RECENTLY when walking down Phoenix Park, Dublin, a woman, selling apples from a basket, opposite the Viceregal Lodge, pointed out to me a round hole in the grass, at the roadside, as being the exact spot where the body of Lord Frederick Cavendish lay just after he was murdered. I said to this woman, ―
“If your body had lain there dead instead of Lord Cavendish’s, where would your soul now have been?”
“Your honor,” said she, “you have given me a very hard question to answer; but I hope to get to heaven at last.”
“Do you side with Lord Cavendish or with his murderers?”
“Oh, sir,” she said, “it was very kind of that noble lord to come from England to help us, and it was very wicked of those cruel murderers to kill him.”
“Then you sided with Lord Frederick?”
“Yes, sir, most certainly I did.”
“My good woman,” I added, “this very much reminds me of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in such love and compassion came from heaven to do this poor world good, and of what this wicked world did to Him. Let me also ask, Do you side with the Lord Jesus Christ, or with the world that murdered Him, and still rejects Him?”
“Oh, sir, it was very good of that Saviour to come and do what He did, and it was very wrong indeed for Him to be treated so badly.”
“But you have not answered my question about the Son of God as you did about Lord Frederick. Have you, then, as a needy and helpless sinner, accepted that blessed Saviour as your substitute, trusted His finished work, and taken shelter under His precious blood, who came ‘to seek and to save that which wits lost’?”
Alas! alas! from the indifferent manner of this poor woman, she was evidently more interested about her apples than in the Saviour. Just like those Gadarenes of old, who preferred their swine to the Lord Jesus, who had come to their country, through the storms of Galilee’s lake, to cast a legion of demons out of the poor demoniac bound in Satan’s chains, and to set him free to love and serve his Deliverer.
I had, therefore, to pass on with another unsatisfactory evasion of the all-important question, the salvation of the never-dying soul. But this is by no means a solitary exception to the sad, sad rule of preferring the fleeting things of time and sense to the soul’s eternal welfare! Is our reader, I wonder, an exception to that rule? Think about it solemnly, friend, and give the answer to God, who is light as well as love, and who knows your heart. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27-2827And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28)). What are you, dear soul, looking for? is it for Jesus and glory, or for judgment and hell?
A few weeks later I was walking through the grounds of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, where the Duke of Devonshire has a seat, and where a monument is erected to the memory of his son Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish.
I noticed on this monument the following striking inscription: ―
“Full of love to that country,
Full of hope for her future,
Full of capacity to render her service,
Murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin, within twelve hours of his arrival,” &c.
Reader, I would not for one moment seek to undervalue what Lord Frederick Cavendish, as Chief-Secretary, possessed for Ireland, nor do I desire to discuss how much his murderers should be deprecated, for that is no part of our theme; but when reading those three first lines of the inscription, most forcibly it struck me how infinitely more applicable, in the higher sense, they were to the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who in such love and grace for guilty sinners came so far to this world, and suffered so much at their bands. Yes, of Him, and Him alone, can we truly say: ―
Full of love to lost sinners,
Full of hope for their future,
Full of capacity to render them service.
“Who suffered for sins once, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
So FULL OF LOVE unfathomable, love divine, that He, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:6-126Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:6‑12)).
Friend, receive of that fullness of love, and be enabled to say of Him, as the apostle Paul said, He “loved me, and gave himself for me.” Then go and tell it to others.
SO FULL OF HOPE was He, that it is written of Him, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:1111He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11)); and “who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:22Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)).
Reader, have you accepted the benefits wrought out on that cross, and can you “rejoice in hope of the glory of God?” and will you contribute to the fullness of that blessed Christ of God, by receiving Him as your present Saviour and eternal satisfier, to be with Him forever, to the full joy of His heart, and of yours, when faith and hope will have ceased?
So FULL OF CAPACITY was the Lord Jesus, that He alone was able to meet the just claims of a holy God, deliver lost sinners from hell, put away their sins by His unspeakably precious blood, bring them nigh to God, give them peace and joy and eternal life, go and prepare a place for those who accept Him now by simple faith, and come again to take His Church, for which He bled and died, ere long to be forever with Himself in co-heirship, companionship, and glory.
Reader of these lines, let me ask, When do you mean to become a privileged recipient of the fruit of His wonderful divine love, hope, and capacity, which is still held out for your acceptance in this day of His grace and long-suffering mercy? Do be once more warned not to allow the last opportunity to escape.
If you do, you will in judgment assuredly find yourself where escape, love, and hope never enter. You will discover then, to your eternal remorse and shame, what absolute power that blessed Son of God has to maintain His holiness upon all who now refuse such manifested love, hope, and capacity.
I beseech you, therefore, leave the murderers’ ranks! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” and be “filled into all the fullness of God,” for His peerless name’s sake.
Amen. J. N.