Gospel Gleanings: Volume 12 (1912)

MORE than a year ago I went to nurse a young woman suffering from an incurable disease. Her friends knew she would not recover, but she herself clung to life, and hoped against hope to be well again. She rebelled against the continual pain, wondering bitterly why she, who, as she expressed it, had always lived a good and upright life, should be so afflicted. I soon found she had not seen herself as she was in God’s sight, and therefore had not felt the need of a Saviour.

I sought to put before her our condition as revealed in God’s word, pointing her to the Lord Jesus, God’s beloved Son, who gave Himself a ransom for all. She told me she could not think we could really know ourselves saved, until the end. But I fancy she did not herself know what she meant by the end. The clergyman of the parish called frequently, but in spite of her mother’s entreaties that she would allow him to see her, she always refused.

As the disease increased, fear took hold of her. She wanted the Bible read, and on my assuring her the vicar was a godly man she consented to see him. About this time she received a letter from a Christian friend expressing sympathy with her in her illness, but who assured her no one but Jesus could meet her need, and begging that she would seek a refuge in Him alone.

After that she strove to be more patient; frequently spoke of God’s goodness in surrounding her with comforts; begged me to pray for her, but could not as yet simply believe what God had said, that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

One doctor had said that, owing to the nature of the disease, the end might be violent; so her sister and I mutually agreed to lay the matter before God, asking Him to fulfill the promise of Matt. 18:19, and grant to our poor invalid a peaceful passing away. On the morning of the day she died, she awoke from what appeared a refreshing sleep, and said that she had had a beautiful dream, and was sure now she would get better.

I spoke of the being with Christ which is far better; and then for the first time she seemed to realize that there could be no recovery for her in this world. Placing her hands together she made her first real prayer to God, confessing to Him her sinfulness, asking pardon for Jesu’s sake, and concluded by saying, “If it is Thy will, dear Lord, to take me home today, Thy will be done!” When a little later her mother began to repeat the twenty-third psalm, my patient joined with her in a clear, strong voice. She then prayed aloud for all she knew.

In her weakness she appeared to be troubled by strange faces and figures, when she suddenly exclaimed triumphantly, “It doesn’t matter—Jesus Christ!” That Name had power now to banish all fear and dread.

Early in the afternoon I arranged her pillows and begged her to rest. She said, “I think I shall be able to sleep now.” These were her last words, for she did sleep—and, still sleeping, entered into rest.

Dear reader, this may not find you on a bed of suffering; you may be in good health. But whether in health or in sickness, our condition before God is that we are “guilty” sinners, unless we have indeed fled to the refuge provided by Him. God has sent a Saviour that we might have a new life, know now the forgiveness of our sins, through faith in that wonderful work of redemption—the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins, to bring us to God.

Does this not meet your need? Believe it then, and yours shall be the joy, the peace, and the rest for your soul now and forever.

A. S.

"Forty-Five"

S. P. B., an English lady, was brought to the knowledge of God’s saving grace on the death of her mother whom she tenderly loved. This irreparable loss was, however, blessedly repaired, as naught else could do, by the revelation to her soul of a Saviour. Rom. 9:18-24 sufficed in the hands of the Spirit of God to comfort, and fill to overflowing, the vessel so needy.

Soon S.P.B. found ample scope for her talents which were of no mean order, in the beautiful but wicked city of Paris, where, with her aged father, she resided. She was the first lady to obtain permission from the French Government (the hospitals there being under state rule) to visit Protestant patients in the fine Beaujon Hospital. It was she, too, who had the privilege of showing the late Florence Nightingale over the building which won the admiration of that queen of nurses ere she started with her band of noble women to tend the poor wounded soldiers at Scutari in 1854. The organization seemed so perfect! The long rows of white curtained beds, and polished floors, frequently found S.P.B. wending her way to some sufferer to pour in a sweet cordial from the word of God which she herself had so learned to prize.

The patients were known only by the number of their bed. Thus it was that on one occasion S.P.B. had her attention drawn to “45”—a poor woman who had entered within those walls to end her days. The precious volume was soon placed in her hands, and the contents were eagerly drunk in by this needy one.

Of all the subjects which rivetted her attention the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John was the greatest in her eyes—telling of the good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. The Lord opened her heart, as He did Lydia’s of old, and it was not long before peace, divine peace, was her portion. As the light of that love which passeth all understanding filled her poor heart, tokens of the grace she knew within did not fail to find expression. She now loved to share with a neighboring patient any little delicacy brought for herself by her kind visitor.

Her confession of faith was very simple. Ere she fell asleep, she was heard to exclaim, “Jesus has sought me, Jesus has found me, I have given myself to Him!” Here was a soul saved by grace through simply receiving the blessed news of the Good Shepherd. It so suited her case.

What an incentive to S.P.B!—was it not?—to persevere in carrying God’s holy word to the dear sufferers in that vast building! The Lord alone knows the fruit of such a ministry, but many will, in the day of Christ’s appearing, be the crown of rejoicing to our beloved sister in Christ—S.P.B. who has, now long ago, passed away from this scene.

I wonder how many of those who read these lines have proved for themselves the power and blessedness of God’s word concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died—the Just One for us unjust—that, believing God’s testimony, the word of truth, we might have the blessed assurance of His love, His forgiveness; and know ourselves too as brought into His family—children, yea, sons of God, by faith in Jesus.

M.F. N.

My Sister

A Praying Sister. A Living Saviour. A Sinner Saved.

LOOKING back a few years, in one of the open spaces of London, week after week, a middle-aged man might have been seen with book in hand, telling others of the Saviour who had done so much for him, not only in breaking the bonds of sin which once enslaved him, but also of the peace and joy now imparted to him. As one among many he longed for others to know the blessedness there is in Christ as Saviour, for those led astray, the dupes of Satan.

