Come Home: Gospel Stories
Table of Contents
Sins Can Be Blotted Out!
“I even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine Own Sake.”
(Isa. 43:25)
Doing Your Best Can Not Blot Out Sins
Soap and Water Can Not Cleanse Sins
Good Works Can Not Take Away Sins
Charity Can Not Cancel Sins
Tears Can Not Wash Away Sins
Prayers Can Not Cover Sins
Baptism Can Not Cleanse Sins
The Law Can Never Forgive Sins
But,―Blood Can!!!
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST CAN
Blot Out,
Cleanse,
Take Away,
Cancel,
Wash Away,
Cover,
Cause to be Forgiven,
ALL SIN.
~~~
“The BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST His Son Cleanseth us from All Sin.” (1 John 1:7)
“The Life... is in the BLOOD: and I have given it to you... to make an atonement for your souls.” (Lev. 17:11)
“Blessed are they that Wash their Robes, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14, N.T.)
"Come!" "Lai""Come"
DO YOU KNOW,―that every time a Chinese person uses the above character (the ordinary Chinese word for “COME”) he draws a picture of a cross, a Man, (written thus, A.), on that cross, between two other men, on either side one?
Yet so it is.
Every time the Chinese write the word Come, they must draw this wonderful picture. Most of them do not know the meaning, but does it not bring to your mind those words about the Lord Jesus,― “They crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”
What a picture! A Man on a Cross, His pierced hands stretched wide calling to you,
“COME”
Have you heard His call? Have you obeyed? Have you Come? May this little book be a voice from that same Man, now in the glory, saying to you, “Come Home!”
I gave a Chinese tract with this character for “Come” on it to a Chinese carpenter named David Ding. He looked at it, and pointing to the character remarked, “Every Chinese Character has a message.”
“Yes,” I replied, “What message does that character have?”
“That is a message from the Heavenly Father. He says
‘My Child, Come Home’”
“That is truly so. Have you ‘Come Home’, David?”
“No, Me no come Home,” replied David sadly, and then laying his hand on his heart he added, “Me too dirty inside.”
David had only heard half the message. He knew the Heavenly Father was calling “My Child, Come Home!” But he did not know that the Lord Jesus Christ had said, “I came not to call the righteous, but SINNERS to repentance”. Nor did he know that,―
“The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin”
You know this. You have heard the Heavenly Father’s message, but,―
Have you ‘COME HOME’?
Come Home
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling―
Calling for you and for me;
Patiently Jesus is waiting and watching ―
Watching for you and for me.
“Come Home! Come Home!
Ye who are weary, Come Home!”
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling, “Oh, sinner, Come Home!”
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading―
Pleading for you and for me!
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies―
Mercies for you and for me?
Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing―
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, death may be coming―
Coming for you and for me!
Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised―
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon―
Pardon for you and for me!
“Come Home! Come Home!
Ye who are weary, Come Home!”
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling, “Oh, Sinner, Come Home!”
God Stretching Out His Hands to Men
I said one night to a hard old sinner who had come on several occasions to the Gospel services, “Is it not time you turned to Christ for salvation?” He told me that he had done so that very night, and that he was a saved man. I asked him how he knew this; was it because he had determined to give up the drink and live a decent life? He said, “No, it was not that; but while you were preaching I thought I saw God holding out His hands to me and saying, ‘I will receive you just as you are.’ And I just came.”
God has given the abundance of the earth for the upkeep of your body, but for the salvation of your soul He has given His only begotten Son. “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27). “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.” (John 6:29).
"That's Thee, Jim!"
A band of young men, with hands and faces blackened, and dressed in very grotesque costumes, arranged themselves before a book shop door for an exhibition of their peculiar “performances.” These people used to be called “Ethiopian Serenaders.” After they had sung some comic and some plaintive melodies, with their own peculiar accompaniments of gestures and grimace, one of the party, a tall and interesting young man, who had the “look” of one who was beneath his proper position, stepped up to the door, tambourine in hand, to ask for a few “dropping pennies” of the people. Mr. Carr, taking one of the Bibles out of his window, said to the youth― “See here, young man, I will give you a shilling, and this Bible besides, if you will read a portion of it among your comrades.”
“Here’s a shilling for an easy job!” he chuckled out to his mates; “I’m going to give you a ‘public reading!’”
Mr. Carr opened at the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, and, pointing to the eleventh verse, requested the young man to commence reading at that verse.
“Now, Jim, speak up!” said one of the party, “and earn your shilling like a man!”
And Jim took the book and read, “And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.”
There was something in the voice of the reader, as well as the strangeness of the circumstances, which lulled all to silence; while an air of seriousness took possession of the youth, and still further commanded the rapt attention of the crowd.
He read on― “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”
“That’s thee, Jim!” ejaculated one of his comrades― “it’s just like what you told me of yourself and your father!”
The reader continued, “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”
“Why, that’s thee again, Jim!” said the voice― “Go on!”
“And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.”
“That’s like us all!” said the voice, once more interrupting, “We’re all beggars; and might be better than we are! Go on; let’s hear more of it!”
And the young man read on, and as he read his voice trembled― “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father!”
At this point he fairly broke down, and could read no more. All were impressed and moved. The whole reality of the past rose up to view; and, in the clear story of the Gospel, a ray of hope dawned upon him for his future. His father―his father’s house―and his mother’s too; the plenty and the love ever bestowed upon him there; the servants, all having enough; and then himself, his father’s son; his present state, his companionships, his habits, his sins, his poverty, his outcast condition, then his very questionable mode of living―all these fairly overcame him.
That day―that scene―proved the turning-point of that young prodigal’s life. He sought the advice of the Christian friend, who had thus interposed for his deliverance. Communications were made to his parents, which resulted in a long-lost and dearly loved child returning to the familiar earthly home; and, still better, in his return to his Heavenly Father!
~~~
The Lord Jesus says:―
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, all I will give you rest.”
The Boy Who Came Back
Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 15, 11 to 23
A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand. and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry.
The Prodigal's Cry
Afflictions, though they seem severe,
In mercy oft are sent;
They stopped the prodigal’s career,
And caused him to repent.
“I’ll not pine here for bread,” he cries;
“Nor starve in foreign lands:
My father’s house has large supplies,
And bounteous are his hands.”
“What have I gained by sin,” he said,
“But hunger, shame, and fear?
My father’s house abounds in bread,
While I am starving here!
“I’ll go and tell him all I’ve done,
Fall down before his face;
Unworthy to be called his son,
I’ll seek a servant’s place.”
His father saw him coming back,
He saw, he ran, he smiled.
And threw his arms around the neck
Of his rebellious child!
“O father, I have sinned―forgive!”
“Enough!” the father said:
“Rejoice, my house; my son’s alive,
For whom I mourned as dead!”
Tis thus the Lord His love reveals,
To call poor sinners home;
More than a father’s love He feels,
And welcomes all that come.
"Mary, I Love Thee Still!"
A number of years ago a young woman left her home in the country to occupy a situation in a large town. Her widowed mother was very unwilling to part with her. She could not bear the thought of her daughter separated from her, in the midst of strangers, surrounded by innumerable temptations, with no friends at hand to sympathize or advise.
At last she consented, though with many misgivings and fears, arid Mary left the home of her childhood and girlhood to enter upon her duties in her new sphere of labor.
Week after week, warm and affectionate letters were interchanged and anxiously and eagerly read again and again.
The “postman’s knock”
was the sweetest and most welcome sound at the cottage door. The mother was always wearying for the succeeding letter, which to her was more and more welcome. Little matters, which to outsiders would appear trifling―matters relating to dress and company―were carefully noted by the mother. She wanted Mary to make her her confidante and adviser.
Time passed on, and the mother began to notice that her daughter’s letters were not so satisfactory as formerly. There was not that confidence placed in her as to advice in her plans and prospects. They began to get shorter, and less affectionate, until eventually.
she stopped writing altogether.
The poor widow’s heart sank within her. She did not know what to do, and, in her strait, cast her burden upon her “Burden-Bearer.” Day after day she prayed that He would guide and protect her girl.
Sad tidings reached the mother’s ears from the distant city―tidings which nearly broke her heart. She heard that her daughter had forgotten her loving words of warning and counsel; had forgotten her mother’s God, and so far forgotten herself that she had forsaken the paths of virtue and purity, and
Was leading a life of sin and shame.
On receipt of this mournful intelligence, she determined to seek her prodigal child, and bring her back. She at once set out to the scene of her daughter’s degradation. On reaching it, she endeavored to ascertain where she lived; but this was a difficult matter, as she had left her former lodgings. Day and night, into every conceivable place, did the poor heart-broken mother go in search of her erring child.
The language of her heart was―
“Come home! come home!
From the sin and shame.
From the sorrow and blame,
And the tempter that smiled,
O prodigal child,
Come home! come home!”
After days of fruitless search, a new thought flashed across her mind.
She went to a photographer’s
and got her portrait taken. Having secured a number of copies, she went to the principal public-houses, and asked permission to hang them on the walls. It was considered a very strange request; but seeing she was a respectable person, permission was granted. Some time after, the daughter, with a dissolute companion, walked into one of them. Her attention was attracted to the likeness on the wall. She said, “That looks like my mother!” She went nearer, and examined it more closely. “It is just my mother!” she exclaimed in amazement. At the foot of it she perceived that there was something written. She looked at it, and at once recognized the familiar handwriting, but was not prepared for the thought expressed in the words―
“Mary, I love thee still”
She could not stand this. She was prepared for upbraidings and reproaches, and expected nothing else; but to think that her mother had actually been searching for her in her haunts of sin and folly, and was willing to receive her back to the home of her childhood just as she was!―she could not understand it; and as she thought over the words, “Mary, I love thee still!” the days of her childhood and innocency came up before her, and all the hallowed home association―her mother’s prayers, tears, and loving counsels; and as she reflected on the difference between what she then was and what she now was, she completely broke down. The awful folly and sin of her evil ways were clearly and vividly brought up before her, and she at once determined to leave her companions in sin and
go back to her mother.
Great was the joy of the widow at the unexpected arrival of the long lost daughter; and better far, there was “joy in the presence of the angels of God,” for she became a humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ Dear reader, you cannot help feeling interested in this touching story of a mother’s love, and the manifestation of it in her desire to rescue her daughter from sin and degradation. A mother “may forget” her offspring, but God cannot forget poor lost sinners on their way to eternal destruction.
“From heaven His eye is downward bent,
Still ranging to and fro,
Where’er in this wide wilderness
There roams a child of woe.
“And when the rebel chooses wrath,
God wails his hapless lot,―
Deep breathing from His heart of love,
‘I would’, but ‘ye would not.’”
Unsaved fellow-sinner, think of your awful peril! You are fast sinking beneath the waves of eternal death. The holy law of God condemns you, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezek. 18:20.) You do not believe in the Lord Jesus, therefore “the wrath of God abideth” on you, (Jno. 3:36.)
No human arm can relieve you from this curse, or remove God’s wrath from you; and should you continue in your present course, you must inevitably spend your eternity with the lost in hell. But there is a way of escape opened by God for you. He does not wish any one to perish, for it is written, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11); He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9); He “will have all men to be saved.” (1 Tim. 2:4.)
You may be laboring under the delusion that God is uninterested in your welfare, and not particularly anxious whether you go to heaven or hell. This is one of the vilest lies that Satan ever invented; and so long as he gets you to believe this, he is perfectly satisfied. Know more of God’s character as revealed in His Word, and you will find Him to be love. (1 John 4:8.) “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.” (Job 22:21.)
“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.” (Jno. 3:16,) What stronger proof could we wish of God’s love to this sin-cursed world? “So loved”! A “so” without a “such.” “Gave” ―unsolicited― “His only begotten Son” ―the only gift that was of avail, the only One through whom forgiveness could come, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” How simple! how Godlike! how free. Oh, what wondrously wondrous love!
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
‘Twould drain the ocean dry,
Nor would the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.”
God “gave His only begotten Son,” and Jesus Christ, His Son, voluntarily “gave Himself a ransom for us.”
Follow this precious One from the manger to the grave, and we find Him fully and perfectly obeying every command and every word of God. In vain His bitterest enemies watched for a flaw in His character or conduct. See Him in Gethsemane’s garden, and listen to those words of immeasurable grief― “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Why that awful agony of soul that makes the sweat as blood fall in great drops on the ground? Follow Him from the garden into Pilate’s hall, and see Him mocked, scourged, and spit upon! Why does He thus suffer―the righteous, spotless One―and suffer silently? Because of your sin and mine, O fellow-sinner, He endured all this! On the cross, the cup of wrath was drained by Jesus, that the cup of salvation might be presented to us; thus we get to know something more of the exceeding evil of sin and the wondrous love of God.
Nature reveals God as a God of wisdom and power; death, as a God of judgment; and the cross, as a God of love. Gaze on that cross, my unsaved reader, and what does it say to thee?
“Sinner, I love thee”.
Jesus Christ is seeking to save thee. You may try to banish this thought from your mind, but―
“Tho’ you forget Him, and wander away,
Still He doth follow wherever you stray.”
He hath plunged into the devouring flood to rescue you. For you He exposed Himself to the lashings of that fearful tempest which expressed God’s displeasure at sin, and His determination to punish it. “All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.” (Ps. 42:7.) Look to Him on the cross, the bleeding, suffering Lamb of God, dying because of thy sins. You may have been looking into your own cold, hard, wretched heart to get salvation out of it, and you could not, for it not there. God sends salvation down from heaven to you, through Jesus Christ. God gives it to you, and you have simply to take it as a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that was necessary for your salvation was finished on Calvary. The demands of the law have been fully met,―the claims of justice fully satisfied. God has sent His Spirit to make known to you the “good news.” For Jesus’ sake you are welcome now to the bosom of God.
All you need to do is to believe His Word, and enter at once into the enjoyment of the great salvation.
“He makes no hard conditions,
‘Tis only, “Look, and Live.”
“All that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:38, 39).
JESUS is tenderly calling thee Home―
Calling Today! Calling Today!
Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam,
Farther and farther away?
Why Won't You Come Home?
Is it because you have never known the hunger and want of the “far country”? Or, Is it because YOU DO NOT BELIEVE the Father really IS WILLING to receive YOU? The story is told of a man in China who wanted to tell the story of the Prodigal Son. He asked an artist to draw a picture of that wondrous meeting, when the Father threw his arms round that miserable boy, “and covered him with kisses.” He gave him a copy of Luke’s Gospel so he could read it for himself, and get all the details correct.
And what was the picture like when it was finished? There was the Father, with a look of anger, a big stick in his hand, giving the poor, dirty, half naked boy the thrashing he deserved.
“This is what really would happen!” remarked the artist.
We know this is what we deserve from God’s hands, and it seems too good to be true that instead He is willing and waiting to receive us back, just as we are, in all our sins and filth; and that a free pardon, and the best robe are waiting for us. It sounds too good to be true. But it is True.
"Come and See!"
“If you wait until you’re better,
You’ll never come at all.”
Torn in Half!
Some years ago a colporteur might have been seen wending his way through the forest to the door of a country cottage in France. Arrived, he greeted the woman within and offered a New Testament for sale.
Jeanne hesitated. Would the priest approve? That was the question. Still she wistfully eyed the neat little volume.
“Do not be troubled, madame,” urged the colporteur. “The priest would sin against God if he prevented you from reading of the love of the good Christ.”
At last she produced 50 centimes, and taking the book said, “I cannot refuse, monsieur, but may I be pardoned if it is a sin.”
Presently in came Jacques, the charcoal burner, her husband. After his tea Jeanne rather timidly produced her book for his inspection. As she rather feared, he was tired and cross, and upbraided her for spending his money in this fashion.
“But,” said she, “the money is not all yours, Jacques. I brought my dowry when we married. The half franc was as much mine as yours.”
“Give me the book,” shouted Jacques in a temper. He snatched it from her hands.
“The money was half yours and half mine you say. Very well, the book is the same. Voila!” He opened the book roughly, tore it in two pieces, dropping one into his blouse and throwing the other to Jeanne.
Several days later Jacques sat in the forest by his charcoal fires. He had finished his mid-day meal and felt lonely. Suddenly he remembered the torn book. He would investigate it.
It was the latter part of the New Testament. His rough fingers had divided it in Luke’s gospel. He began at the very beginning.
“And will say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”
Spellbound he read to the end of the story, and then a dozen questions presented themselves. What had he done―the poor lost son? Why was he exiled? Where had he been? What induced him to return? The questions haunted him. “I wish I had the beginning of the story,” he sighed.
At first his pride prevented him asking Jeanne for her part of the book.
Meanwhile Jeanne lived her monotonous days, and used her leisure moments poring over her part and spelling out its contents. She began to delight in it, but when she reached the end her interest was doubly quickened. That younger son―his waywardness, his journey, his sin, his misery, the wonderful change in his thoughts. “I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father―.” There the story stopped.
But what happened? Did the father welcome him? Her tender heart longed for a satisfactory answer. She even cried over the story, but she could not screw up her courage to consult Jacques.
The days passed. On one, however, the rain poured down with special vigor, and Jacques came home feeling specially weary. He ate his soup and bread for supper as usual, and at last he blurted out: “Jeanne, you remember the book I tore in two?”
“Oh, yes,” said she, half fearing.
“My part had in it a wonderful story, but only the end of it. I cannot rest until I know the beginning of it. Bring me your piece.”
“Oh Jacques! how wonderful!”
“why?” “The same story is ever in my mind, only I lack the ending. Did the father receive that willful son?”
“He did. But what was the sin that separated them?”
She brought her piece and knelt by his chair. Together they read the whole of the beautiful parable, and the Spirit of God who had been working in both their hearts caused its hidden meaning to dawn on them.
That was the first of many Bible readings by the firelight after the soup and bread was eaten, and both have yielded hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The parable of the prodigal son was an absolute novelty to the French charcoal burner and his wife; it is probably quite familiar to the reader of these lines, but have you seen its application to yourself, and has it ever raised in your mind the questions that it did in theirs?
What had he done? was the question raised by the remarkable ending of the story. Let the answer be given in the prodigal’s own words: “I have sinned”; and at once we have a confession which common honesty should put on all our lips. We have sinned, possibly in different ways, but we all have sinned. The application is perfect. The cap fits us each. Have you worn it?
And when the sinner, weary, disillusioned, and sad, returns homeward to seek the Father, another burning question is raised. Did the father receive that willful son? Why, yes, indeed He did.
“When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
Much more he did, but for details you must turn to Luke 15 and read for yourself.
Again, let us assure you the application is perfect. If you but turn to God, confessing yourself a sinner, and approaching Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the merits of His atoning sacrifice, you will get just such a gracious reception as is described. You will be forgiven and enfold in the embrace of God’s love. But it cannot be described on paper; you must just turn to God and experience it for yourself.
“COME AND SEE!”
O Taste and see that the Lord is Good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.
Psalm 34:8.
"If the Bible's True I'm Lost!"
A young man was overheard saying these words to himself, in desperate earnestness,―
“If the Bible’s True I’m Lost!”
Thank God, it was not many days before he could say,
“If the Bible’s True I’m Saved!”
Reader, The Bible is True. Where do you stand?
All We like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned Every One to His own way;
And the Lord hath laid on Him (Jesus)
The iniquity of US ALL Isa. 53:6.
Refused to Come Home
She was dying of consumption, but she did not believe she was near eternity; she was expecting to get better, and would not give up hopes of life. When pressed to come home as a sinner to Christ, she said, “I must think about it.”
A Christian determined to tell her she had only a few days to live. He came, and found her reading a novel; the Bible had been thrown aside, and although she was gasping for breath as she lay dying, she was seeking to drown the voice of conscience in this way. The Christian said, “Can you read a novel at such a time as this?” She answered, angrily, “I can’t always be reading my Bible.” “Oh! do you know that you are on the very point of death? Has no one told you that the doctor has pronounced your case utterly hopeless? You may be before God in a few hours.” A despairing look came into her eyes, as she heard the Christian speak. “Can it be true?” She cried, as she cast the novel aside. “Yes, it is true,” was the answer, “and I am come with a message of grace for the last time; do believe in Jesus.” He went on pleading, “Will you accept Christ now?” The answer was given, “Not tonight.” The Christian took up the Bible and placed it near her, saying, “May God have mercy on your soul.” He rose to go; when he reached the door, he looked back for a moment, and he saw her hand upon the novel; her choice was made. In a day or two she was gone; she died with bitter curses against God and herself; with cries for mercy choked with imprecations. “Lost,” she exclaimed, “Too late, I have thrown it away.”
There was no coming home for her. But you will come, will you not? You will decide for Christ now. We are now before God; heaven is bending over you; God is beseeching you; Christ is calling―now is the accepted time. Beware of the lake of fire! Beware of the endless torment of the lost!
May God the Father be known to you as your Father now! May Christ the Son be acknowledged now by you as your Savior! May the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, shed abroad the love of God in your hearts even NOW.―Amen.
The Mechanic's Argument
In a Bristol to Birmingham express I met a Christian. He told me that twenty-one years previous he was, without exception, the worst sinner in Stockton-on-Tees―a drunken, blaspheming skeptic; but God laid His hand upon him in a Gospel meeting, and he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a mechanic, and in the shop where he worked were six other infields. They first scoffed, and often afterward tried to draw him into argument. But his one reply was: “I will not argue with you, for you can beat me at that; but you know what I was, and you see what I am now. If you want to argue, Argue with the power that saved and keeps me.” That power was the power of the grace of God. They saw it, and their mouths were closed; and ere long he had the joy of grasping the hands of six of his fellow-workmen as fellow Christians!
