THERE will be a meeting for the Gospel on— evening, at —, and you will be welcome if you come," said a messenger of the Lord to Mr. J. A., who had moved adroitly forward behind his counter, reckoning doubtless on a customer, as the former entered his shop; but at once his whole demeanor changed, as he replied, “We have no time for such things in these parts,” and retired to his seat.
A Mr. B was invited in a similar way, and his reply was, "I am purposed not to go.”
A Mr. C, living quite close to both the former, was also invited, and he replied, “I am quite prepared to leave all to my spiritual adviser." A Christian remonstrance as to indifference in the solemn matter of his soul's eternal interests, when certainty was possible and offered, only drew forth a reiteration of the above reply.
Now, all three were Protestants, moral to the last degree, and were not only generally honest, but strictly "righteous," so far as this noble quality is usually regarded in dealings between man and man. Indeed, the first is known locally as “Honest J. A." Nevertheless, there obviously was studied indifference to the invitation; and this solemn fact, as well as the character each bore, linked the three cases together.
One can admire the exceptionally honest expression of feeling manifested in the above replies; but such honesty, however, goes for little when it is the Gospel of God which is slighted. The three cases are, with little doubt, representative of three classes who refuse Christ, viz., the prudent, who have 'no time for anything but laying by for their houses; the determined, who, perfectly satisfied with what they have already, 'will not have Christ; and those who, lacking faith in God's word, accept guidance from man.
God presents us with three men who meet His mind, linked together by what He is pleased to call their righteousness; also "three men" singled out of the whole human family, who might be acceptably presented as a forlorn hope for a place marked off for distinction,— "Noah, Daniel, and Job.”
They are referred to five times in Ezek. 14, twice by name. In considering them, we shall see them distinguished from our three friends above referred to, not only by their zeal for God, which these sadly lacked, but by the character of their righteousness also,—each of group one contrasting with each of group two.
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house " (Heb. 11:77By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)). Mr. J. A.'s idea exactly!— preparing for his house in view of the future, with this immense difference, that his ark might stand through time, but would fail when judgments descend, when " the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up " and Noah's ark carried him safe through judgment to the new world. Such also was the ark the Philippian jailor was advised of, when he too was “moved with fear." Reader, have you found this ark? How are you situated in view of coming judgments? God is waiting, as He in long-suffering waited, until Noah had driven the last nail into the ark, before He allowed judgments to descend on a guilty world. (1 Peter 3:2020Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20).) His long-suffering leadeth thee, dear reader, to repentance. Have you "no time for such things"? O, little the unrepentant know of the patient, gracious, waiting God!
Then Daniel would not defile himself with the king's meat— “purposed in his heart not to do so” (Dan. 1:1010And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. (Daniel 1:10)). Mr. B. likewise purposed not to eat of the king's meat. But how different the kings the meat! the result! Reader, are you satisfied 'without Christ’— with your dainties? Once awakened to see your need of Him, the king's meat you have been feeding on would become husks which swine eat; and coming to Jesus, you would find in Him "the living bread," of which “if any man eat he shall live forever," and "never hunger.”
Referring to Job: Who ever learned at such a cost, and as did be? God shews us in him how He can deal with souls when He undertakes to do so. Throughout thirty-one chapters he proves his inability to find out God by his own energy and skill. During the next six, he patiently suffers rebuke from one come to him in God's stead. God speaks to him directly in chaps. 38. and 39., and leads him to confess he is "rile;" and still further, in chap. 42₤., he has learned to abhor himself in the presence of God. Here, indeed, is the "Spiritual Adviser;" one who can teach us what He is, and what we poor guilty worms are; until, through faith in Him, the guilt is canceled, and we become, like Noah, and Daniel, and Job, and every child of God, inheritors of the “righteousness which is"— ("not of works," as in the cases of our three friends, " lest any man should boast," but the righteousness which 'is) —" according to faith;" so suitable to poor, guilty, hell-deserving worms! J. R.