On one of those occasions the subject of our story comes before us. A stranger in London and to London, passing by and seeing the crowd, he stayed to listen to the preacher above referred to. He seemed to be unnoticed by anyone. The preacher, after putting in his usual way the gospel before his hearers, sought to impress upon them the wisdom of decision for Christ before that time when the closed door would shut out forever the foolish from the wise. The appeal over, the preacher set off on his homeward road, sustained by the thought that whatever its effect upon the hearers, the preaching of Christ and His work was surely a sweet savor to God, when suddenly the voice of this stranger fell upon his ears in a way that told how the word of God had reached his heart. It may have been that at this very time the stranger’s sister was asking God on his behalf. Be that as it may, as the light of the gospel shone in upon his soul, it was now the Saviour and the sister that filled his mind. What a Saviour! and what a sister! A sister of whom the preacher had not even heard; whose love had been lingering over her brother; a Saviour that had long been endeared to the preacher, now becoming precious to this stranger! How this newly-saved soul longed to convey to his sister at once that her Saviour was now his Saviour! Oh! how simple, how sweet, how divinely real, are the ways of God in bringing souls out of darkness into light!

The preacher never forgot that night nor the lamppost where that strong, intelligent man, by the light of the street lamp, sought from the Bible the truth that met his case. From a full heart he gave expression to his feelings thus: “My sister, my sister, her letters, her love!” That night he had seen, as never before, his sister among the wise, and himself drifting on with the crowd of careless souls towards eternity without a Saviour. The thought was unbearable. What could He do? Himself a sinner in his sins—unchanged, unconverted, thinking himself as good as others until he heard the gospel that night! It may be asked, What was it that so changed all that night? The answer is, It was Christ. God had been commending to this poor sinner the love that gave up Jesus to die for his sins. The Saviour had been uplifted as the One who had suffered for his sins—and as the Israelites bitten of old looked to the uplifted brazen serpent and lived, so now faith in Christ on the tree brought to him and for him the power, the love, the righteousness of God meeting his every need as a sinner.

Let me now turn to the reader. Have you a sister, a mother, or brother still praying for you? What is the reason of all this? There can be but one answer, and that answer is love! They love you, because they know God’s love to them. They have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Then, why is it, let me ask, that all this is slighted by you? Having been through it all, and none more deluded or deceived than myself, I can answer, that the enemy of our souls is ever seeking to harden the heart against all these entreaties of divine love, that he may rule over you now to the dishonor of God and the ruin and death of your immortal soul.

Why should the tempter rule

In that dear soul of thine,

Deceiving, as he leads along

The precipice of time?

Another step may prove

The danger thou art in,

And thy poor Christless soul may sink

Beneath thy load of sin.

You dare not look at death,

Or think of meeting God,

While you in unbelief reject

The Saviour’s precious blood.

The death of God’s dear Son,

For such as you and me,

From heaven’s highest throne proclaims

Salvation full and free.

No longer risk thy soul,

This is salvation’s day;

Our God invites whoever will,

And none are turned away.

"Quite Happy"

I HAVE been led to feel of late how much our loving Father delights to own direct, personal, affectionate appeals to the heart. What so precious to Him, whenever opportunity offers, as a simple, humble, but hearty confession of the preciousness there is in Jesus the Son of God? Reader—beloved of God!—let me urge this; for it is good to encourage each other by telling of His gracious ways.

A while ago, a young Scotch woman called on me in the way of business. She was tall and robust; but her pale look, her hectic flush, and bright eye, told at once that consumption had commenced its sure and rapid work. Besides, there was sadness on every feature. After learning that she was a stranger in our large city; that her father and mother were old and poor, in Scotland; and after advising her at once, if possible, to return to her home, she cast on me a most heartrending look. The big tears rolled down her cheeks, and she asked, with such tones as could only proceed from a distressed, aching heart, “Do you think my sickness is a decline?” I replied, “Oh, if you knew what a dear loving friend and Saviour the Lord Jesus is to just such as you, it would give such rest of heart that you would not be troubled a bit as to whether it is consumption or not.”

A few more such words, in the bustle of business, and we parted. Not hearing of her for some days, I concluded she had gone home to her parents; but a fortnight after I received a message that she was at the point of death. I found her utterly prostrate from hemorrhage, and unable to speak a word; but a smile indicated that she knew me. I whispered a few precious scriptures about Jesus, and, to my surprise (O unbelief!), I observed an expression of joy, as of a sunbeam, pass over her face. Next day the crisis was passed, and she greeted me with gladness. At once I said. “Are you happy?” “Oh, yes; quite happy.”

“How long have you been so?” “Nearly a fortnight.” “What made you happy?” “I can scarcely tell.” “Has anyone been speaking or reading to you?” “No.” “Are your sins forgiven?” “Oh, yes, all gone.” “What makes you so sure?” Her strength was gone; she simply breathed out, “Jesus! Jesus! ‘Whosoever believeth on Jesus.’”

She lingered for three months after that; and some of the happiest moments in my life were spent in witnessing her simple joy and her longing desire to be present with the Lord. And see how the Lord ever gives a word in season. She had been a domestic in a private hotel; and she told me that for months before I spoke to her, every day after her work was done she would retire to, her room and weep by the hour at the thought of all her hopes being cut off, and death coming upon her so early. Oh, what an answer to all this did she find in the loving heart of Jesus!

Before her sickness she had sent her wages to support her aged parents. Now she was cast upon the Lord; and richly did He provide for her. A little before she fell asleep in Jesus, I asked if she had any special object for which we should pray. She replied, “I am sometimes troubled about the doctor’s bill, and how my poor body will get buried when I am dead.” I read some of the words of Jesus setting forth His cam, and some of the promises of the Father to answer every request in the name of Jesus; and then we together told both those matters to Jesus. At my next visit, without any surprise (more than I can say of myself), she told me that two gentlemen had called on her from the hotel, to tell her not to be troubled about either the expenses of her funeral, the doctor’s charges, or any expense attending her sickness, as the gentlemen on whom she formerly waited had arranged to meet it all.