ABLE TO SAVE
ABLE TO KEEP
Believest Thou That I am ABLE?
According To Your Faith
Be it unto You.
"A Sure Foundation"
Some years ago two business men, between whom a warm friendship existed, met for the first time in many months. To each it was a pleasure to grasp the other’s hand and to learn of his health and welfare. One was a French-Canadian, fairly well up in years and a man highly esteemed; the other, also no longer young, was the head of a business which, under his fostering care, had attained a leading position in its line in a city of a million people. Early in life this man had been converted; He longed to lead others to the Savior he knew and trusted. He had marked ability in presenting the Gospel in public addresses and personal conversations and, through these gifts, had been used for many conversions.
As the two men were about to part, he said to his French-Canadian friend: “You and I are getting to be old men now. We cannot expect to live much longer in this world, What about the future”? The answer was prompt and confident: “For me all is well. I have no fears for the future.”
Struck by the quiet assurance of these words, he was asked: “How is it that you have no fear of. death? What do you build your hopes upon?” The reply was:― “If you can give me a few minutes, I shall tell you the whole story. Some years ago, I realized that, in the sight of God, I was a sinner indeed. I dreaded death and did not know I how my fears could be overcome. I went to I my Parish Priest and told him just how I felt. The load of sin weighed always upon me and I longed for relief. He advised me to perform certain penances. I did so faithfully, left nothing undone that he had recommended, but when all the penances were finished, I had to tell him that the load of sin was there, just as before, and that I was not any easier in my mind. He prescribed further penances―double as many as at first, and I followed his directions exactly. When all had been performed I had to tell him once more that they had given me no relief. The fact that I was a, sinner in the sight of God still weighed heavily upon me.
“The priest was puzzled and said: ‘I can do no more for you, but you might go to the Jesuits’ church and ask for a certain priest’, whom he named, ‘perhaps he can help you’. I went to the Church, found the priest mentioned and to him I told my story, told of the sense of sin and of my fruitless efforts to get relief. He heard me patiently and when I had finished said: ‘My son, you are trying the wrong way altogether, nothing that you can do can put away your sin. There is only one remedy “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin” ―He died upon the Cross for us and bore our sins in His own body there. Put your trust in Him, for from Him alone can you get help.’”
“Ever since then I have put my trust in Him―that load of sin is all gone and now I know that, even if death should come, I have nothing to fear.”
A man must have great confidence to make such a statement as this. Is he right in doing so? Can a sinful human creature know that his sins are forgiven because he trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Perhaps the surest and safest way to answer this question will be to see what the Bible tells us of the Lord Jesus in whom this man found rest of heart and conscience. In the first chapter of the Gospel by John we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made ... The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory―the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
When our first parents yielded to the wiles of Satan, who came to them in the form of a serpent, they sinned against God and they lost that abode of peace and innocence in which God had placed them, but even then God gave the promise “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.”
Down through the ages we find man constantly rebelling against God and reaping as he sowed, but on the part of God we find unfailing grace. God did not leave Himself without witnesses for He sent prophet after prophet, inspired by the Holy Ghost, to rebuke men for their sins―to put before them the right way and also to foretell the coming of Jesus Christ.
In the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah (one of these prophets) we read: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities:― the chastisement of our Peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed:― All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
When the time appointed of God had come and Jesus, as had been foretold by the prophets, was born of the Virgin Mother in Bethlehem―an angel brought the message to the shepherds. “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” About thirty years later as Jesus came up from the waters of baptism, the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him and a Voice from Heaven testified “Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.”
Then followed those years of ministry summed up in the few words― “He went about doing good―healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” He, the divine Son of God, revealed to men the love that was in God’s heart towards them. The Creator of the universe was found in fashion as a man―humbled Himself―became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. He who knew no sin was made sin for us―bore that load on the Cross of Calvary and, when all that was prophesied was fulfilled, He said: “It is finished” and yielded up His Spirit to God. Thus, even in dying, He manifested His divinity―no mere man could dismiss his spirit―but the Lord Jesus could and did for He was God as well as man.―Then when the third day had come He rose triumphant from the grave. He had been “delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.” The Apostle Peter writes “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold―but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” While on earth our Lord had given the invitation “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He said also “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” He is true to this promise. His work is perfect―it met the just claims of God’s righteousness and meets our every need.―In the epistle of John we read― “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
These scriptures surely answer our question and make it clear that if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can with holy boldness say our sins are put away―because He bore them on the Cross of Calvary.
And now, dear reader, were that question put to you “What about the future?” How would you answer it? Could you say as the French Canadian merchant did, “I have no dread of the future,” and give the same sound reason, “for I am trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
If such is not the case with you, do not delay! Now is the day of salvation! Take the Lord Jesus now for your own Savior. This day of grace is fast coming to its close. Do not shut your ears and your heart to His invitation, “Come unto Me.” The word of God tells us the solemn truth. “It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgment.”
Think what it would be for all Eternity to have to say “He offered me a full free Salvation, but I scorned His offer and now am lost forever.” May God deliver you from such a fate. May He lead you now to real faith in His Blessed Son, who loves us and gave Himself for us.
Why Was the Epistle of John Written?
“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, and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God.” (1 Jn. 5:13).
I'll Tell Your Fortune
A Colporteur was returning home one evening along North Szechuen Road, in the city of Shanghai, when he was accosted by a tall, fine looking young Turk, with the words, “I’ll tell your fortune.”
Our friend was so taken-a-back that for the moment he did not reply, and the man explained, “I am a fortune teller; I can tell you what will happen in the future.”
“But how am I to know that you tell the truth?”
“Oh, I have books; I tell by astrology.”
“Well, I would like to ask you a question first, so as to test whether you can really tell the truth or not. If you can tell my fortune truly, you certainly can tell your own. Where will you be in a hundred years?”
The Turk looked greatly annoyed, and replied, “Oh, I don’t know that; but you let me look at your hand, and I will tell your fortune for you.”
“But,” replied the colporteur, “I also am somewhat of a fortune teller. I also use books, and if you will tell me one thing, I will tell your fortune for you.”
“What do you want me to tell you?”
“Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son?”
“No, He was not God’s Son.”
“Now,” replied our friend, taking a New Testament from his bag, “I will tell your fortune. My book tells me, ‘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 your fortune:― Now you have the wrath of the Living, True God ever abiding on you, and in a hundred years you will be in hell, in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, unless you believe on the Son of God.”
A long talk ensued on the side of the street and the fortune teller asked, “May I have one of your books?” a request that was gladly granted.
The next question was. “Where do you live? When may I come and see you?”
The following day he and a friend came and had a long talk with the Christian, and departed with a copy of the Bible.
What the result may be, God alone knows. But let me ask you, reader, Have you ever thought about your fortune, your eternal fortune? You need not remain in doubt as to that. Thank God we have a Book that leaves no room for uncertainty in these matters. Where will you be in a hundred years? Aye, where will you be tomorrow?
What could be more brief, more pointed, more precious, and yet more awful, than those solemn words: “HE THAT BELIEVETH ON THE SON HATH EVERLASTING LIFE: AND HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT THE SON SHALL NOT SEE LIFE; BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDETH ON HIM.”
(John 3:36.)
“BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”
A Challenge! and Its Result
Some years ago a speaker stood in the open air in the town of Dudley, and issued a challenge to a crowd of about sixty or more men who were standing about him.
“Men,” he said, “if I were here as a pugilist crowds of you would be thronging about me, and if I were offering to take any of you on for a bout with the fists you would be tumbling over one another to accept my challenge and have a fight, for in a matter like that you have plenty of pluck. Now I am not offering anything of the kind today, though I have done a bit of fighting in my time. My challenge is this, what man of you dares acknowledge himself lost and undone and in need of a Savior? What man of you has the pluck and courage to come forward and take my hand as an acknowledgment that he receives Christ as his Savior and Lord?”
And suiting his action to his words he stretched forth his opened hand for someone to clasp it. He stood with hand outstretched for some little time. No one responded. Not a man came forward to accept his challenge.
Some three years passed, and again the same preacher stood on the same spot in Dudley and declared his message. After he had spoken a man accosted him, asking him if he remembered issuing his challenge three years before. He assured him that he did most certainly remember it.
“Well,” said the other, “I was there without a bit of pluck, just a coward like all the rest. But when I got home I was absolutely wretched; so wretched that I did not sleep. About midnight I could bear it no longer, so got out of bed, and kneeling down I cried to God; telling Him I was a sinner and a coward and calling upon Him for mercy. He heard me and saved my soul. And not only that, my wife roused from her sleep and asked what ailed me. I told her the truth and owned to her my wretchedness. Very soon she joined me and was by my side on her knees, and she got saved just as I did.”
And then he added these words: “I want to tell you that the last three years have been the happiest three years of all my life.”
The kind of cowardice to which the man of Dudley had to plead guilty is by no means uncommon. The fact is, it simply abounds. It takes some courage of a mental and spiritual sort to face up honestly to ugly and discreditable facts, acknowledging oneself to be a sinner, lost to all human hope. And further, when one has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of the soul, it takes some courage to confess His name, as being His follower, before men. Is it not so?
What about it then? Have you had the courage to begin at the beginning and face, without weak excuses or palliation, the fact of your own sin and consequent condemnation before God? “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.” So says the Scripture in Romans 10:9; and if you believe and confess Him you will find that salvation is yours.
Have courage for that, and the happiest years of your life will promptly begin.
O Happy day, that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Savior and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.
True Happiness
[illustration]
From the Chinese Character, Fu, for “Happiness.”
True Happiness is only found when I present myself, and all I have as “a living sacrifice” to the Lord.
Read Romans 12:1.
My life I bring to Thee
I would not be my own;
O Savior, let me be
Thine ever, Thine alone.
My heart, my life, my all I bring
To Thee, my Savior and my King.
Czar Nicholas Pays a Great Debt!
The late Czar Nicholas of Russia often used to wander about his military camps and barracks, clothed as an ordinary officer, in order that he might know, without being known, what was going on.
Late one might, when all lights were supposed to be extinguished, the Czar was making one of these tours of inspection. He noticed a light shining under the paymaster’s door, and quietly opened it and stepped inside, intending to have the offender punished. A young officer, son of an old friend of the Czar, was seated at a table, his head resting on his arms, and sound asleep. The Czar stepped over to awaken him, but before doing so, noticed a loaded revolver, a small pile of money, and a sheet of paper with a pen that had fallen from the hand of the sleeping man. The light of the little candle let the Czar read what had just been written, and in a moment he understood the situation.
On the sheet of paper was a long list of debts, gambling and other evil debts. The total ran into many thousands of rubles: the officer had used army funds to pay these wicked, reckless debts, and now, having worked till late into the night trying to get his accounts straight, had discovered for the first time how much he owed. It was hopeless, the pitifully small balance on hand left such a huge deficit to be made up! On the sheet of paper, below the terrible total, was written this question.―
“Who Can Pay So Great A Debt?”
Unable to face the disgrace, the officer had intended shooting himself, but completely worn out with sorrow and remorse, he had fallen asleep.
As the Czar realized what had happened, his first thought was to have the man immediately arrested, and in due course brought before a court martial. Justice must be done in the army, and such a crime could not be passed by. But as he remembered the long friendship with the young officer’s father, Love overcame Judgment, and in a moment he had devised a plan whereby he could be just towards the army and yet justify the culprit. The Czar took up the pen that had dropped from the hand of the wearied, hopeless offender and with his own hand answered the question with one word,―
“NICHOLAS”
Yes, the Czar himself, Nicholas, could pay that debt, and voluntarily undertook to do so. The young officer waked soon after the Czar had gone, and took up his revolver to blow out his brains, but as he did so, his eye caught the answer to his question. In bewildered astonishment he gazed on that one word, “NICHOLAS.” Surely such an answer was impossible! He had some papers in his possession which bore the genuine signature of the Czar, and quickly he compared the names, for it seemed too good to be true. To his intense joy, yet bitter humiliation, he realized that his Czar knew all about his sins, knew the utmost of his mighty debt, and yet instead of inflicting the penalty he deserved, had assumed the debt himself, and justified the debtor.
Joyfully and peacefully he lay down to rest; and early the next morning bags of money arrived from the Czar sufficient to pay the last cent of “So great a debt.”
Reader, You and I have a mighty debt. We may well ask, “Who can pay it?” Thank God, Love has provided an answer, and like the answer given by the Czar it is one word,―
“JESUS”
Yes, He knows all about your debt. He knows how great it is. He knows how you came by it. He knows all the shame of it. He knows the cost of payment, and in spite of such intimate knowledge of you and it, He has assumed the full liability of it Himself. One word, “Nicholas,” set the heart of that young man at rest,―even filled it with joy. One word,
“JESUS,”
has set my heart at rest and filled it with joy. Has that “one word,” that one blessed Name, ―filled your heart with rest, peace, and joy? It can.
“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.”
Acts 13:38-39.
Why Camest Thou Down Hither?
1 Samuel 17:28
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
Men ask with angry sneer,
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
We do not want Thee here.
We do not want Thy teaching,
We’d nail Thee to a Cross,
We will not hear Thy preaching,
Why camest Thou unto us?
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
They ask in careless ease,
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
Oh, Let us live in peace!
Why tell us of Hell Fire?
We do not want to hear,
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
For Thee we do not care.
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
The sinner asks in fear.
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
Wilt Thou torment me here?
I’d flee,―But, Oh, flee whither?
Where find a hiding place?
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
I cannot meet Thy face.
“Why camest Thou down hither?”
Was it to slay Thy foes?
Oh, No, most blessed Savior,
‘Twas Grace no mortal knows.
O Thou most wondrous Lover,
Thou lov’st Thine enemies,
For them Thou cam’st down hither
To die between two thieves.
“Why earnest Thou down hither?”
Was it to seek for me?
“Why earnest Thou down hither?”
When I had hated Thee.
Why leave Thy throne in glory
For such a worm as I?
“Why earnest Thou down hither?”
It was for me to die.
“Why earnest Thou down hither?”
The mysteries deeper grow
As more I know my Savior,
And more myself I know.
As Thou, Thyself, I ponder,
And all my failure see, I’m lost,
O Lord, in wonder That Thou cam’st
D
O
W
N
for me!
The Lost Sheep Found: A True Story
A servant of Christ, having once been asked to see a poor boy who was dying in a wild district in Ireland, narrated the following account of his visit.
He says:―After upwards of an hour’s toilsome walking, (for the roads, which in some places led over steep hills, were in others scarcely passable on account of the heavy marshes), on entering the miserable hovel, I looked round me and at first found no sign of any inhabitant, except an old woman who sat crouching over the embers of a peat fire. She rose as I entered, and, with the natural courtesy of the Irish poor, offered me the low chair, or rather stool, on which she had been seated. I thanked her, and passing on to the object of my visit, discovered in one corner of the hut a heap of straw, on which lay the poor sufferer. Some scanty covering, probably his own wearing apparel, had been thrown over him; but as to bed or bed clothes, there was none discernible in this miserable dwelling. I approached, and saw a young lad about 17 or 18 years of age, evidently in a state of extreme suffering and exhaustion, and it was to be feared in the last stage of consumption. His eyes were closed, but he opened them on my approach, and stared at me with a kind of wild wonder, like a frightened animal. I told him as quietly as possible who I was, and for what purpose I had come, and put a few of the simplest questions to him respecting his hope of salvation. He answered nothing, he appeared totally unconscious of my meaning. On pressing him further, and speaking to him kindly and affectionately, he looked up, and I ascertained from the few words he uttered, that he had heard something of a God and future judgment, but he had never been taught to read. The Holy Scriptures were a sealed book to him, and he was, consequently, altogether ignorant of the way of salvation as revealed to us in the Gospel. His mind on this subject was truly an utter blank.
I was struck with dismay, and almost with despair. Here was a fellow creature, whose immortal soul, apparently on the verge of eternity, must be saved or lost forever; and he lay before me now, the hand of death close upon him; not a moment was to be lost, and what was I to do? What way was I to take to begin to teach him, as it were at the eleventh hour, the first rudiments of Christianity?
I had scarcely ever before felt such a sinking within me. I could do nothing, that I knew full well, but on the other hand, God could do all; I therefore raised up my heart and besought my heavenly Father for Christ’s sake to direct me in this most difficult and trying position, and to open to me, by His spirit of wisdom, a way to set forth the glad tidings of salvation, so as to be understood by this poor benighted wanderer. I was silent for a few moments, whilst engaged in inward prayer and gazing with deep anxiety on the melancholy object before me. It struck me that I ought to try to discover how far his intelligence in other things extended, and whether there might not be reasonable hope of his understanding me, when I should commence to open to him (as I was bound to do) the gospel message of salvation. I looked down upon him with an eye of pity which I most sincerely felt, and I thought he observed that compassionate look, for he softened towards me as I said, “My poor boy, you are very ill; I fear you suffer a great deal.” “Yes, I have a bad cold, the cough takes away my breath and hurts me greatly.”
“Have you had this cough long?” I asked. “Oh yes, a long time, near a year now.” “And how did you catch it? A Kerry boy I should have thought would have been reared hardily and accustomed to this sharp air!” “Ah,” he answered, “and so I was until that terrible night, it was about this time last year, when one of the sheep went astray. My father keeps a few sheep upon the mountains, and this is the way we live. When he reckoned them that night, there was one wanting, and he sent me to look for it.”
“No doubt,” I replied, “you felt the change, from the warmth of the peat fire in this close little hut to the cold mountain blast.” “Oh! that I did; there was snow upon the ground, and the wind pierced me through; but I did not mind it much, as I was so anxious to find father’s sheep.” “And did you find it?” I asked, with increased interest. “Oh yes; I had a long weary way to go, but I never stopped until I found it.” “And how did you get it home? You had trouble enough with that too I dare say. Was it willing to follow back?” “Well, I did not like to trust it, and besides it was dead beat and tired, so I laid it on my shoulders, and carried it home that way.” “And were they not all at home rejoiced to see you, when you returned with the sheep?” “Sure enough, and that they were,” he replied. “Father and Mother, and the people round that heard of our loss, all came in the next morning to ask about the sheep, for the neighbors in these matters are mighty kind to each other. Sorry they were too, to hear that I was kept out the whole dark night; it was morning before I got home, and the end of it was, I caught this cold. Mother says I will never be better now, God knows best; anyways, I did my best to save the sheep.”
“Wonderful!” I thought, “here is the whole gospel history. The sheep is lost, the father sends his son to seek for and recover it. The son goes willingly, suffers all without complaining, and in the end sacrifices his life to find the sheep, and when recovered he carries it home on his shoulders to the flock, and rejoices with his friends and neighbors over the sheep which was lost, but is found again.” My prayer was answered, my way was made plain, and by the grace of God I availed myself of this happy opening. I explained to this poor dying boy the plan of salvation, making use of his own simple and affecting story. I read to him the few verses in the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Where the care of the shepherd for the strayed sheep is so beautifully expressed, and he at once perceived the likeness, and followed me with deep interest while I explained to him the full meaning of the Parable.
The Lord mercifully opened not only his understanding but his heart also, to receive the things spoken. He himself was the lost sheep, Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, who was sent by the Father to seek for him, and who left all the joys of that Father’s heavenly glory, to come down to earth and search for him and other lost ones like himself; and as the poor boy had borne without murmuring the freezing snowstorm and the piercing wind, so has the blessed Savior endured the fierce contradiction of sinners against Himself and the bitter scorn and insults heaped upon Him, without opening His mouth to utter one word of complaint, and at last laid down His precious life, that we might be rescued from destruction and brought safe to our everlasting home. Neither will He trust His beloved ones, when rescued, to tread the perilous path alone, but bears them on His shoulders, rejoicing, to the heavenly fold. My poor sick lad seemed to drink it all in. He received it all. He understood it all. I never saw a clearer proof of the power of the Divine Spirit to apply the Word of God. He survived our first meeting but a few days. I had no time to read or expound to him any other portion of the Scripture. At times we could hear nothing but the stifling, rending cough, at others he slumbered heavily for a little; but whenever he was able to think and listen, these verses in the fifteenth chapter of Luke satisfied and cheered him. He accepted Christ as his Savior, he earnestly prayed to be carried home, like the lost sheep, in the heavenly Shepherd’s arms. He died humbly, peacefully, almost exulting, with the name of “Jesus, My Savior and my Shepherd,” the last upon his lips.
How a Bad Man Goes to Heaven: And a Righteous Man Goes to Hell
HE spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, Both not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luke’s Gospel. Chapter 15, Verse 3 to 7
The lost sheep is the “bad man”: and it was the lost sheep that the Shepherd found, and brought home. The ninety and nine left in the wilderness, who never were lost, are the “good men.” If the good man trusts in his own goodness, he will go to hell, for his goodness is not good enough for Heaven. The bad man who says “God be merciful to me a sinner” is “justified”, and will surely go to Heaven.
Luke 18:13,14.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15
~~~
The Lord Jesus said: “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” Matthew 9:13
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
Isaiah 64:6
(Note, This is not our BAD deeds, but our GOOD ones).
"Doing My Best"
I was traveling the other day from Glo’ster to Stroud, when I found myself with a young man in the same compartment alone. I asked him as to the state of his soul, and whether he knew himself to be saved.
He replied, “I am a member of a church, and I was happy some years ago; but, if I must speak the truth, I scarcely know whether I am saved or not. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I try to do my best, and I hope I shall get my sins forgiven.”
