The Salvation of God: Volume 7 (1884)

I can quite understand the thought that will pass through many a reader’s mind — “Oh, it must have been some Christian of experience who, after years of faithfulness, knew the full blessedness of being saved, and of having every sin blotted out!” No; it was not an old Christian of great experience, and long and faithful service, it was a dear little child of eight years, who, in a letter to the writer, could say in the simplicity of her faith that “Jesus had washed away all her sins;” that “He had not left one; and, of course, the result of such a glorious truth is happiness, whether to young or old.

The testimony of this dear child may perhaps touch a chord in your heart, my reader. You may be older, and have walked longer in the paths of sin, and may know that sin and misery are very close companions, even in this world; and the word of God tells you that the end of that pathway is darkness, death, and eternal woe; conscience tells you that what God says is solemnly true; the thought arises in your mind, and the desire comes into your heart, “Oh that I could say what that dear little child says about the blood of Jesus, that it has washed away all my sins, so that there is ‘not one left!’ That would indeed make me happy.”

Well, my reader, what does the word of God say about it? This little child just simply believed what the word of God says; that was why she was so sure that her sins were gone.

She knew she was a sinner, and a lost sinner, though young and she could read in the word of God that Jesus gave Himself for our sins; that He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust; and that God had raised Him from the dead. She believed what the word of God says, and that it was for her; “that is salvation.” Of course the Scriptures say a great deal more upon the same subject, about the blood of God’s Son cleansing from all sin, and those who simply believe in Him being justified from all things. Why should not you just believe what God says, my reader? In His great love the blessed Lord has given Himself, suffered, and died, that poor lost sinners, like you and me, may be saved, and by thus believing what God says you will, like the little child, be able to say, “He has not left one sin.”

W. H.

"Just Ready for It."

WHILST waiting at F― Station one day a gospel tract was given to an old engine driver. He took it home, read it, believed God’s word therein set forth, and was saved. Meeting with a serious accident soon after, he was obliged to go to a London hospital, and whilst there the doctors decided that a severe operation was necessary as the only means of saving his life. When told this, and that it was very probable he might sink under it, what did he say? (Now these are his own words) — “I says, should like a few minutes;’ then I looks up to the Lord, and I says, ‘Lord, I am just ready for it, either to go or to stop, whichever you likes; but if you don’t mind I should like to stop a little longer, because of my wife and children; for I’ve got ten of ‘em.’” Such was his simple prayer; but the Lord heard and answered. On his return home I saw him, when he said, “And I got through it so nicely, and here I am a helpless cripple; but ‘tis all right.” Now he is put to do sitting work in Swindon Factory.

Dear reader, are you just ready for it? If death stared you in the face today, is your house set in order for eternity? If you are not ready for it, it may be ready for you — “Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20) — and eternity will be too short to enable thee to answer God’s question of Heb. 2:2, 3 — “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” &c. “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” (Job 36:18.) Our Lord Jesus, in John 8, told the Pharisees, three times over, “Ye shall die in your sins;” and why? Because they were rejecting Him who came to put away sin — He who was and is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6); “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater... And this is the witness.... He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:9, 11, 12.)

A. P. B.

"Every One, Any Man, Whosoever."

“Look unto me, and be ye saved.” — Isa. 45:22.

“Come unto me hear, and your soul shall live.” — Isaiah 4:3.

“Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” Acts 10:43.

SALVATION, life, and forgiveness of sins, the free gifts of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to everyone that looketh, cornea to, hears, and believes in Him. This is God’s way. Man’s way is to try, strive, work, feel, pray, experience, and hope. “The Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“Every one,” “any man,” and “whosoever;” “looketh,” “believeth,” “liveth.” Simple words, but the words of the living God who cannot lie, to everyone who has felt the bite of “the old serpent,” the plague of his own heart. To you is this word of salvation sent. The lifted-up Son of man, He who knew no sin, was made sin on the cross. God made His soul an offering for sin, and there on that cross He bore the sins of every one that believeth; and there too God condemned sin in the flesh. This is God’s remedy for today; and now if the eye of faith rests on Him, the ear listens to His word, the heart believes what He says, and confesses with the mouth the Lord Jesus, that one has everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.

Mark, dear reader, God’s order — “heareth,” “believeth,” “hath,” “shall not,” “is.” This blessed chain of five precious links reaches to the sinner in the lowest depths of his degradation and woe, and lifts him into a region of peace and light and eternal bliss.

The children of Israel asked Moses to pray for them; God commanded them to look and live.

Two men stand side by side on the deck of a steamer, outward bound, the one a believer, the other unsaved but anxious. “What is God’s way to be saved?” said one. “Pray to God, and believe on the Lord Jesus,” was the reply. “Reverse it, and you have it,” said the believer. “Thank God for that, then; I’m saver said the bitten one; “I felt that word go down deep into my soul.’

W. R. H.

The Precious Blood of Christ.

IN Isaiah 1 The Lord convicts Judah and Jerusalem of their manifold sins, abiding, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.” And, dear reader, have not these words a voice to all who are in their sins, and therefore, if still unsaved, a voice to you?

God is infinitely holy, and the sinner must be washed to be fit for His glorious presence. Unwashed sinners can never dwell there.

But how are you to wash and be clean? Let His own Word reply. First of all, note two scriptures, which tell us plainly what will not wash us in His sight.

In Jeremiah 2:22 we read, “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.”

And Job 9:30 says, “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.”

The stains of sin are far too deep for either nitre, much soap, or snow water to remove. Men devise many means to wash themselves, but all in vain. There is only one thing that can wash a sinner clean in the sight of God, and that is

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.

“Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22.) “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11.) “And the blood of Jesus Christ His (God’s) Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7.) “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18.)

Such is the wondrous efficacy of Jesus’ blood, that God Himself, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, sees neither spot nor stain upon any sinner that believeth. The psalmist said, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalms 51:7.) Think of that. Whiter than the whitest object your eyes ever saw. This is the only way that a sinner can wash and be clean, through faith in Jesus’ precious blood.

A dying youth, who had but a few hours believed in Jesus, in reply to the remark from a visitor, “S —, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin, so that not a spot nor stain remains,” triumphantly answered, “Not a speck.”

Yes, dear reader, not a speck.

“Clean every whit! Thou saidst it, Lord:

Shall one suspicion lurk?

Thine surely is a faithful word,

And Thine a finished work.”

Oh! can you lift up your voice, and join from the heart in the beauteous strain of the prophet John, “Unto Him that loved (loves) us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion Forever and ever. Amen.”

“I’m going to heaven,” said a dying woman, who had led a very ungodly life, to a Christian who was speaking with her.

“You going to heaven,” replied he; “such a sinner as you!”

“Ah! I know I am a great sinner; but, oh, it’s the blood, it’s the blood, it’s the blood!”

Yes, sinner, it’s the blood, the blood of Christ, the blood that God Himself calls precious blood. (1 Peter 1:19.)

“There is a stream of precious blood

That flowed from Jesus’ veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains.”

Would you be found in glory, round the throne of God, amid the throng of the redeemed, and as they gaze upon the Lamb, sing the new song, “Thou art worthy, for Thou hast redeemed to God by thy blood,” &c.? Then you must be washed from your sins in His own blood now. This is an absolute necessity.

Before you can put away the evil of your doings by the washing of water of God’s word, you must first be made whiter than snow before Him through the blood of Jesus.

“Oh, the blood of Jesus,

The precious blood of Jesus!

Oh, the blood of Jesus,

It cleanses from all sin!

Sinner, will you trust the blood now?

E. H. C.

Have You Done Your Part?

A SHORT time ago, as I was speaking to an old man about the work of Christ, and remarking that it was a finished work, he made the not uncommon reply:

“Oh, yes; it’s very true! Christ has done His part; but then we’ve still got to do ours.”

Without stopping to notice the folly of a man who was just reaching the end of a long life of sin talking about doing his part, I replied, “Well, if you have still got yours to do, I have not got mine.”

“How’s that?” he asked.

“Because I have already done it,” I replied.

“You done your part!” he exclaimed with an air of incredulity.

“Yes,” I said; “indeed I have. And do you know what my part was?”

“No.”

“Well, then, I’ll tell you. It was my sins, and nothing else.”

Ah, reader, you and I have done our part. But, blessed be His name, the Saviour did His too, and did it perfectly, though it cost Him the untold agonies of the cross. There the sinless One, being made sin for us, by His atoning sufferings and death, satisfied God, the righteous Judge, fully meeting all His claims. And you have not to do anything, but simply to trust in what Christ has done for you. If you think you still have to do anything, it is because you do not rely upon what He has done. What an insult to Him! But if you, poor sinner, do not think Christ’s work is enough, God does. He is satisfied, and has declared it by raising Him from the dead.

Oh, won’t you let your weary soul, your sin-laden conscience, find eternal rest there — in God’s own satisfaction with the work of Christ?

“Weary, working, burdened one,

Wherefore toil you so?

Cease your doing; all was done

Long, long ago.”

W. H. K.

Water.

Gen. 21:11-19; Isa. 40:1. John 4:10-14; 7:37-39; Revelation 21:6; 22:17; Luke 16:19-31.

IN each of the above scriptures water is mentioned. Water is the most essential thing on earth, and the easiest to be obtained. We can do with a very little air; we can do almost without light; but we cannot do without water.

In the Scriptures water typifies three things; i.e. the Spirit, the Word, and eternal life. Now turn to the first scripture (Genesis 21:14-19), and you will find two things spoken of that hold water — one is the bottle, the other is the well, and every person in the world is drinking of one or the other. The bottle is supplied and filled by man, and is exhaustible; the well is supplied and filled by God, and is inexhaustible.

Now I want you to notice the various steps which Hagar took from the bottle to the well. The first thing we find is that “the water was spent in the bottle,” and it is always so. Those who have only got the bottle to drink from will find sooner or later that the bottle runs dry, that the bottle never satisfies. You who are drinking from the bottles of religion, pleasure, wealth, popularity, ambition, indifference, skepticism, must find out that, in view of eternity, they none of them satisfy the eternal cravings of the immortal soul. You will discover on a death-bed, if not before, that the water is spent in your once-loved bottles. God in mercy grant that you may awake to the fact before it be Forever too late. Hagar did, and it caused her to take a second step, and that was to cast her child under one of the shrubs. Her child, her darling idol, around which all the tendrils of her heart’s deep affections were entwined, like the ivy around the trellis-work; and you too, poor sinner, have some darling idol — some sin — that stands between you and your soul’s salvation. God knows what it is, and you know what it is. Oh, cast it aside as the blind man did his garments in the gospels, and come to Jesus!

And now Hagar takes a third step, and that is, she “sat her down.” Only a little while ago she was wandering in the wilderness; but now she sits down. Oh, poor restless soul, give up your wanderings in this wilderness world in search of bottles of pleasure that can never satisfy, and come and sit down at the Saviour’s feet and take salvation, take it now and happy be! Now she does a fourth thing — she “lift up her voice;” that is, she prayed, she expressed her helplessness and dependence. All the prayers of Holy Ghost-convicted sinners, recorded in the word of God, are very short. The thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me.” He put the Lord at one end of this short sentence and himself at the other end, and then connected the two with the word “remember,” and he was immediately answered. Have you done the same, poor anxious soul? But Hagar not only lift up her voice, she did a fifth thing — she “wept;” and there was another One who wept in this world of woe over willful, wayward wanderers — “JESUS wept.” Oh that the remembrance of this might produce in you repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ! There is no salvation without repentance — “Unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish,” said the blessed Lord; but whilst there is no salvation without repentance there is no salvation in repentance; salvation is in a Person, and that Person is JESUS. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Look then away, poor sinner, from your prayers, your tears of repentance, and your faith too, to “JESUS ONLY.” Do you ask what repentance is? It is thinking bad of yourself, even as God thinks of you, and faith is thinking well of Christ, even as God thinks of Him. Remember that God has given the best in heaven for the worst upon earth, and believing this produces repentance towards God.

“God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water;” and thus will it be with you, dear soul, when He has caused your bottle to run dry, enabled you to cast aside your darling idol, caused you to sit down as one that can do nothing in the matter of your precious soul’s salvation, and then as a truly repentant one led you to own your entire dependence upon Him for salvation. It was so with the poor prodigal. When he had spent all he came to himself, and said, “In my father’s house there is enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” The Lord bring you to see and own that you have nothing, but that He has everything for you, and that you are welcome to it.

Look now at the second scripture: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” God has plenty of water for you if you are only thirsty, and “everyone” who is thirsty is invited to come, and those who have no money are asked to buy, just showing that it must be accepted as a gift; for God is too rich to sell, and man is too poor to buy, so that the only terms on which the living water is to be had are— simply receiving it.

There are three things in this illustration to be had “without money” — water, wine, and milk; as there are these three in reality for us — eternal life, the Holy Ghost, and the word of God. What priceless blessings!

“But where does it say that God gives His living water to poor thirsty souls?” you may ask. That brings me to the third scripture, in John 4:10-14. Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God... thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water?” But the poor, ignorant, guilty sinner to whom these words were addressed understood them not, and she asks Him in her ignorance, had He better water than that she had come to draw, which obliges the Lord to draw a contrast between the two waters — the water from earth, and the water from heaven. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Oh, ye poor deluded pleasure-seekers, money-hunters, do you not find written upon all these things, “Thirst again”? There is naught on earth to satisfy; all things are changing here. Are you thirsty? Then come to Jesus. He will give you the “living water.” He will give you the Holy Ghost, which shall be in you like a well of water, producing superlative satisfaction in this unsatisfied and unsatisfying world. That is what “never thirst” means.

But I pass on to the fourth scripture, in John 7:37-39: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” The feast referred to is the feast of tabernacles, which lasted eight days, and which was to be kept with great rejoicing in remembrance of the children of Israel having lived in tents forty years in the wilderness. If you turn to Leviticus 23:33-44 you will see God’s account of this feast, what is signified, and how it was to be kept.

Mark, it was on “the last day, that great day of the feast, that Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” They had been up to Jerusalem, and kept the feast seven days rejoicingly with their relatives and friends they had had a perfect opportunity (for seven means perfection) to get satisfaction in commemorating this divinely-instituted ordinance; and now, as they were returning home on the eighth day, the Lord saw unrest and dissatisfaction stamped of their faces, and invited them to come to Him, any He would give them rest and satisfaction, any make them channels of blessing to others. So Hi says, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture path said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.”

In John 4, those who believe on Christ get the Holy Ghost as a well of water in them springing up in praise, and worship, and thanksgiving, to God; but in John 7, those who believe on Christ get the Holy Ghost in them, that out of them may flow rivers of living water for the refreshment and blessing of other thirsty souls in this barren sterile scene. There must be inpouring on God’s part first before there can be outpouring on ours.

Poor religious devotee, you will never get salvation, rest, peace, or the Holy Ghost, by observing carefully and reverently religious ordinances. You must come to Christ for these eternal blessings. Coming to Him is eating, and believing on Him is drinking. (See John 6:35.)

In our fifth scripture God is saying, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” How every scripture we turn to proves that God has plenty of water, if you are only thirsty. God gives to the thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. But, remember, God gives, not sells, and to the thirsty; that is, the empty ones, not the full ones. And you have not to wring salvation from God, oh, no; for He gives it freely, FREELY, FREELY.

But though God gives freely, we are responsible to take, and therefore our sixth scripture says, “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22) Christ says, three times in this chapter, “I come quickly,” and the two first “comes” in the verse we are now considering are addressed to Christ; but the third “come” is to the thirsty, and such are invited to take of the water of life freely.

Now, poor thirsting soul, you are responsible to take the water of life by believing on Christ. God will not believe for you. In love He gave His Son to die for you. You must believe for yourself or be damned. Christ will not believe for you. He has died for you, and now you must believe on Him and be saved, or not believe on Him and be damned. (Mark 16:16.) The Holy Ghost will not believe for you. He has come down from heaven to tell you all these things in du word of God, and now you must believe for yourself or be damned. Those who preach the gospel to you cannot believe for you. No; you must believe for yourself, or go to the lake of firs through your own guilty unbelief.

There remains one more scripture to consider (Luke 16:19-31.) There hope is gone; the day of grace is past. “In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.... And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, am cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

There was plenty of water for him when he was upon earth, but he neglected it; for he was a stranger to thirst. But now, alas! he thirsts too late; for he is where there is not a drop of water and never will be. The rich man does not ask Abraham that Lazarus may dip his hand or even his finger, but only the tip of his finger, in water to cool his tongue. Oh, precious souls, will you not take freely of the water of life while there is plenty and God is giving it freely? It is for WHOSOEVER, and that means you, me, or anybody.

This is the first prayer that we read of in the word of God as being offered to a saint, and it is from a damned soul in hell, and has never been and never will be answered.

Once more in closing would I remind you, pool unsaved one, that God has plenty of water now for such as you; but if you neglect it until Christ comes or you die, you will speedily find yourself where there is plenty of thirst, and not a drop of water to quench it, through a long, long eternity.

H. M. H.

I'm Sorry for It.

I AM glad to hear it, especially if yours is the right sort of sorrow; for there are two kinds: godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of; and the sorrow of the world, which worketh death. (2 Corinthians 7:10.)

It makes me really glad to think your sorrow is towards God, not because of the consequences of wrongdoing; for everyone is sorry when something they have done brings results painful to bear. Even children are sorry when found out and punished. Such sorrow is merely selfish, and leaves God out of mind.

There are also two times to be sorry. In time to find pardon, or in time to be punished.

Let me tell you of a man who sorrowed after the world’s fashion, too late; and of a woman who sorrowed towards God, and in time.

A well-connected young man, possessed of the highest testimonials from former employers, was taken into a position of trust as cashier in a merchant’s office, but though liberally paid, soon began to steal, first small, then larger sums. Even as the vessel on the building-slip, when the supports which hold it are knocked away, first slowly, then rapidly, glides down into the waters waiting to receive it, so this young man, on the road to judgment, heeded in his downward course neither God conscience, nor the bitter reckoning-day.

The master’s suspicions being aroused, the fraudly were discovered, the thief was arrested, committed for trial, and soon stood, pale and awe-stricken, at the bar of justice face to face with the judge before whom he pleaded guilty. What a tale of sorrow his looks tell! Shall long years separated him from wife and children? What says the judge to the recommendation to mercy? “I canna listen to it.” There is no excuse; the public must be protected; and the horror-stricken culprit is led away to bear the full sentence of the country’s offended laws. Sorry, oh, how sorry, for it; but too late! Justice must take its course He said, “I often went to office in the morning determined to make a clean breast of it.” He never did, but missed his opportunity, and was only in time to be punished.

Unsaved reader, God says to you, “Thou art the man.” (2 Samuel 12:7.) Have you pleaded guilty before Him at the bar of divine justice and confessed your sins? “What!” you indignantly rejoin, “I a thief!” Stay; I did not say so. Your moral character may be unblameable by man but you need not be a thief to be a sinner. Pride covetousness, loss of temper, even a foolish thought makes you a sinner. In His sight there is no difference; “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” God says you are guilty (Romans 3:19, 23.) God’s justice will have it way. He will not listen to excuses; and whether you think so or not, like it or not, if “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23.) Then you must bear His just sentence on you, a sinner in the lake of fire forever; be separated, not for I time, but for eternity, from those you love who love the Lord Jesus Christ, whether wife, husband, children, or parents, and be sorry for your sins, oh, how sorry! Forever and ever.

Be sorry towards God, and in time to find pardon.

“THE SORROW OF THE WORLD WORKETH DEATH.” A poor woman lay dangerously ill, not knowing in how many hours even her disease might have a fatal termination. Some verses in 1 John 1, and especially verse 9, had been read to her: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

She believed she was a sinner in the sight of God. One night soon after she said, “I had prayed, but could not sleep, and lay ‘worrying about my sins.’ It came over me that nothing but ‘the blood of Christ’ would put my sins away, and that I must trust Christ. I have confessed my sins to God, and I trust Christ.”

“Then what about your sins?” was asked.

“They must be forgiven,” she replied.

“Why?”

“Because God’s word says so.”

She rested not in works, but where God rests for her and all who truly repent of their sins and believe in “the precious blood of Christ,” which cleanses the conscience from all sin, because Christ bore in their stead on the cross God’s sentence of death for their sins; so that His justice satisfied is their ground of “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1.)

She believed Christ, who says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47.) She therefore had it, knew it (1 John 5:13), and rejoiced in Him who gives it (John 10:28) and who is the life (Colossians 3:4), on the authority of the WORD OF GOD; not because she felt it, but because God says so. She believed He mean what He says.

Anxious reader, do you? Why not? You would not like your word doubted, but many make God a liar by not believing Him. Don’t you. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that ye have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13.) This poor woman still lives, am seeks to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. (Titus 2:10.) Her sorrow was of thy right sort, and in time.

GODLY SORROW WORKETH REPENTANCE UNTO SALVATION, NOT TO BE REPENTED OF.

H. A.

A Simple but Sure Testimony.

SOME servants of the Lord were returning from preaching the gospel in a neighboring village to the little town of B — and on reaching home, about ten o’clock at night one of them was met by a relative, and told that a young girl, who had come but three weeks before to the relative’s house as a servant, was very ill with rapid consumption, and lying in the cottage hospital.

All stayed to listen to the sad tale of havoc which the fatal disease had made in the short space of one week. Yes, reader; only one week. It was unknown before that she was really ill. It was further said that death might ensue during the night, and the state of her soul in view of eternity was unknown. Having gained permission from the medical attendant to go at so late an hour, two of these servants at once went to the hospital. On entering the ward and going up to the bed, they found the poor girl propped up with pillows, her head drooping on her shoulder, laboring for breath, and evidently dying. What was to be done? What could be done for such an one if unsaved, but just to breathe the name of Jesus in her ear, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal the salvation which is in that name. Taking her hand, one said to her, “My poor child, you are very ill.”

“Yes, sir I am,” she replied with difficulty.

“Do you know the Lord Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Is He your Saviour?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to go and be with Him?”

“Yes.”

Not knowing how far these answers were the result of the work of the Spirit of God, the other servant of Christ said, “Do you know you are a sinner?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what will put away sin?”

“The blood of Jesus Christ.”

“Has it put away your sin?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know it has put away your sin?”

“Because the Bible says so.”

Such was the simple testimony which fell from her lips, to the joy of the hearts of those who listended. In the short space of one hour and a half after her spirit had passed into the presence of that Saviour whose blood she knew by simple faith in the word of God had cleansed her from the guilt of sin.

Reader, it is evident that the Spirit of God taught that young girl to rely on the sure testimony of the word of God as to the blood of Christ. Were you called to die tonight, could you give such a clear and unmistakable testimony as to your faith in that precious blood? Do you know that you are a sinner, and liable to the judgment of God, because that same word declares that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and also are “guilty before God”? (Romans 3:19.) “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” (Job 36:18.) There is a great ransom — the blood of Jesus Christ. It can deliver you NOW. You may rest on the declaration of the Word of God that it “cleanseth from all sin,” and thus have the certainty of faith as to your eternal salvation.

T. H. B.

The Kindhearted King and His Rebel Subjects.

IT was a storm at sea; the waves, rising “mountains high,” broke against the little vessel, washing over her decks, and threatening each moment to engulf her, while she rocked and reeled, and her timbers creaked ominously. Anxious faces crowded the deck. Sailors hurried to and fro, making everything as safe as possible for the struggle with the storm. Many an anxious glance was turned to the captain’s face, while voices which an hour before were heard in loud laughter, as coarse jests came from comrades’ lips, were hushed to a solemn tone; for their owners knew not whether they were going to live or die. One heart at least was calm in the midst of the turmoil; for one young man on board knew something of the God in the hollow of whose hand the waters were. As he stood quietly listening to the roar of the storm, silently admiring the wild play of the waves, an aged woman approached him, fear and anxiety pictured in her face. Pity for the helpless creature filled his heart, and he thought, “I shall tell her about Christ.” Turning to her, he said gently, “Does not all this show us how necessary it is to be ready to meet God?”

“Ah! yes, sir; but we must work for that.”

“Work for it I indeed we must not, ma’am. I will tell you a story. There was once a great King who lived in a beautiful place. He had a great many subjects; for His kingdom extended far and wide. Now this King was very considerate and kind to His people, withholding nothing from them that was for their good, always thinking of them, doing everything to serve them; for He had a heart of love. One would have thought that they would have given Him nothing but love in return for all this; but it was just the contrary. Not one of them loved Him, and instead of being grateful and trying to please Him, they did everything in their power to injure His interests. Indeed every one of them, high and low, rich and poor, rose up in rebellion against Him. In that kingdom the penalty for rebellion was death, and the laws of it never altered; for the King was righteous and just as well as kind and merciful.

“He saw His people were in a desperate case, and His kind heart was grieved to think of the fate they had earned for themselves. And what do you think He did? He had one only Son, whom He loved above everyone and everything, and the Prince being, like His Father, of a kind and tender heart, they took counsel together as to how the poor people were to be saved from death. The King said, ‘You shall humble yourself and die for them.’ And the Prince said, ‘Truly I will; for I delight to do as you wish.’ And so it was determined that the Prince should die in order to save the rebels, and so precious was His life to the King that it was worth more than all theirs put together. The day agreed upon came, and the Prince laid aside His greatness, and alone He came forth. The wicked enemies of the King laid hold upon Him, and hanged Him on a gibbet, and there He died a shameful death — the death of a thief or a murderer.

“Now that the punishment was borne by a Substitute, the King could righteously proclaim a free pardon to every rebel in His wide dominions who would accept it. All that they had got to do was just to come to the King and lay down their arras, and they were to receive a, full and free pardon. Heralds were sent far and wide to proclaim the good news to every rebel in the kingdom.

“Some, whose hearts were broken by the Prince’s kindness, came and laid down their arms at the King’s feet, and became His faithful servants; others refused, and continued in rebellion, so that there was no other course open to the King but to allow the sentence of the law to be executed upon them; and they deserved it, did they not?

“Now I shall explain to you the meaning of my story.

“That great King is God; you and I and every poor sinner, the people who rose up in rebellion against Him. The kind Prince, who gave up His life, is the Lord Jesus Christ; and on the ground of that work which He did on the cross at Calvary, God can righteously proclaim a free pardon to every sinner who believeth on Him. You see we are not asked to do anything to earn it, because the Lord Jesus did that; we are besought to be reconciled to God upon the ground of His Son having borne the judgment that we deserved for our sins, and His blood is so precious to God that the very worst sinner who comes to Him He will not cast out, because that blood has atoned for his sins. God Himself has freely provided salvation through the death of His own Son; all we have to do is by faith to receive it from Him.”

Alas! how strange and unaccountable the perverse refusal of man’s heart to take salvation from God as a free gift. There was a poor old sinner, as it then appeared standing on the very brink of a watery grave; God’s full, free, eternal salvation had been faithfully offered to her, and what do you think she said in reply? It was an answer which chilled the heart of God’s messenger while it belied the heart of his Master. Clearly and deliberately, as she looked in the young man’s face, came the words of the Christ-rejecter, “Ah! yes, sir; but we must work for it; we must work.”