And so they did. She fell asleep in Jesus; her precious dust was committed to the earth; and for all her need there was enough and to spare. I had never seen her before I spoke to her. One simple sentence, addressed directly to her heart about Jesus the Lord, was used to dispel the gloom of a broken heart, to draw her sweetly to Himself, and to give her a taste of that living water after which she never thirsted again. Oh, how many times have I heard her exclaim, “Happy! happy as happy can be! Lord Jesus, come.”

"By the Help of God, Sir"

NEAR the Infirmary at Leeds, a poor old man, whose gray locks sheaved that he was not far from three score years and ten, was asking for alms; so we dropped a trifle into his hat, for which he seemed very grateful.

“Do you expect to go to heaven when you die?” we kindly asked this aged beggar. “Yes, sir, by the help of God,” was his ready reply. “That is the wrong road, friend,” we earnestly assured him; but he seemed astonished that any one should question the soundness of the doctrine he had put forth, that he expected to go to heaven by the help of God; so much so that he added, “What, sir, not by the help of God!” “No, friend, you do not want help, you want life; you need to be washed from all sin, to be able to stand in God’s holy presence; you do not require God to help or assist you to make yourself better; you want salvation, and this can only be accomplished through the blood of Christ, for His blood cleanseth from all sin. God has done everything for the salvation of sinners in the death of His beloved Son, to fit them to stand in His presence, and He now says that ‘whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.’”

The poor old man seemed at once to perceive the folly of thinking of God’s help, while at the same time He was rejecting God’s salvation. On leaving him, we could not help thinking how many there are like this aged beggar, who are deceiving themselves with the false thought, that what they need is that God should help them to make themselves better, instead of believing the truth that they are fallen creatures in Adam, born in sin, by nature children of wrath, and therefore that they cannot please God. This truth would show them the folly of trying to mend what God had pronounced incurably bad, and would convince them of the need of looking up to the Lord Jesus risen from the dead, who is now at God’s right hand, and of receiving eternal life as God’s free gift, and thus know present peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The whole point is, What saith the scripture? What is God’s mind about the matter? It is not a question of man’s opinion, but of God’s will. Jesus said, “This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). This plainly shows us what God’s will is. The question then is, Are you, dear reader, content to be saved in God’s way? God declares in His word (being so satisfied with the death of Christ, as a just atonement for all our sins) that those who believe are “now justified by His blood” (Rom. 5:9). Do you then receive God’s testimony about Jesus Christ and Him crucified? For he that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.

One Hour With God

Lord, in Thee my soul delighteth,

Thou hast won my wayward heart!

Now, enraptured with Thy beauty,

From Thee I can never part;

And what are all this world’s attractions

Like one look from Thy dear eyes?

‘Tis the sunshine of Thy presence

Makes me all things else despise.

Oh! the deep delight and solace!

When of cares I have a load;

Free from this poor world’s distractions,

Just to spend one hour with God;

In His holy presence, changing

All my weakness for His strength;

Proving thus His grace sufficient,

Till He brings me home at length.

Oh, the sweetness of communion,

Precious Saviour, holy Lord!

Taste I, in its sacred pleasure,

Joys which earth can ne’er afford;

Close beside Thee, list’ning ever

To the music of Thy voice,

Learn I all those wondrous secrets

Which my ransom’d soul rejoice.

In those rays of heavenly glory

Ever shining in Thy face,

Would I ceaselessly adore Thee,

Singing of Thy woundless grace;

Jesus, everlasting Lover,

I am Thine, and Thine alone!

Till I’m with Thee in the glory,

Keep my hand within Thine own!

S. T.

"Is Not This a Brand Plucked Out of the Fire?"

(ZECH. 2-3)

IN the vision recorded in these chapters, the prophet Zechariah is shown the purposes of God’s love towards His sinful and suffering people, and the means whereby He can reinstate them in His favor according to the claims of His righteousness. It is the history of the salvation and justification of every saved sinner; and the believer can see the similar ways of grace in this ancient prophecy to those of which he in his day has been the happy subject.

If we read the third chapter by itself, we rob the vision of much of its divine beauty. The need of the sinner is met in the third chapter, but the heart of God is declared in the second; and the action in chap. 3 is the removal of every obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s own blessed thoughts about His people in chap. 2.

Zechariah had made known the sad burden of the people’s sins, and had beheld the horns that God had sent to scatter Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem (chap. 1:19). He had seen the end of the people in judgment; and doubtless his heart was deeply moved at the judgment he announced; but thus he became a vessel fitted to receive the consolations of God. The sense of man’s ruin is needed to appreciate God’s grace. Surely we need to learn more truly what sin is, and what it has done, that we may value more the grace whereby we are saved.

Zechariah again lifts up his eyes, and he sees no longer the horns of scattering and destruction, but a messenger of salvation—a man with a measuring-line in his hand, on his way to the desolate city, where no man dwelt. God’s thoughts have gone forth—thoughts of peace, and not of evil. He yearns over His captives: He must restore them to their land. His word declares to the young man, that “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle.” Thus faith can sing, through days of sorrow, “All will be well!”

God has not cast away the people whom He foreknew. Read the chapter, and see if the blessings promised do not far exceed the blessings of Solomon’s reign, which Israel forfeited by sin. We want our hearts enlarged in the love of God, and filled with the glory of His salvation, when we carry the gospel to sinners. Have we not God’s thoughts of love to declare, as well as God’s remedy for sin? Is it not well to lift our eyes and learn the lengths, and breadths, and depths, and heights, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? May we go forth to the poor perishing world in the knowledge that God is a position, and to ask one’s self, Have I ever been thus before God as a polluted sinner, fit only for the place prepared for the devil and his angels? Such is the way in which God displays Himself in sovereign grace.

He answers Satan, and all the guilty fears of the sinner, by declaring His right to do as He pleases, and to choose, if He please, a worthless brand, and pluck it out of the burning. Satan resisted Joshua on the plea of his pollution; and it is just on that ground that the Lord silences him. If God wills to people heaven with the spoil of Satan’s kingdom, who is he that shall say nay to Him? And what else is salvation, if it is not God saving by grace those who are by nature children of wrath? If one cannot declare this as God’s good news, without addition or limitation, surely such an one has yet to learn what God’s salvation is.

