ah! there's the link; for that family is the family of God.

Is it not grand to be in that family?—for, O, there is going to be a great family gathering one of these days; and there will not be a single one missing—not so much as one. From Greenland's icy mountains they come, and from India's coral strand—from the back courts and alleys of the great city—from the cottages by the mountain side—from the lonely domain of the desert—from sunny plains, and frozen wastes, and isles of the ocean, they come. They gather in to the marriage supper of the Lamb—to see His face—to be forever with Him whom their souls love. Hallelujah! But who are going to be there, and what are their qualifications? They are members of the same family. They got into it by being born again. Ah, that is it—not an earthly birth, but a heavenly one—born again by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

Are you born again? Have you undergone the great change of conversion to God? If not, think how much you are missing; for none but those who are born again will be there—there at the marriage supper of the Lamb—there in the presence of the Lord. But if not there, where will you be? Ah, how sad—how terrible! Let God answer: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46); "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). Not prepared "for you." Observe that. It is everlasting fire "prepared for the devil and his angels." But such need not be; you need not perish. Nay, God beseeches you, by us, to be reconciled to Him. God has loved you and planned for your eternal happiness. Sin has been atoned for. Nothing stands in the way but your deliberate rejection of God's Son.

W. S.

John Calvin's Conversion.

[JOHN CALVIN, the great Reformer, was born at Noyon in 1509. He was sent to study at Paris and there he first became interested in the doctrines of the Reformation. After studying law at Orleans and Bourges he returned to Paris, and soon became known as one who was determined to uphold the reformed faith. He was compelled to flee from Paris in 1533 and, after many wanderings, he found a protector in Margaret, Queen of Navarre. The next year, at Basle, he finished and published the "The Institutes of the Christian Religion," which was translated into many languages, and produced a very great impression. Calvin also published commentaries on the Bible, and sermons and tracts. He worked without ceasing as pastor, lecturer, author, and leader of others until his death at Geneva in 1564. John Knox was a friend of Calvin's, and introduced many of the Reformation doctrines into Scotland.]

ONE day, while the young scholar of the Montaigue was passing through deep soul trouble, he chanced to visit the Place de Greve, Paris, where he found a great crowd of priests, soldiers, and citizens gathered round a stake, at which a disciple of the new doctrines was calmly yielding up his life. He stood till the fire had done its work, and a stake, an iron collar and chain, and a heap of ashes were the only memorials of the tragedy he had witnessed. What he had seen awakened a train of thought within him. "These men," said he to himself, "have a peace which I do not possess. They endure the fire with a rare courage. I, too, could brave the fire; but were death to come to me, as it comes to them, with the sting of the Church's anathema in it, could I face that as calmly as they do? Why is it that they are so courageous in the midst of terrors that are as real as they are dreadful, while I am oppressed and tremble before apprehensions and forebodings? Yes, I will take my cousin Olivetan's advice, and search the Bible, if haply I may find that" new way" of which he speaks, and which these men who go so bravely through the fire seem to have found.”

He opened the Book. He began to read, but the first effect was a sharp terror. His sins had never appeared so great, nor himself so vile, as now. He would have shut the Book, but to what other quarter could he turn? On every side of him abysses seemed to be opening. So he continued to read, and by-and-bye he thought he could discern what appeared a Cross, and One hanging upon it, and His form was like the Son of God. He looked again, and the vision was clearer, for now he thought he could read the inscription over the head of the Sufferer: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." A ray now shone through his darkness; he thought he could see a way of escape-a shelter-where the black tempest that lowered over him could no longer beat upon his head. Already the great burden that pressed upon him was less heavy; it seemed as if about to fall off, and now it rolled down as he kept gazing at the "Crucified.”

“O Father," he burst out—it was no longer the Judge, the Avenger—"O Father, His sacrifice has appeased Thy wrath; His blood has washed away my impurities; His Cross has borne my curse; His death has atoned for me." Thus in the midst of the great billows Calvin planted his feet upon the Rock of Ages.

Inscriptions on Milan Cathedral.

ABOVE the triple doorway of Milan Cathedral are engraven three inscriptions. The first, which is under a wreath of roses, is as follows: "ALL THAT WHICH PLEASES IS BUT FOR A MOMENT." How important it is to remember this. And yet multitudes of persons are living for time, and not for eternity. Their whole life is a life of self-pleasing. "What shall I eat?" "What shall I drink?" "How can I amuse myself?" are the all-important questions with them. They don't like to be reminded of eternal things, and shun the society of those who long for their soul's salvation. The things which are seen are temporal, and will soon pass away. Time is the season of sowing, and the harvest is reaped in Eternity. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7), is a divine principle. "Eat, drink, and be merry," is the language of many, oblivious to, or forgetful of, the fact, that the day of reckoning is coming when "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" (Eccles. 12:14). Over the second inscription is a sculptured cross, and beneath it are the words: "ALL THAT WHICH TROUBLES US IS BUT FOR A MOMENT." This is blessedly true of all real Christians. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29). All the troubles, trials, and sufferings that Christians have are on earth. The unsaved have their heaven on earth, and "born again" people have all the "hell" they will ever have down here. "Saved already" persons can adopt the language of the Apostle Paul: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen" (2 Cor. 4:17, 18). Those who reject or neglect the salvation of God have troubles and grief here, and dying unsaved will be overwhelmed in anguish, remorse, and despair.

The third inscription underneath the center arch in the main aisle is this: "THAT ONLY IS IMPORTANT WHICH IS ETERNAL." How true is this! "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," is the command of the Lord Jesus. Many, alas look upon eternal concerns as secondary. How to "get on" in the world, how to "make money," how to climb the social ladder, are in their estimation questions of paramount importance. When urged to prepare for eternity, they declare that "there is a time and place for everything," and assert that "religion should be kept in its own place." The "time" with them is an hour on Sunday, and the "place" is their church or chapel. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). Permit me to ask the reader in all earnestness and tenderness if he has had the great question of his soul's salvation settled, by accepting of Christ as his Savior and Lord? If not, whatever treasure you may have on earth, you are poor for eternity. What a dreadful thought, to be a "successful" business man on earth and a bankrupt for eternity! "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36). Why" lose "your soul when it might be, saved as you read these lines?" The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost “(Luke 19:19). Allow the Lord Jesus to save you from everlasting destruction. Accept him as your Savior and Lord by believing on Him, and you will be assured concerning "that which is eternal."

A. M.

The Dervish's Religion;

Or,

What Will Secure a Passport to Heaven?

THE Mohammedan dervishes are a most fanatical set of religionists. We have seen thousands of them dancing, singing, shouting, and praying at the festival of the "Holy Carpet," as it was borne by camel to the tomb of the false prophet at Mecca. Outward formal acceptance of Islam (as the Mohammedan religion is called) is their way of acceptance with God. The Koran (the Mohammedan Bible) is opposed to Christ's deity and His atonement for sin. The Moslems suppose that their (so-called) good works, prayers, and attendance to religious rites and ceremonies will secure them a passport to heaven. Between one hundred and fifty and two hundred millions of people profess the Mohammedan faith.

In one sense there are many religions, in another there are but two. One has well said: "There are only two religions in the world—the true and the false. All phases of false religions are alike. They all say: ' Something in my hand I bring '—the only difference between them being as to what the 'something' is. The true religion says: ' Nothing in my hand I bring '.”

The theology of man's religion is do and live. God's "religion" is that men are "dead (spiritually) in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), and must live ere they can perform acceptable service. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). Man must be "born again" (John 3:3) ere he can do a single good work. Scripture teaching is entirely opposed to all human religions. The Bible tells us that salvation is "not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).

Many besides Mohammedans are endeavoring to work, pray, or pay their way to heaven. "Something in my hand I bring" is, in fact, a religion that is widely believed among professing Christians. Ask that man who has been a Church member for years what one has to do to be saved, and he unhesitatingly replies he has to "believe on Christ, and act up to it." If that were so salvation would be obtained through faith and works, which is surely not according to Scripture. Ask that respectable "Christian worker" how one is to be "born again," and he tells you that he is to do his duty and keep the commandments. This, surely, is another case of "something in my hand I bring." If heaven were only to be gained by doing our duty and keeping the commandments, no one could ever enter it.

We have all broken the commandments and failed in our duty. What, then, is to become of us? God's religion is "Nothing in my hand I bring." If the reader knows that he is an unsaved sinner and longs to have forgiveness and eternal life, we would urge him to renounce all attempts to merit God's favor. Salvation has been purchased at an infinite cost—the cost of the life's blood of God's beloved Son—and cannot be obtained on the ground of creature merit. Salvation is a free gift (Romans 6:23, R.V.), and cannot be purchased by prayers, penance, or sacramental observances. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3:25). If salvation were procured by grace and works, heaven would be gained partly on account of what Christ did for the sinner and partly on account of what the sinner did for Christ. But this is utterly opposed to the teachings of Holy Writ. God's way, and His only way of deliverance, is through faith in the blood of Jesus. "And if by grace then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Romans 11: 6).

Give up trying to work yourself into God's favor. Don't attempt to "grow in grace" till you are first planted in grace. Cease thinking of working out salvation till it is first wrought in you by the Holy Spirit.

Whatever you are or have been, Goo LOVES YOU. If you doubt it, gaze on that suffering, bleeding One dying for you on Calvary's Cross. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:7, 8). Christ died for you that you might be eternally saved. God's way of salvation is fully and plainly set forth in the blessed words: "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is not "Whosoever believeth that he believes," nor "Whosoever believes that he is saved has everlasting life," it is "Whosoever believeth in Him." How grand and glorious and simple! Why not now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved for Eternity? If you do so, you will be able to sing truthfully,

“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy Cross I cling."

A.M.

A Nobleman's Sad End.

