The Right Way: For Old and Young

SOME years ago two men were executed for murder. Their friends made great efforts to obtain a free pardon. They neglected their own business in their earnestness—they went from house to house soliciting signatures to the petition they had prepared. They were not ashamed to argue, plead, and even weep. But all seemed in vain. No pardon was forthcoming.

The awful day arrived. The murderers were led forth—their arms pinioned. The steps of the scaffold were mounted. The wretched men stood on the trapdoor, the ropes were adjusted, when suddenly the bell of the jail was rung violently, and rapid pounding was heard on its massive gate.

The sheriff, supposing that the mob in the street was making a demonstration, paid no attention, and the next moment the murderers were launched into eternity.

But the ringing and the knocking continued. A policeman was sent to quiet the disturbance. Opening the door, in rushed a messenger from the Governor bringing a reprieve, but it came too late.

Only half a minute too late, but it might as well never have been sent at all.

How many thoughts must have crossed the minds of those concerned in carrying out the execution.

If only the Governor’s messenger had been dispatched earlier!

If only the messenger had hurried more, and arrived sooner!

If only the sheriff had attended to the ringing of the bell at the jail gate at once!

If! ah, if! IF ONLY!

There we must leave it. But we turn from the sad scene we have described to another case of far deeper importance. Whose case is that? you ask. We answer: It is your own. If careless, indifferent as to your soul’s salvation, we warn you.

The if we have been considering is sad enough, but what shall be the bitterness of the if, if you find yourself in a lost eternity?

The sheriff did not know of the reprieve. If he had, he would have been a murderer himself to have carried out the execution. The murderers did not know of the reprieve. If the? had, they would have welcomed it with intense relief and exultant joy.

But you? An eternal reprieve is offered you. Again and again and again salvation is pressed upon your acceptance.

But perhaps you do not believe there is a hell. Perhaps you think that if you live a straight life all will be well with you in the end.

I repeat, What will be the unutterable bitterness of your soul, if you have to say in the lake of fire something like the following: If only I had believed God’s word!

If only I had not trusted to my moral life, but to the Saviour!

If only I had believed there was a hell to shun!

If only I had believed that I was a lost sinner!

If only I had received the gospel!

If only I had believed salvation was by faith in God’s Son, and not in my own strivings!

If only I had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Oh! the anguish of those ifs—they surely will be the worm that never dies! May God save you from these terrible ifs.

Be warned, dear reader. Wake up from the lethargy of indifference. Believe no longer the devil’s lie that there is no hell.

Be in earnest. Seek God’s way of blessing. Does the earnest question come from your lips, “What must I do to be saved?” Hear the divine answer, and act upon it, here and now: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31.)

Could anything be plainer? And, mark you, it is God’s way of blessing. There is no other way.

Alas! Nowadays people are preaching many saviours. They will endeavor to put Christi no a level with Buddha and Confucius.

But it has been well said, that Christ will not take even the first place, He must have all the place.

How happily true this is, for He must have all the place since He has done all the work. There is no other Saviour.

Then, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” for there is no other Saviour, and no other way.

A. J. P.

The St. Abbs' Head Wreck

A BALTIC steamer making for a Forth port suddenly struck on a rock off St. Abbs’ Head, and foundered in twenty minutes. Two circumstances in connection with this incident are worthy of note.

First. The wreck was caused by the deflection of the needle of the compass produced by a thunderstorm, and thus the captain lost his bearings.

Second. The electric motor of the local lifeboat was out of order, and the boat could not be utilized in saving the passengers and crew.

You say these are simple accidents of everyday occurrence with nothing to command more than passing interest. I reply: Have these facts no lesson for the reader of these pages? Listen!

Your vessel is voyaging over life’s stormy wave. Have you a port in view? We talk glibly of “heaven.” Everybody in a way expects to “die and go to heaven.” No man imagines he may be overwhelmed on the rocks of eternal judgment by being deflected by the seductions of the world. Nor does he expect that the lifeboat of salvation will fail him in his dying hour.

In all tenderness and affection, I implore the reader to pause and consider the reality of all these things.

How well you may have begun life! With what prospects of prosperity and hopes of happiness was your course initiated! How the sunshine of success ever shone upon your path! How you were esteemed, valued, respected and sought after! But, alas! you got deflected. The lightning shafts of Satan turned your magnet from its pole. Your course was shaped for destruction. The wine cup, the card table, the theater, and the fetters of the “strange woman” turned you from the paths of righteousness, and now you find yourself a wreck, foundered and broken on the rocks of destruction with no prospect in view for either time or eternity, but the sad end of a misspent life. No lifeboat in view. No hope for eternity. No prospect but the blackness of darkness ever before you.

Do I address one so broken for the present, and so void of hope for the future? To such an one I would offer a simple word.

God’s compass can never be deflected—it ever points to Christ as the Saviour. God’s Lifeboat—Christ—is ever available. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ in all your wretchedness, and pleading only your ruined and lost condition, He will save you from the coming storm. He died to meet the sinner’s need. He suffered, “the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18.)

Once more I beseech you to come to Christ. Come as you are, come with no thought of self-improvement or merit, come in your need as a sinner. Own yourself as a lost sinner, and trust Him as the sinner’s Saviour. “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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 53:5, 6.) Repose your soul, therefore, upon the finished work of Christ, and salvation, full, present, and free, shall be yours.

C. S. R.

A Look

YOUTH of some sixteen summers might have been seen one Sunday morning, in the year 1849, wandering distractedly in the town of Colchester, bowed under a heavy burden. All his efforts to disengage himself had proved unavailing. From friend to friend, from place to place, he wandered, seeking relief, and finding none; no one could help him. Life became a misery; he was well-nigh driven to despair.

Who was this youth? Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

What was his burden? Sin; unforgiven sin, unnumbered transgressions, but over and above all, the sin of not believing in Jesus.

How did he get rid of his burden? In a look—yes—a look! Just listen to his own account.

“It pleased God in my childhood to convince me of sin. I lived a miserable creature, finding no hope, no comfort, and thinking that surely God would never save me. At last the worst came to the worst; I was miserable; I could do scarcely anything. My heart was broken in pieces. Six months did I pray—prayed agonizingly with all my heart, and never had an answer.

“I resolved that, in the town where I lived, I would visit every place of worship, in order to find out the way of salvation. I felt I was willing to do anything and be anything, if God would only forgive me. I set off, determined to go round to all the chapels.

“At last, one snowy day, it snowed so much I could not go to the place I had determined to go to, and I was obliged to stop on the road. It was a blessed stop to me. I found rather an obscure street, and turned down a court, and there was a little chapel. It was the Primitive Methodist Chapel.

“In that chapel there might be a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning—snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, or a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.

“Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid, as you would say. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason he had nothing else to say. The text was: ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ (Isa. 45:22.) He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus ‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look!’ Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just ‘look.’ Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look; you may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Any one can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, ‘Look unto Me.’ ‘Ay,’ said he in broad Essex, ‘many on ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there.... Look to Christ. It runs, “Look unto Me.”’”

“Then the good man followed up his text in this way: ‘Look unto Me—I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me—I am hanging on the cross. Look, I am dead and buried. Look unto Me—I rise again. Look unto Me—I ascend. I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. Oh, look unto Me! Look to Me!’

“When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the length of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few people present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.’

“Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued:

“‘And you will always be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death, if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’

“Then he shouted as only, I think, a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ!’

“I saw at once the way of salvation. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun, and I could have risen and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith, which looks alone to Him.

“Oh, that somebody had told me that before! Trust Christ, and you shall be saved. It was, no doubt, wisely ordered, and I must ever sing:

“‘E’er since by faith I saw the stream

Thy wounds supplied for me;

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.’”

Thus did Mr. Spurgeon relate how he was saved.

What did he see?

The mist of his own righteousness was dispersed—his eyes were opened. God “shined into his heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Just as the bitten Israelite looked to the serpent that was lifted up, so he looked to Christ, he saw the substitutionary work done for him completely; he saw the burden of his sins borne by Christ; he saw the punishment due to him endured by Another.

What was the effect of the look?

Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Peace—perfect peace—came to his heart. Oh, the happiness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

Did he cease looking?

By no means. Not only is a look at the Crucified One the secret of salvation, but looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, is the secret of growth in grace.

Look and Live.

Believe and be Saved.

Don’t be diverted from blessing by inquiry how or why, but just look. Reasonings and explanations will only confuse you. Don’t let what you know be disturbed by what you don’t know.

Look, man, look! that is your plain duty.

“Look unto Me, and be ye saved,” is the divine message.

And just as a simple look saves the soul, so simple faith avails at death. Mr. Spurgeon testified at the last: “My theology is simple; it may not be enough to live on; it may not be enough to preach; but it is enough to die on—it consists of four words:

‘Christ died for me.’”

C. B.

That Little Bit

“OH! tell them that little bit.”

Many of us have read of the dying man who gave this charge concerning his relatives to one who stood beside his deathbed.

He wanted them all to be told that which had come as such a surprising consolation to himself, viz., that Christ had died in his stead on Calvary’s Cross! that Christ had died in the stead of every sinner who turns to God, and that His blood alone gives them title and fitness for heaven.

Some time previously he had been stirred up to see that he was a sinner, with a lost eternity before him. The anxious questions: “How could he get right with God?” “What must he do to be saved?” led him to attend many and various places where the gospel was preached, in the hope of getting these momentous questions answered, but he was disappointed.

Even if, in some rare cases, exhortations were given to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and to trust in Him as Saviour, the precious facts on which these appeals were based—the atoning death and blood shedding of Christ on the sinner’s behalf were not fully explained.

What was his joy and surprise when at length he heard for the first time what he called “that little bit” —

“HOW God can save, yet righteous be”;

that it was not the ground of any worth or merit of his, but because—

“The sin was on the Saviour laid;

’Tis in His blood sin’s debt is paid.

Stern Justice can demand no more,

And Mercy can dispense her store.

The sinner who believes is free—

Can say, ‘The Saviour died for me’;

Can point to the atoning blood and say,

‘THIS made my peace with God.’”

F. A.

How an Infidel Was Cured

THERE lives in the United States at the present moment a servant of the Lord, who some years ago was an infidel lawyer in St. Louis. He was cured of his infidelity and converted to God in an unusual manner, as the following description shows.

“During the progress of a great revival, which he ridiculed, he was on his way to a drug store to procure some medicine for his sick child. It was a bright afternoon on a Lord’s day, and a street preacher was proclaiming the gospel to an immense crowd in one of the worst quarters of the city. The curiosity of the infidel was excited, and he stopped for a moment on the edge of the vast throng to see what the gathering of so many persons meant.

“Not a word the preacher uttered could he hear; but near him, and mounted on a wagon, stood a man who was pouring forth a volume of blasphemy and obscenity and hate, cursing the Bible and Christ and Christianity.

“The infidel noticed that he had quite a group of sympathizers around him, who laughed at his coarse jests, and loudly applauded his vile sentiments.

“But he also noticed that this group was made up of the very scum of society. Thieves, burglars, bloated drunkards, men and women and half-grown lads, upon whom the police kept a watchful eye, constituted the admiring audience of the foul wretch, who was flooding them with his tide of filth.

“The lawyer, after a while, bowed his head in utter shame, as he reflected that he was thoroughly identified with these disreputable sinners. It is true that he was an infidel on far higher grounds, resting his skepticism upon intellectual and scientific objections to the Bible; but he remembered that the arguments and witticisms of his class of thinkers dribbled down through the various strata of the community, becoming dirtier and more offensive at each successive descent, until they reappeared at the bottom in the disgusting shape that faced him from the wagon of the infidel orator.

“He walked away mortified; and without attending one of the revival meetings, without hearing a sermon, he renounced infidelity, became a Christian, and determined to devote the remainder of his days to the defense of the cause he had sought to destroy.”

It is rather fashionable just now to pose as intellectual, so intellectual indeed that we cannot receive the things so firmly believed by our forefathers. If any of our readers are afflicted with this shallow learning we affectionately ask them to mentally review the company in which they find themselves, and having done so to thoughtfully consider this one verse: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8.)

Make no mistake, my friend, there is indeed a God of love, who yearns over your soul, and has given His own Son up to the death of Calvary’s cross that forgiveness might be made a possibility for you; but the fact that He is love does not mean that He is weak and indifferent to sin. Far from it; He is light as well as love, righteous as well as merciful, and if you are filthy and go with the filthy here, you must not be surprised if it is said of you: “He which is filthy, let him be filthy still.” (Rev. 22:11.) Your portion in eternity would then be the lake of fire, with the filthy as your companions in despair.

Far removed from that dreadful abode is the home of light and love where Jesus is. It is indeed a home, for they who have their portion there dwell beneath a Father’s smile. Their only title to it is redemption; they have been washed from their sins in the Saviour’s blood. Into that place nothing that defiles will ever come.

Here in this world our destinies for the world to come must be fixed. In which company do you find yourself today, and when life is over in which place does your destiny lie? Shall it be heaven or hell?

F. B. H.

What the Old Book Says

THERE is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

Of course, few believe that it exists nowadays, but how awkward it will be for multitudes if it does.

GOD affirms that it does.

I believe God, and am moved to warn you as to the existence of a place of future punishment.

I see people now, in this world, suffering for their sins. Every night in our big cities, under the glare of the gaslight, under the glamor of tinsel, sin goes on. Aye, and side by side with the gratification of sin, can be seen the punishment of it, even in this life. Many a doctor has had to tell his patient that he or she was doomed to die, and if it had been his duty to tell the reason he would have put his finger on some SIN.

And shall it be that the punishment of sin is only on this side of the grave? It is punished this side of the grave—that is terribly patent, none can deny it—but shall it only be this side?

God says: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but AFTER THIS the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27.)

And He, also, tells us of certain classes who shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Granted that this is symbolical language in a book full of symbols, yet it in no wise lessens the awful warning. A symbol symbolizes something, and the more terrible the symbol the more terrible what is symbolized.

“Fire and brimstone” symbolize God’s terrible judgment against sin. The intensely solemn symbolical language makes the reality intensely solemn.

Further, these classes “shall have their part” in this lake.

The devil would make his victims believe that this is not eternal, that just as chaff is burned up, so the wicked will be annihilated.

But the language, “Shall have their part” (Rev. 21:8), affirms just the contrary.

Suppose a boy is ill at boarding school. He is ill, but convalescent. In three weeks’ time the school sports are to take place. The boy is eager to take his part in them. The doctor tells him that when the time comes he will be able to do so. This supposes the boy to be alive and able when the time comes, and HIS place apportioned to him.

Apply our illustration. “Shall have their part” supposes the individuals spoken of as living, and having their place, as living and sentient, apportioned to them.

The dying-down of the old-fashioned belief in hell, the increase of belief in Universalism and Annihilationism, as is preached from so many pulpits and advocated by such blasphemous systems as Millennial Dawnism, Seventh-Day Adventism, and the like, is largely responsible for the increase of sin observable on every hand. Restraint is set aside nowadays, whether it be the restraint of God on high, or of governments—ministers ordained by Him—below.

What classes, then, are to have “their part” in the burning lake.

“LIARS” are at the bottom of the list. Do you know a liar in your acquaintance—one who lies from January to December, from youth to old age, whose word cannot be trusted for one moment? How you despise such an one!

What lies are told—business lies, behind the counter, on the stock exchange, in the mart, diplomatic lies, in Parliament, on the hustings, &c., &c.

But there is worse than this.

“IDOLATORS” —what millions there are of these in the world! The cruel places of the earth are full of them—cannibals, practisers of every wickedness on the face of the earth; mothers who will throw their tender offspring under the wheels of Juggernaut; aye, and polished men and women who look down with pitying scorn on such superstitions, yet who, themselves, grovel, absolutely grovel, before the shrine of Mammon, or Bacchus, or pleasure. Yes, such shall have “their part” in the burning lake. God says it. Is it true?

But there is worse than this.

“SORCERERS!” Men and women who give themselves to the devil, whose bodies are taken possession of by his demons, who inflame every passion, and quicken unnatural powers of speech and influence, whether it takes the form as seen in the fakirs of India, the sorcerers of heathen lands, the mediums of spiritist circles in Europe and America and Australia, &c., the catch-penny palmists, astrologers, &c., or some religious fanatics, who profess to speak with tongues and who promulgate freakish fancies.

But there is worse than this.

“WHOREMONGERS!” We would fain throw a curtain over the picture, but the Spirit of God does not, and we dare not. But whilst uttering the warnings fearlessly, we refrain from enlarging upon the subject. Statistics tell the awful tale of the health of nations being undermined by this sin. It tells of a conscience seared, restraint thrown over. It carries in its train terrible retribution even in this life; but this class “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”

But there is worse than this.

“MURDERERS!” Aye, terrible crime. But many murderers do not expiate their crime, so far as man is concerned, on the scaffold. Many are murdered—the victims of slow murder, occasioned by unkindness, neglect, or persecution, people who do not die under the blow of the knife, the impact of the bullet, or the effects of deadly poison, but who die of broken hearts.

But there is worse than this.

“ABOMINABLE!” People who have not thrown off one but every form of restraint—men and women, human brutes, who are lost to any sense of shame, and who live entirely and alone for the selfish gratification of every vile desire of their wicked hearts.

But there is worse than this.

“Can this be possible?” you exclaim in astonishment.

