SOME years ago, when in W— a friend requested me to visit an aged Christian woman in whom he was especially interested; and whilst seeking her cottage, I inquired of a respectable woman who was standing at her garden gate, whether she could direct me, which she at once did. Having thanked her, I inquired how she stood as to Christ, and then noticed how sad she looked; her reply showed that she was unsaved, a stranger to grace and to Christ: and seeing her grief I asked the cause, which she related with much feeling in a few words.
Her husband had been master and part owner of a fine barque, which had sailed but a few months before for the North Sea, and when nearing her destination, the wind being fair and the captain full of hope of making his port on the morrow, the vessel struck upon a rock. It was night, and the captain and crew had only time to lower a boat and get into it before she foundered: the boat happily lived, and all were mercifully preserved, but the captain’s little all was gone. This was not all, for his nervous system then received such a shock that his health gave way, and a fatal malady had set in, and it was only a question of months at the most and he must die, and his place know him no more.
Poor fellow, his health, calling, savings, (for the vessel was uninsured) were thus gone in a moment, and his poor wife had only the sad prospect of widowhood and poverty. Her tale moved and interested me, and after speaking of the love of God to sinners, I asked to see her husband, but he was then out walking, so I promised to call as soon as able.
I could not rest, and soon found myself again at their house: he was within and received me courteously. Seeing my interest he soon acquainted me with his state of suffering, and also of the whereabouts of his soul. It was my joy to find him in exercise of soul, the Lord having graciously used this affliction to awaken his conscience as to his guilt and unfitness for God, and his cry was that of the gaoler of Philippi, “What must I do to be saved?”
He saw the great mercy of God in thus having preserved his life, and kept his soul from going down into the pit. There was the prepared ground for the incorruptible seed, and it was my privilege to tell out the precious Gospel of God, which in His grace had given me peace and joy in believing.
He listened to the tale of love, and the Spirit of God was with the Word making it true in his soul, giving him to see Jesus as his Saviour, and His finished work as that on which he could rest for eternity. He received the word not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God, and hence peace with God was his by faith in Christ. It was newness of life and his soul was filled with praise, and no wonder. To know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, who had washed him from his sins in His own blood, delivered, him from the wrath to come and brought him to God: this was indeed blessed and glorious.
How grand and precious is all that God confers on faith, which ever takes Him at His word, the complete forgiveness, the life eternal and its place and portion in Christ, a new existence with a new sphere and all of God; and an object of infinite rest, satisfaction and delight; the living Saviour in the glory of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us, and who is at once our life and righteousness and all. And how blessed it is for the believer to learn and know that in Christ’s death he died, as a child of Adam; and in Christ risen and glorified he has life, is a new creation, a child and heir of God and joint heir with Christ: that the flesh in which is no good and no change, being always and irremediably evil, God has judged and condemned in the death of His own Son, and that consequently the believer, sealed with the Spirit and united to Christ in glory, is not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
What a contrast, and how grace has wrought, that instead of being in the flesh and in his sins with death, judgment and wrath before him, he is in the Spirit, and in Christ, in whom is no condemnation. Instead of dreading Christ as the Judge to punish, he knows Him as the One who in deepest pity and love bore the penalty of guilt and sin, and rising out of death become the life and the living Saviour to give the victory over evil, the Priest, merciful and faithful to sustain in the path of faith, and the Advocate with the Father to restore the soul when sin has come in to break communion through unwatchfulness and unbelief. And oh! the wondrous love and grace that leads us, when defiled, to place our soiled feet in His hands, to submit our walk to Him, and thus again through confession to know restoration.
How many believers judge the Saviour to be like man, even to give us up when unfaithful, but then, blessed be His unchanging love and grace, His faithfulness as the Shepherd and Saviour comes out in its unfailing perfectness. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins: it is with the Father, rot as with God, because relationship is formed and ever abides, and righteousness is before Him for us in Jesus Christ: relationship abides but communion is interrupted; the standing and relationship are ever the same, ever in Christ and as Christ, and children of God; but the state varies, for sin is still in us, though not on us, not imputed, blessed be God: the flesh is in the believer but he is never in the flesh, and ever in the Spirit, and consequently he is exhorted to walk in the Spirit.
The wife’s case, alas! was very different: her present circumstances completely absorbed her to the exclusion of all thought of her soul and its future; how one pitied her in the prospect of poverty and widowhood here, and in the rejection of Him who seeks to save and bless forever. As for the husband, he lived nearly two years, and then the news came that he had gone to be with Christ, which is far better, and that his end was peace. Thus God in infinite wisdom and grace reached this precious soul, breaking up all that made this life and scene, pleasing and profitable, that he might awaken him to Himself and eternity, and unfold His love in the gift of His Son, that believing he should not perish but have everlasting life. The husband through God’s grace turned from his loss and sorrow to Christ, to his eternal joy and gain; the poor wife, absorbed by her circumstances and filled with her loss and sorrow, had no ear or heart for Christ, and before her were poverty and sorrow here, and endless torment and woe if continuing unrepentant and unbelieving.
And now, dear reader, let me ask you about yourself. Is the conscience purged and the heart right with God? Have you been to Him about your sins? Are you utterly careless, or are you professing His name and yet unforgiven and unsaved? What a future awaits any so continuing, and dying in their sins, or alive in them when Christ calls His people home, when the door will be shut! It is too awful to dwell upon—the eternal wrath of God, the lake of fire which is the second death, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Oh! the eternal remorse and the eternal torment. Oh! the night without a break and without an end, the blackness of darkness forever! And why? because you would not come to Christ that you might have life. The Lord in His boundless pity and grace touch your heart, enlighten your conscience, and draw you to Himself to receive pardon and life whilst it is yet the acceptable time, the day of salvation.
Then you will find your happiness in living to Him and to His glory in this world; and, when He comes, in living with Him in the Father’s house forever, when we shall gain His image, and never more go out.