Doing My Worst
I said, “You have overlooked one thing. God forgives them that have done their worst. If you look at the fifteenth chapter of Luke you will find the prodigal had not tried his best, but had done his very worst; and yet, as soon as he really came to himself, and owned before his father that he had done his worst, then immediately the father said, Bring the best robe and put it upon him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.”
The young man looked with great astonishment, and said, “I never saw that before.”
“Well,” said I again, “if you look in Luke 7, you have there two characters in the presence of Jesus. A man who thinks he had done his best, invites Jesus to dinner. And a woman, who knows she has done her worst, comes in and stands at his feet weeping. Now did Jesus say, Thy sins be forgiven, to the man who thought he had done his best, or to the woman who knew, and by her tears owned, she had done her worst? There you have the two opposite characters before you, and the words of Jesus to each. He sternly rebukes the one, He frankly forgives the other.”
Never Saw It Before
The young man exclaimed, “I never saw anything like that before;” and listened with great attention as I endeavored to show him how grace had thus come down to save the lost. I trust God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shined into the heart of that young man, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Many more instances might be given in proof of this wondrous grace; a Mary Magdalene; a dying thief; a Saul of Tarsus.
Yes, it is certain, my reader, your case cannot be beyond such mercy as this. You may have vain dreams of some day beginning to do your best. But, may I ask, considering your privileges, can you take the place of having done your worst? Have you much or little to be forgiven? Have you rejected Christ? Have you turned a deaf ear to God’s forgiveness through His blood? Are you insulting God by setting up your own doings in the place of the, atoning work of Jesus on the cross? Or are you, like this young man, vainly trying to build on both a hope that you will at last find forgiveness?―believing on Jesus, and trying to do your best? Then look at the father rising to receive in forgiving love the prodigal who had done his worst. This is God’s way of receiving the sinner―God’s only way of receiving you. You may not have fallen into the same outward sins as the dying thief, the prodigal, or Saul. Neither would I have you suppose I mean to say that those sunk in grossest sins are on that account more welcome to God than others.
None Too Vile
But they are welcome. Blessed fact, you cannot be too vile. You cannot be beyond the reach of mercy; on this account God hath raised up Jesus again from the dead. He hath made that same Jesus, who died the atoning death of the cross, both Lord and Christ. That body once wounded and broken on the cross, is raised in glory far above the highest heavens. This is God’s guarantee that the sacrifice is infinite in value. And “through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins;” “and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
Jesus Has Done His Best
What a wonder is this! God tells you it is through Jesus He forgives the sins of all who believe on Him; for He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. You may have done your worst. Jesus has done His best. He could not have done else. In dying, the just for the unjust, He has glorified God, He has finished the work which the Father gave Him to do.
And now, reader, what do you say? Will you still talk of doing your best (and you know that is mere talk), or do you now believe this wondrous grace that meets you just as you are, in the full knowledge of what you are, and what you have done; and meets you with the full, free, present, and everlasting forgiveness of all sins, and on such a ground? The full judgment of the holy and righteous God has first been borne by Jesus for sins and sin. I do say all this having been done first, gives such glory to God in commanding you to repent, that you may now surely meet God, and open out your whole heart to Him.
Hide Nothing
You don’t need to hide anything. You don’t need to say, “If I had been a less guilty sinner, then the blood of Jesus would have met my case.” When Jesus showed His hands and His side in resurrection, He did not tell Peter he was too guilty. Like him you may have even denied the Lord since you made a profession of His name. But as Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished,” so now in resurrection hear Him speak those precious words, “Peace to you.”
Can Jesus deceive you? As He speaks to that poor woman, so may He now speak to you, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” Then go in faith, doubt no more, and no more vainly hope by doing your best to be forgiven. Forgiveness first, forgiveness through His precious blood, and then may body, soul, and spirit be wholly sanctified a thank-offering to the Lord.
James and the Horse
This is the way I heard the story. James was a good man. He had never done anybody any harm. He always kept the law and if anybody ought to go to Heaven, he was the man.
He had a good job as coachman, with a fine Christian master. Many a time his master tried to tell him that he needed a Savior: but James knew better. His master did not know what a really good man he was, or he would not talk that way. He kept the law and what more was needed?
“James,” said his master one day, “If you can keep the law for half an hour, I’ll give you that fine brown horse of mine that you like so much.”
“Oh, Thank you Sir! That is good of you. I can easily keep the law for half an hour, for I always keep it.”
“All right. You go up to the hayloft over the stable, and stay there for half an hour, and I’ll lock you in, so nobody can come and tempt you, and if you keep the law for the half hour, the horse is yours.”
“I don’t know how to thank you, Sir, that horse is a beauty,” said James, as he climbed the ladder to the hayloft.
The half hour soon passed, and down came James.
“Well, how did you get along?”
“Fine, Thank you Sir! And I certainly do want to thank you for that splendid horse.”
“And what did you do while you were in the hayloft?”
“Oh, I was just thinking.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Why, to tell the truth, Sir, I was just thinking that as you’re so good as to give me the horse, maybe you would let me have that old saddle, too; for you see, Sir, the horse is not much use without a saddle.”
“O James, James. I am sorry to say I cannot even give you the horse. The law says ‘Thou shalt not covet,’ and you were coveting all the time you were up in the loft. You have not kept the law for even half an hour, how much less for all your life!”
“BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW
SHALL NO FLESH
BE JUSTIFIED”
Gal. 2:16.
Hell Fire!
Who first used these words?
The Lord Jesus Christ!
He Said,―
“It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell Fire.”
Mark 9:47.
The Burning Boat
A fishing crew set out from port in the pursuit of their calling. Skilled fishermen they were, acquainted with the tides, rocks and shoals with which they had to deal, able seamen, accustomed to handling their boat under all circumstances. They had been out some time, and were just hauling their nets or lines, when the attention of one of them was caught by smoke rising out of the engine-room. At once this conveyed to his mind the thought of the most dreaded danger of all at sea―the boat was on fire! With a cry of alarm he warned his mates, and they rushed to the scene of the fire. Every effort was made to put it out―they tried to smother it, to drown it, to pull away the burning parts, but all without success. The fire was gaining, and spite of all they could do it still gained.
Just think of their position; miles from land, and the boat in which they trusted on FIRE. If they stayed still, the flames would soon reach them or would burn down to the water’s edge and sink the ship. They stood in the most dreadful danger of swift and terrible death, either by fire or by water. You may be sure that none of the little crew of five or six men said they “didn’t care” or would “think of it some other time”, as men and women often do when spoken to of God’s Salvation. They fully realized the horror of their position: what could they do? One thing was certain―if they stayed there they were lost.
Happily they had a way of escape. They carried (as usual in such fishing boats) a small rowing boat (a “punt”) for use in harbor, or in case of danger, and now the need had so suddenly arisen their thoughts turned at once to this little boat. Some of them in their eagerness to get it out of the way of the fire and into the water were inclined to be hasty and rough with it, so the warning voice of their “skipper” rang out “Be careful with that punt. It is our only salvation”. Indeed it was true, if anything happened to that punt their fate was sealed. But there it floated alongside, an immediate escape from their danger, and not a man but was thankful to climb over into it and push off. I am glad to say they were picked up shortly afterward by a friend’s boat and thus got safe home.
It was that skipper’s remark “That punt’s our only salvation” that struck me; for God’s word tells us that we are all lost sinners, deserving His righteous judgment because of our sins. And we cannot save ourselves. Nothing we can do could turn aside the stroke of that judgment. We may try to do better, to “make a new start”, but we shall sadly find that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”
But thank God, His Word also tells us that “Whosoever believeth in HIM (that is the Lord Jesus Christ) shall not perish but shall have EVERLASTING LIFE.” Unlike our friends on the burning fishing boat, you may be careless of your danger: you may think little of your sins. What would you think of one of them who had said “Oh, there is no hurry, perhaps I’ll come along presently” or “I don’t think there is anything to worry about”. You would condemn them as being most foolish, wouldn’t you? But God, in His faithfulness has told us of our danger: and in His unutterable love has told us He has provided a Salvation―a Savior. He tells us in the verse just quoted (John 3:16) that if we trust that Blessed Savior, we shall be SAVED from the judgment that awaits the guilty sinner, and have EVERLASTING LIFE.
To make it possible for God to give us so grand a message, His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, had to suffer death, in all its horror, and shame, and agony on the Cross at Calvary. There He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Your part is just TO TRUST IN HIM.
Just one thing more. If these men had left their “punt” at home it would have been no use to them in their time of need, and they would have PERISHED. But it was at hand for them. And God says about His Salvation that it is near. “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,” Romans 10:8-9.
Will you not Trust Him NOW? There is peace and joy in Jesus such as there is none elsewhere; what else can you do? “HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE, if we neglect SO GREAT SALVATION?” Hebrews 2, 3.
Today is the day of mercy, tomorrow may be the day of doom.
“You cannot repent too soon, for you know not how soon it may be too late to repent.”
How Spurgeon Found Christ: (as Told by Himself)
I HAD been about five years in the most fearful distress of mind, as a lad. If any human being felt more of the terror of God’s law, I can indeed pity and sympathize with him.
I thought the sun was blotted out of my sky―that I had so sinned against God that there was no hope for me. I prayed―the Lord knoweth how I prayed―but I never had a glimpse of an answer that I knew of. I searched the Word of God: the promises were more alarming than the threatenings I read the privileges of the people of God, but with the fullest persuasion that they were not for me. The secret of my distress was this: I did not know the gospel. I was in a Christian land; I had Christian parents; but I did not understand the freeness and simplicity of the gospel.
I attended all the places of worship in the town where I lived, but I honestly believe I did not hear the gospel fully preached. I do not blame the men, however. One man preached the divine sovereignty. I could hear him with pleasure; but what was that to a poor sinner who wished to know what he should do to be saved? There was another admirable man who always preached about the law; but what was the use of plowing up ground that needed to be sown? I knew it was said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” but I did not know what it was to believe in Christ.
I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a court and came to a little Primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel there might be a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning; snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.
This poor man was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.
There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just ‘look.’ Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look, a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says. ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay,” said he, in broad Essex, “many on ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No: look to Him by and by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto ME.’ Some of you say, ‘I must wait the Spirit’s working.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. It runs, ‘Look unto Me’.”
Then the good man followed up his text in this way: “Look unto Me; I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the cross. Look! I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. Oh, look to Me! look to Me!”
When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the length of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. He then said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: “And you will always be miserable―miserable in life, and miserable in death―if you do not obey my text. But if you obey, now, this moment, you will be saved.”
Then he shouted, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ; look NOW!” He made me start in my seat; but I did look to Jesus Christ.
There and then, the cloud was gone; the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun. I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me that before ―Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.
Oh, Why was He there as the Bearer of sin,
If on Jesus thy sins were not laid?
Oh, Why from His side flowed the sin-cleansing blood,
If His dying thy debt has not paid?
Look! Look! Look and Live!
There is life in a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee!
John Wesley's Discovery
On 1st February, 1738, he writes: ―
“It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity―but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why (what I the last of all suspected), that I, who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God. I am not mad, though I thus speak, but I speak the words of truth and soberness, if haply some of those who still dream may awake and see that as I am so are they. Are they read in philosophy? So was I. In ancient or modern tongues? So was I also. Are they versed in the science of divinity? I, too, have studied it many years. Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things? The very same could I do. Are they plenteous in alms? Behold, I gave all my goods to feed the poor. Do they give of their labor as well as of their substance? I have labored more abundantly than they all. Are they willing to suffer for their brethren? I have thrown up my friends, reputation, ease, country; I have put my life into my hand, wandering into strange lands; I have given my body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weariness, or whatsoever God should please to bring upon me; but does all this (be it more or less, it matters not) make me acceptable to God? Does all I ever did, or can know, say, give, do, or suffer justify me in His sight? Yea, or the constant use of all the means of grace? Or that I am, as touching outward moral righteousness, blameless? Or, to come closer yet, the having a rational conviction of all the truths of Christianity? Does all this give me a claim to the holy, heavenly, divine character’s, of a Christian? By no means.
“This, then, have I learned in the ends of the earth, that I am fallen short of the glory of God, that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life, seeing that it cannot be that an evil tree should bring forth good fruit; that, alienated as I am from the life of. God, I am a child of wrath, an heir of Hell; that my own works, my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far from making any atonement for the least of those sins, which are more in number than the hairs of my head; that the best of them need atonement themselves, or they cannot abide His righteous judgment; that, having the sentence of death in my heart, and having nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
“If it be said that I have faith (for many such things have I heard from many miserable comforters), I answer, so have the devils a sort of faith, but still they are strangers to the covenant of promise; the faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of Christ, my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to the favor of God. I want that faith which enables every one that hath it to cry out, ‘I live not, but Christ liveth in me―and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.’”
On the 24th of May he writes,
“I felt my heart strangely warmed. I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He has taken away my sins―even mine―and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Soon as my all I ventured
On the atoning Blood,
The Holy Spirit entered,
And I was born of God.
Now Christ is my salvation.
What can I covet more?
I fear no condemnation―
Because God’s wrath is o’er.
Fragment: "The Way Home"
The LORD JESUS said:
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
“Faith in tomorrow instead of Christ is Satan’s nurse for man’s perdition.”
The Hebrew's Search for the Blood of Atonement
In the spring of 1898, I was holding some gospel meetings in San Francisco, and several times addressed the Jews attending a “Mission to Israel.” On one occasion, having concluded my discourse, the meeting was thrown open for discussion with any Hebrews who desired to ask questions or state difficulties, as also for any who had been brought to Christ to relate their conversions.
The experience of one old Jew interested me greatly, and as nearly as I can I give his remarks in his own words, though not attempting to preserve the inimitable Hebrew-English dialect.
He said: “This is Passover week among you, my Jewish brethren, and as I sat here, I was thinking how you will be observing it: You will have put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat the ‘motsah’ (unleavened wafers) and the roasted lamb. You will attend the synagogue services, and carry out the ritual and directions of the Talmud; but you forget, my brethren, that you have everything but that which Jehovah required first of all. He did not say, ‘When I see the leaven put away, or when I see you eat the motsah, or the lamb, or go to the synagogue;’ but His word was, ‘When I see the blood I will pass over you.’
“Ah, my brethren, you can substitute nothing for this. You must, have blood, blood, BLOOD!”
As he reiterated this word with ever-increasing emphasis, his black eyes flashed warningly, and his Jewish hearers quailed before him.
“Blood” It is an awful word, that, for one who reveres the ancient oracle, and yet has no sacrifice. Turn where he will in the Book, the blood meets him, but let him seek as he may, he cannot find it in the Judaism of the present.
After a moment’s pause, the patriarchal old man went on somewhat as follows: “I was born in Palestine, nearly seventy years ago. As a child I was taught to read the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, I early attended the synagogue and learned Hebrew from the Rabbis. At first I believed what I was told, that ours was the true and only religion, but as I grew older and studied the Law more intently, I was struck by the place the blood had in all the ceremonies outlined there, and equally struck by its utter absence in the ritual to which I was brought up.
“Again and again I read Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16, 17, and the latter chapters especially made me tremble, as I thought of the great Day of Atonement and the place the blood had there. Day and night one verse would ring in my ears. ‘It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul!’ I knew I had broken the law. I needed atonement. Year after year, on that day, I beat my breast as I confessed my need of it; but it was to be made by blood, and there was no blood!
“In my distress, at last, I opened my heart to a learned and venerable rabbi. He told me that God was angry with His people. Jerusalem was in the hands of the Gentiles, the temple was destroyed, and a Mohammedan mosque was reared up in its. place. The only spot on earth where we dare shed the blood of sacrifice, in accordance with Deuteronomy 12 and Leviticus 17, was desecrated, and our nation scattered. That was why there was no blood. God had Himself closed the way to carry out the solemn service of the great Day of Atonement. Now we must turn to the Talmud, and rest on its instruction, and trust in the mercy of God and the merits of the fathers.
“I tried to be satisfied, but could not. Something seemed to say that the law was unaltered, even though our temple was destroyed. Nothing else but blood could atone for the soul. We dared not shed blood for atonement elsewhere than in the place the Lord had chosen. Then we were left without an atonement at all?
“This thought filled me with horror. In my distress I consulted many other rabbis. I had but one great question―Where can I find the blood of atonement?
“I was over thirty years of age when I left Palestine and came to Constantinople, with my still unanswered question ever before my mind, and my soul exceedingly troubled about my sins.
“One night I was walking down one of the narrow streets of that city, when I saw a sign telling of a meeting for Jews. Curiosity led me to open the door and go in. Just as I took a seat I heard a man say, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ; His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ It was my first introduction to Christianity, but I listened breathlessly as the speaker told how God had declared that ‘without shedding of blood is no remission;’ but that He had given His only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to die, and all who trusted in His blood were forgiven all their iniquities. This was the Messiah of the fifty-third of Isaiah: this was the Sufferer of Psalm 22. Ah, my brethren, I had found the blood of atonement at last. I trusted it, and now I love to read, the New Testament and see how all the shadows of the law are fulfilled in Jesus. His blood has been shed for sinners. It has satisfied God, and it is the only means of salvation for either Jew or Gentile.”
Reader, have you yet found the blood of atonement? “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Are you trusting in God’s smitten Lamb?―the sacrifice of God?
God Says:
“WHEN I See the BLOOD I WILL PASS over You.”
"The Bible"
The Bible is we plainly see,
Then it must have a pedigree.
It either is a Book divine.
Or men to make it must combine;
Suppose the latter, then they must
Either be wicked men or just,
Take either side and you will see
A proof of its divinity.
If wicked men composed this book
Surely their senses they forsook,
For they the righteous man defend
And curse the bad from end to end.
If righteous, then they change their name,
For they the authorship disclaim,
And often say “Thus saith the Lord”
And testify it is His Word.
If it be not they tell a lie,
And all their righteousness destroy.
Could Moses and could Malachi,
Unite together in a lie?
Could Job and Daniel with the rest,
Spread o’er the world from East to West,
Unite together and confer,
When Oceans rolled between them, Sir?
Not only Seas, but Ages too,
Numbers of years and not a few.
Mr. Moody and the Free-Thinkers
By the Late Mr. George Soltau.
Amongst the most remarkable scenes I have ever witnessed was one in East London during the visit of those beloved and honored men of God, Moody and Sankey, in the years 1883-84. The hall was pitched in the center of the dense working population of that quarter, where men by the hundred thousand work and live in workshops and factories. One Monday evening had been reserved for an address to Atheists, Skeptics, and Free-Thinkers of all shades.
At that time Charles Bradlaugh, the champion of atheism, was at his zenith, and hearing of this meeting he ordered all the clubs he had formed to go and take possession of the hall. They did so, and five thousand men marched in from all directions and occupied every seat. The platform was occupied by the workers.
Our Enemies Being the Judges
The service commenced earlier than usual, after the preliminary singing. Mr. Moody asked the men to choose their favorite hymns, which suggestion raised many a laugh. The meeting got well under way.
Mr. Moody spoke from “Their rock is not our rock, our enemies themselves being the judges.” He poured in a broadside of telling, touching incidents from his own experience of the deathbeds of Christians and atheists, and let the men be the judges as to who had the best foundation, on which to rest faith and hope. Reluctant tears were wrung from many an eye. The great mass of men, with the darkest, most determined defiance of God stamped upon their countenances, faced this running fire attacking them in their most vulnerable points, namely, their hearts and their homes; but when the sermon was ended one felt inclined to think nothing had been accomplished, for it had not appealed to their intellects, or reasoning faculties, had convinced them of nothing.
At the close, Mr. Moody said, “We will rise and sing ‘Only Trust Him,’ and while we do so, will the ushers open all the doors, so that any man who wants to leave can do so; and after that we will have the usual inquiry meeting for those who desire to be led to the Savior.” I thought, all will stampede and we shall only have an empty hall. But instead, the great mass of five thousand men rose, sang, and sat down again, not one man vacating his seat.
“I Can’t!” “I Won’t!”
What next? Mr. Moody then said, “I will explain four words―receive, believe, trust, take HIM.” A broad grin pervaded all that sea of faces. After a few words upon “Receive,” he made the appeal, “Who will receive Him? Just say, ‘I will.’” From the men standing round the edge of the hall came some fifty responses, but not one from the mass seated before him. One man growled “I can’t,” to which Mr. Moody replied, “You have spoken the truth, my man; glad you spoke. Listen, and you will be able to say ‘I can’ before we are through.” Then he explained the word believe, and made his second appeal, “Who will say ‘I will believe Him’?” Again some responded from the fringe of the crowd, till one big fellow, a leading club man, shouted “I won’t.” Dear Mr. Moody, overcome with tenderness and compassion, burst into broken, tearful words, half sobs, “It is ‘I will,’ or ‘I won’t’ for every man in this hall tonight.”
The Atheists Confounded.
Then he suddenly turned the whole attention of the meeting to the story of the Prodigal Son, saying, “The battle is on the will, and only there. When the young man said ‘I will arise,’ the battle was won, for he had yielded his will; and on that point all hangs tonight. Men, you have your champion there in the middle of the hall, the man who said ‘I won’t.’ I want every man here who believes that man is right to follow him, and to rise and say ‘I won’t.’”
There was perfect silence and stillness; all held their breath, till as no man rose, Moody burst out, “Thank God, no man says ‘I won’t.’ Now, who’ll say ‘I will’?”