Yes, dear friend, there is worse than this.

Follow me carefully. A wonderful event Chas taken place. God’s only begotten Son has been in this world. He has died on the cross. He has expressed God’s love to a sinful and perishing world.

Blind, indeed, must the man be who sees not the sun as it shines in its meridian splendor.

Deaf, indeed, must the man be who hears not the roar of the cannon, whose discharge makes the very ground shake, and wakens the echoes of the distant hills.

Aye, and blind and dull must the man be who sees and understands not the meaning of yonder cross of Calvary.

Alas! there are multitudes for whom it has no meaning, no voice, no message.

What class, then, can be worse than the “liars,” “idolators,” “sorcerers,” “whoremongers,” “murderers,” and “abominable”?

Why, it is just this very class.

“What class can it be?” you ask.

I will answer in one word— “UNBELIEVERS.”

True, all the classes described are unbelievers. Aye, and it is just because they are unbelievers that they are among these classes.

But there is a worse class even than this.

You exclaim in deeper astonishment, “What class can this be? I thought you had exhausted all the wickedness there could be.”

Aye, but there is a worse class than this “the FEARFUL.”

There is the unbeliever. He believes not. Religion does not trouble him. The theater, the cinema, the park, are good enough for him on Sundays. He wants none of your churches, your preachings, your Bibles, your tracts.

There is the fearful. They would like to be saved. They see the plan of salvation. They recognize that the Bible is true. But they are afraid—afraid of persecution, afraid of the sneer and scoff, afraid of the consequences, and so they turn away from the light and stifle their convictions.

There was once such a man. The Spirit of God strove with him. He was afraid of the consequences. He jumped behind a wall one day, and prayed an awful prayer, “Oh! God, take away these convictions.”

His awful prayer was answered. On a deathbed he lamented his utter callousness and indifference. He would have welcomed the convictions his prayer had driven away. He died, wailing, “Oh! you awful prayer. Oh! you awful prayer.”

Are you one of this class— “fearful”? God give you to be in earnest as never before, AND DECIDE NOW.

Listen to our text. It is from God’s word. They are God’s words. Will you pay heed?

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolators, and all liars, shall have THEIR PART in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8.)

Read what God says about belief and unbelief: “He that believeth on Him [the Lord Jesus] 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.)

“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.)

Such verses speak plainly. Their language could not be more direct and solemn. The way of life and death is put before you. Make your choice, dear reader.

But remember the issues are eternal. It is not a matter that can be rectified once you have reached the bourne from whence no traveler returns—once the great gulf is fixed.

Christ has died for you. The Spirit pleads with you. God is waiting to receive the repentant prodigal. Come just as you are, and He will receive you. Come now.

A. J. P.

Good News

THE gospel, as the reader doubtless knows, is God’s good news concerning Christ. And yet to how few is the message of the Cross really glad tidings. In spite of the civilization and progress, which are the boast of the age, men are everywhere still crying out, “Who will show us any good?”

Multitudes go stumbling through life vaguely conscious of some great need. They have proved that the things of the world cannot satisfy. They refuse to be blinded by the jaunty optimism, which is so popular with those who think it a virtue to live in a fool’s paradise. They have everything, so far as outward things go, to make life pleasant, yet they are desperately unhappy. Their health may even suffer, for an uneasy conscience is often responsible for weariness of mind and sickness of body.

There are others whose every hope in this world is ruined. Evil surroundings drag them down. Their life is a long-drawn-out misery, and the future beyond the grave is dark as the frown of God. They are tired of earth, yet not fit for heaven; weary of life, but afraid to die.

And yet these men will turn away from the very One who alone can meet their need. What they need is the forgiveness of their sins, and “sin forgiven is dawn of heaven.” But they will go to anyone sooner than to the Lord Jesus Christ, and try anything sooner than His glorious gospel. How strange! Does it not prove that “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Cor. 4:3), to the unbelievers whose minds have been blinded by the god of this age so as to shut out the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ?

We were made by God and for God, and yet men will persist in remaining away from Him through an evil heart of unbelief that revolts from the living God. They know from the experience of others that the gospel when truly received gives rest to the mind, peace to the conscience, and satisfaction to the heart; they have tried in vain a thousand things to quench their soul’s thirst; why don’t they try the gospel? WHY DON’T THEY BELIEVE GOD’S GOOD NEWS?

E. A.

Better Than a Million Pounds

QUITE recently an airman left Hendon, in Middlesex, to fly to Paris. On his journey he was often enveloped in either fog or cloud. A heavy wind opposed his flight. These difficulties caused him to lose his bearings. He drifted a good deal out of his course, and to add to his anxieties his petrol was nearly exhausted. It seemed to him that he had taken his last flight. In his own words he summed up the situation, “It is finished now. It is all over.”

Unless he sighted land at once, there was nothing for him but to fall, machine and all, into the sea, and most probably perish.

Whilst in this terrible predicament his eager eyes caught sight of a dark patch, and to his relief he discovered it was the coast of France.

In referring to this joyful discovery afterward he used the words: “I would rather have had that sight just then than seen a million in gold laid at my feet.”

No attempt has been made to give an exact account of the flight in every detail, but care has been taken that in the above particulars no alteration of any material fact has been made.

The incident is so striking, and is so full of instruction, that surely no apology is needed for introducing it as an illustration.

Men are being carried along in the flight of time. In a “sort of way” men pretend that they desire to reach a certain shore. They are bound to meet with many clouds and much fog. It is often difficult to see the way. It is a common complaint with men that many unexpected things occur to disarrange their plans. Schemes are worked out. Projects are devised. Contrivances are prepared. But unexpected hindrances arise, and much ends in failure.

There is more even than this, for whilst all the preparations and projects are maturing the one most important necessity is being exhausted. Life—like the airman’s petrol—is becoming exhausted, and no certain land is in sight.

In the case before us the airman retained his senses, and he realized his danger, and was thankful beyond words for his escape. When he saw the land he did his utmost to reach it, and on landing he remarked, “Half an hour’s delay, and I had been drowned.”

Think of this! Saved by half an hour! It might even have been by minutes.

In higher matters men seem often to lose their senses, and they drift hopelessly about until they fall into the woeful abyss, and perish forever.

When the airman saw the place of safety it was more to him than the possession of untold gold! Had he fallen into the water, no gold could have saved him. His life was at stake, and the shore meant everything to him at that moment.

Is there no lesson for you and me in this man’s experience?

Do we know whither we are hastening as we are carried along on the flight of Time?

There is a flying machine which is absolutely safe. It is thus described: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isa. 40:31.) “The way of an eagle in the air” is wonderful (Prov. 30:19); but the way the Lord leadeth His people is more wonderful still. A flying machine may wear out or become damaged, but the Lord reneweth the strength of His people, “like the eagle’s” (Psa. 103:5), and “the eternal God is their refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27), therefore they shall never utterly fail.

Those who wait upon the Lord may sometimes find themselves amidst a cloud of difficulties, and they may often seem befogged, but nevertheless their ears shall hear a Word behind them saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isa. 30:21.)

The airman had to watch his compass, and look to his steering, but even then the winds carried him out of his course, for the fog confused him; but the believer is bidden to look “unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith,” and to “run with patience the race set before us.” (Heb. 12:1-2.)

The airman hoped to get to land when he started his voyage; but believers KNOW they shall, for the promise is sure and steadfast, and they are connected with Him, their Forerunner, who has entered into heaven, whither He has prepared a place for them (see Heb. 6:17-21, John 14:1-14), and He will draw them safely to it.

When the airman was in danger he knew that no golden sovereigns could help him; and when men come to realize that their soul is in imminent danger of destruction they learn that no money can buy salvation. They prove the truth of the Lord’s words: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36, 37.)

When a man is in earnest after salvation, when he wants to be certain that he will reach the heavenly shore, then the least sight of the Lord Jesus as the Saviour able and willing to save him is worth more to him than “a million of gold laid at his feet.”

Reader! Are you resting alone on the Lord Jesus for salvation? Consider the question. Examine yourself and where your hopes are, and never rest until you can say in reality and truth, by the witnessing of the Holy Spirit, “He loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20), and He has prepared a place for me that I may be with Him forever. (See John 14:3.)

P. I. B.

Just as Clear

CHRISTIAN gentleman was sitting by the bedside of a dying friend, a successful business man, and a humble believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same room was the family lawyer, who had been employed in drawing up the will of the dying merchant, and receiving various instructions as to the disposition of his property.

The lawyer was not a converted man, and for his benefit the two friends were conversing in audible tones.

“Mr. A., said the visitor, you have often expressed yourself confidently with reference to the future, but do you not sometimes have doubts and fears as to it?”

“No,” replied the dying Christian, “I do not; why should I? The Word of God says: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ Now I do believe on Him; I trust Him as my Saviour. Can there be any doubt, then, about my future?”

The lawyer was evidently listening. As he and the other gentleman left the house together, he referred to the conversation, saying: “I never saw anything like it. Mr. A. is JUST AS CLEAR in spiritual matters as he always was in business matters!”

“Just as clear.” Yes, this is what the Christian is entitled to be, and what God would have him be, and what the Scriptures enable him to be.

In the ordinary matters of life it is well to be clear as to what we have to do, how to do it, and the result of doing it. To have one’s affairs in a “muddle” is to court disaster, To have no clear idea as to what one is about means, in nine cases out of ten, failure.

How much more important is it that in spiritual matters we should be clear what we are about! Yet how many are utterly careless as to how they stand, utterly negligent of their eternal interests.

The worldling; the man who has never opened the door of his heart to Christ; the woman whose religion consists in nothing further than a formal observance of certain ceremonies—these may all be perfectly clear what their end will be: “Whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Cor. 11:15.)

And he who has put his trust in the Saviour need not lack the clear certainty of what the future will bring for him. God does not keep His children in doubt as to how they stand with regard to Him. He has made ample provision that all who have fled to Christ for refuge may know that they are saved forever. This assurance is given by the simple witness of the Scriptures, speaking, as they do, so emphatically and unequivocally on the subject.

For instance, there is the well-known passage which affirms that “all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:39.) May not one whose faith rests wholly upon Christ receive the assurance of his justification from this positive statement? If he accepts the words as the very words of God (which indeed they are), can he be otherwise than clear as to the fact of his clearance from guilt in God’s sight?

Take another Scripture: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” (John 3:36.) With his eyes resting upon such a plain, unmistakable utterance of the Word of God, how can one who believes on His Son be otherwise than clear as to his present possession of everlasting life?

It was upon passages of Scripture such as these that the dying merchant staked his confidence. It was their sure and unmistakable witness that gave him the certainty that seemed so remarkable to the lawyer, and that led him to exclaim: “Mr. A. is JUST AS CLEAR in spiritual matters as he always was in business matters!”

And why should not you possess the same clear certainty? God’s gifts are free to all! No hard conditions are imposed. If you really want the priceless boon of salvation and eternal life, you may have it. You have but to come, a sinner confessed, empty and helpless, good-for-nothing and hell-deserving, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

By His atoning work upon the cross He satisfied the claims of justice. Justice will not stand in the way of your receiving mercy. He who died at Calvary now lives again, and all power is His—power to save, power to bless.

There is no time like the present. Why not face this great question just now, and get it settled forever through taking that one step, the step to Christ?

H. P. B.

Your Last End

THE cemetery situated on the outskirts of the chief town of Majorca—one of the Mediterranean islands was simply thronged with people.

It was the late afternoon of Sunday, November 2, called, according to the calendar of the Romish Church, “All Souls’ Day.” The vast majority of the crowds, who wended their way thither, carried candles of various lengths and sizes in their hands, so that, planting them on the graves of their departed loved ones, they might light them as the sun went down, and pray for the repose of their souls. By these means they hoped to help in the work of extricating their souls from the flames of purgatory, according to the superstition of the Romanists.

Not everyone of the thousands that thronged the cemetery was imbued with this superstition, however; some of us jostled our way along the crowded and dusty road leading in that direction, carrying tracts and copies of the gospels instead of candles, and turned our footsteps into a small enclosure walled off from the large Catholic cemetery and elevated slightly above it, where the few non-Romanist folk of that large town found their last resting-place.

In that quiet corner an odd assortment of people had been laid—two or three British sailors, drowned off the coasts; a few other foreigners, who in different capacities had lived in those parts; some local atheists, including a notorious freethinker, to whose memory a large column had been erected right in the very center of the plot; and over yonder a large grave, very plainly ornamented, but which attracted far more attention than all the rest put together. By that grave we took up our stand, and there for fully two hours was the Gospel preached by word of mouth, and distributed in printed form to many hundreds of Romanists who came to gaze with curiosity on that grave.

As darkness fell it was a weird scene. Dark figures flitted amongst the thousand lights that twinkled in the still evening air, and the murmur of innumerable voices fell upon the ear; the whole aptly illustrating the dark depths of superstition into which even nominal Christians may sink. On the other side of us rose the column, ill-kept and somewhat decayed, yet bearing quite legible inscriptions setting forth in fulsome and exaggerated language the excellent features in the character of the deceased skeptic. Here was a reminder of infidelity and rationalism in its pride and self-sufficiency. Between these two sights—one conjuring up visions of the horrors of a purgatory which only exists in a superstitious imagination, the other without any vision at all, save of a hopeless death leap into the dark unknown—stood the grave of which we have spoken. What accounted for its attractiveness?

It consisted of plain paving stones with an iron railing round on three sides; on the fourth side stood the headstone, firmly fixed by being partly let into the wall. On this was carved a brief inscription, without names or other details, stating that here had been laid the bodies of some Christians, who had lived and died in the faith of the Lord Jesus, and in the hope of His coming again. Above this, standing in a recess carved out of the stone, and covered with glass, stood a large print Testament open, so that its words of life might be read by those who cared.

A tombstone such as that in an English cemetery would excite no interest. It was far otherwise, however, in a land where the Bible is a sealed book, and the Gospel is practically unknown. In this country the open Bible is so common that its message and warnings are often, alas! ignored.

Reader, you will not eternally perish from ignorance of the Gospel, but because knowing it you have despised it. Why is it that you do not appreciate its value?

Are you fascinated by the twinkling lights of superstition? What good can you derive from them? Superstition may offer you an occasional gleam of truth, but so mixed with darkness that it will only fill your mind with vague hopes and fears, and propose vain ceremonies and dead works as the way of relief. It can give you no settled peace. Or do you prefer the unrelieved gloom of infidelity? You may try to shut out all thought of God in order that you may believe in the deity of man, but such ideas will afford you very cold comfort when you come to die. Death knocks the bottom out of infidelity, but that, alas! is neither the time nor the place for getting right with God.

At this moment, however, as you read these words, the light of the Gospel is shining for you, and the book of truth is open that you may read it. You will find within its pages words which will reveal you to yourself, until like Job you will cry, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 40:4; 42: 6.)

You will find also words that reveal God Himself to you, and the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the value of that redemption work which He accomplished upon Calvary for sinners, and receiving the Saviour in faith you will become a possessor of peace with God.

Oh! that we could tell you all that it means; the joy of it, the liberty of it. Oh! that we could persuade you to seek the Saviour now, at this instant, so that the wealth of God’s salvation may become your very own.

In conclusion, let me quote one or two plain texts of Scripture for your benefit.

“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6.)

“There is none other name [the Lord Jesus] under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12.)

“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.)

And, above all, let me give you that golden verse, used in blessing to untold thousands: “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.)

F. B. H.

A Catholic Lady's Anxiety

1 WISH to tell you how the Lord led me. It I was in one of the many houses constructed along the beach for the rich of the Island, where the greater number spend their summers. In these mansions, it is almost impossible to speak with owners, as when one calls at the door and offers gospel books for sale, the servant replies that his master has plenty and does not wish for anymore.

Seeing the difficulty of reaching these gentle folks, and feeling what a pity it was to leave them without warning them of their need of being prepared to meet their God, I decided that although it was rather a daring matter, I would present myself to them as one who had something special about which to speak.

Accordingly, in one of the most beautiful houses, I was conducted by the servant to the drawing room, and asked to wait five or ten minutes until her mistress came in. Looking about me, I noticed what fine and pretty pictures of the Virgin Mary were to be seen in this very elegant room. Most assuredly, I thought, I shall have to deal with a very religious lady, so I asked God for wisdom and the help of His Holy Spirit that the Gospel might be accepted.

When the lady entered, I arose and politely asked her to pardon me for troubling, but the article I carried was such that I had decided to speak with the owner of the house, as it was impossible to make the servants understand its value. The lady, who appeared to be about sixty years old, at first seemed surprised, but she took the New Testament that I offered her, and said, very pleasantly: “It is strange, but this book is different from the religious books I have seen, and besides this, it is not authorized by the Church, and any such book I do not desire to have.”

“It is different,” I replied, “because it is God’s Book, and written under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”

Other observations were made by her, to which I replied that I had no doubt whatever that the Book was divine, and that it would bring light and blessing to her soul.

“No, no,” she answered, “I cannot. I have ‘The Life of Christ,’ written by a Bishop; ‘The Names of Christ,’ by Saint Ignacio Loyola, and many other lives of Saints. Come and see what religious books I have.”

She led me into another room where one could distinguish very little except images, some with lights burning before them. A bookcase full of religious books, and all, she said, had been collected by the advice of her confessor. She said, “You see I am very religious. I do all my priest tells me, and that is why I cannot buy your Book, because I do not know if he would be pleased.”