This being God’s sovereign will, He (the Lord) turns to the polluted Joshua, and removes from him those filthy garments, pronouncing in accordance with the demands of His holiness and righteousness, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” Was it a matter of Joshua’s appropriation? Nay; the justification was solely and entirely of God. In the gospel God has declared how He is just in thus justifying the ungodly. It is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth a propitiation, through faith in His blood (Rom. 3).

Mark those words: “Whom God hath set forth.” The sinner has not to present Christ, or offer Christ to God, or plead the merits of His blood. God has set Him forth. God declares His righteousness. The sinner who hears the glad tidings as Joshua did, in God’s presence, with Satan silenced at his right hand by those tidings, has the joy of knowing that God has justified him, and caused his iniquity to pass from him; and for the vile garments of his sinful nature and condition as a child of wrath, God has clothed him with Christ, and he is made the righteousness of God in Him.

What more was needed to complete the picture? “Ah!” some would say, “if I could only get as far as the change of clothing, if I could only be assured of my justification by God, I should want no more.” But Zechariah had drunk into the purposes of God’s love more deeply; and seeing the justification of the late polluted Joshua, he says, “Let them set a fair miter upon his head.” He asks for his glorification, and he sees Joshua clothed as God’s priest in garments of beauty and glory.

Beautiful figure of God’s ways in salvation! He not only gives us peace, but gives us to boast in hope of His glory. He makes us meet for His own presence, who were in His sight “brands in the fire.” It was for this end that He rebuked Satan and justified Joshua; and having brought him to Himself into the holiest, as the high priest, He charges him to walk in His ways. There can be no walking with God until we have met Him; and while our consciences are unpurged by the blood of Christ, we have not met Him.

My reader, if you have not met God, remember you are away from Him, and under His wrath as a sinner who does not believe in His only begotten Son. How can you stand in the judgment? How can you answer the adversary? How blessed to be in God’s presence, with our mouth shut, and our ear open, to hear His good news! By Jesus Christ “all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13), and receiving His word in the simplicity of faith, they enjoy the priceless treasure of peace with God. Then are we in a position to learn the thoughts and purposes of His redeeming love, and then only can we really walk in His ways.

"She's Dead, Sir"

“SHE’S dead, sir; she died at Christmas,” was the reply I got on calling to inquire for a poor widow with whom I lodged not long since. The last time I saw her she was tolerably well, attending much as usual to her domestic duties. But she is dead. The house and furniture looked just the same; but “She’s dead, sir,” was all I could learn about the departed one from the orphan daughter.

It was a solemn moment; many thoughts pressed much on my mind. It is true that I had more than once spoken to her of the atoning work of Christ, and of the blessedness of present peace with God; but had 1 thought her opportunities of hearing would have so soon ended, and that she was then actually on the brink of eternity, how much more earnest should I have been in commending the love of God in Christ to her. But now she is dead! The place that once knew her will know her no more forever! Whether she really received Christ crucified and risen as her Saviour the future will make manifest.

Happy indeed are those who now see such glory and beauty in Jesus the Son of God as to be attracted to Him, and constrained to confess Him before men. Present peace with God, and present testimony for Christ, become those who are saved by the precious blood of the Lamb. Not to confess Christ before men is indeed very solemn; to be ashamed of Christ very alarming; for “whosoever,” said Jesus, “shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

“Jesus! and shall it ever be,

A mortal man ashamed of Thee?

Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise,

Whose glories shine through endless days!

Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend

On whom my hopes of heaven depend?

No; when I blush, be this my shame

That I no more confess His name.”

Death is so common that many seem to think little more of it than the present separation of tender ties; few appear to regard it as God’s just penalty for sin. Men are appointed to death, and after that judgment, because they are sinners. The Son of God came to deliver from death and judgment, by bearing sins, and by being a substitute for those who believe—going under death and judgment. So that those who accept Christ risen from the dead, and ascended, as their life and righteousness before God, have died and have been judged in Christ their substitute on the cross. Death and judgment are therefore behind them; they have a present standing of completeness in Christ at God’s right hand, and they wait for glory; they wait for God’s Son from heaven; they expect to be caught up to meet Him in the air, and so be forever with the Lord.

Being cleansed from our sins by the precious blood of Christ, the sting of death—which is sin—is gone. It they should die before the Lord comes, it is not strictly death, but falling asleep, as scripture calls it; or really, as I believe, being put to sleep by Jesus. But the Lord is coming quickly, and we may not even fall asleep, but be changed in a moment, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air—death and judgment behind us, and glory before us. What a victory! “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

"Saved for Nothing": A Conversation

M. You say, Mrs. A—, that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Mrs. A. Yes, I believe every word that is said about Him in the Old and New Testaments.

M. But I rather think you do not believe all that is there said about Christ.

Mrs. A. And why do you think so? Why have you such a suspicion?

Because, if you truly believe in Jesus Christ, and “every word that is said about Him in the scriptures,” the result would be salvation, pardon, and “peace with God”; but it is quite the contrary of this with you. You are awfully afraid of God! an evidence that you are not looking at “God in the face of Jesus Christ.” You are mourning, repenting, and bitterly lamenting sin, and earnestly crying for mercy, and yet, you say, you “have no evidence of being heard, that your prayers, like stones thrown into the air, only fall back upon you with terror.” Are you not trying to make yourself good, and fit to meet God by your own repentance, instead of throwing yourself, just as you are, upon Christ? And this is the reason why conscience upbraids you; for, indeed, you are only increasing your guilt instead of taking it away. You are not truly believing and trusting in Jesus.

Mrs. A. Oh, sir, I tell you again, that I firmly believe in Christ the Son of God, and that no poor sinner can be saved without Him, and I am striving and praying daily and hourly that He may save me.

M. Well, Mrs. A—, you are praying and striving daily and hourly that He may save you; but are you willing to be saved without your praying and striving? Are you willing to be saved on His own terms, simply by faith in His atoning blood? You must know that it is “By grace through faith you are saved.” You must “Believe, and be saved,” and then pray and strive because you are saved.

