IT is twenty-five years since He did it, and it will never be forgotten. “Did what?” asks the reader. Saved the man who pens these lines. “But why make so much fuss about it?” Not fuss, dear friend. What God did then was so tremendously real, and had such glorious results, that it were impossible to forget it.
See that man! He is drowning; twice he has sunk, and for the last time he rises, when a strong swimmer plunges in and rescues him. He never forgets it, and he never tires speaking of the man who did it.
Reader! I was sinking; God in His infinite mercy opened my eyes to the fact, and rescued me. A servant of the Lord was preaching from the solemn story of the flood. He spoke of man’s wickedness and God’s righteousness; he told us of the love that provided the ark, a way of escape from the coming judgment. He then told us of “judgment to come,” presented Jesus as the only Saviour, and pleaded with us to trust Him. That night a beloved and godly mother’s prayers were answered, and I rejoiced in the knowledge of God’s salvation.
Perhaps someone says, “There is nothing remarkable in that; we have read and heard far more thrilling tales.” That may be, friend; but you never heard a more thrilling story than that of the love that saved me. Every conversion is remarkable. What could be more remarkable than that those who are steeped in sin, in the bondage of Satan, and traveling at express speed to hell, should be saved, and that by the very God against whom they had sinned?
In the twenty-second Psalm we read―prophetically―of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ; we get a wonderful view of Calvary; we learn what it meant for Jesus to take the sinner’s place, when He was forsaken of God. Reader, He suffered in the distance and the darkness, that you and I might see the light and taste the nearness and joy of the Father’s presence and the Father’s love.
At the close of the Psalm we get a picture of Christ in resurrection; there is a ring of triumph, and it is said, “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be borra, that He hath done this” (Psa. 22:3131They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. (Psalm 22:31)). Friend I it is our unspeakable privilege to tell you what He has done. He has died for sinners. He has shed His precious blood to redeem them. He has met every claim of God, He has laid the oasis whereby God can be “just, yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
The one who has benefited by His death delights, in the words of our text, to say to others, “Come and hear what He hath done for my soul.” My sins are forgiven, my conscience is purged, my soul is saved, my heart is supremely happy. All the blessing that God has to bestow is ours, and He has done it. His grace has preserved us these five-and-twenty years; crooked may have been our ways, unchanging have His been; feeble our love, unbounded His. We give Him glory now, we shall praise Him forever and ever.
In Ecclesiastes we read, “I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever” (Eccl. 3:1414I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14)). The work accomplished at Calvary will stand to all eternity. What He has done for our soul will endure to the ages of ages.
Reader! are you saved? If so, Hallelujah! you are saved forever. Live for Jesus now, and soon it will be yours in actuality to live with Him where He is. If you are not saved, you are lost: death is ahead of you, eternity looms near; hell must be your awful portion. Oh, dear reader! wake up wake up!! WAKE UP!!! Just as you are, in your sins, your ruin, your need―come to Jesus just right away. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
“Love it was, and deepest pity,
Brought Him from His glory down,
On the cross to bear my judgment
And the thorny crown.
Deep His anguish, full His sorrow,
Ere from Him the life-blood flowed,
Which to God, once and forever,
Paid the debt I owed.”
W. B. D.