I felt the burden, and thought from the depths of my heart, how can I teach this poor soul the true way of salvation? How could I leave her in that state without telling her what the Lord Jesus desired was her heart, and not signs of religion. Believing that the Lord had given me the conviction to speak to her, I said, “Dear Madam, forgive my intrusion, but I feel I must tell you clearly what Jesus the Saviour requires of you.”

I then began to read several verses from the third chapter of John, and explained that although this man was so religious, yet Jesus told him it was necessary to be born again. With the Lord’s help I further explained that all was useless unless we became new creatures through Christ Jesus. I also turned to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, and while reading of the wise and foolish virgins, I noticed that tears ran down my listener’s cheeks.

“Oh, sir,” she said, “are you a Jesuit or a modern Catholic?”

I replied, “No, Madam, I am an Evangelical Christian, saved by the Lord Jesus and washed in His precious blood.”

“How is it that you have this assurance?” she asked.

“Because the Gospel made me feel the burden of my sin and the impossibility of gaining my own salvation. In the New Testament I saw the words, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor’ (Matt. 11:28); ‘Though your sins be as scarlet,’ &c. (Isa. 1:18); ‘He that believeth on Him is not condemned,’ &c. (John 3:18); ‘Being justified by faith,’ &c. (Rom. 5:1); ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7).”

After reading these texts and various others, the lady, meantime weeping and showing signs of restlessness, exclaimed, “Oh, how I wish I had never heard one word of this. You have brought such black doubt to my heart.”

“Thank the Lord that you have heard now,” I replied. “If you do not accept this Word, which is the word of Scripture, your remorse will be greater for having despised the salvation that God Himself has prepared for you. The Holy Spirit has been speaking to your heart, and no excuse will be of any avail in that Day.”

Before I finished speaking these words, she went and stood before an image of the Virgin, saying, “Oh! Virgin of my heart, draw my soul out of this state of tribulation.”

“Madam,” I said, “why not go to the Lord Jesus, who is the only One able to deliver you, as He did Peter, when walking on the water? Even His own mother desired that we should do what He commanded us (See John 2:5). And Jesus tells us to forsake all and follow Him. Madam, I believe most assuredly that God Himself brought me here and put the desire into my heart to speak to you as I have. Accept His invitation now and ‘the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your heart and mind.’ (Phil. 4:7.)”

Our conversation lasted still longer. May the Lord bless her and give her the Light which she so much craves. This is what I pray for, and I hope one day to see her among those “washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

~~~

The above true narrative was written by a servant of Christ who labored for years in the Canary Islands until he was called to his rest in heaven, not many months ago.

The reader may wonder why the lady should hesitate to turn to Christ for salvation. But allow me to ask, Have you taken this important step yet?

Catholic or Protestant, educated or ignorant, it matters not; all need a Saviour, and there is none but Christ.

To be born in a so-called Christian land, and to be brought up with a measure of acquaintance with the outlines of Christian teaching, avails nothing. Without Christ there is nothing but eternal loss, and the only way to gain Christ as your Saviour is to trust Him fully, and stake all your prospects for eternity on the efficacy of His atoning blood to cancel your guilt.

H. P. B.

The Three Ships

(An Allegory.)

YOUNG man determined to embark on a voyage. It was fraught with great and important results to his whole career. He made his way to the landing stage to board the vessel, which he found all ready to sail, the good ship “Today.”

He had lingered on his way, and so hid missed the preceding boat, which after it had sailed was commonly called “Yesterday.”

But, before starting on his voyage, the young man thought he would take one last look round the old quayside, with its variety of objects to attract attention. So he wandered round. Once or twice he had an uneasy feeling that the time was fast speeding, but some new sight quickly claimed his attention. Besides, he reminded himself, how stupid he was, if it came to the worst, and he missed the “Today,” he could proceed by the “Tomorrow,” which was soon to arrive.

The day wore on, and wearied with his diversions he sat down to rest. Soon he was fast asleep. Even in his slumbers he was not at rest. He dreamed that he saw the ship depart. Ah, well, there was still the “Tomorrow”!

Soon the stars peeped out one by one. The moon shed her silvery light over the scene, but the would-be voyager still slept on. Presently great clouds drifted across the sky, and that night a terrible storm arose.

In the annals of the quayside it is recorded, “The ‘TOMORROW’ never arrived.”

Reader, desiring to be saved, meaning to take the salvation so freely offered you, so vital to your soul’s eternal welfare, is there not a word of warning in this parable for you? How important in all the affairs of this life to be in time. But, above all, how vastly important to be in time about this great question of your soul’s salvation.

The place you are in need not hinder your being saved. Men have been saved at the plow, on the ocean, in the railway train, on the battlefield. There is no hindrance to your being saved at once, except that which arises from your own delay.

If you are thinking that tomorrow you will decide, and you are in danger of relapsing into your former sinful slumbers, then God’s word meets you with its plain and earnest warning: “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Prov. 27:1.)

“Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2.)

May the deep solemnity of the present moment strike home in power to your conscience, and quicken your acceptance of the great salvation of the only Saviour.

W. B—d.

Can We Do Without the Gospel?

“RELIGION is all right for those who cannot live straight without it.” So we have been told on more than one occasion. Voltaire thought that the mob needed a religion to keep down their evil passions through fear. Without religion the lower classes could not be controlled, and would break out into insurrection. And he was careful not to allow Atheism to be talked about in the hearing of his servants, because, as he said, he did not want to be murdered.

But what about those who can live straight without a religion? Well, they are the very ones who need the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may live straight as between man and man, but the best of us is but a sinner before God. The gospel of Christ, we repeat, not any human religion, however well patronized by the world of respectable people, is needed by ALL.

The Lord Jesus said to a very upright, influential, cultured, and, above all, religious man, “Ye must be born again.” What Nicodemus needed was not any of the world’s religion; he had quite enough of that already, and it did not satisfy him; he needed a new life, eternal life, to be obtained by receiving Him who was, and still is, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Unsaved, but respectable, and perchance religious reader, if Nicodemus needed Christ, so do you. Religion is not Christ. Respectability will not save you. Good conduct will not blot out past disobedience. An upright life in the eyes of men will not obtain the forgiveness of a single sin. By reason of temperament, education, and surroundings you may appear better morally than multitudes who have lacked these advantages, but as to your guiltiness before God there is no difference.

A single sin is sufficient to bring us in guilty before God. Until we trust in Christ for a present and personal salvation we are continuing under God’s displeasure. “He that believeth not is condemned already.” What we need is Christ. If we make a Christ of our morality we will eternally perish, as surely as if we were trusting to our very sins for salvation. Your decency is damning you while it is keeping you from the Saviour. You may be able to live straight without religion, but you are on the road to hell if you are without Christ. “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.)

E. A.

Not Now! Not Now!

“THEN you are one of those people that think that if they are once saved they are always saved!” said a man in the garb of the Salvation Army, to a fellow traveler on the M— platform.

“And so would you be, if you believed God’s Word,” was the reply. “I will give you a verse to think over: ‘For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.’” (Rom. 5:10.)

The other, however, evidently thinking it showed a more humble spirit to doubt God’s Word than to gladly believe it, went his way, shaking his head at the “dangerous doctrine” set forth in the plain verse of Scripture repeated to him by his fellow traveler.

“Not now! Not now!” were the hopeless words of a dying man, in answer to my question, “Are your feet on the Rock? Do you know Christ as your Saviour?” “Not now! Not now!”

“What do you mean by ‘Not now’? Was there ever a time when you came to Christ as a lost sinner and your sins were forgiven?”

“Yes, there was,” he replied earnestly; “and I was very happy and went on well for a time; but gradually I got cold and indifferent, and then got away altogether, and now I’m lost!”

“No, indeed you are not, not if you have once come to Christ and have got the forgiveness of your sins. Christ says, ‘I give unto them [believers in the Lord] eternal life; and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.’ (John 10:28.) Then you remember those last verses in the eighth chapter of Romans: ‘For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’”

The poor dying backslider turned in contrition to God, who graciously used these scriptures to restore unto him, not his salvation, which he could never lose, but the joy of salvation, which we soon lose if we do not “lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us,” and which we only regain by confessing our wrongdoing to God; for “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9.)

The poor man’s last words, a week or two after, were: “Oh! the blessedness of knowing I am saved.”

Nothing is more clearly set forth in Scripture than the eternal security of every believer in Christ; therefore, “the blessedness of knowing” that he is saved should be the enjoyed privilege of every child of God, not only saved now, but saved forever.

Alas! how many Christian lives are robbed of their continued happiness and usefulness by this unscriptural “saved today and lost tomorrow” teaching! How many awakened souls, perhaps just struggling into the light of Christianity, are hindered by seeing those go back again to the world who once confessed Christ as Saviour, causing them to question, “Is there anything in it after all?”

The salvation of the sinner is the work of Christ alone; it is, therefore, clearly impossible that a subject of that work could ever be lost. What He does could never fail. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6.)

F. A.

No Time to Think

A FRIEND of mine offered a tract to a business gentleman. Giving a quick glance at it, he replied, “No, thanks, I have no time to think about such things.”

My friend earnestly replied, “You have no time to think about such things! Be warned! God will give you ETERNITY to think about them.”

Yes, eternity to think about such things. Better, far better, think about them in time, for God says, “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2)

Reader, have you found time to think about these things? If not, find time at once, whilst opportunity is yours.

A. J. P.

Saved at Last

LATE one evening a young man might have been seen hovering near a Lincolnshire farmhouse. To judge by his clothing, he was well-nigh destitute.

He had lived a somewhat reckless life up to this point. He had Christian parents, but had evidently cared little for their advice—hence his present position.

He ventured to approach the house, and asked if there was any prospect of work. The farmer looked him up and down, and said to him very plainly, “My man, if you die in your sins, you will go to hell.” This sounded unkind and harsh, but God was in it, as the sequel shows. The farmer’s wife, a kind, motherly woman, saw the plight the man was in, and at once brought him something to eat.

Just a fortnight later the farmer, who had almost forgotten the incident, noticed a shabby looking man following him almost wherever he went as he did his usual round at the neighboring market town of H—. At last he became somewhat irritated at seeing this man continually shadowing him. He thought, “What will these farmer friends of mine think? They will surely say that man must have been working for me, and that I have not paid him.”

Just as he was about to step into his trap, and leave the hotel yard, the man came up and said, “Please, sir, may I speak to you?”

Mr. H —, still feeling somewhat annoyed, said, “Why do you want me?”

The man told how that ever since that night when he had spoken to him, he had had no rest, but was in continual fear of dying in his sins.

It was a great joy to our friend H— to point this awakened sinner to a Saviour in whom he could put his heart’s confidence.

The light broke in upon him, and he was so overjoyed that he was willing and anxious to return and work for the farmer just for his food, and without wages; but the farmer was wise, and thought it better for him to return alone, and he promised him nothing as to the future.

This happened on Friday. On the following Monday the man was loading hay, when suddenly the horse gave a start, pitching the poor fellow to the ground, resulting in his death.

Some years after this our farmer friend, H—, had a number of pea-pickers working in his fields. One day they were stopped in their work by a thunderstorm, and took shelter in the barn. Mr. H—, like the out-and-out Christian that he is, thought that this would prove a good opportunity to speak to them of the Saviour. So he quickly turned his steps in that direction, and, opening the door, found them engaged with the ordinary topics of the day.

He asked if he might tell them a story, and, gaining their ear, he told them what I have narrated, and possibly more. When he had finished an old man by the door rose, and with tears running down his face said, “You do not know what comfort your words have given me today. That man was my son. His mother and myself have prayed for his conversion for years, and now to know that our wayward son was saved at last is almost more than I can bear.”

The two thanked God together, and I will leave the reader to guess how delighted the old man was to carry the news just received to his aged and sorrowing wife.

And now a word with my unsaved reader. Why have I narrated this story? My object is your eternal blessing. I would warn the unrepentant of the solemn fact that the Lord’s words are still true: “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24.)

Let the foregoing true incident be both warning and encouragement to you. Warning, because you are in similar danger to the young man of whom we have written, and may be as near your end; and, if out of Christ, what an end! Encouragement, because the same Saviour, who met and saved this wanderer, waits to welcome and save you. Whatever your past may be, whatever your condition now, we can with confidence say, COME. He has said, “Come unto Me,” and, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” He means it, and longs to welcome even you.

Be wise in time. Throw down your arms of rebellion. Yield to the Saviour. You will never regret it. He, who saves, will keep right on to the end.

C. J. R.

The Way to Peace

POLITICIANS are very busy. The times ahead of us promise to be stirring in no ordinary degree. Every thinking man feels that we are living upon the edge of a volcano, which must before long burst forth in death-dealing destruction.

Walking along the streets, it has been impossible for some time to avoid seeing such phrases as “Grave crisis” — “Ominous speech by Mr.—” — “Difficult situation” —when one passed the different newsagents’ shops, with their row of noticeboards.

Today, however, words of a more hopeful nature caught my eye, and arrested me. There they stood in large type:

“THE WAY TO PEACE.”

My eye rapidly ran down the contents bill, hoping to glean therefrom what the way might be. Yes! there at the foot, in smaller type, was an explanation, which put the matter into a nutshell—into the one word—

“COMPROMISE.”

“Exactly what I thought!” was the mental observation I made; an observation probably made by a few millions more beside. Peace, whether national, or political, or industrial, is generally reached, if at all, by that method.

The reason of this is fairly obvious. If men quarrel, whether in nations, or parties, or as individuals, both cannot be right though both may be wrong. Each, of course, believes himself to be right, and loudly proclaims it, yet leaving his opponent utterly unconvinced. What then? Why, then, failing any authoritative pronouncement from outside, which settles the rights and wrongs of the case, and failing also, as is generally the case, an overwhelming preponderance of power on one side so that its view—whether right or wrong!—may be enforced, the only course left is to patch up as decent a peace as possible by mutual concessions. Thus it comes to pass that compromise becomes the highway to peace in human affairs.

But this is not so in divine affairs! No. When it is a question of sin being forgiven, and of obtaining peace with God, no thought of compromise enters. To think that the gospel plan for forgiveness and peace is that God will kindly waive the sterner demands of His righteous law, and be content with as little as possible of His due, and that the sinner will reform so as to restrain the baser desires of his nature and do the best possible he can, is to make a far-reaching and fatal mistake.

Are you interested in this matter? I pray to God that you may be, my reader. Implicated in it you certainly are, and I hope interested as well. Depend upon it, when present political issues are settled in some fashion, and have by lapse of time dwindled into insignificance, the very lapse of time which causes them to dwindle into practically nothing will only bring up these divine matters, looming more largely than ever upon your horizon. As your life steadily shortens, eternity approaches, and the mountain of your sins accumulates, with the day of reckoning beyond.

Yes, you need peace with God, and need it badly. You will never get it by way of compromise, however. As to this matter, we have pronouncements both authoritative and infallible. God himself has spoken. His word plainly declares: “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:10.)

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23.)

These facts are self-evident and indisputable. I hope you do not challenge them. I have only heard of one man who did so—claiming to be an exception to the rule—and he was a fraud, for it was soon discovered he had already been in prison for attempting to murder his wife! I don’t want you to strike up a partnership of denial with him.

You admit the truth of those words. They are authoritative indeed. They clearly establish this, that in the matter of the warfare that has come in between your soul and God by reason of sin, God is altogether right and you are altogether wrong.

Moreover, with God there is power which is altogether overwhelming. You and I are as nothing before Him. Said Job: “How should man be just with God? If he will contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?” (Job 9:2-4.) And so say we, if we are wise.

But, oh wonder of wonders! The almighty God, who laughs at compromise, has exercised His omnipotence in mercy to the saving of the guilty. In the lowly Jesus of Nazareth we behold “Emmanuel... God with us” (Matt. 1:23), and while all His life was an expression of divine compassion for men, His death upon the cross was the supreme declaration of divine love, which would bear to the full, without compromise, the awful weight of judgment and curse, which we sinners deserved.

“Inscribed upon the cross we see,

In shining letters, ‘God is love,’”

but in equally shining letters stands out that other scripture statement— “God is light.”

How can this be? How can grace save a sinner in the presence of the righteousness which condemns him? How can love bring nigh and embrace those who are exposed as filthy by the light?

The cross of Jesus is the solution of this problem. The watchword there was— “No compromise!” Sins were not shelved or slurred over, but dragged into the light, and unsparingly condemned, whilst Incarnate Love, in the person of the Son of God, shouldered the whole burden, and expiated ALL to the satisfaction of God.

Will you rest your soul for salvation upon the value of that atoning work accomplished by the Lord Jesus upon the cross? Will you accept Him to be your Saviour and Lord? Then you shall be as safe as His work can make you, and peace with God shall be yours—SOLID PEACE, because based not upon a patched-up compromise, but upon a divinely-reached settlement.

And remember that if ever God intended to compromise upon this matter of sin, He would have done so when His own Son was the Sinbearer. The fact that He did not do so then makes it absolutely certain that He will not do so when, in the day of wrath, He casts sinners for their own unforgiven sins into the lake of fire.

“The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable... and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8.)

Once there, my friend, you will be there Forever. God save you from it.

F. B. H.

The World's Ten Thousand Ways

MONTGOMERY, in one of his poems, wrote:

“What is the world? A wildering maze,

Where sin has tracked TEN THOUSAND WAYS,

Her victims to ensnare;

All broad, and winding, and aslope,

All tempting with perfidious hope,

All ending in despair.”

What truth there is in these lines! Certainly the world can boast of variety. The ways that sin has prepared for its votaries to tread are indeed ten thousand in number. There is something to suit all tastes. But all these various and countless ways have certain features in common.

(1) They are all aslope. In pursuing any one of them the path is always downward, and the traveler goes with ever-increasing speed. Every step gives an impetus to the next step.

(2) They all hold out a perfidious hope, a hope that can never be realized, an ambition that can never be satisfied, an object that can never be gained, a will-o’-the-wisp that does but mock and delude its victims.

(3) They all end in despair. Some ways are strewn with flowers; others are beset with briars. Some are smooth and easy to walk in; others are rough and wearisome. But all the world’s ways have one ending: despair.

Not the poet only, but the Bible, speaks of the world’s various highways, so that in speaking of them we are using the language, not of fancy or fiction, but of sober fact. Let us see what names the Word of God gives to some of these smiling and seductive ways.

The “stubborn way” (Judg. 2:19). Here walk the men who will not listen to the warning voice that would bid them halt. “Is not even man free to do what he pleases?” they ask. “Who will dictate to us? We will choose the way that we prefer.” And with stubborn and willful deafness they turn from the echoes of the gospel, harden their hearts, and pursue their chosen course.

The “old way” (Job 22:15). A way trodden since antediluvian days, when men were filling the world with their arts and their inventions, and trying to make themselves happy in independence of God. They “said unto God, Depart from us,” Are not the crowds that throng this great highway to destruction as great as in the days of long ago? Are there not many that appreciate God’s gifts, but do not want Him? Many that enjoy the good things that He has bestowed on them, but cannot bear to think of God Himself?

The “way of lying” (Psa. 119:29). Many today have little regard for truth. To tell a lie is no sin in their eyes. To affirm what is false is to them an excusable device under certain circumstances. And as to the truth of God, they are far more ready to listen to the voice of falsehood, the voice that bids them believe anything and everything save the Word of Him who cannot lie.

The “false way,” the “way of transgressors,” the “way of a fool,” the “way of the heathen” all these, and others, are referred to in the Bible. I must be content, however, with mentioning one more:

The “way which seemeth right” (Prov. 14:12). Perhaps this is the most seductive of all the world’s ways. Here is a man who tells us that he wants to do right, and be right. Yet he is earnestly pursuing one of the world’s broad and slippery ways! But it seems right; it has the appearance of being all right, so the earnest seeker for what is right contentedly pursues his way until he discovers at length that “the end thereof are the ways of death.”

