The Salvation of God: Volume 8 (1885)

IN each of these scriptures the word “bundle” is mentioned, either in the singular or plural, but you find in each it is contrasted with something else. In the first passage (1 Samuel 25:29) “the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.” You find bundle and sling are put in contrast. If you remember that David is a type, a standing type, of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will help you to see that we must occupy one of these two positions in relation to Christ. We must either, as saved by Christ, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and thus united to Him, be in the bundle of life, or we must be in the sling of judgment. We are, every one of us, in one of these two positions. There is no middle ground.

A tract distributor asked a woman to whom she was offering a tract, “Would you like one for a saint or a sinner?”

The woman replied, “I would like one that takes in both.” There are many people who would like the same thing. God never looks at people as saints and as sinners too.

We were sinners before we were converted, then we became saints, and we never can become sinners again. I do not mean that we never can sin again. I have no sympathy with people who say they have not sinned for months or years, who say they have no sin in them. It is contrary to God’s word. It says, in 1 John 1, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”

It does not say we deceive other people. No, we deceive ourselves. You could not live with such a person twenty-four hours without finding out he had sin in him.

But that is not what I mean; the moment we are saved we are no longer sinners, we become saints. People are afraid of that word saint. You find it constantly in the Old Testament, and in the New also, “called saints.” The Epistles are addressed to the saints in such and such a place. Who does it mean? Every converted person, every child of God. “Separate to God;” that is what it means. Separated from their sins, separated from Satan, separated from the world, separated from hell, from judgment, from everything that is against God; and separated to God, to forgiveness, to salvation, to redemption, to sanctification; separated to God as Father, to Christ as Saviour, to the Holy Ghost as Comforter, to heaven as their home. Are you afraid of being a saint if that is the definition? I have not exhausted it at all, but that is briefly and simply the definition of a saint.

But suppose I sin, do I not cease to be a saint? No; you are a sinning saint, not a sinning sinner. Before we were converted we were looked at as sinners on the road to hell; the moment we are converted, we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, we are saints; never again will He address us or think of us as sinners. Now, if we sin, we are sinful, naughty children, but we do not cease to be children. When we sin, we forfeit communion; and we have to go to our Father and confess to Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I only want you to see that you cannot be in the two positions at the same time. You cannot be in the bundle of life and in the sling of judgment. Once out of the sling of judgment into the bundle of life, you never can be in the sling of judgment again. Fail you may, and the Father may have to lay His chastening hand upon you; but never again can you get into the sling of judgment. I will just trace that for you through scripture. But first let me ask you, Where are you? In the bundle of life, ready for Christ to come and take you to glory, or in the sling of judgment, ready to be slung out into the everlasting flames of the lake of fire? You cannot have one foot in the sling of judgment and the other in the bundle of life. Are you ready for hell or heaven―which is it? Where are you before God? Where are you in view of eternity? Look at it in earnest eternity is very near. “I do not quite see what you mean,” someone says. Then let us look at one or two scriptures which will help you.

Let me read you a passage in John 3, which really brings out the two positions in very few words: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” (verse 36.) There is a person in the bundle of life. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” That person is in the sling of judgment. No one can be in the two halves of that verse at the same time; but, blessed be God, there is a way from the last half into the first. There was a day when those saved by grace were in the last half― by nature we are all there; by grace some of us are in the first.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” Does that apply to you? Does that express what you have got? Are you a present everlasting possessor of eternal life?

“I don’t feel it,” you say. Look at the words again. Does it say, “If he feels it?” You don’t want faith for what you feel at all; you want faith for what you can neither see nor feel. Faith and feeling are antagonistic; faith and sight are antagonistic. The real things are those you cannot see―things that you see are fading away. Everlasting life is real. Can you see it? And yet it lasts as long as God lasts, as long as Christ lasts, as long as the Holy Ghost lasts. You know you have it, because God’s word says so. Do you believe on the Son? I don’t ask you if you say you believe. There is a great difference between” say “believers and” do “believers.” He that believeth” is what it says. Which are you, a mere “say” believer, or a “do” believer? “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” There is so much mere intellectual faith nowadays. Faith begins in the heart. Do you believe that? God does not care for the intellect, He is looking for the affections. Do you believe on the Son, dear friends? Then He says you have got everlasting life.

“Do you mean to say people can believe just where they are―liars, thieves, drunkards?” I never said that. No; there is repentance. There is no salvation without repentance. There is no salvation in repentance, but there is none without.

“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

There must be “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I find the Holy Ghost insisting upon repentance; but I don’t find Him insisting upon a course of repentance. You remember the two thieves. They left their cells at sunrise as hard as the ground of the cell floor; and before sundown the Lord Jesus Christ and those two thieves were in eternity.

One had his heart broken; repentance towards God was wrought, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave him repentance and remission of sins; and though he left the cell at sunrise a hard and unbroken sinner, he was walking in Paradise with the Lord Jesus Christ before sundown, a happy, repentant, forgiven sinner.

I dare not say how long repentance has to go on. How can I prescribe the time it takes God to do His work? All I know is, He distinctly states in Scripture repentance is a necessity; and repentance is thinking as badly of yourself as God thinks of you; and faith is thinking as well of the Lord Jesus as God thinks of Him.

Do you believe on the Son of God? “Yes, by the grace of God, I do,” you answer; “but I am afraid to say I have eternal life.” The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says you have it. He does not leave it to you to say, because you might make a mistake―He is the One that says it. Do you believe it from Him? Cannot you look up and thank Him, and say, “I believe it now”?

Now mark the next part. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him.” That person is in the sling of judgment. Can you conceive anything more dreadful? The wrath of God hanging over a person like a brightly-burnished blade just suspended by the brittle thread of time. If at any time that thread broke by God’s word, that person would be consigned forever to the flames of the lake of fire. Can you think of anything more awful.? The wrath of God abiding on you! And if you die in that state, you will be in the sling of judgment for eternity. If you don’t get into the bundle of life in time, you will remain there forever.

But, blessed be God, you can get from the last half of that verse into the first. What is the way? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” That is the only step. What brought all the misery into the world? Unbelief, want of confidence in God. What brings man back into all the enjoyment of the favor of God? Confidence in God. Only a child of God knows what it is to have confidence in Him. Christ came down to destroy the works of the devil; that was to remove want of confidence in man’s heart towards God, to restore confidence in God. Have you got confidence in God? Can you trust Him? Can you say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”? Can you look up and say, “What time I am afraid I will trust in thee”? Can you say, “I will trust, and not be afraid”? That is simple confidence in God. Then you are out of the last and in the first half of John 3:36.

Are you afraid you will get out of the first into the last again? There is no such thing. Just look at a verse in Colossians on this point― “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (chapter 3:3.) That means, you have died with Christ your Substitute. When He died, that was my death if He substituted me. I died with Him― “I am crucified with Christ.” When He was cut off I was cut off; when He bore the judgment, that was my bearing the judgment. You died with Christ your Substitute. Now mark, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” There is the bundle of life, the place of security. You are as safe in Christ as Christ is safe in God; you are as secure as Christ. Oh, how they used to sing in old times―

“We two are so joined;

He’ll not be in glory and leave me behind!”

It is a wonderful thing that the believer and Christ are one, absolutely one, identically one, perfectly one, and He will not be in glory and leave one of His beautiful blood-bought ones behind I Safe in Christ, we can never perish. He says, in John 10:28, 29, “I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

You are as safe in that hand as that hand is safe on His blessed, holy, glorious body. How long is eternal life? Until eternity comes to an end your life lasts— “never perish.” Don’t you see what a wonderful thing it is to be in that Bundle of Life?

Now I turn to the second passage: “A bundle of myrrh is my well-Beloved unto me.” (Song of Solomon 1:13.) You see in the other scripture it is what we are to Christ; but in this it is what Christ is to us. God is saying to us, “What think ye of Christ?” If He says to Christ, “What think ye of your own?” He will say, “I loved them individually, as a family, as an assembly, and gave myself for them.” (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2, 25.) But now the Father turns to us and says, “What think ye of Christ?” Can you answer in these words, “A bundle of myrrh is my well-Beloved unto me”? That is the Bride saying what the King is to her. In Canticles, whenever she speaks of Him, she says “my Beloved.” When He speaks of her it is “my love.” It is the King and His earthly Bride. You must not bring the Church in here; you must go to the New Testament for that. It is the Jewish Bride. So when they are brought back to their land from among the waves and breakers of the nations, when He makes Judah and Israel one, when they say, “This is our God; we have waited for Him,” He will be King to them, and Israel will be the Jewish bride; but He never says that to the Church. He is looked at as the Husband of the Church, the Bridegroom, the Head of the Church. We are one with Him. “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” But does it not say in Revelation King of saints? That should be translated King of nations, as in the margin. Suppose we were Jews before we were converted, we are so no longer, nor of the nations, we are “one in Christ Jesus.” There is no nationality in the Church of God at all. When Christ comes back as Bridegroom to reign with His heavenly Bride He will be King of the Jews.

I merely take these passages up as a picture of what we are to Christ on the one side, what He is to us on the other. Myrrh, you know, is one of those remarkable plants that give a most delicious smell, and they used it in the East to embalm the dead. There are two things about myrrh. It has a rare odor, and it is preservative. That is what Christ is to the believer. Suppose I came into your house with a box of myrrh concealed about my person, you would immediately say, “What a choice smell! What is it? Where does it come from?” You detect it at once.

Have you Christ in your heart, the hope of glory? You remember Galatians 2:20 — “Christ liveth in me.” Christ lives in me. What do you think for? That He may come out again. Am I emitting the fragrance? If you have the myrrh, you have not to make any noise nor effort. It emits its own fragrance. If you are walking in communion with Christ, people cannot live long in your company before they know they have a person amongst them quite different from the generality of people. Unconverted people will notice it. “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.” I am down here to care for Christ’s interests, Christ’s concerns, to emit a fragrance for Christ. Do you know what it is to live thus? We exert an influence upon people, either helpful or baneful. Every one of us is exerting an influence either for Christ or against Christ. Can you say, “Christ liveth in me?”

But there is more than that. He preserves us. Think of all the dangers, the devil going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. How am I preserved from the paw of the lion, the hug of the bear? My bundle of myrrh preserves me. When the Lord Jesus Christ was down here as the dependent man, how did He address God “Preserve me, O God; for in thee do I put my trust.” (Psalms 16:1.) That is exactly the language that ought to be upon the lips of every child of God. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Preserve me, O God. That is submitting yourself to your bundle of myrrh, so that you may emit a fragrance for Him, and that He may lead you in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Is that Christ for you? Oh that He would challenge our hearts “What think ye of Christ?” Can you say by grace, “He is nearer to me than the nearest, fairer than the fairest, dearer than the dearest, sweeter than the sweetest, brighter than the brightest, better than the best, the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely? That is what thou hast made Christ to my poor heart.” What is Christ to you?

Do you mean to say we are ashamed of Christ? If He is not ashamed of me up there, am I to be ashamed of Him down here? He represents me up there, and has left me down here to represent Him. What am I to Him? Everything. We have cost Him all, and yet He has cost us nothing; we have got Him for simply receiving Him. “He shall lie all night between my breasts.” What does that mean? This is the night. At the cross night commenced; it is dark night now, getting darker and darker. You can feel the darkness if you are walking with God, getting so awfully great that you feel it in your spirit as you walk through Christendom today. What will it end in? In the blackness and darkness of the lake of fire forever? What a terrible thing to be in that darkness! May God deliver you from it!

We were darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; but we are passing through the night and the darkness. Suppose there was a splendid meteor in the sky, when could people see it? Only at night. It would be there in the day, but you could not see it. The night that we are passing through is just a splendid opportunity for us to be meteors for the Lord Jesus, to leave a tail of testimony streaming behind us as we whirl away to the home of light to which we belong, “All night” all this long dark night of the world’s rejection of Him what does it mean? It is a poetical figure which means He has full possession of the heart. What place has Christ got in your heart? Do you say, “I ask Him to take the first place”? Then who has the second and the third? He does not ask for the first place; He asks for all. “My son, give me thine heart.” Have you given Him all your heart? Have you said―

“A heart resigned, submissive, meek,

My dear Redeemer’s throne;

Where only Christ is heard to speak,

Where Jesus reigns alone”?

Have you said―

“Take Thou my heart, and let it be

Forever closed to all but Thee”?

When the Lord has all, then every body and everything else will fall into their proper respective places. And now I just put it to you—those who are out of the sling of judgment and in the bundle of life, who can look up and say, “A bundle of myrrh is my well-Beloved unto me;” that is what God has made Him to my heart in this wilderness world. “He shall lie all night between my breasts” undisturbed. Let Him lie down just as He once lay down upon the vessel’s deck and slept. What was it awoke Him? The absence of faith in the heart of the disciples.

The howling of the wind, the breaking of the waves over the deck, never disturbed Him; unbelief was the only thing that disturbed Him. And now, beloved, let Him stretch Himself on the deck of your heart, and give Him the soft, downy pillow of confidence in Himself, and never disturb Him all the way home to glory; never awake Him by your wretched want of confidence in Him. How beautiful it is to think of! He wants your heart for His pillow. What a privilege to give it to Him! Lord Jesus, pillow thy head upon my heart, and reign without a rival there. That is the place we would give Him until we are near Him, and like Him, and forever with Him.

Now I turn to the last Scripture― Matthew 13:30. You have wheat and bundles of tares in contrast― “Bind the tares in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Who are the tares? I believe they are religious people who have not got Christ. Tares are very much like wheat. Go out in the spring when the wheat is only in the blade, and none but a very skilled farmer could tell the difference between them.

No one but God can distinguish now. One of the most humbling Scriptures I know is in 2 Timothy: “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Every one else ought to know. Why do they not?

Because the blades of wheat and the blades of tares are so mixed up together in Christendom. “Let both grow together until the harvest.” People say you cannot turn out the tares; you must let them alone; but it is in the field―the field is the world. That is just what the Roman Catholics did. They tried to root out the tares, as they thought, and they burned the martyrs by thousands, and sent them to heaven, but left the tares standing to be burned in hell. No; God says, “Let both grow together until the harvest.” Harvest is when the last sheaf is taken from the field; then as the last sheaf is put upon the wagon, and the wagon brought home, you would hear them all shouting, “Harvest-home.”

Christ will shout that directly, when He comes to take the bodies of His saints out of the grave, and takes His people from the earth, changes their bodies, and takes all together to His home. The wheat will be taken to His home in glory, and the tares will be left for the judgment of the lake of fire.

“Bind them together in bundles to burn them.” It is God using some providential dealings to gather the tares together. I don’t know in what way. He will not by this means burn them; they are left standing on the field to burn. The wheat is gathered home. What is the barn? Glory. Every forgiven man and woman, all the blood-bought, blood-washed, make up that great, grand, magnificent sheaf of golden corn that is ready for the barn-floor of everlasting glory at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are made as ready as His blood can make us, and kept as ready as His intercession with God and His advocacy with the Father can keep us.

Listen to the song of the saved, in Colossians 1:12-14, “Giving thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light.” The whole sheaf is ready to be caught up. He has delivered us from the power and authority of darkness.

Now let me ask you again, beloved friends, Are you in the sling of judgment or in the bundle of life? Ready to be taken up to glory, or to be consigned to the everlasting burning of the lake of fire? What is Christ to you? Has He all your heart? Is He lying there all the long night while earth has rejected Him? Are you one in the great sheaf of wheat, or one in the bundles of tares? Are you merely a religious person? I don’t know any I pity more than Christless religious people, clutching the oil less lamp of a Christless profession. It is Christ that died, who shed His blood, and God never says, What think ye of religion? but “What think ye of Christ?” “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven... whereby we must be saved.” Oh, get out of the sling of judgment into the bundle of life! Let Christ be your bundle of myrrh, and then you will be an ear of wheat in that beautiful sheaf of myriads of ears; part of that glorious sheaf of golden wheat ready to be set down on the barn-floor of everlasting glory. Christ is corning. If His coming took place tonight, would you be taken up to glory?

These are solemn considerations. May God bless His own word to the reviving of those who are His own, to the restoration of any who have wandered, and to the saving of any who are unsaved.

H. M. H.

"Doctor, Shall I Get Better?"

“DOCTOR, shall I get better?” What a solemn question to put and to answer! Would you be ready to hear the truth it lying on a sickbed, the thought came into your mind,” Shall I get better? Am I going to die?” Would the unwelcome fact present itself to your mind,” If I die it is all a blank! I have no certainty, no ‘sure foundation,’ no place of refuge”? Or would the still more terrible truth force itself upon you, “I am unsaved! I have all my sins upon me! Death is near, ‘and after death the judgment?’”

Such, thank God, was not in the mind of the one who spoke the first words of this paper; for he added (and he was speaking to a learned and titled man when he said it), “Not that I am afraid to die. I haven’t to go searching about for a Saviour; I’ve got one.”

What a blessed confession! He had need of a Saviour, that he had found out. He required one; he could not save himself; he could not help in his salvation. For a Saviour either saves or does nut. He does not do part of the work, He does all or none. Not only had he learned his need, but he knew the One who had met that need―the One who “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Blessed Saviour!

“Enduring the grief and the shame,

And bearing our sins on the cross;

Oh, who would not boast of such love,

And count the world’s glory but dross!”

It was a glorified Saviour who had been on the cross that this one knew; and it is a glorified Saviour who “has been dead and is alive again” that I ask you in all affection if you know.

Would you have to search about for Him? You may never be able to do so. What a comfort that this dear man had not to seek Him! If such had been the case, he had but little time in which to do so. He spoke these words one afternoon; on the next morning he was called, without a moment’s warning, to be with that Saviour forever. “Faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it?

The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

E. C.

"He Has Power on Earth to Forgive Sins."

THE following was received recently from the lips of a dear woman, in a dying state, who suffered intense agony in speaking from a cancerated mouth:

“I had such a heavy burden, and I knew if I died as I was I should be lost. I first prayed to the Lord, and He took it all away. I said to my neighbor, ‘Missus, the Lord. Jesus forgave me my sins yesterday morning.’

“ ‘No,’ she said, ‘He never does that till we die, missus.’”

“ ‘Nay,’ I said, ‘He has forgave’ em. It says in the Scriptures, “He has power on earth to forgive sins.” He says He has; and He forgave mine.’”

After alluding to the Lord’s faithfulness― “He has took care of me; and He will take care of me― He will.”

M. W. S.

In Earnest, but Lost.

DURING a gale, in the winter of 1883, a vessel was driven into West Bay, near the Isle of Portland, a bay which is very dangerous when a south or south-west wind is blowing, for if a ship once get in, it is very rarely she succeeds in getting out again.

This vessel had got past the fatal point, and had been sailing about in a heavy sea all the day, hoping to get out; but each tack only brought her more deeply in, and her doom seemed well-nigh sealed.

The coastguards had been watching her all the day; and when nothing could save her, they made signals for her to be run ashore in a cove that afforded a better chance of saving life than any other part of that treacherous beach.

The terror that reigned on board was intense.

There was but one way of escape now, and that the authorized and practically safe contrivance of the “cradle.”

Can they wait to be saved by an outside power, or will they risk their lives on efforts of their own? All but one could wait for help from shore, and he seized a life-buoy, put it round him, and sprang into the surging sea. Unfortunately the buoy was detached from everything; and there the poor fellow floated, earnestly struggling for dear life, whilst the waves carried him out to sea, and dashed him about till every bit of life was beaten out of him, and he floated a stiffened corpse, through resting on his self-chosen means of escape. “In earnest, but lost!”

How aptly this poor fellow’s case depicts that of thousands of today How many an earnest, moral living religionist is building his hopes of eternal salvation on some effort of his own, some ordinance or law-keeping, utterly disregarding the only divinely-appointed means of salvation. (Acts 4:12.)

They may argue, and rightly so, too, that “the commandment is holy, just, and good” (Romans 7:12); but they will find with the law what this poor fellow found with his life-buoy, that “that which was ordained to life, he found to be death.” (Romans 7:10.)

How solemn to think that many a well-meaning, earnest soul will be wrung with bitter disappointment when the fearful storm of God’s judgment shall sweep away all they have trusted in! All their boasted self-righteousness on which they rest, or under which they shelter, will turn out to be but a “refuge of lies,” a “bed too short.” (Isa. 28:17, 20.)

Let us now turn to the rest. The ship has struck, a rocket is fired, a rope is delivered, and shortly the “cradle” is drawn alongside, and one by one they step in and are drawn safely to the shore. Not one lost! All saved! How? By simply trusting to, and availing themselves of the authorized means of escape.

Now, dear reader, which describes thy position before God? Art thou resting on some device of thy own, building thy house upon some quicksand that will sooner or later launch thee into blank disappointment and despair? for it is said of thee, “He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.” (Job 8:15.) Job said, “My righteousness I will hold fast, and will not let it go;” until he had to say, “Now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5, 6.) Oh, dear reader, trifle not with the “grace of God that bringeth salvation!” Risk not thy precious, immortal soul on that which will not stand the light of His presence. All thy best works are but productions of a nature that “cannot please God” (Romans 8:8), but dead works from which thy conscience must be purged by the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14), if thou wouldest stand before Him who is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29.) Rest in simple faith on Christ, and His work for thee― the only divinely-appointed means of salvation―and neither death nor judgment can reach thee.

The safety of the people in the ship depended upon the trustworthiness of the means. If it broke down, they would perish; whilst it stood, they were safe. Look, dear reader, at the eternal security of the simple believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Will He break down? Impossible!

“The Rock of ages must endure.”

Hear what He says, hang upon the precious words of His lips― “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28.) Cease your doing and striving, and rest upon His perfect, finished work; believe His word, and salvation, full, free, and eternal, shall be yours.

“Cast your deadly doing down―

Down at Jesus’ feet;

Stand in Him, in Him alone,

Gloriously complete.”

A. C.

Forty Years' Prayers.

“YES, in a few months it will be forty years ago that I was brought to know the Lord, and I have told my children that if 1 was to die the only legacy I should have to leave them would be forty years’ prayers; for I have been praying for them ever since.” So said a dear old saint to a friend the other day. I thought how beautiful it was, how grand, how sublime! Just think of it―forty long years of a mother’s prayers, forty years’ pleadings with God. How faithful, how persistent! Surely such prayers will be answered. “Yes,” she said, “several are already in the good old way, and I feel sure the Lord will bring in the others in His good time.” Favored children to have such a mother who, though poor in this world’s goods, is rich in faith, and rich in communion with her God.

Oh, mothers, are you thus pleading with God for your children? Methinks I see you shake the head and say, “I have never done that,” and, it may be, you never have really prayed for yourself yet. You have never felt your need or seen your condition if unsaved. What a dreadful thing for a mother or a father of a family to be unsaved, and to bring up their children in all the follies and vanities of this wicked world― a whole family to be going on in the broad road that leadeth to destruction! If this should meet the eye of such, let me entreat you to consider your ways; for “there is a way that seemeth right in the sight of man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” What an end, I say, to all the toils and difficulties and anxieties with a family― death, eternal death! Oh, how can you, how dare you, bring up your children in such a way? And how can you walk in it yourself? Mothers, fathers, I beseech you, flee from such a path, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is alone able and willing to save you from such a sad end, and to give you eternal life through faith in Him. Just think how earnest Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, was as she persuaded her father and mother and sisters and brothers to come into her house as the only place of safety from the destruction that was about to come on the city, and how they all went in, and were all saved at the taking of the place! I seem to see her earnestness, and I would now reiterate her cry, and say, “Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, come in, come in!” Look, believe, and live. You answer me, “Where? what? how?” I say, “Look, just as you are, away to Jesus. Believe on Him who was nailed to the cross―the One who died in the sinner’s stead, and then life eternal will be yours, now as a present possession, and by-and-by glory with Him forever and ever.”

May the Lord then, my unsaved reader, give you to see your position and condition, as before Him, a lost, guilty sinner, and lead you to trust in and accept the Saviour as yours; for it is written, in John 3:36, “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.”

W H. D.

What Is the Gospel?

GOD has established His present relations with the world through a mediator and a ransom. It is not merely that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die, as a thing in the past; but He is a Saviour God for the world now. He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and to show what His will is, He has placed His mediator, or the one who has made agreement with Him for men, at His right hand, and through Him who died a ransom for all, He has established His present relations with the world, yea, even the world that has crucified His Son. Oh, the wonderful grace of the Saviour God whose very nature is lover! My reader, it does not say, God was love! but, God is love! It does not say merely that God did act as the Saviour of the world, but it says, God our Saviour, who is the one God Saviour now, acting through the glorified Mediator now, and on the basis of the ransom price of that Mediator’s blood that has been paid to Him for all, that any sinner now believing may not perish, but have everlasting life.

But somebody says, I believe that “Christ died for sinners, but I don’t know whether He died for me. I have heard a good deal of preaching that God offers salvation to all that come to God through Christ, or that believe in Christ for salvation; but I really don’t know whether I am one of those who have come to God through Him, or have believed in Him.”

My dear reader, I have only to say that such a presentation of the gospel is totally unscriptural. It practically says God only loves believers, and Christ only died for believers; for if the salvation that He wrought out is only offered to believers, or to those that come to God through Christ, then God’s love is limited to them. In contradiction to this, the apostle Paul says in Romans 3 that the righteousness of God is unto all; for all have sinned. The gospel therefore is for those who have sinned, not for believing sinners. It is a sinner in his unbelief to whom Christ and His blood is presented. It is a guilty sinner who is in his sins to whom the gospel is offered.

A ship is wrecked, and the lifeboat goes forth to save the lives of the shipwrecked mariners. For whom is the lifeboat? Is it merely for those who avail themselves of it? No, it is for all. Supposing the lifeboat comes alongside of the sinking ship, and one steps in, but the other, fearing the raging billows, and distrusting the apparently fragile means of safety, sticks to the sinking ship, that is his own fault. I pray you, my reader, don’t stand looking at such lifeboats as have written on their outside, “This lifeboat is for those who believe their ship is sinking,” but step into the lifeboat because it is for anybody and everybody. If you don’t you will perish, not because of God’s limitation, but because of your own choice. God limits the blood of Christ to no particular persons, nor does He limit His mediator to the few. But God is a Saviour God for all men. His mediator is between God and men, not believers merely. And Christ’s blood was paid to God a ransom for all; so that he that believeth in Christ might not perish, but have everlasting life. Of course it is clear that only believers get the benefit of the salvation, as it is only those who step into the lifeboat who get the benefit of it. But as the lifeboat was for everybody on the sinking ship, and there was room in it for all, so Christ is offered to every guilty sinner, every Christ-rejecter, so that if there be repentance and faith in Christ immediate salvation follows. That is to say, in simple words, that the salvation of God is positively offered to all men without limitation and without reference to their state, but it is only possessed by those who have true repentance towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. P. C.

Discordant Sounds Between Heaven and Earth.

IF the reader will turn to Luke 23:18-21, he will find a company of people, composed of the rulers of the people and the chief priests, who have been called together by Pilate to decide whether Jesus, the Son of God, or a notorious criminal called Barabbas, should be released.

Pilate knew the blessed Lord Jesus had done nothing to justify him in holding Him a prisoner, and spake of releasing Him; but now mark, my reader, the answer of these rulers and chief priests, “And they cried out all at once, Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” In vain does Pilate appeal to them on the ground that there is no evil in Him; it only evokes more earnestly the terrible cry that He may be crucified. Such is the sound of earth about Jesus.

