HE was a High Church clergyman, devoted to church architecture, music, and ritual; visited his parishioners weekly; did his utmost to get them to church, and to make good Churchmen of them.
He says, “I remember that my thoughts dwelt very much on forgiveness and salvation, but I preached that these were to be had in and by the Church, which was as the ark in which Noah was saved... and all who were not inside were lost.... I had no idea that I was lost now. Far from that; I thought I was as safe as the Church herself, and that the gates of hell could not prevail against me.”
But all the time he was a stranger to conversion, forgiveness, salvation, and the new birth. Often he said to himself, “What can this conversion be?” and God graciously showed him through his own servant. I give the account in his own words: “Soon after my gardener, a good Churchman, and duly despised by his neighbors for attaching himself to me and my teaching, fell seriously ill.
“I sent him at once to the doctor, who pronounced him to be in a miner’s consumption, and gave no hope of his recovery. No sooner did he realize his position, and see eternity before him, than all the Church teaching I had given him failed to console or satisfy, and his heart sank within him at the near prospect of death. In his distress of mind he did not send for me to come and pray with. him, but actually sent for a converted man, who lived in the next row of cottages. This man, instead of building him up as I had done, went to work in the opposite direction—to break him down. That was to show my servant he was a lost sinner, and needed to come to Jesus just as he was for pardon and salvation. He was brought under deep conviction of sin, and eventually found peace through the precious blood of Jesus.
“Immediately it spread all over the parish that ‘the parson’s servant was converted.’ The news soon reached me, but, instead of giving joy, brought the most bitter disappointment to my heart. Such was the profound ignorance I was in.
“Still I went on, hoping against hope, ‘building from the top’ without any foundation, teaching people to live before they were born.
“God was speaking to me all this time about the Good Shepherd who gave His life for me; but I did not hear Him, nor suspect that I was lost.
“In those days, when building my new church and talking about the tower and spire we were going to erect, an elderly Christian lady, who was sitting in her wheelchair, calmly listening to our conversation, said, ‘Will you begin to build your spire from the top?’ It was a strange question; but she evidently meant something, and looked for an answer. I gave it, saying, ‘No, madam, not from the top, but from the foundation.’ She replied, ‘That is right! that is right!’ and went on with her knitting.
“This question was not asked in jest or in ignorance; it was like a riddle. What did she mean? In a few years this lady passed away, but her enigmatic words remained. No doubt she thought to herself that I was beginning at the wrong end, while I went on talking of the choir, organ, happy worship, and all the things we were going to attempt in the new church; that I was aiming at sanctification without justification, intending to teach people to be holy before they were saved and pardoned. This is exactly what I was doing. I had planted the boards of my tabernacle of worship, not in silver sockets (the silver of which had been paid for redemption), but in the sand of the wilderness. In other words, I was teaching people to worship God, who is a Spirit, not for love of Him who gave His Son to die for them, but in the fervor and enthusiasm of human nature. My superstructure was built on sand, and hence the continual disappointment.... No wonder that my life was a failure, and my labors ineffectual, inasmuch as my efforts were not put forth in faith. My work was not done as a thank offering, but rather as a meritorious effort to obtain favor with God.”
And is not this where thousands are today in highly-privileged and responsible Christendom? They have a name to live, but they are dead, and all their works are “dead works,” from which they need cleansing by “the blood of Christ” to enable them “to serve the living God.” (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14).)
At this point the subject of my narrative went on a visit to a truly saved and godly clergyman, who told him plainly he was “not converted,” and showed him he was not from the Scriptures, and then prayed for him. “What he prayed for,” he says, “I do not know. I was completely overcome, and melted to tears. I sat down on the ground, sobbing, while he shouted aloud, praising God.”
A few days after this the subject of our paper was truly converted to God whilst preaching from the blessed words, “What think ye of Christ?” (Matt. 22:4242Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. (Matthew 22:42).)
The news spread in all directions that “the parson was converted,” and that by his own sermon, in his own pulpit. The church would not hold the crowds who came in the evening. He says, “I cannot exactly remember what I preached about on that occasion, but one thing I said was, ‘That if I had died last week I should have been lost forever.’ I felt it was true. So clear and vivid was the conviction through which I had passed, and so distinct was the light into which the Lord had brought me, that I knew and was sure that He had ‘brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and put a new song into my mouth.’ (Ps. 40). He had ‘quickened’ rue who was before ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’” (Eph. 2:11And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1).)
I now turn to the “quaint old picture” and the inferences that the subject of this paper drew from it, which I will give in his own words: “ ... As I was sitting by the fire one wet after. noon, my eyes fell on a little colored picture or the mantelpiece, which had been the companion of my journeys.... It was a quaint medieval illustration of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, copied from a valuable manuscript. . . in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford.
“As I looked at the engraving before me I began to suspect for the first time that there was a design in the arrangement of the figures, and that it was really intended to convey some particular teaching. I took it in my hand and studied it, when I observed that the cross or pole on which the serpent was elevated stood in the center, dividing two set, of characters; and that there were serpents on one side and none on the other.
“Behind the figure of Moses is a man standing, with his arms crossed on his breast, looking at the brazen serpent. He has evidently obtained life and healing by a look. On the other side, I observed that there were four kinds of persons represented, who were not doing as this healed one did to obtain deliverance.
“First, there is one who is kneeling in front of the cross, but he is looking towards Moses, not at the serpent, and apparently confessing to him as if he were a priest.
“Next behind him is one lying on his back, as if he was perfectly safe, though he is evidently in the midst of danger; for a serpent may be seen at his ear, possibly whispering, ‘Peace, peace, when there is no peace.’
“Still further back from the cross there is a man with a sad face doing a work of mercy, binding up the wounds of a fellow-sufferer, and little suspecting that he himself is involved in the same danger.
“Behind them all, on the background, is a valiant man, who is doing battle with the serpents, which may be seen rising against him in unabating persistency.
“I observed that none of these men were looking at the brazen serpent, as they were commanded to a. I cannot describe how excited and interested became; for I saw in this illustration a picture of my own life. Here was the way of salvation clearly set forth, and four ways which are not the way of salvation, all of which I had tried and found unavailing. This was the silent but speaking testimony of some unknown denizen of a cloister; who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century, the days of ignorance and superstition. But notwithstanding this darkness, he was brought out into the marvelous light of the gospel, and has left this interesting record of his experience.
“Like him, I also had fought with serpents; for I began in my own strength to combat with sin, end strove by my own resolutions to overcome. From this I went on to do good works, and works of mercy, in the vain hope of thus obtaining the same for myself. Then I relied in the Church for salvation, as God’s appointed ark of safety; but not feeling secure, I took another step beyond, and sought forgiveness through the power of the priest. This I found was as ineffectual as all my previous efforts. At last I was brought (by the Spirit of God) as a wounded and dying sinner to look at the crucified One. Then... I found pardon and peace. Ever since it has been my joy and privilege (like Moses pointing to the serpent) to cry, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)); ‘I am determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified;’ that is, to tell only of the person and office of Jesus Christ our Lord.”
May God use this paper to show any who are trusting to the Church, its priests, or its sacraments, or their own doings for salvation, that it is not to be found in these things, but in Christ’s person alone; as God has said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).) “SALVATION IS OF THE LORD.” (Jonah 2:99But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. (Jonah 2:9).)