~~~

In contrast with all these tempting and slippery ways, all ending in despair, let me call the reader’s attention to the ONE WAY which leads to heaven.

Do not imagine that the old proverb, “All roads lead to Rome,” can be applied as suggesting that all ways that seem good, and that are trodden by earnest men, will eventually lead to heaven. Such an idea is false. We have seen that “the way that seems right” is but one of the ways that end in despair.

If anyone asks the way to heaven, he must be prepared for a most exclusive answer. The Lord Jesus said, “I am THE Way,” and there is no way to the skies but by personal faith in Him. The way is narrow—too narrow to admit either sin or self-righteousness. Those who tread this way have found cleansing for their sins in Christ’s precious blood, and are clothed with a robe of righteousness not their own. Their way may not lead them through the world’s sunny places. To many, the way of life has led by the prison cell, the torture chamber of the Romish Inquisition, the martyr’s stake. But the end is sure: “the end, everlasting life” in its fullness and glory.

Who are the wise? Who are the happy? Those who walk in one of the world’s ten thousand ways, or those who have found in Christ the Way to true happiness and peace now, and to heaven by and by?

This question is not difficult to answer. Let me ask another: In what way are your feet found, reader?

H. P. B.

Who Is He?

WHAT does it matter to you who Jesus is? You can eat and drink, work and sleep, live and die without knowing, as thousands of others are doing. Why should you bother your head about such a question? Nobody asks you who Epictetus was, or Marcus Aurelius, or the Venerable Bede. Jesus may have been as good as, or much better than, all these, but what can it matter to you?

Listen! It matters everything to you, for your eternity, either of weal or of woe, hangs upon your attitude to Him. The men that I have mentioned, and millions more, are dead and gone. What you think of them is of no concern. But the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be numbered among those “dead and gone.” He died, but has risen again, and the question, not “Who was He?” but “Who is He?” is the most urgent and clamant of all questions.

No one can really trust a person of whom they know little or nothing. When the once blind beggar was challenged with the inquiry. “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” instinctively the question sprang to his lips, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him.” (John 9:36.)

Now believing in Him is the God-appointed way of salvation for sinful men. I do not say believing about Him, for it is no mere matter of creed or orthodoxy. The Bible says, “Believe ON the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”; and again, “Whosoever believeth IN Him shall receive remission of sins.”

Therefore you need to know who He is; that you may believe in Him, trust Him, and stake all your confidence upon His trustworthiness.

Who, then, is Jesus?

The Emperor Theodosius, though professedly a Christian, had no true idea as to the Person in whom he professed to believe. He thought of Him as a mere man amongst men, the best of men perhaps, but no more than a man.

After occupying the imperial throne for some years, he determined to make his son Arcadius, a boy of sixteen, a partner with himself in the government of the empire. The nobles and great men of the day assembled to congratulate the new wearer of the imperial purple. Among them came a certain bishop, named Amphilocus. He made a handsome address to the Emperor, and was about to take his leave, when Theodosius exclaimed: “What! do you take no notice of my son? Do you not know that I have made him my partner in the empire?”

Upon this the good old man went up to the young Arcadius, and, putting his hand upon his head, said: “The Lord bless thee, my son.”

The Emperor, roused to fury by this slight, exclaimed: “What! is this all the respect you pay to a prince that I have made of equal dignity with myself?”

Upon this, Amphilocus, looking the Emperor full in the face, with an indignant tone of voice, said: “Sire, do you so highly resent my apparent neglect of your son, because I do not give him equal honors with yourself? Then what must the eternal God think of you when you degrade His co-equal and co-eternal Son to the level of one of His creatures?”

“These words,” says the historian, “were like a thousand daggers plunged into the Emperor’s heart, who held the reproof to be just.”

We should like you to convince yourself, for your own sake, reader, that He who lived for thirty-three years on earth, and was persecuted, insulted, and ultimately crucified, was God, the eternal Son. If He had been less than that His death would have had no significance, no result, beyond that of any other holy martyr. He became Man, a true Man, that He might die for sinners. But He never ceased to be what He always was, and is today, “God over all, blessed for evermore.” Prophesied of, long centuries before His birth, as Immanuel, God with us; hailed in prophetic anticipation as “The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.” (Isa. 9:6.) His entrance into human life is recorded with majestic simplicity by the inspired penman: “The Word was God... and the Word was made flesh.” (John 1:1, 14.)

The deity of Christ is no mere article of a creed. It is that which gives atoning efficacy to the blood which He shed upon the cross, and makes salvation possible for sinful creatures like the reader and the writer of these lines. Do you not perceive, then, the vast importance of the question: “Who is He?” and the necessity of having a right answer, in order that you may believe on Him as your own personal Saviour?

H. P. B.

Useless Kinds of Religion

THERE are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul. What are they? He may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion at all. He may live and die like a beast—prayerless, godless, graceless, faithless. This is a sure way to hell. Mind that you do not walk in it.

He may lose his soul by taking up some useless kind of religion. He may live and die contenting himself with a false Christianity, and resting on a baseless hope. This is the commonest way to hell there is.

Reader, what do I mean by useless kinds of religion? Listen, and I will tell you.

The first thing I wish to say is this. A religion is entirely useless in which Jesus Christ is not the principal object, and does not fill the principal place.

There are only too many baptized men and women who practically know nothing about Christ. Their religion consists in a few vague notions and empty expressions. “They trust they are no worse than others; they keep to their Church; they try to do their duty; they do nobody any harm; they hope God will be merciful to them; they trust the Almighty will pardon their sins, and take them to heaven when they die.” This is about the whole of their religion.

But what do these people know practically about Christ? Nothing: nothing at all! What experimental acquaintance have they with His offices and work, His blood, His righteousness, His mediation, His priesthood, His intercession? None: none at all! Ask them about a saving faith—ask them about being born again of the Spirit—ask them about being sanctified in Christ Jesus. What answer will you get? You are a barbarian to them. You have asked them simple Bible questions; but they know no more about them, experimentally, than a Buddhist or a Turk.

And yet this is the religion of hundreds and thousands of people who are called Christians, all over the world.

Reader, if you are a man of this kind, I warn you plainly that such Christianity will never take you to heaven. It may do very well in the eye of man; it may pass muster very decently at the vestry meeting, in the place of business, in the House of Commons, or in the streets; but it will never comfort you; it will never satisfy your conscience; it will never save your soul.

I warn you plainly that all notions and theories about God being merciful without Christ, and excepting through Christ, are baseless delusions and empty fancies. Such theories are as purely an idol of man’s invention as the idol of Juggernaut. They are all of the earth, earthy: they never came down from heaven. The God of heaven has sealed and appointed Christ as the one only Saviour and way of life, and all who would be saved must be content to be saved by Him, or they will never be saved at all.

Reader, take notice. I give you fair warning this day. A religion without Christ will never save your soul.

But I have another thing yet to say. A religion is entirely useless in which you join anything with Christ in the matter of saving your soul. You must not only depend on Christ for salvation, but you must depend on Christ only and Christ alone.

There are multitudes of baptized men and women who profess to honor Christ, but in reality do Him great dishonor. They give Christ a certain place in their system of religion, but not the place which God intended Him to fill. Christ alone is not “all in all” to their souls. No; it is either Christ and the Church —or Christ and the sacraments—or Christ and ordained ministers—or Christ and their own repentance— or Christ and their own goodness—or Christ and their own prayers—or Christ and their own sincerity and charity, on which they practically rest their souls.

Reader, if you are a Christian of this kind, I warn you also plainly that your religion is an offense to God. You are changing God’s plan of salvation into a plan of your own devising. You are in effect deposing Christ from His throne, by giving the glory due to Him to another, I care not who it is that teaches you your religion, and on whose word you build. Whether he be Pope or Cardinal, Archbishop or Bishop, Dean or Archdeacon, Presbyter or Deacon, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Baptist or Independent, Wesleyan or Quaker— whosoever adds anything to Christ teaches you wrong.

I care not what it is that you add to Christ. Whether it be the necessity of joining the Church of Rome, or of being an Episcopalian, or of becoming a Free Churchman, or of giving up the liturgy, or of being dipped,—whatever you may practically add to Christ in the matter of salvation, you do Christ an injury.

Reader, take heed what you are doing. Beware of giving to Christ’s servants the honor due to none but Christ. Beware of giving the Lord’s ordinances the honor due unto the Lord. Beware of resting the burden of your soul on anything but Christ, and Christ alone. Beware of having a religion which is of no use, and cannot save.

It is an awful thing to have no religion at all. To have an immortal soul committed to your charge, and neglect it, this is dreadful.

But it is no less an awful thing to be content with a religion that can do you no good.

Reader, do not let this be your case.

J. C. R.

The Weighing Machine

THE gold coinage of Great Britain is accepted throughout the world, because experience has proved that it is reliable. Great care is exercised with regard to each individual piece of gold issued from the Mint. The Bank of England, being the chief medium whence the coinage is distributed to the public, takes very special precaution that every separate gold coin is of standard weight and fineness before it allows the coin to pass into circulation. To assist in this work the Bank possesses a machine which is so remarkably sensitive that if any coin passes over it, which is in the slightest degree deficient in weight, the coin is at once cast aside, and falls into a receptacle specially reserved for the purpose. This weighing machine— for such it is—needs little, if any, attention from man. It is automatically supplied with coins, and being set in motion it proceeds silently but surely to do its work of separating the good coins from the bad.

Let us change the scene, and cast our minds back to a period some 2,500 years ago. The universal empire of Babylon was then exercising its mighty sway. Nebuchadnezzar, in spite of warning, had been boasting of his own power and glory, instead of rendering unto God the glory due to His holy name.

In a moment judgment fell upon Nebuchadnezzar, and for a time he lost his throne, and was driven from amongst men to wander amidst wild beasts, and there learn the great truth that “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.” (Dan. 4:25.) After a while, in his extremity he cried to God to deliver him, and he was restored to his position, and was enabled to “praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment.” (Dan. 4:37.)

Years passed by. His grandson came to the throne. But this grandson refused to learn that lesson which God had taught Nebuchadnezzar at so great a cost. This grandson—the deputy ruler in his father’s absence—determined, as many people do in the present day, to show his freedom of will to choose evil. He was not going to be bound down by any religious scruples. Why should he? What was the good of having so much power and authority if he could not use it for his own enjoyment? Who was the God of Israel? Had not his ancestors taken Israel captive? Why then should he regard their God?

He would order a great feast, such an one as should be talked about, and he would bring out from the Treasury all the golden vessels that once had been used in the service of the God of Israel. They should be placed upon His table to beautify it. The bowls and ewers should be filled with wine, and he and his worldly companions—male and female—should openly show their contempt for the faith of Israel. Bold words these. No quiver of fear or nervousness about them!

The feast commenced. There was evidently as much boisterous mirth as was permitted in the presence of such a royal personage, when suddenly the king was seen to turn deadly pale. What could be the matter? What could have alarmed that bold spirit, who did not hesitate to blaspheme the God of Israel? Why does he gaze with such intentness at the wall?

Oh! what a sight! What is that dreadful hand? What is it doing? May not hundreds of voices have thus cried out as they saw the bodiless hand of a man writing upon the wall? When men’s brains are excited by wine they are apt to be uncontrollable, and such may have been the case at this feast. The appalling sight horrified them.

But, remember, the day is coming when all those who reject the Lord Jesus now will see a more terrible sight, and hear more terrible words than those which appeared upon the banqueting wall. When the Lord Himself says, “Depart, ye cursed,” there will be awful wailing and groaning.

The lonely hand traced words upon the wall, but none could read them till Daniel, the servant of God, appeared in answer to a summons for his presence. God’s word and God’s servants are often neglected until it is too late, and thus it was in this case. Daniel could do no more than interpret the message, and pronounce the sentence that God had justly passed.

There is solemn warning in the message to everyone to whom the Word comes. As these words are being written, and when they are being read, God is weighing both writer and reader. To each one it is said, “Thou art weighed in the balances,” and then follows either “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6) or thou “art found wanting.” (Dan. 5:27.)

God sends His Word now to men to tell them what they are—sinners, and what He has provided—a SAVIOUR, and to bid them come to the Lord Jesus that they may be saved. Those who believe God’s Word and acknowledge themselves to be real sinners (not complimentary ones) do in reality weigh themselves (see 1 Cor. 11:31), and seeing how deficient they are they turn to the Lord Jesus, and never rest until they know He has borne their sins away, and that His righteousness is imputed to them (see 2 Cor. 5:21), so that in HIM they are found of full weight. God does make Him to be their Wisdom, their Righteousness, their Sanctification, and their Redemption. (See 1 Cor. 1:30.) They are found in Him who is their Righteousness (see Phil. 3:9), and they are complete in Him. (See Col. 2 DD.) All others are base metal (see Jer. 6:30— “reprobate silver”), and the Lord will reject them even as the machine at the Bank of England rejects light coins.

Reader, have you been accepted by God through faith in Christ Jesus, or will you be rejected when the test comes? Assuredly the latter, if you pass out of this world without a saving knowledge of a personal Saviour. Make sure, then, of God’s blessing, I beseech you.

P. I. B.

Paying Dear for Them

IT was in the days of the Iron Duke. The British Army was engaged in critical work. It was a sultry day under the blue sky of Spain. Strict orders were issued that no soldier must leave the ranks under pain of death.

The men were marching between richly laden vines on either side. One poor fellow, quite overcome with fatigue and thirst, stepped out of the ranks, cut down a bunch of grapes, and returned to his place.

His disobedience was observed, and reported to the commanding officer. Alas! the poor fellow was court-martialed and condemned to die.

A party of soldiers was told off to execute the sentence. As he was led forth to the place of execution he had still the bunch of grapes in his hand, and kept picking from it grape after grape, in an easy, careless manner.

Those who were leading him out wondered at his indifference. One of them remonstrating with him, he replied, “I’m sure I’m paying dear for them; I’m paying for them with my life.”

Yes, indeed, he was paying dear for them. But terrible as the price was he was paying, it was nothing compared to the price sinners all around us are paying for “the pleasures of sin for a season.” Men live as if there were no heaven above them, no yawning hell beneath them, no God to whom they are responsible, and to whom they must give account.

Are you one such? Have you thought of the vast eternity to which you are traveling? Has not God told us plainly in His holy Word that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”? (Ezek. 18:4.) That “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”? (Heb. 9:27.)

Who will be to blame if you die in your sins? Does not the great sacrifice of Christ on the cross speak loudly to you? Remember it was for you.