Pilate granted their request. Barabbas was released, and Jesus he “delivered to their will,” He was speedily put upon a cross between two thieves. Those hands that had done nothing but minister blessings and mercies to man’s need along this pathway here, were by man’s hands nailed to the tree, to die a cursed death. “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” And whilst enduring agonies there, again strange sounds fall upon the ear. Rulers, chief priests, common people, and even the thieves at His side, all combine in reviling, sneering, wagging their heads, and watching with a malicious gratification the awful sufferings of Jesus, the Son of God. (Matthew 27:39-44.)

Pilate “delivered Him to their will;” and this is the terrible expression of their will. Awful sounds these from earth, amidst which the meek, the lowly Jesus, the Son of God, gave up the Ghost. Man has done his worst. Jesus nailed to the tree is the measure of man’s wickedness before God.

Let us now turn from these truly awful sounds from earth, and listen to the voice that reaches us from heaven about this same Jesus; and let it be noted that this blessed Jesus came down into this world to do a work for God (a work for sinners too, but especially for God); and thus we hear Him speaking of “being about His Father’s business “(Luke 2:49); of His meat being to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work (John 4:34); and of having glorified God on the earth, and” finished the work “He had given Him to do. (John 17:4.) And again, upon the cross, where darkness and death had to be passed through―death for God’s glory, death for man’s guilt―He was still occupied with this work which God had given Him to do, and thus He traveled on through those great deeps, at the end of which He could give utterance to those ever-memorable words, “It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost;” the work for God’s glory and man’s salvation finished.

But now what has been the voice from heaven all along His pathway in doing this work?

A multitude of the heavenly host, on the plains of Bethlehem, introduce this heaven-sent messenger, called Jesus, with shouts of praise― “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace.” And as He journeyed on His way, doing always those things that pleased His Father, we have the heavens opening from time to time, and the glory of God streaming down upon Him, and the voice from the excellent glory greeting Him again and again, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Such are the blessed notes from heaven as He travels along His lonely pathway here. And when He had finished the work, He bowed His head in death, and committed His Spirit into His Father’s hands, and His body was laid in the sepulcher. Again the glory of God comes into the dark caverns of death. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; and after going in and out among His disciples for a short time, the Holy Ghost tells us, by Peter, after the cloud of glory had taken Him up into heaven, that God has glorified His Son Jesus. (Acts 3:13.)

Thus do we see how great is the difference between God’s thoughts and man’s thoughts, God’s ways and man’s ways. Man says, “Crucify Him;” God’s response is, “Glorify Him.” Man says, “Away with Him;” God says, “Sit upon my throne until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

But now perhaps the reader asks, What has this to do with me? Well, your eternal salvation or damnation hangs upon your thoughts of Christ. You are in sympathy and heart either with the voices that sound from earth, or the voice from heaven. “What think ye of Christ” is the one solemn, all-important question that concerns you personally. God, as we have seen, thinks everything of Him; and though you may be the most upright, respectable, and even religious person in the town or village in which you live, yet if you have not received Christ for your salvation and hope, you will most surely perish. A mistake upon this point will prove fatal. God will not tolerate rejection of Christ.

W. H.

The Two Adams.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47.

WHEN Adam was placed in Eden God made him responsible to keep the life which He had given him. So long as he refrained from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he lived; but the moment he ate of the tree he forfeited his life, and was driven out of the garden to die, the cherubim with the flaming sword disputing his right of entrance to the place that was erstwhile his home, the scene of his unmingled happiness. Access to the tree of life was denied him; he had no right to life. Thus death came upon the whole human race; after death was the judgment.

Forty centuries had rolled on their course, and myriads of Adam’s children had shared the sad consequences of their father’s sin, when God brought into the world a SECOND MAN―Jesus―in whom was “eternal life.” He perfectly glorified God in the very place where the first man had dishonored Him, and then stooping to death made a perfect atonement for sin, bearing in His own sinless person all judgment for such of the human race as should believe in Himself.

But death could not hold Him; for in the power of that “eternal life” He rose from the dead and was received into heaven, taking His seat as a Man at the right hand of God.

And now the star of hope arose and shed its beams over the scene of the first man’s misery; for the voice of Jesus had been heard proclaiming to the poor dying children of Adam, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

How much is involved in this! All mankind stand connected with Adam, the man who was driven out of paradise from the presence of God, and became a poor wanderer over a cursed earth.

Now Jesus died, not only for the sins of His people, but also that He might deliver them from the place of ruin and death in which they stood by reason of this connection. And in John 5:24. He announces the blessed fact, “He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”

Thus directly a sinner “hears” and “believes” he passes from death unto life, his connection with the first Adam is eternally sundered, and he is brought into association with the last Adam, becoming possessed of that eternal life which is in the risen Man at God’s right hand. He stands on the resurrection side of the cross, with not only all his guilt atoned for by the precious blood of Christ, but himself the subject of redemption power― “delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son;” the possessor also of a new and endless life.

Blessings such as these the first man, in the brightest days of innocency, never knew.

Adam held his life independently of God, its source, and so lost it—dreadful transition from life to death, from the place of blessing to the place of ruin. The believer has eternal life in Christ, who is “the life.” It is “eternal life,” in contrast with man’s earthly life, which has an end, forfeited through sin. It can never be lost, because it is in the keeping of God’s Son. Whosoever denies this makes God a liar, because he hath not believed 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. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:10-12.)

The subject of the two Adams is God’s great theme; the first of these was tested and failed. In the second He finds endless delight. The work of the first man was to bring sin into the world, and with it ruin and death upon himself and family. The work of the second Man was to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and bring in eternal life and blessing to all who should through faith be brought into association with Him.

Christ, the second Man, in resurrection life and glory, is the Head of a new and heavenly race, the Head and Center of a new creation; the One who, in the counsels and purposes of God, has taken the place of the first man; the Fountain of that life eternal which flows down to souls dead in trespasses and sins, and brings them into connection with Himself, the Head of the new creation.

“If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature [creation]: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God.”

My reader, to which of these two men do you belong? But perhaps you have never realized the meaning of those terrible words, “So HE DROVE OUT THE MAN,” and have lost sight of the still more fatal fact, that neither the man nor his children have ever won back lost paradise. I know that men do not think of this, and that they are seeking to make a paradise for themselves; but the effort must end in a sorrowful failure, for it is a paradise without God. The earth is yet cursed for man’s sake, and he himself is but a wanderer on its face, his life but a breath, and with judgment hovering over him because of sin.

Oh, believe me, it is not a question of how amiable, upright, straightforward, moral, respectable, or religious you may be! Know you not what is written “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.”

This is the test. Oh, my reader, HAVE YOU LIFE IN THE SECOND MAN? If you have nut, you are a poor, miserable, naked, wretched sinner, racing with headlong speed down to the abode of eternal woe1 a poor lost child of the first man, the sharer of his ruin and judgment, no link between your soul and God, but the object of His righteous wrath, your place outside His Paradise.

If you have not life in Christ, what is your hope? Know you not that you have to meet God? You are as powerless as was your father Adam to resist the stern decree which limits man’s earthly life to a few fleeting years, filled to the brim with tears and sorrow.

Know you not that when the first man was driven out of Paradise he was turned out on that road which leads to the great white throne of judgment, and that myriads of his children have hurried down the fatal path, and are now in the blackness of darkness, awaiting the judgment of that awful day? Know you not that you yourself are on that road, and may be in hell even before you have read this paper?

Would you escape? Then flee this moment to Him who, out of the boundless love of His heart, came from the glory to the rescue of Adam’s lost and undone race. “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.”

This is it, my reader. Life is to be found in Christ, and in Him alone; to be had by believing in Him, and in that way alone. He is the Giver, man the receiver. Will you believe it? Will you receive it? Then the fear of death is gone forever. Life, eternal life, is thine.

Hark!

“Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee: as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.... And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them... that the world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”

It is the second Man who, in spirit, has been to the cross, and in resurrection presents the new race before God. Redemption’s toil is over, and He speaks of eternal life and glory—glory which He has won through nameless agonies and death; life and glory which, in His fathomless love, He bestows upon the lost children of the first Adam.

Hast thou life in this blessed Man, oh my reader? If so, no flaming sword bars thy passage through the gates of the Paradise of God. It is thy future home; the blood of the everlasting covenant gives thee a title to be there. The Father, even now, loves thee as He loves the Son, and thou shalt share the glory with that Son throughout the ages of eternity.

Solemnly, as in God’s presence, reader, I put again the question to you, “HAVE YOU LIFE IN THE SECOND MAN?” If not, I warn you that the wrath of God abides on you―wrath which will pursue you into eternity; wrath which will sink you down deep into that lake of fire, where the Christless will forever wail out their dark despair.

W. H. S.

The Four Judgments.

Notes of a Lecture.

THE subject of the four judgments is taken up with a desire to help those who have been lately converted, and who have confused thoughts about judgment. Some think that all are going to be judged together at the end of the world, but we learn from God’s word that there are four distinct judgments; and this is not a theory of any particular school of theology, but the teaching of the Holy Ghost in the word of God.

The first judgment is past. It is most blessed to see that. Romans 6:6 shows where and when it occurred; and now there are three to come, only one of which the believer will have to do with.

It is very clear at the outset that the Adam nature is so bad that God can do nothing with it. He found it so altogether bad that He passed judgment upon it. Man is not under probation now. He was for four thousand years, but he is now doomed. The cross was the end of the world’s moral history; so the Lord says, in John’s gospel, “Now is the judgment of this world.” “Once in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Christ has been to the cross and met all God’s claims against us, and on that ground God can be just and the justifier of every one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is our judged condition—dead; we get the end of man as man in the cross. God has brought in a new thing.

Romans 8:3 is the judgment of sin in the flesh. Man without law proved himself lawless; man under law proved himself incapable of keeping it. The law was weak; that is, the flesh was too strong for the law to do anything with it. God sent His Son as a man, and judged man. No one would try to make the old nature better if they saw that it was gone forever judicially at the cross of Christ. God judged it at the cross. It was so bad that He could not improve it. He judged it.

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” That is not the “I” that was crucified. The first Adam was crucified—set aside—the last Adam lives in me. The first man, the responsible “I,” was judged and set aside. What a relief for those poor people who are trying to get perfection in the flesh. Christ never shed His blood to improve flesh. He died to deliver me from righteously deserved death and judgment. He shed His blood that God might forgive acts done by my nature. He never forgives the nature. Sins are forgiven, and “I” am crucified. We have a positive statement as to the fact that we shall not come into judgment in John 5:24, “Shall not come into condemnation” (or judgment). The same word occurs in verse 22 in the original. It is exactly the same word as condemnation in verse 24, which should be judgment; and in verse 29 damnation is the same word too. The translators, to avoid repetition, put in different words which they thought had the same meaning; but they should each be judgment.

Verse 24. This is a golden chain, composed of five golden links.

“Heareth, my word.” Have you heard His voice? It makes dead souls live.

“Believeth on Him that sent me.” Do you believe on Him that sent Christ?

“Hath everlasting life.” Have you got everlasting life? Perhaps you say, “I don’t know; I should like to know.” “Have you heard His voice?” “Yes.” “Do you believe Him that sent Christ?” “Thank God, I do.” “Then you have everlasting life.” It is a present thing; and as to the future, do not be afraid.

“Shall not come into judgment.” Christ says so, and He never contradicts Himself. Never say Scripture contradicts itself; never say there are apparent discrepancies in Scripture. God’s word is as clear as midday, and as bright as a sunbeam; but not to be understood by a natural man, only by those who are taught by the Spirit. Rather say, “It is my own ignorance and inability to understand.”

“Is passed from death unto life.” God will not bring two people into judgment for the same thing. Christ has borne the judgment. It is a thing of the past, behind the Christian’s back, borne 1800 years ago; and there is but a step between him and the glory. It is a wonderful thing to be a Christian. There was once a poor blind man who offered to lead me about from house to house where he lived, and on asking him, “How are you?” he replied, “As happy as a man can be. There is only a cobweb between me and my Saviour; let Him but put His foot on it, and we’ll be wrapped in each other’s embrace. Hell is shut, judgment is behind, glory is open, and there is but a step between me and my Saviour.”

There is no judgment for the believer. Never mind whether you understand it or not, believe it because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says so; we shall, understand it presently.

1 Corinthians 15:43. There is never anything said about the resurrection of the spirit, because the spirit never dies, only the body. There is no such thing as the sleep of the soul.

If all of Christ was in the grave for three days, you have a man that was not God, or a dead God, for three days. The spirit never dies, so there is no resurrection of the spirit. “It is sown in dishonor.” What? The body. “It is raised in glory.” Sown in dishonor by reason of sin, raised in glory a glorious body by reason of redemption. When our bodies come from the graves they will be glorious bodies. Think of Christ giving us bodies of glory exactly like His own. We are going to have a body of glory exactly like His!

There are five more links in Romans 8:29, 30. “Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” When we see Him we shall be instantly transformed for all eternity into His own blessed likeness. Imagine, when we are raised in glory, Christ putting us before the judgment-seat to see if we are fit to be there. If people saw how they were going to be raised they would never think of being judged, because they will be raised in glory.

Dan. 7:9, 22. It is clear that this refers to the introduction of the millennium. We get the same description of the saints in Isaiah 1:18, and again of “the Son of Man” in Revelation 1:14. “Judgment was given to the saints.” They were not judged; they judge instead of being judged.

1 Corinthians 6:1-3. There is a good deal of misconception as to this scripture. It simply means that the saints of God were going to law before the unjust instead of before the Church of God, and they were told to let the saints arbitrate. Why? Because the saints are going to judge the world. It is a common idea in Christendom that the saints are going to be judged with the world, but they will be there as judges; quite a different thing. What a wonderful honor. It is most solemn. Think of Christ coming to take His saints to glory, and coming back with us to judge the world―dear ones, perhaps, who are part and parcel of ourselves, but who are finding their joy here. All saved people in this dispensation are saints; it is not a particular class of people. In Jude 14,15 we find that Christ is coming back with ten thousand of His saints. How could He come with them if He had not fetched them first. He will fetch us first, then there will be the great tribulation. Then when we have been with Him in the Father’s house for a period of time, at least three and a half years, He is coming back, and we are going to be associated with Him in the judgment of the world. In Revelation 20:4 God supposes you to be sufficiently intimate with Scripture to know who “they” are without telling you. It is the saints, and judgment was given to them.

Millennium is a Latin word, and means a thousand years. In Revelation 20 “thousand years” occurs six times. The Lord is coming to fetch His people; then a thousand years will roll between His coming with His people to reign over the earth and the end of the world. We have looked at three sets of Scripture― the first proving that the judgment is past, the second showing that we shall not come into judgment, and the third that, instead of being judged with the world, the saints are going to judge the world.

We will now turn to the second judgment. (Romans 14:10.) It does not say that all will stand before the judgment-seat at the same time or for the same purpose. We shall all stand before it; the saints to have their works judged. “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord.” (Psalms 143:2.) He has entered into judgment with our Substitute. Is He free from sins? So are we. Is He free from death? So are we. Is He free from judgment? So are we. The believer stands before the judgment-seat first. In 1 Corinthians 3:8-17 it is a question of reward. Marvelous honor! Deep responsibility! When the apostle preached Christ he laid the foundation, and the different characters of service are put in the order of their preciousness in God’s sight. Gold, silver, and precious stones all stand fire, and the three others which also degenerate―none of them stand fire. There may be a beautiful building, a fine stack of hay, a splendid stack of stubble, but they will all burn up. Man is manifested already. The works will be made manifest; the day will not declare him, but his work. It will be revealed by fire, by judgment of a searching character. We have first (verse 14) a good man and good works, and there is a reward. Eternal life, forgiveness, salvation, righteousness, glory, the Holy Ghost, are all gifts. You will have glory with Christ as sure as He has it; that is no reward. But look to your work. Are you building according to the pattern in the Bible, or out of your own head? A builder might build a most beautiful house―better, he thinks, out of his own head perhaps than according to the plan―but if not guided by the architect’s plan it would be condemned. You may get the praise of men, but if you are not building according to the divine Architect’s plan your work will be condemned. A good man does good work, and he gets a reward. Next (verse 15) we get a good man and bad work, and it is all burned up. He may have made a great show-erected a large building, a large stack of hay, a larger stack of stubble; he is a good man, but has worked out of his own head. Get your plans from the divine Architect, and take care to let no man come between your Master and yourself. This is a good man, but his work all goes. God puts the match to the whole, yet the man himself is saved out of the very fire that consumes the whole of his work. See to it that thou art working according to the wonderful ways of God laid down by the Holy Ghost in Scripture. Suppose salvation was by works, this man must go to the lake of fire; for he has not a shred of good works left; but away he goes to glory through sovereign grace. We do not work for salvation, but for love to our Master. Salvation is by grace, not works.

Verse 16. All believers are looked at as God’s building, His temple.

1. The Holy Ghost is in the house of God.

2. In the individual believer’s body. (6:19.)

3. Forming a body for Christ; finding a second Eve for the second man, the last Adam; a second Rebekah for the second Isaac. There are none in the body of Christ but saved persons. (12:13.)

The second is a good man, but he does bad work, and he loses his reward. The third is a bad man, and does bad work; and both are rejected. The question of everlasting life is settled for eternity; the question of rewards will be settled before the judgment-seat of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:10.) Who are all? Every one saved or-unsaved in the world. They will not all be there at the same time, or for the same purpose. The believer will stand there at Christ’s appearing; the unbeliever at the great white throne, just before the end of the world. Everything we have done will come up, and everything will come out then. All our tricks and ways and works will come out. If you are a child of God they are put away; if not, you will get the lake of fire. Suppose I could take you into a room and show you all the bad things you have ever said or thought or done; and then suppose I took you into a second room and showed you them all covered, you would not mind. Nowhere will the grace of God so come out as at the judgment-seat of Christ, where all the things I did before I was saved, and all since, will come out. Which are the worst, the things done before, or since I was saved? The things I have done since I was saved are a million times worse than those before. Where were those things done? In another sphere? All that we have done in the body has to come up and out, that we may receive a reward. If what you have done be good, you will get a reward; if evil, no reward. Let us live right in front of the judgment-seat of Christ. There will be no condemnation for the believer. If the thought of standing before the judgment-seat terrifies you, it shows that you are not established in the grace of God, and the sooner you get good ground under your feet the better. When you stand before the judgment seat in a body of glory, before whom will you stand? Your righteousness, your Bridegroom. You will be there as His bride, He your eternal life, your peace. We shall be glad to have all up and out, and glad to see Him put away what He cannot reward, and praise Him for rewarding us for what He gave us grace to do.

Revelation 22:12: “My reward is with me.” Again we see that the second judgment is no question of life―that is a settled thing―but of rewards.

In the third judgment there are two classes―the quick or living and the dead. (Acts 10:42.) We get the same words in 2 Timothy 4:1, and 1 Peter 4:5.

The children of God are not involved in this at all. We shall have been with Christ at least three and a half years before the judgment of the living, and a thousand years before the judgment of the dead.

Joel 3:2, 9-14. Nations always mean living people. This is the judgment of the living when Christ comes back with us. Not a single Old Testament saint, not a single New Testament Christian, will be there at all.

Matthew 25:31-40. Here they are all living people. Let me ask you (and I do not desire to hurt anyone’s feelings), Where do you get the doctrine of a general resurrection and general judgment in Scripture? How could this be a general judgment when they are only living people, and there has been no resurrection?

There are three classes here—the sheep, saved people, to whose conversion God will use the Jews, who have not heard the gospel; because not a single one who has heard the gospel and rejected it will have the ghost of a chance of being saved after Christ has come. The sheep are saved Gentiles; the goats, those who have rejected the brethren and their message―the Lord Jesus Christ’s own Jewish brethren. There is no general resurrection, and no general judgment. This is not the great white throne. When the great white throne is set up there is no mention of Christ’s coming, because He has been there reigning over the earth a thousand years already. There is no mention of the dead here; it is not the judgment of the dead, but of the living. Christ might come tonight and take His own blood-bought people to glory; and you who are unsaved might live through the tribulation, and be here to be judged when Christ comes with His saints. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.)

Revelation 20:11-15. The last judgment is of the dead. The thousand years will have rolled their course, the millennium will be over, the great white throne will be set up; and here we have an awful description of the last scene: The great white throne fills all space. You look to heaven; it is gone. You look to the earth; there is not a blade of grass to be seen.

The great white throne fills all, and the unsaved dead stand before God, and the books of their lives are opened. The life of every man, woman, boy, and girl. And the Lamb’s book of life is opened too. They are judged. The works of the believer are judged; the unconverted will be judged, and their works too. Death gives up the body; hades gives up the soul. The soul and body are reunited, and both cast into the lake of fire. There will be nothing there but judgment and condemnation. Why is the Lamb’s book of life open? They may say, “I was a member of such and such a church, chapel, meeting, &c. There is the book of life, and if they could find their names there they would not be judged. There is no judgment ahead of Christians. When Christ comes you will stand before His judgment-seat to have your works, not yourself, judged. There is no judgment for you, only for your works. May they be gold, silver, and precious stones which can be rewarded; not wood, hay, and stubble which must be burnt up. Not a single child of God will come before the great white throne. All who stand there will be those who are dead in trespasses and sins―the ungodly, and they and their works will be judged, and everyone will leave the great white throne to go to the lake of fire. What effect ought this to have on us? May God use it to make us see what manner of people we ought to be. We were never so near to Christ’s second coming as we are today. May it give a color to our work and ways. Dear unsaved one, whilst He is waiting for us, and we are waiting for Him, touch Him, look to Him, come to Him, receive Him by faith, and you will be healed and saved; you will have rest, and will be a child of God, and ready to go to Him; or if He comes first you will be ready to meet Him, and to go to be with Him forever, and if left in this poor world a little longer it will be to live and labor for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

H. M. H.

No Drink in Hell.

DEAR friend, unsaved, on your way to eternity, have you ever, for five minutes, thought of this, “No drink in hell”?

I suppose the rich man spoken of in the Gospels never thought of it; but lie has been thinking of it for hundreds of years past. But he began too late, as it will be by and by with you, if you continue in your present course. No doubt the rich man who fared sumptuously every day loved his wine and other drinks, and had them in abundance; but he never finds any of those luxuries in hell. No; “in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” It would seem as if he found himself there unexpectedly. Oh, what a change, from a life of ease to torment! from a life of luxury to want―want so great that even the finger of another, dipped in water to touch and cool his tongue, is begged to give the least possible relief; but his prayer is not answered. There is a passage of scripture which says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Are you, dear soul, one of those who forget God? Then hell, with all its torments, is before you; and someday, unexpectedly, you will most assuredly find yourself there, if you continue to reject Christ, God’s gift of love to lost sinners. Oh, dear unsaved one, escape for thy life to the only refuge―the Lord Jesus Christ―from the coming judgments; not on this world merely, but on thy own guilty soul, stained with ten thousand times ten thousand sins, and possessed of a nature that is enmity against God. And, to crown all, you are rejecting Christ. God calls, you will not hear.

You may have salvation now. Jesus says, “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.) This word will never be heard in hell-in hell there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Calling, like the rich man, for a drop of water to cool the parched tongue; but you will find, like the rich man, when too late, that there is no drink in Hell.

W. P.

Jesus Is My Saviour.

HAVING heard that a young girl of but sixteen years of age, living at R―, was fast passing away from this life, and not knowing the state of her soul, two Christians called to see her in order to speak to her about the Lord. The father, also a believer, having come down stairs, invited them to follow him to the sick-room, where the poor sufferer lay, with white and sunken cheeks, evidently in the last stage of rapid consumption.

“Are you happy?” was the question addressed to her by one of her visitors, after speaking for a few moments about her illness.

“Yes,” was the unhesitating reply, as a bright smile lit up her whole countenance.

“What is it that makes you happy?”

“Jesus is my Saviour.”

“But how about your sins?”

“They are all forgiven.”

“What was it that took them away?”

“The blood of Jesus Christ.”

“What a comfort for you at such a moment as this,” said he, turning to her father, “to know that she is happy, and so simply trusting in her Saviour!”

“Yes, indeed, and it is only within the last few days. She has always been a child that professed to believe the word of God; but there was no clear evidence of a work of the Spirit in her soul until recently; but she is quite happy now. Last night she asked me to sing part of a hymn that she has often heard at the preaching―

“‘My heart is fixed, eternal God,

Fixed on Thee;

And my immortal choice is made―

Christ for me;

He is the Prophet, Priest, and King,

And while I live I mean to sing,

Christ for me.’”

After a few words of thanksgiving and prayer her visitors left, rejoicing at having been privileged to hear so simple and blessed a testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus, and the value and efficacy of His precious blood. A few more hours and the young sufferer passed peacefully away from this world of sin into the presence of her Lord, there to enjoy to all eternity the blessed results of being able to say from the heart on earth, “Christ for me.”

Dear reader, can you speak thus? Are you happy? If your call to leave this scene had come, how is it with your precious soul? Can you say in simple faith, in the words of this dying girl, “Jesus is my Saviour”? Thousands speak of Him as “our Saviour,” yet know Him not. Can you say, “He is mine,” “who loved me, and gave Himself for me”? (Galatians 2:20.) “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15.) You are one, unsaved reader; for all have sinned. Oh, put in your claim at once ere it be too late! Believe on Him who came to save. Then can you say, “Jesus is my Saviour;” and, “My sins are all forgiven; for the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.”

“Faith is the way of life;

Believe in Christ and live;

Fly to the shelter of His blood,

And peace with God receive.”

E. H. C.

"But They Knew Not That Evil Was Near Them."

Judges 20:34.

UNSAVED reader! you know not how near it may be to you. Can you say how soon those words may sound in your ear, “Thy soul is required of thee”? or when that sentence may go forth, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” No, my reader, you know not how soon the hour-glass of your life will have run its course, or how near the time may be when your days upon earth will have drawn forever to a close. Are you then contented to live like those of old, of whom it says “they dwelt careless, quiet, and secure”? Neglecting that great salvation; caring nothing for your priceless soul, or resting, it may be, in supposed security on the false foundation of your good works, your prayers, your righteousness; forgetful of God’s word, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Oh! be warned of the evil which is near you before it is too late, and you, like those who “knew not that evil was near them,” were “amazed, for they saw that evil was come upon them.” It “was come,” and, unsaved reader, if you are satisfied to remain as you are, “having no hope, without God in the world,” it will surely come upon you! “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” Often and often, time after time, you have heard the good news of God’s grace, God’s free gift of righteousness “unto all and upon all them that believe.” Time after time you have rejected it, or been heedless of it. Would it not be “evil” to you suddenly to be called to leave this world forever―to leave behind you those bright plans which you have laid for your future here, to face eternity? Would it not be “evil” to you if this next moment were to be that which will be the brightest in all the history of those who know what it is to have a Saviour in heaven, who are looking forward with joy to the return of God’s Son from heaven, “even Jesus, who delivered them from the wrath to come”? I say, Would it not be “evil” for you if, this moment, perhaps before you lay this paper down, the Lord were to come, and those that are ready will enter in with Him, to enjoy His presence forever, and “the door will be shut”? But, my reader, will you be outside? Content to do without Christ now, content to slight His oft-repeated call, the message you have so often heard, you will have to do without Him then; yes, and spend eternity without Him! God grant that a Christless eternity may not be the portion of any who read this paper, but that now they may look to Him who says, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved,” for “the time is at hand.”