In an instant the Holy Spirit seemed to have broken loose upon that great crowd of enemies of Jesus Christ, and five hundred men sprang to their feet their faces raining down with tears, shouting, “I will,” till the whole atmosphere was changed, and the battle was won. Quickly the meeting was closed, that personal work might begin, and from that night till the end of the week nearly two thousand men were swung out from the ranks of the foe into the army of the Lord, by the surrender of their will. They heard His “rise and walk,” and they followed Him. The permanency of that work was well attested for years afterward, and the clubs never recovered their footing. God swept them away in His mercy and might by the Gospel.
"I Will"
“I WILL”
Four of us sat one on each side of a square table in a small parlor. We were three young men and myself; two of them now lie in soldiers’ graves in France. We were not there to shuffle cards or crack jokes, or even discuss the topics of the day; we had graver business in hand. These three young men had attended, on the night previous a Gospel service, and there had been awakened within them a desire to hear more of the way of salvation, for they felt they were not right with God. It was interesting and remarkable that each of them, close friends as they were, had been similarly affected, and when they discovered this at the close of the service, it made them all the more eager for an interview. And so we arranged to meet at a friend’s house and talk things over.
They had many difficulties which they freely aired; for instance, they were all three fond of sport, and they wanted to know whether if they yielded to Christ they would get something that would please them more. I assured them that the Lord Jesus was brighter and better than the brightest and best that the world could give. They were afraid, too, that if they became Christians they would have a hard time with their chums; they would be laughed at and scorned, and would probably lose many a merry mate, I assured them that the best friend to have is JESUS, and that they would be worse than fools if they allowed the jeers of godless men to keep them away from Him whom they knew they needed the most. There were a good many other questions; but all these, one by one, were answered, and they were brought to own candidly that they were sinful men; that they would have to meet God about their sins, and they were not ready. They went further, and acknowledged that they wanted to be ready, that they had talked the matter over, and had decided to ask me to help them.
If was easy then to tell them of the Savior who died for sinners, and so for them; who shed His precious blood to cleanse away the sins of guilty men, and so to cleanse theirs away. I told them that the Savior who died for them was now a living Savior, for He had been raised from the dead, and that He claimed their confidence, and all that remained for them was to yield themselves to Him in simple faith.
The leader of the three was sitting opposite to me, and he broke in upon my talk by saying, “What’s the use of talking to us about believing in Christ: how can we believe in Him unless God’s Holy Spirit makes us? I tell you I can’t believe.”
I replied, “I am afraid it is not a question of can’t but won’t. But suppose you could believe in Jesus. Will you suppose that
“All right, I will,” he said.
“Well, now, suppose you could believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, WILT THOU HAVE THIS Savior TO BE THY Savior, NOW?”
I looked into his eyes, and his friends looked eagerly into his eyes, and we waited for his answer. After a pause I repeated the question, “Wilt thou have this Savior to be thy Savior, tonight?”
The dear fellow’s eyes filled up with tears, and he stretched his hand across the table, and took mine in a warm grip, and replied.
“I WILL.”
And with that decision every difficulty disappeared, his anxiety departed, he was saved, and saw it so clearly that his friends were astonished. One of them made a clear decision too; I could not be sure about the other. But this was plain enough to them all, that it was the “I will” on their part that was needed.
The Lord Jesus has said His “I will,”
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28); and “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
And God has said, “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. IF YE BE WILLING” (Isaiah 1:18, 19).
Nothing could be plainer, and when a sinner feels his need of the Savior, and is ready to say “I will” to Him―to the Lord Jesus Christ―the great transaction is forever done.
“WHOSOEVER WILL LET HIM TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY”
I Will Never Bow
“I will never bow my knee to that Man,” said a man to me in the West Indies, as I pressed upon him the claims of Christ.
Vain boast, when God hath declared “that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10).
I Don't Believe There's Any Hell
He was a red-haired, freckle-faced lad of maybe fourteen years old. He lived across the street, and seeing me at work one night dropped in for a chat. This is how he began, “Say, Mr.― I don’t believe there’s any Hell.”
“Yes you do, Arthur, You know right well there’s a Hell.”
“No I don’t! The minister down at Barton Street church says there isn’t any Hell, and I don’t believe there’s one either.”
“Yes you do. You know perfectly well there’s a Hell: and you know the wicked will be turned into it.”
“Well, anyway, I wish there wasn’t a Hell!”
Arthur was honest, and we fear that most of those who “don’t believe in Hell,” if they were honest, would have to say the same thing as Arthur,―
“I wish there wasn’t a Hell.”
NOTE,―It does not do away with Hell for you to say, “I don’t believe there’s a Hell” And, Remember.―GOD says there is a Hell. HE KNOWS: You do not.
Archibald Boyle or There Is No Rest in Hell
An Authentic Narrative
More than ninety years ago, there was in Glasgow a club of gentlemen of the first rank in that city. They met professedly for cardplaying, but the members were distinguished by such a fearless excess of profligacy as to obtain for it the name of “The Hell Club.” They gloried in the name they had acquired for themselves, and nothing that could merit it was left untried.
Besides their nightly or weekly meetings, they held a grand annual festival, at which each member endeavored to “outdo all his former out-doings” in drunkenness, blasphemy, and licentiousness. Of all who shone on these occasions, none shone half so brightly as Archibald Boyle. But, alas! the light that dazzled in him was not “light from heaven,” but from that dread abode which gave name to the vile association which was to prove his ruin―ruin for time and eternity!
Archibald Boyle had been at one time a youth of the richest promise, being possessed of dazzling talent and fascinating manners. No acquirement was too high for his ability; but, unfortunately, there was none too low for his ambition! Educated by a fond and foolishly indulgent mother, he early met in society with members of “The Hell Club.” His elegance, wit, gaiety, and versatility of talent, united to the gifts of fortune, made him a most desirable victim for them; and a victim and a slave glorying in his bondage he quickly became. Long ere he was five and twenty he was one of the most accomplished blackguards it could number on its lists. To him, what were “heaven,” “hell,” or “eternity”? Words, mere words, that served no purpose, but to point his blasphemous wit, or nerve his execrations! To him, what glory was there equal to that of hearing himself pronounced “the very life of the club”? Alas! as soon as man forgets God, Who alone can keep him, his understanding becomes darkened, and he glories in that which is his shame.
Yet, while all within that heart was festering in corruption, he retained all his remarkable beauty of face and person, all his external elegance of manner, and continued an acknowledged favorite in the fairest female society of the day.
One night, on retiring to sleep, after returning from one of the annual meetings of the club, Boyle dreamed that he was still riding, as usual, upon his famous black horse, toward his own house, (then a country seat embowered in ancient trees, and situated upon a hill now built over by the most fashionable part of Glasgow), and that he was suddenly accosted by someone whose personal appearance he could not in the gloom of night discern, but who, seizing the reins, said, in a voice apparently accustomed to command, “You must go with me.” “And who are you?” exclaimed Boyle, with a volley of blasphemous execrations, while he struggled to disengage his reins from the intruder’s grasp. “That you will see by and by,” replied the same voice in a cold sneering tone that thrilled through his very heart. Boyle plunged his spurs into the panting sides of his steed. The noble animal reared, and then suddenly darted forward with a speed that nearly deprived his rider of breath; but in vain, in vain!―fleeter than the wind he flew―the mysterious half-seen guide still before him! Agonized by he knew not what of indescribable horror and awe, Boyle again furiously spurred the gallant horse. It fiercely reared and plunged: he lost his seat, and expected at the moment to feel himself dashed to the earth. But not so, for he continued to fall―fall―fall―it appeared to himself with an ever-increasing velocity. At length this terrific rapidity of motion abated, and, to his amazement and horror, he perceived that this mysterious attendant was close by his side. “Where,” he exclaimed, in the frantic energy of despair, “where are you taking me? where am I? where am I going?” “To HELL!” replied the same iron voice; and from the depths below, the sound too familiar to his lips was suddenly re-echoed.
“To hell,” onward―onward they hurried in darkness, rendered more horrible still by the conscious presence of his spectral conductor. Finally, they reached an arched entrance of stupendous magnificence. Within it, what a scene!―too awful to be described. Multitudes, gnashing their teeth in the hopelessness of mad despair, cursed the day that gave them birth: while memory, recalling opportunities lost and mercies despised, presented to their fevered mental vision the scenes of their past lives. There, fancy still pictured to them the young and lovely moving up and down in the giddy mazes of the midnight dance―the bounding steed bearing his senseless rider through the excitement of the goaded race―the intemperate still drawling over the midnight bowl, the wanton song, or maudlin blasphemy. There, the slave of Mammon bemoaned his folly in bartering his soul for useless gold! while the gambler bewailed (alas! too late!) the madness of his choice.
Boyle at length perceived that he was surrounded by those whom he had known on earth but were some time dead, each one betraying his agony at the bitter recollections of the vain pursuits that had engrossed his time here―time lent to prepare for a far different scene!
Suddenly observing that his unearthly conductor had disappeared, he felt so relieved by his absence that he ventured to address his former friend, Mrs. D―, whom he saw near him “Ha, Mrs. D―! delighted to see you! My good Mrs. D.―, for auld Lang syne, do just stop for a moment ―rest, and―” but, with a shriek that seemed to cleave through his very soul, she exclaimed,―
“REST! there is no rest in hell”
and from interminable vaults, voices as loud as thunder repeated the awful―the heart withering sound, “THERE IS NO REST IN HELL!” She hastily unclasped the vest of her gorgeous robe, and displayed to his scared and shuddering eye a coil of fiery, living snakes― “the worm that never dies” ―THE WORM OF ACCUSING CONSCIENCE, REMORSE, DESPAIR―wreathing, darting, stinging, in her bosom; others followed her example, and in every bosom there was a self-inflicted punishment which we have no language to describe―hopeless too,―
“For hell were not hell
If hope ever entered there.”
He rushed away; but as he fled, he saw those whom he knew must have been dead for thousands of years, still absorbed in the recollections of their sinful pleasures on earth, and toiling on through their eternity of woe. The vivid reminiscences of their godlessness on earth inflicted on them the bitterest pang of their doom in hell!
He saw Maxwell, the former companion of his own boyish profligacy, borne along in incessant movement, mocked by the creations of his frenzied chase.
“Stop, Harry! stop! Speak to me! Oh, rest one moment!” Scarce had the words been spoken by his faltering lips, when again his terror-stricken ear was stunned by the same wild yell of agony, re-echoed by ten thousand thousand voices― “THERE IS NO REST IN HELL!”
Boyle tried to shut his eyes. He found he could not. He threw himself down, but the pavement of hell, as with a living and instinctive movement, rejected him from its surface, and forced him upon his feet; he found himself compelled to gaze with still increasing intensity of horror at the ever-changing yet ever-steady torrent of eternal torment. And this was hell!―the scoffer’s jest―the by-word of the profligate!
All at once he perceived that his unearthly conductor was once more by his side. “Take me,” shrieked Boyle, “take Me from this place! By the living God, whose name I have so often outraged, I adjure thee, take me from this place!”
“Canst thou still name His name?” said the fiend, with a hideous sneer. “Go, then; but―IN A YEAR AND A DAY, we meet, to part no more.”
Boyle awoke, feeling as if the words of the fiend were traced in letters of living fire upon his heart and brain. Unable, from actual bodily ailment, to leave his bed for several days, the horrid vision had full time to take effect upon his mind; and many were the pangs of tardy remorse and ill-defined terror that beset his vice-stained soul, as he lay in darkness and seclusion, to him so very unusual.
He resolved, utterly and forever, to forsake “the club.” Above all, he determined that nothing on earth should tempt him to join the next annual festival.
The companions of his licentiousness soon flocked around him; and finding that his deep dejection of mind did not disappear with his bodily ailment and that it arose from some cause which disinclined him from seeking or enjoying their accustomed orgies, they became alarmed with the idea of losing “the life of the club,” and they bound themselves by an oath never to desist till they had discovered what was the matter with him, and had cured him of PLAYING THE METHODIST; for their alarm as to losing “the life of the club” had been wrought up to the highest pitch, by one of their number declaring that, on entering unexpectedly Boyle’s room, he detected him in the act of hastily hiding a book, which he actually believed was the Bible.
Alas! alas! had poor Boyle possessed sufficient true moral courage and dignity of character NOT to have hidden the Bible, how different might have been his future! but, like many a hopeful youth, he was ashamed to avow his convictions, and to take his stand for God, and his ruin was the result.
After a time, one of his compeers, more deeply cunning than the rest, bethought himself of assuming an air of deep disgust with the world, the club, and the mode of life they had been pursuing. He affected to seek Boyle’s company in a mood of congenial melancholy, and to sympathize in all his feelings. Thus he succeeded in betraying him into a much-misplaced confidence as to his dream, and the effect it had produced upon his mind. The result may readily be guessed. His confidence was betrayed―his feeling of repentance ridiculed; and it will easily be believed that he who “hid the Bible” had not nerve to stand the ribald jests of his companions.
We cannot trace the progress, and would not if we could. Suffice it to say, that virtuous resolutions once broken, prayers once offered, VOLUNTARILY called back by sin from the throne of heaven,―ALL WAS LOST! yet not lost without such a fell struggle between the convictions of conscience and the spirit of evil as wrung the color from this young cheek, and made him, ere the year was done, a haggard and a gray-haired man.
From the annual meeting he shrunk with an instinctive horror, and made up his mind UTTERLY to AVOID it. Well aware of this resolve, his tempters determined he should have no choice. How potent, how active, is the spirit of evil! How feeble is unassisted, Christless, UNPRAYERFUL man! Boyle found himself, he could not tell how, seated at that table on that very day, where he had sworn to himself a thousand and a thousand times nothing on earth should make him sit.
His ears tingled, and his eyes swam, as he listened to the opening sentence to the president’s address, ― “Gentlemen, this is leap-year; therefore it is A YEAR AND A DAY since our last annual meeting.”
Every nerve in Boyle’s body twinged in agony at the ominous, the well-remembered, words. His first impulse was to rise and fly, but then THE SNEERS―THE SNEERS. How many in this world, as well as poor Boyle, have sold their souls to the dread of a sneer, and dared the wrath of an almighty, an eternal God, rather than encounter the sarcastic curl of a fellow-creature’s lip.
He was more than ever plied with wine, applause, and every other species of excitement, but in vain. His mirth, his wit, were like the lurid flashes from the bosom of a brooding thunder-cloud, that pass, and leave it all darker than before; and his laugh sounded fiendish even to the evil ears that heard it.
The night was gloomy, with frequent and fitful gusts of chill and howling winds, as Boyle, with feverish nerves and reeling brain, mounted his horse to return home.
The following morning, the well-known black steed was found, with saddle and bridle on, quietly grazing on the roadside, about halfway to Boyle’s country house, and a few yards from it lay the stiffened corpse of its master.
Reader, this dream of Archibald Boyle is a well-authenticated fact; and God who has the power of communication with the minds of his creatures, did doubtless speak by it to this poor man; and through the same dream God now speaks to you.
"I Am Saved Tonight."
“I am saved tonight, sir” said a bright-faced negro boy at the close of a Gospel meeting in Jamaica. “Saved! are you; how did that come about?” I asked. “It was the word that you spoke, sir,” he answered. “Will you tell me what that word was?” I inquired.
“‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that shalt be saved’ (Romans 10:9). While you were preaching I believed in my heart what you said, and when you had finished I told Tommy about it,” was his ready reply, and close beside him stood Tommy to bear witness to the truth of what he had told me.
Has anything like this ever happened in your history, my reader? “THOU SHALT BE SAVED” are wonderful words when they come from the lips of God, and His salvation is much to be desired, but what are the terms? “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
"You Miserable Hypocrite"
Brownlow North was at one time, indeed all through his early life, a very marked specimen of the thoughtless and dissipated aristocratic worldling. He was for many years supposed to be the heir to a noble title, but a late and unexpected marriage came between him and his hopes.
When he was no longer a young man, he and a friend were staying at a shooting box in Scotland. Their day’s sport was usually followed by an evening debauch; and in one of these his friend dropped down dead.
This terrible event was God’s message to the heart of this hardened profligate. The awful thought laid hold of him:
“If I had been called away, instead of my poor friend, I should have been damned.”
This led him to think seriously about his soul, and, falling at this critical time under the influence of an earnest Christian lady, he was by her led into the full light of the gospel. No sooner did he feel himself to be a changed man than he began to set about trying to win others to realize the same blessedness. In process of time he became one of the most noted preachers of that period.
It happened on one occasion that he was to preach in Inverness. Just as he entered the building, a note was put into his hands, the contents of which were somewhat to this effect: “Brownlow North, you miserable hypocrite! Do you remember what took place at ... on such a date, and the part you bore in it: also at ... on such a date, and again at ... on such a date, and the part that you took on each of these occasions?”
Pretty full details of what did happen were given, and then the letter concluded: “Now, you wretched hypocrite! you know that every word of this letter is true; will you, after reading it, dare to go into that pulpit, and rant and rave, and preach what you call the gospel?”
Poor Mr. North felt the force of the letter keenly, but he put it into his pocket, and when the time for his address came, he read the familiar words: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” He paused, and then with deepest feeling, added,
“Of whom I am chief.”
“My friends,” said he, “when I entered this building tonight, a letter was put into my hands. I do not know who the writer may be, but he is evidently one who knows a great deal about my career in the past. This letter refers to three distinct occasions, on which it charges me with participating in scenes of riot, and excess, and wantonness. I will not pollute your ears by referring to the contents of this letter, further than to say as much as this.” And the writer concludes his most painful communication by saying:
“Now, you wretched hypocrite! you know that all this is true; will you, after reading this letter, dare to go into that pulpit, and rant and rave, and preach what you call the gospel?”
“Dear friends, there are three things that I have to say about this letter. First, it is all true. Would to God that I could deny the charges it makes. Would to God that I could undo the past, but that is beyond the power of even God Himself. God knows it is true, and I confess with sorrow and shame that it is true.
“The second thing I have to say is, it’s all forgiven! God knows it is forgiven, and I know that it is forgiven.
“The third thing I have to say is that, if God, for Jesus Christ’s sake, can forgive the sins of such a sinner as Brownlow North, there is not a sinner in Scotland, there is not a sinner in this wide world, too great for God to forgive him all his sins.”
There were few dry eyes among those present as he uttered these words, with the most intense feeling.
Reader, your sins may or may not be as glaring as Brownlow North’s but they can be forgiven freely by the same pardoning God, if you but come to Him in true repentance. Should you die unforgiven, there remains nothing for you but the blackness of darkness forever. Now, His mercy would fain woo you for Himself. Be wise in time.
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in. His blood ... to declare at this time His righteousness: that He might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:24-26.
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.
What Are Infidelity's Fruits?
An infidel of good social standing and character attended an infidel gathering. Suddenly he became struck with the low character of his associates, men with forbidding face and evil propensities, men of impure life and shady character. His whole soul rebelled against a system that attracted such a crowd. It is true that “a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” Judging the fruit to be bad, he condemned the tree that bore it, renounced infidelity, and sought the way of truth and holiness.
God Chose to Send Jesus
Some little time ago, after the conclusion of one of Mr. Brownlow North’s addresses in Edinburgh, a young man came into the room where he was receiving persons anxious for private conversation, and said to him, “I have heard you preach three times, sir, and I neither care for you nor your preaching unless you can tell me why did God permit sin.”
“I will do that with pleasure,” was the immediate reply,― “Because He chose to.”
The young man, apparently taken by surprise, stood speechless; and Mr. North again, replied, “Because He chose to; and,” added he, “if you continue to question and cavil at God’s dealings, and vainly puffed up by your carnal mind, strive to be wise above what is written, I will tell you something more that God will do,―He will some day put you into hellfire. It is vain for you to strive with your Maker―you cannot resist Him; and neither your opinion of His dealings, nor your blasphemous expression of them, will in the least lessen the pain of your everlasting damnation, which, I again tell you, will most certainly be your portion if you go on in your present spirit. There were such questioners as you in the Apostle Paul’s time, and how did the apostle answer them? ‘Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?’”
The young man here interrupted Mr. North, and said, “Is there such a text as that in the Bible?” “Yes, there is,” was the reply, “in the ninth chapter of the Romans; and I recommend you to go home and read that chapter; and after you have read it, and seen there how God claims for Himself the right to do whatever He chooses, without permitting the thing formed to say to Him that formed it, ‘Why hast Thou made me thus?’ remember that, besides permitting sin, there is another thing God has chosen to do,― God chose to send Jesus. Of His own free and sovereign grace God gave His only begotten Son to die for sinners in their stead―in their place; so that, though they are sinners, and have done things worthy of death, not one of them shall ever be cast into hell for his sins who will accept Jesus as his only Savior, and believe in Him, and rest in His Word. I have no time to say more to you now: others are waiting to see me, Go home, attend to what I have told you, and may God the Holy Spirit bless it for Jesus Christ’s sake.”
This conversation took place on Sunday evening. On the following Friday, Mr. North was sitting in a friend’s drawing-room, when the servant announced that a young man wanted to speak to him. On being shown upstairs, he said, “Do you not remember me?” “No.” “Do you not remember the young man who on Sunday night asked you to tell him ‘why did God permit sin’?” “Yes, perfectly.” “Well, sir, I am that young man; and you said that God permitted sin Because He chose to, and you told me to go home and read the ninth chapter of Romans; and also that God chose to send Jesus to die for such sinners as I am; and I did, sir, what you told me, and afterward I fell down at God’s feet and asked Him to forgive my sins, because Jesus died for me, and He did; and now I am happy―oh! so happy, sir; and though the devil still comes sometimes to tempt me with my old thoughts, and to ask me what reason I have to think God has forgiven me, I have always managed to get him away by telling him that I do not want to judge things by my own reason, but by God’s Word, and that the only reason why I know I am forgiven, is that for Christ’s sake, God chooses to pardon me.”