Look at the “pleasures of sin.” Think of what you will pay for them. Dear indeed will be the price if it means the lake of fire for all eternity, which, indeed, will be the portion of all who reject our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are they worth paying dear for? Do they give more than passing gratification? Do they not leave an empty void? What comfort will they give on a death bed? And, above all, what of ETERNITY? WHAT OF ETERNITY? WHAT?

A. J. P.

What Does a Man Really Need?

THAT men need something cannot be denied. No atheist, however bold, and no “new theologian,” however daring, has ventured to assert that men are just as they should be, and that there is no need of a change of any kind whatever.

The question to be faced is not, Is a change needed? but, What kind of change is needed?

Some will tell us that the only kind of change which a man needs is that of environment. By this they mean that if a man’s circumstances and conditions of life are changed, the man himself is made better. That this is false is shown by the fact that there is sin, in its gross as well as in its more refined forms, as much among the millionaires of Mayfair and Fifth Avenue as amongst the dwellers in the sordid slums of the East End. And, above all, that our first parents, amid the most ideal environment, fell.

Take a bad egg and place it beneath an excellent hen. She may sit upon it diligently for twenty-one days, but she will neither hatch a chicken from the bad egg nor turn it into a good one. So the greatest care and the best of surroundings will prove to be inadequate remedies for what is wrong with men.

Some assure us that what men need is not so much a change of environment, but a change in himself, and that he should bring his mind to the point of determination to reform his ways, abandon his vices, and make a fresh start. But will a fresh start meet the case?

Look at that crab tree. Its fruit is acrid, bitter, worthless. But it has shed it all, and is now losing its last leaves. Soon it stands bare and unrecognizable as a worthless crab tree. In the spring it makes a fresh start. The leaves begin to shoot, the blossoms appear, and it looks as if a real change for the better has been made. But wait! The blossoms drop and the fruit appears. It is as bitter and worthless as ever. The “fresh start” has only resulted in a fresh crop of the same acrid and nauseous crabs.

It is the same when men “turn over a new leaf.” The change in their ways seems to give ground for hope of better things. But the man himself remains the same. The abandonment of his evil habits has no more wrought a change in him than the gathering of its fruit changes the nature of the crab tree.

Now the Bible is not silent as to this important question. Like a skillful physician it goes to the root of the trouble, and diagnoses the disease with accuracy and certainty. It shows us that man is a fallen creature, fallen to such an extent that he is “as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again” (2 Sam. 14:14); that in the very springs of his being he is false, his heart being “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jer. 17:9.)

In such a case, what men need is no mere external change, no “fresh start” of the crab tree kind, but a new start with a new nature, a new principle of being, implanted in him. And this is what we read of in John 3:7, where the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.”

In the previous chapter we are told that the Saviour, knowing men with such a perfect knowledge, would by no means place reliance upon them. “He knew what was in man,” and therefore “did not commit Himself unto them.”

But now He has before Him a fair specimen of the human race, religious, respected, learned, influential. Is he not to be trusted? Is he, in the very springs of his being, corrupt like all the rest? Yes, indeed; for to him, as to all others, the new birth was an absolute necessity. “The flesh,” that fallen, corrupt nature which every man knows he has within him, can produce nothing but its own kind. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Change its environment; try new methods of training and education; legislate, cultivate, teach, influence, refine: do what you will, “flesh” remains “flesh.” A new principle of being, a new nature, is needed.

Thank God, this very thing, impossible to men, is possible with God. He can do even this. And in ten thousands of cases He has done it. The human race consists of two families: those that have only been born once, and those that have been born again.

What about you, my reader? GOSPEL TIDINGS carries its message far and wide. It is read in the lodging-houses of London, Sheffield, and other big cities. It is read in the barrack rooms of India and of Egypt. It finds its way into the mansions of the noble. And to all its readers it brings this question:

HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?

Does anyone ask: “How can I tell?” The answer is easy. If you have fled for refuge to Christ; if you have sought cleansing from your sins in His precious blood; if, by faith, you have accepted Him as your Saviour: then assuredly you have been born again.

But this is not the only thing that sinful, fallen men need. They need to be put into right relations with God. For if men can make light of sin, God cannot. Sin matters to Him, and must be punished. So what guilty men need is an atonement that will satisfy God, and enable Him to forgive and justify the believing sinner.

Thank God, this too has been provided. At Calvary, the Son of God offered Himself a sacrifice for us. He bore the holy judgment of God due to sin. He was made sin for us (see 2 Cor. 5:21), and sin’s full penalty was executed upon Him.

On the ground of His finished, atoning work, God offers pardon to “whosoever will.” Men that could never save themselves can be freely saved through Christ. The way to obtain this infinite boon is simplicity itself. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43.)

You have only to abandon all hope of making yourself what you ought to be, and trust yourself entirely to Christ, making the atoning merits of His blood your only plea, and God says you are saved.

H. P. B.

On What Do I Rest?

“IT is only now and then that I can say I am saved,” said a young lady to a friend.

“I think those people who can always say they are saved must be people of a very hopeful turn of mind!”

“Nothing of the kind,” was the reply. “Those who always know they are saved, believe what God’s Word says, and that never changes.”

Yes; such build their hopes of salvation not on the shifting sands of their own fancies and feelings, but on the unchanging Word of God, which tells of the full redemption Christ has accomplished for the sinner, and which assures the believer of his eternal security, for “He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25.)

“If I only had some token,” said an anxious soul who was always wanting something more than the Word of God to rest on; “just an inward whisper that Jesus died for me. I should be satisfied.”

A friend replied, “Well, suppose that someday you had this inward whisper. You would be very happy because it had assured you that Jesus died for you. But in a few days the thought might arise, ‘I wonder if that was God’s whisper?’ It may have been Satan’s! Where, then, would be your peace and joy? Gone! because they were not based on the Word of God alone.”

God’s Word says that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15.) Without a trace of “inward feelings” that it is for me, I appropriate this for myself. He came to save sinners. I am a sinner, therefore he came to save me. As another has said, “I take the lost sinner’s place, and claim the lost sinner’s Saviour.” And now I may know my sins are not on me, not because I feel them gone, for I do not, but because God says they are laid on Christ. (See Isa. 53:6.)

To have settled peace with God I must see that my efforts, doings, and good works, however pleasing they may be to God afterward, as the fruit of His grace in my soul, have no part whatever in my soul’s salvation, but that He saves me solely on the ground of Christ’s atoning death and blood shedding on my behalf as a sinner.

Salvation is “not of works lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:9.)

I am saved by what Christ has done for me, not by what I try to do for Him.

F. A.

Niagara Falls: Niagara Falls

BETWEEN the level of the great Lake Erie and that of Lake Ontario there is a difference of many hundred feet. The waters of Lake Erie are conducted to those of Lake Ontario by means of the Niagara River and Falls.

Thousands of persons visit these Falls every year. They are most wonderful to behold. But there are times when the waters of Lakes Erie and Ontario are frozen, and the Falls themselves become in turn almost frozen into a solid mass.

When spring arrives, and the snow melts, the force of the water rushing into Lake Erie breaks up the ice, and mixing with the great volume of water overflowing from the lake, this ice is carried in huge masses over the brink of the Falls, and is urged along in wild disorder through the narrow channel that leads to Lake Ontario.

It is a solemn sight! The ice was once an unbroken sheet, now its fragments are scattered everywhere, whirling along hither and thither, but never able to unite again. The dangers of the short and narrow channel cannot be exaggerated. Here there are rapids. There observe the whirlpools. Yonder there seems to be still water, but it is a delusion. It is a danger spot. There is a force beneath which is sucking down the ice so that it cannot reach the top; and, again, that awful seething water in you cauldron-like spot is called the Devil’s Hole. Nothing can escape once it be drawn within that boiling, foaming, devouring circle.

Looking down from the high banks upon the scene below there are times when it appears that the ice seeks to return whence it came. It seems to be struggling against the current, and as it does so it is whirled round and round until drawn below into the awful vortex.

Everyone cannot visit Niagara, but each reader may share the thoughts experienced by a recent visitor to Niagara Falls. How they suggest that terrible “Fall” which has ruined the whole human race. As the ice once over the Falls can never return to its place, and can never again become part of the perfect and unbroken sheet, so man by the “Fall” has lost all power to make himself “good,” and replace himself in that position of happiness from whence sin has driven him. Man having fallen he is forever being carried onward along the fearful channel that conducts to the Lake of Fire.

Sometimes men may seem to make a. struggle, like the ice referred to, to escape the whirlpools and rapids and eddies, but there is no strength in them sufficient for the purpose. Time is short! The Woeful Lake is in front! What is to be done? How can it be escaped?

How can the sinner be delivered from eternal destruction?

These thoughts laid hold of the visitor, and as he gazed and gazed he saw rising from the waters and from the floating ice white gulls! Joyful signs! Hopeful emblems! The gulls were never ice, but they rose from amidst the ice; and surely they speak of that great deliverance which the Lord Jesus has wrought. Seeing mankind had hurled itself to destruction, the Lord Jesus, from the purest and most perfect love, undertook to die for man. He took man’s sin upon Him. He died, “the JUST ONE for the unjust.” (1 Peter 3:18.)

Reader, if you were being carried along the overflow from Niagara no human means could rescue you. You are—unless you have already believed in the Lord Jesus—hurrying along a far more dangerous and fatal course. You cannot save yourself. No man can save you. But the Lord Jesus can. Hear His loving and solemn cry, “Why will ye die?” (Ezek. 18:31.)

Even though spiritually dead, God is willing to save you yet, if you are willing to be saved, for He says: “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” (John 5:25.) He is able and willing to save. Shall He have to say of you, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life”? (John 5:40.) Don’t drift on. It is too awful! Cry aloud, “Lord! save me, I perish,”

The Story of a Tract

MANY years ago in a Paris hospital there lay a young Frenchman who had been wounded in the siege of Saint Quentin. One day he saw a leaflet on the coverlet. He read it, and its message showed him the way of salvation, and he was truly converted.

That young man became Admiral Coligny, the leader of the Reformation in France. His monument may be seen before the Church of the Consistory in Paris.

But the tract had not finished its work. It was read by Coligny’s nurse, a sister of mercy, who penitently placed it in the hands of the Lady Abbess, and she, too, was converted. She then fled from France to the Palatinate, where she became the wife of a young Hollander. Her influence on that man reacted on the whole Continent of Europe, for he was William of Orange, who became the champion of liberty and Protestantism in the Netherlands. Ex.

Pointing in the Wrong Direction

CLOSE to the harbor, and at the foot of Barcelona’s most beautiful and celebrated avenue, stands a high column, surmounted by a statue of Christopher Columbus. The arm of the statue is outstretched, and the forefinger appears to be pointing to some distant object.

Naturally we should expect to see the finger pointing westward, to the scene of the triumphs which have made the name of Columbus famous—to the continent that he discovered, and to the lands which his unwavering perseverance enabled him to reach.

But the forefinger of the statue is pointing in a south-easterly direction, to no particular object, and apparently with no design or purpose.

And so stands many a living statue, many a man, many a preacher today! Surely the fingers of all who preach the Gospel should point unmistakably to Christ: back to Calvary, to the work of atonement that He accomplished there, and upwards to glory, to Himself, the living Saviour, at the right hand of power.

But in how many other directions are the fingers pointing, of those who would fain pass as the spiritual guides of men! One points to Rome, and mumbles of an infallible church. A second points to theology, and repeats what he learned in the scholastic works that he studied as a youth at college. A third points to a blameless life and cries: Take that as your model! A fourth points to Socialism and says, In this direction lies humanity’s hope! A fifth points to the hill of earnest struggles and continued effort, and bids you climb its slopes and reach the summit, if you can.

The Scriptures, however, God’s message to man, point in one definite direction, namely, to Christ. They tell us plainly that in the whole universe there is no Saviour but He. No work but His is efficacious to wipe out sin.

By means of this printed page we would point in the same direction as the Scriptures. Sinner! It is Christ that you need. His atoning sacrifice is a sure foundation on which you may safely rest for eternity. We point you to Him. Flee, as a dying man, from self and sin to Him. Fly, on the wings of faith and repentance, to His bosom. Cast yourself, strengthless and sinful, at His feet.

What will be the result? Guilt canceled; the soul saved; the heart rejoiced; heaven made sure.

Friend: follow no will-o’-the-wisp! Listen to no siren voice that would beguile you! See the One to whom the Scriptures point you, and trust Him as your own personal Saviour!

H. P. B.

Tracked

NEARLY sixty years ago a large sum of gold belonging to the Prussian Government was securely packed in a box and forwarded by rail.

When the box reached its destination it was opened, and to the consternation of the officials it was discovered that the gold had been abstracted, and sand had been put in its place.

Detectives were set to work. Large sums were spent in endeavoring to trace the theft, but all in vain.

At last it was suggested that the sand should be submitted to a capable analyst. He placed it under a powerful microscope, and discovered a minute organism of a peculiar kind present in the sand.

Then orders were given that samples of sand from all the stations through which the box had traveled should be forwarded. These were examined, with the result that one specimen alone contained these minute organisms.

The clue thus obtained was followed up. The station from whence this sample came was visited. The thieves were discovered, and duly brought to justice.

Does this not remind us that God can see in us the smallest organism of sin? We can hide nothing from Him. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:12, 13.)

Remember these things must be faced. No man sins, and can go on without giving account sooner or later.

Said a farmer, “I prepared my field on a Sunday, I sowed it on a Sunday, attended to it on Sundays, reaped it on a Sunday, threshed the wheat on a Sunday, and I got a bigger return than any of my neighbors. What do you say to that?”

The reply came, “God may not reckon with you this month, or this year, but reckon with you He will. Scripture says ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’” (Gal. 6:7.)

Yes; God will reckon.

Are you prepared to be tracked, for your sin to be brought home to you in the Day of Judgment?

Rather, far rather, we beseech you, own yourself, in this day of grace, as a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner in God’s holy sight, accept the Saviour of His providing, receive God’s proffered mercy. Only thus can you be blest, saved and forgiven.

A. J. P.

Ye Canna' Get Ae'thing for Naething

I WAS giving away some gospel booklets in the village of B—, in Stirlingshire, and seeing a woman working in her garden I offered her one. She would hardly move from her work to accept the tract, but having taken it she remarked, “It canna’ be worth much, for ye canna’ get as ‘thing for naething.”

What a picture the woman’s words afford of the natural man. He despises grace. He must put a price upon everything, and owns that nothing of value on earth can be got without payment.

Cain would purchase his acceptance with God by the fruits of the cursed earth, and you, my friend, may be seeking to obtain peace with God and eternal life by your own efforts. Is it not so?

Were we to take you on your own ground, and ask you what are you doing to secure your peace with God and your eternal blessedness, what would your reply be?

Some would tell us they say their prayers, they go to church, they contribute to religious objects, they visit the sick, they assist the poor, and do all the good they can, and thus expect to merit eternal life.

Others would boast, of their contributions to benevolent schemes, and their public and private acts to ameliorate the condition of the masses.

We can find untold hundreds and thousands who are seeking by their own efforts to secure their future happiness.

My dear reader, do you belong to this class?

The woman I met in Stirlingshire was one of that larger class, and the majority of persons I meet from day to day belong to it. Human efforts to secure eternal joys are the way of the natural man, but I would like in all earnestness to point you to God’s way of salvation.

Supposing all your life you did all your heart could wish in good works, when should you know that you had secured the forgiveness of your sins, and the present joy flowing from the knowledge of the possession of eternal life?

A straight question demands a direct reply. When will you be able to secure this knowledge and assurance? I know you will say, “Not till I die.” Quite so. The natural man, again, can give no assurance until the future is reached.

But God’s way of salvation is not man’s, and two essentials I must present to my readers.

First, your own utter helpless condition, and inability to work out your own salvation, for it is written, “Not of works lest any man should boast”; or again, as quoted from Psalm 14, we read in Rom. 3:10; “There is none righteous, no, not one.” If it is not of works, how, then, is salvation to be obtained?

This brings us to the second point I would seek to impress, viz., that justification is to be obtained by faith alone. The same Epistle proceeds to say in chapter 4:5: “To him that worketh NOT, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Again, in the same Epistle and chapter, we read in the 25th verse that Christ “was delivered for our [the believers’] offenses, and raised again for our [the believers’] justification.”

Breaking this statement up into simpler language we e may say, Christ was brought to death by the judgment or punishment of our sins, He was raised again to clear or justify us, who believe in Him.

These two points we would in all tenderness and sincerity press upon our reader: first, your own utter helplessness to do anything to merit eternal life; and, secondly, the complete atonement wrought out by the Lord Jesus Christ by dying for you.

The same Epistle further on once more reverts to the subject when in the loth chapter the writer presses upon the reader his part, and proceeds to say that “the word is nigh thee, even; in, thy mouth, and in thy heart,... 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.” (Rom. 10:8, 9.)

Thus our simple, intelligent, and rational grounds the apostle impresses the fact by the confession of the Lord Jesus and a true belief in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer in Him is saved.

May I in all tenderness press upon my reader the necessity of considering these things in the light of eternity, and to turn from his deadly works and trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, “for the WAGES of sin is death; but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23.)

C. S. R.

Do You Feel Good?

“You are good; do you feel good?”