B. M.

"From Heaven."

MAN’S chief idea of heaven is, that it is the abode of happiness in the future, and most people hope to get there somehow or other; but to how few does the thought occur, that during the ages that are past something must needs have taken place before earthly inhabitants would be made fit to dwell in heaven.

In the Psalms we find a solemn sentence twice repeated― “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.” (Psalms 14:53) And what was His verdict? They were not seekers of God, they were filthy; there were none that did good, they were workers of iniquity. What a character for man to have deserved and acquired at the mouth of his Maker! But, you may say, that was spoken of infidels; it was an extraordinary occasion. No, this is what man is under the best of circumstances from Adam downwards.

In Eden God came down to see what man was doing, and He found him afraid and hiding; he was a sinner. Outside the garden of Eden before the flood “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” “God looked upon the earth... all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:5, 12.) He saw the same as He says in the Psalms.

After the flood God came down again to see what the children of men were doing, and He confounded their language because they were without restraint on the earth.

Of Sodom before its destruction God said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down and now see.” (Genesis 18:20.)

And so men went on through the Old Testament days from bad to worse, until the New Testament days began. Dear reader, does your heart own this oft-recorded verdict to be true of you? Will you put your hand on your mouth and cry, “Unclean, unclean”? If so, how gladly will you now look at the other side of the picture, and learn what God did when the fullness of the time was come, in providing a remedy from heaven for the state of things which He saw.

No man could ascend up to heaven (at Babel they had failed in their attempt); but of One it is said, “He that came down from heaven... 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 3:13, 16.) God sent His Son to make a way by which sinners could reach heaven, not by their own futile efforts, but by a heaven-sent Saviour. Think of it! The same God who looked down from heaven, and saw man’s hideous condition, now not only looked, but He sent; yea, His only Son came down from heaven, and gave his life a ransom for many. He died on the cross for sinners; but not only so, God raised Him from the dead for their justification; and still more, “He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God.” (1 Peter 3:22.) Why is He there? He is there as a man, because He has by Himself purged our sins. Do you want to know if your sins are forgiven? Look into heaven and see a Saviour there, the same Jesus who bore your sins, if you are a believer, in His own body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24.)

What is the Lord Jesus doing in heaven now? Many things, but among others He is “speaking from heaven.” (Hebrews 12:25.) “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.” He speaks by His word, by the mouths of His messengers, His ambassadors. (Romans 10:14-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20.) Have you listened? Not content with coming down and dying, He now speaks to you; and God too beseeches you to be reconciled to Him. He can do this because He gave His Son to be made sin for you, and is satisfied.

But if the Lord Jesus is in heaven now, He is not going to remain there always. It is written, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout... and the dead in Christ shall rise first.... Then we... shall be caught up.” (1 Thessalonians 4) Into heaven will go with Him all who from the time of Adam have put their trust in Him. Then indeed there will be a company of redeemed ones to sing His glory!

Once again of a later date do we read these words, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7.) God looked down from heaven in the ages past, and then He provided from heaven a way of escape in the person of His Son, who still speaks from heaven. In the future the world for whom He has done these things will be divided visibly (not as now, a division only seen by God) into two classes. The one class who have heeded that speaking from heaven will be safely housed in the Father’s mansions; the other class will see that rejected Saviour revealed from heaven, this time to take vengeance on those who have not obeyed the gospel. Reader, would it not be well to listen now to the One who speaks from heaven, and to think not only of heaven by-and-by, but of what it cost God, to provide a new and living way there for you? You will “not escape if you turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven” now, and only vengeance will await you at His hands in the future.

H. L. H.

A Contrast and Warning.

THERE are solemn and blessed lessons often to be gathered from the last hours and moments of those who are about to pass from this world into the next, from time into eternity―lessons which the Lord would have our hearts ponder and take home. The last moments are solemn moments, when the soul has to do with realities. Sin and death, God and eternity, are often terrible realities to the unsaved sinner as he draws near to the dark unseen world, where he is conscious there is nothing but eternal damnation awaiting him.

On the other hand, those who have got Christ, and know Him as their living Saviour, often prove during their last hours what a loving, mighty, triumphing Saviour He is; so that their hearts are filled with praise and thanksgiving as they look into eternity and see it lighted up with the glories of Him who loved them and died for them.

Two cases often occur to me which will illustrate this.

The first is that of an old man, well known to the writer, a most highly-respected and well-to-do man, but he was a man without Christ; wise indeed about all the things of this world, but a fool about things concerning his soul and eternity. Being born again, and saved by the blood of Christ, was in his estimation nothing but religious cant.

God spared his life to a good old age, but still the longest life here has an end; and after living upon the bounty of God, and despising the mercy of God for fourscore years, his end drew near; he was brought to a sick-bed, with his intellect perfectly clear, and eternity stretching out before him: He began to realize that it was an awful thing to have to meet God in his sins.

And could you, my reader, have crept into his room at any time during the last twenty-four hours of his life you would have seen an anxious, deliberate look upon his countenance, and slowly, in measured tones, would this one short sentence fall upon your ear, “He has got me! he has got me! he has got me!” And when in the evening the writer’s sister gently laid her hand upon him and asked the question, “Who has got you?” he could only groan out, “Oh, he has got me!” and died.

My reader, you turn from such a terrible end as this with a shudder. I have not related it to work upon your feelings, but to try and get at your conscience, if you are unsaved. Remember, the end that I have just related is that of a most respectable man who lived without Christ, and found at last that he had got to meet the living God, without Christ as his Saviour; and, oh! you have got to meet God also, and the one solemn warning I would press earnestly and affectionately upon you is this, that without Christ it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Now let us turn to the case of another man who was altogether as bright as the other was dark. When the writer became acquainted with him he was slowly but surely drawing towards his end, under the power of that sad disease, consumption; about forty-five years of age, with a tender, delicate wife, and a family around him.

But he was quite happy; he had long known the Lord Jesus as his Saviour; he had not lived without Christ; so when sickness, and death, and eternity were before him Christ was with him, making his heart to rejoice and sing praise; and often when the poor body was racked with pain have I heard him say, “Oh, this is the very best thing for me, the Lord makes no mistakes!”

But it is to his end that I desire to draw your especial attention, that you may see how a Christian can go into eternity under the shelter of the blood of Jesus.

Draw near with me to his bedside, around which are gathered his sorrowing family, fondly and anxiously watching, as death is making its rapid strides. Strength is almost gone, but the mind perfectly clear, and faith bright, the feeble voice raises its triumphant notes, “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” whose blood alone speaks before the throne and here; half-an-hour after he was absent from the body, and present with the Lord.

Notice, my reader, how precious is this dying testimony to the blood of Christ, the throne of God in all its righteous claims, holiness, and majesty fully vindicated by that blood alone; the poor sinner’s need, his guilt, all that he is, and all that he has done, fully answered for by that blood alone.

Can you in thinking of the throne of God and your guilt say the blood of Christ alone speaks there and here? If so, you can join in that note of praise and triumph, “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

W. H.

"None Admitted There Without Being Washed."

THE following incident was related by the widowed mother of the poor boy who, in the spring of 1882, was by his sorrowing parent conveyed, in the last stage of consumption, to the infirmary in Glasgow. For some weeks he had been rapidly declining, and, by the doctor’s advice, she who loved him best was taking him where he would have constant medical attendance and other wants supplied.

On entering the infirmary, and making the usual application, the mother was informed that her child must have a bath and a change of garments. Fear took possession of the loving parent’s heart, lest her boy in his delicate state might catch cold, and she exclaimed, “My child is perfectly clean.” But the rules of the institution were imperative― “None admitted there without being washed.” And on the assurance that every precaution would be taken, and no risk incurred, she resigned her boy to the nurse. In the meantime, while she waited, a wretched-looking woman entered the apartment, and on asking for admission, was told it was necessary she should be washed and other clothes put on. To this she would not consent, and after some altercation, left, no doubt greatly displeased at not being received on her own terms. Rapidly did the thought pass through the mind of the anxious mother, and she exclaimed, “That is the gospel. No soul can enter heaven, but those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb!”

After submitting to the regulations, the poor boy was conveyed to an apartment where the walls, beds, and everything were purely white, and he himself clothed in a similar garb―faint emblem of that home where naught that defileth can enter. After lingering for a few weeks, the sufferer passed away, we trust and believe, to be forever with that precious Saviour who had washed him from his sins in His own blood. Reader, whoever you may be, have you, like this dear boy, submitted to God’s way of salvation, Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life? Or, like the wretched woman in our narrative, have you turned away from God’s gracious offer of salvation, and in the rebellion of your heart are you saying, like him of old, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?” To such I would say, “Be not deceived.” “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” God cannot pass by sin, but He has judged it in the person of His own beloved Son, who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Then come to Jesus just as you are. Cast your soul on Him for time and for eternity. He has said,” Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out” Thus, washed in the blood of the Lamb, clothed like the prodigal in the best robe, you have naught to fear. Death and judgment are behind you, and should your Lord tarry, the former will but usher you into His presence, “where there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” God grant it may be so with all who read these lines.

"I Be a Sinner, but There's That Precious Blood."

THE farmhouse kitchen in a country village had been opened for preaching the gospel, and the Christian farmer had been round the village inviting the neighbors in; and when the evening came, there was one woman there that they little expected to see. She was well known to almost all the village as a notorious character, and more than one would be saying on that evening, “Whatever has brought her here? “And while thinking of one motive or another, common to fallen human nature, perhaps not one at the time thought that He who came to seek as well as to save the lost was going after another lost one (Luke 15:4), and had Himself drawn her into that kitchen to hear the words of life.

Again and again was C―found in her place at the preaching’s, and it does not appear that any, save the One who was drawing her by the cords of love, knew what was going on in that poor sinner’s soul.

“O God, Thine everlasting grace

Our scanty thought surpasses far!

Great in almighty gentleness,

Thine arms of love wide open are.”

But one evening she was missing, her seat was empty; and one can easily understand, if any notice was taken of it, what would be said by some of the neighbors. “Perhaps it was the mere novelty of the thing that had attracted her, and at length she had become weary of it;” “or it may be that the words spoken had been too plainly set forth for the conscience of one who was serving Satan as his willing tool, and so she had got away from the light.”

However, time passed on, and one day the farmer received a message that C―was very ill, and wished to see him. Accordingly he went, and found her evidently dying. On her having been told that Mr. D― had come, she looked up and said, “I be glad you ‘re come. I did want to see you. I be gwine whoam.”

“Going where?” he said.

“To heaven,” she replied.

Desiring to test her ground for such a statement, he asked her, “But how can such a sinner as you be in such a holy, happy place as heaven?”

She turned her dying eyes to the speaker, and answered, “I be a sinner, but there’s that precious blood,” and then passed away to be with the One who still receiveth sinners.

Simple but blessed testimony, containing repentance towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. As one of old, this poor sinner confessed, “I have sinned.” And the grace of God could assure her, as it had done David, “The Lord hath put away thy sin.”

We speak of great sinners, and sinners not so bad as others. The Scripture speaks of lost sinners. One may be a Pharisee, and saying, “I thank thee that I am not as other men.” Or one may be a publican. The difference is this, the one is a lost Pharisee, the other a lost publican; both need salvation, and the “precious blood” is the alone title for either the one or the other; as it proved in the case of this poor woman, who will bless God throughout eternity for the grace that drew her into the farmhouse kitchen; as the woman of Luke 7 was drawn into the house of Simon, where Jesus was, attracted by something she saw in that blessed Son of man that just suited her as a ruined sinner. Her faith had brought her there, but she did not know till afterward, when she heard it from His own lips, that the same faith had saved her.

The Sinner's Doom.

SINNER, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting. You have been tested, and there is no good thing found in you. You have got no heart for Christ; no love for God. Your desire is either to get away from God, or to get God out of the universe. So wicked that you have tried to believe there is no God. You hate God, and you desire not the knowledge of His ways; so that there is no hope of your ever being happy with God, as far as you are concerned. But oh, what grace! the One thus insulted is seeking you! If you die, or the Lord Jesus comes into the air to take up His own, and you are found in your sins, then your doom is fixed throughout eternal ages. “No hope, no hope, no hope,” will be one of the many dreadful thoughts ever before you then.

At the present, dear unsaved one, you are under condemnation; the carrying out of the sentence will be by-and-by. God says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. There is no respect of persons with God. “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.” Again, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8.)

Can you not see what characterizes you in this awful passage? Are you one of the fearful ones, afraid to own your guilt? afraid that it should be known that you had any thought of these dread realities? If so, your fate is just to be the same as those who are characterized by grosser sins; and most certainly you are one of the unbelieving ones. The wrath of God is upon you because you believe not. You are in danger of being sent to the surging flames of the lake of fire every moment you remain impenitent. Oh, we beseech you, we entreat you, to let the Holy Spirit direct your eye of faith to the Son of God, who was crucified, dead, and buried; but who is risen again, and seated at the right hand of the Father. And while He sits there, judgment is kept in abeyance.

Read the final doom of the impenitent sinner in Revelation 20:11-15. The great white throne is set up; the earth and the heavens flee from before the face of Him that sits upon it. But you fearful and unbelieving ones must stand before Him until the books are opened. No hiding-place for you. The rocks and the mountains are gone; the earth is gone. You find yourself alone (though surrounded by millions)―no helper near. You had deliverance offered you once, but you despised the Deliverer. Nothing now remains to be done but for you to look in anguish of soul upon the awful majesty of the just and holy Judge who has the books, and knows every action of your life―secret and open. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

W. P.

"I am Saved."

A FEW years ago it pleased God to lay me aside by a severe affliction, and for some weeks little hope was entertained of my recovery; but our ever-gracious God and Father had His own wise end in view in raising me up from the bed of sickness; and feeling sure of this, the desire of my heart was to do something for the Lord.

Soon after my recovery a man who lived in the village, and whose duty it was occasionally to call, told me his wife was very ill, in consumption, and he did not think she could last very long. I enquired if any Christian friend had been to see her, when he replied that no one had called. I promised (D.V.) to see her that day.

Accordingly, after looking to God for wisdom and guidance, earnestly desiring that all might end in bringing glory to His name, and blessing to this poor suffering creature, I set out on my journey.

On arriving at the cottage, a young woman came to the door, whom I afterward found to be the poor woman’s sister; and having made known to her my purpose in calling, I was introduced to the invalid.

Her face bore the sad traces of suffering and grief. I told her I had been informed by her husband that she was very ill, and I felt sure the Lord had a purpose in sending me to see her. She at first did not care to say much, and her manner seemed repulsive. I inquired if she was a believer in the Lord Jesus? She said NO. I then asked what would become of her soul if she were to die. She could me give no answer. I read portions from God’s word, telling her, as the Lord enabled me, of His love to poor, lost sinners, such as she then was; that He was waiting to be gracious, and that if she would only believe His word, He would fill her soul to overflowing, with His own deep, wondrous peace and joy.

She listened attentively, and her face grew brighter. I saw she was evidently very weak, and did not stay long.

I saw her again two days afterward, when I felt truly thankful to see a smile on her face. Upon inquiring how she was, she replied, “After your last visit, for some hours I was most unhappy. I knew I was not saved; and if I had died then, I should have been lost. Oh, the agony of soul I was in I never shall forget, the perspiration was rolling off my head and face. I was too ill to read the scriptures you had been speaking about, but asked my sister to do so;” they were as follows:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18.)

“Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28.)

“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 the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him.” (John 4:50.)

She continued, “As I read those last words such peace and joy entered my soul, I said to my sister, ‘Oh, Alice, I am saved! I do believe that Jesus died for me, and now my burden is gone. Tears of joy ran down my face, I had never felt so happy before. As soon as my husband came home I told him what had taken place, and that henceforth I was a new creature in Christ Jesus.”

When she had finished relating to me the account of this great and glorious change which had so recently taken place in her heart, by the mighty operation of the Spirit of God, words completely failed to express my thankfulness to Him who is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Yes, through faith in God’s word she had not only peace, but also joy in believing. “I can praise Him now,” she said; “yes, I can praise Him, for now I know my sins are all forgiven, and I have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” From that hour she lived for Jesus. Those who knew her were able to testify of her joy in the Lord.

As time passed she became weaker as to body, but how bright within! Death to her had lost all its terrors, heaven grew brighter, and the coming of the One whom she so ardently loved filled her whole soul. She would say, “My sufferings are great, but it is a Father’s love still. I shall soon be home. How I long to be with Jesus.”

It was my privilege to see her daily, until she was called home. Upon one occasion she said, “I am always so glad to see you I shall never forget the day when first you spoke to me about Jesus. How I do pray that the Lord may bless you, and make you a blessing to others, as you have been to me.” I replied, “The Lord knew how weak the poor vessel was, and the desire to do something for Him. His grace has been sufficient, and His almighty power has wrought the work of salvation in your precious soul, for which we shall bless and praise Him throughout the countless ages of eternity.” She said, “Oh, I want to bless and praise Him now, for His great love in saving my soul.”

Her end was fast approaching, but the treasure in the earthen vessel was shining brighter than ever. Shortly before she died she said to her sister, “Oh, Alice, they are come.” Upon being asked whom she meant, she replied, “The angels, the room is full and, oh, there is Jesus—look!” He has come to take me ‘home;’” and as she lay gazing at the heavenly vision a sweet smile rested upon her face, and her happy spirit had taken its flight to realms of peace and joy, there to dwell in the presence of the Lord forever.

“There shall all clouds depart,

The wilderness shall cease;

And sweetly shall each gladdened heart

Enjoy eternal peace.”

S. W.

A Golden Chain of Five Links; or, Two Haths.

John 5:24; Eph. 1:3.

I WONDER how far the truths contained in these two verses have entered into our souls, and how far we have grasped the truths in them, not merely intellectually, but are experimentally in the enjoyment of the wondrous cluster of blessings the Holy Ghost brings before us.

In this day of uncertainty, which has no sanction for its existence in Scripture, nothing shows how far Christendom has wandered from God and His word as the frightful amount of uncertainty that exists. If you asked a thousand individuals the question, “Is your soul saved?” few would say, with certainty, “Yes, thank God, it is.” The immense majority would answer, “I hope so.” Hope is never connected with the salvation of the soul in the New Testament. Under law no one could have certainty. There is not a single verse, from Genesis to Malachi, that tells of anyone knowing he had eternal life.

In John 14:20 you find not only what was never known, but what never existed before. “At that day” (the day of the Holy Ghost―the present day) “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” The characteristic of Christianity is that the Son is in the Father, and every one who is saved is in the Son, and the Son is in all who are saved. Christianity deals with facts, religion with fancies.

We have five facts here, or a chain of five golden links.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word.” It is a divine One speaking to you. This form of speech, “Verily, verily,” only occurs in John’s gospel, and there it is found twenty-five times. The Lord Jesus reverses the ordinary order. Christendom always ends with “Amen.” He begins, “Amen, Amen;” that is, He begins with Himself, for He is “the Amen.” (Revelation 3:14.) By this form of speech the Lord calls your earnest attention, saying, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” He always uttered the word of God. Can you have the word of God apart from His person? No; my words are part of myself, they communicate to you what I believe, if I am not a hypocrite.

John 20:31 is a remarkable verse: “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” The living Word and the written Word go together. “The word of God is living and operative.” (Hebrews 4:12.) You constantly find in Scripture that the Word is what the Holy Ghost uses. If I had a sword, you would never make out that the sword and myself were one. It is a weapon I use; I employ it to thrust you through. The spirit and the Word are two totally distinct things in Scripture. How am I to know that it is the Word that is used? Suppose I had a sword and ran it through you, should I have to sit down afterward and explain to you that it was a sword? You would know it fast enough. If the word of God ran like a brightly-burnished sword through your conscience, you would never have a doubt as to its being God’s word. The Word connects me with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two go together.

There are several instances of this in Scripture. Mark 8:38: “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words.” You cannot reject His words without rejecting Him; and you cannot receive His words without receiving Him. You cannot accept one without the other. I do not mean that you cannot read or learn it, as you would a lesson of Greek, or French, or Latin; but receive it in your heart. It quickens, gives life; “for the flesh profiteth nothing.” (John 6:63.) What an overwhelming sentence!

Romans 8:8: “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” You may please your fellow-creatures to such an extent that they may write volumes about you; but if you are in the flesh you cannot please God. If you are not in Christ you are in the flesh―in Adam. There are only two heads before God. If you are in Adam you are in the flesh, and do not please God. You may be charming, praiseworthy, noble, an excellent person; but if you are not born again, you are in Adam, and no profit to God. Again, in John 17, the written and living Word are constantly spoken of together; you never find them separated. Have you heard His words? The devil is very busy, and may now be saying, “You have never heard Him speak to you audibly.” He never speaks apart from the word of God. There is not a greater wile of the devil than to make people believe that there may be a voice apart from the word of God.

If you came to me and said, “I have had a revelation apart from the word of God,” I should say, “I know where that comes from. The devil mixed it up in his dispensary; and I reject both you and your medicine.” Perhaps you say, “I only wish I could have a dream or a revelation such as that one had.” Well, if anyone is converted through a dream at all, you always find that it is the word of God in the dream that was blessed of God; and when it has only been a dream without the word of God, it is never a satisfactory case.

Have you a heart to hear the Holy Ghost who is speaking to your conscience through the Word? I believe the Lord gets at the heart by the conscience. The object of preaching the gospel is to reach the conscience. No one is saved without repentance―not one single soul. There is no salvation in repentance. I cannot say how long it takes God to produce it. That thief was brought out of his cell with a heart as hard as the nails that nailed him to the cross. Both he and his fellow-thief cast at the Lord what was going on below; but the moment his conscience was reached he repented; and the man whose heart was so hard at sunrise was in Paradise with Christ at sunset. That thief was as fit to be there as Christ was. How do you know that? Because Christ received him there. That poor thief exchanged the most awful prospect that ever afflicted the heart of man for the most brilliant prospect that ever lighted up the heart of a man.

2. “Believeth on Him that sent me.” Abraham believed God, not of or about Him. Paul, in the midst of the terrified shipwrecked mariners in the storm, cried out, “I believe God.” Can you say, “I have heard the life-giving words of the Son of God, and now I believe God”? Faith connects you with God. What did God send Christ for? There are two little words of the same number of letters I should like you to notice―gave and sent. In John 3:16 it is gave, but we get sent more frequently. The Son was sent from the heart of the Father. He sent His well-beloved Son to save guilty rebels.

1 John 4:9,10. We were all dead, and there was no other way for us to get life but by God sending His Son the propitiation for our sins. How could a dead man be troubled about His sins? Suppose there were two men―one dead, and one asleep―and you put a hundredweight on the chest of each. The dead man would not feel it. The instant the living man wakes up he says, “Oh, this weight on my chest!” It shows he has life, because he feels it; but it shows he has not deliverance. It is like Lazarus with the graveclothes on―no liberty. When the weight is gone there is life and liberty too; when a man is groaning under the weight of sin, it shows he has not deliverance.

Do you believe your sins are gone from Jesus? If He is up there without them, then you must be free. “As He is, so are we, in this world.” I wish I could take you to a dear, paralyzed, Christian gentleman in Sussex, only able to use one arm, and that you could hear him triumphantly say:

“John’s nine monosyllables, all in a row,

Are my joy and delight while here below.”

3. “Hath everlasting life.” Have you heard His words? Yes, thank God. Have you believed on Him that sent Him? Yes. Then you have everlasting life. “That I cannot say―I do not feel it.” If you only believed you had it, because you felt it, it would show that you attach more importance to your feelings than you do to the unalterable word of God. He says you have it.

Once, when Napoleon was reviewing his army, he incautiously let the rein fall upon the neck of his horse, which, taking fright, darted off at a gallop, obliging the rider to cling to the saddle in imminent danger of being thrown. While all stood gazing in consternation, a private soldier sprang from his place in the ranks, seized the bridle, and respectfully placed the reins in the hand of the Emperor, “Thank you, captain,” said Napoleon. “Of what regiment, sire?” asked the soldier. “Of my own Guards,” replied the Emperor. The soldier laid down his gun and passed over to the group of staff officers. “What does this fellow want?” haughtily asked one. “This fellow,” said the soldier, “is a captain of the Emperor’s Guards.” “A captain? Who said so?” “He said so,” replied the soldier, pointing to the Emperor.

Have you to say you have everlasting life? No. Christ says so. I know no other surer authority than to be able to say, “He says so.” Do you want better authority than that? He says it and never contradicts it. Not “shall have,” as if it were a future thing, or “is having,” as if it were a gradual thing, but hath, everlasting life.

4. “Shall not come into condemnation.” The words, condemnation, judgment, and damnation are the same in the original, and should be judgment in each case. There is no judgment for the believer, therefore there can be no condemnation. The common lot of man is death and judgment; but those who have heard God’s word will never come into death or judgment.

The child of God is in Christ.

“Death and judgment are behind us,

Grace and glory are before.”

Perhaps you may say, “But I thought we should all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ? The Holy Ghost does not say that we shall all stand there to be judged. If He had He would have contradicted the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He could not do that. The judgment-seat of Christ has to do with the question of reward, not of guilt at all. He could not judge me and my substitute too. There is no more judgment for Christ, and no more for me.

5. Is passed from death unto life. Yes, is passed from a state of death in trespasses and sins from death in the first Adam, from death in the world into eternal life, and forgiveness in Christ the last Adam, where He is in the glory of God.

Have you heard Christ’s words? Do you answer, “Yes.” Then you have the first link in the golden chain.

Do you believe God that sent Him to die for you and to put away all your sins? Do you again reply, “Yes.” Then you have the second link in the golden chain.

And now Christ says you have everlasting life, that is the third link; and Christ says you shall not come into judgment because He has been into it and exhausted it for you, that is the fourth link; and lastly, Christ says you are passed from death unto life, and this is the last link in this magnificent chain of golden links.

And now just a few words on the other Scripture at the beginning of this paper. It is a most blessed doxology― “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HATH blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

Israel was promised by Jehovah all temporal blessings in the land of Judea under their Messiah (Ezekiel 36); but they rejected and crucified Him, and God has raised Him from the dead and taken Him to heaven, and now all who believe in Him have all spiritual blessings in contrast to temporal ones; and they have them now in heavenly places in contrast to earthly places, and all in Christ in contrast to under the Messiah.

We are not only saved from yawning hell, but to God’s bosom brought, in the person of His Son.

“HATH everlasting life.” HATH all spiritual blessings in Christ where He is at God’s right hand. What two wonderful haths! and all made good to faith, not to feelings.

Oh! do take God at His word, and believe what He says, and the present enjoyment of the blessings will be yours.

H. M. H.

The Remedy for Death.

A SHORT time ago a lady, surrounded by every comfort and luxury, lay ill with a mortal disease in one of the largest hotels of―. She had tried one physician after another, and at last, in the dead of the night, she called in yet one more. The thought of death was intolerable to her, and she clutched at every possible means of escape, suggesting one place of resort after another as a way of recovery, and seeking to win from the doctor some vestige of hope as to the prolongation of her life. He sat and listened to her, having already assured himself that human measures were of no avail to heal her body. The hours went by, and at length he rose to go. It was his turn to speak now, and to give the casting vote, perhaps you will say, to one of her many plans. Ah, no, this was not his thought!