I'LL be at home or in hell in five minutes!" So said a reckless nobleman maddened with drink, as he staggered from a wayside inn on to his horse, and digging his spurs into the sides of the animal, plunged into the darkness of the night. The road from the inn which led to his house was rough and dreary, and characterized by steep and dangerous descents. Regardless of this, and turning a deaf ear to the warnings and entreaties of his friends, he dashed ahead. Steadily the moments sped on, yet harder he spurred his steed, and faster it flew, making the hills ring with the clatter of hoofs on the hard ground. Two minutes passed—three—four—then suddenly the gallant horse stumbled in the darkness, and swerving like a derailed locomotive, dashed headlong into a stone dyke which skirted the country road. His friends were soon on the awful scene, and every assistance was given, but, alas! too late. In a few moments the nobleman breathed his last. What a terrible awakening! Flung by one fell stroke from a merry world into a Christless Eternity. Yes, 'twas very sad, and as I stood gazing at the stones laid crosswise in the old gray dyke to mark the spot, the thought flashed through my mind, "After this the judgment.”

Have you ever thought of this all-important matter? Remember that Time is flying, and Death will ere long overtake you. What an awful thing it will be if you have nothing but this world when you come to die. Your Eternity will be a lost one, and throughout its countless ages you will ever remember that you lost your soul and Christ for the trifles of a passing world.

But stay! Why hurry on to Eternity like the reckless nobleman, utterly regardless of the judgment your sins deserve, when God in His boundless love has provided a way of salvation? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). What a simple and blessed statement! That is the unchanging proof of God's love to sinners. Apart from the suffering and death of Christ, God's love would never have been made known, but now the ocean of love has found a channel, and it is freely flowing for every sinner tinder heaven. Oh, then, when you scan these lines, will you not enter among the "whosoever," and believe in Him whose precious blood was shed on Calvary's Cross that you might have everlasting life? Risk no longer the sudden snapping of the "silver cord" to rush you into a Christless Eternity. Defer not the question of the salvation of your undying soul, or, like the nobleman, you may come to a sudden and a sad end.

D. J. B.

He Paid the Debt.”

AFTER a Gospel meeting not far from Liverpool, I was asked to visit a dying woman who lived in a lonely cottage in a narrow street. After whispering a few simple words about Jesus and His work in her ears, I asked, "On what are you resting for Eternity?" Slowly and with difficulty she replied:

“He paid the debt for me
Upon the tree,
And now my happy soul is free,
For Jesus died."

J. T. M.

Safe Into the Harbour at Last

STANDING on the quayside of the Glasgow Harbor recently we saw a small foreign vessel arrive in port. Her whole appearance indicated that she had encountered many storms, and at times it had seemed as though she would never weather the gale—such a frail ship amid such mighty seas. But there she was, amid the placid waters, surrounded by vessels great and small, safe into the harbor at last! So, thought we, all who trust our Lord Jesus Christ, whether old or young, after a rough or a smooth voyage, shall land in the Harbor of Eternal Calm.

How different was the sight we saw on the south shore of Arran—a battered, bruised, and wrecked barque, hitched up on the rocks! Mistaking her course in the storm, she had run ashore and become a total wreck. So all who miss "the True Light" (John 1:9), the Lord Jesus Christ, miss the course to Eternal Glory, and will be eternally wrecked on Hell's dark shore.

Oh I will you neglect salvation and be a poor stranded wreck on the Eternal shore, or will you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and enter the peaceful Heavenly Harbor? Which shall it be? See that you make sure of Heaven. Hyp.

“There’s Naebody Kens That”

DURING the first week of January I was once traveling in the North of Scotland. An earnest Christian worker had accompanied me to the railway station of the village near the Grampians, where he lives and labors for Christ. In a few minutes I was seated in a compartment alongside of the only other occupant, who looked like a farmer, about fifty years of age, stoutly built. He was clad in good home-spun tweed, with a real Balmoral bonnet on his head, and from his dialect I should think was near home among those Grampian glens.

Ere I got well seated my fellow-passenger opened the conversation by saying: "Man, he's a fine fellow that," referring to the friend just left behind. “Oh, yes, he is saved, and on the way to heaven, "I answered. The old farmer looked into my face as if he wanted to make sure I was sane, then drew a long breath and shook his head. I waited patiently, for I guessed he had something to say, and at last it came slowly and seriously." Ah, but there's naebody kens that! He has his balance sheet to fill up yet." “What do you mean by 'filling up his balance sheet '?" I asked." Oh, he's nae done with this world yet; we'll wait till it be past, then we'll see at the end what happens." " Then I suppose you think no one can tell whether he is to be in heaven or hell, saved or lost, so long as he is in the body; but that he must wait till his life here is over, and the final issues of it be seen at the judgment. Is that it?" “Aye, aye, of course, we must do what we can, and hope for the best." "But there's no ' best ' to ' hope ' for. You know that one side of your balance sheet has fifty years of sin on it already, more is daily added, and God has declared you are guilty, ruined, and condemned already. The only ' best' that a guilty sinner can ‘hope’ for, at the hand of a righteous God, is to be punished eternally in hell, for such is the doom of all who die in unpardoned sin. Is not that so?" "Oh, yes, we are all sinners." "True enough. But suppose we never mind the rest just now, but only think of ourselves—you and—and of how we are to balance with God and of the filling up of our balance sheet, and what must be the final issue to us. Will you answer me a question first, then I'll tell you how I got saved, and in what way it comes about that I know my sins are forgiven and am so sure about it—aye, and happy about it, too. Well, what are you going to have on the credit side of your balance sheet over against your fifty years of sin?" The old man paused, thought for a moment or so, then looked up, and replied: "Watch and pray till the last moment.”

“And what then? Will the fifty years of sin be gone? Will ' watch and pray' cancel all the old score, or will the debt be heavier than the credit, think you, at last?

Whatever he thought about this he kept to himself; so I went on to tell the state of my balance sheet, concluding with saying: " See, this is how our balance sheets stand—

THIS IS YOURS. AND

"Watch and pray till the last
moment,"

And the debt remains.

THIS IS MINE.

The blood of Jesus Christ

cleanseth us from all sin,”

And the debt is gone.

The train reached the terminus, we parted, but may meet again. Reader, what have you on your balance sheet? J. R.

Socrates and the Hemlock Cup;

THE DOCTRINE OF SUBSTITUTION AND ITS MEANING TO THE SINNER.

OVER 2000 years ago, Socrates, the renowned Grecian philosopher, on a charge preferred against him by his enemies, was condemned to death. During the thirty days that intervened between the passing of the sentence and its execution, his courage never failed. An opportunity of effecting his escape was offered, but he declined availing himself of it. On the day of his execution, when a number of his friends and relations were assembled in his prison cell, he discoursed to them on the immortality of the soul. As he embraced his grief-stricken wife for the last time, she expressed herself strongly as to the injustice of an innocent man perishing. To this he replied, "Would you rather see me die guilty?" On the arrival of the fatal moment, he took the cup of hemlock in his hand, and raising it to his lips quaffed the poisonous draft. On hearing his dear ones sobbing, he exhorted them to be calm, and when the poison laid hold of his vitals, he quietly lay on his back, and without a groan or murmur breathed his last. Thus perished one of the greatest of ancient philosophers. After his decease his innocence was established, and the Athenians punished his accusers with death or exile, and raised a temple to his memory.

Let us suppose the principle of substitution had been permissible in the laws of Greece. Supposing also that one of the prisoner's friends had voluntarily offered to become his substitute, and was accepted as such by the authorities. Suppose then, that he took the cup from the hand of Socrates, and, swallowing its contents, died before his eyes, would the philosopher be afraid that he should have to drink the poison? "Assuredly not," you reply. Why not? "Because another died in his room and stead. Allow me to apply the illustration. I am a sinner, and deserve" the wages of sin "(Roman 6:23), which is eternal death. I cannot save myself, and" vain is the help of man. "Prayers, good works, tears, or penitence cannot remove my sin, for" God requireth that which is past." Unless a Savior is found, I must be forever lost. It is utterly and absolutely useless to look within or around. My help must come from above.

In spirit I go back eighteen centuries, and enter Gethsemane's garden. As I stand in that hallowed spot, I see the Lord of life and glory, and hear Him pray—" My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: never the less not as I will, but as Thou wilt "(Matt. 26:39). What" cup "does the Lord Jesus refer to?" The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it? "(John 18:11). By faith I stand at the Cross of Calvary, and as I gaze upon that suffering One I hear the mournful cry escape His lips," My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"(Matt. 27:46). I inquire the meaning of that cry. This was the first time that God had forsaken any of His faithful servants. Why then was Christ forsaken? As I ponder the words and seek to understand their meaning, the stillness is broken by the triumphant exclamation," It is finished "(John 19:30). I ask myself," What is it that is finished? “As I meditate on the words, the glorious truth bursts into my soul, that Christ took the cup of wrath instead of me. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), and He who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, hid His face from His only begotten and well-beloved Son.

I am not now afraid to meet a holy and sin-hating God. Though deserving of eternal punishment on account of my sins, I believe that the Lord Jesus was wounded for my transgressions, and bruised for my iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). God is fully and perfectly satisfied with the finished work of Christ, and I am satisfied with that which satisfies Him. If I were called into His holy presence, at this moment, and were asked the ground of my confidence, I could plead nothing excepting the precious blood of Christ. He who knew no sin, was made sin for me, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21); and in the language of Martin Luther, I can say—"As Christ is before God, so am I in Christ.”

Through believing the glorious Gospel of God's matchless grace, through resting his soul on what the Lord Jesus did and suffered for him, the vilest and guiltiest sinner on earth is cleansed from every stain. The very moment he believes on Christ he obtains forgiveness, eternal life, and becomes a son of God, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ Jesus.

The Lord Jesus Christ drank the cup of God's wrath on your behalf, and now you may sing with your heart as well as with your lip:

“Death and the curse were in my cap;
Oh, Christ! 'twas full for Thee,
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
'Tie empty now for me.
That bitter cup love drank it up,
Now blessings draft for me.”