The question was sarcastically thrown at a young Christian, who was perusing a copy of GOSPEL TIDINGS. The question set him thinking, and his thoughts were occupied with what God said about “goodness.” It is evident that no man can claim to be good, for the Lord Jesus said, “There is none good but God.” Surely such words, falling as they did from the lips of the Lord Himself, are worthy of the consideration of every man, woman and child, of every nationality and color. Whether you are old or young, black or white, learned or illiterate, matters not; for it is as true as ever, that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” and you are responsible, whoever you may be, to heed what God has said.

The devil has, ever since he succeeded so well with Adam, been instilling into the hearts of men wrong thoughts of both God and man. The very same words that he used in the Garden of Eden, he often uses today, seeking thereby to impress men with the idea that God is keeping something from them. His first words, “Hath God said?” convey the idea that God’s words were an empty threat. And the word of God is still more explicitly denied when he says, “Ye shall not surely die,” for God had previously said that a disobedience would be punished with death.

Men, however, have always preferred the lie of the devil to the truth of God, and consequently the punishment that God said would follow has been inflicted. This world, which God at creation pronounced “very good,” has become a veritable graveyard. Sad, indeed, is the spectacle, yet all is the result of sin.

How, then, can men today boast of their goodness? Surely it is as absurd as it is false, and only goes to prove how successful the enemy has been in blinding “the mind of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them.”

How sad is the account of man’s fall; yet midst the darkness there shines one bright beam of hope. The woman’s seed was to bruise the serpent’s head, undoubtedly foreshadowing the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which would break Satan’s power and destroy his might. How gracious, then, of God to act thus.

If any of my readers think that God is not so good as He said He was, allow me to turn your gaze to Calvary. What does that scene mean? Three crosses standing on Calvary’s hill. Suspended on that center cross is Jesus. Why is He there? Well we know that He was there as the Sin-bearer. In the anguish of His soul He cried that terrible and bitter cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

How can you think that God is not good? If the sight of Calvary is not sufficient to melt your heart, it must be hard, indeed. Well would it be for you if you had never been born, if you die in your sins. Remember the door of mercy will soon be closed, and you, if unsaved; will be outside. How terrible! Not one single ray of light to shine upon your dark eternal future. No, but you must spend that eternity amid the horrors of hell, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

Yes, you may well tremble at such words as these; but, if you don’t come to the Lord Jesus; such must be your awful portion. Then come now, just as you are, in all your sin, just where you are.

How can you keep away any longer? Come! Come!! Come!!! And now.

“Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold; NOW is the day of salvation.”

J. G. B.

What About Your Sins?

IT is an easy matter to denounce persons whose sin is patent to everyone. The vicious, the drunkard, the swearer, the swindler, and such like, are all well-known; their sins are open. Notice, “some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment.” (1 Tim. 5:24.) These persons are, as it were, condemned by their neighbors around as being amongst those who cannot expect to enter heaven. But what about you, reader?

In this brief article we are not concerned with the above class so much. Rather are we concerned about another class of person altogether—the kind, the amiable, the generous, the thoughtful, the moral, yea, and even the religious, but without Christ. They seem almost entirely blind to the fact that there is an eternity to face, and that they must spend it in heaven or in hell. They go along from day to day, from month to month, year in and year out, in absolute unconcern in regard to the future. If such a thing, indeed, crosses their mind it is soon banished and forgotten. And let me ask again, What about YOU?

Oh! that God might wake up such before it is too late, before they are awakened up in eternity.

Observe the verse already referred to above. “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men THEY FOLLOW AFTER.” It would seem as though the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul wished to emphatically draw attention to the fact that although some men’s conduct and actions obviously condemn them in the eyes of their fellow-creatures, judged according to an earthly standard, yet there are others whose conduct might almost be without reproach among their fellow men, but who, nevertheless, are going to be awakened to their true condition before God one day, their sins eventually rising up and condemning them.

Yes, it is true, some men’s sins follow after. I tremble for you as I think of your hurrying maybe to your awful fate, and yet careless and indifferent as to it.

Oh! be warned in time I entreat of you Your sins are following you; YOUR SINS are following you. Be they many or few, as men, speak, if you have not come to. Christ there one sin that you cannot deny—that of neglecting the great salvation which has been provided for you.

Your sins will not be going beforehand to judge you, nor will they be following you, if you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Come to him now. Slight His love no longer, “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” (Rom. 13:11)

L. A. A.

A Fingerprint

A LARGE quantity of very valuable gems were to be sold by auction in a certain London sale room. During a week preceding the day of sale they were exposed on show tables to the public, and crowds examined them.

On the morning of the day of sale, when the premises were opened, it was discovered that the place had been entered during the night, and the whole of the gems carried off.

The Authorities of Scotland Yard were communicated with, and they sent over some sharp-eyed detectives, who made careful search, but failed for the moment to find any clue. However, on a broken windowpane one solitary fingerprint was noticed. Very carefully the piece of glass bearing the tell-tale print was removed, carried to Scotland Yard, and there the fingerprint was compared with the prints of the fingers of notorious criminals in the possession of the authorities.

The chances were about one hundred thousand millions to one that they would not be able to match the print; yet, nevertheless, there was its exact duplicate on a certain page.

They knew the owner was fit to do work like the gem burglary, that he was in London at the time, and that he associated with certain men who were likely to be his aiders and abettors in the crime.

One Sunday morning a detective dressed himself in milkman’s garb-glazed hat, smock, yoke, and milk-pails—and went down a street crying, “Milk, ho! milk, ho!” He rang a bell, and a housewife opened. He dropped his pails, rushed upstairs, kicked open a door, and in an instant had the handcuffs on the gem thief as he lay in bed. The very man whose fingerprint had betrayed him! Throwing up a window the detective whistled loudly, and his fellow-officers, hearing the signal, pinned their men in the adjoining streets.

Now, if man’s law officers can do that, what can God not do? And if a simple fingerprint can find a thief and his fellows out, when there were one hundred thousand million chances against it, what “chance” is there of your ultimately eluding the grip of the Divine Law? “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13.) Moreover, God will render to every man according to his deeds, and there is no respect of persons with Him.

How true it is that if you confess and forsake your sin you will be forgiven, and received into God’s eternal favor through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. That is infallibly true. You therefore have your choice. Either wait till your sin is found out, and you will be put to shame, or find it out yourself—bring it before God, admit it, turn your back on it, believe on the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour, and be forever gladdened.

W. T.

Two Deathbeds

“JESSIE S— is dying of galloping consumption,” was the news brought to me. I did not know the girl, but had heard of her as being the only one now left of a large family, who, with the mother, had all died of consumption. The father, too, was lingering on with the same terrible disease.

What a precious message of salvation I could take to them in their sad circumstances. That Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, and that His blood could cleanse them from all sin—the message which years before had reached me, a lost sinner, saving my soul and making my heart glad, and which would theirs too, I hoped, if it had not done so already. What an eternity of joy lay before them if they received it!

When I called at the house a young person led me up to Jessie’s bedroom. The disease had, indeed, made rapid progress, for she who only a few weeks before had been going about apparently in good health, was now just nearing the end of her young life.

Her cold, curt greeting told me that I was no welcome visitor, and when I spoke to her of the Saviour who had died to save, and whose precious blood could cleanse her from all her sins, her peculiarly hard, repelling manner showed that the message was as distasteful to her as the messenger was unwelcome.

Poor Jessie! I felt reluctant to leave her in that state with eternity so near, and again I spoke to her of the Saviour who had said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28.) But there was no response, and the cold, hard look never left her face.

On leaving Jessie, the open door of the next room showed the father in bed, apparently as near death as was his daughter. I asked if I might come in, and he nodded assent. He talked of their illness and sad family history, and then, in the hope of bringing the conversation round to eternal subjects, I asked where he had got a book called “Grace and Truth,” which I had seen amongst a pile of novels in Jessie’s room.

“A man I worked with gave it to me,” he replied.

“I wonder how he got it,” I said, “for I know the book well as one much used in bringing souls to Christ.”

“Well, it was in this way. Soon after we began to work together my mate got married to a young woman he was very fond of. A year or two after, an old sweetheart of hers came to live near them, and, after a bit, persuaded her to run away with him. My mate, poor fellow, was almost beside himself, and was determined to follow them, fully bent on killing the man who had taken his wife from him; but some religious people came and talked to him, and one of them gave him this book. Well, from reading that book my mate became a thoroughly religious man—a changed character altogether. He was always talking to me, and when he left he gave me his book, and begged me to read it.”

When he had finished his tale, which had often been interrupted by his terrible cough, I said, looking at him earnestly, “And has that book been the same blessing to you as it was to your mate?”

The question seemed an unfortunate one. Perhaps it had recalled to his mind his mate’s constant pleadings with him and the deaf ear he had turned to them. He made no reply, but hastily covering his face up to his eyes with the counterpane, fixed them on me with what I was sure was no friendly gaze.

I felt, however, that I must not let the opportunity slip, so, as plainly as I could, I told him of God’s great salvation: how God had sent His Son into the world to die for sinners, and that in virtue of His atoning death on Calvary’s Cross, God forgave every sinner who, in repentance, turned to Him. In some such words I put before him what he must often have heard from the lips of his friend.

I could see the man was under the power of strong feelings by the working of the upper part of his face; but whether it was anger caused by my question, or whether it was the Spirit of God once more striving with him, I could not tell, for he did not speak again or remove the covering from his face while I was there.

All hope that he was turning in repentance to God was dispelled, when a few days after I got a joint message from father and daughter requesting me “not to go to see them again, for they did not believe in my doctrines.”

In little more than a week Jessie was dead, and was soon followed by her father.

Is there anything in this world half as sad as a Christ-rejector’s deathbed? No present joy, or hope of future happiness. On the brink of a lost eternity, yet rejecting God’s offered forgiveness, which alone could save from it.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation”? (Heb. 2:3.)

Reader, are you saved?

F. A.

Tomorrow

SEÑOR CANALEJAS, the Spanish Prime Minister, who was shot while entering the House of Deputies, in Madrid, in November, 1912, used to earnestly protest against the habit of procrastination, or putting things off, which is only too common among the people of the Peninsula.

“Tomorrow! always tomorrow!” he once exclaimed; “tomorrow will be the ruin of the country!”

The reader of these pages may think himself fortunate to have been brought up on different lines from these, and to be accustomed to act with energy and promptitude. But while this may be true as to the general affairs of life, what about the greatest and most important of all matters, the salvation of the soul?

You cannot plead ignorance. Unlike the dwellers in less privileged lands, you know that salvation is to be had, not through a sacrifice to some hideous Hindu idol; not through the wearisome repetition of Buddha’s name; not through the vain mumblings of a degraded and degrading superstition; but through CHRIST. You know that He is the only Saviour, and that you, a sinner, are in need of what He alone can give. You are quite aware that, apart from Christ, eternity for you means darkness, doom, and unutterable woe. You are not ignorant of the frailty of human life, and of the suddenness with which men are often called away.

Yet is it possible that when urged to put your confidence in the Saviour, to claim Him by faith as yours, to definitely take the step that will make you His forever, you whisper in your heart, “Tomorrow”?

Probably my question, my appeal, my words of warning, kindly meant, will have no effect whatever upon you. “I have heard all that before,” you may exclaim, and toss the paper aside. But, stay! Give heed for a moment to the words of One whom you cannot afford to ignore, One to whom you must without fail render account. Let me place before your eyes what the Word of God says as to “Today” and “Tomorrow.”

“Enquire, I pray thee, at the Word of the Lord TO-DAY.” (1 Kings 22:5.) “The Holy Ghost saith, TO-DAY.” (Heb. 3:7.) “TO-DAY if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” (Heb. 3:15.)

“Ye know not what shall be on THE MORROW.” (James 4:14.) “Boast not thyself of TO-MORROW; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Prov. 27:1)

“DO it today,” is a motto often recommended, and rightly so, in business life. How much more necessary that promptitude should mark us when issues of such infinite importance hang in the balance.

Do you ask, “What should I do today?” Turn to the Lord in real repentance and faith; trust Him to save you; receive the testimony which God has given in the Scriptures that Christ died for you, an ungodly sinner, and that His death serves to atone for, and cleanse away, sin, the one thing that will keep you out of heaven.

H. P. B.

How Firm a Foundation!

YEARS EARS ago, in the town of Somerville, New Jersey, U.S.A., there might have been seen a contrast of a very striking sort. On one side of the main street stood the strong and somewhat formidable-looking county prison. On the other side, and exactly opposite, stood a little wooden house, wherein lived a fine old Christian woman, with an experience as ripe as her years.

The contrast was so great as to be almost of the nature of a parable. On the one hand the world, with its sorrows, its sins, and its punishments; on the other Christian quietness, tranquility, and joy.

For quite a long time it was the habit of two Christian men to visit that prison each Sunday afternoon, setting the way of salvation before the poor fellows imprisoned there, and distributing to them gospel literature; and always, upon completing this service—which, though happy in itself, was connected with so much that put pain and sorrow in the heart—they repaired across the road, and spent a few restful minutes in the company of the old Christian opposite. It was like entering a placid harbor after crossing a very stormy sea.

As the months rolled by and lengthened into years, this bright old saint declined in strength, and the end of her pilgrimage drew near. The weekly visits on Sunday afternoons were regularly paid, however, until on the last occasion they found her at the point of death, and apparently unconscious of anything.

It had been their invariable custom to sing a hymn either with her or to her; so, leaning over her, as she lay propped up on pillows, one of them said, “Shall we sing you anything today?” There was no response. This was repeated, but still no response. A third time he said, “Can Brother F—and I sing you anything about the Lord Jesus Christ?” At the mention of that sweet name her eyes opened. Consciousness had returned, and in a clear, distinct voice she said, “Yes, sing:

‘How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.’”

The grand old hymn was accordingly sung right through, finishing with the triumphant words

“That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never—no, never—no, never forsake.”

As their voices ceased, the dear old lady lapsed again into unconsciousness, and within half an hour her spirit had taken its flight. Having proved the faithfulness of the One who would never forsake her in life, she had gone to prove in eternity the strength of that foundation on which she had rested.

“So then,” says the Scripture, “every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Rom. 14:12.) You and I too, then, have to face the inevitable departure from this life, and appearing in the presence of God. What will it mean for us? That is the question.

Have you discovered yet your need of Christ and His atoning work upon the cross?

“There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12.) “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11), and that alone, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22.)

Do not be deceived into thinking that you can afford to ignore the cleansing virtue of the precious blood of Christ. Just as a leper needs cleansing, even though the disease has as yet only manifested itself in his body by one tell-tale spot, so do you need spiritual cleansing, even though the outward activities of sin in your life have been very largely restrained, so that you have been better than the majority. You need it, in fact, just as much as the poor prisoners of Somerville gaol or elsewhere. Thank God, it is for you as much and as freely as for them.

When, once you have committed yourself in simple faith to Christ you will have the Word of God as a rock beneath your feet, as had the old saint of our story; a rock which will abide in its unshakeable strength to your latest hour.

GOD’S WORD, mark you, not your feelings, is the unshakeable rock. Many make a mistake here, looking for a basis of certainty within themselves instead of without—in feelings instead of in fact. No ocean, no sea ever ebbed and flowed like the tide of human feeling; no granite rock ever stood unshaken and unmoved against storm or sea or earthquake like the Word of God, of which the Lord said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” (Matt. 24:35.)

Do not look, then, in any direction other than the Word of God for assurance. Rest your soul, if a believer, on some such word as this.

“To Him [Christ] give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sin.” (Acts 10:43.)

F. B. H.

Escape for Thy Life

IN the main we live our little, self-centered, selfish lives till suddenly some great event beyond our control brings us up face to face with circumstances we cannot shape, but which confront us in all their terrible import.

The tragically swift transition from peace to war which, resulting in such a widespread conflagration of Europe, putting into the shade everything that has ever taken place in history, has just astounded and appalled the world, affords an illustration of our opening remark.

By the time these lines reach the reader’s eyes what tremendous events will have taken place? Will it still be the unutterable horrors of war, or will it be thrice-welcome peace by then? No one can foretell.

We are assured God is speaking to the nations by these terrible happenings. Like Pharaoh of old, our tendency is to soften our heart as we feel the stress of the trial, and harden it as soon as it is removed. May I plead with the reader—whether it is still war or, happily, peace—not to allow the general indifference towards eternal things to paralyze his conscience, but to allow these still deeper questions to assent themselves. Whether these lines are read in camp by a young fellow far from horrid and friends, awaiting the terrible ordeal of a bloody battle, or in the quietness and security of peace; whether read by the young or the aged, by the living or the dying, let me beseech the reader to think about

Eternity!

Word of solemn import! Word of tremendous possibilities! Is your future to be with Christ in glory, of with the devil and his angels in hell? One of the two it must be. Which?

Perhaps recent experiences of the writer may enable him to bring these matters home in a very personal way. Allow him the freedom of addressing the reader directly.

When this terrible European war broke out, I was in Christiania, the beautiful capital of Norway. A panic set in. Banks were run on. Prices were mounting up. Postal communications were cut off. The newspapers were supplying hourly to a frantic public the wildest rumors. The inability to obtain money by the ordinary routes of commerce rendered the position almost untenable for any length of time.