But he had a message to deliver from his Master, ere he left that sick-chamber. Will you listen, dear reader, while I tell you what it was? for it may be a message from heaven for your soul today.

“Madame,” said he, “there is one remedy for death, and I know it.”

She looked wonderstruck, and he added, “The Lord Jesus says, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.’” (John 11:25, 26.)

This is all I can tell you of the lady, for the next day she left the hotel, and I saw her lifted into an invalid carriage at the railway station, with a doctor and nurses in attendance.

Ah, there was no peace on her brow! no light from heaven seemed to have dawned into her poor unsatisfied heart! The restless look betokened that she was still in search of health, but not of Christ, who alone can carry us safely through the valley of the shadow of death. And why? Because He passed through on Calvary’s cross what never need be our portion if we believe on Him―the judgment due to sin.

Dear reader, I would fain have you realize that souls are passing out of time into eternity day by day, and your turn may come next Do you know this remedy for death of which God’s word tells us? Can you say, “I know it”?

“We know that we have passed from death unto life.” “These things have I written unto you... that ye may know that ye have eternal life, those that believe on the name of the Son of God.”

C. A. W.

"Can You Do Nothing More for Me?"

THE love of possession is natural to man; and if he has acquired possessions by his own industry or ability, so much the more valuable are they to him. He feels himself supplied with what he believes will be proof against the possible emergencies and difficulties of this life. But what can money or possessions do for him when the life, which is “but for a moment,” is over? “Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20.) And again (verse 15), “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” The young man in Mark 10, who “had great possessions” in this life, had yet to ask, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” His very possessions were a hindrance to him, and dimmed his eyes to the “treasure in heaven” that the Lord Jesus could offer him.

There lived lately a man who, though poor in his youth, had by middle age amassed great wealth. Nothing afforded him greater pleasure than to sit at his desk and count over his gains. Sometimes a servant of God would come in to visit him, and would seek to show him that his possessions could, not preserve him from trouble, or pave the way for him to enter God’s presence. But he always replied, pointing to his desk, “There is my protector; there is where I go for assistance; what could I want more than that?”

Time went on; and it came to the ears of this servant of God that the man of great possessions was very ill, yes, even dying. He felt he must make one more effort to show him the peril of his position in leaving this world without one thought of how he was going to appear before God. He entered the sick man’s room, and what a solemn sight met his gaze. There was the old man on his knees before his desk with its drawers open, still fingering his notes and his gold, and repeating over and over again, in tones of agony, “Is this all you can do for me? Can you do no more for me than this?” The Christian spoke to him of the blood of Christ, which could fit him even now at this late hour for the presence of a holy God. But his words fell upon deaf ears. The old man’s remaining senses were concentrated in his death on what had occupied and satisfied him through life, and he found his possessions useless―yes, worse than useless. And again came that terrible cry of entreaty to the idol of his days, “Can you do nothing more for me?” and so he died.

My reader, you may say you have no possessions, and that if you had them you would know better than to worship them. But do you know that if you do not possess Christ for your soul’s salvation you are in as dangerous a condition as this man of wealth. Poverty is no ground for expecting something better hereafter, for Revelation 20:12 Says, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God... and the dead were judged,” &c. The small and poor meet their doom in the same place as the great and rich, unless down here they have learned to have “a treasure in the heavens that faileth not;” and then indeed they may say, “Having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” And remember that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

L. C. W.

Sing Me That Hymn.

“WILL you sing me that hymn―which the gentleman that died sang?” These two broken sentences came with difficulty from the lips of a dear young Christian who was dying. I was by her bedside with the feeling that we were speaking together for the last time upon earth. A sister in the Lord was present, and we looked at one another, and tried to recall the circumstance to which she alluded, and which would lead us to the hymn she wished us to sing. A few more words, which came slowly from her lips― “That died in the room”―told us that it was a hymn which begins thus―

“One spirit with the Lord;

O blessed, wondrous ‘Word!

What heavenly light, what power divine,

Doth that sweet Word afford!”

The circumstance mentioned above was this: Some Christians were gathered together a few years since, one Lord’s-day morning, in the meeting-room at B —, to remember the Lord Jesus in His death, when three strangers entered, and quietly took their seats at the end of the room, as the worship had already commenced. Soon after their entry the above hymn was sung, and I noticed as it proceeded one of the three, an elderly man, singing very heartily, and with evident enjoyment. The last two verses run thus―

“And though by storms assailed,

And though by trials pressed,

Himself our life, He bears us up

Right onward to the rest.

“There we shall drink the stream

Of endless bliss above;

There we shall know without a cloud,

His full unbounded love.”

The last cadence of these sweet words had hardly died away when a slight noise called our attention to the old gentleman, who had sunk down on the floor. On going to render him assistance, I found that his spirit had passed away to taste in the Lord’s own presence of “the stream of endless bliss above;” for one of his companions at once told us that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus.

Reader, can you picture to yourself that solemn moment? Solemn indeed, yet we sat there in peace, with what man would call death in our midst, until the lifeless body was removed. We then rendered thanksgiving to Him, whose death we were about to remember in the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, for the assurance that he who had been with us was, because he was saved, now absent from the body and present with Himself. We turned quietly and solemnly from the scene that had just taken place to contemplate death as it is brought before us in the memorials of bread broken and wine poured out―death tasted in all its bitterness by the precious Saviour that it might become for the believer’s spirit the entrance into His own blissful presence. Having thus remembered the Lord’s death together we separated.

But to return to the dear sufferer who had recalled this circumstance to the mind of the two who were by her bedside. We sang the hymn while she lay looking up into heaven with a sweet smile on her face. Then came the words, “Thank you. How I should have liked to go to the Lord while you were singing!” I replied, “The Lord has His own time for gathering your spirit up to Himself, and that will be the best,” to which she quite assented.

Dear reader, notice how this young believer’s spirit was already over the river of death, though it pleased the Lord to detain her here for a few more weary days the happy moment she longed for was realized just one week afterward. Think too of the old man singing of endless bliss above, and in a moment tasting it.

Were you to be called suddenly hence, or to be brought face to face with death on a sick-bed, let me ask, How is it with you? Perhaps you say, as another once said, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His!” (Numbers 23:10.) Do you remember what more he said? “I shall see Him, but NOT NOW: I shall behold Him, but NOT NIGH.” Of whom did Balaam speak? Of the Star of Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ. Both the young woman and the old man had by faith seen Jesus, and could say, “But NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made NIGH by the BLOOD OF CHRIST.”

Are you still saying, “Not now”? Will you pass on your way with death lying in your path, whether it meet you suddenly or in your bed, and you “not nigh” to Christ? It will OVERWHELM you. Yes, without Christ you will find yourself in the grip of death overwhelmed. Oh, come to Christ now! He has met all that makes death terrible―the judgment of God against the sinner by dying on the cross. “He that believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Yes, come. You will not then fear the grip of death; for you will know the clasp of His hand, from which nothing can pluck you.

T. H. R.

"They Shall Never Perish."

John 10:28.

THESE are the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the “Good Shepherd” who gave His life for the sheep; and when risen, gives His own eternal life to the sheep, and His own pledge― “They shall never perish.”

Now mark, He does not say, They shall never wander; He does not say, They shall never backslide; He does not say, They shall never fall; but He does say, “They shall never PERISH.”

“Yes,” you may say; “but there are other scriptures which seem to say that a believer may be finally lost.”

Now stop, my friend; one scripture at a time. Does Christ say of His sheep, “They shall never perish?”

“Yes,” you reply; “but surely that must mean so long as they are faithful.”

But He says, “NEVER.”

Now which is right; your word, that a ‘true believer may be lost after all, or Christ’s word, “They shall never perish”?

If “never perish” means anything, it means as much as “not finally lost;” and as there are no ifs, buts, or conditions of any kind whatever, but a bare, unqualified, absolute statement, “They shall NEVER PERISH,” you are bound to admit that at least one text of Scripture assures the true believer of final security. This being so, I have only to add that if there is any other scripture that appears to you to contradict or qualify this text, it must be that you do not understand that other; for, thank God, there is no possibility of misunderstanding such plain words as “never perish.”

Be assured then, dear reader, that you will run no risk in venturing your soul on ONE WORD of the “God that cannot lie” and “cannot deny Himself.” Take this word as your sheet-anchor, and wait on God to make clear any other that seems to clash with it.

Think you, my friend, that you could by any possibility sink into hell at last if, as a poor sinner, you had taken Christ at His word, and relied on His “NEVER PERISH”? If it could be so―with reverence I say it―all heaven would blush to find the Christ of God unfaithful to His pledge. No, beloved friend, Jesus Christ is “a tried stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16), and “he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.” (1 Peter 2:6.)

E. B. G.

No Middle Ground.

WOULD you like a little book?” said a servant of the Lord to a woman in the country.

She and some companions were standing at their cottage door after a busy day at washing. It was now evening, and having a little leisure they seemed glad to receive a book.

“Which would you like,” said their visitor, “a book for a saint, or a book for a sinner?”

After a moment’s thought one of them answered, “Well, sir, I should like one that would do for both.”

“That I cannot give you,” said their visitor, who then proceeded to show them, in a few words, that there is no middle ground on which to stand, where it could be said that the same person is both saint and sinner, or neither saint nor sinner.

By “saint” here is meant a saved person; for so God speaks of such in His word (“called saints,” Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2, etc.); and by “sinner” is meant an unsaved person; for the word of God does not apply the word sinners to those who have been washed in the precious blood of Christ, though, alas! they may often fail.

There are many besides this countrywoman who would scarcely like to own themselves sinners and therefore lost, and yet would think it presumptuous to confess themselves saved. They would like to be in some place between the two―not quite lost, yet not quite saved.

This, dear reader, can never be. Everyone on this earth is either saved or lost, either a saint or a sinner. How do we know this? Because God’s word says so. It is not difficult to prove from God’s word―and without such proof how vain is the reasoning of man―that by nature all are sinners. We need only to turn to Romans 3. to see the truth of this. There we read, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (verse 23.) “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.” (verse 19.) “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (verse 10.) It were useless then, in the face of these verses, to profess to be the only one who is not a sinner; and indeed I think there are very few who would not immediately own to having committed many sins in their lifetime, and everyone, though he might not like to say “I am a sinner,” would at least give the oft-spoken reply, “Yes, we are all sinners.”

More than that, we are all sinners, since we are children of Adam; and Romans 5:19 tells us, “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners;” so that irrespective of all that we have done by nature we are sinners, and therefore lost, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and after death “the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27.) The result of that judgment (Revelation 20) clearly states, “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Dear reader, are you a sinner? are you lost? is judgment awaiting you? Perhaps you say, “Yes, I am a sinner; but I cannot say I am lost, and hope my future is not judgment and the lake of fire, for did not Christ come to seek and save the lost? Yet I dare not say that I am saved.” If these be your thoughts, you are seeking to stand on that middle ground of which there is no mention in Scripture. We have turned to a few verses that speak of sinners and the lost, let us now look at a few referring to those who are saved. We noticed the word all in Romans 3; turn now to Acts 13:39, and the same word is found again: “And by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” This is not so comprehensive as those verses in Romans 3, they took in every one; this verse refers to a particular class, not however distinguished by some great amount of faith or good works, but by the simple fact that they believe, and believing are by Him―that is, Jesus Christ―justified from all things. That well-known verse in Romans 5 tells us the blessed result of being justified: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then in verse 9 there is something else, “We shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Where then is there room for doubts? Peace excludes all thoughts of fear or trembling, for it rests on the death and resurrection of Christ. What gives rest and comfort in reading these verses is, that it is all in connection with Christ, and in no way depends on us. In Acts 13:39 it is, “By Him all that believe are justified.” In Romans 5:1, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Rom. 5:9, “We shall be saved from wrath through Him.” If we were to search the Scriptures from beginning to end we should find the same thing, that the work is accomplished entirely apart from ourselves. Christ did it Himself long ago. He said, “It is finished,” and nothing can be added to a finished work. We can look back and see everything accomplished according to God’s thoughts. God is satisfied, and now can send out that wonderful message, “All that believe are justified from all things.” How simple this is. The weakest believer can take his stand here, and rejoice in the fact that he has peace with God, and shall be saved from wrath; for there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

There can therefore be found no mention in the word of God of one who is neither saved nor lost, neither a saint nor a sinner. If he is among the “all that believe,” he is saved, and saved forever; if he is not a believer, he is lost, and if he continues in unbelief will be lost forever. How clearly this is stated in John 3:36, “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.” How blessed are they who, no longer harassed by hoping and fearing, rejoice in having peace with God, and can now look out for the coming of the One who Himself did everything.

L. A. M. B.

The Simplicity and Certainty of Salvation.

WE address ourselves to those who are anxious and heartily willing to be saved. The class of persons on whose behalf we pen these few lines are those who, in life and health, are represented by the Philippian jailer (Acts 16); or who, in suffering and near death, like the dying robber (Luke 23), sought and found a present and certain salvation.

SIMPLICITY.

“The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6.) Now, anxious souls, what is troubling you?

“My sins, my iniquities,” says some earnest seeker. “My sins will sink me down into the lake of fire;” and, continues the unhappy one, “I have tried to weep my sins away, to get rid of the intolerable burden by praying much, by holy and most earnest resolutions, by amending my life and ways; but I am as miserable as ever. I cannot get quit of my sins.”

Your sins are the cause of your wretchedness, and your inability to remove them is your great difficulty. Now God has met the whole case for you. God has done it. He has taken the iniquity of us all and laid it upon Christ. Ask the writer of these lines a few plain questions.

Anxious one: “Were you ever miserable because of your sins?”

The writer: “Yes, twenty-five years ago I was almost in despair.”

Anxious one: “What did you do to get rid of your sins and misery”

The writer: “I prayed, I wept, I resolved, I vowed, I experienced; yet after all my sins were like a millstone hanged about my neck.”

Anxious one: “What next did you do?”

The writer: “Having done all I could, I just sat still and did nothing.”

Anxious one: “What then?”

The writer: “I opened my eyes and read, The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Anxious one: “What next?”

The writer: “I knew my iniquity was laid by God on Jesus―was taken off me and laid on another, even Jesus, the Son of God. I knew it simply because it was written in God’s word.”

Anxious one: “But how do you know that?”

The writer: “I know it and believe it because it is written, ‘God hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’”

Anxious one: “Then where are all your sins?”

The writer: “God having transferred them from me to Christ, and in Him on the cross condemned them, they are now gone, eternally forgiven and forgotten, never more to be remembered.”

Anxious one: “How did you feel when you made the discovery from God’s word that your sins had been all laid on Jesus?”

The writer: “Why I put my finger upon Isaiah 53:6, and said, ‘That must be true, for God has said it;’ and for these twenty-five years I have been so happy, now that I am saved and know it too.”

CERTAINTY.

“Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43.) The reader may be a man, woman, or child―may be a man of culture, of worldly position, of religious status, or he may be a drunkard or profligate; but let him or her know that the word “whosoever” applies to the individual reader of these lines. Now that we have fixed upon the person, the “whosoever” of our text—that is, you, dear reader―let us look at the next word “believeth.” Sometime ago the writer, at the close of a gospel service, spoke to several anxious souls who were trying to work up a “feeling” of being saved. In turning to a concordance of the Holy Scriptures, it was found that the word “feeling” only occurred twice in the New Testament. Once it is used of Christ (Heb. 4:15), and once only of sinners. (Ephesians 4:19.) Israel of old had the word and gospel preached to them, and they mixed their “feelings” and “tears” with it, yet they perished, and why? because it was not mixed with FAITH. (Hebrews 4:2.) “Believeth” is the soul’s confidence in what God has said and printed, as in our English Bibles. “Faith” is resting on what God has written. “Faith” too is simply trusting Jesus and taking God at His word.

God says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” (Isa. 45:22.) I simply look and am saved, and that is faith. Jesus says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28.) I come to Him and He gives me rest, and that is faith.

“Believeth in Him.” Blessed object of faith! And who would not believe on Him? Does not His love, His grace, His blood, His finished work demand our heart’s confidence? You will trust the Saviour― Jesus, will you not? Reader, “He that believeth on the Son hath, everlasting life.” Believe or not believe is the question. Feelings have nothing whatever to do with it. Do you believe on Christ? If so, “shall receive,” here is divine certainty. There can be no possibility of mistake. “It is not “may receive” or “perhaps receive” but SHALL receive.” What? “REMISSION OF SINS.”

My sins were laid by God on Christ, and now on believing in Him I get their full and frank remission.

Reader, you may be saved before laying down this gospel appeal. Salvation cost Christ His awful agony and precious blood that it might be free and costless to thee.

May God direct thy heart to Christ. He bore “our sins in His own body on the tree.”

W. S.

Obedient or Disobedient?

A Child of God or a Child of Wrath?

DEAR soul, as you read the twofold, short, simple questions that form the title of this little paper, let me entreat you to pause, and in the very presence of God and in the light of eternity apply them to yourself. Ere you go further on your earthly path, to the end of which you may even now have drawn very, very near, do stop, stand still, and, while you face the eternal realities of heaven and hell, let your heart and conscience yield a truthful answer. Get into your closet, shut yourself in alone with God, and take a sheet of paper, head it thus:

The Gospel of God.

And then sign your name in the blank space, under the one description or the other, as the word of God and your own conscience testify.

And now, my reader, how is it with you? The gospel is the grand touchstone for discovering the condition of men. The glad tidings of God’s salvation you have often heard, often read. Often has God told, invited, besought, commanded you to come to Jesus―to take salvation, to look and live. The great question therefore is, How have you treated God? “What think ye of Christ?” Which side are you on? Do you say, “How am I to know whether I am saved or not? a child of God or not?” Then apply the test of the following verse of scripture to yourself: “AS MANY as RECEIVED HIM [Christ], to them gave He power [right, or privilege] to become the SONS [children] of GOD, even to THEM THAT BELIEVE ON HIS NAME.” (John 1:12.) Christ is offered to you, a poor, lost sinner, as a SAVIOUR. Now, then, have you received Him? Have you believed on His name? If so, God says you have become His child. If you have not yet come to Jesus, if still refusing to trust Him, you are as yet a child of wrath. God commands you to believe in the name of His Son. If you have done so, you are obedient; if not, you are still disobedient; if the former, saved, and on the road to heaven; if the latter, unsaved, and on the road to hell. Dear reader, how is it with your soul this moment? I again entreat you to pause and face this solemn matter. You must do so sooner or latter. Why not now?

“Tomorrow’s sun may never rise,

To bless thy long-deluded sight;

This is the time! Oh, then, be wise!

Thou wouldst be saved―WHY NOT TONIGHT?”

Precious soul, I would beseech thee by all the blessedness on the one hand, I would warn thee by all the misery on the other, to rest not night or day until this all-important matter is settled, until thou dost know that thou art on the right side as regards God, Christ, heaven, eternity. For mark well the following words of God, which shall surely be fulfilled: “The wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.” (Colossians 3:6.) Also take heed to the following question, put by the Holy Ghost in Peter, and answered in Thessalonians. Question: “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17) Answer: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be PUNISHED with EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; WHEN HE SHALL COME.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.)

Wouldst thou escape such a doom, reader? Flee, flee from the wrath to come to Jesus. Look and live. Believe and be saved. He waits to welcome thee. He longs to save thee. His precious blood cleanseth from ALL SIN. “Now is the ACCEPTED TIME... NOW is the day of SALVATION.” TOMORROW may be TOO LATE. Come NOW, dear soul, and trust Him once and forever.

H. P. A. G.

"For Me"; "I Come!"

“WILL you go and see John R —, for he is dying, and no one seems to visit him?” was the question put to me.

I went. John, still a young man, lay on his death-bed. He had been seized of a common trouble―consumption. “How do you feel, John?” said I.

“Very ill, sir.”

After further conversation on matters connected with the state of his body, I asked him as to his future.

Poor fellow, all was dark ahead. He felt the load of sin, he feared to die and meet God with that load upon him; but he knew not how to get rid of it. He was like Christian in the City of Destruction with the burden on his back. John felt the same load.

But how many there are who are thus loaded, and yet don’t feel their burden! How is this?

Could it be possible in natural things? If a man had a pound weight on his back he would feel it; still more so if he had a hundredweight. Of course he would. Ah, the secret is that Satan blinds us to the great evil of sin, and leads us to think that because we have not committed something very dreadful, that, therefore, we are not sinners! But this is a mistake. God’s thoughts of sin are very different to ours, and we must have His thoughts, and not our own, in this matter. Am I not your debtor, if I owe you £1? Am I more than your debtor, if I owe you £1000? I am debtor in both cases; that character is stamped upon me. It is not a question of the amount of the indebtedness, but of my being a debtor, Now, it is just the same in respect of sin, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10.) Can anyone say that he has not offended in “one point”―yes, “one point”? then he is guilty of all!

Oh, think, dear reader, what it is to be “guilty of all!” How do you stand in view of this? I do trust you feel, like poor dying John, your load of sin, and that you too fear death and meeting God unpardoned! And why? Just because a soul in that condition is ready for the gospel. Like a drowning man, he will grasp the feeblest straw of hope.

Thank God for the agony of soul that makes a publican sinner cry, “God have mercy on me!” and that makes one lay his guilty soul down on the soft and downy pillow of the pure mercy of God.

John was ready for this; and well did I know the divine remedy for his deep soul-trouble.

“Do you remember the hymn, ‘Just as I am’?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then I will quote the first verse, all but the two last words of the second and fourth lines, and you, John, will quote them for me. Do you understand?”

Yes, sir.”

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that thy blood was shed―”

There I stopped, and listened. Soon, from his husky throat, I heard the two remaining words:

“FOR ME,”

“And that thou bidd’st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God,” ―

Again I paused, till I heard the two last words―words so all-important, and so full of blessing when spoken in faith:

“I COME?”

That step takes the soul into salvation. “Him that cometh unto me shall never die.” “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.”

And John had come―come on the warrant of the Lamb of God, and found salvation there. A few weeks of suffering and of confessing Christ to others, and his spirit passed away to be, doubtless, with the Lord.

Faith always takes possession; hence, “Thy blood was shed for”―whom? for “me!” Yes, for me, a poor, guilty sinner, who can plead nothing―no goodness, no merit―who deserves only death and judgment―that blood was shed for me; thank God, for me!

Further, faith makes bold, and says, “I come.”

And why? Because I am bidden― “Thou bidd’st me come;” and therefore boldly I come, and I am thine. Happy step! blessed confidence! precious blood! adorable Lamb of God!

What could be simpler, or more worthy of the God who “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”?

“Whosoever”― “for me”― “I come!”

Make it your own.

J. W. S.

"Yet Doth He Devise Means."

A YOUNG lady was sleeping on her bed at night. As a child she had been taught to read the Bible, but when older had enjoyed whatever pleasures of the world she could attain unto, and very few thoughts of the future had troubled her. But on this night she suddenly and unaccountably awoke from sleep, and heard, as distinctly as if someone had spoken them in her ear, the words, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Thoroughly aroused, she lay trembling. Her previous knowledge of the Bible left no doubt on her mind as to whence came the words (Luke 12:20), and as she pondered them sleep fled away and fear took its place. What should she do? She knew not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and prayer was her only known resource. “I felt,” she said, “as if I must wrestle and struggle with God in prayer; as if I must call on Him to save me. Before morning I might be dead, and what then?” Dear reader, if you have ever faced the thought of your sins, a holy God, and the future, you will guess what her feelings were. God had spoken to her. He had applied this passage of scripture, hidden in her memory, in living power to her soul, by the Holy Ghost, sent down here to convince the world of sin. She was like the lost sheep, who knew that it was lost, and after whom the Shepherd goes, “until He find it.”

But what means could be used to find this soul thus calling on God? Do you remember the verse that says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”? (Romans 10:13.)

Yes, blessed be God, so free is His grace, that even if a soul be in ignorance of His way of salvation, He never turns away from one who calls on Him, and Himself finds the means for accomplishing His gracious ends. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

As my friend lay trembling and praying, suddenly and softly came stealing in on her soul the words, also as distinctly heard as the previous ones, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43.) Again the voice of God―His still small voice making itself heard―she heard, and her soul lived. No more fear for the future; her night was turned to day, and instead of a night wherein to be summoned into God’s presence to hear of her sins, it had become a day wherein she could be glad and rejoice; for she trusted Him who had shed His blood on Calvary. Very dimly she saw it all at first, but very calmly she lay blessing God, recognizing too that she had passed from darkness to light. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.” (Job 33:29, 30.)

Another person, a few years later, also was sleeping on her bed at night. This time it was a Roman Catholic woman, who had never been taught to read the Bible, and had been brought up in a foreign land in utter ignorance of the truths of the gospel. “By what means could God speak to such an one?” you ask. “He giveth not account of any of His matters,” and He can do His work in His own way. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.... He keepeth back his soul from the pit.” (Job 33:14-18.) On this night this woman awoke in a terrible fright. She had seen in her dream a beautiful abode from which she was shut out; and though you and I might not be affected by such a dream, my Roman Catholic friend was, and endured nights and days of misery therefrom. She dared not go to the priest, for she had neglected her supposed “duties” of confession and mass-going, and now she knew not what to do. But God, who had His own thoughts of mercy concerning her, brought her into connection with another woman who had received blessing to her soul, and who induced her to attend some gospel meetings.

“Are you unhappy still?” said one who was visiting her a few weeks later.

“No, I am quiet in my mind now.”

“But remember there is a quietness that the devil gives; he lulls his victims to sleep, and persuades them that hereafter is not to be thought of.”

“Oh, it is not so with me! My quietness comes from this. I know that the Bible says, ‘Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.’ Ought I not to be happy, now that I do believe He has forgiven me?”

Yes, she ought; for she too had taken God at His word, and in her case too He had devised means whereby His banished might be brought home to Him. God had said, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.... He shall pray unto God, and He will be favorable unto him.” (Job 33:24, 26.) The Lord Jesus Himself has said, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.” (John 10:16.) Do you think He will be disappointed? Oh, no! One by one He is bringing them in by different roads from the many paths where they have been wandering over the mountains of sin and difficulty; one by one they hear His voice, and are carried home on His shoulders with rejoicing. And soon will come the day when He shall “see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” Have you heard His voice? Will you let God use the means He has devised to bring you home too? “God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.”

H. L. H.

Gospel Address, Trees.

Gen. 3:8; Luke 19:4-8; John 1:48; 1 Peter 2:24.

I WANT to say a little to you about trees, or rather those who are mentioned in connection with them. In the first Scripture you have a man behind a tree; in the second, a man in a tree; in the third, a man under a tree; in the last, a man upon a tree―the man Christ Jesus. I read this last, because it brings out how necessary it was that He should go there to suffer, bleed, and die, to bear all the judgment of God, to endure all that God could possibly express against the sins of the people behind, and in, and under the trees, which never could have been put away except by His being upon the tree―putting them away there. On the cross he had them all upon Him, and He left the cross as free of them as He is now in heaven.

The first three Scriptures expose us through and through. Take the first, Genesis 3:8. Now what you get is that Adam and Eve put trees between themselves and God; they thought that these trees were going to hide them from the God they had sinned against; were going to screen them from the searching, piercing eye of the omniscient, omnipresent God. How little they knew God or themselves. Sin destroyed in their souls the sense of what God was; they neither knew Him nor themselves. But then people say, I do not try to hide myself from God. I try to be a good husband, I work hard from morning till night, and after my day’s toil I go home to my wife and children; what can a man do more? My dear friend, don’t you know that your wife and children are so many mercies God has given you—the best of earthly mercies—and you put them like so many trees between God and your soul, and you are hiding yourself behind your mercies, just as Adam and Eve hid behind their trees. A tree is a mercy, it supplies you with fruit or fuel and so on; but here are trees, a plurality of mercies, and they actually put them between God and their souls when they became sinners. I don’t say you are immoral, or dishonest, or flagrantly wicked men and women, but you need not be very great sinners to go to hell.