Mrs. A. But oh, how can such a wicked wretch as I am be saved without fervent prayer, and striving to repent before God?

M. Your fervent prayers and repentance will never be accepted until you first accept Christ, as He is freely offered to you, as an all-sufficient Saviour. Now, Mrs. A—, I want you to think most seriously on what you have just said. You said you believed truly in Jesus Christ, and in every word that is said about Him in the Old and New Testaments. Then you must believe that Christ can “save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him,” even “the chief of sinners,” and that “faith in his blood,” saves the soul.

Mrs. A. Yes, I do.

M. And you believe in the value and efficacy of the Saviour’s blood to cleanse us from our sins?

Mrs. A. Certainly, I do.

M. Then you believe it can cleanse you?

Here was a pause; at last the answer came slowly.

Mrs. A. Yes, I do.

M. Then your faith has saved you; has it not? Another long pause. Finally she put the inquiry:

Mrs. A. And is that salvation in a Saviour’s blood?

M.Certainly it is, if you truly believe, as you say.

And here came another most solemn pause. At last, lifting her eyes and hands towards heaven, her bosom heaving with deep emotion, and her eyes filled with tears, she exclaimed:

Mrs. A. Oh! now I see it. Now I see it!

Blessed be God, now I see that I can be SAVED FOR NOTHING! I believed, but never before did I so see the completeness of that satisfaction which Christ has made for my sins; that I have nothing to do for my salvation but believe! Oh! sir, let me say to you, that this moment a burden has rolled from my soul. Blessed Jesus! and is this salvation in thy blood? How blind I have been these many years, to imagine that, in order to be saved, I should have to pray so fervently, repent so bitterly, and keep myself so pure from sin. Now I see that simple faith in that atoning blood can save any sinner, and save fully and freely; that it can save me! Oh! now I am saved—SAVED FOR NOTHING! Glory! glory to God for this!

Two Words of a Tract

A CHRISTIAN gentleman was traveling in a steamboat. He took some tracts out and scattered them about for the passengers to read. Many were glad to get them, and read them carefully. But one gentleman was there who disliked religion and religious people very much. He took one of the tracts and doubled it up, and then deliberately took out his penknife and cut it all up into little pieces. He then held out his hand and scattered the pieces over the side of the boat, to show his contempt for religion.

When he had done this, he saw one of the pieces sticking to his coat. He picked it off and looked at it a moment before throwing it away. On one side of that bit of paper was only one word; it was the word “God.” He turned it over, and on the other side was the word “eternity.” He threw away the bit of paper. He got rid of that easily enough. But those two solemn words, “God” and “eternity,” he could not get rid of. He tried drinking, he tried gambling, to drive those words from his mind, but it was no use; they haunted him wherever he went, and he never had any comfort until he came to the Saviour and found peace by believing in God who gave His only begotten Son that we might live through Him. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!

That little piece of paper with those two words upon it was the means of his conversion.

“As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to GOD.”

“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to GOD.”

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

A Converted Jew's Address to Jews

I AM one of your brethren, a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I believe in Moses and the prophets, who predicted that Seed of Abraham by whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and who shall be the glory of the children of Israel, who came in the fullness of time, and was brought as a lamb to the slaughter for the iniquities of His people; who was cut off, but not for Himself; who was pierced for our iniquities, and of whom it was said, ‘Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, against the man that is my fellow.’

“Twenty years are now passed since I found Him to be my Saviour; and now for more than twelve years I have preached Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And this is the sin which Israel sinneth until now: that they do not believe in Jesus of Nazareth who was that angel in the wilderness who accompanied the children of Israel when they went out of Egypt; to whom, too, the Lord God shall give the throne of His father David; and who shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. He, Jesus Christ, shall be the ruler in Israel; He who came out of Bethlehem Ephratah.”

The Coming of the Son of Man

(2 PETER 3)

Hear what the Lord hath spoken,

Who never spake in vain;

His word can ne’er be broken:—

That He will come again.

He’ll first take those that fear Him

To dwell with Him above,

That they may e’er be near Him,

At home with Him they love.

Then from the heav’nly regions,

With all His saints He’ll come,

His train th’ angelic legions,

To pour on earth its doom.

With swiftness, like the light’ning,

He’ll shine on all below;

His glorious presence height’ning

The anguish, fear, and woe.

Though mockers now are saying,

With lips by scorning curl’d,

That day, which God is staying,

Shall ne’er o’ertake the world;

‘Tis swiftly, surely coming,

And soon it will be here;

Portentous signs are looming,

That men may heed and fear.

Still God, with much long-suffering

Prolongs the day of grace;

His great salvation off’ring,

For faith’s assur’d embrace.

Oh! heed His invitation,

Believe on Jesus’ name;

Then thine is full salvation

From sin, its woe and shame.

The Dying Tinker

“LORD Jesus, send Mr. B— in! Lord Jesus, send Mr. B— in!” Over and over, the words fell from the unconscious lips of a dying man; the heart’s deep desire thus finding expression, though weakness and disease had, for the time, dethroned reason.

And wherefore this deep desire, and oft repeated expression of it? A fortnight before they had never met, the old tinker either being away from home in the course of business, when the missionary called; or, if there, refusing to see him. Illness came however—a last illness, and the servant of Christ then found an entrance, and, seated by the old man’s bedside, told him the wonderful story of a Saviour’s love. To his surprise, he found he knew much of the letter of the word of God; and although making excuses for his former refusal to hear, he was now ready to listen to the message of life brought to him.

When the visit closed, he begged it might be repeated. And what passed then in that sick room, situated in a deplorable court in one of the most slummy parts of the town? Angels were looking on, and there was “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repented.” Long as he had refused to hear it, the message had at last been brought to his ears, and ear and heart had been opened by God the Holy Ghost to hear and to receive it. And there on his dying bed the old tinker passed from death unto life, and knew that he had everlasting life; that his sins—many and black as they had been—were all gone; blotted out by the precious blood of Jesus, and that in a little while this Saviour who had so recently sought and found him, would carry him home to His own presence.