Do you not think that that old woman was a fool? I do; for God says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Pray. 28:26); and she believed what her heart told her. But, reader, are you wiser, or are you going on rejecting God’s Son for your righteousness? thinking, forsooth! that your own poor filthy rags of righteousness will cover you in God’s presence? God says they are filthy rags. Look at His word for yourself in Isaiah 64:6 — “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” How then can you dare to appear before God in them? If you do, it will be only to be hurled with them into the lake of fire, where they will all be consumed, and you will be left a naked sinner, to your everlasting shame. Christ is the only robe in which God will receive you. Appearing in Him there can be no condemnation for you; for He is beautiful before God’s eye; and seeing you in Him, you will be beautiful to Him as His well-beloved Son is. “Comely through my comeliness, which I put upon thee, saith the Lord.” (Ezekiel 16:14.)

How silly, it seems to you, for that old woman to talk of having to work in order to save her soul, there in the midst of the ocean, in a storm, with but one frail, creaking board between her and eternity! But are you surer of a long life than she was? Not a bit surer. Another morning’s sun may never rise for you; tomorrow morning you may be in hell. God says, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2.) Dare you say, “Tomorrow”? He does not promise you salvation for another day.

Think for one moment of the price which your salvation cost Him! Listen to the anguished cry of His broken heart when He “looked for comforters, but found none.” “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.” (Lamentations 1:12.) Poor cold, selfish heart, let in the warm rays of His love! Let Him have the joy of saving you, and of laying you on His shoulders and bearing you home rejoicing (Luke 15:5), home to the bright “palace of His glory,” which once He left for love of us, that He might have the joy of taking us to Himself there! Let Him have this joy in return for all His anguish, and then share His joy for all eternity.

E. L. W.

Faith Looks Ahead.

NOAH was a man of great character, and one of his most salient points was, that he lived under the influence of “things not seen as yet.” He was not a materialist; that is, he believed thoroughly in another sphere of interest than the present. To him the present had its claims. Like other antediluvians, he did eat, he drank, he was a married man, and he had given his sons in marriage; but, unlike them, these matters were of a secondary importance to him. The unseen preponderated in the scale of his life; whilst apparently they lived in self-indulgence, and made the unseen subordinate to the seen.

Now it is very remarkable that when the Lord was depicting the ungodly state of “the days of Noe,” He mentioned this eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, and made no allusion to the gross outward wickedness that doubtless abounded. This is very solemn, and demands consideration. These things, I need hardly say, are not sinful in themselves. That is not the point; but things good may be used for the exclusion of God. And thus, whilst Noah used them naturally, and as God intended, they abused them to their own ruin. “The flood came and destroyed them all.” It is a serious thing to live practically without God; and how little does the worldling of our day expect the interposition of the God of judgment!

The vision of the man of nature is bound by the things that are seen; that of the man of faith by the things that are not seen. The first lives in the circle of the sensuous, the second in that of the spiritual. The one lives by sight, and the other by faith.

Yet faith sees where sight cannot. Noah got on to the hilltop, and saw the clouds gathering, and the terrible storm marshalling its forces. His neighbors in the valley saw only an unclouded sky, and no sign of danger.

Thus today faith sees beyond the lull, and anticipates coming judgment. The poor world, absorbed in its transitory pleasures, dreams not of the rude awakening that is just at hand. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape.”

J. W. S.

"Three Conclusions."

“LET us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,” said Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3:13, 14. “Yes; that’s right,” echo the go-ahead multitude in these days. “That’s it; make a long story short. Give us the conclusion, and save time.”

“Save time.” Alas! would they were all as anxious to save themselves the bitter experience of a lost eternity.

“Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” This is the conclusion of the whole matter, according to the wisdom of the wisest of men under the sun.

“And that is just my thought too,” says the worldly-wise religionist of the present day. “What can a man do more than his duty? And if he does that, he need not fear.”

Certainly that sounds very well; but you must not forget to take into the account what the wise man adds to his conclusion: “For God will bring every work into judgment; with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Now in the light of a coming judgment, which will reveal every secret thing, have you feared God? Have you kept His holy commandments? Have you done your duty? Can you claim heaven on such grounds? No, my reader, no! If you are honest, and will allow conscience to speak, you will be forced to another conclusion; namely, that you are a guilty, lost sinner, one who has failed in his duty, and who deserves nothing but hell fire forever.

Solomon was a wise man, and reasoned as a wise man; but it was all under the sun. And if we are to gain heaven in Solomon’s way, on the ground of duty, we shall all be damned.

We find a different conclusion in Galatians 3:22: “The Scriptures hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith, of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

How sweeping! This is not the reasoning of a wise man under the sun, but the unerring, infallible voice of scripture—the revelation of the thoughts of Him who is above the sun. “ALL are under sin.” No one exempt here. Duty here is out of court, and has no voice. Kings or clowns, peers or peasants, millionaires or paupers, “all are under sin,” is the voice of scripture. And “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:22.) All are shut up to this. They have failed in their duty, are guilty of sin, and need a Saviour, or be lost forever. Solemn conclusion surely!

But there is still another conclusion. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28.)

Blessed conclusion this! And why Because it puts an end to all human efforts at duty, and casts us, as helpless and condemned sinners, on the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Oh, my reader, let me beg of you to take your Bible, and quietly and prayerfully (asking God for light) read that wonderful third chapter of Romans, and see how the apostle reaches that blessed conclusion; and if your heart takes it in, you will not only save time, but you will save a lost eternity in the fathomless depths of the pit of woe.

Thank God, men are justified without law. “To him that worketh not, but believeth,” &c. (Rom. 4:5.) All the work was done by another. Jesus was made sin. All the weight of wrath was borne by Him. And now God sets Him forth “a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare God’s righteousness;” how He can be just, and justify him that believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:25, 26.) And that righteousness is “unto all, and upon, all who believe.” (verse 22.)

Thus there is no room for works. It is not duty first, but faith without works first, and duty after. (Titus 3:8.) W. E.

"Ten Minutes in Hell."

SUCH were the words that caught and arrested my eyes when glancing over the pages of a local foreign newspaper. They were at the close of an advertisement of historical illustrations, an entertainment professing to depict some of the sad catastrophes of recent years. “Ten minutes in hell!” A shipwreck, an earthquake, a fire, and then hell! Verily, I thought, the devil is seeking to accustom, his victims to such a future, or rather perhaps, by presenting it to them in a less awful character than God does, to persuade them that it will be bearable after all, or, better still, that for them it will never exist. The Roman Catholic makes his hell a purgatory, whence he may escape after a time of probation; the modern unbeliever adopts the theory of annihilation, or of the non-eternity of punishment as a means of escape from suffering; and the lighthearted foreigner turns the whole thing into ridicule. But God’s word, what says it? “Hell, the fire that never shall be quenched.” (Mark 9:45.) “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4.) “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalms 9:17.) Neither England nor any European nation can escape this doom. They of all others might have retained God in their knowledge, and forgetting Him are without excuse. (Romans 1.)

But hell is not prepared for you, reader. It is “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt.25:41), and for the king who will set himself up against Christ; “for the king it is prepared.” (Isaiah 30:33) To sinners God offers a Saviour (Acts 5:31; for sinners God has prepared a home in glory and eternal pleasures at His right hand, and He stoops to entreat you to enjoy what His love has provided for you now and hereafter. Only, dear reader, remember, to turn from these things is to ensure an awful doom for yourself; not “ten minutes in hell,” but eternity in the lake of fire. It is written, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.” (Rev. 20:14, 15; 14:11.)

H. L. H.

“THE law is never the standard of Christian conduct, but Christ. The believer is not under the law, but under grace. (Rom. 6) A dead man is past the jurisdiction of law; a risen man knows God as the Saviour of his person, and the Judge only of his works. In Christ the fullness of all righteousness abounds before God, to the account of every believer. Meanwhile, as it respects the flesh, which lusts against the Spirit, the law is evermore the witness of God against all unrighteousness. It still has thus its lawful use. (1 Timothy 1:17-11.) But to bind it again to the conscience of a justified believer is not its lawful use; for such an one is Christ’s freed man, whose calling is to serve in newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. He is under law to Christ, (1 Corinthians 9:21.)”

"Going by Air."

“WHAT days these are for traveling!” remarked a fellow-passenger, as we sat somewhat impatiently waiting for the already late train to start.

It was Saturday, and the days of summer were almost over. People of all classes seemed on the move; commercial travelers glad to get home after their “week’s journey;” rest and pleasure-seekers returning from their seaside outings; countryfolk, with their usual Saturday marketing repairing to their different abodes, which, with porters, guards, and other officials rushing hither and thither, and, above all, the noise of trains constantly coming and going, made the B. J. Station a scene of unusual din and excitement.

The person who spoke was a woman of respectable and intelligent appearance, considerably beyond middle life, and evidently well versed in current topics. She added, “How very much more people travel now than they used to do. Last Sunday the trams in Paris were worked by electricity, and it was quite a success; they intend trying it again next Sunday. I should not wonder but that before long we shall go by air.”

Most of this was news to me, and a wonderful witness of the skill and ingenuity of man, who is learning after well-nigh six thousand years how to apply some of the powers put at his disposal; yet I knew something more wonderful still, on this very subject too, and which was by no means a discovery of modern science, but a fact clearly stated nearly nineteen centuries ago, and so replied, “I know that a great many people one of these days will go to heaven without wings and without dying.” At this my companion looked startled, and seemed to wonder whether it was said in jest or in earnest. Seeing her astonishment, I inquired if she believed the Bible. “Well, not all. I should say there are but few who believe it all,” was the rather reluctant reply. Thank God, I was one of those few, and received it all from Genesis to Revelation; for “the Scripture cannot be broken.” “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable;” and “holy men of God spike as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

By this time our fellow-travelers were all attention and eager to catch what might follow; so opening my Bible at 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, I read, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are afire and remain unto the coming qi the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in, the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Marvelous event! This is going by air indeed, or rather through it. Truly it eclipses every invention of man, and baffles all his skill. As the nearness and certainty of its fulfillment were pressed upon the occupants of the carriage, and the blessedness of being saved and ready for it, a gentleman sitting in the opposite corner, who had known the bitterness of being in his sins, and a captive of Satan’s power, exclaimed, with beaming face, “Ah! that’s true;” and his voice and manner betokened how real and happy the deliverance was; but a young man sitting next me thought it impossible you could know you were “fit” for heaven. I assured him I did, and that God Himself was my authority.

“I wish I was!” said he.

How strange! Here we were, nine of us, within a few feet of each other, divided into three classes — sceptics, wishers, believers. Our compartment was not full; the complement of “five on each side” had not been reached; there was just room for one. Supposing you had got in, my reader, and taken that vacant seat, which would have had you on their side? Are you like the reasoning Athenians, who, having listened to Paul’s preaching of “Jesus and the resurrection,” on Mar’s hill, turned away mocking? or the one in the train who did “not believe it all”? If so, let me urge thee to immediate repentance, lest thy rationalism end in sure and eternal damnation. But no, we trust we are wrong in classing you with such, and that you have found out, in the light of God, you are a sinner, guilty, condemned, and hell-deserving, and that to meet God unconverted and unforgiven is to ensure the lake of fire Forever. Blessed discovery, too, my friend; thank God for it! But more. You have heard of “the blood that cleanseth from all sin;” of the finished work of the Son of God on Calvary, when He “once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God;” of His vacated cross and empty tomb, and of Himself now glorified at the right hand of the majesty on high; and, better still, you tell us you believe in Him, and yet for all that cannot say you are saved, for you neither feel, realize, nor experience it, and so it ends with only “a wish” or “a hope” after all. Only a wish or a hope, eh! what monstrous inconsistency! Why, you are practically joining hands with the avowed unbeliever.

The jailor, awakened at midnight to a sense of his danger, cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The instant reply was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Note the first word in that reply — “believe,” and the last — “saved,” and what between — “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Where is feeling, hoping, wishing, realizing? Nowhere.

What is the condition? Believe. The object? The Lord Jesus Christ. The result? Saved. Dare you disconnect the third from the first two, and so put asunder what God has joined together, thereby making Him a liar!

A dear little girl, who had been troubled about her sins, ran out one day to her parents into the harvest-field, saying, “Mother, no more no more!” “Well, what is it, child?” she said; and the father, coming up, she repeated the words, “No more! no more! father.” At last they got the context from her; it was, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17.) How did she know it? Just as Paul knew that he would safely reach Rome when He said, “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Dear, doubting, self-occupied soul, let his God-honoring statement find an echo in thy heart, and sing with us―

“Oh, mercy surprising, He’s saved even me!

‘Thy portion forever,’ He says, ‘will I be;’

On His word I am resting, assurance divine,

I’m hoping no longer; I know He is mine.

I know He is mine; yes, I know He is mine;

I’m hoping no longer; I know He is mine.”

As the train stopped at different stations our company began to thin, and soon we had all gone our separate paths — reasoners, doubters, believers. Ah! but some of us will meet again at that grand gathering in the air with the Saviour and His redeemed, and who knows but that it may take place ere I have penned this brief paper, or you, my friend, have read it? And what if it should, would you be there? or left behind to the after prayer meeting, to unite in the wail of Christless souls outside the closed door, “Lord, Lord, open to us!”

Depend upon it, you will be at one or the other.

“What will you do without Him,

When He shuts to the door,

And you are loft outside, because

You would not come before,

When it is no use knocking,

No use to stand and wait,

For the word of doom tolls through your heart,

That terrible “too late.”

ALF. M.

Wondrous Love.

THE “great love” of God found in Christ both its expression and its measure.

At the cross we see man’s estimate of that love. “They rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love;” but, as another has remarked, “the blood met the spear,” for “where sin abounded” (and surely it abounded at Calvary), “grace did much more abound.”

It was at such a cost alone — yes, at such a sacrifice — that the supper of God’s eternal grace (Luke 14) could be spread. The cost was great indeed; but “God so LOVED the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If God therefore “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

“With Him!” Yes; God connects “the things He has prepared for them that love Him” with Christ. Hence we read in Ephesians 1:3, concerning all that “believe” (verse 13), that God “hath” (not “will,” but “hath”) “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies IN CHRIST.”

It is now that the supper is spread, and such is the infinitude of that super-abounding grace that “all things are NOW ready” for whosoever will accept God’s invitation “COME”; and it is when seated at that blest repast the guests discover that they were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,” and destined to be “Forever with the Lord.”

Oh, what a bright and happy prospect! What a vivid contrast to all the poor, wretched, Christ-rejecting world can give!

But if in all this Christ is the expression of God’s mighty love, what shall we say as to His being the measure of it? Every blessing that God has linked with Christ is eternal — eternal redemption, eternal salvation, eternal life, eternal inheritance, eternal glory, and the like; and His love, the source of all the blessings, is eternal too, a love so boundless and so vast that its length is front everlasting to everlasting; Its breadth extends to all the world; its depth reaches to and plucks even the vilest of sinners as brands from the buntings, and in its height bears them upwards to where no angel’s feet have ever trod, and seats them in the heavenlies “complete in Christ,” “accepted in the Beloved.”

Oh, blessed security glorious abode of everlasting rest! “Who shall separate us front the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?.. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 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?” Reader, what do you think of Christ?

N. L. N.

Today, Tonight, Tomorrow.

“WHAT do those people mean by keeping on saying, ‘Come today, and accept Christ now,’”? was asked a week or two ago by a poor country woman of dear old Anna S—, a bedridden old saint, in a village of Gloucestershire. “Why, don’t you know? They means this: If you comes today, and dies tight, tomorrow you will be in glory; but if you DON’T come today, and dies tonight, tomorrow you will be in hell.’”

Dear reader, read these solemn words again, then again, and ask in the light of God’s word, “And is it true?” (See Luke 23:39-43, and Luke 16:19-31.)

A. P. B.

"Sudden Conversion."

“I DO not believe in sudden conversion,” said one the other day. “Beware,” said another, addressing a congregation, “of that sect of people, who profess to be able to tell the exact day and hour of their conversion.”

Now the great question is, not the manner of conversion, nor the knowledge of the exact time at which it took place, but is there such a, thing taught in the Bible? Can we know when we have undergone the change it indicates? In John 3, the Lord Jesus Himself speaking to Nicodemus, says emphatically, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This was to a good man, a religious ruler of the Jews. “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” Speaking of those who have received Him, Christ says, in chapters 1 of the same gospel, “which were born... of God.” To be born again is to have life imparted to the spiritually dead. “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Christ is our Life. Having Him as the object of faith, having Him in the heart, is to have life; not to have Him so is to be dead.

Reader, which are you — spiritually alive in Christ, or dead in trespasses and sins. To have Christ is to be light. “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8.) This is not a matter of doubtful opinion, but a plain statement of the word of God. “The Scripture cannot be broken.” In John 5:25, our Lord again says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” Have you heard that life-giving voice? If not, you are still dead. You may be reveling in the sense of youthful and vigorous natural life, but He who is “the truth” says you are dead. Speaking to the Jews, to whom had been “committed the oracles of God,” Christ said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” And yet once more, in 1 John 5:12, it is written, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

Oh, reader, what is your opinion worth when God has spoken? Whether you believe it or not, the truth remains the same. It is because you are dead that you do not see your terrible need of life. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.”

It is necessary to be born again, because we were all “born in sin, and shapen in iniquity;” because we are by nature dead; because we are by nature corrupt, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption; because we are by nature unclean, and “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth;” because we are by nature dark, and “God is light;” because we are born blind, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” “I am come, that they which see not might see... But now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

It is needful to be born again, because we are born deaf. “Why do ye not understand my speech? because ye cannot hear my word.” (John 8:43.)

He that is of God heareth God’s word. “Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” “My sheep hear my voice.” Have you heard the life-giving voice of the Son of God? Whether rich or poor, learned or unlettered, old or young, man or woman, whosoever thou art, may God make this word of His resound through the depths of thine inmost soul — “Ye MUST be born again!”

“How can a man know when he is born again!” Did Lazarus know when summoned from the silent darkness of the sepulcher by the voice of “the Resurrection and the Life”? He felt the throbbings of life in the heart that had ceased to beat. Did he know he was alive when his grateful and adoring gaze fell upon the Restorer of his life? Did he know he was alive when lie came forth from the icy chamber of death into the warmth of the natural sunshine?

Reader, if you have been made a “partaker of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), you cannot fail to know it. Have you heard His voice? Have you gazed on Him by faith? Is He precious to you? (1 Peter 2:7.) Do you run in the way of His commandments?

Does the blind man know when his eyes have been opened? the dumb, when his tongue has been unloosed? So will you if your eyes of faith have seen “the King, the Lord of hosts;” so will you if your once-silent tongue now speaks His praise. Does the lame man know it when he receives power, through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to leap, and stand, and walk? So will you, when you can enter into His holy presence “walking, and leaping, and praising God.”

Oh, come now, just as you are, to the Fountain of life, and “take the water of life freely!” But make haste, delay not; for it will not flow forever. “Everything shall live whither the river cometh.” BUT the marshes shall not be healed; they shall be given, to salt. “After death the judgment.”

E. H.

The Good, the Great, and the Chief Shepherd.

Recollections of a Gospel address.

“I am the Good SHEPHERD the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” — John 10:11.

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that GREAT SHEPHERD of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jeans Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” — Heb. 13:20, 21.

“And when the CHIEF SHEPHERD shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”―1 Peter 5:4.

IN each of the above Scriptures the Lord Jesus is brought before us as the Shepherd. In the first He is “the Good Shepherd,” who giveth His life for the sheep — this is for our salvation; in the second He is “the Great Shepherd,” in resurrection for our preservation; and in the third He is “the Chief Shepherd,” who will appear for our glorification.

Christ came to lead His sheep out of the Jewish fold, and to cause those of His sheep who were not of the fold to hear His voice, so that there might be one flock — not fold — and one Shepherd. There is no fold now; Christianity is a flock, in contrast to the fold of Judaism.

One thing about a sheep is that it will never find its way back if it strays. I have asked shepherds repeatedly if they ever knew of a stray sheep finding its way back to the flock, and without an exception they all answered, “Never.” The silly sheep will stray away, but it will never find its way back. The shepherd must go out after it, seek, find, and bring it back.

Now “all we like sheep have gone astray,” and the Lord had to come to seek and to save us. Turn to Luke 15, where we shall find the Good Shepherd going out after the stray sheep.

What think you is the condition of the stray sheep when found by the shepherd? Surely it gathers defilement as it goes along through miry places, and over the ploughed ground! Now what is the first thing the shepherd must do when he finds the sheep? Why wash away all the defilement. Sheep are the only animals which never make an attempt to cleanse themselves. You never find a sheep going of its own accord into the sheep-pool; it has to be put in by the shepherd, and washed by him.

We who are saved know that we never would be saved if the blessed Lord did not seek for us until He found us in all our wretchedness and defilement. But not only did He seek and find us, He also washed us from our sins in His own precious blood. He has done it all Himself. Poor lost sheep, the Good Shepherd is seeking for you. Oh, let Him find you, and wash you from all your sins You have nothing to do but to believe in Him. The lost sheep did not do anything; it was all the shepherd’s work from first to last. He sought, found, and washed the sheep, and laid it on his shoulders — not shoulder — the place of security and strength. Mark, he did not throw it on his shoulder as if he were angry with it. No; he laid it on his shoulders. The Lord, when He finds us, does not treat us as if He were angry with us; but He places us carefully on His shoulders. The Lord Jesus will have a blessed company of saved sinners to present, with joy, to the Father. Poor sinner, will you be one in that company? Will you be one to cause joy in heaven now? There is joy in heaven when the lost sheep is found. Is there a soul who wants to be found by Jesus? Is there a soul who will set all the bells of heaven ringing with joy this moment? Oh that the Lord may be able to call His friends and neighbors together, and say to them, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” I was speaking to a Christian lady who had lately been converted, and she asked me if I thought her mother, who had been praying for her conversion for years, but was taken to be with the Lord before her prayers were answered, would now know that she was saved. I said to her, “Well, we read that the shepherd, in Luke 15, called together his friends and neighbors, and said, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep winch was lost;’ and the Lord says to His own, ‘Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you,’ so the saints are His friends and the angels may be His neighbors, as they are near Him; I’m sure I don’t know, but it may be so.”

Some anxious one here might say, “I fear that after all I may fall from His shoulders.” Well, if there is such a one here, I would say to you that you want to know Jesus as the Great Shepherd in resurrection. The One who suffered for your sins has been raised from the dead, as a proof that the sins which He bore have all been put away; and now He ever liveth, to preserve and keep us on the way, and to bring us safe to glory. He says, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Think you that the One who sought and found you in all your defilement, will cease to care for you now, that He has washed you from your defilement, and placed you on His shoulders? No, doubting soul; He will never let you fall, He will bring you safely home to glory. “If, when we were sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus says, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any one — man or devil — pluck them out of my hands My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” It is impossible that one of Christ’s sheep could perish. None can pluck you out of the hands of Jesus and His Father; God is greater than Satan, so he cannot do it. There was a poor man lying in a ward of a hospital, and a clergyman came in to visit there. He came up to the sick man, and said to him, “What persuasion are you of?” The man’s answer was, “Turn to Romans 8:38, 39, and you will find my persuasion.” A Bible was found, and the place: “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.” “That’s my persuasion,” said the man. “Is it yours?” “Oh,” someone may say, “I know that none of these things can separate me from the love of God; but I may separate myself from Him.” Well, are you not a creature? The verse says, “Nor any other creature.” Until you cease to be a creature, you cannot separate yourself from Him. If you say that you can take yourself out of God’s hand, you want to make yourself greater than God. Jesus says, “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

We who believe in Jesus are born into God’s family; we are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and we can never cease to be His children. My child can never cease to be my child. If he is naughty, he does not require to be born over again to become my child; for he never ceased to be so. And so it is with God’s children. If we sin, we shall lose the joy of our relationship; but the relationship cannot be touched if we sin, we must confess and judge the sin before communion can be restored; but we do not need to be born over again in order to become God’s children. What is impossible in natural life is impossible in spiritual life too.

The Lord Jesus gave His life for us. He sought for us until He found us, He washed us from all our sins, He laid us on His shoulders, and He will never let us go until He brings us safe to glory.

As the Good Shepherd He died for our salvation; as the Great Shepherd in resurrection He ever liveth to preserve and keep us on the way; and as the Chief Shepherd He is soon coming to bring us to glory. The One who sought, found, and washed us will never be satisfied until He has us all together with Himself in glory.

He is first coming for us; then, when He comes in power to set up His kingdom, we shall come with Him, and share His glory. When He came into the world He was rejected and cast out, and now His claims are not owned; but soon the time will come when all will have to bow to Him, and own Him King of kings and Lord of lords. We own His claims now, and wait for Him to come and take us to be forever with Himself, before He comes to set up His kingdom. Oh, to be out and out for Him while we wait!

Again I turn to you who are unsaved, and beseech of you to think of your precious, never-dying, immortal souls, and come to Jesus now, before it is too late. His coming is very near; He may come tonight, and then there will be nothing for you but an eternity in the lake of fire, with the devil, the demons, and the damned.

The Lord grant that many lost ones may be found and washed by the Good Shepherd today; that many may know Him as the Great Shepherd in resurrection, who will keep them while they wait for Him to come as the Chief Shepherd, to take them to be with Himself in the glory, and to His own name shall be all the praise.

H. M. H.

"Afterward Came the Other Virgins."

IT is difficult to conceive what the feelings of these “other virgins” will be when, the door having been shut, and “the ready” having been safely housed, they come afterward, and piteously cry, “Lord, Lord, open to us!”

“Ah!” says my reader, “that is just a parable.” Quite so; but what is a parable? Is it a fable? Nay, it is a word-picture, a painting, with an outline, more or less distinct, of a certain event in the mind of the speaker, who, by making use of this mode of speech, seeks to gain the attention, and to exercise the mind of his hearers, more fully than he could have done by a mere literal recital of the event itself.

Now have you ever thought what the Lord meant to teach by this parable of the ten virgins? Briefly, He depicts the state of Christendom at the time of His return.

First, the virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom.

Second, the Bridegroom tarried.

Third, all the virgins slumbered and slept.

Fourth, at midnight a cry announced the approach of the Bridegroom.

Fifth, the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, in order to go out and meet Him.

Sixth, the part of them called “foolish” found that their lamps had gone out.

Seventh, at this crisis they went to buy oil.

Eighth, the Bridegroom came, and “the ready” went in to the marriage.

Ninth, “the door was shut.”

Tenth, then came the other virgins to find — what? A closed door, and to cry — oh, how earnestly, but in vain― “Lord, Lord, open to us!”

Now surely the meaning of this parable is not difficult to find. Let your eye rest on the history of the Church from the date of the departure of the heavenly Bridegroom to the present day. He left a promise that He would “come again.” The early Christians expected that return, and “waited for the Son of God from heaven;” but He tarried, and the effect was a state of spiritual sleep which deepened during these dreary “dark ages” of worldliness, till once again the hope of His return has been re-established in the heart of the Church. The cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” has been sounded out, and a general stir has taken place. The “wise” have trimmed their lamps, and multitudes of the “foolish” have discovered that they lack, not a lamp of profession, but the oil. They have a Christianity without Christ, a religion without divine reality; they do not possess the Holy Ghost.

The Bridegroom comes. The ready go in with Him. The door is shut. All hope is over. Whatever “the foolish” may have been, they were not “ready,” and none but the ready can enter.