A friend and I had pitched a gospel tent in the city. Large and increasing numbers were coming. It was deeply interesting to see the people entering that tent, their minds full of what was going on in Europe: yet the Holy Spirit caused matters of deeper and more abiding interest to take complete possession of their minds. God’s power swept to one side for the moment these truly serious and terrible matters relating to the conflagration of Europe, and raised questions of far more infinite importance. Aye, and souls, thank God, faced these questions, and settled them in the light of eternity, according to His imperishable and unchanging Word.

May I urge you to face these matters? Terrible as the war is, it is as nothing compared to the matter of your soul’s salvation. The war will be a matter of weeks, or months, or years at the most, and then peace. Salvation or damnation is a matter of eternity. God’s punishment on sin is everlasting. How intensely solemn are the words of Scripture: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36.)

I caught the night train from Christiania to Bergen, determined to get back to Great Britain, if possible. The short Scandinavian night soon passed, and for long hours before breakfast we feasted our eyes upon the splendid scenery—the mountains, the snow, the glaciers, the rivers, the fjords.

We ran into Bergen at 12:20 p.m., and by 1:20, exactly an hour later, I was steaming out of the harbor bound for British shores. What a supreme effort I made in that brief hour! How earnest I was in my efforts to get away!

At 12:55 I found myself on the deck of the S.S. “Pollux,” the Iceland mail steamer. I said to the purser, “Can you take me?”

“Yes,” he replied, to my intense relief, “yes, if you will sleep on the deck.”

“I’ll go,” I replied, glad to sleep anywhere or nowhere. “When do you sail?”

“At one o’clock we are due to start.”

Then I asked, “Where are you bound for?”

“Wick,” was the astounding reply—Wick, the northernmost port in Scotland, 43½ miles south of John o’ Groats!

There was a measure of risk in the journey. Mines had been sown in the North Sea. There were disquieting rumors of German warships swarming off the coast of Denmark. The sound of firing was reported from the Orkney Islands.

Hour after hour we scanned the horizon. We saw nothing but the sea all around. Night fell, and we retired to rest.

Friday morning came. Smoke was seen in the distance. Telescopes were pointed in the direction in which it was seen. A squadron of eight cruisers was steaming towards us. Were they British or German ships? To our relief they were British. We saw a slight reminder of war in the taking off of the crews from German trawlers, presumably minelayers: then the British cruisers put on half-steam, rammed and sank them.

Later on in the day a torpedo boat swept down upon us at the rate of 35 knots an hour, and ordered us to stop. At last we were allowed to reach the shores of Scotland, to our great joy.

Friend, if an unbeliever, your position is unspeakably more terrible than mine was. But, thank God, the Bible tells you there is room for you in the gospel ship. Not only so: the destination is glorious—heaven, an eternal home of peace. And, further, there is nothing to pay, and no fear of capture on the road.

The S.S. “Pollux” waited exactly thirteen hours and twenty minutes for her passengers. She had accommodation for forty—one hundred and twenty crowded into her, and yet hundreds were unwillingly left behind.

But the gospel ship has been waiting long for you. I urged my suit for a passage on the Bergen boat. I should have been very surprised if the captain had urged me to take a passage, and had offered to wait for me.

What can we think, then, of the amazing mercy and goodness of God? “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20)

What an offer! “Yet there is room.” “Without money and without price.” “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.” These are the gospel terms.

And at what a cost entrance on that gospel ship has been bought. The cost was blood. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb. 9:22.) “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7.) The price has been paid. Atonement has been completed. You may be saved, and saved now. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31.)

Reader, the choice lies before you. The issue is tremendous. What shall it be? Would that you realized the importance of decision!

A. J. P.

His Liberty Our Receipt

IT was just one of those cases, which unfortunately appear by thousands in our police courts. He had been intoxicated and a little disorderly, and now he stood in the dock before the magistrate, and was fined a small sum, or in default a brief period of imprisonment.

He was not short of cash, however, and so the fine was promptly paid; but as, the money was handed over he proffered an unusual request, which for a moment produced a mild sensation. “Please,” said he, “to furnish me with a receipt.”

The magistrate’s reply was to wave him out of the dock with these words, “Your liberty is your receipt.” An answer well worth pondering.

The magistrate’s words were true! The law does not relax its hold on a lawbreaker until all its demands are satisfied; but when satisfied, liberty must be at once granted unless the law is prepared itself to be convicted of injustice. Let a convicted prisoner walk out free from dock or prison house, then his liberty proclaims as clearly as any receipt that every righteous penalty has been paid.

Do these lines meet the eye of an anxious sinner, one who has for long, perhaps, sought the evidences of salvation within himself? Let such an one find in our simple story a parable, which shall illustrate how they may find the “receipt” granted by the Judge of all, which evidences their own clearance from the guilt of sin and its righteous deserts. One word only needs to be changed—that the sentence may read, “CHRIST’S liberty is your receipt.”

Such a scripture as “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6) entitles you to say with confidence, “Christ died for me.”

But if you have trusted Him, and have learned that He has paid your penalty, the question surely is, not “What are my feelings or experiences?” but “How does He—my Substitute—stand in regard to the claims of divine justice, now that payment has been made?”

Is there any doubt as to the answer to be given to this latter question? None whatever. We read: He “was delivered for our offenses, and was RAISED again for our justification.” (Rom. 4:25.)

His resurrection was His complete clearance from death’s penalty and the prison house of the grave—it was His liberty! And that liberty He got for “our justification,”—that is, for us who believe in Him, and for whom He died. HIS liberty is our receipt.

Lay hold of this, trembling believer, if you would be sure and happy, for the fact is that many, because of not seeing the bearing of Christ’s resurrection, live their days just as though they were condemned Suffragettes, but released now and again under the “Cat and Mouse Act.” They pray, and by dint of self-denial slip now and again out into the sunshine for a brief period, only to slip back into the prison house of doubt shortly after.

And all the time the true believer in Jesus is entitled to turn his gaze away from himself, his doings, and his feelings, and to fix it upon Christ,—Christ risen and glorified, the proof of the complete clearance, which has been wrought for the believer by His death.

Fix the eyes of your heart on Him, dear friend, and say with joy, “His liberty is my receipt.”

F. B. H.

I See It!

WE stood at the door of the preaching room at the close of a gospel service one fine summer evening, when there passed out a young Irish schoolmaster. He looked so utterly dejected that we departed from our usual custom of not “buttonholing” our hearers, and putting our hand on his shoulder, we asked:

“Are you saved?”

“No, sir,” he replied; “I wish I was.”

“Well,” we said, “God’s desire to save you is much stronger than your desire to be saved. Pray, what is your difficulty?”

In characteristic fashion he answered, “My difficulty is that I don’t know my difficulty.”

“Let us get into a quiet corner,” said we, “and talk the matter over.”

Passing again into the hall, we set before him his condition as lost and undone, but we found he was quite ready to admit that. We then told him simply of God’s love for sinners, and showed him how that by His death the Lord Jesus Christ had met all God’s righteous claims, and all our great need; and that, redemption’s work having been finished, there was nothing left for us to do but believe in Him, and rest upon that which He has done.

We found that he was intelligent as to these simple, yet all-important, facts. Still, there was some difficulty which he could not explain, and which up to that moment we had been unable to discover.

At length we said to him:

“On what do you consider your being at peace with God as to the question of your, sins depends? Does it depend upon God’s acceptance of the work of Christ, or upon your acceptance of it?”

After a few moments’ serious consideration he said, “I should say, sir, it depends upon my acceptance.”

“Now,” said we, “we see wherein lies your difficulty, and the hindrance to your enjoyment of peace with God.”

Looking not a little surprised, yet perhaps in a measure relieved, he inquired, “How is that, sir?”

“Let us attempt an illustration which may help you,” we responded. “Suppose that we owed our grocer ten pounds sterling, and had no money with which to meet his claim suppose we were out of work, and had no one to whom we could turn for assistance. To make matters worse, our merchant, who had exercised long patience, at last sent word that unless our debt was paid within ten days he must at once resort to extreme measures for its recovery.

“We will further suppose that you heard of our plight, went to our grocer, placed on his counter ten sovereigns, and got the receipt. You immediately came to us, told us that you had seen our creditor, paid our debt, and in proof thereof you produced his receipt. On what does our being at peace with regard to our debt depend—our acceptance of the payment or our grocer’s acceptance of the payment of it?”

We stopped and waited. Presently his face lit up with that gleam of light and joy which is so delightful to witness in a newborn soul, as he exclaimed, “I see it!”

“What do you see?” we asked.

He replied:

“I see that my being at peace with God as to the question of my sins depends upon God’s acceptance of the work of Christ, and I know that He has accepted it.”

Desiring that he should rest upon the sure foundation of God’s Word, and not upon a feeble human illustration, we opened our Bible at Romans 10:9, and read that golden text, which God has used for the blessing of countless thousands:

“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.”

We showed him that the One whom men crucified God had made “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). That because of the work that He had accomplished, God had placed His Son on the very highest pinnacle in glory, the evidence of His delight in His Person and His appreciation of His work. And that He, by His Spirit and through His Word, now called upon us to confess Him as our Lord, and gave us the oft-repeated assurance that

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21.)

Then, as to the question of our sins, the resurrection of Christ was the incontestable proof of God’s entire satisfaction with, and acceptance of, what He had done. Christ, with His own most precious blood, paid the believer’s mighty debt; God accepted that payment as righteously meeting His every claim, and a risen, ascended, glorified Christ at His right hand is the everlasting witness of it, so that now the simple believer can sing:

“God will not payment twice demand:

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.”

How easy, then, to understand that to the one who confesses with the mouth Jesus as Lord, and who believes in the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, God gives the instant assurance that he is saved.

Our friend saw it clearly, and went home with the happy consciousness that he was saved, and that he knew it for an absolute certainty because God had said it.

And you, too, may today have the peace of God, not by working, or praying, or any effort of yours; but by simple, unquestioning, childlike faith you may know that your sins are forgiven, and that you are a possessor of “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Peace with a holy God,

Peace from the fear of death,

Peace through our Saviour’s precious blood—

Sweet Peace! The fruit of faith.”

W. B. D.

The Bullet and the Bible

BULLETS pierce the body, but words pierce the heart. Such has been the experience of many. So it happened with one of Cromwell’s soldiers. As is well known, Cromwell had ordered that each of his men should carry with him a Bible. This particular soldier of whom we write had been a dissolute man, caring nothing for the Book which on every page condemned him, but he obeyed orders—a Bible was in his breast pocket.

After a fierce battle in which many had fallen on both sides, as he was removing his coat for the night he noticed that the Bible had been pierced by a bullet, which had gone through half the book, and had embedded itself there. He was awe-stricken as he realized how near death he had been, and the Book which had been pierced instead of his breast suddenly acquired value in his eyes.

The spot on which the bullet had stopped was Eccl. 11:9: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”

As the bullet had pierced the Book, so these quiet but solemn words pierced the soldier’s heart. It was a very different sentence of death, indeed, they brought to his heart than if the bullet had gone through it, but it was nevertheless death. The sentence of God was here pronounced upon all his past life, add the pang of it followed him until he learned the sweet, the old, yet ever new, story of Jesus and His love. He learned that the death under which he lay had been gone through by that blessed Saviour: that on the cross He had borne the judgment of God for all his sins, and thus delivered him from the wrath to come.

Of course, out of a foe the Lord Jesus made him thus a friend, as He has done with millions of others, as He is doing still in every corner of the earth, and as He can do on the battlefields of Europe at the present time.

Reader, are you as yet a foe, or have you become a friend? There is not a question in all the earth half so solemn as this, and on the answer to which hang such stupendous results—eternal bliss or eternal woe. Towards which are you bound?

Here is the way of blessing. The Lord speaks: “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.)

Contributed by H. A. M.

Pardon Refused

IN 1830 a man named George Wilson was sentenced to be hanged, for robbing the mails in the United States, and for murder. Andrew Jackson, who was President at that time, exercised his prerogative, and sent him a pardon. Wilson, however, refused this, and insisted that it was not a pardon unless he accepted it.

The Attorney-general said that the law was silent on this point, and the matter was referred to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall gave the following decision:

“A pardon is a paper, the value of
which depends on its acceptance
by the person implicated. It is hardly
to be supposed that one under sentence
of death would refuse to accept a
pardon, but if it is refused it is no
pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”

And so he was.

What folly was it that could have induced Wilson to refuse the pardon that meant life and liberty to him? I do not know. The reader will agree with me that it was folly of a stupendous character. But it was not greater than the folly that leads thousands to refuse, day after day, the pardon that is offered them by God.

Men need pardon because they are offenders against God. Sin is an infinite offense in His sight, and all have sinned. The man who considers himself an exception to this sweeping statement of universal import does but exhibit his ignorance of what sin is, and of his own heart. God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, declares that “ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23.)

All, therefore, need pardon. But none can earn it. For men are not only sinners, but “without strength” (Rom. 5:6). But, thank God, He has not left us to perish without hope. On the ground of the atonement wrought by His own Son He offers a free pardon. Anybody may avail himself of it. Here are its terms: “Through this Man [the Lord Jesus Christ] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 13:38.)

All that remains, then, for the sinner who feels his guiltiness is to accept, by faith, the forgiveness so freely and righteously offered.

Have you done this, reader? Do not shun the personal question. Pardon is offered: have you accepted it?

Remember that pardon, if not accepted, is no pardon at all. Do not, then, I beseech you, let this priceless boon slip through your fingers.

H. P. B.

I Trust All to Christ

SUCH were the last recorded words of the dying Pope, Pius IX. If they expressed in all their true literal meaning the mind of the head of the Hierarchical System of Rome it were indeed well for him.

On a dying bed things are apt to assume truer proportions than when we are in health and strength. The fading, transient things of this life, slipping out of the grasp of the dying fingers, are often appraised at a truer worth than the fictitious value put upon them when they constitute the goal ambition is striving every nerve to attain—ambition whose vision, alas! is bounded by the fitful fever of this short life.

In the case of the Pope, in life one thinks of his view being divided between Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the countless saints who fill up to repletion the Roman Calendar.

On this let us be absolutely clear—the Lord Jesus Christ will not share His glory with another. He stands not pre-eminent, but—ALONE. Put Christ on a level with the Virgin Mary and the saints, and you lose Him.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, and there is nothing and nobody between. Let us be clear as to this. He Himself said most emphatically, “I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6.) And since His death and resurrection this is affirmed unchanged in clearest language. “This [the Lord Jesus Christ] is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: tor there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12.)

Can it be that as the eyes of Pius IX. glazed in death his spiritual vision became clearer, or perhaps that his deepest cherished belief, buried beneath all the ritual and superstition of Rome, weighed down beneath the weight of the Pontifical tiara, inarticulate through fear of the tyranny of a religion at heart semi-pagan, found voice as the moment arrived when man and his religion, his favor or his frown, are as light dust in the scales of the sanctuary? Can it be that as his naked soul stood, as it were, on the threshold of the audience chamber of God, he learned at length wherein lay all his hope for eternity?

Sure am I that if Pope Pius IX., or the writer, or the reader of this article can say truthfully, “I trust all to Christ,” his trust will not be in vain.

Neither our own efforts on earth, nor the good offices of the Virgin Mary— “blessed... among women,” —nor of all the canonized saints in the Roman Calendar combined, have any place in Scripture in the plan of salvation.

Search and see. Are not our Lord’s words sufficient, “No man cometh unto the Father, BUT BY ME”? (John 14:6.) Did not the apostle Peter (and will not Rome listen to him?) say, “THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME... whereby we must be saved”? (Acts 4:12.)

How happy, then, to be able to say, “I trust all to Christ!” Can you say it, dear reader?

He finished the work of salvation. Atonement is made. On the cross He cried with a loud voice the mighty, triumphant cry of the Victor, “IT IS FINISHED.”

His glorious resurrection announces throughout the world the truth of this. His ascension proclaims the same upon God’s own throne. Can we have a doubt? He has broken the power of sin, and death, and Satan. God has accepted the work He has done on behalf of sinners. The empty cross, the vacant tomb, the filled throne, the glory-crowned brow—all speak with assurance and comfort as to this.

We must leave an open question the meaning Pope Pius IX. put upon his dying words. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” was Abraham’s grand confidence; and it is to God we must commend the dead Pontiff. But we do ask you earnestly and affectionately: “Can you say, ‘I trust all to Christ’?” On your answer depends your eternity. Face this, we beseech you.

A. J. P.

Deceived and Deceiving; or, Mary Stuart's End

WHEN that unhappy woman, Mary Queen of Scots, came to the scaffold for her execution, she was approached, with all the respect due to her rank, by Dr. Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, who hoped to minister to her that gospel of which every sinner, high and low, has need. She interrupted him abruptly, however, declaring herself a “Catholic,” and determined to die such.

“Repent of your sins,” said the dean; “settle your faith in Christ, by Him be saved.”

Could sounder or more scriptural advice have been given? But mark this deceived bigot’s reply; “Trouble not yourself further, Mr. Dean,” she answered; “I am settled in my own faith, for which I mean to shed my blood.”

“I am sorry, madam,” said Lord Shrewsbury, “to see you so addicted to popery.”

“The image of Christ you hold in your hand will not profit you if He be not engraved in your heart,” said another, Kent.

To these faithful admonitions she made no reply, but turned her back on Fletcher to kneel in prayer to her “saints” and the “Virgin.”