No wonder, then, that he desired once more to see the messenger who had brought such a message to him! And his desire was granted. As evening fell, reason resumed its sway, and at nine o’clock that November night the missionary again stood by the side of the dying man. He saw at once that his hours were numbered, although the welcome he received was most joyous. So after a little inquiry he said: “P—, it is very near the end now. Are you ready to stand in the presence of God? And on what do you ground your hope of acceptance with Him?”

He attempted to answer quickly, but his eagerness brought on a violent fit of coughing, lasting some time; and then slowly, jerking out, as it were, one word at a time, he said “You asked me if I was ready, and what are my hopes. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth me from all sin. You taught me that text; it has been very precious to me, but the best part is the center.”

“What do you mean?” queried his friend. He replied:

“The center is the Lord Jesus, and He is all in all to me.”

Then, at his request, the visitor praised God for His goodness, and asked for the grace needed by the now suffering one.

The next morning he again saw him, to hear from the dying lips that “God had been very good” to him “during the night; very little pain, and perfect peace and rest.”

That evening at seven o’clock, the ransomed soul of the poor tinker left its worn out tenement, and passed into the presence of Him who loved and gave Himself a ransom even for him.

“Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity” (Psa. 32:1, 2) We may well write over his grave. But there is another clause to that verse: “And in whose spirit there is no guile.” What is the effect of knowing iniquity forgiven and sin covered? Does the knowledge of justification “freely by His grace”—the blessed assurance that iniquity will never be imputed to me by a holy God, because He imputed it once for all to His sinless Son, when He made His soul an offering for sin—does this knowledge cause one to think lightly of the sins thus atoned for and put away? God forbid!

Two or three days later Mr. B— again visited the cottage—this time to comfort the widow as he supposed. He had a good opportunity of putting the gospel before her and her daughter, and pressed home the wisdom of living for Christ as well as dying, with him Then with great reluctance the old woman gave the last message entrusted to her: “Tell Mr. B— we were not married. I don’t want to appear to be hiding anything. God has pardoned me for Christ’s sake.”

With the light of eternity dawning upon him, with the blessed assurance that the blood of Christ had put away all his guilt, the dying tinker realized how black that guilt was; what his past life (unknown to his neighbors and certainly unknown to his friend) was in God’s sight; and judging it, and judging himself, he dared make such a confession, knowing that even that sin was atoned for and forgiven. No reparation then was possible to her he had so long wronged; no time left for “works meet for repentance” in giving up the long life of sin; but “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my trangressions unto the Loan, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

"He Suffered for Us": (an Extract)

MANY years ago a fierce war raged in India between the English and Tippoo Saib. On one occasion several English officers were taken prisoners, among them one named Baird. One day a native officer brought in fetters to be put upon each of the prisoners, the wounded one not excepted. Baird had been severely wounded, and was suffering from pain and weakness. A gray-haired officer said to the native official, “You do not think of putting chains upon that wounded man?”

“There are just as many pairs of fetters as there are captives,” was the answer, “and every pair must be worn.”

“Then,” said the noble officer, “put two pairs on me; I will bear his as well as my own.”

This was done. Strange to say, Baird lived to regain his freedom—lived to take that very city, but his noble friend died in prison. Up to his death he wore two pairs of fetters.

But what if he had worn the fetters of all in the prison? What if, instead of being a captive himself, he had been free and great, and had quitted a glorious palace to live in their loathsome dungeon, to wear their chains, to bear their stripes, to suffer and die in their stead, that they might go free?

Friend, such a thing has been done. “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men —the man Christ Jesus,” “who gave himself a ransom for all.” “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.” “Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.” Are these words the belief and utterance of your heart? “If ye believe not that I am he (said the Lord Jesus), ye shall die in your sins.” But believing in Him and His atoning work on the cross, our sins are gone—blotted out by His precious blood which makes whiter than snow. What a Saviour is Jesus, and the God who gave Him that we might live and not die—but live forever in His unsullied and eternal light! Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

The Secret of a Happy Day

NO one can ever be really happy until Christ is known as a personal Saviour; but, alas! how few today care anything at all about Him; or have even the slightest interest in their soul’s salvation. Pleasure, fame, money-making, and ceaseless excitement are, each and all, greedily sought after; and pride and arrogant self-will are rampant everywhere, in these “perilous times,” when men are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Nineteen centuries ago, the streets of Jerusalem rang with the bitter cry of an excited mob, “Away with him, away with him; crucify him, crucify him”; and, when the world had its great election day, it deliberately chose a seditious man and murderer rather than Christ, the Son of the living God. Notwithstanding this, Calvary’s cross stands alone in the history of God’s eternity as the divine center of all His counsels; and will ever be the one and only way of blessing for the guilty sons of Adam. Salvation is only to be found through the death, blood-shedding, and resurrection of the Man Christ Jesus.

On the Sabbath day following His crucifixion, God’s Holy One, who could not see corruption, lay silent in death in Joseph of Arimathea’s new tomb, where loving hands had gently laid Him; but, very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the sepulcher was found empty; and angel voices announced the glorious tidings, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.” Yet, strange to say, when the good news was carried to the apostles, the women’s words were treated as “idle tales,” and “they believed them not.” True, however, to His oft-repeated word, the Mighty Conqueror had burst asunder the bars of death, thereby proving to an astonished world that He was, and is, the Son of God.

Fresh from His accomplished victory over all the powers of sin and Satan, the risen Jesus was seen that same day on the country road that led from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, and, on His way, overtook two lonely hearts, who, in their sorrow, were talking together “of all those things that had happened.” “And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.” Never could that day be forgotten by those two sad hearts as the very happiest they had ever spent on earth; and the reason why is not hard to find— “Jesus went with them.”