Now can you imagine, dear reader, such a scene as this? There is prayer indeed — earnest, importunate, agonizing prayer; but it is too late. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,” the throe of grace becomes one of judgment, and supplication is in vain. “I KNOW YOU NOT,” is the withering answer. Oh, soul immortal, how are things with you in view of this event? Are you ready? This is the question of questions with you. Take a piece of paper and a pencil, or a pen, and draw a straight line. Write on one side READY, and on the other UNREADY, and then write your name under the word that truthfully describes your condition. That done, look for three minutes at the picture. If you are “READY,” washed from sins in the blood of Christ, a child of God, and an heir of glory, carrying, too, a lamp bright and burning, then sing a song of thanksgiving to God.

But if “UNREADY,” think, soul, I beseech you, of your danger — unpardoned, unjustified, lost, and about to find yourself on the outside of the shut door, unknown, unheeded, during the long, long watches of that night that knows no morning. “What meanest thou, O sleeper? Awake, call upon thy God.” Yes, sleeper, awake I awake!

J. W. S.

"I Must Wait God's Time."

SUCH were the words said only the other day by one who had been brought up by truly Christian parents, one who had been accustomed to hear God’s word preached plainly and simply, and who with an open Bible in their hands could read for themselves what God has to say on the subject of such deep, eternal importance as the soul’s salvation; and how many precious souls there are thus kept quiet by Satan! He perhaps tells them, as he did in the case of the one referred to above — they must wait till they feel their sins get heavier; or perhaps he will tell you that God’s time has not come yet, and that you must just wait till He pleases to save you; but, dear reader, if such be your case, be assured it is an effort of Satan to try to keep you from getting blessing, and it is a solemn thing to be thus led by him who is a liar and a deceiver from the beginning. What does God say in Isaiah 1:18? “Come now.” Read it again, and remember it is God’s word. “Come now.” Is it, Come tomorrow? or, Wait a little longer? No, tomorrow may find you in eternity! and where? No, God says, “Come now... saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Yes, God’s time is now. He now offers you a full, free, and eternal salvation, and it is only to believe and it is yours. Do not, I pray you, allow yourself to be deceived by Satan. Another day and your doom may be to be in the scorching, surging flames of the lake of fire, where their worm dieth, not, and the fire is not quenched; where the sting of conscience will be that you refused to accept God’s salvation at the time He offered it you. Oh, I pray you, be warned in time! God may never give you another offer. God wants to save you. Will you not trust Him? And He wants to save you now. Listen to what He says again — “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Oh, dear unsaved soul, do not wait any longer, but accept God’s word, and salvation will be yours Christ will be yours; life, peace, and joy will be yours; yea, all things will be yours, and only through simply taking God at His word, believing what He says about His well-beloved. Son, that He finished the work more than 1800 years ago; and now it is the joy of God’s heart to bless you just where you are, and just as you are. May God by His Spirit open your eyes to see that you have not to wait for God, but that He waits to save you.

“All things are ready, come!

Tomorrow may not be.

Oh, sinner, come, the Saviour waits

This hour to welcome thee!”

F. C. G.

"I Don't Feel Sorry Enough."

THE above is a part of an answer given to the writer by a young lad, the son of Christian parents, brought up to know the truth as it is in Jesus, on putting the invitation of the Lord Jesus before him — “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28.) He said, “I often think I should like to be a Christian, but I don’t feel sorry enough.” Oh, if there is one who may read this with the same thought, remember, dear reader, it is not what you feel, it is what you are. You are a sinner, and Jesus “came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He died to save you, and He simply wants you to accept a free pardon and thank Him for it; and oh! what it cost that Blessed One, the Son of God, to leave all the glory which He had with His Father to come into such a scene, to save such hell-deserving sinners as we are by nature. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But 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.” (Isaiah 53:4, 5.) Now, you see, He has fully met the righteous claims of God against sin, in proof of which God has raised Him up from the dead, taken Him into glory, seated Him on His own throne, and is now sending forth a full and free salvation to everyone. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16.) And if we do not accept this offer of salvation, there is a time coming when it will be too late. “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2.) Weigh this all-important question in the presence of God, and in the light of eternity, when (if you still refuse God’s offer of mercy) you will have to spend it “with the devil and his angels: where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” But if you accept salvation, it will be happiness and joy both now and throughout eternity, forever with the Lord, praising and adoring His worthy name for His Marvelous love. Which is it to be? Have it all out with God at once; own yourself as a lost and helpless sinner, and accept His free pardon that He delights to give. Think of this — “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3.) Accept it now.

“Take salvation, take salvation,

Take it now and happy be.”

F. T. J. M.

Notes of an Address

on Luke 1:5-10; 24.

THE work of Christ on the cross is the only thing that can give the soul rest in the presence of God. I look back to it, and say, “He has paid everything I owed, to the uttermost farthing.” But we get much more than this in the gospel. Without His death none could be saved. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone,” were His own words. (John 12:24.) In Luke 24 we see the results that flow from the cross. You say salvation flows from it. Yes; but much more than that. It is a wonderful thing, surely, that I, a poor sinner, should be saved from hell; but it is far more wonderful that I should be in heaven, companion of the Son of God in the glory, loved with the same love. I say this is much more wonderful.

Luke 1 opens with the temple; (1) the people praying without; (2) the priest within burning incense (worshipping); (3) and God hidden inside the veil — man shut out, and God shut in. Now the whole thing is changed. Chapter 23 tells of the veil being rent, and closes with the burial of Christ. Chapter 24 opens with His resurrection; the women who come to the grave find the stone rolled away. It was not rolled away to let Him out, but to let us see in, to show that He is not there. So I find an empty grave, out of which has risen a Man who has borne all the wrath of God due to me. Death could not hold Him; God raised him from the dead.

Many are in doubt and uncertainty because they do not know the value of the resurrection. He is in heaven now, and where are my sins? They were on Him when He was on the cross, but they are not on Him now in heaven; and what does this convey to you? “God must be satisfied,” you say, “since He has raised from the dead the very One who bore them in His own body on the tree. I am sure I am not in my sins, because He is risen.”

Those two going to Emmaus had trusted in Him, all their hopes centered in Him as the long-promised Messiah; but He had been crucified, and their hearts are sad; they cannot understand it. Christ Himself drew near, and went with them. He asked what they were reasoning about, and they told Him all their difficulties. But mark, He rebukes them. “Fools and slow of heart;” for they had that at hand (“all that the prophets had spoken”) that should have put an end to their reasonings. They had the word of God, which would have explained all, and have taught them that Christ was to suffer these things and to enter into His glory.

But look at our own experiences. What are you doing? Looking at God’s word or your own feelings? If I want to know if I am saved, where shall I look? At my own heart, or at the word of God? If I look at my heart God calls me a fool. Now take Isaiah 53, and read verse 5 and 6 put aside your feelings, and take the word of God in all its simplicity, your doubts will all be gone; and this is not my remedy, but Christ’s, the one He applied here.

People say, “If I could only trust God;” they mean, if they could only feel it. Is it hard to believe a thing you are told? It depends on the authority it comes from. Well, is it hard to believe God? You might surely think that was good enough authority. But you mean that if you could get all these good feelings first, that then you would believe God; but that would not be faith at all.

You remember Abraham, an old, childless man. God said to hint, “Your seed shall be as the stars.” Well, everything in nature and his circumstances gave the direct lie to God; but Abraham left possibility and probability out of sight, and believed, simply because God said it. Has His word, the Bible, authority in your soul? There is no such thing as one line of it contradicting another, though people are always trying to find flaws in it. Christ insisted on its authority, and it settles all doubts.

Now they have got to Emmaus, and Jesus made as though he would have gone further. This is just like Him. He will come in if you want Him, but not unless you do. If you invite Him in He will come; if you go after other things you will lose His company. These two gain immensely by asking Him in — not salvation; for they were saved, and it was not what He had done, for them made them desire His company, but because of what they had seen in Him — His own personal excellencies. Then while they sat at meat their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. The gospel meets our need; but it does more: it opens our eyes to know Himself, the delight of the heart of God, the One in whom we once saw no beauty. When the Scriptures were opened they got peace, and went home happy; but when their eyes were opened the cup of happiness overflowed, and they rose and returned to Jerusalem to seek the company of those who could understand and share their joy.

Now we have them all gathered together, Jesus the theme on every tongue; when He comes into their midst, and says, “Peace be unto you,” and shows them the scars of conflict. He comes from the battle-field and says, “Peace,” the victory is won, the foe is crushed, and then He shows them His hands and feet and side.

It is as though He said, “Think how dear you are to me I look what you have cost me!” Is this dry doctrine? Is there no response in your hearts to love like this? Put yourself among those disciples, and look at Him. Don’t you love Him? Don’t you prize such love? Oh, dear friends, no one loves you like Him! Throughout eternity He will have the marks of death on His body.

In verse 45 He opens their understanding. First He opened the grave to let them see in, then the Scriptures to give them peace, then their eyes to know Him, and to fill them with joy, and now their understanding for intelligence. It would be of no use to talk of the counsels of God to unsaved sinners; they must be saved first. But here, as soon as their need is met, and their hearts satisfied, they are free to enjoy God’s counsels, and He tells them that repentance and remission of sins are now to be preached to all nations; that the door of salvation is thrown wide open, as wide as God can open it. It is quite true it is narrow and straight, but it is wide open. Could anything be wider than this―

“WHOSOEVER WILL”?

As soon as redemption was completed, there was a new thing entirely. Instead of the Jews alone being in any association with, or nearness to God, the door was thrown wide open to all nations.

Verses 50, 51, are wonderful. Only think of heaven being opened to a man! The One that bore my sins has gone into the glory of God.

Who is He? The One heaven belongs to, the mighty God. Yes but He is also the Man who undertook all my liabilities. Heaven has opened to let Him in, and that is my place now too. Adam’s place driven out of Paradise used to be my place. But Christ’s place in heaven, in the glory of God, is my place now.

This is the place God gives me in His grace, “Accepted in the Beloved.” Man, who had so dishonored God, given such a place! Wonderful!

Now see what they have. The Man, who bore their sins, in the glory of God, and they (the disciples) in the temple, praising and blessing, without either the priest or the veil that were there in chapters 1. They are purged worshippers in the unveiled presence of God. This is Christianity. This is what the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ have secured for us. (Compare Hebrews 10:19-23.)

Now in this chapter we have seven things opened:

1. The grave was opened, to show that Christ was risen.

2. The Scriptures were opened, to give them peace, to show why He was crucified.

3. Their eyes were opened, that they might know Him.

4. Their understandings were opened, that they might understand God’s counsels.

5. The door of grace was opened to the nations.

6. Heaven was opened to man.

7. The saints’ mouths were opened to praise and bless God.

Reader, are you praising and blessing God continually?

"Tell Him He's a Liar."

AT the close of a gospel meeting, some years ago, in the West of England, I said to a lad passing out, who was, I knew, anxious about his soul, “Well, Harry, has it been a message for you tonight?” “I feel it has been,” he said, rather sadly, “and just what I want; but tomorrow, when I get to work amongst my shop-mates, and things go all across, and they laugh and jest, Satan will be at me, and say I am not saved, not a child of God at all.” “Tell him he’s a liar,” said I. “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44.)

Without thinking much of the scripture thus quoted, I bade him good-night; but it made an impression on the lad, and was a means of blessing to him in the hour of trial often afterwards. He has lived to love and serve the One who delivered him from the grasp of Satan. But, dear reader, let me ask, Who has your ear — the God of truth, or the father of lies? To one or other you are most certainly lending your ear — the ruler of darkness, or the God who is light. The very next verse in John’s gospel to the one quoted above (chapter 8:45) gives us these solemn words of the Lord Jesus: “And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” This was addressed to the religious, self-satisfied, but Christ-rejecting Jew; and the same is true today of both Jew and Gentile. The truth is the very thing that is rejected. Have you, dear reader, accepted the truth of God about yourself — that if unsaved, you are a sinner under condemnation, before whomdeath and judgment lie, as certainly as physical life is now yours. Satan will tell you this is not so; he will try and induce you to think well of yourself, that anybody and everybody else may need a Saviour, but not you; he will perhaps try the too successful bait of discrediting the word of God, will tell you that death is but the debt of nature, and not “the wages of sin,” that hell is not real, judgment not eternal, God too good to judge His creatures, and many other specious things of the same sort to quiet your guilty conscience, and assure your heart that all is right; but remember, reader, “he is a liar.” God says, “All have sinned;” God says, “It is appointed unto men once to die;” God says, “Every work shall be brought into judgment;” and He has appointed the Judge, the day, and the standard by which thy works shall be judged. Are you ready for this? But this is not all the truth. “As it is appointed unto men once to die... so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “By Him all that believe are justified from all things,” “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” God has provided a Saviour; indeed He is “a Saviour-God,” “not willing that any should perish,” although your thoughts of Him may have been very different from this. But this is the truth about God, dear reader — He is love, He is light; man is hateful, and he is darkness. Now whatever tends to make a man satisfied with Himself keeps him away from God. Solemn fact for the man who thinks himself good enough; for the moral, respectable, religious man who has never faced the truth about himself as given in the only true witness — the word of God. Equally solemn fact for the well-meaning and earnest reformers of our day, who are bent upon the education and moral improvement of man; for both alike have forgotten that “there is no difference — all have sinned,” and that the moral, temperate, law-abiding citizen is equally in need of a Saviour, and equally in danger of the lake of fire if unsaved, with the poor drunkard or harlot, whose life is so hateful and loathsome to him. Such is the truth of God, beloved friend. Will you listen to it? Will you give God your ear, or listen to the soul-damning deception of him who is the father of lies?

T. R. T.

A Contrast.

A NEW patient had been brought into one of the wards of a large hospital in London. Her face was, therefore, strange to me, and I went to her bedside wondering whether she were one of the Lord’s sick ones or one of those, of whom, alas! there are many, who are careless about their souls even when sickness has attacked their bodies, and they know that their time here may be short, I was not left long in doubt this time; for after a few words concerning her physical sufferings she told me that she was saved, ready to go as soon as the Lord should see fit to take her; that her sins were washed away in the precious blood of Christ, and that all fears for the future were gone. After a little while I said to her, “Would you like me to read you a hymn?” She said she would like it very much; so I began that well-known one—

“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.”

But I had no need to read it to her. She stopped me as soon as I had began, saying, “I knew that forty years ago;” and then, in a very weak and feeble voice, she repeated the hymn right through, only stopping sometimes for me to begin a verse for her. How beautiful the words sounded, arising from that bed of sickness and weariness―

“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

In a believer’s ear;

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,

And drives away his fear.”

“Yes,” she said, when she had finished, “I knew that forty years ago,”

We spoke a little longer of the One who is “our Saviour, Shepherd, Friend,” and then I left her, saying: “I shall see you next week, if the Lord will. It is not likely that you will be well enough to go out so soon as that.”

The next week I went into the ward as usual, and found the bed by the door empty. “Perhaps,” I thought, “they have removed her farther up, out of the draft,” and I passed on. The first person to whom I spoke said: “There have been three deaths in this ward since you were here. One was that old lady by the door; she died quite suddenly last Sunday evening.”

“Well,” I said, “she was ready; she has gone to be with the Lord.”

Her stay in the hospital had been short, but she knew what it was to trust in that name “which quells the power of death.” Very different was the case of another of those three who had died. She was quite young, but attacked with that hopeless disease, consumption. While in the hospital she had never cared to listen to the word of God, and when her end seemed near, and a Christian desired to speak to her, she said, “Not now; wait till I am stronger.” That time never came, and she passed from time to eternity without giving any sign of a change. God, who searches the hearts, can alone know what was passing there during her last few moments. How solemn this is, to pass from this scene without a word to testify that she was ready to meet God! How much happier to depart and be with Christ after forty years of acquaintance with Him.

We sometimes hear young people say that they fear to be Christians lest they should die early! What a mistake! By being Christians we are delivered from death; and then, whether we remain here for a while or fall asleep, it is well with us. As to our life here, we have the assurance that “all things work together for good.” Every detail of our path is marked out by the hand of a loving Father; in every sorrow we have Christ and His sympathy; all our joys are increased a hundredfold since we can take them from God. Then as to our future. Do we look for death, the only end to all this world’s joys? Surely not. We look for the Lord Himself to come and take us to Himself, to that place where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying.

We may be left here for a long time or a short time, but the end is sure. Should we be called to pass through death, we can say, like my old friend in the hospital, that the name of Jesus “quells the power of death.” Do not be deceived by the allurements of this world or Satan’s false representations, but seek true happiness in Christ. “He that believeth on me,” the Lord said, “though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

L. A. M. B.

Death!

PRINCE LEOPOLD is dead! He was alive and apparently well and cheerful on Sunday; on the Friday following he was suddenly ushered into the presence of God. What an unexpected and overwhelming blow to his young, loving wife, and his fond, royal mother! May “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,” comfort their bereaved, crushed, and sorrowing hearts.

What a universal leveler — arbitrary, ruthless, cruel — death is! He is no respecter of persons. The prince, the peer, the peasant, and the pauper must all yield to his summons when it comes.

“Be ye also READY,” for you may be the next laid low by death. There are two things that will enable you to welcome death, and make you fit for the presence of a holy God. One is the PRECIOUS BLOOD of Christ, which removes all unfitness, and the other is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God, which makes the possessor of it fit at any moment for the presence of God.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and know that His blood has cleansed thee from all thy sins; and that now, clothed in the righteousness of God, thou art ready for death, or for the second coming of Christ, whichever may occur first.

H. M. H.

General Gordon at Khartoum.

EXTRACT from the Times of February 20th 1884: “KHARTOUM.

“General Gordon and Colonel Stewart at once opened offices in the palace, giving to everyone with a grievance admittance, and a careful hearing. The government books, recording from time immemorial the outstanding debts of the over-taxed people, were publicly burnt in front of the palace. The kourbashes, whips, and implements for administering the bastinado from government house, were all placed on the blazing pile. The evidence of debts and the emblems of oppression perished together.”

What a striking illustration we have in what was done by General Gordon and Colonel Stewart for the oppressed and well-nigh ruined inhabitants, of this Arabian town, of what Christ has done for every condemned and perishing sinner, who believes upon Him!

Let us see how this is the case.

Free access and careful hearing was given by the representatives of the British Government to all who had any grievance to complain of. But Christ has opened the way into the presence of God for the vilest sinner who trusts in Him, and he can lay the whole burden of sin and sorrow before Him of whom it is said, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” Nay, More. The apostle, addressing every believer, says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, let us draw near,” &c. (Hebrews 10)

Further, as the evidence of the existence of their debts to the Turkish Government (whether truly or falsely charged against them) was destroyed by these benefactors of this unhappy people, so to the poor sinner who.is willing to accept what the Saviour freely offers, He is waiting to give pardon, deliverance, and everlasting life. Every charge that either man, or Satan, or even the holy God Himself can bring against such an one, Christ has met in His own blessed Person. He has borne the punishment, upon His cross, which was due to the transgressor. Thus believing, Hezekiah, looking onward by faith to this wondrous cross, could say, “He has cast all my sins behind His back.”

When the proof of their debts was burnt before their eyes, the wretched inhabitants of Khartoum believed that they should never be called to pay them, and gave lively demonstrations of joy and gratitude to those who had thus befriended them. Thou, poor sinner, who hast trembled under the sense of the holiness of God, and of thy transgressions against His righteous requirements (like Martin Luther in his cell), hear His own precious word: “Having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” (Colossians 2:13, 14.)

It would, however, be a still better illustration of what Jesus has done for every believing soul if, Poor undone, unpardoned sinner, will you accept instead of destroying the evidence of the debts of the Khartoumese, General Gordon had been commissioned by the British Government to pay all the debts (whatever their amount might be) of every one who was willing to accept the boon. And yet how imperfectly any money payment, however large, represents the price that Jesus has paid for man’s redemption! For “ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18, 19.)

We have another illustration of the work of Christ in what the British vicegerent did for the people of Khartoum. He threw upon the burning pile which had already consumed the handwriting that was against them, the whips and other instruments of torture of which they had often felt the smart. Here again how the illustration fails to set forth the fullness of the work of Christ, He only could “abolish death” and deliver the sinner from the judgment which he had deserved by bearing the condemnation Himself. Thus the pardoned sinner can say, in the words both of prophet and apostle, “By His stripes we were healed;” and again can triumphantly ask, “Who is he that condemneth,” and more triumphantly answer, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34.)

“O thou destroyer see the blood

That makes the guilty clean:

No prey of thine the soul on which

This token once is seen.”

Poor undone, unpardoned sinner, will you accept the blessed Lamb of God as your Saviour? If you continue to refuse to come to Him for pardon and salvation, eternity will be spent in lamenting your unspeakable folly. “Because I called, and ye refused; I stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.” (Proverbs 1)

J. H. S.

Depending on Having a Dying Bed.

YESTERDAY I called with a friend to see an old woman who had, we heard, a very violent temper.

After a little I asked her if she was ready to meet God. She owned that she was not. I spoke of the folly of delay, and what a solemn thing it would be to meet Him in her sins.

“Oh,” she replied, “I heard a minister say once, if we looked to Christ on our dying bed, and felt a little tenderness in our hearts, it would be all right.”

“But how do you know,” I replied, “that you will have a dying bed?”

“Indeed,” she replied, “we can’t be sure of that.”

“Then why be such a fool as to count on it?” I asked.

“Another thing — Do you believe you could be saved by one look at Christ?”

On this point she seemed very doubtful.

“Because,” I said, “if you do, why not look to Him now? Why put it off to a dying bed when you are not even certain you will have one?”

To this she had nothing to say. I proceeded, “There is a yawning gulf just at your side, and you are hanging over it by a thread that may snap at any moment. May God open your eyes to see it!”

I fear many, like this old woman, are counting on a dying bed. Reader, are you one of them? Satan only wants to get you to put off coming to Christ. He knows more souls are lost by delay than anything else.

“Now is the accepted time: now is the day of salvation.”

How Old Willie was Saved.

ON Tuesday I went over to Willie’s to tell him of the meetings.

He told me he was a great sinner; that although he did not outwardly live a worse life than others, in GOD’S sight he was undone. I tried to tell him God’s salvation, and left a tract.

Well, yesterday we went to see him, and he said he was too wicked to be saved. Mr. M — spoke to him, and told him he was NOT too wicked to be saved. He asked him if he believed that the Lord Jesus died for HIM. He said, “Yes.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Well, had He your sins on Him then?”

“The Bible says He had,” replied Willie.

“Well, why did God FORSAKE Him on the cross? Did He ever commit sin?”

“I believe not,” said Willie; “but I cannot answer why God forsook Him.”

“Just because your sins were on Him,” explained Mr. M― “Tell me, Willie, where is He now?”

“At the right hand of God.”

“Well, are your sins on Him there?”

“That I don’t know.”

“Right well you know they are not; for He could not be there if they were.”

Willie was looking riveted, and his face was getting brighter and brighter as they went along.

“Tell me,” said Mr. M—, “what did He do then with YOUR sins?”

“He cast them away.”

“If He,” putting his hand on his shoulder, “cast them away, will they rise up again? God says, ‘I HAVE BLOTTED OUT AS A THICK CLOUD THY TRANSGRESSIONS, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.’ Also He says, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

“Wait,” said Willie, “where shall I find that? That’s what I wanted to know, and I could not find it.”

“Get me your Bible.”

Off ran Willie to the dresser with delight. Mr. M― got out the places—for him, and told him to read them. He read them aloud and slowly in his old, shaky voice. “Shall I go on?” he asked.

“Yes; go on.”

He stopped, and his face beamed, and he roared out, laughing with joy. He got Mr. M—to mark the places, and we left him nearly jumping, and saying, “God bless you,” waving his hand at his little cabin door. Mc M.

The Work, the Walk, the Worship, and the Wrath of the Lamb.

Notes of an Address.

John 1:29-36; Rev. 5:6-14, 6:12-17.

IN the above three scriptures we get the Lamb of God mentioned four times. In the first it is the work and the walk of the Lamb, in the second it is the worship of the Lamb, and in the third it is the wrath of the Lamb.

There are three precious words in John 1. I would ask all to notice carefully. The first we get in verse 14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” “Father” is the first. It is one of the first words lisped by us. Who would be afraid of a loving father? To the Old Testament saints God was revealed as the Lord Almighty (Genesis 17:1.; Exodus 6:3), but is now revealed to us as Father. (2 Cor. 6:18.) The second word is in verse 18. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” “Bosom” is the word. The Lord Jesus came from the bosom of the Father to declare the Father unto us, and to bring us to the bosom of the Father. There is nothing in the bosom of the Father to frighten us away. The third word is in verse 29. “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The word is Lamb. Now what animal is so gentle as a lamb? Surely no one would be afraid of a lamb. The smallest child is not afraid to put its arms round the neck of a pet lamb. Well, here we get God’s Lamb. Will you put your arms of faith around His neck? There is nothing to frighten you in the Lamb. If He came as “the Lion of the tribe of Juda,” you might be frightened away; but it is as God’s Lamb that He is presented to you.

The first thing we get is the work of the Lamb (verse 29), then we get the walk of the Lamb. The work comes first; for we must know Him as our Saviour before we can have Him for our pattern; we must know what His work has done for us before we can imitate His walk.

Verse 29 is hardly ever correctly quoted. It is sometimes quoted, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the SINS of the world.” I hear it constantly so quoted, and I see it in the religious tracts of the day, but it is false; for if it were the sins of the world, then all the world must be saved.

Another way people sometimes quote it is, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the elect.” This is false too. Again, “Behold the Lamb of God, who has put away the sin of the world;” and this is as false as the others; for sin has not been put away. I will begin with myself. My sin is not put away, though, blessed be God, my sins are. I have no sins on me, but I have sin in me. If my sin was put away I should never have a foolish thought; for “the thought of foolishness is sin.” Look around you, and you will see the effects of sin. There would be no murders, thefts, or drunkenness, if the sin of the world was put away. Every newspaper you take up will tell you that sin is still here. They are so full of every kind of wickedness that is going on in the world, that many of them I should not like to see in my children’s hands. You know this, and in the face of it how could you say that sin is put away? But sin will be completely put away on the ground of the work of the Lamb of God. Christ had upon Him, and put away, the sins of all those who believe in Him, when He suffered on Calvary’s cross; but that is not the question here. This verse is similar to Hebrews 9:26; and it is not a question of what He has done, but the extent of the work that He came to accomplish.

On Calvary’s cross Christ accomplished a work on the ground of which sin will be put away Forever, and at the same time He put away the sins of those for whom He suffered as substitute. This we get in 1 Peter 2:24 “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” When on the cross He was weighted with our sins. It was God who laid our sins on Him; and now we who believe in Him can look back to the cross and say—

“All our sins were laid upon Him:

Jesus bore them on the tree;

God, who knew them, laid them on Him,

And, believing, we are free.”

If Christ did not put away your sins when He suffered on the cross He never will; for He shed all His blood when there, and it forms our title to enter heaven. He is now in the glory of God a real man without a drop of blood, and He will never suffer again. If He had your sins on Him when He was on the cross they are gone; for He did not take them with Him into heaven.