The changed expression of the young man’s countenance was quite sufficient to account for Mr. North’s not knowing him again. It was radiant with joy and peace.
Dear reader, the first lesson a poor sinner has to learn, is to trust in the Lord, and not to his own understanding; to trust God not only for what he does understand, and for what is explained, but for what he does not understand, and for what is not explained. This is faith, and such faith honors God and saves the soul. This is receiving the kingdom of God as a little child; and let us ever remember that it is written (and the scripture cannot be broken), that unless we receive the kingdom of God as a little child, we shall in no wise enter therein. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8.)
Is the Bible an Immoral Book?
Said an infidel to the late Dr. Joseph Parker, “The Bible is an immoral Book.” He replied, “If it were so, I should expect the immoral people would like to read it, whereas I find it is the moral, saintly people who like to read it.”
Can Infidelity Stand the Test?
A girl lay dying. Her father was an infidel, her mother a Christian. He had often ridiculed his wife’s faith to his children. Now a great sorrow is plowing through the father’s heart. His child is dying.
Presently a weak voice is heard, soon to be hushed in death. “Father, shall I believe what you tell me, or what mother teaches me out of the Bible?” What a test! If infidelity can give comfort on a deathbed here is the chance. What does the father say?
Infidelity gives way before a father’s love. “You had better believe what your mother tells you,” came the answer earnestly and distinctly. Yes, the Bible can stand the test of a deathbed. Infidelity cannot.
How Does a Man Become a Soldier?
I was leaving the Birmingham station, for Manchester, the other day, when I noticed three soldiers walking on the platform. I felt an inward conviction that my Master had something for me to say to these men. Taking my seat in the carriage, beside their three knapsacks, I looked up in prayer, that the right man might come and sit next to me. They took their seats. I remained silent for some time. At last I saw tears begin to roll down the face of the man next to me. It is often better to pray than talk; one gets to see more of God that way.
Ran Away From Home,
After a while, I said to him, “When I saw you three walking on the platform, I felt assured that the Lord had a message for one of you, and I asked Him to bring the right man next to me; and now, will you tell me what is giving you so much grief this morning?” He looked very much surprised, and said, “Oh, sir, it is eighteen years since I ran away from my home; my father was a man of prayer; I never saw him again; he has been dead many years now, but I can never forget his prayers for me. I have been abroad most of the time since I enlisted―have never seen my dear mother from that day to this―she does not know whether I am dead or alive, but I am going today to see her; I have got her address in Manchester; and this brings to my mind those happy days when my father had a prayer-meeting in our house.” He also showed me a worn-out letter written by his sister, on leaving his native shores. No words can tell the value he set upon this tender treasure; he had worn it near his heart, in every part of the world he had seen. He also opened his knapsack, and showed me a well-worn Bible; his two companions, I found, also had each his Bible.
Three Praying Soldiers
They were, in fact, three praying soldiers. I read their testimonials, and three more noble, upright men I have seldom met. The thrilling interest of that conversation I shall not easily forget. One point, however, I must name. Though these three soldiers were, like Lydia of old, men of prayer, and I trust the Lord had opened the heart of the one next me, yet they were totally ignorant of God’s plan of salvation. In order to meet this ignorance, I put the following question: “How does a man become a soldier? Does he go to some old rag-shop and buy old thrown-off regimentals, and try to imitate the soldier until he gets to be one?” “Well, well,” said one of them, “a pretty soldier that would be, would he not, now?” “But,” said I, “then, tell me, how does a man become a soldier?” “How? why, simply by receiving the shilling, to be sure.” “Just so,” said I, “does a sinner become a Christian. It is not by going to some religious rag-shop and buying the rags of self-righteousness, and trying to imitate the Christian until he gets to be one. No; it is simply as a lost sinner receiving Christ as the man receives the shilling. ‘As many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on. His name.’”
Ought Not a Man to Do His Duty?
“What!” said one of the soldiers, “do you mean to say, then, that a man does not have to do his duty to God―to read His Word, and pray?” “Oh, yes! the Christian earnestly desires to do all this; but you have to do your duty, you have to keep your regimentals bright and to obey your orders; but tell me, have you to do your duty to get to be a soldier, or because (since you received the shilling.) you are one? Just so, the Christian. He loves to keep his regimentals bright, to walk with garments undefiled, and to obey, as a son delights to obey, the will of his Father. But this is not to get to be a Christian, but because he is one.”
“I never saw it in that light before,” said he. “I know you never did; and after all your sincere desires to live to God, and thus get to be a Christian, when you come to look back at your past life, have you not often done the things you most hate? Don’t you often feel you are as far from being what you wish to be as ever?―sin has such terrible power; now, has it not?”
Temptations of a Soldier
“That’s all true, sir; but what is a poor fellow to do? You have no idea, sir, of the temptations of a poor soldier! Why, now, we three, because we are steady men, are sent to be recruiting sergeants. It makes my very heart sick, to think of the dens we shall have to go into to get our men.” “Oh,” said I, “what a world of sin and wretchedness! and how much there is in every fallen man that answers to the iniquity around. If God had not known it all, and sent His own dear Son to die, the sacrifice for sin, on the cross, so that salvation might be as free, yet as binding, as the soldier’s shilling, who could be saved? Who, with such a fallen nature, in such a world, could imitate the Christian until he got to be one?”
Pensioners Opinion
At Crewe, two old pensioners got into the same carriage, one of whom appeared to have tried hard and long to make himself a Christian. This man, I believe, found blessing to his soul through the conversation. As an old soldier, he remembered well the shilling, and he remembered he had not to buy his regimentals, and he remembered well that he had to do his duty, not to get to be a soldier, but because he was one; but he had never known that it is just the same with every sinner that is brought to God. When a man is enlisted, he is stripped of everything: not a rag is left. He then stands in royal uniform; but that royal suit is a gift―he has not to pay a penny for it―he only receives it. No matter how dirty his old rags were. Every man in the regiment stands in the same cloth. It will be so with thee, poor, lost sinner; no matter how thy life has been; no, if even thou hast been like the thief on the cross, or a very Mary Magdalene. If the Holy Spirit shall open thy heart to receive Christ as thy entire salvation, thy royal clothing shall be the very righteousness of God who hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt have the same spotless robe. “For He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21.) “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
Dealers in Old Rags
Perhaps one of the dealers in old rags of self-righteousness will say, Won’t you come to my shop, and try my sacraments and ordinances? I will teach you how to imitate the Christian best, and then you may hope to get to be one. I assure you my shop is the oldest in the line. No, thank you; no religious rags for me. I have put on the Lord Jesus―He is my only trust―I need no more; for God says of all that are in Him, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” And “Ye are complete in Him.” What God says is complete, let not man try to mend. No, no, fellow-soldier of Christ, don’t be tempted into the rag-shops of the day; thou hast not to put on old regimentals to get to be a soldier of Christ. Watch and pray that thou mayest walk worthy of thy royal uniform. As says the Word of God, “I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God (those that are saved), might be careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:4-8.)
The Joy of God
It is impossible to describe that poor soldier as he came within sight of Manchester. I spoke of the return of the prodigal son. Whatever might be the joy of that poor mother’s heart in receiving her long-lost son, still infinitely greater is the joy of God in receiving the long-lost prodigal. Oh, careless sinner, what a God of love dost thou despise! Thou art starving in wretchedness, and there is bread enough and to spare.
See! He comes to meet thee, with outstretched arms of love; fall into them, crying, “I have sinned.” The first words the prodigal heard were these: “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.”
Are You "an R. C."?
“I’m sorry I can’t come to your meeting, I’m an ‘R.C.’”
“Does that mean you’re a Real Christian?” “.... I don’t know that I can say that.” Friend, Are you a Real Christian?
Outpost Duty: or, a Story of a Hymn
The following beautiful story is related concerning Wesley’s hymn “Jesu, Lover of my soul.”
Two Americans who were crossing the Atlantic came in the cabin on Sunday night to sing hymns. As they sang the last hymn, “Jesu, Lover of my soul,” one of them hearing an exceedingly rich and beautiful voice behind him looked around and, though he did not know the face, thought he knew the voice. So when the music ceased he turned and asked the man if he had not been in the Civil War. The man replied that he had been a Confederate soldier.
“Were you in such a place on such a night?” asked the first.
“Yes,” he replied, “and a curious thing happened that night which this hymn has recalled to my mind. I was posted on sentry duty near the edge of a wood. It was a dark night and very cold, and I was a little frightened because the enemy was supposed to be very near. About midnight, when everything was still, and I was feeling homesick and miserable and weary, I thought that I would comfort myself by praying and singing a hymn. I remember singing this:―
‘All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring,
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing’
“After that, a strange peace came down upon me, and I felt no more fear.”
“Now,” said the other, “listen to my story. I was a Union soldier, and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts. I saw you standing, although I did not see your face. My men had turned their rifles upon you, waiting the word to fire; but when you sang out:―
‘Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing,’
I said, ‘Boys, lower your rifles; let us go back.’”
A True Hero: A Story of the Cornish Coast
The following story of the heroism of a brave man brought vividly to my mind a verse in God’s precious Word. It runs thus (you will find it in the Epistle to the Romans chapter 5 verse 8) “But God commendeth HIS love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This verse may be familiar to you, but if not, will you keep it in mind as you read this.
The hero of the story was one of the brave lifeboatmen who often risk their lives amongst the rough seas and strong gales of winter to rescue the mariner in distress: he was the captain or “coxswain” of his local boat.
His boat was called out on service by distress signals shown by a vessel at some distance, and though the storm raged high, they at once went forward on their errand of mercy. When after a trying and dangerous trip they reached the vessel they found
only one man left on board.
His comrades had been rescued by a passing steamer which had been able to pass close enough for them to jump on board. You will ask why this man, too, did not jump. He COULD NOT, he was a cripple, WITHOUT STRENGTH. The way of salvation that was open to his mates had been closed to him.
Before we go on, just notice that he was a very good picture of what we are in God’s sight. If you look two verses above that one of which we spoke, to Romans 5:6, you will see it says that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” WE cannot do anything to save OURSELVES.
He risked his life
As soon as the coxswain saw the state of things, he ordered the Lifeboat to be brought alongside the sinking ship, and leaning out grasped the legs of the cripple who had managed to hang on to a piece of rope over the side, and called to him to let go. But the poor fellow, unnerved by his terrible experience, and looking at the angry waves beneath him was afraid to let go, and a precious opportunity was lost. The coxswain knew that if he relaxed his hold, the poor man would probably drop into the sea from exhaustion, and he clung on to him the tighter. But a great wave came up and swept the two boats apart. And as the coxswain would not let go his man, he was dragged out of the Lifeboat. In a minute or two more, after the wave had passed, the boats swung together again, and the brave man in the water received the full force of the blow. He managed however to release the man’s hold of his rope, and the crew of the lifeboat got him safely on board. Before they could get their captain also back, the boats were again separated by a tremendous wave. Again they came together with sickening force―with that gallant man still between them. Yet a third time did this happen before his friends got him into the boat―alive indeed but terribly crushed. They took him ashore, and loving hands tended him with the utmost care, but without avail.
He lived only a few days,
being too badly hurt to recover. Now what do you think of a man like that? He knew quite well the risk he ran, and yet deliberately went after that poor cripple, determined to save him if he could. And save him he did, at the cost of his own life.
“Oh,” you say “I think he was wonderful.” So do I. But does it not make our verse still more wonderful? To think that when we were not only “without strength,” but “ungodly,” and “sinners,” God should love us so much as to give His own dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us, that we might be saved―this is a more wonderful story than any the world has ever known. And it is just this love that God tells us of―commends to us. Let me ask you―have you put your trust in the blessed Savior Who loved you so much that He died that you might have “everlasting life”? God has told us plainly in His Word that we can do nothing to save ourselves―any more than that poor cripple could save himself. True, he had only to jump and he would have been saved with his shipmates. But how can a cripple jump? And it is just as impossible for you or me, sinners by nature and by practice, to do anything for our own salvation. If we are to be saved someone else must do it―and the Someone else is JESUS: He has died that we might be saved, and there is no other way. Now God invites everyone, young or old, “whosoever will” to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”
Do Not Refuse
I trust no reader of this paper will be among those who refuse to come to Jesus. Just think, supposing that cripple, when his would be rescuer had clasped him, had kicked and struggled, and cried out “Let me alone.” You say “How foolish, how ungrateful.” True it would have been. But don’t you behave like that to the Love of God. When we think of what the Savior suffered for us, and of the death He died to save us from sin and from judgment, what can we say but echo the words written long ago by a young lady as her answer to the love of God―
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee
Oh, Lamb of God, I COME.
Better Than Lighting His Pipe
A man named E. J. Kennedy, years ago, was handed a tract by a man named George Arrowsmith. The tract was entitled “Tonight or Never.” Kennedy took it with a laugh, saying, “Oh, well it will do to light my pipe.” Being wakeful that night he rose to get something out of his pockets, and came on the tract; for lack of anything else to do, he read it. The true, tragic story it contained arrested him, and he did not sleep till he had the peace of God in his heart, with the assurance of salvation. The little tract had served a better purpose than lighting Kennedy’s pipe; it had lighted his life―for time and eternity.
The Deserter
On a dark, gloomy day, toward the close of 1877, a pale young man might be seen writing wearily at his desk in a London office. The thick fog had penetrated within, and only by the help of gas light was work possible. However, with its aid, the row of clerks toiled diligently on in dreary silence, until the one next to our friend, suddenly throwing down his pen, drew to his side and whispered, “I say, Joe, chuck us a half-a-crown; I’m hard up for one.”
“A half-a-crown, indeed!” exclaimed Joe. “You know I’ve none to spare; you must go elsewhere for that.”
“Not so fast,” retorted the other, drawing still closer, until he could almost hiss in Joe’s ear, “I know your secret, young man; its worth your while to buy me off, before I hand you over to the police.”
Joe’s pale cheeks became ashen, as he endeavored to reply calmly, “You know nothing of me. What secret have I got?”
“Well, I should just like to know what business one of Her Majesty’s soldiers has in this office!”
“I am not a soldier now,” returned Joe, confusedly; “my regiment was sent on foreign service while I lay ill. It was no fault of mine that I got left behind.”
You’re Nothing But A Deserter!
“No, no, no!―that won’t do: you can’t deceive me. You’re nothing but a DESERTER, ―a craven, cowardly deserter,” answered the other tauntingly; “and I’ll take good care to let every one know, if you don’t make it worth my while to keep silence.”
“No more of this; here’s your half-a-crown;” and the now trembling Joe threw the coin to his tormentor, who, with a fiendish laugh, pocketed it, and resumed his pen. Joe took up his too, but the words swam before his eyes, as, with throbbing head and beating heart, he vainly strove to continue his task. The word “deserter” seemed to burn into his very soul, as the humiliating consequences of his dishonorable act pressed upon him. Alas, for poor Joe! He was proving that “the way of trangressors is hard.” At that moment, he would gladly have exchanged his position of comparative ease and quiet with any of his former comrades. The cannon’s mouth, on the battlefield, seemed now less terrible to him than the constant dread of the policeman’s hand on his shoulder, or the taunts and threats of his fellow-clerk. From that time his life was one of utter misery.
Reader! You Also!
And now, my reader, before I tell you anything more of Joe’s history, let me say a few words to. yourself, and explain my motive for recounting his story. It is because I fear you too are a deserter, and of a worse kind than Joe, and that your experience may be much as his.
“A deserter!” you exclaim; “indeed I am not―I am not even a soldier.”
Not so quickly, my friend, let me explain my meaning, and prove to you that your case is worse than Joe’s; he had only left the forces of an earthly sovereign, while you have deserted the ranks of the King of kings, who made you for Himself, and enrolled you in His service. Like the prodigal son, you have used the good gifts of your Creator to take you away from Him, and now, in the far country, my hope is to bring you to yourself, to awaken you to the bitter consequences of your terrible position as a lost sinner before God.
If Joe’s life had become full of forebodings, and of well-grounded fears, as he dreaded the policeman’s clutch at every turn, is not yours infinitely more so―a very hell upon earth (if you allow yourself to think of it), while the judgment of God is hanging over your head, and may fall upon you at any moment?
Life Grows Worse.
Let us take another glimpse at Joe as he walks through the London streets rather more than nine years later. His figure is slightly bent, ―not with age, for he is still a young man, but with the heavy burden of a sin whose consequences he daily reaps, and which has made him prematurely old. A few silvery threads may be already seen amid his dark hair; the pale face has become paler; the brow is more contracted, and the whole bearing is that of a man whose life is one of anxious care and dread.
He enters a post office, and while waiting until one of the busy officials is at liberty to attend to him, stands leaning wearily against the wall, gazing vacantly before him.
A Sudden Change
What is it that suddenly catches his eye, and transforms his whole appearance? His head is drawn up, his eyes flash, and then he reels forward, and catches hold of the counter for support. What can be the cause? It is but a large placard on the wall which arrests his gaze, that the many others present have looked at idly or not looked at at all. Why does it affect Joe so keenly? Let us study it. The first words, in large letters, are―
BY THE QUEEN.
A Proclamation
For extending Pardons to Soldiers who may
have deserted from our Land Forces.
Ah! we do not wonder now why the sight of such an announcement should alter Joe’s whole bearing, nor why, when he could sufficiently rally from its first effects, he should draw nearer to it, and, with eyes nearly darting out of his head, should devour its contents.
Has there yet, dear friend, come the moment in your life when God’s offer of forgiveness has thus affected you―when you have no longer cast listless glances at His Word of Grace, as the idle passer-by, whom it concerned not? Has it become of vital importance to you, as to Joe at this moment, to grasp what has been written about the pardon extended to the deserter?
Joe’s heart beats so loudly that he can almost hear it, as he reads that the queen, to mark the completion of the fiftieth year of her reign, extends her most gracious pardon to all her soldiers who may have deserted before the issue of this royal proclamation, and who should report themselves within two months. That in so doing, they should be released, and discharged from all prosecutions, imprisonments, and penalties. That all men who had been in a state of desertion for a period exceeding five years would not be called to rejoin for service, but would be granted protecting certificates on their so reporting themselves.
A list of addresses of commanding officers, to whom deserters were to write, followed, and the proclamation concluded with the words,―
And we do hereby make further declaration
that every offender herein referred to who shall not avail himself of the pardon we now
graciously offer shall be held amenable to all pains and penalties provided under the Army Act, &c. Given at our court at Windser, the 17th day of June, 1887, in the fiftieth year of our reign.
With a hand that shook so that he could hardly guide the pencil, Joe made a barely legible entry in his memorandum-book of the address of the officer to whom he should report himself; and then, slouching his hat down over his eyes, he left the post office without the stamps he had come to procure.
Can It Be True?
“It is all very well,” soliloquized he, as he wended his way back to his lodgings, “but it’s far too good news to be true. No doubt it applies to less aggravated cases; Her Majesty’s pardon would never be extended to a wretch like me, who deserted in a moment of dire necessity. No, no! having escaped all these years, I won’t put my head into the lion’s mouth; I know better! But I need not trouble myself about it at present, at any rate, for there are yet seven weeks before me, and it’s best never to do anything in a hurry. I won’t worry myself about it now.”
Delays Are Dangerous
Thus Joe reasoned; and so he passed six miserable weeks of delay.
Are you likewise, my reader, putting off seeking the forgiveness of your sins, thinking there is yet time enough before you? Or is the enemy of souls whispering to you that God’s mercy cannot be for such as you?
And thus your life is passing in uncertainty and fear, when a full, free, and present salvation might be yours.
As Joe tossed restlessly, night after night, on his bed, he vainly tried to put from him the tempting offer of a free pardon. The thought would come back again and again, and he knew that precious time was slipping away, and that now very soon it would be too late.
“But it’s no use; I can’t believe that it’s true,” murmured he, sadly. “What if it ended in my ruin?”
At last came a night on which affairs reached their climax; it was the very worst Joe had spent―not a wink of sleep refreshed his fevered brain. Toward morning he started up, saying, “I must do something, if it’s only to satisfy myself that it’s all a hoax.”
He Writes A Good Letter
He took out an envelope, and having carefully directed it according to the address which he had taken down at the post office, he proceeded to write the commanding officer an elaborate explanation as to his regiment having been ordered abroad while he was ill. That he had known nothing of it until too late to rejoin, and so on, proving that not a shadow of blame attached to him for his apparent desertion, though he now applied for the queen’s protecting certificate.
This letter was written and re-written, until Joe thought it so perfect that it could not fail to bring the desired pardon.
Having posted it, he walked to his office with a mind more at ease than it had been for many years.
Joe awaited the reply with feverish impatience, and when it came at length, he opened it with a beating heart, eagerly read its contents, and then his head sank between his hands on the table in despair.
For Deserters
Only a few curt lines told him that the commanding officer had nothing to do with his case; his business was solely with deserters.
May not many of our readers be making a similar mistake to poor Joe’s, in approaching God with excuses for self, instead of making a clean breast of it? As I write, the words of a dying young woman come to my mind, who, on being spoken to of the One who laid down His life for sinners, replied “I never thought I was a sinner!” Alas, the Savior has no more business with such than the commanding officer had with Joe. There must be a full confession of sin if there is to be a full pardon. Can you not, dear friend, sufficiently trust the grace of Him who died for you, as to own your utter failure, while seeking His forgiveness?