Thank God, "That bitter cup love drank it up." On the ground of that "finished" work would you be afraid of meeting God? If you would it proves that you have not yet learned what His death has accomplished. If you understood what His death has effected for you, you would be able to give the answer of the negress who, on being asked the ground of her confidence, replied: "ME DIE, OR HE DIE; HE DIE, SO ME NO DIE." Would the reader be afraid of meeting God? "Yes," you reply, "I have great reason to be afraid of meeting Him on account of my sins." Suppose that for some crime you were condemned to drink a cup of poison. Suppose, however, that the principle of substitution were permissible, and that I offered myself and was accepted as your substitute. Suppose that I took the poison from your hand, and draining the cup to its dregs, died before your eyes, would you then be afraid that you would have to drink it? "No," you reply. Why would you not be afraid? "Because you drank it instead of me." Exactly so. A substitute took your place, and dying in your stead you have no cause for fear.

You who are working, striving, and struggling to obtain salvation, cease all such efforts. "To him that WORKETH NOT, BUT BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY, HIS FAITH IS COUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Rom. 4:5). Your works are valueless in God's sight, for "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). Why try to merit forgiveness, when God's Word declares that it is a gift? At an infinite cost, a free, full, and present salvation has been provided for you, and God beseeches you to accept of it as you read these lines—

“The work is done, it needs no more;
Christ's death has opened heaven's door,
‘Only believe,' the Savior cried,
Believe, and thou art justified.”

Ponder the precious, glorious, life-giving words, "It is finished." Christ has "finished" the mighty work of atonement. He has borne sin's penalty, and satisfied all God's righteous claims. Believe in Him who did it all, and paid it all, and you will be justified from all things (Acts 13:38, 39). Rest not till you are saved for Eternity. A. M.

The Prisoners in "the Tombs.”

LET no one suppose that he can be converted till he wakes up to the fact that he is lost. When I was in New York City the chaplain of the city prison wanted me to go down to "The Tombs" and preach to the prisoners. I told him I would be glad to do it. I supposed the prisoners were to be brought into the chapel, but when I got there I found that I had got to speak to them in their cells, so that all I could see was the bare walls.

Well, when I had finished talking to them, I thought I would go round and see what effect my preaching had had. In the first cell I looked into I saw three or four men playing cards. I said to them, "My men, how is it that you are here?" "Well, the fact is, chaplain, some false witnesses appeared against us in the court, and we were sent up; but we are not guilty.”

"Well," I said, "there is nothing for me to do here—these men are innocent," and I passed on to another cell. There I saw two men, and in reply to my question what brought them there, one of them said, "I tell you how it is, chaplain: we got caught, and the men that done the deed, they got clear.”

"No one here for Christ to save," said I; and I went along to the next cell, where there were some others. "Well, sirs, how is it with you?" "Oh, we haven't had our trial yet. We'll be out of here in a week or two.”

I never saw so many innocent men in any one day in my life. The only guilty men, it would appear by their remarks, were the magistrates and officers who put them there.

But after a while I found a man away off in a cell by himself. His head was resting between his hands, and I saw two great streams of tears pouring down his face. They did not come in drops, but in streams. "Well, my friend, what's the trouble?" He looked up and said, "Oh, sir, my sins are more than I can bear!" "Thank God for that," said I. The man looked surprised. "What," said he, "are you not the man who has been preaching, and you are glad that my sins are more than I can bear?" "Yes." "I thought you said you were a friend to the prisoner." "So I am." "Well, why are you glad that my sins are more than I can bear?" "Because, if they are too heavy for you, you can cast them on someone who will bear them for you." "Who is that?" "The Lord Jesus Christ; He will bear them for you.”

I told him how Christ left heaven, how He came down to the manger, of His love for the sinner, and His willingness to save him. After I finished my talk with him I said, “Now let us pray," and I prayed with him and asked God to save him. Then I said," Now you pray for yourself." “No," he said," I cannot pray; it would be blasphemy." “No," I said," call upon your God and ask him to save you." When I left him I said to him," Now, I shall be in my room between nine and ten o'clock, and I shall be praying for you.”

Next morning I met him again, and as soon as I saw him I perceived that a great change had taken place. The light of Eternity seemed to be breaking around him. His face was lit up the moment he saw me. I said, "I wish you would tell me all about it." He said, "I thank God that He brought me here, for if He hadn't brought me here I shouldn't have received Christ.”

Christ went into that one cell and set a captive soul free. And why? Because he believed he was lost. If there is anyone who will believe he is a sinner and wants to be saves, such a one Christ will save.

D. L. MOODY.

Goodness Must All Go for Nothing.

HAY MACDOWALL GRANT, the Laird of Arndilly estate, Banffshire, was a devoted Christian worker and successful soul-winner. "Instant in season, out of season," described the man. He seemed to be constantly on the outlook for opportunities of reaching the unsaved with the "glad and glorious Gospel.”

On one occasion, whilst visiting an old woman who had a reputation over the countryside for being "very religious," he found, in the course of conversation, that, like many others, she was trying to work out a righteousness of her own in which to appear before God. He sought to strip her of her profession by showing her that in God's sight all her righteousness was but "filthy rags" (Isaiah 54. 6), and that if she wished to be saved she must come to Christ without any other qualification than that she was a sinner, and needed a Savior. As her eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit to see her sin and folly in seeking to merit God's pardoning mercy by her own doings, big salt tears ran down her cheeks, and in piteous accents she exclaimed: "Eh, sir, do you mean to tell me it MAUN A' GANG FOR NAETHING?

"Well," said the Laird of Arndilly, "you have to choose between your own righteousness and the righteousness of God's providing; you cannot rest on both.”

Nothing was said by either for a few moments. During the interval Mr. Macdowall Grant breathed a prayer to God on behalf of the awakened soul. At last, with a look of determination on her countenance, she cried aloud: "OH, GOD! IT SHALL A' GANG FOR NAETHING." There and then she believed on the Lord Jesus, and was saved for Eternity. Her changed life proved the reality of her conversion.

Multitudes of people like the old Scotchwoman are trying to work, pray, or pay their way to heaven, not having learned their hopeless, helpless condition so far as human effort is concerned. They strive and struggle to earn the favor of God, forgetting or ignoring the fact that He "requireth that which is past.”

If you know that you are a guilty sinner, unable to do anything to save yourself, there is good news for you. At an infinite cost—the cost of the life's blood of God's beloved Son—salvation has been provided, and is now pressed on your acceptance as a free gift. Remember, however, it is all of grace from first to last. Our doings can never atone for the past. If they had any part whatever in procuring for us forgiveness, salvation would not be all of grace. If you are trying to reach heaven by "doing your best,'' ponder the Savior's dying words:" IT IS FINISHED “(John 19:30). The work that saves was accomplished by Him nearly 1900 years ago. By virtue of that glorious atonement God can righteously justify ungodly sinners who believe on Christ.

Cease all efforts of your own to purchase that which can only be obtained through simple faith in Christ's finished work.

"Jeans paid the ransom, and salvation is free." A.M.

The Placard in the Hall;

Or,

How a Young Lady Became “Right With God.”

THE train was making a twenty-minute stop at Beaufort West, and I was pacing up and down the platform, glad to have an opportunity of using my legs again after being cooped up in a confined space for so many hours. The railway journey from Port-Elizabeth to Cape Town is long and wearisome, and any break in the monotony of it is welcome to the tired traveler. Pausing in front of the bookstall in the course of my walk I was glancing over the assortment of books and papers, when a large picture upon the cover of a magazine caught my eye. It was a photographic view of the interior of the Bingley Hall, Birmingham, during one of the evangelistic services recently held there by Dr. Torrey. The famous preacher is shown standing upon a raised dais, supported by hundreds of workers, and the seats in the body of the hall filled with thousands of eager listeners.

What struck me most in the picture, however, was an immense placard on the wall behind the platform, high over the preacher's head, containing four striking words, which could easily be read from any part of the vast hall. What were the words? "GET RIGHT WITH GOD.”

Purchasing a copy of the magazine, I seated myself once more in the train and began to turn over its pages. Presently I came across the story of how a young lady was converted through a visit she paid to the Bingley Hall. During the service she was much impressed. The preacher's ringing words made her feel the seriousness of her position as an unsaved sinner. She realized that she was without a shelter from the coming storm of judgment, that her sins had exposed her to extreme and imminent peril, and that she was a stranger to the only One who could save her; but she could not bring herself to the point of accepting Christ as her Savior there and then. The things of the world still had a strong hold upon her. Satan was doing his utmost to keep her in darkness and bondage. She decided to put the matter off, for that night at least.

In this state of mind, when the service was over, she was making her way towards the door. Owing to the large crowd her progress down the aisle was slow, and as she waited for those in front to move on, her eyes rested on the placard behind the platform, "GET RIGHT WITH GOD." By-and-bye she found herself in the street. But these four words still stared her in the face. She could not banish them from her thoughts. The Holy Spirit brought them home to her conscience in power. There was no rest or peace for that young lady after that, until, as a repentant sinner, she knelt at the Savior's feet and through faith in Him got right with God.

Do you realize the importance of being "right with God?" If so, let me remind you that now is the time and here is the place for it to be brought about.

A party of gentlemen had just finished their dinner. The chairman rose to propose the toast of the evening. "Gentlemen," he said,” I give our old friend the World!

“Our entrance into it, naked and bare;
Our progress through it, trial and care;
Our exit from it, we don't know where,
But if all right here, we'll be all right there.”

I am not prepared to endorse all the words of the speaker. There are multitudes who, when they make their exit from the world, do know where they are going. The believer in Jesus knows that he is bound for eternal glory. The Christ rejector may know with equal certainty that he will spend eternity in the hell that he deserves. But the chairman of the dinner party assuredly spoke the truth when he said: "If all right here, we'll be all right there." The only way to be "all right" there, in the next world, is to be "all right" here, in this world. The sinner who does not get right with God now will find that he is all wrong by-and-bye, hopelessly, eternally wrong. The importance, then, of getting right with God at once can scarcely be over-estimated.

Somebody perhaps will ask, What is it to be "right with God"? The question deserves attention, for many labor under a mistake as to this very point, and imagine they are all right when in reality they are all wrong.