Now, though we who believe in Jesus have no sin on us, we know that we have sin in us; but we also know that at the Lord’s second coming, or if we depart to be with Christ before He comes, we shall have no sin in us any more than upon us. Christ is rejected now, but the time is coming when every knee shall bow to Him—of heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings; all shall yield Him homage, even though it be feigned. Do you bow to Him now who believe in Him? Do you yield Him homage and own His authority now? When I am asked to vote, I say, “I have given my vote to the Man at the right hand of God. I am a royalist, and I have given my vote to the One whose right it is.” All! the politicians of the day may have their party man; but the time is coming when they shall all bow to the King of kings and Lord of lords, and own Him King and Lord. The time is near when the cry shall go forth, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” When His kingdom is established righteousness shall reign. Now righteousness is in the gutters, as it were; but during the millennium it shall reign, Satan will be shut up in the bottomless pit, and no sin will be allowed; but still sin will not have been put away. In Isaiah 65, where we get a description of the millennium, we read, “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that path not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” If one dies a hundred years old during the millennium he will die in infancy, but if he dies it will be because he has sinned. Swift judgment shall visit the sinner; nothing that defiles shall be allowed then.

When the millennium shall have rolled its course the wicked dead shall be raised and judged before the great white throne. They shall be judged out of the things written in the books; for there shall be a book for each one, in which God will have all their acts written; and they shall be judged according to their acts. The book of life shall be opened to show that their names were never written there, and that they are righteously cast into the lake of fire. “Death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” The body from the grave and the spirit from hades shall be united, and together go to the lake of fire. Then God shall usher in the eternal state, wherein righteousness shall dwell, and sin have been put away; then, and not until then, will John 1:29 have received its fulfillment.

“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God” (verses 35, 36.) Here we get the walk of the Lamb, but before we can follow Him we must know what His work has done for us, and trust in it for our salvation. When we are saved, then we are called upon to follow Him, to imitate Him, to walk as He walked through this world. (1 John 2:6.)

I know that there are some people who ignore the work of Christ, and look on Him as a pattern, and try to follow Him apart from His work. Such people deny human depravity, and teach that we are born without sin. They say that we come into this world just like a clean sheet of paper, and that each man’s history is just what he makes it. If a man leads a sinful life his sheet of paper is blotted; but if he follows Christ’s example, when he comes to die the river of death will part for him in some way or other, and he will get into heaven. Now I say to such, if this were true, why do infants die? Surely not because they have blotted their sheets of paper; for they have no guilt; they could not be guilty of actual sins. But infants do die, and it is because they are born in sin. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

We who have had our sins put away by the precious blood of the Lamb are left here to imitate him, to walk as He walked while He was in the world. He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. He has left His footprints here for us; and we are to seek to put our feet in them and follow Him, acting in our daily life as He would act if in the same circumstances. There should be no asking, “Is it right or wrong?” but, “How would Christ act?”

The children of God do not go to theaters, concerts, flower shows, boat-races, or horse-races, because Christ would not be found there; and we could not find pleasure where He would find none. We shall be like Christ when we see Him; let us seek to be more like Him now. God has Him, as it were, as a beautiful vase in heaven, and He will have us formed after the same pattern. He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. (Romans 8:29, 30.)

In the second scripture (Revelation 5:6-14) we get the worship of the Lamb. “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the living creatures” (as the word beasts should be translated), “and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” If you look at Ezekiel 1. you will get a description of the living creatures; it is the same word that is translated beasts in Revelation 5.

They are the executors of the judgments of God. The elders are the whole number of the redeemed, both the Church and the Old Testament saints. In the midst of the throne, the living creatures, and the elders, we see the Lamb of God, still wearing the marks received in the slaughter-house of Calvary; not wreathed now with His people’s sins, but in the center of the throne of God, and the Object of all worship. When Christ came to the world He was cast out, but here He gets the central place in heaven. Man put Him on a cross, between heaven and earth, as not fit for either; but God places Him in the midst of the throne. Man put Him between two thieves, but God places Him in the midst of all the redeemed as the Object of their worship. “Having seven horns.” A horn is always a type of power in Scripture, and seven gives us divine perfection. In the seven horns we get perfection of power. The Lamb was treated as if He had no power when He was in the world, but He has all power now. “Having... seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God.” In the seven eyes we have perfect intelligence, and in the seven Spirits we get the plenitude of the Spirit. The One who was despised, rejected, and cast out of this world, has here perfection of power, intelligence, and the plenitude of the Spirit.

Verse 12. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Look at this sevenfold ascription of praise given to the Lamb. Have you got any power? If you have do not use it for yourself, but for the Lord. Have you riches? Well, lay them at His feet. People who have money are anxious to find out good investments; they look over all the daily papers to see how they can make the most of their money. I will tell you of an investment which will pay 10,000 per cent. Give your money to the Lord, and He will give you an hundredfold. “Wisdom.’ Have you got wisdom? Well, use it for the Lord lay it all down at the feet of the Lamb. “Strength.” Have you strength of body—young, vigorous blood coursing through your veins? How are you spending it? Are you spending it in the Lord’s service? Oh, if you have strength of body, lay it down at the feet of the Lamb, use it in His service; for He is worthy of it all. “Honor.” How proud parents are of honors obtained by their children in school or college; how fond they are of showing their prizes. If a friend calls they will say, “Look at this prize which our boy, or girl, has taken;” or if a member of a family is in the army, and he is promoted from being lieutenant to captain, how they will send the paper which contains the announcement to all their friends. Well, if you have any honors, lay them at the feet of the Lamb. Have you any titles? If you have, bring them to the Lamb. “Glory,” If there is anything that would give you distinction in this world, bring it to the Lamb, and leave it at His feet. Have you got natural ability? Give it to Him; use your intellect in His service. “Blessing.” Bring all your blessings, and lay them at the feet of the One who is alone worthy of all blessing.

Verse 13. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” In this chapter we get a number of circles—circle after circle of worshippers, and the Lamb is the center and object of their worship. Close to Him we have the four living creatures and the elders (the redeemed in heavenly glory), then the archangel, and the angels, the cherubims, and the seraphims, and every creature, and all praising the Lamb.

Lastly, in chapter 6:12-17, it is the wrath of the Lamb. I would rather not speak of it, but I cannot keep back any part of the truth. We get a worship meeting in chapters 5, and a wailing meeting here. Now is the day of the grace of the Lamb, but very soon the day of His wrath will come. You may reject His grace now, but you cannot escape the day of His wrath if you do. The Lord may come at any moment and take His own away; then you will never have another ghost of a chance of being saved, but you will be left to the wrath of the Lamb. In this awful prayer meeting they do not pray to God, but to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Oh, come to the Lamb now and be saved! Then you shall be praising Him in the glory when the day of His wrath comes. May God the Holy Ghost, who is personally present in this world now, enable many of you to say—

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidet me come to Thee―

O Lamb of God, I come.”

May we who know what His work has done for us seek to walk as He walked, to give Him continually the worship of our hearts, and to bless Him that we shall never be the objects of His wrath.

H. M. H.

"My Pedigree."

SOME years ago I was asked by a fellow-Christian in a town in the West of England to visit with him an old woman in whom he was much interested. We wended our way one evening to one of the poorer parts of the town, and on the second floor of a many-tenanted house found the person in question. She was one of those who, according to her own story, “had seen better days;” and there was an air of gentility about both the old lady and her single apartment, that now served for sitting-room and bedroom, that told of a struggle with poverty and a long effort to keep up appearances. She received us kindly, and having got over the little commonplaces of introduction, I began very gently, and I hope with some degree of reverence for her age, to try and get at the condition of her soul; but we had not got far before she found an opportunity of introducing the subject of her family and her younger days. My friend had prepared me beforehand for her weakness on this point; so we just let the old lady go on with her story, and tried to feel interested in it. At length she offered to show me the papers themselves to prove her noble birth, and, going to a box that stood beside the bed, she unlocked it and drew out a roll of faded yellow papers, carefully folded and tied; and, spreading them out on the table, traced the genealogical tree from her own parents up to some nobleman, of what name and title I do not now remember.

We patiently followed the old lady; and when her story was fairly told I asked her to allow me to show her my pedigree; to which, of course, she gladly consented., “Well,” said I, “if it’s a question of earthly parentage, I am afraid I cannot boast; for I should go further back than you, and find I was descended from the man who was turned out from the garden of Eden for disobedience; but I have a lineage of another line that I think is higher far than yours.” Taking my Bible from my pocket, I read her John 1:13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;” and tried to show her the wondrous blessedness, as well as the absolute necessity, of this divine and eternal relationship. The animation that lit up the old woman’s furrowed face as she traced her earthly pedigree now faded away, and a look of anxiety took its place; for she could not yet “read her title clear to mansions in the skies.” She had not yet “believed on His name,” and received Christ in such a way as to settle all doubts and fears, and give her settled peace of conscience and heart, both as to present and future.

My reader, have you? Have you believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Just see how simply this scripture puts this all-important matter: “He [Christ] was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

The Revised Version of the New Testament gives us this twelfth verse more plainly still. It reads, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God,” &c.

Can anything be simpler than this? England’s noblest blood, yea, the blood of royalty itself, may run in your veins; but if you are not thus related to God, you are lost. Your poor proud head will ere long be laid in the dust by that great leveler, Death, and your narrow portion of “God’s acre,” as men say, will be all that is yours of this earth. 1 Corinthians 1:26 tells us that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” I have heard that the late pious Countess of Huntingdon used to say she was saved by one letter of the Bible; for if the verse above quoted had said “not any noble,” how could she be saved?

No, my reader, it is not a question of high-born or low-born, noble or plebeian, great or small; but the question is, Have you received Christ? And the way you receive Him is, that you believe on. His name. If so, you are one of the children of God; and, mark, there are no doubts here—no disputed questions of legitimacy can arise. “Now are we the sons of God.” (1 John 3:2.) We haven’t to wait until we get to heaven to know this or enjoy it either. One thing we do wait until then for, and that is to be like the One who was in His own right and title the Son of God. The believer is to be like Him, changed into His image, however low and degraded, sinful and rebellious, he might have been. This is what grace does for man. The only-begotten Son of God came into this world, sent by the Father, to be a Saviour. He suffered for sins, the Just for, the unjust; He finished the work God gave Him to do, and was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father—a Prince and a Saviour. Your eternal salvation depends on your believing on Him; an eternity in the lake of fire awaits you if you do not. You are lost now, and will be eternally so, if you have nothing better to boast of than this world’s pedigree, be your relations who or what they may. “Ye must be born again.”

T. R.

A Few Words About the Future.

“IT is not death that we need fear, it is judgment,” was the remark of a man who in his neighborhood was considered wise. Quite so. It is not the mere act of dissolution that need cause much thought, for that act merely affects the body; but it is the inevitable and immediate consequence of it; viz., appearing before God, that is so awfully solemn.

Reader, just think for one moment. You must meet God. If in your sins, you must come in contact with the wrath of God. What a meeting!

“I was afraid, because I was naked,” said Adam, after hearing the voice of God calling to him by name. What a confession— “afraid!” Yes, and afraid of God. This is the effect of sin, and of a conscience awakened to a sense of guilt. Have you never felt it? never secretly trembled as you have looked into the dark future, and in Solemn thought depicted to yourself the coming tribunal—the opened graves, the sea giving up her dead, the throne, the books, the Judge, all that divine panama delineating now the dread reality of the end? Never when alone, apart from the whirling vortex of your busy little life, forecast, in reverie, the events of that day? Never said, “How shall I appear?” I mistake greatly if you have not. Ah! the proud infidel may indeed say, like Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him?” or, like the fool of Psalms 14, “There is no God.” But still conscience—that irrepressible recorder, that inner judge, carried in every bosom, whose voice cannot be silenced; and that alone of heart, mind, soul, has not become infidel—does say at times, “I was afraid, because I was naked,” in all who, in Adam, have been “made sinners.” This fact is just as undeniable as is that of death itself.

It cannot be argued away. Sin is the cause of both; hence “it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” “Because I was naked.” That is the secret—naked before God, and naked as a guilty sinner; and therefore “I was afraid.” As says the most popular of earth’s poets, “Conscience makes cowards of us all;” for when consciously guilty the evildoer fears the face of the offended party, whether God or man; and, by the way, what a collateral proof of the immortality of the soul and moral responsibility is this work of conscience in man.

Nature, as in the lower animals, may shrink from the act of dying; man may do the same; but at the same time he shrinks from God. True, conscience cannot tell him what that God is. It gives the knowledge of “good and evil,” but cannot inform how the dominating evil can be escaped from and the good reached. An awakened conscience cries at the thought of God, “I am afraid,” but that is all. It views God as a retributive Judge, or as “Vengeance;” and, owning the propriety of retribution, it trembles. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Yes, fearful.

But if conscience cannot help revelation can, the gospel can. Let us see. Add to the verse already quoted, “As it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment,” what follows, in rich and welcome notes of gospel truth: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” How charming.

“So” — the counterpoise of the “as” in the appointment of death and judgment for men. Notice the blessed liberation.

“Christ”— the Son of God and Son of man, “God manifest in flesh,” Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of all.

“Was offered”— died; an accomplished, historical, and glorious fact. His blood has been shed. Just think— “Christ was offered.”

“Once.” Enough; never again need He die. Once in Bethlehem’s manger was enough for incarnation, and once on Calvary’s cross enough for atonement.

“To bear the sins of many.” He had none of His own; He was free, therefore, to die for others—bear their sins, undergo their judgment, meet the whole question of guilt, and bring them to God in a new creation; and not only to purge the conscience, but to fill the heart with confidence in God. Blessed Saviour! And now “we have boldness in the day of judgment.” What a difference of expression to that at the beginning! — “boldness” instead of “fear.”

Reader, which is yours? If you are a believer, the former; if an unbeliever, the latter.

J. W. S.

The Righteousness of God.

IT is astonishing to see the varied ways in which Satan seeks to shut out Christ and, His work. I was speaking some time ago to a person about the eternal security of the soul when once, saved, when he replied, “Ah! but there’s a passage in Ezekiel which proves that a saved person can be lost if he does not continue faithful.”

Now this objection arose from ignorance of the effects of Christ’s work, and the ways of God as based upon it. This will be seen upon examination of the Scripture alluded to—” When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity... all his righteousness that he hath clone shall not be mentioned... in his sin that lie has sinned... shall he die.” (Ezekiel 18:24.)

In order to arrive at the true meaning of this verse, it must be borne in mind that when Ezekiel wrote it man was under law; i.e. God had given him the ten commandments, and made him responsible to obtain a righteousness by keeping them. If he kept them he was blessed; if he broke them he was cursed. (Deuteronomy 28)

This characterized the age before Christ, a dispensation which ran out at the cross. In Romans 3 is found the introduction to a new order of things. God there announces the result of the lengthened trial of man. He tells the solemn truth about the whole human race, Jew and Gentile. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Man has failed in his responsibility; there is not one on earth who stands accepted before Him on the ground of his own righteousness. This then renders it impossible to find the righteous man of whom Ezekiel speaks. And to make the matter still worse for the objector He proceeds, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” It is not possible therefore for a righteous man to turn away from his righteousness. In the first place because there is none righteous; and secondly, because none can become so by human effort.

But it is not as a prelude to judgment that God records the terrible result of the trial. He is paving the way for the display of His grace, and this wonderful chapter goes on to show that when man is proved to be without righteousness God comes out to him, and on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus offers to bestow one upon him upon the principle of faith. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all, them that believe; for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Mark, it is the righteousness of God; the righteousness of man is altogether a different thing; the latter never existed save in pride’s imagination; for the word of God does not speak of one single person who gained a righteousness by his works, and you will observe that Ezekiel says, “All his righteousness which he has done shall not be mentioned,” showing clearly that this righteousness was of works.

Now this was what the objector had failed to see; he was ignorant of what “GRACE” is. He was confounding the dispensations, and imagined that man was still responsible to acquire a righteousness by obedience to God’s law, overlooking the plain and positive fact, that man had been already tested under this very system, had failed, and been found guilty, and that all that remained to be done in the ordinary course of things was for the Judge to pronounce the sentence upon him; but this God in His deep love and pity had deferred, and instead of consigning the whole human family to hell on the proof of their incompetency to answer to the divine requirements, had come out in the fullness of His grace, and offered to provide for the sinner what the sinner could not provide for himself; viz., a righteousness in the power and virtue of which he might stand accepted before Him throughout time and eternity.

Oh, my reader, do get hold of the wonderful truth! In the past dispensation God made the sinner responsible to procure a righteousness by obedience to His law, and for 1500 years man toiled under the heavy burden imposed upon him, without the shadow of a chance of succeeding in his efforts. The sequel indeed proved that he only earned for himself a more terrible weight of wrath and judgment. Then came the Lord Jesus Christ, who at the cross offered up His spotless life to meet God’s claims upon man, and then, rising from the dead in victorious power, ascended to heaven, and in proof that He had FINISHED the work necessary for the sinner’s justification SAT DOWN at the right hand of the majesty on high.

A new system, fraught with untold blessing to man, was immediately inaugurated. The Holy Ghost left the glory, and in Acts 13. we hear Him bearing witness through Paul to the results of that work. “Through this man” (Jesus) “is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

Marvelous truth! God is now in this day of grace acquitting the sinner of every sin, justifying him from everything which would otherwise render him subject to judgment, and this not on the ground of works, but on condition that he believes in Jesus.

And remember the gift of righteousness is absolute; it is never recalled, never lost, never forfeited; grace is its source, the blood of Christ the ground of its bestowal, a basis which is unchangeable, imperishable, eternal.

To make the believer responsible to keep this righteousness is to ensure its immediate loss; man’s past history proves this, so God secures it to him by a work entirely outside himself, the effects of which are everlasting.

It is most wonderful that while God in Romans 3. says, “There is none righteous,” in chapter 8. we have His challenge sounding through the universe— “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.”

Now why is this? Christ has died, and the justice of God is now manifested in the justification of the believing sinner. It may be asked, “But who are the elect?” I reply, “All who are justified.” “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.” (Romans 3) Again it may be asked, “But who are justified?” I answer, “All who believe in Jesus.” “God is just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Rom. 3) You see, my beloved reader, there is no thought here of the believer losing what is bestowed upon him. The blessed God ranges Himself on the side of His child, and challenges all the powers of darkness to bring a charge against one whom He has justified. Is not this better than leaving the poor sinner to struggle all his lifetime with a view to gain a human righteousness, with the certain prospect of ultimate failure?

Furthermore, the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 1:30 points me to a glorified Christ, and tells me that He is my righteousness.

Wondrous fact! God is not looking at the believer in his natural weakness and faithlessness, but in and through His own adorable Son. “As He is so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17.) “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6.) Not merely my sins washed away in His precious blood, but He Himself in glory, my righteousness, and the measure of my acceptance. And so the saint is called to maintain a walk of practical holiness, a walk which shall accord with his new standing. If he fails in this, and neglects to judge his failure, the Father will most assuredly chasten him for it. But I challenge any one to produce a single scripture which says that Christ ceases to be the believers’ righteousness, when the believer ceases to be faithful.

W. H. S.

Two Things That Are Coming.

Read 1 Thess. 1:10.

IT is a wonderful thing to see that there is a thing shortly to happen of which we may be certain. And it is all the more so when we consider that there is so little in this world that we may make sure of. But it is an absolute fact, and one that we may assure ourselves of, that there are two things about to happen, and the first is the corning of the Son of God. Yes, the Son of God is coming. On the authority of the word of the living God He is coming. The scripture quoted at the head of these lines declares it, and many more beside. And put it to yourself, dear reader, Are you ready to meet Him? Would it be joy to your heart to meet Him face to face even while your eye is running along these lines? Do you rejoice at the thought of being caught away into His presence just now? Does your heart say “No” to such a question? Then something is wrong between you and the blessed Saviour. Something is lurking in your heart, telling you of your unfitness for His presence. And look to it, beloved reader, that you get it settled immediately. Don’t lose time as to it; for you may, if you delay a moment, miss your salvation for all eternity.

But this brings us to the second thing. For if you miss the first, you must without a doubt meet the second; and, bless God, if you are ready for the first, you shall never see the second. For the second thing is wrath.

And let me ask you in all love, Are you ready to meet it? Do you start at the suggestion? Perhaps your answer is, “I am not ready.” Then are you ready for the first? Perhaps you will answer, “No.” But, beloved reader, you must meet one of the two. Look to it at once as to which of them you will choose to meet; for now that they are put before you so you cannot say, “I’ll choose neither.” Do you choose the “Son from heaven,” the Saviour? Then bless God! But settle today as to whether you are waiting for the “Son from heaven,” or for “wrath.”

B. C.

"I Have left Out God."

A Warning.

“Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Heb. 4:7.

A MAN is dying. Surrounded by kind friends, watched by a loving wife, he has every comfort that can be obtained to soothe a dying pillow. He wishes to speak to one (a Christian) who has called to see him. Listen to what he says. “I have worked hard all my life, saved money, looked out for the main chance; but I have left out God.” How solemn! A soul passing into eternity says that he has “left out God.” He had been a very industrious man, nothing could be said against him morally; but his aim had been to make money. For this he worked and lived; for this he had “left out God.” Dear reader, is that what you are doing? Some men live for fame, others for pleasure; some for the riches and honors of this world; but they are leaving out God. The rich man in Luke 16 lived and enjoyed himself here without God, and he died without God. “In hell he lift up his eyes.” The rich man in Luke 12 laid up plenty for this life, thinking, like the dying man once thought, to enjoy himself presently; but he left out God, and that night his soul was required of him. It was not that they had done any harm or were openly immoral, but they thought not of God, listened not to His word, believed not on His Son, were regardless of His beseeching’s. Again we affectionately ask you, dear reader, if you were called upon to meet God this night, would the dying man’s language be yours? “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” God is speaking now. Are you listening, believing, or are you indifferent? Think of these words, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” (2 Corinthians 5:19.) “We beseech you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” The dying man was told of the love of God in Christ Jesus. He said, “Will He receive me now?” The reply was, “Yes, indeed— ‘This man receiveth sinners’—only believe on Him just as you are.” We hope the poor man did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and knew before he died that he had eternal life. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” (John 3:36.) Believe on Him now, look to Him by faith now, put not off the salvation of thy precious immortal soul one moment longer, we entreat you. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” May the Lord graciously open your eyes to see the urgent necessity of making the question of your soul’s salvation of paramount importance, and lead you to His beloved Son now.

In contrast to the dying man above mentioned, let me relate briefly what another dying man said to me quite recently. He was in a rapid consumption; his voice just above a whisper. I said, “You have no fear now you have peace with God, and are waiting for the Lord to take you?” “Yes,” he said; “I wish it were tonight. No one knows the joy and happiness I have experienced since I looked to Christ. I only wish I had heard of and known these things twenty years ago.” His bright countenance showed plainly the joy he then had. I said, “It would be sad indeed if now, with all this suffering, you had not peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He replied, “Indeed it would. Thank God, He gave me to know salvation before I was brought so low.”

May the Lord in His rich mercy lead you, dear reader, to look to Him and be saved, for His name’s sake. Amen.

H. N.

"He Being Dead yet Speaketh."

“THE way of my conversion was this,” said a dear mother of a large family: “We had a little lad, the last before this one,” indicating a child at her knee. “He was born blind, and a weakly child too. He gave us a deal of trouble to rear him, and I suppose this made him wind a great deal round our hearts. But the Lord took him when he was about eighteen months old, and I grieved a great deal over him, poor little fellow; more than any of the others I have lost. And the thought came to my mind, ‘If I don’t go to him, I shall never see him again;’ for, you see, he couldn’t come back to me. So I just sought the Lord in real earnest, and He heard me and saved me, sir.”

Perhaps some mother with a little one in heaven may read this dear woman’s touching little story. Or it may be a father. Let me ask you, “Shall you see your little one again?” Not if you don’t go to it. It can never come to you. Perhaps you answer, “I hope so.” Ah, friend, that is a very indefinite hope! You’ve not much certainty about it, have you now? Then why not make a certainty of it? Be in earnest about it, as this dear woman was, Seek the Lord while He may be found. He is waiting to be gracious, waiting to bless.

His word is, “Come.” “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Believing is coming. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

He—Jesus, the living, loving Saviour in heaven—is the One to go to by faith, and now is the time. “He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” are His own precious assuring words. Again I say, Believing is “coming.” “Believe” then “on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,” That is, your children too.

A parent is, to my mind, like the first link in a chain. If we had a chain of say ten links on the ground and moved the first link in any direction, the others would follow in that direction. So with the parent. He or she draws the children after them by their influence and example. If the parent is traveling the narrow way of salvation, the children will feel the upward, heavenward drawing of the parent’s influence. But if the parent is on the downward road to destruction, the children are being drawn down, as the links of a ship’s cable are drawn down by the sinking anchor.

You cannot lead others a way you are not going yourself. Oh, unsaved parent—father or mother—I solemnly warn thee! Not only art thou jeopardizing thine own soul, but thy children’s. Beware lest they be lost eternally as well as thyself, or rise up in the judgment and accuse thee of leading them into the same condemnation.

W. G. B.

"I Never Heard Such Doctrine."

“I NEVER heard such doctrine,” was the exclamation of a young man in a railway carriage, in the presence of several others, as he heard one of a company of three Christians speak of believing in Christ and knowing that he was saved. Doubtless it was perfectly true that he had never heard such doctrine, and there are tens of thousands, I fear, in this so-called Christian land who are in the same darkness of mind. Is it therefore bad doctrine, I say? The speaker by his utterance confessed openly to his ignorance of the word of God. It is plain enough there, if men would but take God at His word. This is what the one whose statement gave rise to the exclamation had done, and two others with him met the caviler (for such he showed himself out to be) with the same simple confession of faith in Christ and the word of God.

Yes, my reader, strange as at appears to many, yet it is blessedly true, that every one that believeth on the Son of God may know that he is saved. It is not a question of superior knowledge or sanctity, but the common privilege of all true believers (and therefore yours, if you believe) to know the pardon of their sins, and that they have everlasting life. You may reason about it, you may question it, you may doubt it, you may deny it; but the fact is that the word of God speaks of sinners who believe knowing these precious truths.

Take forgiveness first. In Acts 10:43 we read, “To Him [Christ] give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” And again, in 1 John 2:12, “Little children... your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”

What language could be plainer? The sins of all who believe are remitted. They are addressed as little children, and are told that their sins are forgiven. They are not taught to hope for forgiveness at some future time, neither is it on account of what they have done or been, or ever will do or be; but for His name’s sake, for the name’s sake of Jesus, who bore God’s judgment against sin on the cross. Dear reader, dost thou believe, or is it some strange doctrine brought to your ears? Can you join in singing—

“We bless our Saviour’s name,

Our sins are all forgiven;

To suffer once to earth He came,

He now is crowned in heaven”?

May be thousands of times your lips have uttered the words, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” “Well, is your creed true? But what avail to believe in forgiveness unless your sins are forgiven? You might repeat for years, “I believe in the payment of money at the bank;” but what would it profit you, if you were penniless, unless a sum was paid to you? Forgiveness you still need if in your sins. Now is the time to have it. Believe as a poor guilty sinner on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are forgiven; God says so.

The Word is equally plain as to the knowledge of the possession of eternal life. The Lord Himself said, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47); and in. 1 John 5:13 we read, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

Again I put to you the question, “Dost thou believe?” not “Dost thou believe about Christ?” All Christendom professes that. But “Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Can you from the heart reply, “I do”? Then everlasting life is yours; Christ Himself says so. And the apostle by the Spirit writes, in 1 John 5:13, to all who believe, that ye may know that ye have it; not that you may hope to have it, or realize or feel that you have, but that you may know. That ye may know that ye have. You may never have heard such doctrine before, but it is the doctrine of the Bible, the word of Him who cannot lie.