Hour after hour passed away, and Joe still sat with bowed head fighting a desperate conflict with unbelief. On the one hand, he saw the risk of frankly reporting his own desertion, and on the other, the consequences that might yet follow discovery if he decided upon not doing so; whatever his decision, there seemed, to his doubting heart, nothing but danger ahead.
He Risks All on Her Majesty’s Word
At length, springing up, he exclaimed, “I’ll do it! The die is cast! I’ll trust Her Majesty’s proclamation; and if she won’t pardon me, it’s all up.”
The first pale beams of the morning light were piercing through the dust-stained windows of Joe’s room, and he again took up his writing materials. This time, his letter was short, and to the point, ―a simple confession of his desertion from Her Majesty’s forces ten years previously, on his regiment being ordered abroad. Without venturing to read over what he had written, he closed the envelope, hurriedly seized his hat, and rushing out into the street, dropped his missive into the first letter box; then, returning to his room, he threw himself on his bed, and slept soundly and peacefully for some hours, as he had not done for six weeks, and, to his dismay, awoke to find he would be late at his office.
The hours dragged their weary length along, while Joe, sick at heart, waited a second time for a reply to his letter. When, at length, one bearing the mark, “On Her Majesty’s Service,” was placed in his hand, he felt almost faint. A cold perspiration broke out on his forehead, and he sank into a chair before he dare venture to tear open the envelope, which would decide his fate.
Pardoned ! ! !
“Of course, my application is refused, and I am a ruined man! What a fool I was to betray myself,” he muttered, as with trembling hands he opened the letter. He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw a certificate for a full pardon, drawn out in Her Majesty’s name, and signed by the officer in command. Yes, he was pardoned! And how much that signified to the deserter none could understand who did not know how the consequences of that sin of his had marred all the happiness of his youth, and had filled his life with corroding care.
Joe placed the precious document in his bosom, and, with a light step, head erect, and a beaming expression on his face, which already made him look ten years younger, proceeded to his office.
“Joe’s had some stroke of good luck, and no mistake,” thought his tormentor, who, during those long years, had made a rich harvest for himself by preying on the fears of the poor deserter. “Now’s my time!” and drawing nearer to him, as he had so often done, he whispered, “Come, Joe, another half-a-crown; I’ve not had one lately, and you know it’s worth your while to go on buying my silence.”
No More Half-Crowns
“No more half-a-crowns you’ll get from me,” retorted Joe firmly, “you’ve had your last, my man.”
“There are two sides to that!” returned the other, menacingly. “I’ll give you up to the police like a shot if you refuse me.”
Joe’s only reply was, to draw out triumphantly Her Majesty’s certificate, and to place it open on the desk.
“Oh! ah! what is this?” exclaimed the baffled persecutor ruefully. “Why, you’re pardoned, Joe!”
“Yes,” replied Joe, his eyes flashing brightly, “I have Queen Victoria’s own gracious word for it that I am pardoned, and never again can the crime of desertion be laid at my door. You are free to blazon the sorrowful past to the whole world, ―it cannot hurt me now, and will only add to the praise of the clemency of her who has forgiven me.”
Yes! Joe was pardoned by the free grace of another. The dreaded terrors of the law could not touch him more. How is it to be with you, my reader? Will you avail yourself of the infinitely more gracious offer of forgiveness which is so freely made to you? Once given, that pardon is for all eternity; how priceless its worth! “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” ―on the spot, and forever.
Let me solemnly press on you once more the important lesson that I am most anxious you should draw from this story.
For Sinners Only
Mark that, by the terms of Her Majesty’s proclamation, only those who reported themselves as deserters were eligible for protecting certificates; and in the more important question of eternal pardon, only those who own themselves sinners can put in a claim for divine forgiveness.
Are You Pardoned?
Are you ready to humble yourself to do this? Have you so far come to yourself as to say, with the prodigal, “Father, I have sinned”? Remember, the terrible alternative is, to suffer the full penalty of God’s wrath, even as the offender who would not avail himself of the queen’s proclamation would be amenable to all the pains and penalties from which it was meant to free him.
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
HOW―?????
"Been to School?"
“The forgiveness of sins.”
In the course of one of my “talks” at the drawing-room meetings at Lady Castlestuart’s house, I quoted Eph. 1:7.
“In Whom we HAVE redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
At the close she came up to me with tears glistening in her eyes, and, taking me by the hand, led me away to a quiet corner―and this was her story as nearly as I can remember it, word for word.
“More than 60 years ago.”
“I could scarcely keep back the tears of joy when you repeated that precious verse just now―Eph. 1:7. It was through that text I found peace with God―more than sixty years ago.
The Aunt’s “Delusion.”
“An aunt of ours went to Dublin, and while there she attended some evangelistic meetings; was converted, and came back full of radiant joy, and startled us all by saying she was saved, and knew it; and had the forgiveness of her sins―and knew it!
“Shortly afterward she had a rather serious illness, and we thought what an awful thing it would be if she died under a religious delusion. We asked her if she would like to see our Rector, but she said, ‘No; poor, dear man, I am afraid he cannot help me, and I am too weak to speak much to him.’
“Then we suggested that we might send for Dean Bagot―a great evangelical leader in those days―who knew our family well. ‘Ah,’ she said ‘I should very much like to see him; but he is so busy, and his time is so valuable, it hardly seems fair to ask him to come so far to see me.’
“However, we sent off an urgent appeal to the Dean, and he wrote at once promising to come. When he arrived it was rather late, so it was decided he should see my aunt after breakfast the next day.
Dean and Niece.
“At breakfast, I thought it was a good opportunity to explain quietly to the Dear the delusion our aunt was under. As I was telling him he went on steadily with his breakfast only grunting a ‘Humph’ now and then. When I had finished, he muttered, without looking up, ‘Been to school?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied, wonderingly. ‘Learned grammar?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Know how to parse?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Got a Bible?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Bring it.’
Bible and Grammar.
“When I had brought it, he said―his head down over his breakfast all the while― ‘Read Ephesians 1:7.’ I read:―
“In Whom we HAVE redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
“‘Parse HAVE,’ said the Dean. ‘Verb Have, indicative mood, present tense. What does HAVE indicative mood, present tense, mean?’
“‘HAVE GOT―possess.’ The Dean waited a few moments, and just grunted another ‘Humph.’ He went steadily on with his breakfast, and I sat looking at that one word ‘HAVE.’
“I HAVE GOT―”
“In a few minutes I got up, hurried to my room, knelt at my bedside, and accepted there and then through simple trust in Christ as my personal Savior and God’s Own Word, ‘the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.’
“I went back to the breakfast room, and, going up to the Dean, I said, ‘I HAVE GOT the forgiveness of sins.’ ‘Humph,’ he said. ‘I think you had better go and tell your aunt so. It will give her more comfort, I expect, than anything I could say to her.’”
The Transport of Forgiveness
I wish you could have heard the Countess tell the story in her own words, in tones hushed, yet vibrant with deep emotion. “More than sixty years ago” it was, and yet, believe me, there came into that pale, augustan face a flush of girlish radiance as she renewed her transport in realized “forgiveness of sins.”
Will you―NOW?
Oh, anxious, hesitating soul, will you just now do what she did in her soul’s felt need? Read that verse, Eph. 1: 7.
“In whom we HAVE redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,”
looking steadily, intently on it, and come to the point just at this moment and accept HERE and NOW God’s assurance to your soul, and then gladly, bravely tell others the wonderful good news, “I HAVE GOT the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.” Remember nothing will help to confirm the assurance in your own soul more than telling others―your family, your friends―those who have been preaching to you or praying for you.
Which Would You Rather Meet: Cannibals or Christians?
Some sailors were cast upon the shores of an island far away in the Pacific Ocean. They feared that they might have landed among cannibal heathen, and were full of anxious apprehension. One of their number climbed up a tall tree in order to get a wider view of the island. Down he came with a smiling face, saying, “We are all right, mates, I caught sight of a mission station.” And, sure enough, the kindhearted Christian missionaries befriended the shipwrecked sailors.
If the infidel wishes to get into a land where there are no churches, he is still able to manage this, but we observe that such do not translate their desires into action.
Does the Bible Bear Good Fruit?
The Bible is vindicated by its own proverb. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt, 7:20). It states an incontrovertible axiom, “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit” (verse 17).
Does the Bible bear good fruit? Was Dr. Barnardo, who founded the Barnardo Homes in Stepney, a Christian or an infidel? Was Spurgeon, who founded Spurgeon’s Orphanages in Stockwell, a Christian or an infidel? Was George Muller, who founded Muller’s Homes in Bristol, a Christian or an infidel? Was Quarrier, who founded the Quarrier’s Homes in Scotland, a Christian or an infidel? They were ALL Christians, not one was an infidel.
Do You HOPE or KNOW That You HAVE Eternal Life?
The question, dear reader, is one of the deepest importance, and your answer will evidence either that you are, if hoping, still in uncertainty as to the salvation of your precious soul, and consequently without peace with God; or if knowing, in the conscious enjoyment of God’s grace toward you through the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you believe.
Most People “Hope”
Most of those to whom I put my query decidedly answer, “I hope,” very frequently adding, “it is impossible to know.” If you agree with such a reply, allow me to show you from Scripture that it is not only possible, but actually contemplated by God, that whoever believes in His Son should not only have eternal life, but know that it is possessed even now. To effect my object I cannot do better than relate how one who, like you, “hoped” was led to “know.”
Afraid I Would Speak to Her Mother
I was preaching the Gospel in the south of Ireland, having but one evening to devote to that particular place. In the afternoon a young believer informed me that her mother had promised to come to the Gospel meeting at night. She was an elderly person, by no means opposed to the things of God, but had never given evidence of having simply received the truth of the Gospel in its peace-giving power. Anxious as the daughter was for her mother’s blessing, she was, nevertheless, importunate that I should not speak personally to her for fear of her being offended, and laid rather a strict embargo on my lips, should I happen to come in contact with the old lady.
At the close of the evening Gospel meeting as I was standing near the door, I saw Mrs. H―(whom I recognized from the afternoon’s conversation) passing slowly out. Offering her a little tract, and at the same time expressing a wish that she might receive no harm on her way home from the rain, which was falling in torrents, she replied that she did not think she would, and further, that she was glad she had come, for she had much enjoyed the meeting.
“Be It Known”
As I had been speaking on the text, “Be it known, therefore, unto you that the SALVATION OF GOD is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it” (Acts 28:28), I added, “I trust you now know the salvation of God, and have eternal life.”
“I hope so,” was her reply, showing no desire to pass me.
“But why should you only ‘hope,’ my friend, when God wishes you to ‘know’ that if believing in His Son, you have eternal life?”
“Well, sir, I believe in the Son of God, and all I can say is I ‘hope,’ and I don’t think any one can ‘know’ as long as they are in this world.”
“If you will permit me,” I answered, “I will show you just one little verse in the Word of God which will settle that matter definitely.”
“You need not trouble yourself,” said she; “I know the Word of God well. Ever since I was a child I have studied it, and I don’t believe there is a verse you can show me that I don’t know.”
“Just one, Mrs. H―.”
“Well, where is it?” said she.
Taking her large print Bible from her hands, I found and read to her, “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 5:13). I read it a second time, and then said, “Do you believe in the name of the Son of God?”
“I do,” was the emphatic reply.
“You really do own that you are a lost sinner needing salvation, and that nothing but the blood-shedding of the Son of God could avail to put away your sins?”
“I do.”
“You repudiate all thought of salvation by your own works, confess that you are an undone, guilty, lost sinner, and now simply believe in the name of the Son of God?”
“I do”, was again the short and sincere answer I got.
“Well, then, granting all that, have you eternal life?”
“I hope so.”
“Oh,” was my reply, “I see it now; in the days when you went to school, which is, of course, a great while ago, they used to spell differently then from now.”
“How so, sir?”
“Why K-N-O-W used to spell HOPE in those days.”
“Not at all, sir.”
“What did they spell?”
“Why, of course, they spelled KNOW, the same then as now.”
“There is a mistake somewhere,” I replied, “there must be, for you say you believe on the name of the Son of God, and He says ‘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,’ and you stand there and tell me that you only hope you have it.”
Let Me See for Myself
“Let me see that verse myself,” said the old lady, suiting her actions to her words by diving her hand into her pocket, and taking out and adjusting her spectacles. Once and again she read slowly to herself, and then most emphatically out loud, “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.”
The Spirit of God blessed her perusal of the sacred message, and filled her heart with peace as she believed it. “Hope” died on the spot, and faith and amazement mingled had full possession of her soul. Looking up she now added, “Well, is it not strange? for, often as I have read the Epistle of John, I never saw that verse yet.
“Of course, I must have read it, for I am very fond of the Apostle John’s writings, but I never saw it in the light I do now. I am very glad you spoke to me, sir and showed me that verse. Dear me, how dark I have been, and there it was all the time, and so plain, too, I wonder I never saw it before!”
“Well, thank God you see it now, and you believe it simply as it stands, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes, there’s no room left for ‘hoping’ or doubting now; I’m sure now, and I have to thank you for drawing my attention to the Lord’s Word.”
We had a little more conversation, and then seeing that she was now resting simply on the Lord and His blessed written Word, I bade her good night, closing our short and only possible earthly interview with this question, “And now, Mrs. H―, if a friend meets you on your way home and asks ‘Have you eternal life?’ what shall you say?” With a face now beaming with joy in the assurance of God’s salvation, she replied, “I should tell them that I KNOW I HAVE IT because I believe in Jesus, and God has said, ‘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.’ Good night, and good bye, sir.”
To her it was truly a good night, and to me truly good bye, for not many weeks after the dear old lady passed away to be forever with the Lord, in the sweet enjoyment of the present possession of eternal life.
And now, my dear reader, I trust you will be as simple as was the one of whom I have written. If you know that you are a ruined, lost sinner (and you must know it if you accept the testimony of the Word of God), just look away from yourself simply to Jesus. You will never get peace by looking to yourself, or trying to realize or feel assurance. This only is obtained by simply receiving God’s testimony to you. You must receive His witness to you before there can be any witness in you. Nothing can be simpler. I must be in a relationship In order to enjoy its proper affections, or fulfill its duties. I, must know that I am a son of God before I can feel like one; so must you. I must know (and I do know) from God’s Word, that I “have eternal life” before I can (and I do) feel that I have it; so must you.
“THAT YE MAY KNOW”
“THAT YE MAY KNOW”
“THAT YE MAY KNOW”
The Queen's Question: Can We Be Sure?
Is there any way of making sure that we shall spend eternity in heaven, welcomed into the fellowship of God and not in “the second death” of eternal separation from Him? Many suppose that this question, the greatest that can confront one, must necessarily wait for its answer until the present life is over. But is it so? Must the question of eternal blessedness or misery, of heaven or hell, remain a torturing uncertainty until it is too late to make any change?
A beautiful incident in the experience of Queen Victoria is worth remembering. It is unquestionably authentic. The Queen had attended a service in St. Paul’s Cathedral and had listened to a sermon that interested her greatly; then she asked her chaplain, “Can one be absolutely sure in this life of eternal safety?” His answer was that he “knew of no way that one could be absolutely sure.”
This was published in the Court News and fell under the eye of a humble minister of the Gospel, John Townsend, an intimate friend of George Muller, whose life of faith led to the founding of his well-known orphanages. This John Townsend was the father of “Sister Abigail,” another Christian of extraordinary faith and service.
After reading Queen Victoria’s question and the answer she received, John Townsend thought and prayed much about the matter, then sent the following note to the Queen:
“To her gracious Majesty, our beloved Queen Victoria, from one of her most humble subjects: With trembling bands, but heart-filled love, and because I know that we can be absolutely sure even now of our eternal life in the Home that Jesus went to prepare, may I ask your Most Gracious Majesty to read the following passages of Scripture: John 3:16; Rom. 10:9-10?
These passages prove there is full assurance of salvation by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ for those who believe and accept His finished work.
I sign myself, your servant for Jesus’ sake,”
John Townsend.
John Townsend was not alone in praying about his letter to the Queen. He took others into his confidence, and much prayer from many hearts went up to God. In about a fortnight he received a modest-looking envelope containing the following letter:
To John Townsend:
“Your letter of recent date received and in reply would state that I have carefully and prayerfully read the portions of Scripture referred to. I believe in the finished work of Christ for me, and trust by God’s grace to meet you in that Home of which He said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’”
(Signed) Victoria Guelph.
Whether one is an earthly monarch or an inconspicuous unknown person, the way of salvation and of eternal life is the same. The Scripture passages John Townsend commended to the reading of the gracious Queen were these two: “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.
“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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Rom. 10:9-10.
These passages, and many others, in the Word of God, pledge us His Word that one who, by simple faith, receives His Son as Savior has eternal life now and here. The apostle John tells us that his Gospel was written “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” John 20:31.
Of such believers the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man 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.” John 10:28-29.
Salvation by faith in Christ is repeatedly declared in the Scriptures to be the present possession, not merely future, of those who believe. Thus the Lord said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24.
The ringing note of certainty is the dominant note of the New Testament. And this certainty of Christian faith reckons not at all on the character or the record of the good works of the one who is trusting the Son of God as Savior; it reckons utterly and absolutely on the faithfulness of God and His unbreakable Word. Here is the infallible Word that answers the question of Queen Victoria and of all others who would know:
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified 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. 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: 9, 11, 12, 13.
Jesus
Exactly
Suits
Us
Sinners
Forsaking
All
I
Take
Him
Faith or Feeling: Which?
“If I could only feel saved,” an officer said to me, when I pressed on him that enough had been done on the cross to save his soul.
“But,” I said, “you have not got to feel saved, but believe. You may be saved without feeling. I believed in Christ for about a fortnight before I knew that I was saved. I might have known it at once, only I was waiting to feel saved. At last I said, ‘Well, if I don’t feel saved until I find myself in heaven, still I’ll rest solely on the Word of God. God hath said in that Word, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I know that now I do believe in Christ; I used to trust in my prayers, or something that I could do myself; but I don’t trust in anything now except Christ, and His work on the cross, for my salvation; therefore I have everlasting life. God says I have.’ Then Satan whispered, ‘Do you feel you have everlasting life?’ I could not say I felt it ‘Then you cannot have it,’ whispered that arch-liar! I remembered, It is written ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ I knew that I really believed in Christ; therefore I had everlasting life, whether I felt it or not. God said I had, and I surely must be right in believing Him, despite every feeling. I think then the devil left me for a time; but I found I was safe, not because I felt it, but because of God’s Word, which is unchangeable. I did not (as it so happened) feel joy or peace until long afterward.”
“I declare, I believe you are right,” said the young man, who had been listening with the greatest attention; “I have all along been thinking that I had to bring good feelings to God before I could be saved.”
Reader, the devil has been misleading souls for nearly six thousand years; so he is an experienced foe, and not to be overcome, except by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Take care that he is not misleading you―tempting you to “trust in feeling, instead of Christ,” or “wait to feel.” when you should “believe and be saved,” Feelings are changeable things at the best―like the quicksilver in the barometer, sometimes up sometimes down. Mark how that officer was kept from salvation by waiting for “feelings;” Satan tempting him to bring them to God, instead of simply relying on the blood of Jesus, in the condition in which he then was.
What are you doing, dear reader? Are you one who believes in Jesus, yet cannot feel saved? If you are really trusting in Jesus, there is ground for your enjoying perfect peace of mind at all times, since God hath, “raised Him from the dead, that your faith and hope might be in God” (not your feelings), and that, “being justified by faith” (not feelings), you should “have peace with God.” Let me ask you, then, when “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,” has been given and accepted by God, as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sins, is it not just of Him to justify you, a believer in Jesus, and does He not also delight in doing so? You say “I am sure He does; because I know He Himself has given the blood to make an atonement for the soul, and ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin’; but I don’t feel that I am justified; therefore sometimes I think I cannot be.” But God says, “All who believe are justified from all things.” And it is a suggestion from the devil that, because you do not feel justified upon believing, the before you cannot be justified.
Dear friend, Satan deceived me for a long time in this way, so I thank God for allowing me to expose his snares to others. I have rested now for upwards of four years simply on the blood of Christ as the atonement for my sins, and the Word of God, instead of my feelings as the ground of my security. Where is there sounder ground? Is it to be found in the state of my feelings? No! The more Satan would tempt me to look at my feelings as the ground of my security, the more I see him the peace disturber of my soul. If you simply believe in Jesus as your Savior, and His blood as having made a complete atonement for all your sins, you are warranted in knowing that you are through faith, justified by Him from all things, whether you feel it or not, just because God hath said you are. Hear His Word, and be at peace with God; for “by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39).
Why Was the Gospel of John Written?
“Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but 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.” (John 20:30, 31).
Roy
Roy was five years old, only a little boy, and such thin, pinched little cheeks, and black eyes,―eyes that always seemed to be dancing with mischief. His mother was dead, and his father had got tired of him, and had gone to Mexico, and just left him behind, to get on the best he could. He soon took sick, and was sent to a Hospital for sick children―that was where I first met the little boy.
He was a little mischief, too; I can still remember the other children crying.
“Oh! here comes Roy; look out for your toys;” and the nurses, “Roy is more trouble than any other six boys put together,” and the teacher, “Roy is so naughty in school that none of the other children can learn anything when he is there;” and the doctor, “Roy is a perfect little nuisance.” And so it came about that poor little Roy spent a good deal of his time locked in a room by himself, so as to be kept out of mischief. You will say, “What a bad boy!” but then, you see, he had no mother, or anyone to love or really care for him, like you have had; and besides, God sees your heart just as bad as naughty little Roy’s heart and He says there is “no difference,” and God knows.