I heard a woman say, “I thought if I went to church, and was a good wife and mother and neighbor and did my duty, that I was all right and should go to heaven, but I found out that I was a miserably deceived woman on the road to hell; but now if I died I should go straight to heaven. I thought only black sinners and very wicked ones went to hell, and that good, moral, respectable people went to heaven, but I found out that one solitary sin would sink my soul in the everlasting lake of fire.” Have you ever thought that? You that are pluming and priding yourself upon being different from other people. How many sins did Adam and Eve commit to be turned out of Eden? God said to them, as it were, “You may smell every flower, you may taste every fruit, you may enjoy the shade of every tree, you may have all at your disposal, but there is one tree you must avoid.” God put man in Eden as a responsible being to his Creator. The devil came in and tempted Eve, and Eve looked, and the heart followed the eye, and the hands followed the heart, and the feet followed the hands. She eat and gave to Adam. The ruin was perfect. “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.” That one act of taking the fruit of that one forbidden tree gave the world a jar it has never recovered from yet. Do you ask, Where are the effects of sin? Look around at the misery and suffering that the world is full of. That was the fountain whence flowed the various streams of sin, sorrow, and suffering, woe, want, and death. Why is our world strewn with cemeteries and graveyards? What brought them? That one act of disobedience.

If for one sin God turned Adam and Eve out of the garden, if He was so holy then, is He less holy today? He is as absolutely holy, righteous, and just now as He was then. The crying sin of today is disobedience; there is nothing people seem so little able to cope with. It is the very sin that wrecked the world; one single, solitary, isolated act of disobedience. God thought so much of it that He turned Adam and Eve out of the garden. And if God is as absolutely holy today, what conclusion must I come to? That to maintain His holiness He must keep us out of the heavenly paradise, as surely as He kept Adam and Eve out of the earthly paradise. For one sin you are exposed to the judgment of the lake of fire. It requires as much blood to put away one sin as ten thousand sins. People think of things with their thoughts. Oh, think of them with God’s thoughts I One sin is more intolerable to a holy, righteous God than all the sins ever committed could be to one of us.

Think of such things as we are, attempting to put anything up between ourselves and God, trying to hide behind the trees. That is what you are doing, and the very thing you are trying to do is the thing that is to be the punishment of man throughout eternity. I want you to look at 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” The very thing people are trying to do will be their doom by-and-by. Terrible outlook for all who are seeking to hide behind their trees. What tree are you hiding behind? I don’t know, but I know if you are unsaved you are trying to hide behind some tree from the presence of God. It may not be a bad tree; it may be a very good one. It may be plenty of money—a mercy from God; or you may be satisfied with your domestic circumstances, that is a wonderful mercy, but don’t settle in it as if you were to be there for eternity. You know what your tree is if you are not saved. Let me say this to you, God has come down to you in the person of Christ, and He is inviting you to come from behind your trees to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died upon that tree to put away your sin. Come now to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Oh no,” you say, “I shall stop a little longer; I shall take my chance.”

Now let us turn to Matthew 3:10. Mark the words, beloved. “Now also the axe is laid at the root of the trees,” and you don’t see what is lying hidden at the very root of what you are taking pleasure in. Look what is there! Since Christ’s death on the cross the ax is laid at the root of the trees―the glittering, brightly burnished ax of God’s unbending judgment; though, blessed be His name, no hand is holding it yet. When Christ comes back as judge He will lay it about the roots of your trees; and when the trees are all cut down and you stand naked before Him, what will you do then? Oh, beloved, before He takes hold of that ax and brings every tree down, and you stand before God to answer to Him for every sin of thought, act, and word, and above all, for the crowning, culminating sin, the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to Jesus saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Come from behind your trees and take salvation from His hand now. The hand our many sins have pierced is stretched out now full of forgiveness, salvation, redemption, eternal life; full of blood-bought blessings. Will you not take salvation from His hand now? But if you determine to keep behind your trees, remember your doom, you will oblige Him to hew them down, and expose you to the judgment of God forever.

Turn now to the second scripture―Luke 19:4-8. Here is a man running up into a tree. He had only one tree, not trees; not a forest of things as in the first case. “He ran before, and climbed up into a tree.” What have you to say against that? I know that Jesus never saved him in the tree. He said, “Make haste, and come down.” It was not till he came down, and received Jesus joyfully, that He says, “This day is salvation come to this house.” There is some tree you are hiding in, some tree of reformation. Ah, no; you wont be saved because you are a teetotaler. I don’t mean that drunkards will go to heaven, and teetotalers will go to hell; but until a man is born again, his being a teetotaler will not save him. “Ye must be born again.” Moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, hoary-headed or young, “ye must be born again.” The Lord Jesus Christ says so; there is no back door of escape. Are you up in a tree? Come down out of it; own you are a lost, guilty, ruined, hell-deserving sinner. I am not speaking against morality or temperance―a world of honest men would be very preferable to a world of thieves―but I am speaking against your dependence on honesty or sobriety for salvation. Are you in this tree of reformation? You have to get down to the feet of the Lord Jesus. Remember He never saved a man in a tree yet. I advise you not to turn over new leaves, but close the book and put it into the fire. Get out of the old Adam, who ruined you, into Christ, who “restored that which He took not away.” Man is so bad by nature he cannot make himself any better, and so bad that God Almighty cannot make him better. And what did He tell Nicodemus in John 3? Was it that he must be a better man, or more religious? He was all that, religious, respectable, moral, and good; and yet the Lord Jesus said to that fairest specimen of humanity, “Ye must be born again.”

Now what tree are you in? Christ comes to the very root of your tree; not in judgment at present with an ax in His hand, but in the riches of His mercy, the greatness of His love, the exceeding richness of His grace. He looks up, and what does He say? “Make haste”―be in earnest, as it were― “come down; for today I must abide at thy house.” Oh, but, you say, I don’t believe in getting it so suddenly! Do you believe in sudden damnation? You will have to believe in one or another. There is no point between life and death; you cannot put a shadow between, not the thickness of a sunbeam. If you are not saved, you are unsaved; if you are not forgiven, you are unforgiven; and if you are not prepared for glory, then you are unprepared. Christ says, “Make haste.” He is in earnest about you, if you are not about yourself. These are His words, not mine, “Come down; for today I must abide at thy house.” What is today? If I tell my servant to do a thing today, she knows it does not mean tomorrow. Do you say, “Oh, well I shall take my chance, and stay up in my tree a little longer?” Christ is saying, “Make haste, come down.” There He stands in grace at the foot of the tree, beseeching you to come down. Was there ever anything more divine, more touching, than to see the Saviour coming from heaven, seeking you and beseeching you to come down? Is it not enough to break your heart? The touching grace of the Lord Jesus in all this, is it not lovely? Read the verse in Matthew again: “Now also the ax is laid at the root of the trees,” etc. Who is standing at the tree? The Saviour, What is laid at the root? The ax of judgment. Suppose you say, “I won’t come down; I will trust to my tree of reformation? You will oblige Him to take up that brightly-burnished, glittering blade, and lay it about the roots of your tree. If you won’t come down you must be cut down, and cast down in God’s judgment.

I turn to the third scripture―John 1:48. Here is a man under a fig tree, A fig tree, you may know, was emblematic of Israel nationally. God had called them, separated them from all the rest of the nations to Himself, called them by His name, had made known to them His covenant name―Jehovah; and now there was Nathanael under the fig tree―the national emblem; but he and Christ were apart from each other. While he was there he was away from Christ, and did not know Him in His person, or work, or glory. That is the picture of a man who is under some hoary-headed religious influence. I have often talked to people like that, who are hiding under these religious trees. But, my dear friend, you may be under this religious tree or that. Do you know there are 1300 sects in Christendom, and everyone supposes his own is the right? Christ died to make His people one, “that He might gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad;” and what the Lord Jesus died on Calvary’s cross for, and shed His precious blood to make one, man has chopped up into 1300 different sects. There are people under the shadow of one or another of these religious trees. I am not speaking against them, but I want you to see what a terrible thing it is to be resting there complacently, and thinking you are all right. No; you must come from under your tree, whatever you are blissfully slumbering under. Are your sins forgiven? Is your soul saved? Are you at peace with God? Are you ready for the second coming of Christ, or for death, whichever may take place first? There is no middle ground, you are either for Christ or against Him; which is it? Are you, by God’s grace, saved, or are you not? You must come from under your tree. “Oh,” you say, “I must take my chance! I will bide my time. My father died very comfortably under that tree I will try to die comfortably there too.

My dear friend, will you turn again to that verse in Matthew 3:10: “Now also the ax is laid at the root of the trees,” &c. Won’t you come from under your tree at the bidding of the loving Saviour’s voice, and find that He gives everything His blood has purchased for you, and the love of God can give you? Now as Saviour He is inviting you; but if you won’t come from under your tree, and get down at His feet, and take shelter under His soft, downy, strong wings, you will oblige Him to take up that terrible ax of God’s unbending judgment and hew down your tree―your delusive shelter you think you are secure under. Ah, you and it will come down together!

Oh, beloved Christless soul, come from under your religious tree! come down to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ ere you oblige Him to cut you down in judgment. Don’t push it from you, I entreat you!

Now I turn to the last scripture―1 Peter 2:24: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” Now there is the One on the tree—the Man Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of the eternal God, God manifested in flesh. There He is between two thieves, between heaven and earth, and He has our sins upon Him. Think of it!

He had no sins upon Him in His life. It says of Him that He knew no sin. (2 Corinthians 5) Remember He is the One who knew no sin, and who never committed any sin. “He did no sin,” and yet He is the One who bare our sins — bare them there on Calvary’s cross. He was not bearing sin all His lifetime up to the tree, but on the tree. Christ had nothing to say to sins till He came to the cross. He was born holy― “That holy thing.” (Luke 2:35.) All His life He was absolutely holy — “holy, harmless, undefiled;” and all along His pathway He could say, “I am not alone; my Father is with me.” How could He say that with our sins upon Him? But when He came to the cross, and God made our sins to meet upon Him, when He laid our sins upon that holy, sinless, blessed one of God, He does not then say, “I am not alone.” From out of the loneliness and solitariness of Calvary you hear that terrible cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There you get that awful cry piercing that darkness, going up into the very ear of God. All alone! Denied by Peter, betrayed by Judas, deserted by the rest; but the bitterest ingredient in that cup was that God hid his face from Him in absolute righteousness. God must hide His face from Him when sin was upon Him, or else forever hide His face from us. For our sin He was there who believe that He has taken the cup of God’s wrath against sin and drained it to the very dregs. Oh, look at it again! “He bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” “He once suffered for sins”―once for all, never to be repeated for sins―our sins. Once suffering suffices for God; does it suffice for us?

Think of that spotless, holy One for us, for sins He suffered. Then the judgment of God came down upon His holy, blessed head; all that could be expressed against sin net there. Think of what it cost Him! What He endured for God’s glory, and the putting away of our sins!

But where is He now? On the cross? No, He is not. What did He do before He left that cross? Put all our sins away. He did not leave the cross and go to the grave until our sins had been put away by His blood. He rose without one sin upon Him, He went up into heaven without one; and there He is now in heaven. Do you believe He put them all away by His precious blood before He left that tree, and that He is up there without them at God’s right hand? Surely you don’t think God would have sin up there in His holy home in heaven? He sent His Son to die because He could not have sin there; but He wanted to have you and me there that He might have heaven filled with an innumerable company, washed in the blood of the Lamb. “He bare our sins,” He died, He was buried, He rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended to God’s right hand on the fortieth day, without one of our sins upon Him. And God says, in 1 John 4, “As He is so are we in this world.”

Come, beloved, from behind your trees, come from out of your trees, come from under your trees, and get down to the feet of the One who “bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” who hung there beneath the wrath of God, His face hidden from Him there, who is now at God’s right hand. Do you say, “What shall I get?” What did Adam and Eve? Animals were slain in the very garden where they committed the sin and tried to hide; death came in, and the skins were taken to cover them, and there they were at home in the very presence of God, of whom they were so afraid when they went to hide behind their trees. If you trust to Christ’s death, God says, “I will clothe you and make you as fit for my presence as the blood of Christ can make you.” He removes the unfitness by the death of His son, He makes me fit by raising Him from the dead. He is my righteousness. Is not the righteousness of God fit for heaven? And Christ is my righteousness. “He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him?’ If Christ is fit for heaven, so am I, if I believe in Him, for He is my very fitness. Can you look up to heaven and say, “He is my righteousness”? That is what Adam and Eve got in figure when they came from behind the trees―all the benefits of Christ’s death.

What did Zaccheus get? The person of the Lord Himself abiding in his very house. He could say, “I have Christ, what want I more?” He got a Person. Not merely was he in the benefits of his work, but he had the very Person who did the work in his house. What a wonderful thing! He says, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Most people know the work, but many do not know the Person. Do you know the Forgiver, not only that you have forgiveness? The blind man (John 9) says, “Who is He, Lord?” He did know he was in the benefit of His work, but he did not know the One who had done it. He knew salvation, but not the Saviour. Have you the Saviour who is there in brightest glory? You know you are blessed; do you know the Blesser?

In the first case you get the benefits; but in the second one who knows the Person, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Blesser? “I know whom I have believed.” I know Him.

But suppose I come from under the tree, what do I get? What did Nathanael get? Three things. He said, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” He knew Him in His moral, personal, and official glory. And then Christ says, “Hereafter thou shalt see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” This is His millennial glory, and that completes the picture.

If you get away from your trees to the One who hung upon the tree, then you will know all the benefits of His work; you will be clothed with divine righteousness; you will have Himself as your companion, one with Him in glory. And more than that, the Holy Ghost will lead you on, and you will know Him as the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Son of man. That is the Saviour God holds out to you for acceptance. Will you accept that Saviour — God’s beloved Son? That is the salvation of God for every sinner. Oh, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! Listen to the voice of the tender, loving Saviour; to the gentle pleadings of the Lord Jesus, saying, “Come unto me; I have hung upon the tree for you, and put your sins away; I will give you rest.” Won’t you say, “Just as I am. O Lamb of God I come!” Then begins the holy, devoted life, the caring for Christ’s things, Christ’s matters, Christ’s concerns; but He does not ask a single thing from you until you have taken everything from the One who was pierced on Calvary’s cross.

H. M. H.

Not Death, but Life.

“THIS is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”(1 John 5:11.) “In the midst of life we are in death,” says the worldly man; whilst the Christian can say,” In the midst of death we are in life.” A Christian is one who is traveling through the valley of the shadow of death, but who is the possessor of life eternal in Christ. He sees death all around him, and he knows that he has a life beyond the grave, because Christ has been down into death for him, and in resurrection has become his life.

Ah, how little men and women in this world realize that God wants to give them eternal life in His Son! How often a death-bed is curtained, and God and His people are shut out lest a melancholy topic, so called, should be introduced. Do you call the gospel a gloomy subject? God calls it “good news.” And it is through the gospel that death is abolished, and life and incorruptibility have been brought to light. Just the very things that are needed on a death-bed.

Some years ago a company of Nihilists came to sojourn for a time in a Continental town, and unknown to themselves they selected a Christian man for their doctor. One day, returning earlier than usual from his rounds, he found one of the Nihilists waiting impatiently for him to come and see one of their party, who was apparently dying. A glance told the doctor that no medicine could be of any avail, and that the days, nay, the hours, of her earthly existence were numbered. What could he do? Ah! he could tell her of One who “so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Her earthly existence was fast ebbing away, but there was a life beyond the grave, and God was sending her a message of love and life at the eleventh hour, which, if received, would be for her everlasting blessing. Very earnestly the doctor spoke, heeding not the angry countenances of the bystanders, who were pacing up and down the room in their wrath. At last, unable to contain themselves, they went outside to await the doctor, who soon followed them. “Sir,” said they angrily, “we sent for you to heal her, and not to tell her she was dying.”

“My friends,” replied the doctor, “I have two things to say to you. In the first place, it was the Lord who brought me here; and, in the second place, I have spoken to her of eternal life, and not of death.” The men looked fierce and threatening, but at this moment their chief stepped forward, and addressing his comrades, said, “Let the gentleman alone. You who profess to believe in nothing, what have you to say to him? He knows everything, and he fears nothing.”

Ah! they feared death, though they professed to fear nothing, and they could miserably attack God’s servant, who was seeking to bring a soul into contact with the only One who could take away death’s sting.

Once more the doctor visited the dying woman, and she had then lost all power of speech; but with tears in her eyes she took his hand and kissed it, and he could only hope that the message had not been delivered in vain, and that God, in His grace, had bestowed upon her the precious gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dear reader, have you got eternal life? and can you face death without a fear? Have you something to rest on for eternity which is outside this changing scene altogether? or are your thoughts limited to life in this world, which is but a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away? Oh, remember that “the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal!”

C. A. W.

A Gracious Invitation.

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

THERE is light and life with Jesus,

There is peace, and joy, and rest;

Oh! how gladly He receives us,

He has welcomed many a guest.

There’s a home of wondrous brightness,

And its gates stand open wide;

There are robes of spotless whiteness

For each blood-washed one inside.

There’s a Saviour in the glory,

Have you hearkened to His voice?

Have you wept o’er Calvary’s story,

And for Jesus made your choice?

Have you come, a poor, lost wanderer,

To be welcomed to His breast?

Have you found in Him your shelter,

And your everlasting rest?

Ah! in Christ, our heavenly treasure,

There is more than all beside;

God alone His worth can measure,

Sweetest rest in Him to hide.

C. A. W.

The Great Accident, and How to Escape.

“NINETEEN killed and thirty injured,” was the brief but terrible announcement of the late accident, at Penistone, to the Manchester and Sheffield fast train. The engine was rushing along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, when the axle broke, and it drew the carriages linked with it in its fatal leap over the embankment.

As long as the engine ran well, the train connected with it prospered; but an unnoticed defect in the engine wrecked the train.

The engine pictures the human body, with which the soul and its sins, like the train, are connected. People in the ill-fated train may probably have been saying one to another, “What a prosperous journey we are having!” So the merry laugh, the ready joke, the gay clothing, the festive board, tell often of a heart without care, and a seemingly healthy body; but just as the engine glided rapidly along the rails “all well” to destruction, so often might the skilled surgeon’s eye look within on the machinery of your frame, and detect a flaw in your health, to be attended with fatal consequences. Life here is only on sufferance, from moment to moment, and hangs upon a thread, which may snap in an instant.

Then, as the locomotive drew the carriages and their occupants with it in that awful leap, so will death carry your sin-laden soul over the embankment of time into eternity and the presence of that holy God who has said, “I will execute judgment; I am the Lord.” (Exodus 12:12.) You unsaved reader, would defile heaven, and make it unfit for His dwelling-place; nor in your present state could you be happy there.

You may, or may not, live out life’s span of threescore years and ten, or a little more; but what then?

Your sins are so great and so many, whatever you may think about them, as to dishonor God, who will not endure them. If you meet Him with your sins upon you, there can be but one result―not a poor wounded, bleeding body, to which sympathizing hands bring all available help and the surgeon’s skill, but thy soul in agony forever, beyond the reach even of the grace of God, that now bids “whosoever will, take of the water of life freely.” Then grace no longer calls, God beseeches thee no more. Thy day of grace is done; thy body shall be raised from its resting-place, and the throne of judgment shall summon thee into the presence of Him who sits thereon, to be judged according to thy works as He sees them. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15.)

When you read the heartrending account of the accident, you pitied the sufferers. Pity thyself. A Christian sailor once said to a dying mate, “Pity your poor soul.”

Oh, ye lost sons of men, why will ye die? Consider the penalty of a Christless life, and beware of a Christless death. A celebrated cricketer, whose heart was absorbed in sports, excitement, and self-gratification, was earnestly entreated on his death-bed to own himself a lost sinner, and be reconciled to God through the merits of the Saviour’s blood. Poor fellow, he preferred the praise of ungodly companions to the grace of God. “I’ll die game,” was his only response. He counted not the cost. Here he was courted and admired, as having won the match for his county many a time. Oh, empty admiration You may boast of all the good the world can say of you; but when that is done, consider what God thinks about you. His thoughts are not your thoughts.

“Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27.) “Prepare to meet thy God.” Who would have gone by that train had he been aware of the coming accident?

Now before death, the great accident, overtakes you, the God of all grace has provided a way of unlinking you from your sins, of connecting you with Himself as a son, and taking you into glory.

Suppose two trains, standing on either side of the platform (of time), ready to start for their respective destinations. One we will call the death, the other the life train. By nature and practice all are seated in the former on the broad road to destruction.

In the wrong train, eh! Awake, O sleeper! God in love bids thee flee from the wrath to come. He has provided Christ, the way, the life. Salvation is assured to every one that believeth in Him. (John 3:16.) A new life opens to thee, anxious one. Jesus, the Christ, the meek and lowly in heart, bids thee get out of the death train. He, by death and resurrection, has unlocked the door of death for you, and opened “a new and living way” (not the old dead works way) to God. (Heb. 10:20.)

Hear His words: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” (John 10:9.)

By faith in Him enter the life-train, and you will have passed “out of death into life.” (John 5:24.) So the Revised Version reads the latter part of the verse. Yes; out of death, and all connected with it; your sins gone forever. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17.) God the Father sent His Son to remove your sins from you; they are no longer on you. Believer, you are disconnected from them forever.

WHEN were they put away? When Christ cried, “It is finished!... bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost.” (John 19:30.)

WHERE did God put them? God laid them on Christ (Isaiah 53:6), who bare them in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24); and “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12.)

How can I know they are forgiven? By believing God’s word. “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:14). “Be it known unto you.... that through this man” (the Lord Jesus Christ) “is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified (cleared) from all things.” (Acts 13:38, 39.) The very sins that made you afraid of God are the very ones for which Christ suffered.

He went under God’s judgment to bring you out from under it unto glory. Blessed Saviour, how deep thy sufferings, how great thy love!

Though, dear believer, your sins are not on you, you have the old evil nature in you; it is not changed, and never will be, and will always want to have its way; it is enmity against God. (Rom. 8:7.) Some Christians are not happy because they cannot feel good. Perhaps they thought, when converted, they would have no more bad thoughts or inclinations, and so when these arise they fear they are not saved after all. Thank God, Christ died for such as still have the old nature in them after they have believed.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1.) God has shut the believer in Christ, as He did Noah in the ark before the deluge came. (Gen. 7:16.) “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3.) God has not entrusted it to your keeping, but to Christ’s. He says, “They shall never perish.” (John 10) Salvation depends on Christ, not on the walk of the believer; but happiness and communion are the result of obedience and dependence.

God not only sees you disconnected from your sins, but from self, the sinful root which produces the evil fruit (sins). What Scripture calls the “old man” has been crucified with Christ. (Rom. 6:6.) The nature which grieves you by its wrong desires has been brought to its end in the sight of God. He has not forgiven it, but, on the contrary, has put it to death along with Christ, because the very thing you try to feel good is so unimprovably, unchangeably, bad. (Romans 8:7.)

Mind, the old man is not actually dead, though God thus regards it. In faith accept the end of it, as you do the forgiveness of sins, because Christ has ended it in death (not because you feel dead), and enjoy the consolation of having God’s thoughts about the “corrupt tree”―self, instead of looking into it for good. (Matthew 7:18.)

God is not seeking to reform it, but has set it aside to free the believer from the dominion of sin. (Rom. 6:14.)

Now you are called upon to “reckon yourself dead to sin”―for a dead man does not sin―and to “mortify your members which are upon the earth.”

For instance, you feel temper, pride, envy, covetousness, or some other evil sprig of the old root wanting to work. You lift up your heart in silent prayer to God, and the sinful desire or thought produces no fruit. The Holy Spirit abiding in you (John 14:17) gives you power over indwelling sin.

How blessed! God is looking at us in the perfections of Christ, not according to what we are. Christ risen is our new self, our life, and is the source of holy affections and doing the will of God, developed in us by the Holy Spirit, whom we are not to grieve.

We were children of Adam, descended from him by natural birth: we are children of God by spiritual birth, and belong to a new race or order of beings of which Christ is the head. (2 Cor. 5:17.) “Behold what manner of love the Father hath, bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons (children) of God.” (1 John 3:1.)

God’s provision for failure or sin in the walk of a believer is perfect. He “hath saved us and called us with a holy calling.” (2 Timothy 1:9.)

“If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8.) We are not to sin. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 2:1.) His precious blood answers for them. Those hands outstretched in death on Calvary now plead with our Father, and can never plead in vain. He obtains pardon, and we confess our sins, upon which our lost communion is restored―salvation had not been forfeited. Though we may be tumbled about, and shall need the Father’s loving care and, it may be, chastening hand, we are saved to the very end by Christ living in the mansions above to bring us safely there. The Holy Spirit too ministers Christ to our hearts, or reproaches us for indulged sins, and teaches us how to pray. He has also taken possession of our bodies for Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20); and should death come, it is as a friend, to take us to be with Christ, which is “far better,” to wait for that bright resurrection morning when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, gather the bodies of believers out of the grave, and change them and the living saints into His likeness in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.) “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” (Prov. 15:24.)

No Sacrifice.

I HAD been sitting by the bedside of a new patient in a ward of a large hospital speaking of her physical state and the cause of her admission, when I ventured to introduce the “name of Jesus.” She answered immediately, “I am not of your religion, I am a Jewess.” She did not, however, object to my speaking to her, and I found her conversant with the New Testament as well as with the Old, having been educated in a Christian school in Germany. Neither did she refuse to allow me to read to her, but said, when I had finished Isaiah 53, “I know why you read that, you think it means Jesus, I do not.”

She spoke then of the goodness of God, and His kindness to her. I said to her, “You believe in God, do you believe on the Son of God?” “No,” she said emphatically, “and I never shall.”

“But,” I said, “in former times God’s people, the Israelites, used to offer up sacrifices to make atonement for them; what sacrifice have you to offer?” She hesitated a moment, and then said, “I have no sacrifice, unless,” she added slowly, “God would accept my sorrows and pains.” Oh, what a poor thing to trust to! Did God ever accept such an offering? Here was a poor woman about to enter upon eternity, without a sacrifice to atone for the many sins which she well knew she had committed. I spoke to her of that “one offering,” accepted by God, available for all. She owned that it must give great peace to those who believed it; but invariably added, “It is too late now, I cannot change my religion; as I have lived so must I die.”

And, as far as I can tell, she did die so. For some weeks I saw her, after entreating her to turn to Christ; but at last I found her bed empty. She had died, they told me, very quietly, with her friends around her; but where is her soul now? Sad and terrible indeed to realize the position of a soul in the presence of God, with “no sacrifice,” with sins not “purged.” Yet now there is offered a, free salvation to every one, be he Jew or Gentile, through that One who, “once in the end of the age... appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26.)

In that same ward, some months after, lay dying a dear child of God who knew the value of the precious blood of Christ. She was longing to go home, and though very weak, spoke of the joy that awaited her when she should be with the Lord. A few days before her death she asked me to read to her once more. I read John 14, “I go to prepare a place for you.” “What a blessing,”

I said, “that the place is already prepared.”