She went to her death trusting in a lie, and refusing the gospel of God brought to her by faithful men, thus judging herself unworthy of eternal life.

The dean exhorted her to repentance and faith in Christ. This is precisely what the apostle Paul everywhere testified to men (see Acts 20:21). And the queen’s reply, “I am settled in my own faith,” witnesses that this is not what she considered they Catholic faith, for which she falsely declared she was shedding her blood (for her execution took place for purely political reasons).

How many, even now, declare as plainly, when they speak of “their own faith,” that it is not the faith of the gospel which they possess. Salvation does not come to sinners because of any traditional “faith” to which they may cling.

There is but one saving faith known to Scripture— “the common faith,” the “faith of God’s elect” (Titus 1:1-4).

This is simple faith, or dependence on Jesus Christ as a personal and all-sufficient Saviour; and it is the only faith which will avail any man—Romanist or Protestant.

And, reader, unless you have obtained this “like precious faith” (2 Peter 1:1) your adherence to any other, even to the stake or scaffold, will not avail.

Faith of any other kind or character is called by the inspired writer, James, “dead,” and the religion of its possessor he declares to be vain.

Thus far we have seen the Scottish queen deceived; we shall now behold her deceiving. Describing the execution, Froude says: “The head hung by a shred of skin (after the executioner’s blow), which he divided without drawing the ax. At once a metamorphosis was witnessed, strange as was ever wrought by the wand of fabled enchantment. The coif fell off, and the false plaits. The illusion vanished. The lady who had knelt before the block was in the maturity of grace and loveliness. The executioner, when he raised the head, as usual, to show it to the crowd, exposed the features of a grizzled, wrinkled old woman.”

And, reader, a greater metamorphosis will occur when the stroke of death descends upon the religious deceiver, who externally appears so lovely in his life, but within is full of rottenness and moral hideousness. The illusion may be continued until the end; but when death ushers the soul into that eternity where shams cannot abide, and where all is real, all the false adornings of devotion to “church,” zeal for the many and varied inventions of a Christless religion, will drop off as when a fig tree is shaken by a mighty wind; and you, yes, YOU, if a mere professor of religion, if not born again, if unconverted, will stand exposed, and your soul held up in righteous derision, that men and angels may behold its true character.

Oh! be not deceived, and think not to deceive God! Whatever you are, be real; and know that “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6); —that “whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Stand before God self-exposed, yet believing, now; then you will never need be exposed before Him, unbelieving, in a lost eternity.

C. K.

Is There a Hell?

THERE probably never was a time in the history of the world when men were more averse than now to all authority.

Anarchists want no government, that they may do as they please. Children rebel against parental rule, and schoolmasters must not lift the hand against a vicious pupil.

In the same way, God may send His rain upon the fields to bless man; He may shower upon him all manner of good; He may provide a lovely heaven to receive him when he has wasted his life in sin; but He must not speak of judgment, He must not think of His own holiness, nor of that eternal justice which marks all His doings. Above all, He must not speak of the fire that is not quenched, nor of the worm that never dies.

Reader, you will find plenty of men nowadays who profess to speak for God, who will talk to you in that way. If you love to be deceived, go and hear them, and try and comfort yourself with the comfort of fools; but you might just as well go and hear a man preach that robbing and killing your neighbor will have no bad end: you will find yourself, if guilty of such crimes, just the same in the hands of justice, and condemned and executed as a criminal. The judge will not listen to the nonsense to which you have listened; he is the minister of justice, and justice will have its course.

If there is one thing spoken of more plainly than another in Scripture it is about the justice of God, and its unflinching course towards all offenders. Nor will He ask you, or any man, in the day when He judges, what is the just measure of penalty which is to be inflicted. He has said it, and, depend upon it, He will not change it: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matt. 25:46.) Men may twist and turn to get away from it, and dismiss it from their minds; but there it stands, and only fools run against the just decrees of the God of heaven.

Reader, when God had to give up the Son of His love to atone for sin by the death of the cross, it meant that the consequences of sin are no trifle with God. If they should be with you, he assured that when you and God meet together, you will not be the one who will prevail. It were wiser far to believe God now as to the punishment which awaits sinners. Then turn to the Saviour for deliverance from it while it is yet the day of grace. The death of Christ proves the awful end of sin, and is what removes its penalty from every repenting and believing sinner.

Contributed by H. A. M.

The Victor

MANY years ago a handsome column was erected to the memory of Napoleon the Great in one of the great squares of Paris—the Place Vendome. It is of immense height, with a standing figure of Napoleon, and is composed of cannon captured during his wars.

It is said that when it was erected, on the foot of it there was found written—perhaps by a widow or orphan, whose husband or father had been killed in one of these wars— “Monster, if all the blood that thou hast shed could be collected in this square, thou mightest drink without stooping.”

What a commentary on the victor of Marengo, of Austerlitz, of Wagram, of battles too numerous to mention! What a commentary on the title Great!

But the Victor of whom we write did not become so by killing others, but by—dying Himself. His victory gained for Him the title, “Prince of PEACE.” Not ambition, nor lust of power, nor hate of others, led Him into the conflict, but—LOVE. Was there ever a death like His?

Napoleon’s claim to greatness, if understood aright, would cause posterity to execrate his name. He was a great butcher—a great murderer—the embodiment of wickedness and cruelty. His tomb is perhaps the most impressive sight in Paris, yet the terrible reflection that forces itself on the mind of the beholder is that he was responsible for the slaughter of three million soldiers.

In vivid contrast to this is the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not three million soldiers killed to satisfy lust and wickedness; but His own death witnessed to His desire to give life, not to take it, for He “gave His life a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6).

“By weakness and defeat,

He won the meed and crown;

Trod all our foes beneath His feet,

By being trodden down.”

Napoleon’s victories caused many a tear to fall, many a heart to break—the victory of the Lord Jesus has dried many a tear, healed many a breaking heart, and will fill heaven with myriads of the redeemed. Well might we ask how the victory was obtained. Mark well the answer: He became THE VICTOR by becoming THE VICTIM. He conquered by—surrender. He overcame by—dying. He crushed the foe by—yielding. There never was a death like His!

Reader, has the love expressed in it won your heart? He died for YOU. Only His death can give you life. Only His death can give you forgiveness. Only His death can give you salvation.

But to receive life and forgiveness and salvation you must trust Him, you must believe in Him. Or else His death, instead of proving a blessing to you, will seal your doom, for “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation”? (Heb. 6:2). If His precious blood, like the blood of Abel’s “more excellent sacrifice,” does not obtain witness that you are righteous (see Heb. 11:4), then His blood, like that of the murdered Abel’s, will call for vengeance from the ground. Which shall it be?

As Isaiah prophesied seven centuries before, the Saviour was “brought as a lamb to the slaughter”; as the kingly psalmist foretold a millennium before, the bitter cry was wrung from His sacred lips, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Behold the Victim! All God’s wrath against sin was poured upon Him. But listen! What is that mighty shout filling the air? Not the last feeble whisper of a dying man, but the victor shout of One whose life could not be taken from Him, but who had power to lay it down, and power to take it again.

Hear the thrilling words:

“It is finished!”

Glorious words! The work of atonement is accomplished. The mighty deed of salvation is completed.

Behold the Victor! Vacant is the cross. Empty is the tomb. Burst are the bonds or death. Look up! Look up!! See the Saviour, the Lord of life and glory, the triumphant Victor seated on the throne.

“‘IT IS FINISHED!’ Sinners, hear it,

’Tis the dying Victor’s cry;

‘IT IS FINISHED!’ Angels, bear it,

Bear the joyful news on high:

‘IT IS FINISHED!’

Tell it through the earth and sky.”

Will you not let Him conquer you—overcome your resistance—break down your rebellion by—HIS LOVE? Salvation then will be yours.

If not, the day will come when you will be forced to yield, to bow the knee, to confess Him as Lord by HIS POWER. Judgment, alas! must then be yours. Which shall it be?

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that beliveth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36.)

A. J. P.

Prince Bismarck's Confession

THE following is the biographer’s account of some of the closing words of the famous Prince Bismarck, Germany’s great Chancellor and statesman, who has made his name great in history:

“Nobody loves me for what I have done. I have never made anybody happy; not myself, nor my family, nor anybody else. But how many I have made unhappy! But for me, three great wars would not have been fought. Eighty thousand men would not have perished. Parents, brothers, sisters, and widows would not have been bereaved and plunged into mourning.

“That matter, however, I have settled with God. But I have had little or no joy from all my achievements; nothing but vexation, care, and trouble.”

Such is the humiliating confession of Germany’s greatest Chancellor.

Never loved for what he did!

Never made anybody happy!

Never made himself happy!

My reader, if you are found treading the thorny road to human glory and happiness, let the words of Bismarck arrest your fruitless travail. Soul-satisfaction is not found on that road.

Leaving his quiet country life in 1851, he entered the political world, with one great ambition—the aggrandizement and consolidation of the German Empire. In this he fairly succeeded. Germany’s millions adored him, and hung with unbounded confidence on his words.

But who could have guessed the unsatisfied cravings within? “NEVER MADE MYSELF HAPPY” —such is his upright confession!

What a comfort to be able to turn to Another, even to the Lord Jesus, for He can disclose to us the secret of true happiness. Let us consider Him who is called “Wonderful, the Mighty God.” By His almighty fiat He called worlds out of nothing. He placed each one of them in their appointed place. By the touch of His creatorial hand He worked wonders on this little globe on which we live. Every blade of grass, every flower, every beam of light, every dewdrop, He made to sparkle with the glory of His infinitude. He then created man to enjoy it all.

The story is soon told. Man sinned. Creation fell with him, its delegated head, and in a few short years the whole world was filled with violence (see Gen. 6:11), so that God repented that He had made man on the earth.

Then came the moment for the masterwork of divine omnipotence, by which He showed His glory, and by it gained, and is gaining, the love of millions. Never could it be said of the Lord Jesus, as of Bismarck, “Nobody ever loved me for what I have done.” Millions from every land rise up and call Him blessed, and love Him with adoring hearts. Before this glorious person, who is called “Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6), hosts of happy angelic beings cry “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3).

This blessed Person, in marvelous condescension, left His heavenly glory. He came, a poor man (though ever God, the Son), into this world of human woe, and trod His way, devoted to God and man. He opened His beneficent hand wherever He went. And, oh! how abundantly He blessed. None but those willfully hardened by sin could come into contact with Him without learning the grace of His heart.

Then culminated that lovely life—not in senate house, nor on throne of king, but on a public gibbet. Uplifted between heaven and earth, spectacle for men and angels, He offered His life as the Atoning Sin-bearer. He was not driven to that cross by the frenzy of the maddened crowd. He went to Calvary moved by the power of unselfish love for you and me. Who could have touched His life? He said, “No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:18)

Though led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet it was as a willing victim He offered Himself to God. Though allowing men to carry out their satanic desires, it was, nevertheless, fulfilling the determinate counsel of God. Profound fact! He went to the cross in love all divine, for you and me. Let every host in heaven and earth adore Him. He is worthy of creature adoration.

What a contrast to Prince Bismarck is this blessed Prince of Peace! Jesus brought joy to the heart of God. He has made the writer supremely happy, and can make the reader happy too. Will you allow Him?

Perhaps you say, “How can He make me happy?” First, by the removal of all your sins by His precious death. Second, by justifying you, and bringing you into peace with God. Third, by setting you before God’s face in cloudless favor. Fourth, by giving you His Spirit to flood your heart with His infinite love, and causing it to flow forth to God the Father in a Te Deum of endless praise. Where shall I stop in enumerating what He will do for you?

It is not a chancellor, but a Sovereign, who claims a place in your heart. Many a loyal subject has died for his sovereign; but here—wonder of eternity—is a Sovereign who has died for His disloyal and rebellious subjects.

Will you not surrender to Him, and own Him Lord? Let me entreat you to do it now. He waits to make you supremely happy. You may not desire to know Him; but, oh! how He longs to make Himself known to you. He wants to relieve your conscience with words of forgiveness through His precious blood. He wants to satisfy your poor empty heart with His own incomparable love. May the story of all His goodness in life and death bring you to repentance. Then at His feet you will be assured of a thousand welcomes. No frown. No rebuke for all your indifference. Nothing now but grace, boundless grace, grace divine and unmerited.

May it be yours to trust this blessed Saviour who died for you, to love Him, serve Him, and wait with satisfied heart for His coming again. Then shall we who know Him see Him as He is, and be like Him forever; then shall everlasting adoration and glory be His. He shall be eternally loved for what He has done.

Then, too, will He, as “Prince of Peace,” bring to an end the violence of men, and usher in His glorious reign of righteousness, peace, and joy; when men shall turn their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and learn war no more.

J. H. L.

The Young Railway Man of Gembloux

AS I take up my pen, there rises before my mind the quiet, peaceful little town of Gembloux, in Belgium, that unfortunate land which is once more the scene of fighting and bloodshed. This town has been mentioned as one of the places through which the German army passed, not with such acts of cruelty as is reported to have taken place in other towns, perhaps, but we can hardly believe that they left it as they found it.

At any rate, we know that the inhabitants must have been terror-stricken as they saw the approach of the hostile army.

About a fortnight before war was declared party of friends and myself visited several towns in Belgium, distributing Gospels and tracts, which were everywhere so well received that we had felt greatly encouraged in our work.

On our return journey from Dinant to Ostend we stopped at Gembloux, and gave books in every direction.

I had given several to men on a level crossing, which was guarded by a young man in uniform, who took one very politely. As I was about to return to the station a friend called my attention to this young fellow holding up his paper, and evidently wanting to speak to me. I hurried back to him, when he gave me the tract, saying, “I will return this, as I have read it.”

“Oh!” I said, “excuse me, but you cannot have read it in these few minutes. Perhaps you do not care for these things?”

With a shrug of his shoulders, he said, “Indeed I do not, as I do not believe them,” adding some infidel remarks about the Lord Jesus.

It was difficult to say all I wanted in French, and by this time several men had come round, and were eagerly listening. But I was helped just to say that he might go on in his unbelief, and do without Christ, but how would he meet death, and after death the judgment?

His answer I shall never forget. With another shrug of his shoulders, and in a mocking tone, he replied: “Oh! I eat, I drink, I smoke, I enjoy myself as much as possible.”

“And then, when it is all over,” I interrupted, “what then?”

“Oh! I shall die, and that will be the end of me.”

“Oh! then you think you are no better than a beast?” I said.

This seemed to arrest him for a moment, and his face was grave as I added:

“I would not change places with you, for I know I am going to live again, and with Christ in heaven, which makes me very happy. You, too, will rise again, for you have a soul that will live forever. I shall pray for you.”

To which he replied: “Thank you, madame, but it is no use.”

Again I said, “I shall pray for you,” and was leaving to catch the train, but not before two or three of those standing round put out their hands for books, saying, “I believe, I believe; but that young man is bad.”

When a man in the signal-box near by put out his hand for a book, and the young skeptic would have taken one to him, a big man with a happy face came forward, saying, “No, he must not give it; I will, for I believe.”

This somewhat astonished me.

Thus the company on the level crossing at Gembloux quickly divided into two parties, for a few lads sided with the young man, and appeared to think it all a joke.

Hundreds of years ago people were similarly divided, for it says in John 7:43: “There was a division among the people because of Him” [the Lord Jesus].

Reader, which side would you have taken at Gembloux? Would you have been able to join those men who said, “I believe”? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour from sin and its consequences? Or do you, even now, shrug your shoulders and choose to go on in your sins, slighting the One who gave His life a ransom for all? Do you think the young man was quite wise and right in summing up his whole life in the words, “I eat, I drink, I smoke, I enjoy myself”?

Surely you would not say that you believe when you die you will be done with? No, you have a soul that will live forever and ever. Where? Stop now and answer that question—Where? Turn to the Saviour of sinners, confess your need, and accept His wonderful salvation, offered to you without money and without price; and then live for Him, and tell others what great things He has done for you.

~~~

Now, as I close, I see that there has been fighting around Gembloux, and the question arises in my mind, what has become of all those men? Have they had to face death—and so soon? How many were ready? Are you?

M. J. R.

The Right Way: For Old and Young

Table of Contents

If!

The St. Abbs' Head Wreck

A Look

That Little Bit

How an Infidel Was Cured

What the Old Book Says

Good News

Better Than a Million Pounds

Just as Clear

Your Last End

A Catholic Lady's Anxiety

The Three Ships

Can We Do Without the Gospel?

Not Now! Not Now!

No Time to Think

Saved at Last

The Way to Peace

The World's Ten Thousand Ways

Who Is He?

Useless Kinds of Religion

The Weighing Machine

Paying Dear for Them

What Does a Man Really Need?

On What Do I Rest?

Niagara Falls: Niagara Falls

The Story of a Tract

Pointing in the Wrong Direction

Tracked

Ye Canna' Get Ae'thing for Naething

Do You Feel Good?

What About Your Sins?

A Fingerprint

Two Deathbeds

Tomorrow

How Firm a Foundation!

Escape for Thy Life

His Liberty Our Receipt

I See It!

The Bullet and the Bible

Pardon Refused

I Trust All to Christ

Deceived and Deceiving; or, Mary Stuart's End

Is There a Hell?

The Victor

Prince Bismarck's Confession

The Young Railway Man of Gembloux