If you, dear reader, should be a child of God, do you know personally the untold joy of Jesus walking with you, day by day, as you tread life’s homeward way? Though at first their eyes were holden so that they did not know Him, yet His heavenly voice first broke the silence, and, in the quietness of His presence those gracious words fell on their listening ears, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?”

Needless to say, those omniscient eyes knew all that was passing within; but the loving words of Jesus not only awakened their interest, but were meant to elicit their real condition of soul. “And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days?”

Not till the close of that eventful day did those sad hearts take in the wondrous fact that the mysterious Stranger who was talking to them was but two days before the central figure of Jerusalem’s bitter hatred and scorn! Never before in, this world’s history, had such a scene been witnessed, nor ever shall again; for the holy Lamb of God had been nailed to Calvary’s cross amidst the cruel jeers of a howling mob, the scorns and derision of priests and rulers, the railing of two dying malefactors, and the bitter malice of Satan and the world.

“What things?” He asked; and their ready answer clearly showed what was so deeply exercising their hearts and minds. “They said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.” Here was a sweet confession to His mighty works, yet also to Israel’s guilt; but the full truth as to who He was and what He had done was as yet unknown to them, as now appears. “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed: Israel; and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; and when they found not his body they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said; but him they saw not.”

The truth was now fully told out; yet little thought they that the chief actor in their thrilling story was then walking at their side, and an attentive listener to all their thoughts about Himself. Yet so it was; and He, the incarnate Word, at once reminds them of the written word, of which He is the living expression. Quietly, but solemnly, came the Divine reply, “Oh! fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Neither before nor since have human ears ever listened to such a divine unfolding of truth; nor precious souls ever tasted so rich a repast of spiritual food. Yet even so their eyes were still holden, and as they drew nigh unto the village Jesus “made as though he would have gone farther.” This action on Christ’s part proved to be the true test of how far their souls had really profited by the divine teaching they had just been listening to; for they at once “constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And a risen Christ went in to tarry with them. Love begets love, and though some in earlier days, had entertained angels unawares, yet on this memorable occasion was it the privilege of these precious souls to have the Lord of glory as their honored guest.

“And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.” In the sweetness of divine fellowship, their spiritual vision came, and His company was more to those two hearts than all the world beside. Little wonder was it, therefore, that as He passed out of their sight, they should say to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

Thus ears, hearts and eyes were all opened that day; and, sweeter still, the scriptures themselves were opened by that Blessed One Himself, of whose wondrous ways and matchless glories all scripture speaks. “Himself” was the divine sum and substance of it all—the one bright and living reality that turned sorrow into joy, and made that day to be the brightest and the best day Cleopas and his companion had ever known.

Reader, do you know this Jesus as your own precious Lord and Saviour, and is He everything to you?

S. T.

"I Am Very Happy"

DURING the winter of 1859, in a village not far from London, a poor man was dying. A gentleman of the village came to his bedside, and kindly asked if he could do anything for him. “I am very, very happy,” was his simple reply. “But,” producing a prayer book, “you are dying; shall I not read a prayer with you?” “Oh! no, sir, I am very happy; I’m resting on the finished work of Christ.” Having so said, he bade his friends farewell, and “fell asleep in Jesus.”

My reader, are you also resting on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you inquire, “What must I do to be saved?”

“Nothing, either great or small,

Nothing, sinner—No!

Jesus did it—did it all—

Long, long ago.”

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

The Ten Lepers

LUKE 17:11-19.

THE Lord Jesus here shows that faith always finds it place of blessing with God, and proves Him superior to forms; but God is only found in Jesus.

In the ten lepers this blessed principle is brought out clearly. The healing of the Lord was equally manifest in all; but there is a power superior to that which cleanses the body, even were it desperately leprous. The power that belongs to, and comes out from, God is but a small thing in comparison with the knowledge of God Himself. This Alone brings to God in spirit (as it really did by the cross of Christ).

Observe, that he who exemplifies this action of divine grace was one that knew not traditional religion as the others did, that had no great privileges to boast of in comparison with the rest. It was the Samaritan in whom the Lord illustrated the power of faith. He had told the ten equally to go and show themselves to the priest; and as they went they were cleansed. One only, seeing he was cleansed, turns back, and with a loud voice glorified God. But the way in which he glorified God was not by merely ascribing the blessing to God. “He fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan.”

Apparently this was disobedience; and the others could well reproach their Samaritan fellow that he was unfaithful to Jesus. But faith is always right, whatever appearances may say; I speak not now of a fancy, of course—not of any eccentric humor or delusion, too often covered over with the name of faith. Real faith which God gives is never so far wrong; and he who, instead of going on to the priest, recognized in Jesus the power and goodness of God upon earth (the instincts of that very faith that was of God working in his heart and carrying him back to the source of the blessing)—he, I say, was the only one of the ten who was in the spirit, not only of the blessing, but of Him who gave the blessing. And so our Lord Jesus vindicates him. “Were there not ten cleansed?” said the Saviour; “but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.”

Faith invariably discovers the way to give glory to God. It matters not whether it be in Abraham or in a Samaritan leper, its path is entirely outside the ken of nature, yet faith does not fail to discern it; the Lord assuredly puts His seal upon it, and grace supplies all needed strength to follow.

W. K.

The Christian's Enjoyment

When languor and disease invade

This trembling house of clay,

‘Tis sweet to look beyond our cage,

And long to fly away.

Sweet to look inward and attend

The whispers of His love

Sweet to look upward to the place

Where Jesus pleads above.

Sweet to look back and see my name

In life’s fair book set down;

Sweet to look forward and behold

Eternal joys my own.

Sweet to reflect how grace divine

My sins on Jesus laid;

Sweet to remember that His blood

My debt of suffering paid.

Sweet on His righteousness to stand,

Which saves from second death;

Sweet to experience, day by day,

His Spirit’s quick’ning breath.

Sweet on His faithfulness to rest,

Whose love can never end;

Sweet on His covenant of grace

For all things to depend.

Sweet is the confidence of faith,

To trust His firm decrees;

Sweet to lie passive in His hand,

And know no will but His.