E. H. C.

The Text on the Wall.

IT is a wonderfully blessed fact that the wretchedness and misery of the human heart, the needs and necessities that have come in through sin, find their perfect and eternal answer in God Himself, as He has been revealed in the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The poor heart is slow to believe this, finds it hard to trust the God against whom it has sinned; but it is a moment never to be forgotten, when the sinner, who has learned his own utter unchangeable badness, learns to rest in the positive goodness there is in God for him.

In a hospital for consumptives a poor woman was lying, and feeling not only the depression and physical weakness attendant on the disease from which she was suffering, but something also of the alienation of a condemned soul before a holy God. On the wall opposite, over another sick one’s bed, was a text of scripture constantly before her eyes, It was this, “In all their affliction He was afflicted and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9.) These words the Spirit of God carried to that poor lonely and sorrowing heart, and gave her to know the peace and consolation they contained.

It is true the verse speaks of what God had done for Israel of old. This doubtless the poor sufferer knew but little about; but she knew the verse was from the Bible, and she knew that book told of God, of Christ. She was in suffering and sorrow, and the text spoke of One who felt for such. She knew something of being a slave to evil, sold under sin; the passage spoke of One who could redeem and save. She was in circumstances wherein she could learn how precious was sympathy, love, pity; it told her of One who loved, who pitied, who could be occupied with the wretched, the lost; who had said of old, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I have come down to deliver them.” (Exodus 3:7.) She was weak and helpless, and needed a strong arm to lean upon; the scripture told of One who could bear, who could carry; One whose power was almighty, but whose love was as great as His power, and this One was God.

The grace contained in these precious words filled the channel which the need and misery had dug in her heart, and she was at rest. Jehovah of the Old Testament was Jesus of the New, and He who came to seek and save the lost, and to die the just for the unjust, came to declare God—the God of all grace, the alone source of eternal blessedness and peace, and who says, reader, to you even today, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”

W. R. H.

Come to Jesus Now.

IN a large town in one of the eastern counties is a factory, with a rather tall chimney, such as factories often have; but, unlike many others, this one, during a high wind or gale, rocks backwards and forwards in a startling manner. The writer has seen it thus on several occasions. Some years ago it was thought to be dangerous, and during a gale the workpeople were all ordered out. It was Afterward examined by an engineer, and said to be quite safe.

Now supposing one of those men had refused to leave, and insisted on going on with his work, had the chimney fallen and killed him, who would have been to blame? Not the master, for he had ordered all the men out, but the man who wickedly and foolishly stayed in the building, to his own destruction. But the folly of such a man is as nothing compared to thine, my unsaved reader, in the things which are eternal; for “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,” and you say, “We will hear thee again of this matter;” there’s plenty of time yet! Oh, my reader, I entreat you, beware; you are in an awful position, for soon, perhaps before you read this paper, the Lord will have come to the air to meet His saints; the dead will be changed, and the living raised (in the twinkling of an eye), and all will be caught up to be forever with Him. You will then be like the man in the building, with the chimney rocking overhead, left on this earth for judgment. But, oh, be warned now! Come to Jesus now! Judgment is strange work to Him; He delighteth in mercy, and willeth not the death of one sinner, but rather that all should come to Him and live. This is still the day of grace. God is still saving poor sinners by faith in the death of His Son. Oh, then, come to him now! Delays are dangerous, even in the affairs of this life, much more so in those of the life which is to come. May you be found waiting for the Lord when He comes for His saints, and not one of those who stand without (the door is shut then), and say, “Lord, Lord, open unto us,” and receive from Him the awful answer, “Depart from me; I never knew you.”

T. E. L.

Precious Faith.

HOW sweet it is to peruse the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the faith of the dear saints of God as recorded in that wonderful eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, were there no other record, would be sufficient to show us the value God sets upon the faith of His people.

Truly it is “precious faith (2 Peter 1:1), inasmuch as “it is the gift of God,” and the connecting link between the sinner and the Saviour—the connecting link in the chain of divine grace referred to in John 5:24―

Heareth,

Believeth,

Hath,

at the end of which chain hangs, for the immediate acceptance of every repentant sinner, the stupendous gift of Everlasting Life.

“He that

Heareth My word, and

Believeth on Him that sent Me,

Hath, EVERLASTING LIFE.”

Life! Life! Everlasting Life for “Whosoever believeth!” the present possession of “joy and peace in believing!” and, “faith counted for righteousness,” “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly”

Precious faith it comes to “the Living Stone... chosen of God, and precious;” it reposes in “the precious blood of Christ;” it grasps the “exceeding great and precious promises;” it beholds Jesus, through the opened heavens, “crowned with glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:9); and proves Him indeed to be, even as it is written, “the preciousness UNTO YOU WHICH BELIEVE.”

Reader, do you believe?

“By Him ALL that believe ARE justified

from ALL things.” (Acts 13:39.)

Reader, are you justified?

N. L. N.

Notes of an Address.

Christ Accepted for us, Acceptance in Him, and Acceptability to Him.

“And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”— Leviticus 1:4.

“To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.”— Ephesians 1:6.

“Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him.”— 2 Corinthians 5:9 (R.V.).

THERE are three things taught in the three foregoing scriptures. First, that Christ has offered Himself for our acceptance, and that God has accepted Him for us; secondly, that all who believe this are now accepted in the Beloved; and thirdly, that such are left down here in this world with the Holy Ghost in them, to be acceptable to Christ.

I never remember meeting a child of God who had not been tempted to doubt, at one period or another of their Christian course, whether they had really accepted Christ. But I never remember meeting one who had ever been tempted to doubt whether God had accepted Christ.

Now settled peace can never be had until we know and believe, not that we have accepted Christ, but that God has accepted Him for us.

God begins with the burnt-offering, and ends with the sin-offering; that is, He begins with what first meets the claims of His glory, and ends with what meets our need. We naturally enough begin with what meets our need, that is, Christ as the sin-offering; and we end with what meets God’s glory, that is, Christ as the burnt-offering.

The blessed Lord when He was in this world always thought of God’s glory first; hence we hear Him saying, in John 17, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” In the first part of this verse we have the burnt-offering aspect of Christ’s death; in the last part of it the sin-offering aspect of it.

In the burnt-offering God presents to us the work of Christ in its highest aspect. The burnt-offering shows us the glory brought to God by the work of Christ, and therefore we get it first This is an aspect of the work of Christ about which little is known, but it is the basis of all our blessing. God required the atonement, on the ground of which He is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Atonement means satisfaction. God’s holiness had been outraged by sin, and He required satisfaction. Now the work of Christ has perfectly satisfied God, so that by it He has been more infinitely glorified than ever He was dishonored by sin. Yes, all His righteous requirements have been met; His outraged holiness has been vindicated, and He has been glorified, if there never was a sinner saved through trusting it. “I have finished the work that Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was.” Here the Lord speaks in anticipation of the work He was about to accomplish, and upon the ground of which He claims a right to enter heaven. What a wonderful thing that He allows us to hear Him speak thus to His Father. The Lord had a perfect right to enter heaven. There never was a moment in His life when He could not have gone back. At His baptism we have heaven opened for the first time, because for the first time there was an object upon earth worthy of heaven’s gaze. God could say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” On the mount of transfiguration we hear God again saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Though the Lord could have gone into heaven then, yet He went to the cross, there to accomplish a work by which God would be glorified, and sinners saved, He entered heaven by virtue of His own blood (Hebrews 9:12); and He gives to all believers the same title. (Hebrews 10:19.) Christ offered Himself as a satisfaction to God, and how do we know that God has accepted Him? Where is He now? What has God done with the Man whom He delighted to honor? He has raised Him from the dead, and placed Him at His own right hand in the brightest glory. Yes, He raised from the dead on the third day the Man who glorified Him, and on the fortieth day He took Him up to the brightest glory, and said, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” And He is there now, a living man on the throne of God. Christendom only knows a dead Christ, therefore souls in it are in doubt about their salvation.

Walking through a town the other day I saw in front of a grand building the figure of Christ on the cross. If Christ were still on the cross, or in the grave, we could have no certainty about our salvation; for “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” “If Christ were still in the grave it would prove Him to be only a man; but, blessed be God, He is not there; for the glory of God visited the grave on the third day, and raised Him from the dead, and on the fortieth day He was taken up to heaven.

The grave is empty, the stone has been rolled away, not to let Christ out, but to show that He is not there but risen; so our faith is not in vain.

The blood of the spotless One, who offered Himself to God, can alone purge you from your guilt. For hundreds of years God had been looking at the blood of the victims that were slain continually, but it could not purge a single sin. No blood but that of His beloved Son could do it. His blood alone is precious. (1 Peter 1:18, 19.) Not only must you be purged from your bad works, you must be purged from your dead works. (Hebrews 9:14.) All works done before you are saved are dead works, for they do not spring from faith. Someone may say, “But I have been baptized, I have been confirmed, and I have regularly and reverently partaken of the Lord’s Supper.” DEAD works! “I attend church, chapel, or meeting regularly.” Dead works! “Oh, but I have a class in the Sunday-school, I distribute tracts, I visit the sick and dying, and I am highly esteemed by my minister.” Dead works! “I pay twenty shillings to the pound, I am upright in all my dealings.” Dead works, from all of which you must be purged by the blood of Christ. How can dead sinners do any works but dead works? Suppose I have a corpse before me, and connect it with a powerful galvanic battery, what would be the consequence? Life with its varied movements would apparently be restored. But if I cut off the connection with the battery what would occur? Immediately the body would fall down as before; all the movements were only the movement of a corpse. Religion is Satan’s great galvanic battery to deceive souls; he connects dead sinners with his great battery, and sends them to Sunday school teaching, tract distributing, and visiting the sick and dying, but they are dead—morally dead—all the time. On a death-bed, when the battery is removed, what have they got? Oh, precious souls, be warned against trusting to religion; it has never saved any one, but it has damned its thousands. Salvation is in a Person, and not in a thing. (Acts 4:12.).

Surely it is clear to you all that it is God who has accepted Christ, and that all you have to do is to believe that God has accepted Him for you. Do you believe that Christ has offered Himself to God for your sins, and that God has accepted Him for you? If someone owed a large sum of money, say £1,000, and he had nothing to pay, what would satisfy his creditor? Nothing but the money. Suppose a rich friend came forward to pay for him, to whom would he offer the money? Not to the debtor, but to the creditor. He would go to the creditor and say, “Mr. So-and-So owes you £1,000, will you accept my check for the amount?” The creditor would say, “Gladly,” and he would receipt the bill, and file it. As soon as the debtor knows that his friend’s check has been accepted by his creditor he will feel happy. We were all in debt to God, and we had nothing to pay; but Christ has offered Himself to God to meet all our liabilities. When Christ died on the cross He paid the debt; when God raised Him from the dead He put the receipt stamp, as it were, on the bill. Christ paid the whole debt, for we could never pay a single farthing. If you could live for years without sinning, it would not wipe out a single sin of the past. Suppose a man owed £100, and he went and said to his creditor, I want to open a new account with you, but I will pay for everything I get from this day. Well, he gets some things, and pays for them at once, and goes on so during a whole year. At the end of the year he comes into the shop, and says to the shopkeeper, “You haven’t a single thing down against me for the whole year.” The shopkeeper would say, “No; but what about the old score, the £100 you owe me, and not a farthing of which you have paid me?” How the man’s countenance would fall immediately! But Christ’s work has met ALL our liabilities.

ACCEPTED IN CHRIST.

In the second scripture (Ephesians 1:3-6) we learn another thing—our acceptance in Christ. The poor sinner who believes that Christ offered Himself to God for him, and that God has accepted Him, is “accepted in the Beloved.” He is brought into the same place that Christ is in, and his title there is the same. “Oh,” says somebody here, “I do believe that Christ offered Himself for me, and that God has accepted Him, but I cannot say that I am accepted in Him!” Well, you are not to say it; I am not to say it for you; it is God who says it; He does not leave it to you to say. You might make a mistake, and so might I; but God cannot. The fact is true, whether you believe it or not; but there is one thing you will lose by not believing it, and that is communion with the Father. You will miss the enjoyment of the place into which you have been brought, without an effort on your part, and never to be forfeited by you. I will try and illustrate this for you. Suppose someone gave me an album, with a number of likenesses in it, to give to a friend. When asked, “Did you give those likenesses I sent with you?” I answer, “I gave the album.” “But did you give the likenesses?” “I gave the album; where did you put the likenesses?” “I put them in the album.” “Well, if you put them in the album, they got them in it; for I gave the album.”

Now the album is a figure of Christ, and the likenesses in the album, of the Church. Not a bit of the likenesses to be seen outside the album, not a bit that the devil could catch hold of and draw them out of the album. We are complete in Him. Look at this leaflet; I put it into my Bible and shut it. Now the leaflet is complete in the Bible, but you cannot see anything but the Bible; so we, are in Christ, and to touch one who is in Christ you must first touch Christ. Before one who is in Christ can be lost, Christ must be lost; both rise or fall together. If Christ could be taken from the glory, and nailed again to the cross, then, and not till then, could one who is in Christ be lost? so we see it is impossible. Someone may say, “I do believe that God has accepted Christ for me, but I don’t feel that I am accepted in Christ.” You have not to feel it, but to believe it. If a dear friend in Australia were to write and tell me that a large property had been left to me there, and I were to sit down and write, “Yours to hand, telling me of a large property left to me in Australia, but I do not feel that I have got it; when I do I shall write and thank you for telling me of it,” my friend would think that I was out of my mind. Surely people treat God as they would not treat one another.

To have peace with God I must know that God has accepted Christ for me; to have communion I must know that I am accepted in Christ; but when I have peace with God, and when I know that I am in Christ’s place before Him, there is another thing which follows, and that is what we have in the third scripture.

ACCEPTABILITY TO CHRIST. (2 Corinthians 5:9.)

To make the meaning of this passage plain, the word translated accepted should be acceptable, or well-pleasing, as it is thus given in the new revision of the New Testament. I will just read the passage as it stands in the revised version— “Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him.” Some one here may say,” I thought that verse referred to the judgment; have we not all to be judged before we can know whether we shall be accepted or not?” Such a thought is not to be found in Scripture! but it does say that “we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, where there will not be a single question raised as to our acceptance, but of rewards. It will be to try all our works, and for those which have been done for God according to His word we shall get a reward.

To be well-pleasing or acceptable is quite different from acceptance. Suppose a friend takes me into his garden in the depth of winter, and shows me a tree without a single leaf on it. I ask him what kind of tree it is, and he says an apple-tree. I accept it as such, though there is not a single apple on it. In the end of the autumn I come again, and find the tree laden with the most beautiful apples; they make it acceptable to me. Now the apples do not make it a tree, for it was a tree before the apples were on it; but they make it an acceptable tree. We were all wild crab-trees by nature, but we have been transplanted, and a good apple grafted in, so that we may bear fruit acceptable to God. We have now to keep down the shoots of the crab-tree. God could have taken us straight to glory when we were converted, but He has left us to be for Him in this world. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. How careful then we should be as to what we put on them, what we put in them, and where we take them.

In 1 Peter 2 The word acceptable occurs three times. First in verse 5. Now what is acceptable to God here? Praise. God’s children are all priests in this dispensation to offer spiritual sacrifices to Him. God loves to hear our praises. I once had two birds, one of them sang sweetly, while the other only chirped. Now they were both birds, but the bird which sang sweetly was the more acceptable to me; his singing did not make him a bird; he sang because he was a bird.

Until we know that we are accepted there can be no fruit of praise for God; we shall be taken up with ourselves, and how to be accepted of Him, and thereby rob Him of that which pleases Him “better than an ox or bullock that bath horns and hoofs.” Why is there so little praise to God? Because people are not living in the enjoyment of the place they are in. If they were there would be the fruit of praise without effort. There is no effort in fruit-bearing; the tree bears fruit quietly, and so it should be with us.

In 1 Peter 2:19 acceptable occurs the second time, and in verse 20 the third time. If we suffer for righteousness’ sake, it is acceptable to God.

The Lord give many precious souls to see that Christ has been accepted for them, and that they have been accepted in Him. When they know this may they seek to be acceptable to Him.

H. M. H.

The Scotch Fisherman.

ON a calm night a few weeks ago four fishermen launched their boat from the shore on the east coast of Scotland. They were all Christians; but it is of one especially that I want to speak. Andrew S― had been for many years engaged in the herring fishery, and since his father’s death had been the entire support of his mother. He had not long been converted, and was now rejoicing in the new treasure he had found. He never left his home without commending himself and those whom he left behind to God, and this evening he had been alone praying for a longer time than usual. However, he bade a cheerful “good-bye” to his friends, and joined his mates on the shore. Even a timid person need not have been afraid on so calm a night as this, and the fishermen, accustomed to the sea from their boy hood, had no thought of danger, but confidently put to sea. How little did they think as they left the land that one of their number would never return thither! When they had got out far enough, they let down their nets. Andrew stood at the bow of the boat, his back to the sea, pulling out some chain. Suddenly he lost his balance and fell into the sea. With the tight grasp of a drowning man he clung to the chain, and when his friends in the boat called to him to catch the rope which they had immediately thrown out he heeded them not, but sank beneath the waves. It was impossible now to save him, for his mates could not tell where he might be; and though they watched most anxiously for him to rise to the surface, they were disappointed, and were at last forced to acknowledge to themselves that all hope was gone. They returned home with heavy hearts; for the young man had long been their companion, and his mother was well known to them. How were they to break the news to her? They gave this sad work into the hands of one who they knew would do it as gently as possible. But however gently it might be told, the truth was the same, and the poor mother was at first crushed by the blow. In the evening she had seen her son go out in the full vigor of manhood, and now, in the morning, what was there? Not even his body for her to look upon; nothing but the vacant place in the little home, of which he had been the comfort and stay. But a Christian does not sorrow as one that has no hope, and even in the midst of her grief, while the tears were rolling down her cheeks, she said to one who was visiting her, “Oh, how thankful I am it has happened now, and not before he was converted! for then where would he have been? Now I know that, though his body is buried in the sea, he is present with the Lord,’ and I shall see him again soon, where there will be no parting. There’s no more storms for him now he’s happy forever.”

Now let me ask you who may read this little narrative, Are you ready, should you be called away as suddenly as this? God surely, in His sovereign grace, means that these acts of His should be a warning to those who live from day to day regardless of His claims, as if no eternity awaited them, and death and judgment were but words. Who could have foreseen when this young man left home that he would never return to it again? And do you hold your life in your own hand any more than he did? Surely not. Of every one of us it can be said, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” What can be more awful than the position of a man in this world without Christ—his life hanging, as it were, by a thread; his future hopeless? Yet there are many such, who do not fear to rest on their beds at night, to enjoy the pleasures of the day, forgetful of God and their own souls’ salvation. God speaks to you. He speaks by His written Word, by the lips of His servants, who from time to time proclaim His gospel; and He speaks also by His dealings with those around us. Do not turn a deaf ear to His voice, but seek now shelter in Christ. Turn to Him for safety, and you will find that you have come to One who gives you a thousand times more than you expected. You will gain what you need most now—deliverance from death and judgment; for there is “no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” But more than that, you will find yourself the possessor in Christ of riches which no tongue can tell, and eternity itself can never exhaust. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”

L. A. M. B

"I'm a Good 'un at Bottom."

I WAS preaching the gospel in a small village in Worcestershire about three months ago, and was much encouraged by seeing the Lord work in many souls. But one day, as I was visiting, I called on a poor old woman, I should think about sixty years of age, and asked her if she had yet found out that she was a lost and guilty sinner, when she replied, “Well, sir, I’m a good ‘un at bottom.” “Then,” said I, “the gospel is not for you. You do not see that you are one of those kind of people that Jesus came to save. The gospel of the grace of God is for lost and guilty sinners (which all are by nature). Those that are very bad ones at the bottom, and know it, know it from what God has said about the bottom. He says, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.’ You do not believe this, but think there is some good in you. This is a mistake, and it is because the heart is deceitful that you make such a mistake. The only way to find out the truth about yourself is to believe the word of God, which, as we have seen, says you are a thorough lost one at bottom, and you must know this before you will know what it is to be saved; and, whether you believe it or not, it is true of you. Have you never read Romans 3, where it says, ‘There is none that doeth good, no, not one;’ and that all the world is ‘guilty before God’? (10:12, 19.) This is true of you, though you do not believe it.

“Now think for a moment of your position—how very serious. I suppose you are sixty years old, and not yet saved—lost and do not know it; nothing but death and judgment before you, and (can it be?) not troubled about it. The god of this world has indeed blinded your mind to your condition before God. May the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine into your heart, that you may see how bad it is, and take your true place as lost and guilty, where the gospel will meet you, telling you how your sins can be forgiven and you justified through the death and resurrection of Christ, the alone means of salvation for the lost.”

And now, dear reader, allow me to ask, Do you believe there is no good in you? Have you yet found out your lost condition by nature? Have you received the word of God against yourself? Or are you like the poor woman we have been speaking of; i.e. resting upon some good in yourself? If so, I am sure you have never been consciously in the presence of God; for it is impossible to be thus before Him without learning how unfit you are for His presence, and you will never learn it anywhere else. To compare yourself with others, or to judge your elf by your own standard, is not the way to get God’s thoughts about you. Looking at yourself as before men only, leads you to form thoughts of your own (and as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God’s thoughts above your thoughts); for thus looking at yourself you think you are not so bad as many around you, for you have a respect for religion, and endeavor to promote and practice it by doing all the good you can in every way, especially in some religious cause. This and much more may be your plea as a ground of hope, but it shows that the word of God has never reached your conscience. Come to the light at once, that your deeds may be reproved; that you may learn the truth about yourself now, while Christ is preached to you as a Saviour. Otherwise you will surely find it out when it is too late, when He will take His place as your Judge, and all that you are, and all you have done, will be manifested by the searching light of His own presence. And, whatever you have to say for yourself now, then you will be speechless; for you will then see your lost and guilty condition, which now you will not believe. But it will be too late for salvation. “Depart from Me” will be the only words you will hear then. But “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Now He is saying, “Come unto me, and be ye saved.”

Oh, dear reader, come at once; for “how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3.)

J. H. B.

A Warning Word.

IN the small town of N—there lived a young man with his wife and children, He was living just as many are doing, getting up in the morning and going to work, and coming home at night. No thought of dying yet; at some far distant time it might be; but not yet, He was young, and had good health. But how uncertain at all times is life! He went to church one Sunday with his wife, and said Afterward, “Next Sunday we will sit together” (referring to their having been separated on going into church). But he little thought that before twenty-four hours he would be a corpse; yet so it was. On rising early on the Monday to go to his work, having said good-bye to his wife, he went downstairs, when, just as he was leaving the house, he fell suddenly, for death had seized him, who a moment before was in all the strength of manhood. Suddenly he was cut off. No death-bed there on which to turn to God; no time then to think of the salvation of his soul—of where he would spend his eternity. If he had not believed in Jesus before, he must be eternally lost; but there we must leave it. Whether he had believed in Jesus or not, I cannot say. How many, alas I put off the solemn question until it is too late, heeding not God’s own word— “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2.) And again, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” (Heb. 3:7,15.)

This young man was liked much by his fellow-workmen. He was always ready to do a turn for any of them. But what will such things avail when the sinner stands before the throne of God? The question is, What has one done to God? Rejected His offer of salvation. And now what about the reader’s soul? Are you saved? Are you ready, should the Lord come for His people this night? If you were to die suddenly, where would: you spend eternity? If you should live seventy, eighty, or ninety years, what is that short space of time compared with eternity? Think of it. An eternity with the Lord Jesus, or an eternity with the devil and his angels, must be your portion. Oh, friend, you will never find peace and happiness apart from Christ! Can you think of any one thing in the world that has given, or could give, you real lasting happiness? You are longing for something to satisfy your heart, it may be. But know thou this, man is immortal, nothing can satisfy him fully save Christ Himself. See what Ecclesiastes 2:10 says: “Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy.” And was he satisfied when he had every desire gratified? No.

He said, “All was vanity and vexation of spirit.” (verse 11.) Who among men in the present day can have every desire granted? And yet if they had, they would still remain unsatisfied; for we see it has been tried in the Scripture quoted above, and there was no peace, or rest, or satisfaction. Oh, it is only through what Christ has done that any can get peace of soul! “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. verse 8.) Then again it is written, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24.) Surely, reader, we may have rest and peace with such certainties before us. Therefore I entreat thee, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31.)

B. E. L.

"Yes; but They Do Stagger at it."

HE was an old man who uttered the above words, who had called at my door with a basket of oranges and nuts for sale. I had handed him a gospel paper, saying, “Here is something that will help your soul, which is of more importance than your body.”

“Yes; but they do stagger at it,” said he.

“But, my friend, are you all right toward God? Are you made fit to dwell in heaven, washed from your sins in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Else why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Luke 6:41.)

“I know I’m an old offender; but they don’t know it, and they do stagger at it.”

“Then surely your responsibility to obey the gospel is much greater than those of whom you speak. If they don’t know their lost condition, of course they do not see their need of a Saviour.”

“Ah! but I believe that there is a heaven and there is a hell; that there is a God and there is a devil. Now others laugh if I say there is. Dear me, how they do stagger at it!”

“Then, may I ask, what has your knowledge of yourself; God, heaven, hell, and the devil, done for you?”

He shook his head mournfully as he replied, “It ain’t done naught for ere; but I do know that I am an old offender.”

“My poor friend, yours is a sad case. Your knowledge will be to your greater condemnation, if there be not faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your alone way of escape from never-ending woe. Knowing about things won’t save you. You may be very hungry, and know that I have plenty of food upon my table, but the knowing of the food being there could never satisfy your hunger; you must eat to be satisfied. So if you know that you are an old offender, knowing that you are such can never put your offenses away. You must believe on the One of whom believers can say, ‘Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.’ (Romans 4:25.) Come to Jesus now, and your offenses shall be blotted out of God’s remembrance forever, or when ‘the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again’ (Isaiah 24:20), you, if not in your grave awaiting the resurrection of the wicked dead, to be followed by the great white throne, and then the lake of fire, shall indeed stagger then more than they who have never understood the gospel.”

As the aged man turned away, again came the words from his lips, “Aye, but they do stagger at it.”

Alas! how many there are like to this man. We are continually being told of other people’s sins and unbelief, by those who do not know the forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well might the Lord Jesus say to the people of His day, “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42.)

I ask myself, and I ask you, my reader, Is your soul saved? Are you made meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light? (Colossians 1:12.) I can answer for myself, and say, Through God’s wondrous grace I am saved, I am sure of heaven; whether I live or die, I am the Lord’s. You can answer to God. “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Never mind about your neighbor’s belief, if unbelieving yourself. Look to yourself, and if you find out that you are poor, miserable, helpless, lost, then you will be glad to turn away from your wretchedness, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. When you know Jesus as your Saviour you will be able to help your neighbor. “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him,” (Psalms 34:8.)

E. E. S.

The Man of Gadara.

Luke 8.

IN the man of Gadara we see very plainly a type of every unsaved person who is (spiritually and morally as this man was bodily) under the power of the devil, who is the god of this world, and leads such captive at his will.