“Yes indeed,” she answered.

“And that you are prepared for the place.” With a bright smile she replied:

“That is better still.”

She repeated her favorite hymns― “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds,” and “Jesus loves me.” A few days later she passed peacefully away, and I know I shall see her again in glory with the Lord.

Dear reader, are you sheltered by the blood? Can you say that the Lord Jesus has “purged” your sins? You cannot say that no sacrifice has been offered, but have you availed yourself of it? Hear what the word of God says of that “one offering.”

In Hebrews 9:22 we find, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Useless then would it be to approach God with any offering of our own, whether it be our pains and sufferings here, or our supposed good works. With such offerings as these there could be “no remission.” But the work is finished; for in chapter 10:10 we read, “By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.” “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (verse 14.) “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” (vv.17, 18.) “How shall we escape, if we neglect so (treat salvation?” (chapter 2:3.)

L. A. M. B.

An Ordinary Case.

SOME time ago a servant of the Lord was asked to visit one supposed to be dying.

He went, and was ushered into the sick room, and there found a fine man lying in bed, thoroughly intelligent, and not apparently in much pain.

The visitor told him he had come to speak to him about his soul, and asked him if he was saved. Christians had been to visit him from time to time; one, at least, came to see him once a week, which resulted in his becoming very anxious about his soul. He often exclaimed, “I can’t find God.”

In answer to the question, “Are you saved?” he replied:

“No, sir, I am not It has all been explained to me, but I do not seem to get hold of it.”

“If you were to the now, would you go to heaven?”

“I do not think I should.”

“Would you not like to be saved?”

“I would indeed; but I do not seem able to see the way.”

“Well, do you know how?”

“Yes, I understand it all; but I have not got it.”

Having put the gospel simply before him, the visitor then told him how he had taken Christ as his Saviour early one morning while in bed, and confessed Him as such the next day.

He also told him of a woman who said just what he did; but when pressed to take Christ, she did. The change it wrought in her was so great that the neighbors asked, “What did the gentleman tell you?”

“Nothing new,” she replied; “but he just put me in a corner, and would not let me out till I took Christ.”

He then said to the dying man, “I will read you God’s word;” and, turning to Isaiah 53:6, he read, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

“Now,” said he, “is that true of you?”

“Indeed it is,” answered the sick man with feeling.

His friend then read, “We have turned every one to his own way;” and, repeating the question, got the same answer.

He then read the third clause of this wonderful verse: “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” and again asked the same question; but the answer this time was:

“I am afraid not.”

“Well,” said the visitor, “you see you do not believe the Bible. You believe one part, but not the other. The whole question is, Will you have Christ as your Saviour, or no? I shall have to tell God I offered you Christ for your Saviour; but shall I say you took Him, or refused Him?”

“I don’t want to refuse Him,” said the sick man, in great trouble of soul.

“Well then, will you take Him now? What shall I tell God?”

There was a long pause, during which the servant of God prayed silently, and then asked the poor sufferer why he did not answer.

He did not want to refuse Him, the poor man replied.

“Well,” said the visitor once more, “I must go; but what shall I tell God?”

“Tell Him,” said the dying man at last with great feeling, “that I take Him.”

He then went through the verse again, the sick man seeing it all now, that Jesus had been seeking the lost sheep until He found it. He saw too that, instead of seeking, he himself had only been straying.

On being asked what he would tell his sister, who was a saved person, he replied with evident joy, “I’ll tell her I have taken Christ to be my Saviour.”

The visitor then left, and that very afternoon the one who hitherto answered questions as to his salvation in such despair confessed Christ to his sister. No longer with “I can’t find God,” but “I take Christ.”

Shortly afterward he passed away, resting in Christ alone, knowing that he was saved, and saved by the simple fact that he accepted Jesus as his Saviour. He might have sought from one end of the earth to the other, only to exclaim with the same bitterness, “I can’t find God;” but in accepting Jesus God is revealed, and in no other way; for “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,” and again, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.”

There is nothing very remarkable about this sick man’s case; but it describes the condition of soul of a vast number, and for this reason it has been narrated. Were it very remarkable, it would perhaps be only helpful to remarkable cases; but how many souls there are who think they have to do something! Whereas God’s gospel is that the seeking is finished, and the doing is done. Let us implore you, dear friend, to cease from seeking, and take what God offers you.

“Soon that voice will cease its calling;

Now it calls, and calls to thee―

Take salvation;

Take it now, and happy be.”

God Will, and Man Will Not.

THERE are two classes of people who do not want Christ, whose wills prevent their being saved. Why are so few saved? Dear unsaved reader, why is it thus with you? The Lord Jesus answered that question when He was on earth. In John 5:40 we hear Him saying to those around Him, “Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life.” Man’s salvation depends on the Saviour, the Son of God, who has “life in Himself,” and “power to quicken whom He will;” and yet now, as then, man will not come to Him. And what prevents his coming? His own will, not God’s. For in 1 Timothy 2:4 we read that “God will have all men to be saved.” He wills that they should be saved, but man will not come to the Saviour. And why is it? Ah! now we come to the two classes that I told you of. The first is composed of those who are living in pleasure, dead while they live they are afraid if they come to Christ they must give up their pleasures. Oh, what folly! Reader, if you are one of these let me ask you, Do you think God has no pleasures for His own? Do you think man’s honor and glory can make you happy for more than a passing hour? Do you think they can be compared with God’s pleasures? Man’s pleasures never satisfy, they are gone in a moment, and leave but a longing for something more; but God can say, “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” God can say to His children that He will abundantly satisfy them, and make them to drink of the river of His pleasures. Do you know what it is to be abundantly satisfied―to have God’s pleasures, instead of man’s folly? Man has pleasures, but they vanish. “At God’s right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Oh, you that love pleasure, listen while I tell you of one who chose to live in sin rather than come to the Saviour for life. He lived a life of sin till he was suddenly cut off, in the prime of life, without a moment’s time for repentance. One night he was sitting with his friends after dinner, idly peeling a walnut, when he exclaimed, “My God, I am dead!” and as he uttered these words he fell off his chair dead. God had said, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Dear reader, has this no voice to you? Are you living a life of pleasure? Oh, pause and consider, what will your end be? People talk of turning to God at the last moment; but what about an end like this? “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” But perhaps you say you have led a perfect life and never done wrong. Oh, then, you belong to my second class, those who will not come to Christ, because they prefer their own righteousness. They don’t want to give it up. What madness! Do you know what God calls your righteousness? Filthy rags. Yes. He says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” But while He says that He offers you a perfect righteousness in Christ. “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It is giving up to get something far better. It is worth while to give up your “filthy rags” and get Christ; and you must have Christ to be saved. It must not be a little of your own righteousness, and a little of Christ to make up. No, it must be Christ only and altogether that you trust to for salvation. Oh, won’t you believe what God says, “There is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not”? It is not the amount of sins you have committed; one sin is enough to shut you out of God’s presence. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

You who want to stand on your own merits, you will be judged by them at the last day. In Rev. 20 you find a picture of it. Then those who have come to Christ for life are with Him in glory, but the rest of the dead are standing before Him for judgment. The books are opened, and the dead are judged according to their works. God in mercy gives them a last opportunity of seeing if they could be saved by their works. And was there one saved? Ah, no! Farther on we read, “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” When on earth they had refused to listen to the voice of Jesus, they would not come to Him to get life, and to be written in His book of life; and now they are lost forever―cast into the lake of fire!

Dear reader, God has made a way of escape from such an awful doom. Will you accept it? He offers a free pardon to all who will trust to the blood of Christ. “Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace.” It pleases God to give us a free and perfect salvation, though we do not deserve it, and have no claim on Him. Because we are helpless, and cannot take one step to get salvation, therefore He has provided a Substitute. He sent His Son to die in our stead, to suffer, to bear the judgment for our sins; and now by that sacrifice God can give a free salvation to those who will trust in the precious blood of Christ. “He has made peace by the blood of His cross,” peace with God. “His blood cleanseth us from all sin.” Will you trust it now? Will you take salvation as a free gift undeservedly? God says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Let not the Lord Jesus have to say to you, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” He is speaking to you now from heaven, perhaps this is His last message to you. Oh, do not wound His heart by refusing Him!

N. B.

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that bath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” (1 John 5:10-13.)

"The House Built on the Sand."

ON the south coast of England, a few miles from a well-known watering-place, a strange sight may be seen. There stands close by the sea, a good-sized house, surrounded by strong concrete walls. Here you may notice an enclosed piece, evidently intended for a garden; and if you step in at the open door of the house you may walk through room after room, but all are empty and unfurnished. If you look round you can see strange cracks and fissures in the-walls, the floors in some parts have sunk from the original level, and, in fact, “ruin” is stamped upon the whole. And yet the walls were very thick, the beams very strong. What has caused this ruin? Ah you will guess from the heading of the paper, and you are right―it was built upon the sand.

Yes, there lived, not long ago―perhaps he still lives―a man who actually thought he could do what God in His own word says is impossible. He imagined in the foolishness of his heart that he could build a house on the sand, which should be so strong as to resist the force of wind and tide, and in which he might settle down and live comfortably. And what was the grand mistake? The foundation was wrong. What was the use of the elegant superstructure when built upon shifting, sinking sand? Now as we behold that house, the very thickness and strength of those walls do but testify the more loudly to the man’s folly. Yes, there stands that ruin―a sad and desolate ruin right truly, but one that proves the truth of God’s word, that such must be the result of building a house upon the sand. And now, dear friend, on what is your soul resting? Are you safe on the Rock―Christ Jesus? God says, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11.) If you are resting on anything short of that, your good works, faith, or prayers, when that storm breaks upon you (as God says without doubt it must do on all that obey not His gospel), then most surely all that you have rested on will be swept away, and you will stand naked before God.

May you be like the wise man who built his house on the rock, even Christ Jesus. Then the rain may descend, and the floods may beat, and you will but prove, through all, the safety of the foundation and the everlasting security there is in Him.

E. E. C. R.

"It Is Finished."

John 19:30

YES, dear reader, thank God, the work that was needed to save your soul and mine from an endless hell is a finished work. But who uttered these divinely-sweet and precious words? Who but the eternal Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father? Then I ask you, Can anything be added to His finished work? Utterly impossible. The work is done, and done as God Himself would have it. Yes, God and His beloved Son were alone in this wonderful work, You and I had no place in it, save our sins, that brought Him there (and you must have Christ and His finished work for your salvation or nothing); not Christ and good works, for no good works can God accept, when all, the time you are rejecting the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Oh, what it cost Him to redeem our souls―even His own life-blood! And can you still hold out against such undying love as this, manifested on that shameful cross? If you do, it will only be to your eternal confusion. But the cross no longer retains its victim―nor yet the tomb; for God hath raised Him from the dead, and seated Him above the highest heaven for His glory, and to justify the believing soul. Then I ask you, dear reader, What more could God do for your salvation than He has done? All heaven is interested and waiting to hear your decision. Oh, let it be, from the moment you read these lines, “Henceforth Christ for me,” For

“This world has nothing left to give,

It has no new, no true delight;

O sinner, then believe and live—

Thou wouldst be saved―Why not tonight?”

Nearly 1900 years have passed away since that blessed One took His seat at the Father’s right hand; and at any moment He may rise from off that seat and shut that now open door; and, oh, dear reader, if unsaved you would be forever shut out from His blessed presence for unsparing judgment. (2 Thess. 1:7-9.)

May God give you to close in with His offers of mercy as that door stands open still, so that if the Lord should come tonight you may be ready to hail Him as your Saviour and Lord.

R. G.

"We Know."

“IT is my opinion that nobody can know before he dies whether he is saved.” Reader, is this what you say? If so, be assured that you, yes, you yourself (I do not know your name) are certainly not in the conscious enjoyment of salvation. What is the true meaning of your “opinion”? I will tell you. It means that you are not in earnest as to the question of your soul’s salvation; you have never been awakened to see your danger. No one is saved without first finding out that he is lost; and had you found this out instead of opposing or sneering at the thought of any one being assured of their salvation, you could never have had a moment’s peace till you too were assured of yours; you would have been earnestly crying out, like the Philippian jailor, “What must I do to be saved?” instead of thus, with a self-complacent smile, airing your “opinions.” My friend, I repeat, you are most certainly a lost soul—so utterly lost that you are not even conscious of it yourself. Eternal burnings or eternal heaven at stake, and you content without knowing which is to be your portion! Truly you are the miserable dupe of him who whispers, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” and who is thus alluring you on to destruction. “What meanest thou, O sleeper?” Awake! oh, awake! and rest not till you are saved, and know it. The same blessed One that saves will also assure, if you simply believe His word, instead of trusting your opinions: “Believe and be saved.”

There Is Nothing Like the Cross.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31.

THE motto of this scripture is, “There is nothing like the cross.” The cross puts us so low that we could not be lower, except we were put into hell itself; and it lifts us so high that we could not be higher, except we were lifted above the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The wise men of today — scientists and philosophers―object to the cross, and I do not wonder at it; I should be surprised if they liked it. Everything met its level at the cross of Christ, every man (the whole world) was represented there, and met its judgment. If we think of learning, the Scribes were the learned men of that day; of religion, the Pharisees were just what would answer to ritualists now; of politics, there were the Herodians; and of rationalism, the Sadducees were the rationalists of that day. Every class was represented there. They had their petty feuds and quarrels amongst themselves, but they agreed to merge them over the precious blood of Christ; they shook hands over the death of Christ. And what are the wise men of today doing as they strut through the world? They are just strutting skeletons, each bearing a skull on his shoulders, going down to the grave. They would be wise if they would believe what God says in. His word about them.

I once met a skillful physician, and he said to me, “I am stumbled because I do not see things improved, Christianity has had its day for eighteen hundred years, and I do not see any reformation.” The Lord Jesus Christ did not come as a reformer. The world was under probation until the cross, but it has not been under probation since the cross. From that day to this the world has been like a vast prison, each cell in it containing a condemned soul. After Adam and Eve were righteously exiled from the garden of Eden, God left the world to conscience and creation; and it became so incorrigibly bad that He had to sweep it out of existence by a flood. A little later on Sodom and Gomorrah were swept away by flames; and there is the standing monument of them for the skeptic to look at today if he chooses.

People think that God has not given the world a chance; but He has. The children of Israel said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient?” God said, as it were,” I will try you;” but before they received the ten words they had cast their earrings into a crucible, and made a golden calf; and God expressed His indignation by breaking the tables of stone; a practical expression that they had broken the law before they got it. The law only found them more guilty; and when His Son came, they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill Him” It was in man’s heart to get rid of Him.

A wicked girl once struck her mother―a dear Christian woman―with a poker, and said, “I would kill your God if I could get at Him.” Do not think you are any better. Cut a vein in your arm, what comes out? Red blood. Just the same blood as was in the men who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the same heart; they were our truthful representatives.

The people to whom Peter said, “Him ye slew and hanged on a tree,” did not actually drive the nails into His hands and feet, or thrust the spear into His side, but it was in their heart to do it!

When a judge has heard everything for and against a prisoner, and he is found “guilty,” his probation is over. The instant the word “guilty” falls from the judge’s lips the culprit is removed from the bar to the condemned cell to await the execution of the sentence. That is the state of the world. What is God doing meanwhile? Offering every opportunity for man to repent and believe in His Son and be saved.

“Ah! but,” you say, “I do not know whether I am one of the called ones.” Then you have not read 1 Corinthians 1 very carefully. “Do you think it possible to find out whether I am one of the called ones?” Yes, as easy as to know your own house. “Ah but I thought I should have to find my name in the book of decrees in heaven.” Then you thought wrong; you may find out, this very hour, if you only believe God’s word. Turn to scripture and see it for yourself. God says it. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” (verse 26.)

It is said of Lady Huntingdon that when someone asked her how she was converted, she replied, “By one letter.” “How is that,” said the person who asked her, “by one letter?” “Yes,” she said; “for in God’s word it says, ‘Not many noble are called.’ That letter m saved my soul; for if He had said, ‘Not any noble,’ I must have been damned; so God blessed the little letter m before a-n-y to the salvation of my soul.”

Not many are called; thank God that any are. Now we see what people God has chosen. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (verse 27.) Here you get God describing His called and chosen ones, and if you answer to this description, you can put in your name. That is just what people do not like―to be called foolish, or to be thought foolish; all like to be considered wise. This is a sum people greatly object to do—reduction. God is reducing you here. Have you ever acknowledged your folly? What folly for you to think that God is going to save you on account of your church-going, vows, tears, prayers, charitable, philanthropic performances; and not on account of the “It is finished” work of Christ. What consummate folly! May God show you your foolishness. Listen to Him saying, “Look unto me, and be ye saved;” look away from self to Him. Have you found out, and have you said, “I am the most foolish person in all the world; I am foolish, if no one else is”? It is the first thing the Spirit of God shows one. Is it anything less than folly to sell your precious, never-dying, immortal soul to death, damnation, and the devil for one thimble-full of this world’s so-called pleasure? What madness Every step you take is only taking you nearer God and eternity. Perhaps you say, “Oh, there is plenty of time; I will think about these things on my death-bed!” How do you know you will have a death-bed? If Christ came tonight, and took His blood-bought, blood-washed people to glory, you would never have another opportunity.

The mercury is going down, as it were, in God’s description of you. You must go down.

“God hath chosen the weak things.” This is His second description of you. There are very few people today willing to own that they are weak. In visiting people, do you not constantly find that every anxious soul asks, “Is there nothing for me to do?” If you knew that you were as weak as a new-born infant, you would not talk about doing. What would you think of any one telling a new-born babe to cut down an oak of a hundred years’ growth? It would be no more for an infant to accomplish this stupendous task than it would for you to do anything towards your soul’s salvation. Will you not rather say, “What a mercy that Christ has done it all”? When the jailer asked Paul the question, “What must I do to be saved?” the apostle said, as it were, “You are too late; it is all done, and there is nothing left for you to do.” But what are people saying? “What can we do?” Why you are eighteen hundred years too late. Jesus did it all; finished it just as God required it to be finished, and just as it was necessary to be done for your salvation. “It is finished.” Do you know that you are so weak that you cannot do anything― like a man who was drowning? He was struggling and trying to save himself, when a strong swimmer came, and said to him, “You must do nothing; leave yourself to me.” “I am too weak to struggle,” said the man. “I am so glad,” replied the strong swimmer; and, taking him on his back, he brought him safe to shore. Have you ever been too weak to struggle, and let the Lord do it all? “Oh,” you say, “then are we to fold our arms, and just go quietly to heaven?” No work comes after you are saved.

“I dare not work my soul to save,

That work God’s Son has done;

But I would work like any slave

From love to God’s dear Son.”

Get your hearts filled with His love, and His love will be the spring of all your work.

Now we come to the third description. “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” (verse 28.) God goes on reducing, bringing you down, down, down, from your elevated thoughts of self. Do you believe that you are base and despicable? “No; I do not believe that―a person of my abilities! I do not believe it at all.” You are so wise, so important. An Oxford student once walked into a room where a servant of the Lord was having a meeting with some children, and reading to them some letters he had received from different children. At the close of the meeting, this gentleman came and said to him, “I have been so pained, for your sake as well as the children’s, at what I have been hearing. You surely do not believe that they can know they are saved?” “Yes I do. Do you think every one ought to grow up and be hardened before having a knowledge of salvation?” “Well, I go to church as often as the doors are open; I know Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and can read the Scriptures in the original tongue, and I do not know it. Do you think those children can know they are saved?”

The servant of the Lord waited a moment, then read those words of the Lord in Matthew 11:25: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” What a lot of reducing that gentleman will require to be brought down; but God will never save him till he is reduced, and looks with God’s eyes, speaks with God’s words, and thinks with God’s thoughts about himself.

A lady I met at Malvern, in whom I was interested, once said to me, “How is it I have not peace? I cannot understand it.” I quietly waited on God for a moment, then asked her, “Can you say, I abhor myself?” “No, I cannot,” she answered. “Good-bye,” I said; “you will never get liberty till you can?’

A drunkard knows by his ways what he is; but it is a terrible thing for virtuous, amiable, prepossessing, proper-living people to find out what they are in God’s presence; they nearly go out of their minds, when they wake up to discover what they are in the presence of a holy God. People kick with all their might and main against this correct, accurate, lifelike description of themselves; and it is not an overdrawn description, it is the word of God. Would to God every one reading this paper would accept it.

Lastly, “Things which are not?’ Now we are at the bottom of the ladder, so low that you cannot go lower. God makes, as it were, a great cipher. Do you know who that is, sinner? No. It is you. You do not like to be nothing; you like to be something-, however small. God says, You are a cipher. Even if seen through the most powerful magnifying glass, you are nothing. People do not like this pounding of the old Adam in the mortar of the cross. God left it to man to see if anything could be done to better man, and it could not; so he took up the pestle of the cross and put man in the mortar of judgment, and he is gone― the first Adam has come to nothing at the cross. But people do not like this; they like to be stroked on the back, and to be told how good they are.

A person said to me, “You do not know what I have been through. The clergyman and others purchased a present to show their appreciation of my efforts in teaching the children whom I had under my care; but when it was given to me I fell on the floor faint at the thought of their making me a present for teaching the children, when I did not know I was saved myself.”

I cannot tell you what a comfort it is to me to know that the Holy Ghost is down here to show you that you are God’s chosen ones, if you answer to His description of you. When He says, “You are foolish, weak, base, nothing,” can you say, “Amen”?

What can you do? Nothing. How could He consistently ask a nothing to do anything? To be the least is to be something, but to be “less than the least” is to be nothing. Paul answers to this description. He tells the Corinthians that he was these very things-foolish, weak, and despicable, nothing; and in the Ephesians he says that he was “less than the least of all saints.” The apostle Paul answered to this fourfold description, proving himself to be one of God’s chosen ones. God will not have flesh glory in His presence. As you are nothing, and can do nothing, the flesh cannot glory.

There are always two sides to everything, and there are two sides to this “but”; we have looked at man’s side, now come on God’s side. Directly you take your true place, you get blessing. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (verse 30.) There is a blessed side for you! The moment you take your side of the “but” God says, as it were, “I will take mine;” and this is the present, blessed, positive position God gives to everyone, without exception, who answers to this description.

“In Christ,” not in Adam, justified before a throne; we were ruined in Adam. Now all our blessings are in Christ. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The heart of God is the source of all our blessings. “Of God,” in Christ, who is made—not is being made, as if it were a gradual thing, “He is made.”

Now, make parallels. What did He first say? “You are foolish.” Were you offended, or did you say, “My God, I am foolish”? Then He says, “Christ is your wisdom.” Perhaps you were once thought wise by the world, and now they say, “Oh, you foolish thing!” “Yes.” You say, “I am foolish, and I never found it out before; but, by finding it out, I find that Christ is my wisdom.”

What was the second description? Weak things — people so weak that they had not strength to move hand or foot. How could they weave a robe of righteousness on the loom of their own doings? And it would not have done if they could; for it would have been human righteousness. Christ is our righteousness―divine righteousness. He did not keep the law for us; if so, His death was an unnecessary thing. Galatians 2:21 clearly proves that. Neither our own law-keeping, nor His for us, ever procures divine righteousness.

We get divine righteousness by the resurrection of Christ. He was delivered for our offenses at the cross, and He was raised for our justification. He Himself is our righteousness. Christ Himself! He in His own very blessed Person is made righteousness to us poor weak things who could not work out our own righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of God. He is made righteousness to us, and we are made the righteousness of God in Him. Is not the righteousness of God fit for heaven? Yes. Well, to say I am not fit is to say He is not fit, for, “As He is, so are we in this world.” All the fruit of God’s grace is made good to you, a poor, weak thing; and now you can say, “Jehovah-Tsidkenu―the Lord my righteousness.” If we saw the mercury going down in the barometer on our side of the “but,” look how we are going up in Christ; see what He is made to us!

Sanctification. Innocency was lost in the garden, and you could never regain it, God never takes you back. Man was created in innocency, but He lost it; and God is not going to put him back. God has been far more glorified by the work of Christ than He was dishonored by Adam’s fall; and we gain more in Christ than we lost in Adam at the fall.

When preaching in Ireland I once repeated that verse in Colossians 2, “Ye are complete in Him.” There is nothing higher than that; you could not improve it. At the close of the meeting a woman came up to me and said, “Why, sir, I have been praying for sanctification for four years. I went without food, and struggled and wept and prayed, and only to think that I have had it all the time!” The next day she went about the market saying, “Have you heard the good news? Christ is my sanctification, and has been for four years, and I never knew it till last night.”

You see a base and despicable person unfit for the presence of God in Isaiah 6 “Woe is me! for I am undone,” he says. How could God make a base and despicable person fit for the glory? He makes the person as tit to be there as Christ Himself by making Christ to be His sanctification. He is our sanctification.

Sanctification does not mean to make holy, it means to be set apart for holy purposes. There could be no sanctification in Adam, it is in Christ. We were set aside at the cross judicially, and got sanctification in Christ. It is quite clear, in John 17, that sanctification means separation to God. We get three things there with regard to sanctification―the means (verse 17), the measure (verse 16), and the model (verse 19); the means―truth; the measure―no more of the world than Christ is of the world. Are we showing this in our homes, dress, business, &c.? The model―Christ up there in glory set apart; and just as you are occupied with Him there, you become like Him, and that is your practical sanctification, set apart from all that would hinder your growth. Think of God making Christ sanctification to a parcel of poor, base, despised things!

Fourthly, redemption. Why is this put last? Because it takes in not only redemption by blood, but redemption by power. In Ephesians 1 we are redeemed (verse 7), and we are not redeemed (verse 13). Is that right? Yes, we are redeemed by blood, but not by power. Poor, weak, stumbling things we are; and perhaps you say, “Do not you think there is a danger of our ever being lost?” No, a thousand times, no. God the Holy Ghost has taken possession of your body, and He will never leave it till the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is keeping bodyguard, wherever there are the remains of God’s beloved people, till the Lord Jesus Christ comes. (Romans 8:23.) That is what we are waiting for Think of God taking up nothings, who had nothing to give and nothing to do, and saying, “I have redeemed you by blood, and I will redeem you by power, when my Son comes.” If His second coming were to take place tonight, He would change these poor weak bodies, and we should have bodies of glory like His own. Our souls are saved, and He is soon going to give the finishing touch. When He conies again, then we shall be like Him, and it may be tonight; we were never so near it before.

The cross puts me as low as it possibly could put me on the Adam side of the “but,” and God has raised me as high as He could raise me in Christ on His side of the “but.” Do you answer to His description? If so, God will make Him your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and you will be able to say―

“Salvation in that name is found,

Cure for my grief and care;

A sovereign balm for every wound,

All, all I want is there.”

All, all is found in Christ, outside Adam, nowhere else.

God grant that you may have these blessings for your own, and to Him shall be all the praise.

H. M. H.

"I Have No Time for Such Matters."

I WAS traveling in a train from Ramsgate to Deal, when a man got into the carriage and sat opposite to me. To all appearance he was a workman on the line. I offered him a tract, which he somewhat rudely refused to receive; and when I pressed it upon his acceptance, he used the words quoted at the head of this paper. I am not sure that he even read the title of the tract, which was singularly appropriate to his case; viz., “Let us alone,” the words used to the Lord Jesus by the man possessed with a demon in the fourth chapter of Luke. My reply to this man was, “You all will have to find time to die someday.” He told me again, more rudely than before, that it was “of no use bothering him,” and directly afterward got out at Sandwich.