One Sunday morning, when little Roy was shut out of Sunday school because he was too bad to be allowed in, I happened to find him, sad and lonely, and said.
“Roy, you and Marguerite and I will have Sunday School by ourselves.” (You would have loved Marguerite. She loved the Lord Jesus, and was one of His little lambs, but was too ill to be allowed in to the regular Sunday school). This pleased Roy very much, and soon we were all sitting in a row on a bed, and Marguerite was repeating a verse. When she had finished Roy said.
“Roy can say a verse too.” I hardly could believe this, as he spent all his time usually teasing the other children when he was in Sunday school, or else he was locked up in a room, but I thought I would give him a chance, and he said proudly.
“JESUS LOVES ME.”
I had not the heart to tell him these words were not in the Bible, so asked him what it meant. This was a new thought to Roy, that it meant anything, so after thinking a long time, he looked up and said.
“It just means, Jesus likes Roy.”
Yes, that was just what it did mean, and it was a wonderful, new thought for naughty little Roy to find out that there was anyone who “liked” him. Even as he said it, a queer little smile came over his face as much as to say, “That sounds too good to be true.”
Perhaps you will say to yourself, “I am sure that Jesus wouldn’t like a bad little boy like Roy, He likes good boys and girls.” Ah! that is just where you make a mistake, for it was for bad boys and girls and bad men and women, that Jesus came. He says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” and so little Roy was one of the very ones that Jesus came for. He was bad and he knew it.
The more Roy thought about this the better it seemed, and he said “If Jesus likes Roy, then Roy likes Jesus.” This is what he thought, “The other children don’t like me, the teachers don’t like me, the nurses don’t like me, nor the doctor; my own father doesn’t like me, and yet Jesus likes Roy. Roy does like Jesus, Roy will just do all he can to please Jesus.”
It was not very long after this that the nurse said one day, “Roy has been a very much better boy lately, so if you don’t mind, he may go in to Sunday School again.” Well, you may be sure I didn’t mind that, and it was a real pleasure to have him there listening so quietly, and drinking in all he could about the only One in all the world who “liked” him.
A few months after this the children were saying their verses, and also giving the chapter and verse in the Bible where they could be found, when suddenly a little voice asked, “Where is Roy’s verse?”
I knew well what the child meant, but to see if he remembered the words, asked, “What is Roy’s verse?”
“Oh! don’t you remember, you know Roy’s verse. Jesus likes Roy.”
I hardly knew what to say, for you know there is no verse in the Bible with those words in it, and yet I could not bear to think of letting the little boy think it was not true, so I said, “Roy, your verse is in Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20.” I thought Roy would be satisfied with this, but no. The next question was. “Let Roy see.” Well, I thought, he can’t read, so I will just show him the place in the Bible. So I found the place and gave him the Bible in his own hands, and went on talking to the other children, rather glad that at last Roy was satisfied. I had forgotten all about the little child, when suddenly I was interrupted with the question.
“Where’s the R? Where’s the R?”
“What R?” I asked.
“The R. Where’s the R? The R for Roy? Where’s the R?” I suddenly realized what the child meant. Someone had taught him the letter R., and told him that stood for Roy, and he had been hunting for the R for Roy in Galatians 2:20. I felt stuck. What could I tell the child? At last I said.
“Roy, it doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible, ‘Jesus likes Roy,’ but in Galatians 2:20, it does say, ‘The Son of God,’ and that means Jesus, ‘loved me,’ and that means “likes Roy.” Suppose it did say, ‘Jesus likes Roy,’ you would never know for sure it meant you, for there are other boys called Roy, who are much better boys than you, and you would be sure to think, ‘Oh! that doesn’t mean me, it must mean someone else.’ But when it says, ‘The Son of God loved me’ then it can’t mean anyone else, but just your own self.” Roy listened so hard, and at last said, “Oh! I see. Yes, that’s much better, it must mean me,” and then little Roy learned his verse over again, with a little more on the end, and he never wearied of hearing and telling that,
“THE SON OF GOD... LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.”
To Roy this was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard, and it changed his whole life, even at five years of age.
Many a time since then has “Roy’s verse” brought comfort to my own heart, when perhaps I was tempted to ask; “Carest Thou not?” and the thought, “Jesus likes me,” has come so sweetly.
Now, dear Reader, have you ever found out yet that
JESUS LIKES YOU?
We get accustomed to the sweet old hymn, “Jesus loves me”, and we all admit that; but did you ever think, the Lord JESUS likes you, just as you are? Doesn’t it make you think to yourself, “I like Jesus?” Yes,
“WE LOVE HIM, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.”
May we each one, old and young, learn to know more of the sweetness of Roy’s precious new verse, “The Son of God... loved me, and gave Himself for me,” and like him, may our whole life be changed by it.
The Grace of God to a Roman Catholic Priest
As I walked on the platform of the railway station at Shipley, I noticed a priest with a very swollen face. I felt greatly interested in him, and felt assured I had to speak a word from God to his soul. We waited a considerable time, passed and repassed each other; and yet I had not courage to speak to him.
At length the train arrived from Bradford. He stepped into one carriage, and I into another. Thus we traveled, until the train reached Leeds.
Again there was delay. We passed and repassed; but not a word did I speak. A fellow-priest was waiting for him. I took my seat. He now walked from end to end of the train, not a seat could he find but the one next to me. He stepped into the carriage, and sat down by my side, his companion remaining on the step outside.
I learned from their conversation that my fellow-traveler was going to Sheffield, to undergo an operation of no ordinary character. I still felt a lack of courage to speak. We traveled in silence until we reached the station for Barnsley. Here all the passengers in our compartment left us. We were alone.
A Serious Operation
I then inquired if the large swelling on the cheek arose from anything wrong with the teeth. He explained very fully to me the nature of the case. It was a formation of bone on the cheekbone. He had had the best possible advice, and was told he could not live more than two years, unless he submitted to the painful operation of having the bone removed; and that he was going to Sheffield to undergo the operation the very next day.
He then described to me how the difficult operation would have to be performed. I said, “And if you do well, how long do you expect to be confined to bed?” “Well,” said he, “I shall not be allowed to speak for seven or ten days, and shall no doubt have to lie in bed as many weeks. The thought of it feels very strange, for, with the exception of restless nights, I am, as you see, quite well and strong.”
If You Die ... .. What Then?
I then said, “And if you die under the operation, what then?” He looked surprised, and said, “My dear sir, I have been so occupied with the operation, I really have not given that one serious thought.” I saw God was awakening his soul to the awful thought of a never-ending eternity. I said, “I will give you one text of Scripture that was made a great blessing to a friend of mine in Sheffield, who was bed-ridden for months; and I feel sure, whether you die under the operation, or lie in bed some months, this scripture will be made a comfort to you.” This is it, quoting from the Roman Catholic translation:
Christ’s Guarantee
“Amen, amen, I say unto you, that he who heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath life everlasting; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). “Is not that very clear and wonderful? ‘Hath life everlasting;’ ‘cometh not into judgment; is, passed from death unto life?’
At the first moment, this seemed too good to be true. He said, “Yes, if we hear Christ, and if we keep His commandments, and serve Him faithfully we shall then have life everlasting.” “No, no,” I said, “that is adding a great deal to the words of Christ. All that will come after as fruit; but, on the Amen of Christ, if we hear His words, and believe God that sent Him, we have at this moment life everlasting.”
“Yes,” he said. “I see it.”
Judgment Passed
“And now, as to judgment, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, so we are assured, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and so, when He comes the second time, it is not for judgment on sin, but for salvation to them that look for Him.
“And notice the infinite value of that one sacrifice of Himself once, in contrast with the many offerings under the law, which could never take away sins. This blessed Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘having offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sitteth on the right hand of God. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.’ And God the Holy Ghost testifies, ‘And their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.’ (See Heb. 9., 10.) Oh, yes; amen, amen, it is most certain, if we hear the words of Jesus, and believe God that sent Him, life everlasting we have, and into judgment for our sins we shall never come. How can we, when God says He will remember them no more?”
Wonderful Joy
Oh, if you had seen that face light up with joy! God opened his heart to receive the testimony of Christ. In a few minutes we must part, yet knit together for eternity. Had I known him for fifty years, I could not have felt more intense affection for him. Nay, it was the love of God shed abroad in our hearts
No Fear
I said, “Now tell me, if you die under the operation, are you afraid?” I was both surprised and delighted to hear his reply: “Whether the Lord shall come first, and I go to meet Him, or I die, I am ready to go and be with Him!” I had not spoken one a word on the coming of Christ, save the reference to Heb. 9:28.
The train was drawing up at Masbro’: we shook hands, with the deep, real joy of those who have passed from death unto life. “Good-by!” “Good-by! The Lord be with you in the painful operation! Adieu!” I saw him no more. The operation was too painful to describe. A few Christians had prayed for him, the same evening, at Rother-ham. His suffering was very great; and in a week or eight days from the day I met him he fell asleep. He was absent from the body, present with the Lord. I did not even know his name, but I shall meet him in that supreme moment when we awake in the likeness of our risen Lord.
Can You??
Can you say, reader, that you have life everlasting? Have you been brought to receive the words of Christ? Do you believe God who sent Him, His own eternal Son, to bear our sins in His own body on the tree? Has He not died, the one all-sufficient, because infinite, sacrifice for sin? Oh! have you peace with God by the blood of Jesus? The moment we believe God, all is true to us. Life everlasting we have; Jesus says it. Into judgment we shall not come; Jesus says it. We are passed from death unto life; Jesus says it. Do you hear Him? Do not add a word. It is not, if you do this that, then you may hope to have everlasting life. Those who are thus doing works for salvation never lead a holy life; that is, they never walk according to God’s word. It is only those who are born of God, who have eternal life, who have the Holy Ghost dwelling in them, that love God, because He hath first loved them.
Oh, precious words of Jesus! “Amen, amen, I say unto you, that he who heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath life everlasting, and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.”
Never Saw So Happy a Deathbed
One who lives near where the operation took place met Dr. H., who took part in it, and said, “Oh, Dr. H., I have a friend greatly interested in the priest you operated on; he wishes to know about the state of his soul at his departure.” Dr. H.’s reply was, “I never saw so happy a deathbed scene.”
Truly the wind bloweth where it listeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. “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 man pluck them out of My hand. My Father who gave them Me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand,”
The priest with the swollen face was one of Christ’s sheep. The Father had given him to Christ. The Shepherd had died for that sheep, and now the moment came when he must hear His voice. Eternal life was given to him.
Very beautiful it is to see a sheep of Christ in that moment when the ear is opened to hear the voice of Christ. The ear of the thief was opened on the day of his death: the ear of the priest eight days before. Has that voice, that word, ever entered my reader’s soul? This may be the day of your death, or it may be eight days before. It is only a question of time. Hark, He says, “I give, I give unto them eternal life.” “And let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
O Jew or Gentile, Romanist or Protestant, “WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely!” Surpassing grace! Lord, make us more like Thyself! Dear reader, are you still a stranger to Christ? To this day have you been reading the Scriptures as you would read a newspaper? Have you never heard the voice of Christ? Remember the love of Christ to this Catholic priest. The moment he heard the voice of Jesus in the Word, he passed from death unto life; life everlasting he had, and into judgment he shall never come. What joy, what peace, what assurance of salvation, on the authority of Thy precious word, Lord Jesus! Here our souls rest, without the shadow of a doubt.
“The road of By-and-by leads to the town of Never.”
An Effectual Prayer
“No,” said the lawyer, “I shan’t press your claim against that man; you can get some one else to take the case, or you can withdraw it, just as you please.”
“Think there isn’t any money in it?”
“There would probably be a little money in it, but it would come, as you know, from the sale of the little house the man occupies and calls his ‘home.’ And I don’t want to meddle with the matter.”
“Got frightened out of it, eh?”
“Not at all.”
“I reckon the old fellow begged to get off?”
“Well, yes, he did.”
“And you caved in, I suppose?”
“Well, yes.”
“What in creation did you do?”
“I believe I shed a few tears.”
“The old fellow begged hard, you say?” “No, I didn’t say; he didn’t speak to me.” “Well, may I ask, whom did he address?” “His Father in heaven.”
“He took to praying, did he?”
“Yes, but not for my special benefit. You see, it was this way: after finding the little house, I knocked on the outer door which stood ajar, but no one heard me, so I stepped into the little hall, and looked through the crevice of the door in to the sitting-room, and there upon the bed with her silver head high on the pillows, was an old lady who looked just like my mother did when I last saw her on earth. I was going to knock again when she said: ‘Come father, begin. I am ready now.’ So down on his knees went the silver haired man, still older I suppose than his wife; and I couldn’t have knocked then for the life of me. Well, he began; first, he reminded God that they were still His submissive children, mother and him, and no matter what He saw fit to bring upon them, they would not rebel against His will. Of course, it was going to be hard for them to go out homeless in their old age, especially with poor mother so sick and helpless; but still they had seen sadder things than that. But oh, how different might it now be, had even one of their boys been spared to them! Then his voice somewhat broke, and a thin white hand stole from under the coverlet, and moved softly over his snow-white head. Then he went on to repeat that nothing could be so sad again, as the parting with their three sons―unless mother and himself should be separated! But at last he fell to comforting himself with the fact that the gracious Lord knew that it was no fault of their own that mother and him were threatened with the loss of their little home which to them meant beggary and the almshouse―a place they prayed the Lord to deliver them from entering, if consistent with His will. Then he quoted a number of promises concerning the safety of them that put their trust in the Lord. Yes, I should say he begged hard. In fact, it was the most thrilling plea to which I ever listened. And in conclusion he prayed for God’s blessing upon those who were about to demand justice.”
Pausing a moment in silence, the lawyer continued slowly, saying, “And I believe I would rather go to the poor house myself than stain my heart and hands with the blood of such a prosecution as that.”
“Little afraid to defeat that prayer, eh?”
“Bless your soul, man, you could not defeat that prayer. I tell you, he left it all subject to the will of God; yet he did not fail to make known his desires, claiming that we had been commanded to make our requests known unto God. But of all the pleading I ever heard, that was the most impressive. You see, I was taught that kind of thing myself in my childhood and why I was sent there to hear that prayer, I am sure I don’t know―but I hand the case over.”
“I wish you hadn’t told me about the old fellow’s prayer,” said the client, uneasily.
“Why not?” asked the lawyer.
“Well, because I greatly desire the money that little place would bring. But like you, I also, was taught the Bible straight enough when I was a youngster, and I hate to run counter to what you have just related. I wish you hadn’t heard a word about it, and another time I wouldn’t listen to petitions not intended for my ears.”
The lawyer smilingly said, “You are wrong again, my dear fellow; it was intended for my ears, and yours too; and God intended it. I remember hearing my aged mother sing about God moving in a mysterious way.”
“Well, my mother also used to sing the same,” said the client, as he twisted the claim-paper in his fingers. “You can call there in the morning if you like, and tell mother and him the claim has been met.”
“In a mysterious way,” added the lawyer, smiling.
“More Things are Wrought by Prayer
Than This World Dreams of”
Is There a Real Cure for Drunkenness?
Today God is being denied on every hand. We are in the rapids, soon the falls will be reached, and what then? We beseech you, reader, we entreat you by all that you hold dear, to believe the Gospel of the grace of God. It is your only hope. It is still “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom 1:16). The Gospel is the only power that can deliver from the thraldom of sin. Millions have tried it and have found that it works. Many a drunkard, many a debauchee, aye, many a Christless religionist, has found out that this mighty power resides in the Gospel.
A relative of the writer, who is interested in a home for inebriate women, testified that over a long stretch of years it was seen that only one power could really deliver the victim of drink. The pledge was tried, expensive drugs, change of environment, strengthening of will-power and self-respect, and they found that all these things were insufficient, that only one thing sufficed to meet the power of sin, and that was the Gospel of God; only one Person, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary’s cross, could enter the strong man’s house and spoil his goods.
Reader, if unsaved, you need this Gospel badly. You cannot live aright without it. and you cannot die aright without it, and you cannot arrive at heaven without it.
If you are in earnest the following verses of Scripture will suffice to show you how you may be saved, and saved now and know it now.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31. “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.” (Rom. 10:9).
“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 5:13).
Light obeyed increaseth Light;
Light rejected bringeth Night.
Who shall give me power to choose
If the love of Light I lose?
Three Prayers: Which One Suits You?
Some little girls were talking to a friend one day about the Lord Jesus, and how to come to Him, when one of them, a little one about eight years old, said,
“Every night I pray, ‘Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.’”
“Oh! I don’t pray that. I pray, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’” said Grace, who was two or three years older.
Another little one added softly, “I don’t pray either of those prayers.”
“And what do you pray, Katie?” asked their friend.
“I pray, ‘O God! I thank Thee that Thou hast washed me, and made me whiter than snow’.”
That little prayer made their friend’s heart glad, and what was still better, I think it made the Savior’s heart glad, not only to think that a darling child had trusted Jesus and so had her sins washed away in His own precious blood, but because she came to Him and thanked Him for it.
And now, I want to ask just YOU, your very own self, which prayer you could pray best, right now? Which one suits you? Do you still have all those sins, those lies, the times you’ve been cross, those impure thoughts and bad words, and perhaps many grosser sins, (God knows every one) are all those things still written down in God’s book against you? Are they still all on you like a big black load taking you down into hell?
If this is so, may the Lord show you what a terrible, terrible place you are in. Come to Him, just as you are, right now, with those first little prayers, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow,” and I am quite sure God will receive you right now, and be merciful to you and wash you whiter than snow; for He says, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” Then you can truthfully pray Katie’s prayer, “I thank Thee that Thou hast washed me and made me whiter than snow.”
But just a little word to those who have already come to Jesus and have had their sins washed away in His own precious blood. I know that many of my readers can take up dear Katie’s prayer and thank God they are washed and made whiter than snow, but, do you thank Him? or do you so often forget?
Let us begin at once and say with the Apostle Paul, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift.” His Gift to us is Christ.
“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.
“O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is. good: for His mercy endureth forever.” Psalms 136:1.
How Does It Work?
A Christian was talking to an infidel, when the latter exclaimed, “I wish all the churches were swept from the land, beginning with Spurgeon’s Tabernacle.”
“Then which of you infidels would take upon himself the responsibility of Spurgeon’s Orphanage?” replied the Christian.
The silence following was both oppressive and expressive.
The Waiting Friend
“Will you not stay to our after-meeting and yield to Christ?” I said to a young man at the close of a preaching service.
“I cannot,” he replied. “There is a friend waiting for me outside.”
“And there is a Friend waiting for you inside. He has waited for you a good many years. Do you know His Name?” I remarked.
My young friend hung his head; the shot had gone home.
“You would not like to disappoint the friend outside,” I continued; “but you do not mind disappointing the Friend who is waiting inside, and yet He continues to wait. Do you know His Name?” “It is Jesus,” he replied.
“And will you still keep Him waiting?”
Thank God, that night he turned to the Friend who waits to receive and bless poor sinners.
This same wondrous Friend of sinners is waiting, waiting still―waiting for you who are still away from Him. How many of you, my readers, will keep Him waiting longer?
For a moment, while reading this page, you are withdrawn from the world, and the Savior waits so near at hand to receive you.
But outside there is the world which professes lasting friendship, but you know full well its promises are false.
Pleasure, Sin, Satan, all wait outside to please you for a while, and then to cast you off, and leave you comfortless and lonely in the night of your despair.
Will you listen to the voices of the false friends outside, who would keep you outside of heaven, and the blessing of God forever; or, will you now listen to the voice of the “Friend that loveth at all times,” Who “sticketh closer than a brother,” Who, that He might have your friendship, showed Himself to be friendly, and laid down His life that He might be your Savior?
Lord, I Come to Thee
O Lord, I bring to Thee,
This sinful life of mine,
There is no rest for me,
Save in Thy love divine.
WEARY I come to Thee,
For Lord, Thou callest me.
I own to Thee my guilt,
No merit can I plead,
But Lord, Thou canst, Thou wilt
Meet e’en my deepest need.
SINFUL I come to Thee,
Have mercy, Lord on me.
Take Thou this ruined life,
I yield it up to Thee,
And change sin’s bitter strife
For peace and liberty.
HELPLESS I come to Thee,
For Thou hast died for me.
Sinful and weak I fear
To take my way alone,
Savior I look to Thee,
Exalted on the Throne.
I’d draw my strength from Thee,
For Lord, Thou lovest me.
Appropriation; or, Is Christ for Me?
A boy, in whom I was deeply interested, was sorely troubled for many a day with this question: “How am I to know that Christ died for me?” He knew a great deal of truth; he was, intellectually, so clear and well instructed as to be able to detect any false statement in a tract or lecture: he was intimately acquainted with the plan of salvation, and much interested in the subject of religion generally: but he had no personal enjoyment of Christ; he could not see his own interest in Christ. His grand and constant difficulty was embodied in the question, “How am I to know that Christ died for me?”
However, it pleased the Lord at length to make use of a very simple incident to answer this dear child’s absorbing question. He was sitting beside me in my room, conversing about the matter of his salvation. He told me he felt assured that Christ died for sinners, but that he could not see how he was to appropriate Christ to himself.