You may say, “I have a free and independent will of my own;” but I say, “No, my reader; if you are unsaved, you are a bond-slave to the devil.” What a distressing thought, that “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” He rules and reigns over the lusts and passions of men, leading them on blindfold to their own destruction. See what the enemy puts before man in the shape of pleasures and sins and follies just to keep him occupied with these present things, so that that which is eternal might be kept out of sight. To one he gives the attraction of a flower show; another a concert, a ball, a party, a fete; in fact, anything man may have rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly the god of this world is “blinding the minds of them that believe not,” so that, like hungry fish, they jump at the bait, and run after these things—these baits of the devil, heedless and regardless of the hook that lies concealed therein.

But what I want to show from this man is, that only one thing would do for him, and that was complete deliverance. His friends had evidently tried to improve and better his condition; but we find that all their efforts were unavailing, as he would burst all chains and fetters, and night and day wander about among the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. All efforts then to help him completely failed. So with every unsaved sinner. What you need, my friend, is not help, not improvement, but salvation and deliverance.

It is a base, foul imputation, to say that if man will do his part, God will do the rest. I say, “No; God never helps the sinner in that respect, but saves him.” “Christ Jesus came into the world” (not to help, but) “to save sinners.” What? I ask, do you mean to say that God sent His Son into the world to suffer and to die just to help people to be saved, to just help them into heaven! I say most emphatically, “No.” God never helps the sinner, but saves and delivers him out of his lost condition, out of his dreadful bondage, and brings him into “the glorious liberty of the sons of God;” takes him up from the very brink of the pit, and gives him a portion with His own Son in the heavens. Instead of rags and filth, He gives a clothing of His own divine righteousness, which is “upon all them that believe.” What a complete deliverance we have in this poor Gadarene; for at the close of the narrative we find him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. What a beautiful sight, the delivered one sitting at the feet of the Deliverer, drinking in His gracious words, and being fitted to go back to his own house, and among his own people, and proclaim to them “how great things the Lord had done for him.”

Oh, my dear reader, are you in bondage to Satan? If unsaved you are, whether you believe it or not. I therefore warn you of the consequences. I beseech you take heed, as the aim of the devil is to drag you down to the pit, so that you may another day share his portion and place with himself in the lake of fire, which burneth forever and ever.

Oh, turn you now while you may, while Jesus is waiting to deliver you, while He is waiting to save. Oh, turn ye, oh, turn ye; for why will you die?

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

W. H. D.

Is God a Liar?

He will dare openly to say that God is a liar? But the devil is crafty, and be guiles men into the sin of making Him a liar without their fully knowing it. He who deceives the whole world seeks to delude men as to their sinful state before God, bidding them have no fear; but when the conscience has been aroused to a sense of guilt, he seeks to deceive as to God’s salvation, and teaches that it is but modest and becoming to doubt. Alas many listen to him, and reason in their own wicked hearts instead of simply turning to God’s word for the truth. The devil “is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44.) The Son of God exposed his character eighteen hundred years ago, and the word of God makes all his lies and deceits plainly manifest. Turning to the Holy Scriptures we find two points clearly stated in which man may make God a liar.

1. “If we say that we have not sinned we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:10.)

There are some men in the world who are very outspoken, and say without reserve that they are not sinners. They plainly make God a liar; for the testimony of His word is, that “all have sinned.” He draws a large circle by that little word of three letters— “ALL”—which embraces every man and woman upon the face of the earth; He knows of no exception. Reject that testimony and you plainly make Him a liar.

But there are other men who do not speak so plainly. At least once a week they join with the fashionable crowd in the general confession, and pray for mercy as “miserable sinners.” But if one should take an early opportunity of speaking with them about the sins which constitute them miserable sinners, it is rejected as a downright insult, and the speaker denounced as an ignorant, impudent man. They are “miserable sinners” by profession only. What sad delusion! Men have taken the solemn testimony which God has written against them, and have woven it into a litany, which they solemnly chant with the pomp of religious ceremonial, all the while neglecting salvation, nearing damnation. Let it be clearly understood that we do not thus speak of all who use the words quoted; many doubtless are sincere; but we speak of many with whom it is but a mere form and ceremony.

Let us suppose a case. You walk near a railway line along which you expect an express train may pass at any moment. To your great surprise you see a man leisurely sauntering along between the rails. His danger is terrible; for the line curves, and the train might be upon him in a moment, having approached unseen. You shout a warning word. Still he passes on. You raise your voice higher, beseeching him to leave his place of fearful peril for one of safety. All in vain; he continues his mad journey as before, only your warning words he has taken up, and mumbles them over and over again in his walk. Would you not say, “The man is either insane, or intoxicated, or he believes me to be a thorough liar”? What thousands are in peril of eternal judgment, which may be sealed to them at any moment; yet they continue on their way heedlessly, with the very words of God’s warning chanted by their lips! What complete insanity! What moral intoxication! How really is God treated as a liar! Reader, art thou a sinner? Thou art in danger of damnation; thou needest salvation; escape for thy life!

2. “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” (1 John 5:10, 11.)

Here is God’s salvation for thee, dear anxious reader. Eternal life is just what thou dolt need. If thou art a believer on the Son of God thou hast eternal life in Him.

“You cannot possibly know that you have eternal life until you come to die,” said a preacher to a friend of mine. Here is Satan’s second delusion. When his lie about our condition by nature is found out, then he would cast us into gloomy despair. “You may be saved in the end, but you cannot possibly know it now. Fight, struggle, pray, and hope for salvation,” This is the best gospel some people possess, by whom “full assurance of faith” is looked upon as “awful presumption.” But one point they leave out of their reckoning—God has spoken. Who has told us that we are sinners? God. Who says, “God hath given to us eternal life”? God Himself says it; it is His record. My doubting friend, your doubts would have been very modest and becoming had not God spoken about this matter; but since He has spoken, your doubts are the greatest piece of presumption possible. What did you say? “I believe on the Son of God, and hope I shall get eternal life.” Look at God’s record once more. Oh, that I could print it in great letters on your heart―

“HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE.”

Why do you modify it with your “hopes?” If God is a liar, say so plainly, and give up the whole thing. If He speaks perfect truth, take His word just as it stands, and rejoice in the blessed fact that He has given to you eternal life. Confess it boldly; you cannot speak too plainly the truth. See how careful God has been to make all simple. First, the record— “God hath given to us eternal life.” But who have it? may be asked. God replies, “He that hath the Son hath life.” Again the heart may question, How may I know that I have the Son? Hear God’s reply, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” Can you question further? Nay, surely not; for God Himself could not make it clearer than He has done.

Oh, doubting believer, see how all your doubts have been guilty of making God a liar! Condemn them at once, and, parting company with them Forever, be henceforth a simple rejoicing believer!

J. R.

Four Little Wise Things.

Notes of an Address.

Proverbs 30:24-31.

THE Bible was not written for the information of scientists, but there has been no discovery of science which can overthrow the truths it contains. The word of God stands alone; it does not require the aid of science to establish its authority or to add to it; for it is complete in itself. In this very chapter we read, “Every word of God is pure.... add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Take care and do not add science or any other thing to the Lord’s word, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. In the present day we find people adding to the Lord’s word on every side.

Jesus Himself says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” Yet we find people saying that nobody can know in this world that they have everlasting life; that they must wait until they die before they can know it, and so they make Jesus a liar; for He says that the believer has everlasting life now. Is there one who is making Jesus a liar? To such a one I would say, Take care, lest He reprove you, and you, be found to be a liar. It is you who are the liar, and not Jesus; every word of His is pure He cannot lie. Come unto Him now, and believe in His word as it stands, without any addition of man, and you will get everlasting life; you may now be the present possessor of everlasting life.

In the scripture at the head of this paper we read of four things which are little on the earth. Now I am not going to give you a lecture on natural history; if I were I could tell you all about the habits of the ants, conies, locusts, and spiders; but what I want to do is to bring before you what is taught here, and to show you how each of these things spoken of brings before us different conditions. If the first four conditions be true of any, the last four follow as a consequence.

“The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” They do not find their food in their nest, they have to go outside for it. But God causes the food to grow near them; it’s there, and all they have to do is to go outside for it. Are there any whose condition is that of the ants? Are there any who are without strength? Well, now, what does Scripture say about those who are without strength? Turn to Romans 5:6, where we read, “For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” If there be one without strength—ungodly—well, Christ died for you, poor sinner. The blessing is for you, but it is outside of yourself; you must look outside of yourself for salvation. God has sent His Son into the world to die for you, and now salvation is within your reach. You must give up trusting in your own works or feelings, and trust in Christ and in the work which He accomplished, and you will be saved just now, as you are and where you are. The work by which you can be saved was done outside of you by the spotless Son of God, when He suffered on Calvary’s cross.

“The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.” Now how do the conies make their houses in the rocks; for they are unable to make a hole even in the ground? God sends the thunderbolt and rends the rocks, so that the conies may find a place of safety in the clefts. You often listen to the thunder and watch the lightning, all the time wondering why it has been sent. Well, I will tell you; God sends it in order to provide a place of security for the poor, feeble conies. When the coney is hidden in the cleft of the rock she is quite safe from the lion (though she may tremble when she hears his roar), as the cleft, though large enough for the coney, is not large enough for the lion to get in. Before the lion could touch one of the feeble conies which are hidden in the rock he would have to tear the rock to pieces, and this he could not do.

Now, beloved hearers, the thunderbolt of the wrath of God against sin has fallen upon Christ when He suffered on Calvary, and the Rock of Ages has been cleft, as the hymn says—

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Grace hath hid me safe in Thee.”

You wonder why I have changed the second line, and have not said—

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.”

Well, I will tell you why I did so. I am hidden in the cleft of the Rock of Ages, and I do not ask that I may be. Just think how strange it would be if I were to go into one of your houses for tea, and when sitting at your table with the tea before me I should begin to knock on the table. You would say, “What do you want?” And suppose I said, “I want you to let me into your house, and give me some tea;” you would say, “But you are in already, and the tea is before you.” If I were to say, “Oh, but I must continue to knock!” you would think it very queer of me to go on that way instead of enjoying what was before me. And so it is with those who go on praying to God for what He has given them already instead of enjoying it, and thanking and praising Him for it. Before I was converted I came to the Lord and said―

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.”

But now I can say—

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Grace hath hid me safe in Thee,”

and thank and praise Him for it. The feeblest believer is safe in Christ, safe in the cleft of the Rock of Ages; and though Satan is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, you need not fear; for he cannot take you out of Christ. Before he could get a single believer out of Christ he would have to tear the Rock of Ages to pieces. Poor feeble one, do not fear, you are safe forever in the Rock of Ages; safe in the cleft which was made when the thunderbolt of the wrath of God fell upon the Rock of Ages on Calvary’s cross.

“The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” Here we get another thing. The locusts have no visible head, yet they keep in rank. This answers to the unity of the body of Christ. We have no head on earth, but we are all united to our Head in heaven, and to one another on earth by the Holy Ghost. There is one body on earth to which all Christians belong, with Christ the head in heaven. We who believe have all been baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit, and we are now to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. We should all keep rank as the locusts, and own no head on earth. The locusts form one band as they go forth, and they never break rank; they will allow themselves to be broken by the wheels of an approaching vehicle rather than break rank. It is sad to see Christians split up into so many sects, instead of owning the one body and expressing the unity of it here on earth. We should take a lesson from the locusts, who would rather let themselves be broken into pieces than separate.

“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” Now what insect is more repulsive than the spider? And yet it is to be found in the king’s palace. The spiders are to be found in the outhouses during the summer, but when the weather gets cold they find their way into the houses, and generally get to the highest places, where they may remain undisturbed. They are to be found on the corners of the drawing-room ceiling, high up, and safe from the housemaid’s broom. No doubt Solomon caught sight of one on the grand ceiling of the drawing-room of his palace, which led him to write about it. Now what position, true of all believers, does this answer to? Well we shall find it in Ephesians 2:4-6. We were by nature loathsome as the spider, and at a distance from God—in the outhouse and in our sins— “but God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ” (by grace ye are saved), “and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.” We have our place now in the King’s palace.

In the ants we have an illustration of the salvation, of all poor sinners who have no strength, but who have come outside of themselves to Christ and taken salvation as a gift from Him. In the conies is seen the security of all believers; in the locusts our unity, and in the spider our place now as seated in the heavenlies. Now when we know that we have salvation and security in Christ we should seek to keep rank, seek to own the truth of the one body into which we have been baptized by the Holy Ghost, and then live in the enjoyment of our place in Christ. If we do so the four last conditions will be true of us.

We shall be bold as lions, swift as greyhounds, hardy as goats, and as dignified as kings. “There are three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: a lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any.” This is boldness. We should be bold as the lion in the service of the Lord, not to be turned aside by anyone from following Him. “A greyhound.” In the greyhound we get swiftness. Well, we are to be swift to serve the Lord, swift to carry out His wishes. “An he-goat.” The he-goat gives us hardiness. We are to endure hardness in the Lord’s service. “Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” “A king, against whom there is no rising up.” This gives us dignity. We are to go through the world in a manner in keeping with the place we are in. Just fancy the king of Italy coming to England and spending his time playing marbles with the boys on the streets. Would it be in keeping with his position as a king? Surely not; and so with us. We should not do anything unbecoming to our dignity as beloved children of God, and as those who are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We need not go to theaters, flower shows, concerts, or boat races for enjoyment; it would be beneath our dignity; all our enjoyment is in Christ, and in living for Him. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

H. M. H.

Five Classes of Men: To Which Do You Belong?

GOD in His word distinguishes with solemn clearness between the different classes of men that go to make up the great fallen human family. In one sense there is “no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23.) In another you find them ranged under different heads. With the Lord’s help we will look at the five classes before us. Let God’s word speak for itself.

THE ATHEIST. — “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalms 14:1.)

No God is the terrible creed of this class. For such, all is gone, and all hangs upon the fortuitous thread of chance. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, heaven, hell, man’s moral being, man’s responsibility, God’s eternity—all is lost by this pernicious and soul-destroying theory. Many continue thus until, smitten down by death, they find themselves overwhelmed by the righteous judgment of God, and prove what He has said, that “the fool hath, said in his heart, There is no God.” Reader, are you of this class, and therefore a fool?

THE INFIDEL. ― “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:4.)

This is a very numerous class, and increases daily, as God foretells. They plume themselves on believing that God exists, but He is the Unknown and Unknowable, and hence their contempt of divine revelation. Since God is the Unknown and Unknowable, it is folly to believe in the Bible as a revelation from God. It is flung aside in contempt, or else held as a very good book of morals; though, on the face of it, if it be not a revelation from God, it is a book of the merest assumption.

Having thrown aside revelation, and having no historic account of the creation, or of the flood, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, they feel safe in denying those judgments, and say, “All things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” But willful ignorance is an awful thing, and none are more willfully ignorant than those who deny revelation. The flood, the destruction of Sodom, the cross of Christ, His sin-cleansing blood, all the consolations of the gospel, His coming again, and, above all, the judgment to come all are rejected by this class, styled in sacred Scripture “scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” Having got rid of revelation, and consequently of God, they can, as the Scriptures affirm, only walk after their own lusts and the blindness of their own hearts. “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:21.)

Beloved reader, do you belong to this class? the creed of which is as cold and relentless as death; and while it professes to be your friend robs you of everything that is morally right, and gives you nothing in return, setting you adrift in awful darkness, without a rudder or compass, upon the gloomy sea of human speculation. Eternity, what is it? The infidel’s creed—no revelation from God—cannot solve the difficulty. Oh, what shall be the end of all such? Let God speak— “Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9.)

THE MORALIST. — “I want no Saviour; I can stand upon my own bottom; I am not afraid to meet God,” is the creed of this class. Well, they shall meet Him; and He who is almighty to save the vilest now will be almighty to judge the most pretentious then. Oh, moralist, “except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3.)

THE RELIGIONIST. — Many are religious, but with them their religion begins, continues, and ends with themselves. Their one object is to fit themselves for God. It is one of the greatest mistakes man ever made. Christ did not come and suffer on the cross to help us save ourselves. No; but He, blessed be His name, “came to SEEK and to SAVE the lost.”

Nicodemus was a religious man, and came to Christ by night. Perhaps he expected Christ to teach him how to save himself. If so he was wrong. Christ met him with these words: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3.) “How can a man be born when he is old? how can these things be? are the questions that this learned religious doctor of the law asks.

What does the blessed Lord answer? He points to the cross, His atoning death, and says, That is the way of life; that is the road into the kingdom of God. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14, 15.) This is being born again; it is life through the death of Christ. The believer has eternal life. “He that hath the Son hath life.” (1 John 5:11-13.) Religionist, religion will never save you, but faith in Christ will obtain you eternal life and endless glory.

THE CONVICTED, REPENTANT SINNER. — There are three things about this class of the deepest interest. In the first place they take the only right place bore God; they, convicted of their sin, own in deep self-abhorrence what they have done and what they are. “I have sinned, I am vile, I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes.” These are the accents of a repentant soul; God is owned as supreme, and the creature, under a sense of creature vileness, bows before Him and confesses the whole truth.

In the second place they look to God for mercy. “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Self is owned as vile, and all self-works for salvation are discarded, and God—God who is rich in mercy and great in love—is looked to as the source of salvation. “Salvation is of the Lord.”

In the third place the repentant, believing soul goes down to his house justified. “I tell you this man” (the publican) “went down to his house justified.” (Luke 18) Justified! What a word! “Being JUSTIFIED freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (nom. 3:24.) “Being JUSTIFIED by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1.) “And by Him all that believe ARE JUSTIFIED from all things.” (Acts 13:39.)

The repentant sinner is the only case out of the five that God can bless, inasmuch as he is the only one that takes the proper place where God can bless. God’s claims are owned, and the sinner’s true condition, and God is left free to exercise His rich mercy and great love, on the ground of the death of His Son, in the repentant one’s salvation. God says, “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.” (Job 33:24.)

Beloved reader, are you of this class? If so, salvation is thine with eternal glory.

E. A.

"Be Sure You Meet Me in Heaven; I'm Trusting in the Blood of Christ."

SUCH were the words of a young man fast dying of consumption in the town of D—. I was asked to visit him some time before, and found him very ill and troubled about the condition of his soul. He had not peace with God, and, like thousands today, vainly thought he could make peace with a holy God by good works, &c. He owned he was a sinner, and not fit for the presence of God. His statement to me was, he had been a teacher in the Sunday-school.

Think of it, dear unsaved reader! A teacher! A teacher of what? Law-keeping, good works, doing your best. Oh, the delusion of such! Such was this young man, who through God’s mercy found out, before it was too late, that the bridge of good works was too short to take him into the glory of God. Like Saul of Tarsus, he thought he was right, and woke up to find he was all wrong. The so-called minister had forsaken him, only visited him once in ten months. I looked to God to guide me in speaking to him. I endeavored to knock away the sandy foundation he had been building on, telling him to cease from his puny efforts of self-righteousness, and that God sent His dear Son into this world to save, not to help save, but to save, not when there was any goodness in us, but when we were ungodly and without strength. He seemed surprised, but God in His mercy led him to see the truth of this—that he could do nothing for salvation. He was ungodly and without strength; he bowed to God’s word; he owned before God his condition, and received peace and joy in believing, like the poor woman in the gospel of Luke (8:43), with an issue of blood. She had tried every remedy that religious man could suggest, and it was of no avail; she spent all. Blessed moment for her, and for him; for they found themselves, not better, but rather worse. Precious moment for him! he believed in Jesus as his Saviour, and was at rest.

He gradually grew worse. Shortly after, one Lord’s-day evening, when a few were gathered to hear the gospel of the grace of God proclaimed, a knock was heard at the meeting-room door. I went to see who it was, when the sister of the young man said, “Will you please come and see my brother? He has broken a blood-vessel, and wishes to see you.” I immediately went, and as I entered the room, and saw his dear pale, wan face, with the life-blood ebbing away, he said to his sister, “Be sure you meet me in heaven; I’m trusting in the blood of Christ.”

It was a precious testimony from one who a few weeks before knew nothing of the saving power of that precious blood which cleanseth from all sin, but, like thousands today, who repeat the commandments, and ask God to incline their wicked hearts to keep His holy law, a law which is the ministration of death (2 Corinthians 3:7); hence peace with God is a thing unknown to them.

May God deliver such, and may He use this simple narrative for blessing. A few days after the dear young man fell asleep in Jesus, to wait for that moment when

“The Lord Himself shall come,

And shout the quickening word;

Thousands shall answer from the tomb,

Forever with the Lord.”

I went to see the parents, and as I entered the room where lay the precious dust a few of his former acquaintances were gathered around the bed weeping. I said, “If you are unsaved, do not weep for him, but weep for yourselves.” I asked them to kneel down in the presence of that precious dust, and prayed God to use the moment in blessing to those left behind. God only knows if it will be so. And now, poor sinner, should your eye scan the above, if without Christ, what a poor, miserable, wretched thing you must be! Do wake up, I beseech you to your awful condition. It is no time to trifle; the Lord will soon be here, and if you die in your sins, where Jesus is you can never be. Oh, sinner, what an awful doom awaits thee, to go down to the lake of fire, a soul damned for all eternity! And you might have been saved. Oh, how one would linger at such a moment! Come, poor sinner, there yet is room for thee. Jesus says, “Come, for all things are ready.” Do not make polite excuses; do not say you have no time to think of these things. You will have plenty of time to think in hell, and no escape, no water to cool your parched tongue. Oh, poor soul, fly from the wrath which will shortly be poured out on this favored land! May God awaken you from your stupor, and give you to see what a sinner you are, and what a Saviour Jesus is.

W. H.

The Coming Famine.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.”— Amos 8:11, 12.

YES, famines there have been, and many. Over and over again we find this to have been the case in the word of God; but never do we find one that has taken place like this that we get in this scripture. And, my reader, have you ever thought what a solemn time this will be for this poor world—this world which boasts so much today of its wisdom, its enlightenment, its progress? But whence is it gathering these high pretensions? is it from the word of the Lord? Ah, no! men are utterly rejecting the word of the Lord all around us. But here we find the days are coming—how soon we cannot tell—when man will give anything to hear what he so disdainfully refuses now. Then he will wander from sea to sea, yea, far and near, seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. How strange then to think that man will not have the word of the Lord now, that which makes known to us so clearly and distinctly our true state and condition as in the sight of God, declaring us to be ruined, undone, bankrupt sinners by nature, not having a single desire towards Himself, enemies in our minds by wicked works; yea, our very Adam-life forfeited on account of sin. But I get something more. If I hear the word of the Lord Jesus now, and believe God the Father sent Him to be my Saviour, I have everlasting life. (John 5:24.) And that is what you want, dear reader, if unsaved. You want life, a life beyond the power of death, and this is offered to you freely by simply accepting Jesus as your Saviour. Yes, the very one who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Timothy 1:10.) Oh, think of it, God’s only well-beloved Son which is in the bosom of the Father! (John 1:14), the One of whom it is blessedly said, “He that is over all, God blessed forever” (Romans 9:5); became a man that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man (Hebrews 2:9); that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death—that is, the devil—and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14,15), and now by the gospel life eternal is offered as a free gift by God Himself to all (Rom. 6:23), and deliverance too from that which is the common lot of man—death and judgment. (Hebrews 9:27.)

Will you then, my reader, bow to that word which speaks so plainly to you of this God-sent salvation, and own you desire it for your sins? You have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and well you know it, both in thought, word, and deed. Yes, and God knows it too; for “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.” (Hebrews 4:13.) Oh, then, as in the presence of an all-seeing God, take your true place now as a sinner deserving death, judgment, and the lake of fire’ If you do this with an honest heart, having the Word, and keep it, I tell you, on the authority of that self-same Word, and on the ground of Christ’s finished work, your sins are all forgiven you, and you are the happy possessor of eternal life, and can say truthfully, with every child of God―

“Death and judgment are behind me,

Grace and glory on before;

All the billows rolled o’er Jesus,

There exhausted all their power.”

Do you say this is too good to be true, and that you doubt it? Then just turn with me to Acts 13:38— “Be it known unto you... that through this man” (Christ Jesus) “is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things,” &c. And again, in 1 John 2:12, the apostle says, “I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” And as to eternal life, see same epistle, chapter 5:13— “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” How simple it all is! Let me ask you again, Will you just take God at His word, and receive His testimony concerning you, and embrace in faith these wondrous blessings that He offers to you in the gospel concerning His Son? Or will you still be deluded by Satan, and receive not the love of the truth that you might be saved? (2 Thessalonians 2:10.)

Dear soul, let me warn you that in the famine days that are so close at hand God will then delude all those who allow Satan now to delude them, “that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12.) Oh, then, will you be saved or damned?

W. N.

"I Don't Want It."

“I DON’T want it, I don’t want to hear about it, I only want to get well.” Such were the words of a sick man one day, and how terrible was his look of hatred as he spoke them. How sad to see him, with his haggard face and wasted form, telling of much suffering. Could one wonder that he wanted to get well, with a wife and children to work for? But, oh! standing on the brink of eternity, would you dare to say to God, when He stoops to offer salvation, “I don’t want it”? How awful to awake in hell and want too late what you have refused on earth.

What an answer. One had been sitting at his bedside, telling him of the wonderful love of God in sending His own dear Son to die for us—for us who were “dead in trespasses and sins,” utterly helpless to save ourselves. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6.) God is a holy God, “who cannot look on iniquity.” He could not pass over sin, and so in His marvelous love He sent His only Son to bear the punishment due to us. And He, that spotless Lamb of God did that work so perfectly that now God can say, “I have found a ransom.” (Job 33:24.) “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10.) God does not tell us His love in empty words, He gives us the greatest possible proof of it in giving His Son. “God commendeth, His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8.) Dear reader, will you scorn and refuse such love? Will you throw aside this paper and say, like the one I have told you of, “I don’t want it, and I don’t want to hear about it”? You may not say it in words, but does your life say it? Are you living without God in this world, a rejecter of Christ? Are you refusing to hear the voice of Him who still cries to you from heaven, “Look unto me, and be ye saved”?

Now let me tell you of one who received Christ. Come with me to another bedside where a sick girl lies. Listen while I ask her if her sins are forgiven, and what is her answer? Tears roll down her cheeks as she says, “That’s the one thing I want to know, that my sins are forgiven.”

Dear reader, if you want to know it too, you may at this moment; for “be it known, unto you, that through this man (Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:38, 39.) Nothing but the precious blood of Christ can cleanse you from sin and make you fit for the presence of a holy God; your own doings, your prayers, your efforts, are utterly vain, for they can never wash away your sins. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22) but “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7.) Will you trust it now? for “by Him all that believe are justified from all things.”

This is a solemn moment for you as you read this paper. Once more God seeds you an offer of free salvation, will you receive it? or can you say of such love, “I don’t want it”?

“Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48.)

“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.) N. B.

The Saviour's Prayer, the Soldier's Spear, and the Rent Veil.