The conduct of this poor Christ-rejecting young man reminds me of an old gentleman who sent for me as a physician on account of a very serious disease of the heart, and who when I began to tell him of his danger, and to point him to the Saviour, soon grew impatient, and interrupted me by saying, “Let us go on with business.” On subsequent occasions this gray-headed sinner gave me offensive answers whenever I spoke to him of Jesus, until finally he reviled that blessed One, and I was thus compelled to desist from speaking of Him. This man had to “find time to die” soon after, and that he died unrepentant and unsaved was abundantly proved; in fact, his death was hastened by boisterous mirth and excitement, and by dancing on the “Christmas” night after I had ceased to visit him. But a few hours after this wild revelry he was summoned into the presence of God.

Thus, like the rich man in the 12TH chapter of Luke, he was, as it were, saying to his soul, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years [he was rich], take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry,” at the very moment that God was saying, “Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” Thus the wisdom of God writes folly on every man who “lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.” No, there is no foolishness of which a man can be guilty of comparable to that of him who is living and acting and hastening towards the eternity in which he will have to meet his judge, in forgetfulness of the One “in whose hands his breath is, and whose are all his ways.” “The wicked shall be turned into hell,” and not they alone, but “all the nations who forget God.” (Psalms 9:17.) The case of him whose sudden death I have named above, as well as that of the rich man in the parable, reminds us of the impious king Belshazzar, profanely feasting in defiance of Jehovah, and that very night having to meet the reward of his iniquity in a sudden and violent death, the forerunner of “the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.” Also of the Hebrew king who took to himself the homage that belongs to God alone, and because he gave not Him the glory, was immediately smitten, and “was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.” (Acts 12)

The deliberate refusal of my fellow-passenger in the train to attend to “the things that belong to his peace,” suggests the thought of the ruler who trembled on the judgment-seat, when “Paul spake of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” but said, “Go thy way at this time, and when I have a convenient season I will send for thee.” As I have said, there is no folly which a man can exhibit in the affairs of this life which can for a moment be compared to that of the man who lives in indifference to, or forgetfulness of, God. Looking only at the temporal aspect of the matter, the conduct of him who embarks his worldly all in a leaky vessel, or who lies down to sleep in a dwelling where the plague is raging, or who refuses to leave a burning house, is wisdom itself compared with that of him whose soul hangs suspended over the flames of hell only by the brittle thread of mortal life, and yet goes on refusing to accept the gracious promise which has brought salvation to so many, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.” (Acts 16); and again, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us: we pray in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5.)

But how terrible the contrast, when the time collies that the grace-rejecting sinner will beseech for mercy, but beseech in vain. “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, but no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.” Prov. 1:24-28.)

How shocking must thy summons be, O death,

To him who is at ease in his possessions;

Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,

Is quite unfurnished for the world to come.

At that dread moment, how the frantic soul

Raves round the walls of that frail tenement;

Runs to each avenue and shrieks for help;

But shrieks in vain. How wistfully she looks

On all she’s leaving, now no longer hers.

A little moment, yet a little moment, might she stay

To wash away her stains and fit her for her passage.

But the foe, like a staunch murderer, steady to his purpose,

Pursues her close through every lane of life;

Till, forced at last to the tremendous verge,

At once she sinks to never-ending ruin.

J. H. S.

Seven Living Realities.

FOR ever, in joy or in woe, must every man and woman exist. It is written in connection with man’s creation, that the Lord God formed him of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a

A LIVING SOUL.

(Genesis 2:7.) This clear distinction was made between man and the beasts that perish. It is not written that God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life; but in this manner was man constituted a living soul. After his creation he sinned, rendered himself subject to death, but could not snap the link of his responsibility to God as His creature, nor blot out his own existence. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) “After death the judgment.” (Hebrews 9) The result of the judgment, the undying worm and the unquenched flame; the lake of fire, which is the second, the eternal, the undying death. (Mark 9; Revelation 20)

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of

THE LIVING GOD.”

(Hebrews 10:31.) We have to do with Him who created us for His glory, who placed us in relationship with Himself as responsible creatures; with God, the eternally living One, who was, and is, and is to come. It is of little consequence, in view of eternity, that we stand well in estimation with our fellow-men. How do we stand with God? The living God has said, “As I live, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” (Romans 14:11.) It is as certain as God’s own existence, that every soul shall have to bow and confess to Him. Nor will it avail us anything that our outward lives have been correctly ordered, for He will judge the secrets of men. (Romans 11. 16.) Even now that searching judgment is anticipated; for it is written,

“THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING

and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4) “Quick” is the old English word for living. Our thoughts and intentions are all known to God; His word searches them out. “Dead works” therefore, works without life or faith, will not suit the living God. He knows what is beneath the surface. A man may be honest in his dealings, kind to his friends, affectionate towards his relatives, benevolent towards the poor, and diligent in attention to Church ordinances, but if his heart be not right in the sight of the living God, he is building upon a sadly rotten foundation which will surely fail him.

But it is contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.” (1 Peter 2:6.) Here is

A LIVING STONE

to whom the sinner may come in simple faith; a foundation of God’s own providing) one that will never fail. Jesus was despised and rejected of men, but He is God’s appointed Saviour. That He might be a Saviour of the guilty He hung upon the cross of Golgotha, and was there forsaken of God; He bowed His head in death, and His precious life’s blood was poured forth. But God raised Him from the dead. He is the living One. He was dead, but is now alive for evermore. He has gone from the deepest spot of earth’s woe to the brightest place of heaven’s glory, from man’s cross to God’s throne. His infinite love brought Him to the shame of the cross, for there He bore our sins; God’s righteousness has carried Him to the glory of the throne, for our sins are gone eternally. Hallelujah! My friend, can you trust that living, loving Saviour? Old sinners, great sinners, immoral sinners, many have trusted Him, and shall never be confounded. But even moral sinners, abstemious sinners, and religious sinners must eternally perish, if they do not subject themselves to Him. Let every man-devised foundation be abandoned, and God’s chosen one, the living stone, be accepted.

But some are delayed by the pleasures of the world. “The world is so attractive,” said one. Ah, what a bait for soul-traps is found in these gaudy toys and pretty scenes of the world! But is true satisfaction found in them? Is there no aching brain, no wearied heart, no disappointed spirit, found amongst them? Jesus gives

LIVING WATER.

(John 4) He is both Saviour and Satisfier. Those who drink of the world’s pleasures thirst again; their souls are ever crying, “Give, give.” The deeper the draft, the greater thirst it awakes. And those who find no satisfaction on earth will find none in hell; there is no water there. But listen to the words of Jesus, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall NEVER THIRST.” He perfectly satisfies the soul of him that trusts in Him, and that forever. This infinite satisfaction, this endless joy, is quite independent of all our circumstances; for He adds, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” The Christian may be robbed of every human comfort, bereft of every earthly friend, may have deep trials and bitter sorrows; but the fountain of living water still sends up its gushing streams, and he can cry, “I have Christ; what want I more?” So far from seeking that the world should minister pleasure to Him, He becomes a channel of true blessing to those who surround Him, “rivers of living water” flowing from His inmost soul to them. (John 7:38.)

Saved by Christ, satisfied with Him, we may ask, What shall we do whilst passing through this world? The Scripture answers, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies

A LIVING SACRIFICE,

holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1.) The body which was once used in Satan’s service for pleasure-seeking and sin is now to be wholly for God. Feet to run His errands, hands to work for Him, lips to sound abroad His praise. Jesus gave Himself for us a dying sacrifice, a sweet savor to God. We are to be here in this world, a living sacrifice, a sweet savor of Christ to God.

For how long? Until we are called home. The wilderness journey shall soon end in the Father’s home. We have

A LIVING HOPE.

(1 Peter 1:3; literally “living.”) Earthly hopes may fail us, fade away and die; but here is one which will never die, for it is well grounded upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Death has no more dominion over Him, and our hope is as undying as He Himself. Fellow-Christian, faint not nor be weary. A bright future awaits thee, not clouded by a single sorrow, not dimmed by a single tear, never to be marred by weariness or pain. Its brightness is that of the face of thy long-loved Lord, and the glory of thy Father’s house.

J. R.

Sin, Because They Believe not on Me.

“DOST thou believe on the Son of God?” “I cannot say I do.” Then, reader, however moral, respectable, and religious you may be, your life has been one of perpetual sin. For He whom you reject is at God’s right hand.

It is often forgotten that the cross of Christ demonstrates fully what man’s heart is. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” and man only seized the opportunity to spit in His face and crucify Him.

You say, “I was not there to take part in the perpetration of that deed. How can God hold me responsible for it?”

Well, unless you have believed on Him, and been thereby saved, you are as guilty as the very man that put the nails through His blessed hands. God looks a little deeper than the mere outward act; He searches the heart, and finds in yours the very same principles and motives that prompted that awful cry, “Away with Him, away with Him; crucify Him.”

You find various classes round the cross. There are the scribes and Pharisees, the men of learning and religion, vehemently accusing Him― the enemies of Him whose grace befriended the publican and sinner; while it gave no credit, no quarter even, to their pretensions. “Well, my friend, how do you mean to get to heaven?” “Oh, I must do the best I can; attend to my religious duties, and so on!” “Self-righteous Pharisee,” says God, “you are the very man that clamored for my Son’s blood.”

Then you get Herod, with his gay retinue — a man of pleasure and pomp and pride, who cannot bow down, except in mockery, to the lowly carpenter. “Man of the world, you mocked my Son.”

Then Pilate has to choose between Christ and the applause of the mob and approval of Cæsar. “And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.” Man of ambition, living for fame and popularity, you delivered my Son to be crucified.” The voice of the world prevails with you, as it did with Pilate.

Judas, again, sold Him for thirty pieces of silver; he valued this more than Christ. How much have you sold Him for, reader? For a few dances, may be, or a few drams of whiskey―the pleasures of sin for a season. These perhaps are what you are choosing in preference to the Christ of God; or perhaps the “innocent” occupations of the world. — “some yoke of oxen, wife, or field” —preoccupy you, so that you do not trouble your head about Christ. You value them more than Christ. “A goodly price that I was prized at of them.”

Unsaved reader, in the name of God, we solemnly charge you with the rejection and murder of His Son. “As face answereth to face in water, so the heart of man to man;” and those whose hands murdered Christ only expressed in that act what is in your heart towards Him.

Do you say you are not as guilty as those men? You are worse. They only knew Christ in His blessed life of tender love and grace; you know of Him as One who has died for you, which is infinitely worse; and yet you are choosing the world, pleasure, and sin in preference to Him, just as they did. May God show you, in the light of the cross, what the desperate wickedness of your heart is, and thus make you sensible of your need of the Saviour. Blessed be His name, though you have cast Him out, He still will not cast you out if you come to Him, but will give you eternal life-the purchase of His blood.

W. H. K.

Where is Your Solace?

“THE theater is closed in S― Road,” said an actor to me a short time ago. “Indeed,” said I, “I was not aware of it.”

“Perhaps you do not go to such places?”

“No, I do not.”

“Probably you find sufficient pleasure in your surroundings, and good solace in yourself?”

“You are mistaken, sir; but I have truly a good solace, yet it is not in myself.”

“I am glad to hear you say so; but, pray, where is your solace?”

“In the Son of God, who is in heaven.”

“Oh, indeed!”

“Yes; God, who made all things, saw me in my lost condition, and in wondrous mercy gave His own Son to bear the punishment that I, a vile, guilty creature, deserved.”

“I have studied physiology, but never religion.”

“Has your science opened out to you a way from this region of misery, wickedness, and death, to a place of light, love, rest, and incorruptibility?”

“Alas! no.”

“My dear sir, no science will ever do for you what the Son of God has done. I beseech you to repent and believe the gospel.”

“You are very kind, and I am truly glad you find comfort in what you believe; but I take my chance like many another.”

“Your chance is but the devil’s lie, and will end in the lake of fire.”

“I hope not.”

“You will find it to be a fact, if you turn to Revelation 21:8. Do not trifle with God’s word, or fearful will be your judgment. ‘The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.’” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.)

“Well, good evening to you I may call upon you at some other time, and talk further upon these subjects.”

He has not called upon me since. Perhaps, like Felix, he waits for “a convenient season” (Acts 24:25), which he will never find; for while he waits the Lord may come, and then it will be too late for the neglecters of His grace.

Reader, let me ask you the question put at the head of this paper―Where is your solace? Can you look by faith up into heaven, and gaze upon that One on the right hand of the majesty on high, and say He is my Saviour; He died for me; He lives for me; He is coming for me?

“Jesus, my Saviour, Thou art mine,

The Father’s gift of love divine;

All Thou halt done, and all Thou art,

Are now the portion of my heart.”

Happy your portion, great your comfort if you have Christ. But without Him, what have you got? Only this world, with its pleasures, its pains, its heart-aches, its sufferings, its shams, its wars, its wickedness, its enmity to God, its god (Satan), and a looking forward to the great white throne, and to share the devil’s reward forever and ever.
E. E. S.

Two Servants.

A Contrast.

“I GENERALLY rest on Sunday afternoons, but today I am going to the cemetery to see my brother’s grave. He was quite well and in here six weeks back; but a short time afterward he went into the country, when he died suddenly.”

So said the waitress of the hotel in a country town where I was obliged to stay over a Lord’s day. After some words of sympathy I said, “It is a solemn thing to have to die. If death were to take you, where would you be?” “I hope I should be prepared; I have never done anything wrong.”

“But have you never said anything wrong?” I asked, astonished at her answer.

“No,” she replied.

“Well now, have you ever thought a wrong thing? have you ever had a foolish thought?” “No,” she again said.

“Then you do not believe the word of God when it says, ‘All have SINNED;’ ‘There is none righteous, no, not one;’ ‘There is none that doeth good, no, not one’?” (Romans 3:10, 12, 23.)

“Oh! of course we read that in the Bible, and I believe that we are all sinners alike; but I have never stolen anything, or murdered anybody, or told falsehoods, or done anybody any harm, so that I don’t see but that I shall be all right when I die.”

“It is most important for us to know what God calls sin,” I said.” He says, ‘The thought of foolishness is sin (Proverbs 24:9), and surely you would not really pretend to say that you never had a foolish thought, even if your ways are not open to censure, as men see things. You will not have to answer to me, nor to your neighbor, but to God; so it is of the utmost importance for you to know what He thinks of sin. (Habakkuk 1:13.) And since you admit He says you are a sinner―and He says it also of me, but I have been saved by His grace―I would say to you in all faithfulness, that unless all your sins are washed away by the blood of Christ, you will be lost forever. God has given His Son He came into the world and died on the cross that His shed blood might put away the sins of all who believe on Him. If you believe on Him, He has answered for your sins on the cross, and you are saved but if you do not believe on Him, you will have to answer for them yourself to God, and then there will be no salvation for you.”

I spoke as plainly as I could, being astounded by her answers. She soon made her exit from the room, not caring for further conversation.

You may well be startled at anyone being so ignorant and blind as this servant, yet she really is only a sample of a numerous class of people. She had never done any wrong to her fellow-creatures, nor deceived them, nor thought wrongfully of them, so she said. Sins as men see them were thought of by her, but sins as God sees them, and purity, according to God’s holy eye, appeared never to have entered her mind. Are there not many around us like this? How blessed the blood of Christ cleanses a soul from all sin, and fits it for the eye and presence of God. (1 John 1:7.) Shortly after this I was in the house of a professing Christian, and we had reading and prayer together, when I narrated the above to him, the scripture being Romans 4:23, 25; verses 5:1, 2. “Jesus our Lord... who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” I could not help noticing the bright face of the servant as we read, so afterward I asked her if she had “peace with God.”

“Yes, sir, that I have,” was her ready reply.

“And how long have you known that?” I inquired.

“It was when my mother died. She was a good Christian, and when she died I became so unhappy about my sins I could not sleep, being afraid I should wake up in hell. That went on nearly twelve months, till at last I saw that my Saviour died for me on the cross, that He bore my ‘sins in His own body on the tree’ (1 Peter 2:24); and as He had paid my debt of sin, I could go free, for God would not ask me and my Saviour too to die for the same sins. Now, often when I am alone reading the Bible, the Lord seems to come to me, and I am so happy. He said He would come (John 14:21, 23) and make His abode with us, did He not, sir? and I’m sure He does come to me. There is a scripture I like very much which says, When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.’ (1 John 3:2.) That is so beautiful to think of. Yet there are so many people that don’t seem to think at all of what He suffered on the cross, and how He died that we might be saved.”

These, as near as I can recollect, were some of this simple believer’s words. It was quite refreshing to hear her honest account of her soul’s salvation, and her happiness in Christ; supported as it was by the testimony of her master to her good conduct. This servant was one who had found out what sin is in God’s sight—that made her tremble; but she also found that the Lord Jesus Christ had borne the awful judgment of God due to sin on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21), and that by believing on Him she could go free. (Acts 13:38, 39.) His blood paid her debt of sins (Romans 5:9), and God righteously reckons her free from sin. (Rom. 3:24, 26.) This servant is also one of a class of people in the world—a people saved by the blood of Christ (Titus 3:3-7), and made children of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26) ―whose destiny is to be like Christ and with Him, who has loved them, and given Himself for them (Ephesians 5:2), forever in the glory of God and in the Father’s house. (1 Thessalonians 4:17; Revelation 3:12; John 14:2, 3.)

Reader, will you share this portion? God grant you may. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and THOU SHALT SAVE.” (Acts 16:31.)

G. I. S.

Now, Hereafter, Never

THREE words of great meaning, how lightly thought of and often used by man. Let us look for a moment at the use and import of them in the Bible-that blessed Word of the blessed God to man.

First, “Now.” This is especially God’s word, because “now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” “Now are we the sons of God.” “This day [now] is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” It is easy to multiply instances of this use of the word by God Himself, for He always speaks of “now” to man―unveiling the future surely, but speaking to man of his present state, and of God’s present resources and mind concerning him. What a wondrous and blessed word this “now” is as used by God, both for sinner and for saint! Reader, have you learned its reality and import?

Second, “Hereafter.” This is man’s word, “When I have a convenient season I will call for thee.” So spoke the corrupt, money-loving, worldly-minded “Noble Felix,” in answer to God’s “now” and God’s “hereafter.” Man’s word is “hereafter,” because he seeks to put off the moment, put off having to do with God, put off searching himself and his own heart, put off confessing his sins, and seeking in a contrite spirit to own “now” before God what he has done and what he is. Thus man meets Satan half-way, for Satan’s word is “never.” He hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine unto them. Never, so far as he can prevent it, never shall the grace of God, the love of God, the resources of God, reach man in his sins. Only let man go on putting off till hereafter the thought of God and having to do with Him, and man’s “hereafter” ends in Satan’s “never.” See the rich man and Lazarus. God’s “now” for the rich man was turned into “hereafter” by the good things he enjoyed and set his heart on in this life, and passed into the “never” of Satan in the place of eternal torment, where every prayer was refused―every cry, even for a drop of water, met by the awful and unchanging “no!” Satan’s “never” is just to lull man to sleep in his sins and in his guilt, and thus prevent the blessed “now” of God’s grace and mercy reaching his heart and conscience.

Reader, how do you stand as to these three words? Is God’s “now” really “now” to your heart and soul? God’s love known in the present blessed enjoyment of it? Or are you taking up the mad thought of “hereafter,” so full of danger and risk to your soul? It may never become “now” again to you, but in a moment terminate in the eternal “never.” Alas God’s mercy, His grace and forbearance, are taken advantage of by the unbelieving, foolish heart of man. Man thinks because he has put off the question of his sins and his guilt once, and has not been cut off in them, that he can do so again and again, and so he goes on and on, shunning the light because his deeds are evil, and lulled to sleep by Satan; helped by him too to think that he, poor deluded man, has power over the “hereafter,” and can turn and change when he will. Alas I he is the dupe of Satan. His most powerful weapon is “hereafter,” knowing full well that he has man in his grasp, he, the God of this world, is blinding the eyes of them that believe not, lest the light should reach them.

Reader, let me ask you again, for the sake of your soul’s eternal welfare, “How do you stand before God as to His “now”? What would the rich man in the place of torment not have given for one moment, one second, of the “now” he had neglected and lost forever, deluded by the things of time and sense, pleasure and lust, into leaving all to the “hereafter,” and waking up to find himself eternally in the grasp of Satan’s “never.” God too has a “hereafter” for man; but it is after this life. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared;” “the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation.” But His “now” becomes “never” to those who refuse His love and grace, His offer of pardon, mercy, and peace; and He defines His “never” as “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” May He lead you to pause, to think, to turn to Him, attracted by His love and His grace; and may you, dear reader, not put off to a convenient season what God means to be present and eternal blessing to you. God’s convenient time is “now.”

P. A. H.

Whose Side Are You on?

THERE are only two classes of people found in the word of God; namely, those who are saved and those who are not saved. The former have accepted Christ, the latter are rejecting Him. Before going further, dear reader, I ask you to turn your eye again to the heading of this paper, and answer to God from the deep secret chamber of your heart this solemn question; for it is of the greatest importance that you should be certain as to your present condition in His presence―a thrice-holy God. How solemn to be classed with the people in John 19:6, who with one consent cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” Where are you then as to Christ, my reader? If still rejecting Him, you are shutting out God’s salvation. Oh, how can you treat this sinner-loving sinner-seeking Saviour so, when He seeks in every possible way to win your confidence to Himself. Think what it cost Him. Oh, who can measure the length and breadth, height or depth, of His surpassing love―love that brought Him down, even to the death of the cross, for sinners stained with sin of deepest dye? Blessed be God, His blood can make the foulest clean. (1 John 1:7.) Why go on in unbelief? Why sell your soul to the devil for the passing pleasures of this poor, doomed world? Why procrastinate when God says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” You must have to do with Christ personally either as a Saviour or a Judge. Oh, how His loving heart yearns over you How He seeks in every possible way to stop you in your wayward course, by presenting to you the rich provision He has made for you in His own precious death. How God the Holy Ghost would point you to Him as He now sits glorified at God’s right hand; and, constrained by His infinite love, I would earnestly pray you to accept Him now by simple faith as your own personal Saviour, and if through grace you do, what joy it will give to His loving heart; yea, joy to the heart of God, and the object of this paper will be gained. On the other hand, if you continue to reject Him, there remains nothing for you but the wrath of God, which may at any moment burst upon you.

R. G.

Rest for Those Who Want It.

“COME unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28.)

Three objects stand out in bold and bright relief in the well-known wording of this grand invitation. First, “Me;” second, “heavy-laden;” third, “rest.”

A peculiar charm attaches to this appeal of the blessed Saviour. Its suitability to those to whom it is addressed strikes the mind at once; and then when you consider that, in a world of care, disappointment, sin, and sorrow, there are no shoulders exempt from some load, many indeed bowed and crushed by accumulated loads, its suitability is only the more evident.

But, first, who is the speaker? who is intended by the “Me”? Let us think; for of the other objects of interest in the passage this is clearly the most commanding. He, whoever it may be, makes the offer of the most wonderful boon that the human heart can possess―rest.

Now, dear reader, I beg your most profound attention to the answer. Let me quote the previous verse, “All things are delivered unto Me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” And then follows our “Come unto Me.” He who speaks therefore is the Son of God, who, in the full depths of His being is known only to the Father, and to whom all things have been delivered by Him. So much then for the dignity of the speaker. Now let us look at the circumstances in which He speaks these words. The unbelieving generation of that day had refused John the Baptist, saying he had a devil, and then had in like manner closed their hearts against the testimony of their Messiah, calling Him a gluttonous man, and a winebibber; whilst the cities which had witnessed most of His mighty works, and the seal of divine authenticity placed upon Him thereby, repented not. Solemn fact. And by their refusal to repent they had closed the door of hope against themselves, and fastened upon their own shoulders the heaviest of all burdens. “At that time,” we read―a time of unspeakable trial to the tender heart of God’s truest Servant, and the sinner’s truest Friend― “Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.” At that time of sore disappointment, when His service was proudly declined, this blessed and perfect Servant retired in spirit into the counsels of the Father’s good pleasure, and accepted the disappointment without the faintest ruffle or irritation, but the rather with thanksgiving to the Father that at least the babes should receive what the wise and prudent refused.

It was in the face of all this that He said, “Come unto Me.”

Do you appreciate the conduct of the blessed One in such circumstances? Unchilled by the coldness of man, returning good for evil, and love for hatred, He looks with an eye of deep compassion on these self-destroyers. He sees their burden if they do not; He knows their need if they do not; and, spite of all, He presents Himself to them in the consciousness of having all things delivered to Him, and, as knowing the Father, of being able to communicate that knowledge to others. “Come unto Me,” the Fountain of Life and Peace “Me,” the Son of the Father; “Me” who am able to do what no temple or priesthood can. “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest?’

Then notice the second point, it was the heavy laden, and all of them, who were invited. Granted only that people had a sense of the load, they were welcome. Now can you find one solitary individual between the north pole and the south, from the throne to the hovel, from the millionaire to the mendicant, who is not laden? Not one. “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together”―words which call for no demonstration. Backs are bowed, hearts are crushed, and consciences are burdened everywhere.

But, blessed be God, wide as is the circle of misery so wide are the tidings of grace. “All,” covers “the whole creation.” Wherever a groan is heard, a pain thrills, a tear falls, a bosom sighs, a soul despairs, or a conscience trembles, there a voice is heard saying, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

And, last, what word could be more appropriate than rest to such. If I indulge in sin, what shall I get? Sorrow. If I pursue pleasure, what then? Pain. If I make money, what then? Anxiety and care. If I seek to scale the ladder of fame, what then? I am envied. If, in a word, I make the world my object, at the very best I can carry nothing of it with me. Over the whole thing is written dissatisfaction; but when, under a sense of this, the soul comes to Jesus it gets rest—yes, rest of conscience from the load of sin; rest of heart by following in His ways; and the rest of God at the end, when spirit, soul, and body shall be in the fullness of bliss. Now, dear reader, list to the voice that sweetly says, “Come unto Me... and I will give you REST.”

J. W. S.

"The Blood on the Door; That's Where I Am."

GOD has spoken to men in two ways. Indeed, He continues so to speak to them; namely, in a dream or in sickness. It is equally true that men are slow to perceive the instruction He would seal home; secondary causes only being looked at and thought of.

The portion of Scripture (Job 33,) which speaks to us of these weighty truths, reveals to us the loving activity on the part of a too oft-forgotten God towards men― “For God speaketh once, yea twice ... He openeth the ears of men.” He looketh upon them, and His ear is open to hear their cry, “I have sinned, and perverted that which was right;” and when that expression of repentance reaches His ear His arm is at once outstretched, moved by His heart of love, and deliverance from “the pit” is the result.

This surely reveals no indifference on God’s part; but too often men prove themselves to be indifferent. Oh, the wickedness of indifference towards God!