There was a railroad timetable on the wall, and at the bottom of the time-table appeared the following statement: “Children under six years of age travel free.” I called his attention to these words, and simply said to him, “Now, if you were a child under six years, would you have any difficulty in appropriating or applying that statement to yourself? Would it not rather be a difficulty, ―yea, an impossibility, not to apply it? Before you can refuse the application, you must prove yourself to be over six years of age. To any child under six years of age the statement applies with as much force as though he were the only child in the world. True, you do not see your name given in the statement; and even though your name were there, it would not help you in the matter of appropriation, inasmuch as if there were any other child of the same name, the question would be involved in hopeless uncertainty. But when you see your age, your state, your condition, you can have no further difficulty; you may refuse to take your seat, but you cannot refuse the application of the offer.
“And now, to apply this illustration. I read in the first chapter of 1 Timothy, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’ Are you a sinner?” “Oh, yes!” said he, “that I am, in truth.”
“Well, if you are, in heart and conscience, on the ground of a lost sinner, then Christ came to save you, just as much as if you were the only sinner in the world. You must prove yourself to be not a sinner before you can refuse the application of the gospel message. The gospel applies itself; it is for you to believe and rejoice in the application.”
The Spirit of God blessed the illustration. The simple truth of the gospel flashed like a sunbeam on the mind of the child, and he was enabled to kneel at my side and thank God that he now knew what he had so long desired to know―that Christ died for him. It was a clear, decided, unmistakable case. Speaking to a friend shortly after, he said, “Do you know that all the devils in hell could not shake my faith now?”
“Indeed!” said the friend, amazed at this bold decision on the part of one who had suffered so much from doubts and fears; “How is that?”
“BECAUSE IT IS FOUNDED ON THE WORD OF GOD.”
Blessed foundation! Not on feeling, not on reason, not on imagination, not on assumption, but simply on the Word of God. This is enough. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.”
May the Lord bless this simple incident to many an anxious soul, and His name shall have all the glory.
"I Own Jesus as My Lord."
For some days a young man of my acquaintance had been anxious about his soul’s salvation, and now at the close of a Gospel meeting, he remained seeking that which he felt he needed above all beside.
After talking for a while with him, I said: “Now tell me just what you think about these matters.” For a moment he bowed his head, and then, rising to his feet, he raised his right hand, and said: “I own Jesus as my Lord.” It was well said―a glorious decision, entailing eternal salvation. Make the same decision today, my unconverted reader.
"We Shall Soon Be Home Now"
The frost was biting his little feet,
And his lips were blue with cold,
As he trudged along by his mother’s side―
A mite about six years old.
The coat he wore was shabby and bare,
And his knickers none too good;
And I saw beneath his curly hair
That tears in his blue eyes stood.
He carried a bundle, far too large
For a child so small and slight;
Both little arms were round it thrown,
Determined to hold it tight.
“Oh, mother, this bundle is so big,”
He said, with a weary sigh―
“And ‘tis so heavy” ―the words were lost,
In a feeble little cry.
On the mother’s arm a baby lay
Asleep in unconscious bliss;
And I saw her stoop, in tender love,
And give it a gentle kiss.
On her strong right arm a basket hung,
Laden with meat and bread;
She had not a hand to help the lad,
So she cheered him with words instead.
“Never mind, sonny, we’ll soon be home now,
And Dad will be waiting there;”
Something she added in cheery tones―
What it was I could scarcely hear.
But as I passed down the wind-swept street
My spirit felt strangely free,
For all I had heard and seen just then
Was a parable to me.
My spirit all day had burdened been
With a sense of weight and care;
And now and again a passing blast
Of sad, foreboding fear.
That mother’s words to her little lad―
Though tired as she could be—
Spoken so cheery and bright withal―
Seemed to give new life to me.
They lifted my thoughts from burdens here
To the Home of light above;
To the welcome sure in the Father’s heart,
That heart of unmeasured love!
“We shall soon be home now” ―O, blissful
words―
What visions of joy they bring;
From darkness and storm to the radiant
morn,
In the Home of our Savior and King.
“We shall soon be home now” ―the Father’s
house
Is coming more clearly in view;
His promise shines bright through the
dark’ning night―
“I am coming, yes, coming for you!”
“Soon be home now,” yes, soon be home
now!
The signs are increasingly clear;
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand,”
When Jesus our Lord will appear.
"Home"
The Lord Jesus said:
“In My Father’s House are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare to place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know and the way ye know.”
“I am the Way”
Christ Is Coming.
Don’t fail to read every word, as it is an appeal regarding your safety when that terrible day shall come:
Will You Be Ready?
“Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psa. 110:1) Thus spake the Father, as the Son entered heaven with the marks of the world’s hatred upon His blessed person.
Nigh two thousand years have come and gone since then, and time, with lightning wing is speeding us toward that awful moment when the Son will rise up in resistless might to fulfill the Father’s decree. Christ is coming to make His enemies His footstool. Art thou washed in His blood? If so thou art His friend. If not, thou art Christ’s enemy, and when He comes in power and great glory it will be to crush thee, as His enemy, beneath His feet (2 Thess 1:7-9) (Rev. 19:11-12.) Oh, the terrors of the Christless at that coming! The coming of the Man whom the world once crucified, whose love it has not ceased to scorn, and whose blood it has even treated with proud indifference. Men who never prayed before will then, in their soul’s deep terror, cry to the rocks and to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6:16, 17. Vain prayer! The Lamb’s arm of judgment shall then reach all who would not take salvation from His hand of love. Then will forever cease the gay song, the careless laugh and the mad whirl of gaiety, in which the poor victims of the devil are indulging, and an eternity of weeping and wailing take their place.
Then will forever be suspended the world’s pleasures and business, with the allurements of the one, and the wear, hurry and bustle of the other, which so often shut out God, and leave men no time to think of their soul’s deep need. Then will forever be arrested the world’s boasted progress, and man in his mad career of proud indifference to the claims of God brought face to face with Him whom God has constituted Judge of quick and dead.
Reader, before this terrible day of judgment comes, Christ is coming to take to His bosom His blood-purchased Church―which is every believer in Him. If Christ were to come this moment, would you rise to meet Him? (1 Thess. 4:15-17.) Are you ready? Are you saved?
Christ Is Coming!
Christ is coming, and one of two things will happen to you when He comes: you will either be caught up to be forever with Him, or else left behind for judgment. Think of it―left behind for judgment. Jesus said “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.” How was it in the days of Noe? A world of sinners, heedless of God’s warnings, and unprepared for His judgment, was in a moment swept away to eternal destruction by the terrible waters of wrath. So shall it be when Christ comes. Multitudes will be unprepared, because unwashed in His blood, and hence will be damned throughout eternity. Shall you be one of them?
No Mercy
There will be terrible crying and wailing in that day, Reader, men and women crying out for mercy, and wailing because no mercy can be found. Will your voice be heard? The myriads who have heard the gospel of God’s grace, and turned carelessly away, will realize then that the day of grace is past, and that their doom is forever fixed. Shall you be one of them? Oh, mad lingerer on the brink of that abyss at whose foot dash and roar the flaming waves of eternal judgment, I warn you that Christ’s coming is no mere fancy of a disordered mind. Already there are to be heard the mutterings of the approaching tempest. How direst thou trifle with the solemn question of thy soul’s salvation! I adjure thee, by Christ’s dread appearing, by the love that thou hast for thy soul, by the fear of hell’s eternal torment, to fly this moment for refuge to that Savior who still cries, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
The Judge Is Coming
Yes, the Judge is coming, and yet there comes to us His voice, borne along the centuries of the distant past, still pleading with the sinner in the tones of the tenderest love, “Come unto Me,... and I will give you rest.” “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” (Matt. 11:28; John 6:47). But even as we listen the voice changes to a voice of sorrow, and we hear Him grieving, “And ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.”
Reader, are those words of grief prophetic of the doom of thy Christless soul? Or wilt thou this instant hasten through the shadows of impending judgment that even now gather round thy path, to the feet of Him who died that thou mightest live, and who, in patient grace, still lingers to receive thee and forgive thee through the virtue of His blood?
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16.16.
A Serious Decision
Alfred Lake, as we will call him, was an assistant in a drapery establishment in a pretty seaside town in New Zealand. He was but a youth of seventeen: his life was opening out before him.
A senior salesman in the same establishment was an earnest Christian, and often he spoke to the young assistant about things that really matter. One day he gave him a booklet, written by a leading New Zealand business man, entitled, THE REASON WHY. In it the author tells his large business staff why he is a Christian, and places before them their need of a Savior, and calls upon them to make their decision.
Space is left at the end of the publication in which the reader can record his decision of “for” or “against,” no middle ground being possible. The young man found the booklet interesting reading, but alas! the world, its pleasures, allurements, and sins drew him the wrong way. He filled in the space as follows:―
Decision Form.
I have thought carefully over this matter, and have decided to reject Christ as my Savior.
I call God to witness my signature.
Signed: Alfred Lake Address: ― Street Date: 7th August, 1921
Aged 17 years.
He returned it to the senior salesman with a mocking smile.
Little did the poor lad dream how soon his decision would be irrevocable. Nine hours later a father with breaking heart was viewing the mangled remains of his only son.
Leaving the warehouse that bright afternoon, Alfred decided to spend his half-holiday in a township some fourteen miles distant.
A night of revelry was spent. Past midnight the powerful motor car was flying at top speed along the now deserted highway. Only three miles remained to be traversed, when suddenly a dark object loomed ahead. Brakes were violently applied, wheels skidded, but in vain. The impact was terrible. Alfred was shot through the windscreen, rolled along some distance on the dusty road, and lay still in death. The cow, the cause of the accident, paid the penalty with her life. The driver miraculously escaped with a few cuts and bruises.
The reader may be shocked at the young man filling in his decision form, saying, “I have decided to reject Jesus Christ as my Savior.” You may not have had the temerity to fill in a form in that awful way, but we ask you, what is your present attitude to the Savior? Are you an accepter or a rejecter? There is no middle course. You may have many years to run, but the end must come. When your dead body lies in your coffin where will your soul be? It is better to face these things now. If an unbeliever, your decision is the same as Alfred Lake’s was. We warn you.
But even now God waits to be gracious. The Lord Jesus still says, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). He means what He says. He paid the price in dying on the cross of Calvary and bearing the judgment of sin so that God can be “just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26).
Fill in the “decision form” of your heart and say, “I have decided to accept the Lord Jesus as my Savior.” God grant it.
GET RIGHT WITH GOD!
The Christless Tomb
Wrapt in a Christless shroud
He sleeps the Christless sleep;
Above him the eternal cloud,
Beneath the fiery deep.
Laid in a Christless tomb
There bound with felon chain,
He waits the terrors of his doom,
The judgment and the pain.
O Christless shroud, how cold!
How dark, O Christless tomb!
O grief that never can grow old!
O endless, hopeless doom.
O Christless sleep, how sad!
What waking shalt thou know?
For thee no star, no dawning glad,
Only the lasting woe!
To rocks and hills in vain
Shall be the sinners’ call;
O day of wrath and death and pain
The lost soul’s funeral.
O Christless soul, awake!
Ere the last sleep begins;
O Christ, the sleepers’ slumber break
Burst Thou the bonds of sin.
The Eagle at Niagara
A gentleman standing by Niagara saw an eagle swoop down upon a frozen lamb incased in a floating piece of ice. The eagle stood upon it as it was “drifting” on toward the rapids. Every now and again the eagle would proudly lift his head into the air to look around him, as much as to say: “I am ‘drifting’ on toward danger, but I know what I am doing; I will fly away and make good my escape before it is too late.”
When he neared the falls he stopped and spread his powerful wings and leaped for his flight; but, alas! alas! while he was feasting on that dead carcass his feet had frozen to its fleece. He leaped and shrieked and beat upon the ice with his wing until the ice, frozen lamb and eagle went over the falls and down into the chasm and darkness below.
This is a real picture of every sinner who has begun to do evil, intending to stop before he goes too far. But he is too busy feasting on the carcass of sin until it is too late to repent and turn to Jesus for salvation. And with a fearful cry “TOO LATE” he falls into hell where he will be tormented forever and ever. Read Revelation 14:11, Revelation 20: 10 and Matthew 25:46.
Have You a Bible?
If you have not a Bible, you should get one immediately and you should read it diligently. The Lord Jesus said,―
“Search The Scriptures;
For in them ye think ye have Eternal Life: And they are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39).
A Bible may be had at almost any book shop at prices suitable to all.
The best book to read is the Bible,
If you read it every day,
It will help you on your way,
Yes, the best book to read is the Bible.
The Lord Jesus said, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:3.
"Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment"
There are few books or tracts that have had as wide a circulation as “Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment:” and there are few Publications that have been as much blessed of God to both saint and sinner as this one. It is a very unpretentious little booklet of about 32 pages, but it has proved to be a blessing to untold thousands. It is said that Queen Mary of England was converted through it, and that she herself often distributed it.
“If the Bible’s True I’m Saved!”
A copy of this booklet was given one evening to a Science Student at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He and a fellow-student always lunched together at a small table in the far corner of a large restaurant on St. Catherine St. The following day he arrived at lunch a little late, and the room was already full of people. He saw his friend in his usual place, and waving his hat above his head, shouted to him across the room,―
“If the Bible’s True, I’m SAVED!”
Thank God! The Bible is True!
Dancing With Rage: Dancing With Joy
Another interesting incident about this little book is told by William Luff. “A young man went home to tell his father of his conversion. The old man worked himself into a fury at the son’s presumption in saying that he was saved, and turned him out of the house. The son dropped a copy of Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment in the passage. Next morning he returned to see his father, and writes thus: ‘Last night I left him dancing with rage; and this morning I found him dancing with joy.’ He was saved through the booklet.”
But now hear the rest of the story, ―
“While traveling in a corridor car with low partitions, I was speaking to the passengers when a head bobbed up, and a young woman said: ‘I was saved three weeks ago through reading, Do you Hope or Know that you have Eternal Life?’ She was a daughter of the man who was so angry at his son’s presumption.” (You may read Do you Hope or Know that you have Eternal Life? for yourself on page 149 of this book).
Three Classes
The Booklet, Safety Certainty and Enjoyment, begins by pointing out that there are three classes of people traveling from Time to Eternity. They are, ―
1st Class―Those who are saved, and who know it,
2nd Class―Those who are not sure of salvation, but anxious to be so,
3rd Class―Those who are not only unsaved, but totally indifferent about it.
Which class are you traveling?
There are three things the writer says he desires, by the Holy Spirit’s help, to make clear to his readers: and putting them in Scripture language they are these:―
1. “The Way of Salvation.” (Acts 16:18)
2. “The Knowledge of Salvation.” (Luke 1:77)
3. “The Joy of Salvation.” (Psalm 51:12)
We take the liberty of quoting a little from this booklet on the first subject mentioned above,
"The Way of Salvation"
Please to open your Bible and read carefully the thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Exodus: there you find these words from the lips of Jehovah― “Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt NOT redeem it, THEN THOU SHALT BREAK HIS NECK and all the first born of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.”
Now, come back with me, in thought to a supposed scene of three thousand years ago. Two men (a priest of God and a poor Israelite) stand in earnest conversation. Let us stand by, with their permission, to listen. The gestures of each bespeak deep earnestness about some matter of importance, and it isn’t difficult to see that the subject of conversation is a little ass that stands trembling beside them.
I have come to know, says the poor Israelite, if there cannot be a merciful exception made in my favor this once. This feeble little thing is the firstling of my ass, and though I know full well what the law of God says about it, I am hoping that mercy will be shown, and the ass’s life spared. I am but a poor man in Israel, and can ill afford to lose the little colt.
But, answers the priest firmly, the law of the Lord is plain and unmistakable ― “EVERY firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck.” Where is the lamb?
Ah, sir, no lamb do I possess.
Then go purchase one and return, or the ass’ neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die or the ass must die.
Alas! then all my hopes are crushed, he cried, for I am far too poor to buy a lamb.
While this conversation proceeds, a third person joins them, and after hearing the poor man’s tale of sorrow, he turns to him and says kindly, Be of good cheer, I can meet your need; and thus he proceeds: We have in our house on the hilltop yonder, one little lamb brought up at our Very hearthstone, and it is “without spot or blemish.” It has never once strayed from home, and stands (and rightly so) in highest favor with all that are in the house. This lamb will I fetch. And away he hastens up the hill. Presently you see him gently lead the fair little creature down the slope, and very soon both lamb and ass are standing side by side.
Then the lamb is bound to the altar, its blood is shed and the fire consumes it.
The righteous priest now turns to the poor man, and says, You can freely take home your little colt in safety―no broken neck for it now! The lamb has died in the ass’s stead, and consequently the ass goes righteously free. Thanks to your friend.
Now, poor troubled soul, can’t you see in this God’s own picture of a sinner’s salvation? His claims as to sin demanded a “broken neck,” i.e., righteous judgment upon your guilty head, the only alternative being the death of a divinely approved substitute.
Now, you could not find this provision to meet your case; but, in the person of His beloved Son, God Himself provided the Lamb. “Behold the Lamb of God.” said John to his disciples, as his eyes fell upon that blessed spotless One. “Behold the Lamb of God,” “which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29.)
Onward to Calvary He went, “as a lamb led to the slaughter,” and there and then “He once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18.) “He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” (Rom 4:25.) So that God does not abate one jot of His righteous, holy claims against sin, when He justifies (i.e. clears from all charge of guilt) the ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:26) Blessed be God for such a Savior, such a salvation!
DOST THOU BELIEVE ON THE SON OF GOD?
Well, you reply, I have, as a poor condemned sinner, found in Him One that I can safely trust, I do believe on Him. Then I tell you, the full value of His sacrifice and death, as God estimates it, He makes as good to you as though you had accomplished it all yourself.
May we quote a little further on,
“THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION”
Before you turn to the verse which I shall ask you very carefully to look at, which speaks of how a believer is to KNOW that he has eternal life, let me quote it in the distorted way that man’s imagination often puts it. These happy feelings have I given unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Now, open your Bibles, and while you compare this with God’s blessed and unchanging Word, may He give you from your very heart to say with David, “I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I love.” (Psalm 119:113.) The verse thus misquoted is the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter of the first epistle of John, and reads thus in our version: ― “These things have I WRITTEN unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that YE HAVE eternal life.”
How did the firstborn sons of the thousands of Israel know for certain that they were safe the night of the Passover and Egypt’s judgment?
Let us take a visit to two of their houses and hear what they have to say.
We find in the first house we enter that they are all shivering with fear and suspense.
What is the secret of all this paleness and trembling? We inquire; and the firstborn son informs us that the angel of death is coming round the land, and that he is not quite certain how matters will stand with him at that solemn moment.
When the destroying angel has passed our house, says he, and the night of judgment is over I shall then know that I am safe, but I can’t see how I can be quite sure of it until then. They say they are sure of salvation next door, but we think it very presumptuous. All I can do is to spend the long dreary night hoping for the best.
Well, we inquire, but has the God of Israel not provided a way of safety for His people?
True, he replies, and we have availed ourselves of that way of escape. The blood of the spotless and unblemished first year lamb has been duly sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop on the lintel and two sideposts, but still we are not fully assured of shelter. Let us now leave these doubting troubled ones and enter next door.
What a striking contrast meets our eye at once! Joy beams on every countenance. There they stand, with girded loins and staff in hand, enjoying the roasted lamb.
What can be the meaning of all this joy on such a solemn night as this? Ah, say they all, we are only waiting for Jehovah’s marching orders, and then we shall bid a last farewell to the taskmaster’s cruel lash and all the drudgery of Egypt.
But hold. Do you forget that this is the night of Egypt’s judgment?
Right well we know it; but our firstborn son is safe. The blood has been sprinkled according to the wish of our God.
But so it has been next door, we reply, but they are all unhappy because all are uncertain of safety.
Ah, responds the firstborn firmly, but we have more than the sprinkled blood, we have the unerring word of God about it. God has said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” God rests satisfied with the blood outside, and we rest satisfied with His word inside.
The sprinkled blood makes us SAFE.
The spoken word makes us SURE.
Could anything make us more safe than the sprinkled blood, or more sure than His spoken word? Nothing, nothing.
Now, reader, let me ask you a question. which of those two houses think you was the safer?
Do you say No. 2, where all were so happy? Nay, then, you are wrong. Both are safe alike.
The safety depends upon what God thinks about the blood outside, and not upon the state of their feeling inside.
If you would be sure of your own blessing, then, dear reader, listen not to the unstable testimony of inward emotions, but to the infallible witness of the Word of God.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” John 6:47.
We would like to quote much more, but must content ourselves with the following lines from
“THE JOY OF SALVATION”
Oh, then, dear child of God, ever bear in mind these two things, that there is nothing so strong as the link of relationship; nothing so tender as the link of communion.
All the combined power and counsel of earth and hell cannot sever the former, while an impure motive or idle word will break the latter.
If you are troubled with a cloudy half-hour, get low before God, consider your ways: and when the cause that has robbed you of your joy has been detected, bring it at once to the light, confess your sin to God your Father, and judge yourself most unsparingly for the unwatchful, careless state of soul that allowed the thief to enter unchallenged.
But never, never, NEVER Confound your safety with your joy.
We would like earnestly to suggest to our readers that they order a copy of this booklet at once for themselves and perhaps some for their friends.
Three other booklets that have helped many are,―
“THE REASON WHY”
See the Story “A Serious Decision,” on Page 203
“GOD’S WAY OF SALVATION”
“NO DOUBTS.”
The price for these is about the same as for Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment.
Send for them, Read Them, and Give them to your Friends.
Three little books that we can heartily commend to those anxious about their salvation, are,―
THE JOURNEY AND ITS END
THE TRAVELER’S GUIDE From Death to Life
Whither Bound?