FRIEND, what think you of that Saviour’s love? A love that could be so at leisure in the hour of death as to think of you in the way His own words express: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.) It was when His friends had failed Him, and His enemies had spent their rage on Him, then, even then, He prayed for thee, for me— “Father, forgive them.” Man had spit in His Maker’s face, had crowned with thorns David’s Lord and God’s anointed One, had nailed Him to the tree; yet none of these things could drive Him to despair of our salvation, nor induce Him to obey their taunting cry, “Save thyself, and come down from the cross.” No; He had come down to the cross, and that in order that He might save us. And while His murderers sat with complacency gazing upon Him in their guilt as lie hung upon the cross, His prayer ascended to God His Father on their behalf: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Surely we may well say―

“When we think of love like this,

Joy and shame our hearts possess—

Joy, that Thou couldst pity thus;

Shame, for such returns from us.”

What a construction His words put upon their doings, “They know not.” It is so natural for us to hide the faults of a friend, or to put the best construction upon the worst things done by those we love; but none save He could ever speak like this concerning His enemies. Oh, how intensely He desires our salvation! How Ile pities while He pleads, “Father, forgive them!” Thank God, His prayer is heard. A Saviour’s love prevails, and the sinner that believes in Him is saved by His blood.

Yes; a soldier “with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” (John 19:34.) The Saviour could only procure the pardon for which He prayed at the cost of His own life’s blood. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” He gave up His life in sacrifice to meet the holy claims of God, and―

“The very spear that pierced His side

Drew forth the blood to save.”

Surely we get the Saviour’s desire granted, His prayer answered, in that touching appeal to sinners, “ Be it known unto you therefore... that through this Man (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:38, 39.)

Then we read, “The veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom.” (Matt. 27:51.) This veil was intended to keep man out of God’s holy presence, as the flaming sword of the cherubim kept the way of the tree of life in the garden of Eden after Adam had been driven forth. (Genesis 3:24.) So long as the veil was up, it was a sign to the sinner that God’s justice was not satisfied. But now, thank God, the veil is down, and it is He Himself who has taken it down. Why? Because His claims have been answered by the work of Christ. The blood of atonement has been shed, peace is made, and God has taken down the veil to assure us that there is now not only a way out of judgment, but also a way in to His presence.

I remember once being on board a steamer drifting about outside the harbor at Aberdeen. On asking the cause of delay, I was told we were waiting for sufficient water to carry us across the bar, and take us in. Presently the signal on shore was given, the steamer started, the bar was crossed, and the harbor gained.

The gospel contains better news than the signal on the shore at Aberdeen; for the bar was taken away when the “veil was rent,” and the tide of divine grace runs so high and strong that you need only let it have its own way with you, by saying (like Rebecca of old), “I will go,” when you will soon find yourself, dear reader, in that place of rest and blessedness which Christ’s work (not yours) has earned the place which God desires we should have and enjoy by simply believing on Him. May you be able from your heart to say—

“Just as I am, Thy love, I own,

Has broken every barrier down;

Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,

O Lamb of God, I come.”

H. H.

"Shall Not Come Into Condemnation."

“THE vicar desires that heads of houses will make special prayer for God’s blessing on the coming mission.” Such was the substance of the message sent round a parish in the north of London in the summer of 1873.

It came into the hands of the writer of this paper, one thoroughly in the world, seeking satisfaction there, but through God’s grace beginning to find that it had nothing to give that could still the conscience or fill the heart. Ten years before God had in a wonderful way caused the writer to be associated in professional ties with one of His own children but though we can now see this as one of the links in the chain of grace that brought him to Himself, as yet no effect had been produced upon his soul save a sense of weariness, and of the uselessness of his present life.

But to return. There was a form of godliness in the house, but the power was absent. Prayers were read in the morning, and sometimes in the evening also, but it was only the cold formal lip-service of habit, and not the spontaneous pouring out of the child’s heart to the Father.

But—no doubt led of God—the writer on this occasion, for the very first time, spoke to God spontaneously in public, asking in a few simple words for His blessing upon the mission about to take place, little thinking the answer would come in blessing to his own soul.

The first-Sunday of the mission arrived, and the writer was there, and on each day that the preaching continued the iron of the Word applied by the Spirit of God seemed to enter his very soul, plowing up the ground, revealing the thoughts and intents of the heart, and making it clear that the word lost was the only one that fitly described his condition.

Satan also worked, and would say, “Don’t go tonight; you’ve been every night. What will people say? You are neglecting your profession.” Plenty of excuses also presented themselves, but the Spirit of God would press eternity, the danger of delay, and the consequences involved, so that the writer dared not absent himself. Hell was preached, and hell seemed to open her very mouth ready to receive the careless sinner who had so long trifled with his immortal soul.

By the end of the week’s mission this apparently contented man of the world had become that object so pleasing to the eyes of heaven—an awakened sinner: his whole course had opened up before his eyes, the light had shone in and revealed the blackness and wickedness of his Christless heart.

Sleep he could not. What if he should wake in hell! Sleep! there is no rest for the wicked. Sleep! it seemed a mockery to propose it. Cry! and yet he knew not what to cry. The Bible was a strange book to him; for though opened, as before said, at family prayers, and though just before it had been read through privately, from cover to cover, it had been as a duty, and with so little attention that not a single passage had impressed itself upon the mind, and not one single text could have been turned up from its sacred pages. Ah, yes! the plough must do its work; it precedes the sowing. The preparation for the seed is the production in the soul by the Spirit of God, through the Word, of the need of a Saviour.

And now a Saviour was presented; and yet not quite that, but a way of escape from the judgment that the writer had learned he so richly deserved.

After days and nights of anxiety, after calling upon God to save, and after learning that God alone and by Himself must do the work—i.e. that there is no other name and no other way but God’s way—after having come to the divine conclusion that “none can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him,” and having found out in the bitterness of his soul that he had none to give, and that if the work was to be done God must do it all, one day, the one he was associated with, left open in a place where he was sure to see it, a Bible, marked at John 5:24.

Eagerly the eye scanned the verse, to see if there was anything in it that would bring comfort to his weary heart, and with the sense of condemnation before him, how sweetly none but those who have passed through it can tell, were the words read out of God’s book, “shall not come into condemnation.” Ah, like water to the poor parched lips of the fevered patient, like the fresh breeze to the sun-burned traveler in the desert, like balm to the bruised soul, the word of God ministered comfort and healing to this wounded one. “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.”

Not that doubts did not arise; on the contrary, they were at times strong, and often in the night a light was got, and the Bible searched, to see if the verse remained the same; and “shall not come into condemnation” would again quiet the troubled heart. Much had also to be learned about the work of Christ, the ground on which the forgiveness rests, that He had borne the judgment.

A total change in life and ways followed; a new nature had been imparted which found no pleasure in fleshly ways. God’s word was precious, and His people the only ones consorted with.

Time went on, and when the first flush of newfound joy and happiness had somewhat abated, again trouble began. To the deep concern and surprise of the convert, he found that he still had desires and thoughts within his heart which he had never expected to find again —lusts, appetites, and passions, just the same as before his conversion; so that it began to dawn upon him that after all he was a hypocrite; that the exercise had been but a passing thing; that with this in his heart he could not be a Christian at all.

Satan pressed this thought upon him, not allowing him to dwell upon the fact that these very desires and appetites, of which he formerly thought nothing, were abhorrent to him, and that he loathed the very sin which he did, and which, try as he might, he was powerless to overcome. Wretched and miserable was now his condition. Constant battle, and as constant defeat, until inclined to give the whole thing up; but God heard the cry of the prisoner, and by His word set him free.

When almost in a state of despair, help, seeming further off than ever, a servant of God presented the truth of Romans 6 before the writer, in which it is clearly shown that not only had sins been borne on the cross by Christ, but that the nature that produces the sins, the evil heart from which they spring, and which was now so greatly troubling the convert, had been abolished before God; that, in fact, as to God’s account of him, the believer had died when Christ died, “died with Christ,” done away with forever before God, and now brought into a new place before God in association with Christ risen from the dead.

Faith laid hold of this blessed truth, and gladly availed itself of the word, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The writer had been trying to put himself to death, attempting to do that which he now found Christ had done for him, and which he had found impossible.

Praise and thanksgiving flowed out at this new discovery of the value of the death of Christ, and the liberty from the bondage of serving sin, and delight in the new power, which no longer sought to improve the old man, or find good in the natural heart, “which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; that old nature in which “dwelleth no good thing;” for, walking in the new nature, in the power of the Holy Ghost, the believer is enabled to keep in the place of death that which faith always reckons there before God, not expecting improvement in the nature which is wholly bad, but cultivating the new nature, which is of God.

Thus full joy flowed into the heart of the writer; a quieter thing perhaps than conversion, but a deeper, and one which brought the soul more directly into contact with God and His Christ, because there was liberty from self, to be occupied with Him. And this was the next exercise the soul passed through; the discovery that though washed from his sins in the blood of Christ, and delivered from sin (the nature) by the death of Christ, and now free from the dominion of sin by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the One, who had done the work by which all these blessings could be known and enjoyed, was Himself practically unknown.

Christ had not been preached at the writer’s conversion, but hell, though God had graciously used it in awakening. Then God’s word, that he should not come into condemnation, had given him rest; also a deeper acquaintance with the work of Christ had set him free from bondage; but oh, the sad and humbling discovery for the heart to make, that Christ Himself was unknown! Thank God that this blessed One loves to make Himself known to those He died to save, and that He can be known, and in feeble measure is known, is now the happy experience of the one who through God’s infinite mercy had thus passed from death unto life. A corner in heaven was the utmost he at one time hoped for, and that only as an escape from hell. “Accepted in the beloved,” loved with the same love Christ is loved, is now through grace his known portion. That God may bless this history to other souls is the reason of its relation; and to the Saviour God it is commended, in the name of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

E. C. L.

Christ is Coming.

“SIT thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Psalms 110:1.)

Thus spake the Father as the Son entered heaven, with the marks of the world’s vile hatred upon His blessed person.

Nigh 2,000 years have come and gone since then, and time, with lightning wing, is speeding us towards that awful moment when the Son will rise up in resistless might to fulfill the Father’s decree.

Christ is coming, reader—coming to take to His bosom His blood-purchased bride—coming to make His enemies His footstool. Art thou washed in His blood? If so, thou art His friend. If not, thou art Christ’s enemy; and if He came this moment, it would be to crush thee, as His enemy, beneath His feet.

Oh, the terrors to the Christless of that coming! The coming of the Man whom the world once crucified; whose love it has not ceased to scorn; and whose blood it has ever trampled on in proud indifference.

Men who never prayed before will then, in their souls’ deep terror, cry to the rocks and the mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?” Vain prayer! The Lamb’s arm of judgment shall then reach all who would not take salvation from His hand of love.

Then will forever cease the gay song, the careless laugh, and the mad whirl of gaiety, in which the poor victims of the devil are indulging, and an eternity of weeping and wailing take their place.

Then will forever be suspended the world’s pleasures and business, with the allurements of the one, and the wear, tear, hurry, and bustle of the other, which effectually shut out God, and leave men no time to think of their souls’ deep need.

Then will forever be arrested the world’s boasted progress, and man in his mad career of proud indifference to the claims of God brought face to face with Him whom God has constituted Judge of quick and dead.

Reader, if Christ came this moment, would you rise to meet Him? Are you ready? Are you saved?

Christ is coming, and one of two things will happen to you when He comes: you will either be caught up to be forever with Him, or else left behind for judgment. Think of it—left behind for judgment.

Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” How was it in the days of Noah?

A world of sinners, heedless of God’s warnings and unprepared for His judgment, was in a moment swept away to eternal destruction by the terrible waters of wrath.

So shall it be when Christ comes. Millions will be unprepared, because unwashed in His blood, and hence will be damned throughout eternity. Shall you be one of them?

There will be terrible crying and wailing in that day, reader. Men and women crying out for mercy, and wailing because no mercy can be found. Will your voice be heard?

The myriads who have heard the gospel of God’s grace and turned carelessly away, will realize then that the day of grace is past, and that their doom is forever fixed. Shall you be one of them?

Oh, mad lingerer on the brink of that abyss, at whose foot dash and roar the flaming waves of eternal judgment, I warn you that Christ’s coming is no mere fancy of a disordered mind! Already are to be heard the mutterings of the approaching tempest. How darest thou trifle with the solemn question of thy soul’s salvation I adjure thee, by Christ’s dread appearing, by the love thou halt for thy soul, by thy fear of hell’s eternal torment, to fly this moment for refuge to that Saviour who still cries, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Yes, the Judge is coming, and yet there comes to us His voice, borne along the centuries of the distant past, still pleading with the sinner, in tones of tenderest love, “He that believeth in me hath everlasting life.” But even as we listen the voice changes to a tone of sorrow, and we hear Him grieving, “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.”

Reader, are those words of grief prophetic of the doom of thy Christless soul? Or wilt thou this instant hasten through the shadows of impending judgment, that even now gather round thy path, to the feet of Him who died that thou mightest live, and who, in patient grace, still lingers to receive thee and forgive thee through the virtue of His blood.

W. H. S.

The Awful Condition of the Sinner.

A MAN, blind, walking along a precipice! his condition is awful. A slight stumble or a wrong step may at any moment launch him over, and he be dashed to pieces.

A man in a burning house asleep! his condition is awful when all access to him is cut off by the devouring element.

The condition of the foolish virgins was awful, and they felt it to be so when they came and found the door shut, and themselves outside forever.

Your case, oh, careless, unsaved soul, is illustrated in a little measure by the blind man mentioned at the beginning of this paper. You are going on blindly, your eyes closed to your awful condition, walking on the very edge of the lake of fire as unconcerned as the man in the burning house, with the flames around him; but he does not know, therefore he is at ease, but the danger is nothing less because he does not see, or feel, or know. His condition is all the more awful because he does not.

Oh, dear soul, unsaved, you need to be laid hold of as a blind one! You need to be awaked as a sleeping one! To this end this address to you is written, if it may please God by the power of the Holy Ghost to use it to the awakening of some poor blind sleeping one, just on the verge of hell, ready to drop into the lake of unquenchable fire. Oh, dear soul, we cannot tell the moment the Lord may come and the door be shut, and to you out of Christ it would be the blind man over the brink of the precipice; to you it would be the man in the burning house, enclosed in flames forever; and to you, oh professors without Christ, it would be the beginning to stand without and to say, “Lord, Lord, open to us.”

But the door that has stood open for centuries will be forever closed, and you will hear from within that awful word, “I know you not.”

Suffer the word of exhortation, dear unsaved one. Come to Jesus, oh, come at once! You are not over the brink yet, but very close to the edge of it. You are not enclosed in the flames yet, but how near you cannot tell.

The door has not been closed yet, but we cannot tell the moment when our Lord will come forth and take up His believing ones. The moment this takes place you are outside forever. Then it will be, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” Clothed in filthy garments then, this will be all you will have to cover you at the great white throne, when you stand before the Judge, to give an account of the deeds done in the body.

Hear the voice of Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” His loving heart, His finished work, His death and resurrection, all bid you welcome to Jesus 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.)

W. P.

From Darkness to Light.

TO turn a soul from darkness to light is the work of God, and a wondrous work indeed. True, He may employ instruments in this blessed work, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus, who at his conversion on the road to Damascus, was commissioned by the Lord Jesus to go to the people (Jews) and to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” &c. (Acts 26:17, 18.) Yet He is pleased at times to act apart from human instrumentality, as in the case of J. J. J., the subject of the following narrative.

From his youth he had sought the company of those who, like himself, were living in carelessness as to their eternal interests, and so he grew up finding his pleasure in “the unfruitful works of darkness;” and in company with those as profane and thoughtless as himself he went into lengths of sin and folly, often returning home after midnight from an evening’s drinking and merrymaking. To attend a so-called place of worship on Sunday was deemed a waste of time, and in truth he had no taste for any such thing. The Lord’s-day was, therefore, spent in sin and folly. Yet for all this conscience would at times speak in condemnation of these evil ways; but, alas! only to be quickly stifled. After his marriage until the time of his conversion, a period of five years, the things of God were as much neglected as before, though resolutions to turn over a new leaf were now and then made.

But God had His eye on him; and when the chains which held him captive seemed most firmly riveted, and Satan appeared to be the undisputed master of his captive, the Lord struck off the fetters, and graciously delivered him from the grasp of his captor, shining too into that dark soul with the heavenly light which makes all manifest.

One Sunday in August, 1875, J. J. J. was taking a stroll in the fields and looking for his usual companions; but being alone his thoughts turned to the course he was pursuing, and he felt as never before the emptiness of the world and its pleasures. He thereupon decided to go and hear the Word preached on the next Sunday. He did so, but with no apparent result; but on the following Tuesday, as he lay on his bed, in the quietness of the night the Lord’s voice was heard in his conscience, and there and then he saw that he was a guilty and undone sinner; and this so impressed him, that he felt if the Lord came the next moment, which he believed was quite possible, he would have to spend eternity with the lost in hell. His thought of the Lord’s coming, with its effect on his conscience, was striking, as he did not recollect ever to have heard anything about it. Under the influence of this solemn thought, he decided from that moment that he would be a Christian in spite of everything. No sooner did he resolve this than the words of the Lord Jesus, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37), came forcibly to his mind, and filled his heart with joy.

For several days after this he was ashamed to pray in the presence of his wife, and he used, therefore, to go into a back room for the purpose. But one Lord’s-day evening, feeling he could no longer go on in this way, he asked his wife, who was unsaved, if she would get down on her knees and pray with him, to which she consented. After pouring out his heart to the Lord he retired to rest filled with joy, though scarcely knowing why, and until midnight he kept repeating a verse of a hymn he had heard—

“Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed me white as snow;”

when the Lord gave him the blessed assurance that he was saved, and throwing his arms out of bed, he glorified God with a loud voice, and, turning to his wife, he exclaimed, “Glory to God, I am saved I am saved!” and then asked her to sing with him the verse of the hymn he had been repeating to himself; but she thought he had gone out of his mind. After thanking God for His wondrous grace to a poor guilty sinner he fell asleep, but awoke early next morning with a heart filled with joy and gratitude. A month after this he had the joy of seeing his wife brought to the Lord, in answer to his earnest prayers on her behalf.

This short account of God’s saving grace is not written, dear reader, in anywise to exalt the subject of it, but rather to magnify the grace of the blessed God who delights to make Himself known to needy sinners, and with the earnest hope that He may graciously deign to use it in blessing to some who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

Only three days ago it pleased the Lord to remove J. J. J. to His presence on high; and this afternoon several of the Lord’s people carried his body to its earthly resting-place, and committed it to the care of Him who has said, “This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:39.)

Dear reader, let me affectionately ask, Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour? If not, in what a solemn position you stand. Life is terribly uncertain; we are constantly being reminded of this; and be it long or short as men speak, in the language of Holy Scripture, “It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14.) But how solemn, how momentous the issues at stake I Continue in unbelief, and you must die in your sins. (See John 8:24.) But there is another event which may happen at any moment, and more terrible than death for the unsaved. I refer to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven to receive His own beloved people to Himself, and simultaneously to close mercy’s door on those who refused when He called, and remained in their unbelief. Scripture bears the clearest testimony to this solemn event. That it is near at hand thousands firmly believe. Yes, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” “Flee from the wrath to come.” “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1.)

Add not, I beseech you, to your many other sins that sin of deepest dye, yea, the damning sin of unbelief. “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20.)

May it be yours to use the language of the few lines at the close of this paper, which are so descriptive of the experience of the departed one, of whose conversion I have endeavored to give you a simple account.

“Christ delivered me when bound,

And when wounded healed my wound;

Sought me wandering, set me right,

Turned my darkness into light.”

T. T. E.

A Message From a Rock.

A HUGE rock looms above the road by Ilkley Moorside to Ben Rhydding, in Yorkshire. Another, just below, having at some unknown period broken away from the one above, rests on the slope, seeming ready to topple over, roll down the hill, and crush the passer-by on the road beneath. We stood on the upper rock, and read these words, cut out on the face of it, one after another:

“I am.” (Exodus 3:14.)

“Thou God seest me.” (Genesis 16:13.)

“Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23.)

“What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30.)

“That is as a dying saint, in the midst of his sorrowing children lately said. ‘Trust Him, trust Rim, trust Him; He’s waiting to save! He’ll save you, He’ll save you, just now. That’s my dying testimony.’—May, 1855.”

How full of import, that when Peter confessed Christ as the Son of the living God—the I AM — the Lord took the opportunity of bringing to light the eternal security of the believer, founded on Himself in resurrection after having passed through death and become the author of eternal salvation. He used a rock as an emblem of stability that nothing can move, when He likened the man who heard His sayings and did them to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. (Matthew 7.)

Christ for faith is the soul’s Rock, against whom the gates of death and the grave can never prevail; for He has passed through them into the glory of God, has robbed the grave of victory, and taken away the sting from death.

Christ is also the Word by whom God made the worlds, who in the beginning was with GOD and who was God. Though made in the likeness of men, He had no part in the fallen sinful nature of His mother, and it had no part in Him. The angel said to her, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35.) His origin was in the Holy Ghost, and, though a perfect man, His nature was heavenly and divine. His name was called Jesus; that is, Jehovah, the Saviour; “for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1.18-21.) Jesus was the “I am.” Wholly unlike you and me, reader, in whom sin dwells by nature, His only delight was to do the will of God. “In Him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5.)

A man’s words, deeds, and demeanor show the man. All He said or did, His whole life here, showed out God in man, the only-begotten and revealer of the Father, life-giver to fallen men, “full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14.)

The word of God, as revealed in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms, was written in His heart; His death for sinners was the fulfillment of them. (Luke 24:44.) Heaven opened upon Him, and God looked down, delighting to own Him His beloved Son.

Now, God looks down upon you, reader. (Psalms 14) Does He see your words and actions telling out that the word of God is hidden in your heart (Psalms 119:11), that you might not sin against Him? Are you living in God’s presence with a blood-purged conscience? Is He in all your thoughts and ways? Does His love and a single eye for the glory of Christ govern you? or are you living for yourself—your object gain, ambition, pleasure, indolence, vice, or the good opinion of your fellows?

Would you like God to write on this sheet of paper, and you to read, the motives which rule you? If not, there is something wrong, and “Be sure your sin will find you out” in that day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained. Let God’s word act quickly and powerfully on your conscience, and plough the very depths of your being. Oh, sinner, tremble, and linger no longer on the brink of eternal ruin! Death is at your door, and there is no discharge in that war, unless you are on the Rock. God’s judgment declares you an ungodly sinner in thought, word, and deed against Him. He does not measure you by your neighbor; His standard of righteousness is perfection, nothing less. Christ alone could go into heaven on that ground. All unbelieving professors, with their boasted dead works and self-righteousness, are shut out; but Christ has gone into heaven itself, there “to appear in the presence of God for us” who believe. (Hebrews 9:24). So we can draw near; for the veil that hid God from man is rent by the death of Christ. God puts His own righteousness on the believer, and sees his own sins off him; by-and-by He will make Him actually like Christ, and take him into glory too. (1 John 3:2.) The work and merit will be all Christ’s, and none of yours or mine, though all real believers bear fruit for God. Well indeed may all the lost sons of men own, not only that they have sinned, but come short of the glory of God. God’s holy law, like the plummet that shows a wall is crooked, finds out our crooked ways, but does not put them straight. It gives nothing but the knowledge of sin, and God’s judgment of death because of it; it brings no righteousness or peace. It demands holiness, curses everyone under it who breaks it (Galatians 3:10), and warns the law-breaker away as a sin-defiled thing from the presence of God.

All your strivings, your reformation, and good deeds will not clear away your bad ones, much less give you, peace, or God, satisfaction.

Well may you own it, and cry, “What must I do to be saved?” Like the jailor at Philippi, who came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, come thus into God’s presence, and let your heart pour forth its deep, earnest cry to Him for salvation.

The jailor was in earnest; God is in earnest. The only people who are not in earnest are the very ones who ought to be, and who surely will be before long—one day too late perhaps. True seekers are sure finders; and you, dear soul, who are anxious to be saved, are just in the jailor’s position. He thought he had something to do, but he was wrong; so are you, if you think you have. He had nothing to do, nor have you; for all the doing that God wanted done was finished by Christ on the cross, and all you have to do is to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31.)

How simple! If nothing we can do will save us, we must be saved by somebody else, or be lost forever. God’s word tells us who the Saviour is, and where He lives. He is Jesus, a living man, not merely a spirit, whom God has made both Lord and Christ; He lives at God’s right hand in heaven. Now look away from yourself up to Him, and you have salvation. God’s word is a letter to you from the glory; reverently open, and read for yourself: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Can you doubt what God says, “Believe”? He does not say, “Doubt,” nor “Fear,” nor “Hope,” nor “Think,” nor “Feel an inward experience,” but “Believe; rest your guilty conscience on the precious blood He shed for sinners, and your heart on Himself in the glory. God’s word gives you divine authority to believe and know you are saved. The word of your most trusted friend might not be true; but the Saviour said, “Thy word is truth,” and he that “heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.” He cannot deceive. Believing God’s word makes salvation certain; it is not a question open to discussion. Therein God proclaims the fact, “He that believeth hath everlasting life.” Believing the fact announced brings me into possession of the benefit. The fact that Christ died for sinners remains, whether I believe it or not but, believing it, I have the inward experience that flows from the fact that God is at rest about my sins (being satisfied with Christ’s work for me), that He sees me in Christ, and takes me into favor in the Beloved the very moment I touch the hem of His garment.

Christ has satisfied God, and given me a fortune in His love even now. God never takes His eye of the precious blood Christ shed for me, or ceases to account each believer a partaker of His worthiness and an heir of glory. God’s thoughts about Christ and His work are the only ground of peace in living or dying.

Here is a message to you from a parent’s deathbed. His heart is full of Christ, and overflows in yearning desire for the souls of his sorrowing children, bidding them “trust Him!” Perhaps, in a similarly solemn scene, some dear one has spoken a loving word of warning or invitation to you, reader. You may have said in your heart, “Not now, Saviour; when I have a convenient season I will send for thee,” and be going on as before in self-indulgence. God’s word says, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Tomorrow may be your day of damnation.

This saint of God is with Christ, which is far better; but being dead he still speaks to you from the Ilkley rock, “Trust Him! trust Him! trust Him! He’s waiting to save! He’ll save you! He’ll save you just now!” That’s his dying testimony.

See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh from heaven. That lower rock at Ilkley, which seems to threaten danger to those below, is but a faint picture of the judgment hanging over thy head, unbeliever. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:8.)

“Oh,” says the pleasure-seeking world, “all is peace, progress, and prosperity!” Yes, peace when there is no peace, progress to judgment, prosperity that will turn to a bitter wail when mere professors, Christ neglecters or rejecters, will call upon the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them “from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” (Revelation 6:16.)

“They shall not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3.)

Escape for thy life to Christ, trust Him. (Gen. 19:17.)

H. A.

The Lord Will Provide.

A Word About Debt.

IN a village in the West of England lived Mrs. B.― the subject of our little story, with her family and an unconverted husband. Being upon principle strongly opposed to going into debt, she invariably waited on the Saturday in each week for her husband’s return with his wages before getting in her supply of commodities, that she might pay for everything when she purchased it.