R. K― was skeptically inclined, one who, like Festus, supposed, reasoned, and doubted concerning the truths of the Bible, and, like that rationalist, thought it a matter of superstition on the part of those who affirmed that Jesus who had died was risen again. This, however, was only upon the surface, beneath was an undercurrent, restless and disturbed. The truth is, the subject of this brief account had had a Christian father, one who believed in Jesus Christ and feared God, and when quite young his mind had been impressed, and years of contact with the world had not brushed away those impressions which he then received. Unknown to any but to God and himself, he had gone through serious struggles with conscience. Sickness came upon him, and the powerful frame was brought down by deadly disease to the weakness of a child, and it became plain that soon he must pass out of this world. An endless future looked him in the face; a God whom he had sinned against to be met; the judgment-seat to appear before. He was awakened, aroused, and alarmed; he thought of his boyhood, his early impressions, and a life consistent only with his own will and vanity. What could he do? Self-righteous he had been he was not so now. The truth came upon him, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Like the balm of Gilead to a throbbing wound, he remembered his beloved father had spoken to him of the blood of Jesus. This gave relief to his troubled conscience; but at present but little of the efficacy of that precious blood was known by him. He had not yet grasped by faith that it “cleanseth from all sin.”

At this time the Lord guided one or two of His servants to visit the suffering one, and they through grace were enabled to put the gospel of the grace of God before him. He received the gospel, and was safe. The reader might now be prepared to read that R. K― peacefully passed out of this world into glory; but no. Contrary to what might have been expected, and what even the medical men who attended him expected, the sick man rallied, rapidly gained strength, and appeared strong again.

Some had thought it a case of cancer; but now the pallid cheek wore an appearance more like health. He became an object of interest, not less so to those who had a care for his spiritual state. Would he continue to show the same desire for the things of God? or would he now turn back to the things of the world? To our joy he went on, perhaps slowly; but his desire for the word of God rather increased than decreased. It seemed as though he had been raised up to give assurance to others of the reality of his faith in Christ.

But after a few months the old symptoms returned, and rapidly he grew weaker and weaker. Spring-time was coming on (he had had a longing desire to be liaised up the previous spring, and his desire had been granted; but now that desire as regards the coming spring was gone). He now looked forward to where

“Everlasting spring abides.”

He had been reading his Bible, and letting it drop from his hands upon the table at the side of his bed, he said to his wife, who was in the room, “The blood on the door; that’s where I am.” These were about the last words he spoke with distinctness before “he fell asleep.”

Under the shelter of the blood. Blessed place of security! Beloved reader, where are you? Are you sheltered? By what? If by anything but that which God in His mercy has provided, you will discover that it will prove like the covering “narrower than a man can wrap himself in it,” or like a bed “shorter than a man can stretch himself on it.” Everything a man does for his own eternal security and covering will prove too narrow or too short. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

At the downfall of Jericho Rahab and her family were safe under the shelter of the scarlet line. The spies knew too, and were able to point out the house. Who else in Israel would have known the meaning of that line in the window? So Jesus must rise again from the dead.

The night in which the first-born of Egypt were slain the children of Israel were secured by the blood being on the lintel and side-posts of their doors. Jehovah said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you;” but this was said to people who were under its shelter, so to speak. Will the Judge pass over you? or will He enter into judgment with you? Will you meet the Lord as a Saviour or as a Judge?

Be not deceived; trifle not. Whatever comfort you may derive from knowing that others are in the same position as yourself it will not comfort you at the judgment-seat; it would not comfort you in hell. Perchance your anguish would be increased to think you had rather helped others down to destruction, and your misery increased by the reflection that you had stood in their way to eternal life and blessedness. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

Man's "Hope" and God's "Hath."

SOME people say that nobody can have eternal life in this world. They tell us that we must do our best, and pray, and read the Bible, and then God will give us eternal life when we die. Others say that we may have eternal life now, but it is best not to be too sure about it; and they tell us that it is a sign of grace to have a good many doubts and fears. And, strange to tell, there are others who actually say that we may have eternal life, and after all lose it, and die in our sins. So it comes to pass we find three classes of religious people. First, those who are hoping to get eternal life. Second, those who are hoping they have it. Third, those who are hoping to keep it. Amidst such conflicting opinions we are puzzled, and long for someone to speak to our souls with authority from God, and not as those religious scribes who only give us their own opinions. Blessed be God, we have such an authority. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken.” Every reader of this paper has access to a Bible. God in His mercy has caused His word to be scattered so plentifully in this favored land that Bibles are almost as common as stones in the street. Open your Bible then, dear reader, at the third chapter of John, and read the last verse:

“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.”

The beginning of this verse is a divine statement about every believer in Jesus. Have you believed on Him? Have you taken your place, consciously and confessedly, before God as a corrupt, defiled, helpless, and lost sinner? for such He declares you to be. Then, have you looked at Jesus? Have you beheld in Him a Saviour such as you need? for that is what God declares Him to be. Then you are a believer; for faith is just the eye that looks at Jesus. Now what does God say? “He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life.” That one verse settles the point for me. I was a sinner ready to perish. I heard about Jesus, the Son of God, and His mighty work for sinners on the cross. I believed on Him. I am not hoping to get everlasting life, neither am I hoping that I have it, because to do either of these would be to disbelieve God, who says, “He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life.” And as for the third class who are hoping to keep it, and afraid they may lose it, it is enough for me that God says it is “everlasting,” which it would not be if it came to an end in a few years. God gave me everlasting life when I deserved nothing but everlasting punishment; and it is because of this that I now seek to avoid not only sin itself, but the very appearance of it, lest I should grieve Him who has made me the object of such transcendent grace. I am wit afraid of losing the everlasting life that God has given me, because I read in John 10:27 the following precious words from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”

C. A. C.

Yesterday, Today, Forever;

Or, Three Scenes―Past, Present, And Future.

IT is the land of Egypt, more than three thousand years ago. God, by the hands of His servants, Moses and Aaron, is dealing with a king and a nation who refuse to let His people go, and six plagues have already descended upon their unhappy country. Now God announces that unless they obey Him He will visit Egypt with such a grievous hail as has not heretofore been known, and He warns them to gather their cattle and all they possess under shelter, if they would save any alive. Then follow these remarkable words: “He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.” (Exodus 9:20, 21.) There were, even among the Egyptians, some who feared and obeyed the word of the Lord, and who, like Israel, escaped the judgment of the hail. Salvation was found in obedience to the Word.

More than fifteen hundred years later, in the days of the Holy Ghost, wherein we also live, in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, might have been seen gathered on a sabbath-day a remarkable company. On the previous sabbath the ordinary synagogue-goers had heard from the mouth of Paul a never-to-be-forgotten sermon. On this sabbath nearly the whole city had come together “to hear the word of God.” (Acts 13:44, 45.) The orthodox Jews are occupied, not certainly in hearkening, but in “contradicting and blaspheming.” “They judge themselves,” says Paul, “unworthy of everlasting life.” They will not have the word of God at any price, and turning from them to the Gentiles, who in multitudes are awaiting the good news, Paul announces from the same word of God that for them there is light and salvation. They hear, they are glad, they glorify the word of the Lord, they believe. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The Jews refused the word of God they had no faith, and hence they lost the blessing. “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2.)

And in the future how will it be? God has lifted the curtain for a moment, and shows us two armies. (Revelation 19:11-21.) At the head of the first is One called “The Word of God,” “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” and He is followed by the armies of heaven. All around Him betokens that He has come forth in judgment on His enemies, and that lie, the Word of God, who has been proclaimed as salvation, will now take vengeance on them who have not obeyed the gospel. But who is bold enough to advance against Him? The beast (the civil power), and the false prophet (the religious leader of the day), and the kings of the earth and their armies are there―Christendom, in fact, that has rejected the word of God. What an awful time! The beast and the false prophet are taken, and cast alive into the lake of fire; the rest are slain, and the fowls of the air are called together to devour their flesh.

Why, think you, reader, are these three scenes brought under your notice? That you may ponder what Jesus said: “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 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 12:47, 48.)

In olden times salvation was found in hearkening to the words of Jehovah, whether in the mouth of angel or prophet.

In the present day salvation is known by heeding the written word of God, be it read or heard. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life.” (John 5:24.) “Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21.)

In the future, condemnation and damnation will be committed to the hands of the Word of God Himself. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son.” (John 5:22.) “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven... taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.)

Reader, “Now is the day of salvation.”

H. L. H.

"It's All on Before."

I WAS driving lately with a friend in one of the beautiful lanes of Dorsetshire, when we came to a gate across the road, put there to prevent cattle from straying away from a piece of common land close by. When we were getting near the gate, my friend told me that a young man who was half-witted would be there to open it for us, and added, “Say a word to him about the Lord.”

Sure enough there he was; and as we approached he came out of a poor little hut he had made to shelter himself from sun and storm, while he earned his few pence daily by opening the gate for passers-by. His face was a remarkable one. It bore the unmistakable stamp of one who had but little intellect, and yet there was a brightness mixed with manifest simplicity that could not fail to strike the most casual observer. After a few words had passed, I asked him if he were happy.

“Oh, yes! quite happy,” he replied.

“But you have not much to make you happy here,” I said.

No words of mine can express the bright look that lit up that otherwise unintelligent face, as he said, pointing onward and upward, as if to a land far away, “It’s all on before.” No need to ask what he meant. The bright smile and the few words―so simple, and yet conveying so deep a reality―told of a portion that was his, far beyond anything this poor world could give―one which all the wealth of this world could never purchase. My friend afterward told me something of his history. A miserable home, dissolute parents, great poverty, told the story of his earthly path. Five years ago, at a mission-service, the old, old story of the grace of God and the love of Christ to poor sinners had touched and reached his heart, and in a moment, as it were, all was changed to him, and that life, hitherto so dark and hopeless, was lighted up with the brightness of a Saviour’s love, known and enjoyed as a blessed reality. Circumstances here were unchanged, but that mattered not; for it was, as he said, “all on before.” That poor, half-witted man had seen the unseen things which are eternal, and had a joy which none could take from him. My friend told me that if I had gone into that poor hut I should have found in it a well-worn Bible, his constant and only companion.

Well, dear reader, is it “all on before” with you? or are all your hopes in present things only? Are your joys those which pass with the moment that brings them, or those which abide, and will abide when present things are gone forever? Is it Christ or the world with you? Oh, the wretchedness and unreality of the world without Christ! And yet it may be that is all you have, and all you wish or care for. And what must the end be? Think of that poor, half-witted man who could look beyond all the sorrow and desolation here to those “bright and blessed scenes, where sin can never come,” because he knew the One who is the center of them all, and knew Him as a Saviour; while you, with, it may be, everything to boast of here, dare not draw aside that dark curtain of death, nor think of what is “on before.” Are you sacrificing a bright eternity for a few miserable years of so-called pleasure here? and then death, and then what? “After death the judgment.” It must be either Christ now as a Saviour, and judgment passed forever because He has exhausted it, drinking to its very dregs that bitter cup which He took from the Father’s hand (John 18:11); or God as a Judge on the great white throne, and the sinner there in his sins and lost forever. Dear reader, think on these things, look at them in the light of eternity, and ask yourself what is “on before” for you.

P. G.

Down, Down He Went.

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” PROVERBS 29:1.

A SOLEMN and terrible fulfillment of the above has been recently brought before me; and in passing may I ask you, unsaved reader, How many times have you been reproved, and how many times have you hardened your neck? The case is that of a man who earned his living at sinking and cleaning wells, &c. He left his home one morning, little knowing that he would never enter it again. He was reckless and careless, and got into the bucket; there was a little misunderstanding, and down, down he went. Horror filled those who stood by, and when one volunteered to go down, what a sight met his eyes! There lay the body; but the soul had flown―whither? Oh, whither? Alas! we know too well. The poor remains were carried to the grave; but his never-dying soul was in eternity, tasting already something of that place, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” He had been told of the Saviour, he had been pleaded with to accept that great salvation; but he put it off, and too late he awoke to the fact.

And oh, Christless soul, wilt thou still put it off? wilt thou still trifle with that One who offers thee salvation “without money and without price”? Oh, be wise in time, tomorrow too late may be! Ere another sun rises, thy soul may be summoned into the presence of God, and how will it be with thee then? Will those words be said to thee, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded... I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh”?

“Oh what horrors shall roll o’er the godless soul,

Waked from its death-like sleep;

Of all hope bereft, and to judgment left

Forever to wail and weep.”

Oh, be wise in time; there is pardon today! “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” F. M. E. P.

"I See Jesus."

“AND I shall, be with Jesus before half-past one.” These are the words of a dying man whom the Lord lately took to be forever with Himself. Sometime before his last illness he was brought to see himself a lost sinner needing a Saviour, and by faith in the word of God was enabled to trust in the Lord Jesus and His finished work for present salvation, and to know for a certainty from the word of God that his sins were all washed away in the blood of Jesus, and that he was eternally saved. Dear reader, have you yet discovered that you are a lost sinner needing a Saviour? Have you yet seen that your sins separate you from God, who is holy, and must separate you for eternity if not washed in the blood of Jesus from all your sins?

From the very first of his illness it was manifest that there was no hope of recovery, and he gradually got weaker and weaker; but though the outward man perished daily, yet the inward man was renewed, for his soul deepened in the love of Jesus his Saviour. To a fellow workman who called to see him, and spoke of some worldly matter, he said, “I don’t wish to hear anything more about these things, for I have done with this world; I am going home,” and to his sorrowing relatives he said, “Do not weep for me, for I am going home.”

One day he prayed to the Lord that if it were according to His will He would allow him ten minutes’ consciousness before he died, that he might be able to give a clear, distinct testimony as to where he was going. From this time he gradually sank, and it became very manifest to those watching him that he was fast passing away. About half an hour before death he was lying apparently unconscious of all that was going on around him, the deep breathing alone indicating that life was still there. He looked up, and said, “I see Jesus, I see Jesus, and I shall be with Jesus before half-past one.” At ten minutes to one his happy spirit was “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9)

W. K — G.

The Man with a Measuring Line.

Ezekiel 47:1-12.

I HAVE read this scripture for two purposes. It will only take a few moments to explain the first, the second will occupy the remainder of this paper. Of these verses I want to form a scriptural platform upon which to erect a pyramid of scripture taken from the New Testament. This chapter speaks of mysterious waters which issue forth from the temple, and flow through the Dead Sea, healing the waters. This will not be fulfilled until the millennium, when the Jews are restored to their land. It is of this time alone that the chapter treats. Scripture has only one interpretation, but it has many applications.

Now, as I said before, this scripture applies to the millennium, when all Israel shall be restored; for they shall be brought back again to the land of their fathers. If you turn to chapter 37:21, 22, you will find this very plainly stated: “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone... and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” When the Lord brings them back, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel shall be united, and they shall have one king. It is the Lord Jesus who shall be King in that day. And then these mysterious waters shall flow through the Dead Sea, healing its waters, so that there shall be a very great multitude of fishes where now there are none, and there shall be fertility where now there is sterility. Wherever these fertilizing waters flow, they shall bring life and blessing with them.

Now I turn from what this scripture teaches to what it does not teach, but suggests. These mysterious waters are, to me, a beautiful type, or rather figure, of the love of God. They flow from the throne of God. (Revelation 22:1.) verse 3 “And when the man who had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits,” &c. Here we get “the man” who can measure the love of God. Who is He? There is only one man who is able to measure the love of God, and I turn you to the New Testament in order to introduce you to Him. Perhaps you think it strange to hear me call the Lord Jesus a man, but Scripture calls him so. He became man in order to make the love of God known unto us. Turn to 1 Timothy 2:5, and allow me to introduce you to “the man” whose prerogative it is to measure the love of God. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Mark, it does not say the woman Mary, but “the man Christ Jesus.” Oh, no! Mary, blessed woman as she was, is no mediator! Nor does it say “a man,” as if there were many; but it is the man, for there is only one. Job said, “Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that he might lay his hand upon us both.” Well, here He is in 1 Timothy 2:5. Here is the One for whom Job longed to go between him and God, and to bring them together; and He has measured the distance that was between God and man by laying His right hand of divinity upon the throne of God, and His left hand of humanity upon man. The man Christ Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. It is He alone who can measure the love of God, and it is He alone who can conduct us into the love of God, as the man in Ezekiel brought the prophet into the river.

Turn to 2 Thessalonians 3:5, “And the Lord direct your hearts [not your heads] into the love of God.” Not into our love to God, but into His love to us. Surely if we love Him, it is because He first loved us; and it is on His love to us that we should dwell, not on our poor love to Him. We must be brought into the love of God by Christ. Oh, beloved readers, will you let the Lord Jesus bring you into the fathomless, shoreless river of God’s love? Mark, it does not say that the prophet followed the man. Oh, no; the man brought him through! Now put your poor, tiny, feeble hands into the great, mighty, loving hand of the Lord Jesus, and let Him bring you into the fathomless, shoreless ocean of God’s love.

Verse 3: “And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.” Now what does this teach? Turn to John 3:16: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Do you know God’s love to you a lost sinner? Have you believed in the One whom He has sent from the bosom of His love to save you? If so, you have been brought through the waters to your ankles; but you should not stop there. It is indeed a blessed thing to be to the alleles in the waters; for it means that you have left the shore on which judgment rested, and that you are now in the fathomless, shoreless river of God’s love, never to return to the shore again, never again to be in the place of judgment. But is there nothing better, or, I should say, in advance of this? Surely it is a blessed thing to know the love of God to the world, but we should not stop there. I know that there are many of God’s dear children who never get past their ankles, as it were, in His love. I was speaking lately to a man who told me that he was forty years converted. I asked him what was the best thing he knew? He said,” God so loved the world.” &c. Now he had known the Lord for forty years, yet he had never got past his alleles. I feel very much grieved to find that ninety-five out of every hundred of God’s children that I meet have not got past the love of God to the world, and why is it so? Because they do not leave their hands in the Lord’s, and let Him conduct them through the waters.

Now having got to your ancles in the waters, let Him bring you through the second thousand cubits― “Again He measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees.” Now surely this is in advance of the first thousand cubits. Turn to John 16:26, 27: “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: FOR THE FATHER HIMSELF LOVETH YOU... because ye have believed that I came out from God.” Is not this better than John 3:16? Here we get the love of the Father which brings in relationship. God loves the world; but His love to His children is something deeper, something in advance of it― “At that day,” &c., when the Holy Ghost would be given.

We know that ten days after the ascension of Christ the Holy Ghost was given to dwell in every child of God. It is the Spirit who has taught us to cry, “Abba, Father.” “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Oh, do you know that you have a Father in heaven who loves you Himself, and who cares for you as you go through the world? People have a notion that they must go to Jesus, and get Him to go to the Father for them; but this is not the case. The Lord says, “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you.” You can go straight with boldness to the Father, and say, “Father,” that sweet name that the Spirit has taught us to call Him by Jehovah the Lord God Almighty is our Father. Is not this in advance of His love to the world? But there is something better still. Now if you have got up to your knees in His love do not stop there. Let the Man bring you through the third thousand cubits― “Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.” Here the waters are to the loins. Now what is this? Turn to John 17:22, 23: “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and HAST LOVED THEM, AS THOU HAST LOVED ME.” Is not this in advance of the second thousand cubits? There we learn that the Father Himself loves us; but here we get the measure of the love.

People speak of the Jewish disciple’s prayer as if it were the Lord’s Prayer; in fact they call it the Lord’s Prayer, but it is not. This 17th chapter of John is the Lord’s Prayer, and He allows us to stand by, as it were, and hear Him speak to His Father. Is not this wonderful? John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. This was in advance of all that went before, and it expressed dependence on and confidence in God. Jesus’ disciples asked Him to give them a prayer, as John gave his disciples. Jesus did give them a form of prayer, which was much in advance of John’s, and which suited their condition at the time it was given. It was a prayer to be used by them during the transitional state before the coming of the Holy Ghost. That this prayer was not to continue we know; for prayer now is to be in the name of Jesus, and this one is not. John 16:24 plainly tells us so― “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” If the prayer which He had given to them had been in the name of Jesus, He would not have said, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name.” The Holy Ghost is now in us to give us the knowledge of our relationship, and to teach us how to pray to our Father.

Now what is the measure of the Father’s love to us? “That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” How does the Father love the Son? Well, such is His love to us ―

“So dear, so very dear to God,

More dear I cannot be;

The love wherewith He loves the Son,

Such is His love to me.”

Can the Father ever love the Son more? or will He ever love Him less? Never. Well, His love to us is so great that He can never love us more, and He will never love us less.

And now, having been brought through the three thousand cubits, let us go through the fourth― “Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed.” Turn to 1 John 4:16: “And we have known and believed the love that God path to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him.” Surely this is in advance of all that went before. “He that dwelleth in love” ―God’s love to us, not our love to Him― “dwelleth in God, and God in him.” Is not this water to swim in? It takes us completely off our feet, and puts us on our faces before Him in praise and worship. We are ashamed to think of our poor feeble love. It is only by dwelling on His love that we can love Him. The love is there, but it comes from Him, just as if you were to dip a bucket in the ocean, and having filled it cast it back again; the bucketful is there, but it is not to be seen; it is lost in the ocean. So with our hearts full of love―it is lost in the fathomless, shoreless ocean of His love.

The Lord keep us, beloved, ever dwelling in that love which we cannot fathom or understand, but can enjoy. Then our praises shall rise unhindered to God, as the bird on the wing soars up with its breast full of song.

“And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.” Having been in the deep waters, we find them going back again towards the shore.

Now I have taken it for granted that you have put your hands into the large loving hand of the Lord Jesus, and that you have let Him conduct you through the waters of God’s love, until you have been completely taken off your feet and put upon your faces to praise and adore Him, and enjoy the fullness of His love.

Now we shall go back towards the shore again. “And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi, even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.” Here we read of fishers and of fish. What do these mean? Turn to Matthew 4:19, which will explain the passage, “And He” (Jesus) “said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This is service for the Lord. The Lord has sent some of us to fish for Him —to gather in souls. But he does not send us until first we have been in the full enjoyment of God’s love, until we have been taken off our feet and put upon our faces in worship, then, free from ourselves, we are in the condition to tell others of that love.

It is for the Master we are to fish, and at the close of each day we should have some fish for Him in our baskets, as it were. When I go to my Master after the day with no fish for Him in my basket, I feel quite ashamed before Him, and say, “Master, I have not a single fish for thee in my basket. There is something wrong with me, or I should have fish for thee.” Why is it that there are so few fish caught for the Master now? I believe it is because we often put ourselves in the front, instead of Christ. There is a story of a little boy who was fishing in one of the rivers of Scotland with a rod and line of the rudest construction. A gentleman from London was also there, whose fishing tackle was of the most perfect kind. Though he tried hard all day, his basket lay there empty, for he did not succeed in catching a single trout. He came up to the boy; and when he saw how quickly he was catching the most beautiful trout, he said, “How is this? I have been trying all day, and I have not had a single bite.” “I ken ye don’t hide yer sel,” said the boy. “Your shadow is on the water, and it frightens the fish. I hide behind the trees.” Yes, that is the secret. We often forget the Lord’s way of making us fishers. He says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” We should follow, not go before Him; then He will be in front, and we shall be hid. We should preach Christ, and not ourselves; we should seek to win souls for Christ, and not for ourselves.

Verse 12: “And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his mouths, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof shall be for medicine.” Here we get fruit-bearing. Now we are not all called to be fishers, but we are all called to bear fruit for the glory of God. Turn to John 15:16 — “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” My brother, my sister in Christ, you are each ordained to bring forth fruit for God, not for yourselves. Trees bear fruit noiselessly and the fruit is not for themselves, but for the owner. Some child of God here may say, “I do not know what fruit I can bear for God; for I have no gift for preaching or teaching.” You do not require gift. The smallest act done for Him God accepts as fruit. Another may say, “I am not rich, and cannot minister to God’s work.” “Stop, did you ask anyone to come to the gospel meeting?” “Yes, I asked one poor woman, but she has seven children, and she could not leave them.” “Did you offer to take charge of the children for her, so that she might get out to hear the gospel?” “No, I never thought of that.” Well, you lost an opportunity of bearing fruit for God. Oh, what a selfish heart not to give up a meeting in order that a poor perishing soul might hear the gospel! If you are on the watch you will find many opportunities of bearing fruit; for love is inventive, and, as one has said, “Love delights to serve, but selfishness delights to be served.” Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.” “I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” The fruit will not decay throughout eternity. I believe that the Lord takes notice of the least bit of fruit borne for Him, and He will reward it. There are many hidden acts known only to God.; it may be some child of God sitting by the death-bed of a poor obscure saint tonight, moistening the parched lips or wiping the death dew from the brow, that the Lord will count as far higher service than the one in which I am engaged.

Verse 11: “But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.” Mark 9:42-50 is what answers to this in the New Testament. Here we learn the final portion of those who reject salvation, of those who refuse to believe in the love of God now. Hell in Mark 9 is not hades, the state of the departed spirit, but gehenna, the lake of fire. “For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” What does salt mean? Throughout Scripture it is a type of the righteous judgment of God. Salt has two properties―one is penetrative, and the other is preservative. So we learn that not only is the judgment of God penetrative, but it is also preservative. The souls and bodies of the damned shall be united, and their bodies shall be preserved as long as the punishment lasts; for we get the very same word applied to both. “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever,” we read in Revelation. In the same book we read of God as the One “who liveth forever and ever” a number of times.

Oh, my unsaved readers, where are you going to spend eternity? If you do not come to Jesus now, you must spend eternity with the devil and the demons and the damned in the lake of fire, “where their worm dieth not,” where the worm shall be part and parcel of yourselves. God has provided a way of escape for you; Christ has died on Calvary’s cross that you might not perish; He finished the work on the cross, so there is nothing for you to do but to come to Him as a lost sinner, and accept salvation. Oh, do come unto Him now and be saved! then go on and learn of that love which will satisfy your heart, and then you will bring forth fruit for the glory of God!

H. M. H.

The Salvation of God: Volume 8 (1885)

Table of Contents

Bundles.

"Doctor, Shall I Get Better?"

"He Has Power on Earth to Forgive Sins."

In Earnest, but Lost.

Forty Years' Prayers.

What Is the Gospel?

Discordant Sounds Between Heaven and Earth.

The Two Adams.

The Four Judgments.

No Drink in Hell.

Jesus Is My Saviour.

"But They Knew Not That Evil Was Near Them."

"From Heaven."

A Contrast and Warning.

"None Admitted There Without Being Washed."

"I Be a Sinner, but There's That Precious Blood."

The Sinner's Doom.

"I am Saved."

A Golden Chain of Five Links; or, Two Haths.

The Remedy for Death.

"Can You Do Nothing More for Me?"

Sing Me That Hymn.

"They Shall Never Perish."

No Middle Ground.

The Simplicity and Certainty of Salvation.

Obedient or Disobedient?

"For Me"; "I Come!"

"Yet Doth He Devise Means."

Gospel Address, Trees.

Not Death, but Life.

A Gracious Invitation.

The Great Accident, and How to Escape.

No Sacrifice.

An Ordinary Case.

God Will, and Man Will Not.

"The House Built on the Sand."

"It Is Finished."

"We Know."

There Is Nothing Like the Cross.

"I Have No Time for Such Matters."

Seven Living Realities.

Sin, Because They Believe not on Me.

Where is Your Solace?

Two Servants.

Now, Hereafter, Never

Whose Side Are You on?

Rest for Those Who Want It.

"The Blood on the Door; That's Where I Am."

Man's "Hope" and God's "Hath."

Yesterday, Today, Forever;

"It's All on Before."

Down, Down He Went.

"I See Jesus."

The Man with a Measuring Line.