IN the middle of a spacious square in the city of H― is a beautiful equestrian statue. It is a striking monument, for besides being of colossal size, excellent proportion, and high artistic value, it has the appearance of being solid gold. When the sun shines on it the rays are reflected from its burnished sides in resplendent beauty. Great pains are taken to maintain this lovely show, and how? By regularly regilding it. It is base metal gilded! It is a beautiful make-believe. People see it, admire it, and are pleased with it. But it would not stand a searching test as to whether its substance is the same as it appears.
How like many a one who passes muster here as being all that he should be, making a fair pretension of good works, of being perhaps somewhat superior to those around! Are you, reader, one of those who, gaining the approbation of your fellow-work people, co-religionists, and neighbors, think that you are right with. God―that you will be able to stand the test that He will apply to you and your works? Will that which you are stand the fiery test of God’s judgment as gold is tried? Gilded shams are exposed, solid gold is declared by the fire test.
Pretensions will not do for God. Nothing but what stands the test of His judgment will be accepted of Him.
Now His own beloved Son has been here and has been put to the test in every way. Has He stood the test or has He succumbed? Let Heaven itself answer! Let us look up with the eye of Stephen, and we shall see Jesus at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honor. Has He failed? Ah not He has stood the test, and the fact that He is seated in the place of power proclaims Him to be worthy of my trust. Reader, abandon your gilded unrealities and trust with confidence the One in whom God has found His delight. “The pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand” (Isa. 53:1010Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)). This is the Saviour—the Lord Jesus Christ. Make Him, oh, make Him your trust.
One of the closing scenes of the Chinese war of 1859 was the destruction of the charming summer palace of the Emperor of China by the British troops. The whole of this lovely place was given over to the will of an unrestrained army to burn, and pillage, and waste. Costly treasures, works of art, unique ornaments, were carried away as lawful spoil.
Months after the treaty of peace was signed, a Chinese mandarin and an English officer chanced to meet. Both had witnessed the wanton waste of the palace, and their conversation naturally turned to this sad event.
“One thing,” remarked the mandarin, “always seemed to me to be very strange in the conduct of you and your troops.”
“What was that?” said the officer.
“Oh, that none of you thought it worth your while to take the metal dogs that served to keep open the front door of the palace.”
“But who would burden himself with such great lumps of brass as they were? They were neither ornamental nor valuable.”
“Ah, my friend,” said the Chinaman, “they were solid gold.”
“Solid gold!”
“Yes, absolutely worth their weight in gold!
And yet you did not think it worthwhile to stoop and take them!”
Can you, reader, picture the bitter chagrin of that officer when he learned what he had missed? Just imagine―as much solid gold as he could have carried away. And all for nothing.
But he knew not what lay before him. What would he not have given if some poor passer-by had hinted to him the worth of what was within his grasp! It was the chance of a lifetime.
But he missed it. Would he ever cease to recount his own madness or curse his own ignorance? But it was too late.
Today, my reader, there is before thee, within thy reach, that which is of far more worth than countless gold and silver―more valuable than aught beside―there is before thee now the offer of forgiveness of sins: peace and reconciliation and an eternity with Christ; yea, a full, free, and perfect salvation. Wilt thou stoop to take it?
Wilt thou stand for a moment and consider what God puts in thy way? None less than God’s own Son is offered as thy Saviour, and with Him nothing less than the best that heaven can afford.
Do not be like the silly soldiers, who preferred the painted, showy gewgaws to the solid, lasting gold. If you choose the gilded unrealities of this world rather than the blessed realities of the next, you too will lament your decision when too late.
The day will come when you will acknowledge the worth of God’s beloved Son. Someday your eyes will be opened. If in time, you will bless and praise His name for all the worth that dwells in Him, and which you will share and delight in; but if it be in eternity, when too late, when the day of opportunity is gone, you will forever remember the day in which you had your chance (and that day is this day) of being enriched forever; but as the officer cursed his neglect and indifference, so, too, you will curse the day when you neglected God’s offer of Christ.
Be persuaded now. Consider the magnificence and the solidity of God’s offer―the greatness of Christ, the wonders of the salvation which are to be had in Him.
Despise not the pure gold of God’s salvation.
Nay, rather have done with the gilded shams of your own religiousness, or piety, or fancied goodness, and embrace the glorious Christ that is set before you in the gospel. S. S.