Jesus said, "I am the way." No way is right (however right it may seem), unless it is the way of faith in Him and in His atoning work. Simon Magus was a man who thought he was all right. He credited the statements of the preacher, he was baptized, and was to all appearance on the right road. But when the Apostle Peter arrived at Samaria he soon perceived that Simon was all wrong. "Thy heart is not right in the sight of God," he said.

You may be right with your friends, right with your employer or with your servants, right with your neighbors. You may be on good terms with all who know you; but it does not follow that you are right with God. There may be nothing in your life which anyone would consider wrong, yet in God's sight you may be all wrong.

Again I repeat the four words that arrested the attention of the lady at the hall in Birmingham: "GET RIGHT WITH GOD." Let me explain, as simply as I can, how a sinner can get right with God. The first thing to remember is that He desires "truth in the inward parts." He does not look for righteousness in you. He knows that you have none. But he would have you acknowledge the truth as to your lost and helpless condition. The first step towards getting right is to frankly confess that you are altogether wrong. What is it that has alienated you from God? Sin. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isa. 59:2). The disturbing element is your sins. Now, if you are to get right with God, it can only be by the disturbing element being removed. In other words, your sins must be dealt with in such a way that it shall be righteously possible for God to justify you.

This is just what God sent His Son to accomplish by His death upon the cross. When hanging there the great question of sin was entered into between Him and God. God poured out His wrath. It fell, in all its dread severity, on Jesus. Made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), He bore sin's bitter penalty. In virtue of this, God can freely exercise His mercy. He is the Justifier of "him that believeth in Jesus." The moment that you, a guilty sinner, turn to Christ in simple faith, you are brought into the blessed results of His atoning work. You can think of your sins as having been all laid upon Him. He suffered what you deserve to suffer. He "appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." All who believe in Him are saved. It is by this means that a sinner is set right with God. Not by his prayers, or his efforts, or his feelings, but by the precious Blood of Christ.

Have you put your trust in the Savior? Can you truthfully say, "I have bowed at His feet a heart-broken sinner, and believe that He was judged and punished in my stead"? If so, you are right with God. Christ is your Eternal Savior. Peace with God is your happy portion. Not one trace of your guilt remains. Is not Jesus risen? Does He not sit upon the throne of glory? You may be sure that in going there He has left sin and everything connected with it behind, and in God's reckoning you are as clear of sin as He. H. P. B.

The Gospel Telegram.

GOD moves in a mysterious way the souls of men to save! But one of the most mysterious is doubtless by that marvel of modern science, the electric telegraph, which has been more than once utilized by God to convey the message of salvation to souls in despair.

Here is a striking case. A young man employed as a telegraph clerk near PRESTON was in deep distress of soul. His sins rose up before him like a mighty mountain;' the moment when he should hear the last click in Time and stand before the judgment throne in Eternity 'kept continually rising up before him. He longed to have "peace with God.”

Week by week as the Sunday came round he went from Church to Chapel and from Chapel to Hall in hope of hearing words whereby he might be saved, but not a crumb of comfort did he pick up. Salvation's message was to come to him through the telegraph.

Here are his own words as to how the event of all events in his life took place: " One Monday morning I was standing in the telegraph office, bowed down with sin and sorrow, in the act of asking God to give me relief and forgiveness, or I should go mad. Just at that moment a signal came from WINDERMERE—an address, and then the words, ' BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.' IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, EVEN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS!' 'ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE.' That LAMB OF GOD,' that 'REDEMPTION,' that 'BLOOD,' those 'RICHES OF HIS GRACE,' went right into my poor heart. I heartily accepted it as God's message to me, His answer to the cry of my soul. I did behold the Lamb of God,' obtained the forgiveness of sins,' and no one in the whole world could have had greater joy than I had that Monday morning. The message I took myself. It was for a young woman, a servant in the neighborhood, who, being very anxious about her state of soul, had written to her master's brother, who was staying at the Lakes, and he had taken this means of replying to her letter. She, too, a short time after, as I heard from her own lips, found this same message to be to her own soul the ‘light of life’.”

Thus it pleased God to convey the message of salvation to two precious souls by the one telegram. Why should the same message from His precious Word not bring "great joy" into your soul?

The mighty, risen Savior standing on Mount Zion, with "all authority in heaven and earth," commissioned His disciples to go "into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." The Gospel is the good news that “Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3), that "In due time Christ died for the ungodly," that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Take your place as an ungodly one in the world which God loved. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," and you will "have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," according to the riches of His grace.

The message is urgent: "Behold, now is the accepted time." There is "nothing to pay," for it is "without money and without price;" "satisfaction" is assured to all (Psa. 107:9).

Like the Lake tourist who sent the wire, the operator who took the message, the maid to whom it was addressed, and millions more, put the truth of God to the test, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," sign your name as one who has heartily accepted the heavenly message, and you will have joy unspeakable in Time, and spend Eternity in the palace of the King. HYP.

The Broken Link.

CONVERSION, sir! I don't want conversion! It's the drunkards, and harlots, and thieves, and such like, who need converting. I go to my place of worship, and I'm sober and industrious, and I don't owe a farthing to any one ; and I tell you honestly, I don't believe in your doctrine, insisting upon every person alike being converted, as you call it, or going to hell when they die."

Facts are stubborn things, my friend, and, you see, neither your belief nor unbelief makes them true or untrue. There they stand—FACTS! God has spoken; that is enough. Your place is to listen and believe.

"Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 18:3). “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Of what value, then, is your fancied goodness and self-righteousness, in the light of such weighty and solemn statements? Moreover, these are the words of the Lord Himself. Dare you say, I don't believe them? Supposing, now, we could take ten men, and suspend each of them over a precipice by a chain composed of ten links. Let us further suppose that one link in the first man's chain was suddenly to break, what would become of the man? He would be dashed to pieces at the foot of the precipice, of course. Suppose two links in the second man's chain were to break, and three in the third, and so on, until at last every link in the last man's chain broke, would not the effects be the same? Surely! Every man of the ten would be killed. Supposing, then, we take the worst person in your neighborhood and yourself. That man has broken every one of God's Ten Commandments, whereas you are very good and only break, say one, are you then nearer to God? In no wise! for we are taught by the Apostle James (chap. 2:10), that "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." That wicked man has broken the ten and no more. You have broken the ten and no less; and, dying impenitent, both will be shut out of heaven, though the punishment of one may be greater than the other when each is "judged according to his works" (Rev. 20:12).

What an awful thing to be rushing on to Eternity in the dark, knowing not whither one is going—whether to heaven or hell! Yet every unconverted soul is rushing straight to hell—spite of God's warnings and entreaties, spite of His calls of mercy, spite of the pleadings and prayers of friends who know their danger and long for their salvation. Yet onward they rush, stumbling on the dark mountains of sin, and soon, unless they repent, they will find themselves enveloped in "the shadow of death and gross darkness" (Jer. 13:15, 16). "I'm on the down-grade' and I cannot find the brake," said a poor dying man who had been a stage-coach driver, and whose life had been one of open wickedness and profanity. Alas! we fear there are many who will wake up some day when too late, to find they are "on the down-grade, and cannot find the brake," whose course will end in hell.

“God is no respecter of persons!" High or low, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, religious or profane, "ALL have sinned;" all need a Savior; all are welcome to receive the One whom God has provided, even His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; and all will be damned who reject Him (Mark 16:16). There is only one place of torment in which all unbelievers must exist Forever—the Lake of Fire, which is the second death (Rev. 20:15; 21:8). The self-righteous religionist and the degraded sinner, however great the moral and social distance between them in this world, will spend eternity together in the lake of fire in the other world, unless they accept God's way of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

Thank God there is mercy, there is peace, there is forgiveness, there is eternal life, there is eternal blessing for all who will receive them! "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In this way alone can any sinner be saved. W. E

General Orton's Last Days;

OR,

IS SALVATION TO BE OBTAINED BY THE SACRAMENT?

DEAD! You don't say General Orton is dead!" “He is indeed. He died two years ago." Captain Irwin fixed a look of deep and painful interest on the speaker, and remained silent. Memory was swiftly retracing bygone scenes. He recalled the time when, after a long furlough, he returned with his young bride to India. He remembered the friend.), letter which awaited him at Calcutta from Major Orton, pressing him to join his regiment up the country, before the great heat should set in, and, at the same time, courteously offering hospitality. The kindly welcome they had received, the festive companies that were gathered to greet them, and the prolonged stay which they had been persuaded by the kindness of their host to make at his house, all rushed to his remembrance. But there followed recollections of shadows that had marred his friend's life. Differences arose between them, their intercourse ceased, and years passed without their meeting, during which time Major Orton rose to be a general officer in command of a division.

So it was with a sudden pang that Captain Irwin heard that the old general had passed into the eternal world, and eagerly inquired—

“Do give me some particulars of his last days.”

I can tell you all about him," said a friend, who was sitting by." I was with him a good deal during the last few weeks of his life. We were neighbors, but had not been in the habit of meeting frequently, for, as you know, intercourse with him was not altogether pleasant, kind and hospitable though he was. But a short time before his death, his legal adviser happened to call on me, and when I asked after the dying man he told me that he seemed very composed, and had just taken the sacrament. He seemed to regard this as obtaining a passport for heaven, for, added he, I shall not go to see him again; better not disturb him after this.'

“Composed!" thought I, as we parted, "I wish he was anything but that; and, fearing he might be soothing his soul into a false and fatal peace, I resolved to lose no time in seeing him. On reaching the house, I was assured by his friends that all was well; he had taken the sacrament, and was very comfortable.”

I hope you went and tried to rouse his conscience, and dispel his delusion on this subject," interjected Captain Irwin.