On the occasion to which our story has reference, the husband returned home much later than his usual hour. She exclaimed, on seeing him, “Oh, Jim, I’m glad you’re come at last, as it’s almost too late to buy my marketing’s!” “Well,” he replied, “you’ll have to get them in without the money tonight, for somehow or other my master hasn’t paid me.” She instantly answered, “Then we must do without, Jim, for I couldn’t go to the Lord’s table in the morning knowing that I was in debt!” “Nonsense,” he replied, “it’ll be all right on Monday; get them in as usual, and pay for them next week.” He failed, however, to disturb the settled resolution she had expressed. “What, then, are we going to live on,” said he, “till master does pay me?” Very quietly she replied, “There is a little tea left, and some bread, so we shall manage for breakfast.” “That’s all very fine,” he answered, “but I should just like to know what we’re to do for dinner, and where’s our tea to come from in the evening?” “Well,” said the faithful woman, “there’s plenty of vegetables in the garden for dinner, and I feel sure the Lord won’t let us want.”

He grumbled, and was not a little discontented but there the matter remained until the morning, when after breakfast the wife, forgetting the empty cupboard, sallied off to the meeting, leaving husband and children at home. The Lord refreshed her soul, and she returned full of joy and confidence in Him. As she approached the cottage, she became conscious of the smell of cooked meat, and anxiously said to herself, “Is it possible that Jim has gone and bought meat in my absence?” Getting nearer, she became convinced that meat was being roasted, and at length exclaimed, “Why it must be roast mutton; such an indulgence we never have unless it be at Christmas-time! Neither I nor my children will taste a bit of it.” Saying this with her hand on the latch, she walked in, and discovered her husband diligently basting a large shoulder of mutton, the children with eager faces watching the proceeding. “Oh, Jim!” she exclaimed, “how could you have done it?” “I knew you’d say that,” he cried; “well you’d scarcely turned your back before master sent word that a sheep had injured itself in the field, and if I’d go round at once and kill it I should have a shoulder for my trouble.” “There now, Jim,” she replied, well pleased with the explanation, “the Lord has provided us a dinner, and a better one, too, than we should have got.”

After the meal was over this child of God got her family around her, in order to read to them, as was her custom every Lord’s-day, the tract which had been used to her own conversion, feeling sure that sooner or later it would become a blessing to them also. Before she had finished the tract, which after so many readings she almost knew by heart, a knock came to the door, and a brother in the Lord entered, saying that his wife wanted to know if Mrs. B―, her husband, and two of the children would come to tea, an invitation which, under the circumstances, we need scarcely say, was heartily appreciated. On the visitor’s leaving to inform his wife of the acceptance of the invitation, the good woman turned to her husband, saying, “Well, Jim, I’ll send the two elder children to their grandmother; they’ll like to go, and she’ll be very glad to have them; see how the Lord has provided our tea!”

Being charged to be sure to come to the preaching, and to bring their grandmother if they could, the children started off, after receiving a final injunction to be in time. They were at the room accordingly, but without their grandmother, who had, however, sent a message that she wished her daughter to come round and see her after the conclusion of the meeting. The daughter then found that her mother, who kept a small shop, was desirous that she should take from her two loaves of bread, as she had “over-baked herself,” and would like two new loaves from her daughter’s batch in place of them. “But it’s hardly fair,” said the old dame, “that I should take your new for my stale, so I give you a few herrings which will do for your breakfast in the morning.” Thus loaded with benefits the daughter returned triumphantly to her cottage, and expatiated to her husband on the great goodness of the Lord, and the wonderful way in which He had provided for every one of their meals, though they had told their need to none.

The next morning the master remarked to his man, “Jim, I can’t think how it was that I quite forgot to pay you your wages on Saturday.” Jim said nothing; but his faithful wife found no difficulty in understanding that He who honors and rewards the faith of His children deems it necessary sometimes to subject it to a severe test, as He says, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Shortly after this she had the joy of seeing her husband, and some at least of her children, converted to God. How blessedly true is that word— “Them that honor me, I will honor.”

W. R.

"In View of Death."

WHAT more solemn sight than a soul dying and unsaved—eternal happiness or woe hanging upon a few hours! “Yes,” you say, “it is a solemn position to be in. Death does sober the mind, awaken the conscience, arouse the heart, and makes one feel its power.” You think so, dear friend. Have you ever faced it for yourself? Have you ever lain down to die, as you think? Have you ever propounded to yourself the question, “If I were called upon to die, am I ready?

“The one of whom we speak had had a long warning; an illness of years had now culminated, and in daily expectation of dissolution she lay on her bed an unsaved soul. Many had seen her, the gospel had been often presented to her, the love of a Saviour who died for sinners had been told out in her hearing, but hitherto it had only been received with the outward ear, it had never in the power of the Holy Ghost reached her soul. Oh, awful position to be in! the lake of fire, as it were, ready to receive her, Satan apparently sure of his prey; and she anxious, but unable, to grasp the truth—her life, one course of sin, now standing in all its naked hideousness before her soul. Well might those who knew the truth of her state cry to God to come in and show His mighty power to save. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help found.”

Was she allowed to die unsaved? Were the prayers for her salvation unanswered? No. God delighteth in mercy, and even at the last moment He saved her. She had become very weak, and her end was very near in fact, it was the very last time she was seen alive by the one who spoke the words. The word of God was opened, and Romans 10:9 was read over and over, “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.” Her lips parted, and clearly and distinctly came out the words, “I can lay hold of that; I can lay hold of that.” Thank God, it was God’s, “thou shalt” that we had to rest upon, and with heartfelt thankfulness she could be left to God. She was seen alive no more. And now, dear reader, I cannot close without one word of warning. Because in His infinite grace God chose to save this one at the last moment, to drag her, as it were, out of the fire, I pray you do not gather from it any comfort in continuing your godless, Christless, unsaved course, trusting you too may be saved at the last moment. You may never have a moment of consciousness on your death-bed. You may never have a death-bed at all. The Lord may come “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;” and “he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall SUDDENLY be destroyed, and that without remedy.” “And knew not until the flood CAME and took them ALL away.” Read, dear friend, again, the text blessed to this dear woman. Learn it, ponder over it, and the Lord bless it to your soul.

E. C. L.

"He Just Fits I, Sir!"

A SERVANT of the Lord was preaching the gospel some years ago in the street of a small country town in Wiltshire from the text, “What think ye of Christ?” (Matthew 22:42.) On the opposite side of the street where he was preaching there was a very old woman standing in the doorway of her house. She had seen no less than eighty winters, and there she stood, listening to the words of eternal life.

Blessed words, surely, are the words of the gospel of God. Well may we thank God for them. Oh the multitudes of precious souls who have felt their life-giving, peace-giving, and soul-gladdening power, and who will cluster round the Lamb by-and-by in heavenly glory,

“And bless His sacred name!”

Reader, will you be among that happy throng? or will your voice mingle in that awful wail which shall arise from the eternally lost souls in hell?

As the preacher unfolded the glorious gospel of the blessed God concerning His Son Jesus Christ; for remember, dear reader, the gospel is not about you, though it is for you, but it is about God’s Son, and it is “God’s power unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16.) Now, do not forget this; for if you are led to believe the gospel just now—that is, if you have never really believed it before—you will be saved at once, and you will know it too.

Well, as the preacher continued to unfold the gospel, the old woman stood at her doorway drinking it in. Suddenly he cried out, with all the earnestness and energy of his soul, “What think ye of Christ?” Immediately she threw up her hands, and cried out before all, in her own simple but telling words, “He just fits I, sir!” And, thank God, it was no mere momentary fit of excitement, but a real work of God done in her soul by the Holy Ghost as she stood at her doorway. She lived for two years more, and proved to all around by her consistent life the truth of her simple but beautiful confession, “He just fits I, sir!”

Now, reader, “What think you of Christ?”

“What think ye of Christ?’ is the test,

To try both your state and your scheme;

You cannot be right in the rest,

Unless you think rightly of Him.”

How true this is! Christ is the touchstone; everything is wrong till you have got Him. He is “the heaven’s beloved One,” and you must have God’s thoughts about Him. Have you seen Him in all His suitability for you in all your need? Can you say what the dear old woman said? Remember, “there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12.) Oh trust that precious Saviour at once!

He thought so much of you that He came and shed His blood on the cross to save you. He thinks so much about you that He keeps the king of terrors from mowing you down in your sins, and thus gives you in long-suffering grace another moment or two to be saved.

And what do you think of Christ? Why you think so little of Him, in spite of His wonderful love, that you prefer your drink, or your pleasure, or your bit of religion, to having Him as your very own living, loving Saviour! Like the Jews, who preferred Barabbas to Jesus, you choose “the world, the flesh, and the devil” in preference to Christ. And by-and-by, if you continue in that course, you will spend eternity in hell with the devil, with whose company you are satisfied for the present.

“What think ye of Christ?” May you be led to accept Him as your Saviour. Then you will be able to say, “‘He is my beloved, the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely;’ He is my Saviour, my Lord, my all, for time and eternity. My eyes have seen God’s salvation, and now I am ready to go; I want nothing here. I have got Christ; ‘He just fits I;’ ‘Christ is all.’” May God give you to answer His question in the depths of your soul, “What think ye of Christ?”

W. E.

"Neither Were Thankful."

A FEW years ago a gentleman and myself were asked to visit a friend’s house. We were a small party, as the family consisted only of a widow lady and her three daughters, the youngest of whom was the life and spirit of the little household. She was fairly cultured, outwardly moral, and religious after a fashion. The secular music, in which she indulged during the week, was laid aside on Sundays for those pieces termed sacred.

When we sat down to table, my companion bent his head in grateful acknowledgment of the goodness that had provided for our temporal need. As he did so a sneer passed over the face of the young girl—an expressive sneer, which plainly indicated in whose service her bright young life was being spent. It showed that she knew not that the food a Christian eats “is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

A few months rolled on, and I received an unexpected visit from my widowed friend, whose deep mourning attire startled me as she entered the room. I inquired as to the health of each of her daughters. As I mentioned the name of the youngest, her bright, lively appearance rose before me, in such marked contrast to the sorrow-stricken mother, who with a voice, scarcely audible from sorrowful emotion, proceeded to narrate to me the sad, sad end of the poor young girl.

She was suddenly seized with a disease which baffled all the physicians’ skill, and ere many days had rolled away her lifeless body was laid in the cold and silent grave. What of her soul? Had it gone to the abode of the mocker and the sneer? Alas! there was no good reason to believe that her heart was changed. We had to mourn for her as for one for whom there was “no hope.”

“Neither were thankful” is one of the solemn charges in Romans 1 against those who desired not to retain God in their knowledge. May all who read this little paper heed its solemn warning, and accept, ere it be too late, not only the temporal, providential mercies of God with a grateful heart, but also that gift of gifts, even life everlasting, through faith in His beloved Son. May my reader be among the number of those who are not only thankful for present mercies, but are also able to look up to heaven, “giving thanks to the Father, who has made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”

S. S. N.

The Lord's Second Coming.

Notes of an Address.

Hebrews 9:24-28.

THOUGH beginning with this scripture, you will be referred to a number of others, which treat of the Lord’s second coming.

In these verses we get three distinct appearing’s of Christ, and they are so interwoven that it is needful to refer to the three while speaking from them. The first appearing (verse 26) is past, and was for the putting away of sin. The second (verse 24) is present, and is for our preservation. The third (verse 28) is future, and will be for our glorification.

Verse 26. This should read, “Now once in the consummation of the ages,” not “end of the world;” for the world has not come to an end yet, but it is its moral end, which was at the cross of Christ. All the ages were gathered together, as it were, and came to an end then. What did the Lord appear to do then? “To put away sin,” or “for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice.” It was for the putting away of sin, not sins. This is similar to John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” People often quote it, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world,” and so give the verse quite a wrong meaning; for it leads to universalism. If the sins of the world were put away, then all would be saved.

Sin is what we are by nature, and sins are what we have done. God pardons sins, but He never will pardon sin; He has condemned it.

Now these scriptures do not say that sin is put away, but that the Lord has come for the putting away of sin. We know that sin is not put away; for we see its effects all around us. If sin were put away, you would not see a single drunken man in the streets, you would not find a single thief in the town. The police, the jail, and the court-house all tell us that it is still here. Well, how is the Lord going to put away sin? He put away the sins of His people when He suffered as their Substitute; so that we have not a single sin on us, no more than the blessed Lord Himself, though we have sin in us, and shall have it until the Lord’s second coming, or until we die. There are two ways by which we can get entirely rid of sin: by our death, or by the Lord’s second coming.

During the millennium sin will be in the world; for we read, “The child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” (Isaiah 65:20.) At the end of the millennium all the wicked dead shall be raised, judged before the great white throne, and cast into the lake of fire; and so sin shall be put away finally. Then there will be a new heaven and a new earth. God can then look down to earth and not see a single sin there; sin shall have been put away forever.

Before I go on to speak of the Lord’s second coming, I would ask you, What do you know of His first coming? What has it done for you? Did He put away your sins? If He did not put your sins away at His first coming, His second coming would be the most terrible thing that could happen to you. That which would be the happiest event for the dear children of God would leave you for the great tribulation, your body in a grave during the millennium, and after it the great white throne, and the everlasting flames of the lake of fire.

While stopping with some friends in the suburbs of London, a lady was asked to dinner to meet me, being anxious to hear about the Lord’s second coming. After dinner I turned to her, and said, “Well, Mrs. B—, you want to hear about the Lord’s second coming; but what do you know about His first coming? Did He put away your sins then? and are you ready to meet Him as you sit in this drawing-room?”

She said, “Indeed, I never thought of that; I am not ready to meet Him.”

Then I said, “If the Lord did not put away your sins at His first coming, His second coming would be the most terrible thing that could happen to you.”

She confessed that she had never thought of it in that way; and that if the Lord were to come, or if she were to die as she sat in that drawing-room, she would go to hell; so I began to speak to her about the first instead of the second coming of the Lord, and He blessed it to the salvation of her soul. Afterwards she was able to go on and learn about His second coming.

I know that there is a good deal of inquiry abroad about the Lord’s second coming, but the first thing to inquire about is what His first coming has done for us; and I ask you in all earnestness, do you believe that Christ put away our sins when He died on the cross? Were our sins on Him when He hung there? If they were, where are they now? They were not on Him when He lay in the grave; they are not on Him now in heaven.

If Christ did not put away our sins when He died on the cross, He never will; for He has not another drop of blood to shed; and without shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. When Christ was here He shed His blood, and He is now a real Man in heaven without a single drop of blood in His resurrection body. After His resurrection He said to His disciples, “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones [He did not say blood], as ye see me have;” and then He took a piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb, and did eat before them to show that He was a real Man; and He is now a real, tangible Man in the glory of God. People have an idea that Christ is a Spirit up in heaven, but He is not. There beats a human heart upon the throne of God.

Well, if Christ bore our sins when He was on the cross, where are they now? By searching, can you find them out? God says that “they shall not be found.” (Jeremiah 1:20; Micah 7:19.) Suppose I owe £1000, and a rich friend pays it for me, would it be righteous of my creditor to say, “Pay me that which thou owest? “It would be a most unrighteous thing to demand payment of the same debt a second time; and God is not unrighteous to charge me with the sins which were borne by my blessed Substitute.

God will not bring a single charge against the believer; for Christ has fully met every charge. Well now, I hope it is clear to you that it was on the cross Christ put away His people’s sins.

In the second appearing we get Christ’s present work, which is for those whose sins He put away at His first coming. (Hebrews 9:24.) Christ is not putting away sins in heaven; He is there as the Intercessor and Advocate of His own people. His present work is not for the sinner, but for the saint. His intercession is to keep us—poor, weak, feeble things that we are—from sinning; His advocacy is to restore us to communion if we do sin. His intercession, we cannot do one single moment without; His advocacy, we ought not to require.

Christ’s intercession is going on continually. If it were stopped we could not go on for one moment without falling. But, blessed be God, while Jesus lives, not one of His own can perish. He says, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”

A believer may fall on the road; then the advocacy comes in. Jesus goes to the Father on behalf of the failing one, ministers the word to bring to the conscience the sin which caused the failure, and leads the soul to confess it to the Father. Then the child is forgiven, and communion restored. It is one thing to stumble on the path, and quite another thing to stumble off it. The intercession keeps us from stumbling off the path. We could not keep ourselves any more than we could save ourselves; we are kept by Him. While we sleep, His intercession goes on; when occupied with our business, it still goes on. How often during this day have we forgotten our Lord? If our safety depended upon our not forgetting Him, what chance should we have? No, blessed be God, it does not depend upon our not forgetting Him, but upon His not forgetting us.

Intercession is with God, and is to keep us. Advocacy is with the Father, to restore to communion a child of God, should he sin; not to restore relationship, for that never can be touched.

Hebrews 9:28. Here we get the third and future appearing of Christ. This will be for our glorification. We shall then get glorified bodies like His own. There is sin in us (though we have no sin on us), with which He can have no fellowship. But then we shall be as free from sin as the blessed Lord Himself; for we shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2.) Yes, we shall be as free from sin, both internally and externally, as He is. I say it with all reverence, but thus strongly, to show the perfection of His work. “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” This is what we are waiting for.

Someone may say, “I thought that all believers were saved now, and here salvation is spoken of as future.” There are three distinct aspects of salvation in Scripture. The past, the present, and the future. The Lord has purchased us, spirit, soul, and body; but He has only redeemed our souls as yet. You can understand a person buying a large property, and redeeming a part of it at once, and the rest being left unredeemed for fifty years; and so we have only as yet got the salvation of our souls. “Your proof for that?” you may ask. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:9—one passage of scripture should suffice “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” Mark, it is the end of your faith, not the beginning. The beginning of faith is the very opposite of joy. There are many other scriptures which speak of our being saved in the present, but this one tells us what it is that is saved. In Romans 13:11 we read, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This is the salvation we are going on to, and which each day brings us nearer to. We are nearer to it now than ever we were before. Now turn to Romans 8:22, 23. Here it is the full thing, when our redeemed souls shall get redeemed bodies, and when our adopted souls shall get adopted bodies. Philippians 3:20, 21 will make this plain to you: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” &c. Citizenship is the Greek word from which the word politics comes. All the Christian’s politics are in heaven. The Lord is coming as a Saviour to save the body; then we shall have full salvation.

“Are we not told to work for our salvation in Philippians 2:12?” someone may ask. Observe, it is “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Not work for it. Salvation must be yours before you can work it out; it must be there to start with. Suppose I give one of my sons a present of a field, with a lead mine in it, and say to him, “Now work out that lead mine.” My son sinks a shaft, begins to work the mine, and soon has the beautiful shiny ore brought up in masses to the surface. Now his sinking the shaft and working the mine does not make it a lead mine; the lead must be there to start with. So with a pump; you must work the handle to get up the water, but the spring must be there to start with. If you were to put up a pump where there is no spring of water, no matter how hard you pumped with the handle, you could not get any water out of it. You must have, salvation to start with, then you are to work it out, to show by your works that you possess it, not to get it.

We are waiting, not for death, but for the Lord’s second coming to take us to glory. It may be asked, “Is there not a verse which says, ‘It is appointed unto all men once to die’?” There is no such statement made in the verse, though it is often thus quoted. Look at it carefully and see what it does teach— “And as it is appointed unto men” (not all men) “once to die.” That is what men, as men, are appointed to; but just read the next verse— “So Christ was once offered,” &c. Now mark the connection between the two verses — “As it is appointed unto men once to die.... So Christ was once offered,” &c. Death and judgment were the portion of men as men; but Christ has borne death and judgment for those who believe in Him, and soon He shall come again to take them home to glory. As I go through this world I can say, “Death and judgment are behind me.” Why? Because my blessed Substitute has borne death and judgment for me. I can also say, “Life and glory are before;” for these are what I am waiting for. I am placed in this world between His death and the glory. There is no verse in Scripture which says, “It is appointed unto all men once to die;” for if it did, then all would have to die, and it would contradict the truth of the Lord’s second coming; but there is a verse which says “we shall not all sleep” or die—turn to it― 1 Corinthians 15:51, &c.

Scripture never contradicts itself. God does not say all shall die in one place, and all shall not die in another. Just look at this passage, “We shall not all sleep” (or die). In Scripture no one expected to die before the Lord’s second coming except Peter and Paul, and they had a distinct revelation from the Lord that they would die. (verse 53.) Those who are in their graves shall get incorruptible bodies. We who are in mortal bodies shall get immortal bodies when He shall come. All will have glorified bodies then, redeemed souls in redeemed bodies. All our weakness, infirmities, and sin will be gone forever. The deaf will hear perfectly then, and the blind will see.

The “last trump” may be a difficulty to some, and may lead them to think the end of the world is here spoken of, but such is not the case; it is a military term. We know that the millennium must be before the end. The word millennium we do not find in Scripture; it is from the Latin, and means a thousand years. In the Bible we get the thousand years spoken of very often, and all the time given, so, if we knew at what time the Lord would come for us, we could tell when everything else would occur. If you were ever in a town where the military have headquarters, you would find that when a regiment was about to leave for another town, the commanding officer would have his bugler beside him, and he would gather all the men to the market-square. At the sound of the bugle they would form in order, and when all were ready the trumpeter would sound the last trump, which is the order to march, then all would start on their journey for the next town. When the Lord comes for us, we shall get our marching orders to go home.

I will now, in closing, turn you to some more passages which speak of the Lord’s second coming. (John 14:1-3.) Here the Lord says that He is coming Himself for us. He is not going to send the archangel or the angels for us; He is coming Himself. He did not send the archangel or the angels to die for us; He came Himself and died for us. This is not a spiritual coming, as some would try to make it. To speak of a spiritual coming is unscriptural. His first was a real coming. He took a real body back to heaven, and He shall return in like manner. Scripture tells us so. (Acts 1:11.) Jesus is a real man up in heaven now. There sits upon the throne of God a real Man, with a heart able to sympathize with us in our path down here, and He loves us so much that He will not send another for us, but will come Himself. He shall descend, and we shall ascend, to be forever with Him.

In Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonians, there is mention made in each of the eight chapters they contain of the Lord’s second coming. (1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10.) The Thessalonians were converted to wait for a Person, not death. Death is not God’s Son, but an enemy, and the last to be destroyed. They were not converted to wait for an event, but for God’s Son; they were not converted to wait for the restoration of the Jews, or for the manifestation of antichrist, but for God’s Son. (chapters 2:19, 20.) These Thessalonians were converted through Paul’s preaching; he will have them as a crown to cast at the Lord’s feet when he sees Him, and he will say, “Here, Lord, are these Thessalonians which you used me to the conversion of; to thee alone be all the glory and the praise.” chapter 3:13. We are saved to be holy, not because we are holy. We are saved to do good works, not because we do good works. If one be truly converted, he will hate sin as God does, and he will love holiness. If a man were to tell me that he was converted, but that he did not hate sin, nor love holiness, I would tell him that he was a deceived man, or the veriest hypocrite. I would have you to distinguish between what accompanies salvation and what accomplishes it. Hatred of sin and love of holiness do not accomplish salvation, though they always accompany it. They are the evidences that we have got it. There are other things which accompany salvation, but I just mention these two.

Chapters 4:13-18: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” The Lord’s second coming cannot be death; for if it were, verse 17 would read, “We who are dead and remain,” &c.; but it is, “We who are alive,” &c. When a child of God dies, are all the dead in Christ raised? You know they are not. But the Lord is coming for us; then He will raise the dead in Christ, change the living, and all shall be caught up together in the chariot of His clouds to meet Him in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. He shall bring us to the Father’s house.

Chapters 5:23, 24. We are composed of spirit, soul, and body, and all are sanctified to God. The word sanctification means separation. We are separated to holiness. When the Lord comes, we shall be sanctified wholly to God. A believer longs for the time to come, when nothing can hinder his being wholly for God.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 shows the effect the Lord’s second coming will have upon those who are troubled, and upon the troublers. Oh, ye troubled, take comfort! and oh, ye troublers, take warning, and cease to be troublers! Just look at what ye are going on to—verse 9.

Chap. 2:1. “We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him:” not by death, not by the conversion of the world, the restoration of the Jews, or the revelation of antichrist.

Chapter 3:5. It is the patience of Christ waiting for us that we get here. (See margin of your Bibles.) The Lord has been patiently waiting to have us with Him for the last 1800 years, How very selfish and impatient we are! Oh that we may learn from His patience It is His joy to have us with Him in the glory, and ours to be with Him.

“He and I in that bright glory

One deep joy shall share:

Mine to be forever with Him,

His that I am there.”

Observe this eleventh verse— “The Lord direct your hearts” (not your heads) “into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ.”

Again I turn to you who are unsaved, and warn you that when the Lord comes and takes His own away there will be no hope for you. Do not deceive yourselves by thinking that there may be another offer of salvation to you when the Church is gone, for there never will be. In Revelation 14:6 we read of the everlasting gospel, but this is not the gospel which we now preach. In verse? you will see what gospel it is. This gospel will go out to the heathen nations which never heard or rejected the gospel of the grace of God. Ah no! Christendom shall never have another chance. In 2 Thess. 2:7-12 is the doom of Christendom— Christless Christendom. When the Church is taken away the Holy Ghost goes with it; then antichrist shall be manifested; for there is no power to restrain the evil. (verse 7.) Here are people who have had the offer of salvation, but who have rejected it. It is in the past. (vv. 10,12,) Oh, ye unsaved ones, come to Christ before it is too late! for if fie come and take His own away before you come to Him, you will never have another opportunity.

The Lord comfort, and separate to Himself the saved by the truth of His second coming, and use it to warn you who are still unsaved to escape from the judgment to come; and to His own name be all the glory.

H. M. H.

The Salvation of God: Volume 7 (1884)

Table of Contents

"He Has Not Left One Sin."

"Just Ready for It."

"Every One, Any Man, Whosoever."

The Precious Blood of Christ.

Have You Done Your Part?

Water.

I'm Sorry for It.

A Simple but Sure Testimony.

The Kindhearted King and His Rebel Subjects.

Faith Looks Ahead.

"Three Conclusions."

"Ten Minutes in Hell."

"Going by Air."

Wondrous Love.

Today, Tonight, Tomorrow.

"Sudden Conversion."

The Good, the Great, and the Chief Shepherd.

"Afterward Came the Other Virgins."

"I Must Wait God's Time."

"I Don't Feel Sorry Enough."

Notes of an Address

"Tell Him He's a Liar."

A Contrast.

Death!

General Gordon at Khartoum.

Depending on Having a Dying Bed.

How Old Willie was Saved.

The Work, the Walk, the Worship, and the Wrath of the Lamb.

"My Pedigree."

A Few Words About the Future.

The Righteousness of God.

Two Things That Are Coming.

"I Have left Out God."

"He Being Dead yet Speaketh."

"I Never Heard Such Doctrine."

The Text on the Wall.

Come to Jesus Now.

Precious Faith.

Notes of an Address.

The Scotch Fisherman.

"I'm a Good 'un at Bottom."

A Warning Word.

"Yes; but They Do Stagger at it."

The Man of Gadara.

Is God a Liar?

Four Little Wise Things.

Five Classes of Men: To Which Do You Belong?

"Be Sure You Meet Me in Heaven; I'm Trusting in the Blood of Christ."

The Coming Famine.

"I Don't Want It."

The Saviour's Prayer, the Soldier's Spear, and the Rent Veil.

"Shall Not Come Into Condemnation."

Christ is Coming.

The Awful Condition of the Sinner.

From Darkness to Light.

A Message From a Rock.

The Lord Will Provide.

"In View of Death."

"He Just Fits I, Sir!"

"Neither Were Thankful."

The Lord's Second Coming.