“I did. I could not rest without doing so. He received me calmly, and, though breathing with difficulty, said, You will be glad to know I've settled all my affairs, and taken the sacrament. I have nothing now on my mind. I am very comfortable.' But his looks belied his words. There was anxiety in the eye that awaited my response. He repeated, with ill assumed calmness, Yes, I have done justice to everyone. I have arranged for my children. I am quite comfortable.' Deeply moved, I took his thin, transparent hand in mine, and said earnestly, ' And you, dear general, what of yourself? Where are you going? ‘A shadow crossed his face. I saw he was disturbed and disappointed; but he repeated, with an effort, Mr. Ewing has given me the sacrament, and seems quite satisfied.'
“Oh, what a thrill of anguish I felt at that moment. I felt I dared not trifle thus with a soul on the verge of eternity. Dear General,' I said, you know the life you have led. You know what the law of God requires. You know your sins have been more than the hairs of your head.
You will pardon me for speaking plainly; I do so in love.
You know you have not been pure in heart, meek, or a peacemaker, or merciful, or a God-fearing man. How can you feel comfortable? Remember the true and awful words of Scripture. You will soon appear before God, and have to give an account of the deeds done in the body' (Romans 54:12).
“A day or two later I received a telegram, begging me to go to him immediately. He had been groaning aloud, impatient for my arrival, and greeted me, as I entered, with Oh, how long you have been! You have made me miserable. I was so comfortable! Kneel down. Pray. You can. I can't. Get the Bible. Read—read something. Oh, I am so miserable—wretched. You know what a sinner I've been. What a wicked life I've led! I never felt it till now. Oh, what shall I do? '
“Taking the Word of God, and slowly reading some of its simplest statements, I tried to lead the trembling soul to that scene where the LORD laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all' (Isa. 53:6). I tried to show him that, to be safe for eternity, he had but to seek shelter beneath the cross or Calvary, where God judged and punished sin in the person of our Divine Substitute, who, though He knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Cor. 5:21). I sought to show him that through Jesus, and for His sake, forgiveness was waiting for him. I read to him passage after passage, lingered with him, prayed with him, but left him at night, for a few hours' rest, dark as ever.
“Early next morning I was summoned again to his bedside. His cry was still ' Read, read.' And I read of the brazen serpent and of the life-giving look of the bitten Israelites, and then, slowly and emphatically, I read our Lard's comment on it in John 3.”

“Ah, you did well," exclaimed Captain Irwin. "That's the story for a death-bed. Each word, at such times, is like a drop of water from the river of life!”

“It was a life-draft, indeed, to our poor friend. Suddenly, as I read, he raised his emaciated hands, clasped them convulsively together, and with a shout exclaimed, O God! I understand it now! Jesus, Savior, I look to Thee! Is that all? Wonderful! Everlasting life—MINE—and for a look! Lord, I believe! Lord, I praise Thee! ‘In an instant the light had shone into his soul. Under the Spirit's teaching he had grasped the truth that he had nothing to do but to look in faith, that Jesus had done it all, that salvation was ' not of works,' and not by sacraments, but by grace through faith' in Christ (Eph. 2:8, 9).

“Oh, the tears of joy and gratitude he shed! Oh, the deep, contrite grief of heart that accompanied his repentance! His tender love to God his Savior made his past life odious to him. His humility and contrition struck everyone who saw him with amazement; the proud lion had become a lamb. He often exclaimed, Oh, how long-suffering God has been with me all my life of sin! What mercy—to save me at last! My mother's prayers are answered! '

"He never once after doubted his own acceptance for Jesus' sake. He not only obeyed the Gospel command, ' Believe,' but he rested in the Gospel promise, Thou shalt be saved' (Acts 16:31), and so he was full of peace and joy. God's Word was the rock on which he rested. Lord Jesus! I shall never perish, for Thou sayest so,' were his words. Peace, calm, real rest, seemed to reign undisturbed to the end." Any day may be your last day (Prov. 27:1). Would you be in heaven or in hell for evermore?

The Man Under the Clock.

THE workers were praying very earnestly in the Mission Hall at F—for blessing on special services which were held. All the requests had been laid before the Lord. "There is one more," I said; "let us pray for any who have made up their minds not to come." On the Sunday we began with confidence in God, who never disappoints. Before the service we had some stirring Gospel hymns, and during the singing a few working men came in, one going across the hall and sitting under the clock, whilst another came up to the platform, and pointing to the other exclaimed. "There he is, sir, under the clock." All eyes were turned to the man, and I asked what was meant. "Why, sir, God has answered our prayers. Praise the Lord! He said he would not come." I was a little afraid lest the man would be offended and go off, so we sang again, and I told out as earnestly as I could the story of God's love in giving Jesus to die for a sinner like me. I afterward invited all to stay for a short prayer meeting; not one attempted to go. I shall never forget that prayer meeting, for one after another got up and prayed, "Lord, save that man under the clock! Lord, save that man under the clock!" "Amen, amen! Do, Lord!" were the responses all over the building. A dear fellow sitting near him said, "Harry, we want you to be saved; God wants you to be saved; Jesus wants to save you-will you let Him?" "I will," replied the man, as the tears rolled down his cheeks. Then on their knees they read John 3:16 together, making it a very personal, individual thing that God so loved Harry that he gave His only begotten Son, that Harry by believing in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Our prayer meeting turned into a private meeting, and what joy there must have been in heaven! When Harry was asked how it was he could sit and listen to such prayers for his salvation, he said: "I felt as if I was stuck to the seat. I could not understand my mates taking such an interest in me, but, thank God, He took an interest in a poor working man like me.”

God is deeply interested in you. He is so anxious that you should be saved from eternal wrath that He has made a way of escape for you. Have you found the way? God says you are lost, but Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. God says you are dead, but Jesus died that the dead might have life. God has declared the wages of sin is death, but Jesus has power on earth to forgive, because "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." If you would quietly think over it, surely you would be convinced of one of the mightiest of facts—that God loves you. "Prove it," shouted a man in the park one day at the open-air meeting. "THAT HE GAVE," said the speaker. Surely no greater evidence is needed to prove God's love than that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Why not now believe and live? F. H. D.

If I Die As I Am I Shall Die Without Christ.”

ON the 29th day of May, 1881 as I stood in a lane, leaning over a gate, God by His Holy Spirit pierced my hitherto rebellious heart by impressing this awful fact upon me: "If I die as I am I shall die without Christ." But an hour before I had gazed upon the face of my dearest friend, who had been killed instantly in an accident, lying in his coffin, cold and stiff in death. As I looked on him a voice seemed to say: "This is your future; some day others will gaze upon your face. What about your soul and your eternal destiny?" I felt unable to answer or evade the searching question. I then sought a lonely lane to meditate; as I did so this solemn fact pressed upon me, If I die as I am I shall die without Christ. I would not have died without a good character, for I never knew the taste of strong drink of any kind, shunned all unbecoming language, and attended Sunday school regularly till about 20 years of age; but I had never been "born again.”

I had often argued with Christians against being saved, and proved more than a match for some of them. But this argument was more than a match for me: If I die as I am I shall die without Christ. I had often listened to infidels, but all they said seemed to be the outcome of bitter opposition and hatred against Christianity, and never the fruit of unbiased judgment. I had often wished the Bible could be proved untrue—that there was no God, and no hereafter, and that death was a goal instead of the gateway to eternity. But all was too real for me now. I stood stricken and trembling under this crushing stroke: If I die as I am I shall die without Christ.

The powers of pen and tongue fail me to express the experience of that hour. I cried: What can I do, how can I be saved, and know my sins forgiven? And as I stood there distressed, beneath God's pitying eye, God's Holy Spirit, who had convinced me of my Christless condition, brought this verse which I had learned at Sunday school to my memory: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

I reasoned thus: If God loves the world, He loves me. He gave His only-begotten Son. I thought of His cross, of His suffering for sin, the thorny crown, the pierced hands, the riven side; all this had a meaning to me now, and a message for my soul. "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I said: "Lord, I believe, I believe, yes, I believe." At last I simply rested on the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and believed God's Holy Word, that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I hurried to the house to tell my relatives I was saved, and, getting a Bible, I was soon reading John 3:16, and, having read and re-read it, I knelt down in my room and thanked God for loving me, and for giving the Lord Jesus Christ to die for me, and for assuring me by His Word that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The 22 years that have intervened have only served to endear me to my Savior and His Word. J. W’K.

Waiting for the Right Kind of Faith;

OR,

HOW MRS. NISBET EXERCISED FAITH IN CHRIST.

MRS. NISBET, an upright, moral, respectable woman, lived in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland. One day she met at a house a friend of mine, an earnest Christian worker, and had a talk with him on spiritual matters. Mrs. Nisbet, in the course of the conversation, discovered that though for years she had been a religious professor she had never experienced the GREAT CHANGE without which, the Lord Jesus declares, no one can see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). When she learned her true condition she turned to a "religious" acquaintance in the room and exclaimed, "WITH ALL OUR RELIGION WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN AGAIN! we are lost, and going to hell.”

As the result of this "discovery" Mrs. Nisbet became seriously ill, and Mr. H—paid her a visit. The nurse, however, would only allow him to see her on condition that he would promise not to speak on religious subjects. He declined to agree to such a proposal, but was eventually allowed admission into the sick-chamber. Mrs. Nisbet was delighted to see the evangelist, and entered eagerly into conversation with him about the "one thing needful.”

The nurse, fearing that conversation on spiritual matters would injure her patient, and being utterly ignorant of the Gospel, began to speak about "good works," finishing up by the extraordinary statement, "You have no reason to be afraid. Think on what a good woman you have been." "No! no!" exclaimed the widow, "it's no use; I'm lost!" and turning to Mr. H—, said, "Tell me what I have to do to be saved." "You have nothing to do but believe in what has already been done for you." "Yes," said she, "that's it. Oh, if I had the least grain of faith!" "I believe you have faith, Mrs. Nisbet," said the soul-winner. "Oh, Mr. H—don't mock me!" she exclaimed. "Who made the world, Mrs. Nisbet?" he asked. "God." "How do you know?" "From His own Word.”

Opening his Bible, Mr. H—read Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God," and then explained the Scripture. "And am I to believe IN THE SAME WAY for salvation?" "Most certainly; there are not two ways of believing. You believe that God made the world because He says so in His Word?" "Yes." “In the same way I believe that Christ died for me, and that I cannot come into condemnation, because He says so in His Word, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, he that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (or judgment, R.V.), but is passed from death unto life' (John 5:24).”

As the grand old Gospel was proclaimed to the anxious inquirer, she ceased looking within for peace and comfort, and became occupied and absorbed with God's mighty and matchless love to her, as manifested in His "unspeakable gift." As the light from on high streamed into her darkened mind, she cried, "Oh, how simple! Thank God, I SEE IT! I'M SAVED!" Then, giving way to a flood of tears' she exclaimed, "Blessed Jesus I He bore it all for me. How blind I have been!”

Mrs. Nisbet had laid hold of the soul-saving truth that Christ, by His atonement, had done everything that was necessary, and by believing on Him Who died for her, she looked and lived-she believed and rejoiced. Salvation is not to be had by prayers, works, or happy feelings. Throughout the Scriptures it is clear that men are saved by grace, through faith. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God “(Rom. 5:1).” By grace are ye saved, through faith" (Eph. 2:8). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life " (John 3. 36). We are not saved for faith, but “by " or “through " faith. The procuring cause of salvation is the precious Blood of Christ. If we were to obtain it for our faith, instead of “through" or “by” faith, we would enter heaven on the ground of what we did, as it is the sinner who believes, and not God for him. There is no merit or virtue in faith, though it is greatly to be feared that not a few make faith their Savior instead of Christ.

Until her conversion, Mrs. Nisbet, whilst daily exercising faith in man, had never really believed on the Lord Jesus. She supposed that her faith was not of the "right kind." Her faith was right enough in "kind," but it rested on objects that could not give peace with God. Multitudes assert that they believe in Christ, but not in the right way. Many even go the length of declaring that they "always believed on Jesus."

Whilst not questioning the sincerity of such, we are bound by Scripture to conclude that they have not really believed on Christ, and are therefore sincerely mistaken. God's holy Word declares that "All that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth "(Rom. 1:16). No one who is unsaved has believed the Gospel of the grace of God. The moment a sinner believes the glad tidings of great joy regarding Christ and His " finished work," he sets to his seal that God is true, and obtains eternal life as a free gift, " To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness " (Rom. 4:5).

If, however, you don't believe on Christ, you are guilty of the terrible sin of making God a liar. “Oh," you say, "I could never commit such a dreadful sin." Hearken to what God says about it: " If we receive the witness [or testimony] of men, the witness [or testimony] of God is greater: for this is the witness [or testimony] of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness [or testimony] in himself: HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT GOD HATH MADE HIM A LIAR; because he believeth not the record [or testimony] that God gave of His Son. And this IS THE RECORD, THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:9-12).

Every moment you live in unbelief you are making God a liar. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness [or testimony] in himself: he that believeth not God hath MADE HIM A LIAR; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And the witness is this (R.V.), that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (I John 5:10, 11). Why continue calling your best and dearest Friend a liar? “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar." Why not Now believe on Christ—that He bled and suffered and died for you—and obtain eternal life as a free gift? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Go where you may, do what you may, think or say what you may, so long as you do not believe on Christ, the wrath of God is resting upon you. Why not now take God at His word as you read these lines, and be saved for Eternity? If you do believe, you will be able to say,

“GOD LOVED, GOD GAVE;
I believe and I'm saved."

A. M

Forty-Two Years Learning Three

AN aged ' man in the East of England used to say: “It took me 42 years to learn three things — that I could do nothing to save myself; (2) that God did not ask me to do anything; (3) that Christ did it all." Forty-two years was certainly a very long time to learn these three things. Has the reader yet learned them? Let us examine the three statements separately.

1. "I COULD DO NOTHING TO SAVE MYSELF." Have you learned that? Multitudes of professing Christians around us have not. Have you? “I don't believe it," says one. Why not? “Because we can only be saved by doing our best." Who, then, can be saved? Who has done his “best"? Have you? Have you never sinned against God? “Oh, yes; we have all sinned." Never mind the others at present. You admit that you have sinned. What, then, about sin's wages? “The wages of sin is death “(Rom. 6:23). Have you not earned these “wages“? One sin unpardoned is sufficient to exclude you from heaven. What, then, is to become of you? “I purpose being better in the future." Future good conduct cannot atone for past disobedience. “God requireth that which is past."

2. The second fact learned was, that GOD DID NOT ASK HIM TO DO ANYTHING to save himself. “Surely he was mistaken," says one; “we are told to work for salvation." Give chapter and verse for that. It is true that the Apostle Paul, in writing to the Christians at Philippi, said to them: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12, 13). But working out salvation is not working for salvation. To Philippian sinners the Apostle said: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31); while to Philippian saints he said: "Work out your own salvation." The Philippian saints were already in possession of salvation. “Your own” implies possession. They were exhorted to “work out” what God had already wrought in. Being already saved they did not need to work for that which they already had. When unconverted Jews inquired of Christ, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" the Lord's reply was: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent " (John 6:29).” First things first." Salvation is distinctly stated to be " not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:9).

3. The third fact of this important discovery was that CHRIST DID EVERYTHING THAT WAS NECESSARY. If you believed that Christ paid it all on Calvary's Cross, you would not talk of your works having anything to do with salvation. Ponder the dying words of the Savior: “IT IS FINISHED." These blessed words have been the means of giving life and liberty to many troubled souls. On account of our innumerable sins, God's claims had to be met. The law had to be magnified and justice satisfied. All this, thank God, has been accomplished. "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of (or with the view to) our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed " (Isa. 53:5). Through Christ's “stripes “the sin-sick soul is healed. “Jesus paid the ransom, and salvation is free." It is free to you. You may have it now. Believe on Him who died to save you from sin's penalty and power, and you will immediately obtain everlasting life. A. M.

Lost

WE are all by nature sinners. Everybody admits that. We are all by nature lost sinners. This is not admitted by everybody. No one you meet denies being a sinner; but if you enquire if he is, or ever was, a lost sinner, the answer in most cases is, "No, I would not like to say that; I don't think I'm so bad as that." Here, then, comes a delicate distinction. A man gives in quite readily that he is a sinner; but as for being a lost sinner, he considers that out of the question. What is the difference between the two? How many sins make a sinner, and how many make a lost sinner? Does a person require to commit a certain number of sins before he becomes a lost sinner? Must he arrive at a certain degree of immorality, or live for a certain period a dissolute life, before he has any cause to think he is lost? This appears to be the opinion of many. They seem to think they are saved to begin with—that is, that they were never lost at all; and that they need simply to do their best, taking care not to do anything very bad, in case they might get lost! These views evidence an appalling blindness to the truth of the Bible. God's Word is clear and distinct on this point: every person is lost to begin with. There is nothing in the Bible whatever about a certain number of sins making a sinner, and a certain number more making a lost sinner. There is no such thing in it as gradually getting lost. "All have sinned and come short" (Rom. 3:23). Some may come further short than others, but all are clear below the mark; and there is an end of the question as to great sinners and little sinners; for God says "there is no difference" (Rom. 3:22). Instead of being saved to begin with, God's Word says we are "children of wrath" to begin with (Eph. 2:3): “far off" (Eph. 2:13); “enemies”

(Rom. 5:10); lying under condemnation (Rom. 5:18); and that the natural heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Your integrity may be unquestioned, your character unstained, your morality "blameless." You may be living what is called "a Christian life," and yet out of Christ. Your history is written in one word, and that is, lost. There are only two kinds of sinners: saved sinners and Lost sinners. There are only the two places to arrive at. Friend, you are hurrying fast along one of these roads. Which one is it? W. S

Saved

HOW long does it take to be saved Just the same amount of time as it takes to believe the record which God hath given of His Son. Believing is an act: it is a thing done in a moment. Therefore God's salvation is an immediate salvation. Praise His name! This is the very salvation needed by a guilty world. Man's way to be saved is on the principle of works. God's way to be saved is on the principle of faith. Now, what does Scripture say as to “faith” and “works" in obtaining peace with God? It matters very little what man says. What does God say? That is the great question. He plainly declares that He saves the sinner on the principle of faith. In Rom. 3. 28 we find it stated in the clearest possible manner that "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Then, again (Rom. 5:1), "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God". Then, again, we read that God hath set forth Christ Jesus for a mercy-seat through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:25). Friend, such are God's terms—" Believe and live". Faith is simply believing the word of another. If a statement is made by one whom you know to be truthful, you believe him: that is to say, you put faith in his word, Now, that is faith, although only in the word of a man. But “if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater" (1 John 5:9). If you believe what man says, how dare you doubt what God says? God calls on you to believe Him—to put faith in His word—to believe the record He has given of His Son ; and, in believing, the divine assurance is given that you shall "have life through His name" (John 20:31). By him “all that believe " are justified from all things. Are you of that happy company who are justified from all things? But how were they justified? Scripture answers, “Through faith". They had no merit of their own to bring. They pleaded the merit of another—even of God's spotless Son; and God accepted the plea! And He is ready to accept the same plea at your hand. There is none other Name than the Name of Jesus whereby you must be saved. Therefore, let your own worthless name be utterly and forever cast aside, and rest on the merits of Him to whom God loath given a Name which is above every name (Phil. 2:9). It is only through faith that God saves. Are you willing to take God's way—to believe on His Son, and enter into rest? W. S.

A Burial at Sea: a Striking Event on Board the S.S. "Papanui" on a Voyage to Wellington, New Zealand

IN the winter of 1900 I was one of the passengers on board the steamer Papanui, from London to Wellington, New Zealand. We had a full complement of first, second and third class passengers. The weather for the first two or three days after leaving Plymouth was rather stormy. After crossing the Bay of Biscay the wind moderated, and most of the passengers were able to move about on their “sea legs."

I was anxious that a Gospel service should be held on the Sunday evening, so that all who cared might have the opportunity of hearing God's way of salvation. Permission being obtained, hymn-books were provided, and a goodly number of passengers, engineers, stewards, and seamen congregated on deck. After several familiar hymns were sung, a portion of Scripture read, and prayer asked for God's blessing, the “old, old story of Jesus and His love " was told out. The unsaved were shown their guilt and danger, and were entreated and besought to accept of salvation by believing on Him who suffered and died to save them from endless woe.

Among the audience was a lady from Hobart, Tasmania, who sat in front of me and seemed interested in the truth proclaimed. After the meeting she sat and chatted with a fellow-passenger till ten o'clock, and then retired for the night. At twelve o'clock she became suddenly ill. The doctor was summoned, but he was unable to afford relief. At four o'clock she passed into eternity. At eight o'clock on Monday morning, the captain, accompanied by several of the officers and a portion of the crew, assembled on deck. The body was wrapped in canvas and rested on a board by the side of the ship. The burial service was read, and at a given signal the body was committed to the deep.

Little did I think, as I spoke from the deck of the Papanui on that Sunday evening, that one among the audience would hear the Gospel for the last time, and that ere the sun rose she would be in the world of spirits. I was thankful that she heard the proclamation of a full, free, and present salvation.

How true it is that “in the midst of life we are in death"! Had the unsaved reader been so suddenly called away, where 'would you be spending eternity? You have been often told of the Christ neglecter's and rejecter's doom, and warned of coming wrath and judgment, yet you say you intend becoming a Christian sometime. You talk as if you had a lease of life. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (Prow. 27:1). Ere to-morrow's sun rises you may be in eternity. Why, then, risk the loss of your soul?

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11). Because God does not execute the sentence of condemnation which is now resting upon you, you presume on His mercy and long suffering, and determine to take your own way. Remember that “He that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). You may think you believe and may say you believe on Christ, but if unsaved you never really believed on Him. You are already condemned, because you don't believe on Christ, who poured out His precious blood to save you from everlasting misery. O sleeper, awake! The messenger of death is on your track, and without a moment's warning the brittle thread of life may be snapped, and your doom will be fixed, and your fate eternally sealed.

Is it not a wonder that any are unsaved, when God has shown so clearly and fully in His Word how salvation is to be obtained? If you wish to be saved, ponder carefully the following Scriptures: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life " (John 3:16). "ALL THAT BELIEVE are justified from all things" (Acts 13:39). “WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 13: 43). "HE THAT BELIEVETH ON HIM is not condemned" (John 3:18). The first-born in the blood- sprinkled house in Egypt was preserved from the destroying angel because Jehovah had said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you " (Exod. 12:13). Through faith in the precious blood of Christ the reader can now obtain a free, full, and present salvation. “Now is the accepted time." There is no time to lose. The day of grace is drawing to a close. "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Soon the Master of the house will rise up and shut to the door. “Now the door is open, enter while you may." Why not enter this moment by believing on Him who loved you and gave Himself for you? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." A. M

the City Destroyed.

THE beautiful city of San Francisco is gone; there are only smoking ruins, ashes, and a few unsteady bare walls on the spot where years and years of the work of man had built monuments to civilization and American enterprise. In a few seconds of shaking, of resistless destruction, the mighty earthquake did for San Francisco the work planned and carried out over a long period by the Romans at Carthage. As the soil of that doomed city was ploughed and strewn with salt, so the site of San Francisco has been ploughed by the earthquake, strewn with the ashes of her beautiful buildings." So writes the editor of an evening paper.

How easily God can come into a city, and in a few seconds wipe it out. How quickly could He hurl men into destruction! What an awful awakening for this world, when the Almighty sets to His hand to work! This doomed city was wicked indeed; its moral tone was very low; but God has come in, and God will come in one day and judge the sinner. "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26). Many have lost millions in this downfall, but what is it to be compared to the loss of the soul?

Chicago was rebuilt, Baltimore was rebuilt, Galveston was rebuilt, and San Francisco will be rebuilt, but the “lost soul," what would a man give in exchange for it? Lost! lost! for all eternity! the "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8. 12). What an awful future before the unsaved man! No warning voice was raised for the safety of San Francisco; but God has sent warning to all, and prepared the remedy whereby all may escape. “He spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all." “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners "(1 Tim. 1:15). Only one way of deliverance was opened for the sinner—Christ must die; no other way; and, blessed be His name, "Christ died for the ungodly." Because of this, the sinner may be delivered from the wrath to come by accepting the Lord Jesus as his or her personal Savior. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Believe Now and live for evermore. F. W. B.

A Heathen at Sunset: a Christian at Sunrise.

GREED disguised as patriotism was the first enemy that the Gospel met in Europe. “The hope of their gain was gone "—that was the real reason for the slave-girl's masters' animosity, though it cloaked itself under a high-minded zeal for the observance of mire Roman customs. The whole procedure before and by the “magistrates “was irregular—" the multitude rose up together against them," and” the magistrates rent their garments off them, and commanded to beat them with rods." The flogging would be merciless, and the jailer, who was probably not selected for his tenderness of heart, would care little for the bleeding, lacerated backs of a couple of stray Jews, or exercise any particular gentleness in thrusting them into the darkest, foulest-smelling chamber, and forcing their feet into the stocks. Never before had such sounds broken the midnight silence of the jail—never before, but how often since The two were praying and singing hymns, . . . and the prisoners were listening to them, and the earthquake was God's direct answer.

Why, then, did the jailer burst into the inner cell, “trembling for fear," and why did he ask, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). What did he desire to be saved from? The earthquake had cracked more than the prison walls. It had cracked the thin veneer of custom and sense, and let him see the nether fires. Paul's answer tells us what he supposed the jailer to mean by it, and the fact that his first fear had been quieted makes it certain that Paul rightly understood the question. The jailer took salvation in its deepest sense, and his question is one that every soul of man has the same need to ask.

Salvation is healing from sickness and deliverance from danger. It implies that we are diseased and in peril. And is not every one of us sick with the worst of diseases— sin? There is no need to exaggerate, and the Gospel does not charge all men with crimes, or even with vices, but it does declare that all clean living, “respectable," law- abiding people, as really as others, are sinners. And are we not all in peril? Is not all unforgiven sin dangerous here and now, and is there not a future to take into account?

The jailer's plain question was met by an unhesitating answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ “(Acts 16:31). Mark the full, solemn name: "Lord” implies sovereignty, and probably divinity; "Jesus" implies incarnation; "Christ" implies that He is the fulfillment of the ancient dispensation, with its priests, prophets, and kings, since He is anointed with the divine spirit. And the whole name proclaims that “Himself bare our sins “(1 Peter 2:24).

The jailer was a heathen at sunset; he was a Christian, rejoicing in God, long before the sun rose. Great resolutions, which change a life, are generally made in a flash at last, though the preparation may have been long. For many the only chance—if we may use the word—of ever becoming Christians is that they shall be swept by the energy of a sudden resolution to do what they know they should have done years ago ; that is, to cast themselves on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. DR. A. M.

the Pompeii Thief.

SIX miles to the south-east of Naples lies the most notable volcano in the world—VESUVIUS—towering some 4000 feet above the Bay of Naples. The first recorded evidence of its activity was in 63 A.D. Up to that time it had never been regarded as a volcano. Sixteen years later the eruption, which has become historic, burst with appalling fury over POMPEII, burying the town in ashes and completely blotting out the surrounding district. We know the details of this appalling disaster from Pliny's vivid description. The cloud, shaped like a pine tree; the broad sheets of flame, all the more brilliant from the blackness of the night; the blazing and empty villas, the shocks of earthquake, and the fatal rain of ashes, all combined to make a calamity so terrible that Pliny wrote: "The blackness of night overtook us, not that of a moonless night, but the blackness of pent-up places that never see the light."

Nor are we left in ignorance concerning the ruined Pompeii, for the pick of the excavator and the skill of the and women so suddenly “fixed “in such a startling manner. The diggers came across many relics of tragic scenes, some praying for mercy, others in the act of rushing from the moving flame, some stupefied into listlessness, others as if in a perpetual sleep.

One of the most telling was a man found just outside the door of one of the large houses, lying flat on the ground, covering his face as if from the fire, still clutching in his hand a bag of gold. In his heart he judged his opportunity had come, the family having fled for refuge; he could select the costliest treasures of the place, haste to become rich, yet withal escape the torrent of lava. Alas! he had miscalculated, for after securing his booty he was caught by the monstrous lava jailer and imprisoned on the garden walk. There he lay in 79 A.D., and there he might have lain till the Reckoning Day had he not been accidentally discovered in 1729, sixteen hundred and fifty years after the committal of the crime—a striking fulfillment of the eternal fact, “Be sure your sin will find you out " (Num. 32:23). Doubtless at the moment of planning, and in the act of committing the theft, he felt assured that none would ever be the wiser, yet there he lies to-day—the Pompeii thief of eighteen hundred and forty years ago. Yet, not for his disgrace, but for your warning we recount the story. Unlike him in the mode of sinning, for all are not thieves; unlike him in the mode of capture, for all are not transfixed in lava, yet "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and "all must stand before the Judgment Seat of God" (Rom. 14:10 R.V.). Still, though we're sinners every one, we can rejoice in the glad and glorious Gospel which tells of Precious Blood shed, and a glorious work finished on Calvary's Cross (John 19:31), so that all who own their guilt, and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, are able to say, "The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). That you have sinned, and therefore are a lost sinner, cannot be denied, but two courses are open to you now, leading to two states hereafter. You can continue in your sin, neglect salvation, and have that which has been done in darkness and secret now, proclaimed upon the housetop then; or you can acknowledge your sin, accept the Christ of God as your Savior, have all your sins cleansed now, and meet Jesus as Advocate instead of Judge then in Eternity. HyP.

I Don't Feel That I Have Everlasting Life;

Or,

The Irish Foxhunter

OVER thirty years ago a gentleman residing in the South of Ireland was brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. Living for pleasure and regardless of the future, he never allowed himself to think upon eternal concerns. His time was mostly spent on the race-course, in the hunting field, and card and billiard rooms of his club. At the age of thirty he married, and, "in order to set a proper example," he had prayers morning and evening, and “turned over a new leaf."

Shortly after his marriage a cousin paid him a visit, and availed herself of the opportunity of speaking faithfully to him about eternal concerns. Soon after this, having occasion to visit Dublin—where his relative was then staying—he met her, and she, looking on his unexpected visit as an answer to prayer, invited him to go and hear Mr. Denham Smith, who was conducting Gospel meetings in the Merrion Hall. To this invitation he gave a point-blank refusal, saying he did not wish, to hear him, and ridiculed her for her “folly “in being so “very religious." Perceiving that his answer had caused her pain and disappointment, he said, “Cheer up, B—; if ever your friend comes to our part of the country, I promise you faithfully that I will go and hear him." Leaving Dublin, he returned home, and for more than a year he thought nothing about it.

One morning he received a letter from his relative as follows: “I claim your promise. Mr. Denham. Smith preaches, the Lord willing, at B—Hall" (in a town about ten miles from the place where he lived)” to-morrow at one o'clock." Having made some business arrangements with a gentleman for the day, the receipt of the letter caused him annoyance; and, with an exclamation that made his wife start, he threw it down. Determining, however, as a “man of honor," to keep his word, he wrote, stating that important business had taken him from home. Having sent a messenger on horseback with the letter, he got a horse harnessed to his “trap," end drove to the town in which the meeting was to be held.

Reaching the hall, he was met by his relative, who said, "Oh, I am so glad to see you! I knew you would come." He replied that he was sorry he had come ; that nothing but the promise he had made would have brought him, and he was determined he would " never be caught in the same way again." On being offered a hymn book, he refused it, saying, "I don't sing." After prayer, and a portion of Scripture was read, a Bible was handed him; but he said, "I don't want it, and I am determined not to listen to anything." During the delivery of the address his attention was attracted to a tall, stout man, who sat two or three forms in front of him, sobbing bitterly. His first feeling was, “I should like to strike him for being so soft; “but on watching him carefully for some time, the thought was suggested to him, “What is it that the preacher is saying that has made such an impression on him? I shall listen and hear what it is. "As he listened he heard the “old, old story" of God's love to sinners—of the full ransom price paid by His Son for their redemption, of the justification of all who believe on Christ by faith in His finished work.

The address being concluded, and a hymn given out, the speaker went to the place where he was sitting, and entering into conversation with him, asked if he was happy. To this question he replied that he was, and abruptly stopped the conversation by saying, “I think you would be better to go to that big fellow; he has been crying for the last half-hour, and looks as if he wanted you." Perceiving that Mr. Denham Smith was pained and disappointed by his remark, he said, “Don’t misunderstand me; I have plenty of time to talk with you. Speak to him first, and then come and talk as long as you like." After speaking to the anxious soul Mr. Denham Smith took the gentleman back to a quiet part of the hall, and asked him if he believed the Bible to be God's Word." “Yes," was the reply “I do." "Are you a sinner?” “I am." “If you were dying just now, where would you go?" "To hell, for I have earned it well." “Would you like to learn that you need not go there?” "Of course I would." Opening the Bible, he turned his attention to several passages in which God's love to and desire for the salvation of sinners are exhibited.

Among others, John 3:14, 15 was read: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." “Do you believe," asked Mr. Denham Smith, "on Jesus Christ as the One who died for us and bore our punishment?”

“Certainly I do," was the reply. “Then what does God say?” “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." “Then have you eternal life? “No; I DON'T FEEL THAT I HAVE IT." “Does God say whosoever feeleth hath everlasting life?” "No." “What does He say?” "Whosoever believeth." “You say that you believe on Christ, and God says, Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,' so according to God's Word, if you believe in Him you have eternal life. Have you got it?" "I can't say I have. I don't feel it." “Take my Bible, and show me where you are told you are to feel you are saved. I have never seen it." Handing the Bible back to Mr. Denham Smith, he said, “I don't know very much about it." “Listen for a moment. You acknowledge yourself to be a sinner?

"I know and feel that I am." "'Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners' (1 Tim. 1:55). He came to save you. Let us read John 5:24 ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life.' According to the Word of God, if you believe, you have everlasting life. God says so, and whatever He says is true." “BUT I DON'T FEEL THAT I HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE." "Never mind your feelings." "Well, then, I'll stick to it that I am saved, just because God says so, and never mind my feelings." Peace and joy filled his heart, and since then he has publicly and privately endeavored to tell of the wondrous love of God to sinners.

Would you not like to be saved and know it? Hitherto you may have been expecting some wonderful change before you were saved, some indescribable feeling of joy, and then you think you would be justified in concluding that you had "everlasting life." If so, you are laboring under a serious mistake. God says, First believe, and then you will feel. Believe on the Lord Jesus as the One who hung on the cross as a sacrifice for you, and then you cannot help feeling love to Him. Don't wait for any "experience" or "feeling." It is not “Whosoever feeleth sorry for his sins," or “Whosoever feeleth happy," shall be saved. It is, “Whosoever believeth in Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:14, 15). Believing on Him, you will be able to say, "I'll stick to it that I am saved, just because God says so, and never mind my feelings." A. M.

a Voice From the Courrieres Pits.

AROUND the dingy little village of Courrieresles-Lens in France are eleven coal-pits. The population is about 4200, nearly half of which wended their way, as usual, to pits Nos. 2, 3, 4, at 3:30 on Saturday morning, March 10, 1960 They had often gone and returned, and were as light-hearted as ever ; but at 7 o'clock a frightful explosion was heard, resulting in the death of nearly 1200 of those miners. From the many thrilling incidents of this terrible French disaster we select the following: “The relater was at work in a lateral gallery when he heard a deafening crash. He was one of a gang of thirty-five. After the crash came a stream of gas. ‘Run! ‘I shouted. We ran for our lives. I was last. In front of me was my nephew. Farther ahead was my son. After a time we could do no more than feel our way. It was pitch dark. I am doomed, I said to myself, but my son stands a good chance of escape, and thank God for that. The gas, though not now in great volume, was stifling. We crawled on, scarcely daring to breathe. We must have been two hours at it, when our gang leader, who was in front with my son, shouted, Turn back! turn back! there's fire ahead!"

"TURN BACK! TURN BACK! THERE'S FIRE AHEAD!” What a suggestive warning to all who are going the wrong road! It is our cry to every sinner in the deep, dark pit of sin. “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33. 11). “Turn you at my reproof “(Prov. 1:23). Turn back! turn back! there's fire ahead, eternal fire! Turn back! you are going wrong. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon “(Isa. 55:7). The little company of miners heeded the warning and turned. The narrative continues: “I now became the leader. For three or four hours more we crept on, one behind the other. At last we found ourselves at the bottom of the shaft of pit No. 10. There we came upon the rescuers. They caught me and put me into the cage, then nine of my comrades. The rest were missing. The gas had overpowered them, and among them was my son." The man who had uttered the solemn words, “Turn back! turn back ! there's fire ahead! “was among the twenty-five who were lost. Does not his cry come from others to-day to those who are following them. They have found out the terror beyond, and cry, “TURN BACK! TURN BACK! THERE'S FIRE AHEAD! " Skeptics, infidels, atheists, and unbelievers of all sorts, nearing the end of life's journey and realizing the unsatisfying power of infidelity in this life and the blank concerning the life to come, cry, "Turn back! turn back!" Agnostics, who have reached the great summit of “know nothing," in a deep soul-wail cry, " Turn back! turn back ! " Ritualists, who have sought for satisfaction in draperies, tapestries, dim lights, and vain show, and found themselves only mocked at last by the enemy of souls cry, " Turn back I turn back !" Procrastinators, who have wandered on until too late, say to other procrastinators, “Turn back! turn back! " Men of passion and lust from the pit of which Solomon spake cry, " Turn back I turn back!" (Proverbs 22:14; 23:27). The moral formalist, finding out his mistake, says, "Turn back! turn back! " " And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:45, 46). “TURN BACK! TURN BACK! THERE'S FIRE AHEAD! “Turn to the Lord now, find in Him “a God ready to pardon “and in Jesus a Savior “able to save." Turn now, and you will rejoice eternally. W. L.

the Bill on the Wall.

I WAS what the world calls a "moral young man "—that is, I was not addicted to drinking, swearing, gambling, horseracing, and many other vicious and wicked things; but on the contrary, I was an adherent of one of the great churches of the city in which I lived, was strong in favor of temperance and other social reforms, said my prayers, read my Bible (especially if my conscience was uneasy); in fact, as people say, I was trying to do the best I could, and hoping, since God was merciful, that He would overlook my faults and failures, and take me into heaven at last. I had heard of some people who said they were saved, and sure of heaven; but, in my estimation, that was something presumptuous. I thought it was more humble to "hope in the mercy of God."

One evening I was induced by a friend who accompanied me, to attend, a “Gospel Meeting." On entering the hall, we were shown into a seat near the platform, and, facing us, on the wall there hung a bill, which read as follows:— "Friend, thou art travelling to eternity: to an everlasting Heaven! or to an endless Hell! which?" I tried to keep my eyes from the solemn words, but it was all to no purpose. That was the last night of my peace in the devil's service, and as I look back upon it, I cannot but praise God for His grace. My self-satisfaction was at an end. In spite of all my (so called) good works, my conscience told me I was lost, and dying as I was, would be in hell. For two days I was in trouble of soul, for I did not know God's way of peace; but on the night of the second day, while John 3:36 was being quoted, light dawned on my benighted soul. I believed on Jesus as my Savior, for I saw Him to be the One who had died for me (satisfying a holy God for my sins), who was buried, and on the third day raised from the dead, to prove His work to be really finished, and the One who is now at God's right hand, a living Savior for dead sinners. My heart was full, for I had the authority of God's Word for saying I had everlasting life; and it would have been the height of presumption in me to doubt it, since He who cannot lie had said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36); and again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). As one has said, "I no not know I am saved because I feel happy, but because God has said it." How sure and safe a resting place! It was thus my soul was saved; and now I would affectionately ask you, Is your soul safe for Eternity? If not, then, I entreat you, make haste and have the matter settled. You are travelling to eternity; each moment makes the journey shorter. What will the end be? To-day, you are within the reach of mercy; to-morrow you may be forever beyond it. “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts “(Heb. 3:7-8). Come, oh come now! “Believe on the. Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). "These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). T. D. W. M.