Sweet to rejoice in lively hope;

That when my change shall come,

Angels shall hover round my bed,

And waft my spirit home!

If such the views which grace unfolds,

Weak as it is below,

What rapture must the church above

In Jesu’s presence know!

If such the sweetness of the stream,

What must the fountain be,

Where saints and angels draw their bliss

Immediately from Thee!

A Bookmark

I REMEMBER looking at a bookmark with the words, “Faith, Hope and Love” worked in it by a young woman who had given it to her intended husband—I suppose as a sort of love gift. No doubt she had thought that with such a Friend in glory as they both possessed in Jesus, all must be well with them through life, and of this there can be no doubt. With others they sang on their wedding day:

“‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home.”

On the last day of her life on earth, of which I am now writing, it was still “Jesus.” As I was present in the room when she left us, I have often thought of putting before others some of her last words, which I may now do somewhat as I heard them. But ink and pen can never adequately describe their effect on the hearts of those who were present at the time. The manifest presence of God in that room, and the utterance of one so soon to depart, seemed to connect earth with heaven, and to banish for the time the grief that otherwise would have been so deeply felt.

Her departing to be with Christ had been spoken of in the usual way and in her hearing as “death.” At this she seemed to rise in the freshness of divine life. “Death!” said she; “there is nothing but life for those who have Christ as their Saviour. Those who belong to Christ will never taste death.” Then she began to tell us what was filling her own soul. “I believed the truth of God through dear, Mr. Trotter’s lips, and now I am proving what I then believed. I heard that Jesus, my Saviour, in passing through death, had by His death abolished death for all the people of God, that He had in His death made atonement to God for the sins of His people, so that those who believe might pass through time into eternity without having to taste death, as this had been suffered by Jesus for them.” What a time!—this precious truth which she had received, and the recollection of this servant of God through whom she had received it, to be afresh brought before her soul, and in such a way! None in that room but herself had ever seen Mr. William Trotter, who himself had passed into rest before her. But oh! the blessedness of being in the presence of one so soon to depart, who in such a simple way had so received Christ into her heart as Saviour. The sting of death was gone. There was nothing before her soul now but life with Jesus her Saviour, in the Father’s house above. We are not writing of an angel, but of a woman of like passions to us—of a wife, a mother—and I ask what but the very presence of God could have given such a one the victory in her own soul, which all in that room so deeply realized?

There was seen the reality of divine life possessed. Turning to her husband, she said, “On our wedding day we sang ‘‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last, Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home,’ and from that day to this it has been Jesus, Jesus—Jesus with us, and His word and Spirit in us, binding us up together with Himself in love. We have been waiting together for that day when all His will rise to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with the Lord.” Thus it was evident that it was this blessed hope which had cheered and comforted their hearts together through all the difficult circumstances which had beset their pathway. At last she said, “If I leave you here, it will be for me to be with Jesus there.” Then all was silent. She had fallen asleep through Jesus, leaving behind not only the calm of peace, but the very balm of heaven for the consolation of those remaining.

The reader will observe that my object is to show to others the reality of possessing Christ as Saviour and Friend now. Had she only but found a Saviour just ready to receive her when dying, this indeed would have been sovereign grace, as in the case of the dying robber. But mark the words of this one of whom we have been writing. Through her lips we learn of the Saviour as the Friend of both husband and wife, and whose Spirit and word enriched them as nothing else could do. If an Old Testament saint could say: “One day in thy courts is better than a thousand” elsewhere, what must the presence of the Lord Jesus be now to those who abide in His love through keeping His word?

Those who sweetly trust in Jesus

Day by day will surely find

Ever flowing from His presence

Solace for their troubled mind.

As He keeps them now from falling,

They may stem a world of strife;

Every comfort springs from Jesus,

Blessed precious Fount of life.

Living ‘midst a world of danger,

None but Jesus can supply

What we need to bear us upward,

What we need if called to die.

Weak as little helpless nestlings

Driven from the parent nest,

How, we need that great compassion

Dwelling in our Saviour’s breast!

How we need His loving kindness

And the covert of His wing!

All around us snares are springing,

Calling to our foes within.

How we need our precious Saviour

Ever near us, by our side!

Having Him as our Protector,

And through life our constant Guide!

Heavenly glory, what a prospect!

Traveling homeward day by day,

Through the Holy Spirit’s guiding,

Christ becomes their light and way.

And when with Him there in glory,

Dwelling in those courts above,

Sweeter still—through Jesus having

God as Light and God as Love.

E.T.

Three Incorruptible Things

(1) The Word of God

CHANGE and decay are stamped on everything “under the sun”; and “we all do fade as a leaf” is the inspired language of God’s prophet of old. A groaning creation is the continual reminder to all who have eyes to see that, spite of all man’s efforts to improve his condition, and notwithstanding all his fancied wisdom and ambitious schemes, he is absolutely helpless under the cruel mastery of sin and death. Satan, too, as the god of this world, still binds his victims in the iron chains of bondage; surely never more so than in these perilous times, when “the end of all things is at hand.”

Amidst the thickening darkness, and the fast approaching storm of divine judgment, which ere long will burst on a doomed and guilty world, how refreshing it is for the believer to remember that the new nature he possesses as God’s child is one that cannot decay; and the words of Peter sound in his ears with holy joy: “Being born again; not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding word of God.”

Yes, the good seed of God’s word is “incorruptible”; and the divine nature implanted in every true believer grows neither old nor corrupt, nor can it decay. The Master’s words can never lose their precious and eternal meaning, and He Himself has declared that “the seed is the word of God.” Often, alas! we know it falls into hearts, whence it is snatched away by the fowls of the air; or, on to the rock, where it cannot take root; or, maybe, it is choked with thorns. But where it enters soil prepared to receive and keep it, then by the power of the Eternal Spirit, it takes root, springs up, and bears precious fruit, thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.

The apostle John declares that “whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” There is nothing corruptible in the word of God. “It liveth and abideth forever,” in contrast to “All flesh,” which is “as grass, and all the glory of man, which is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

Not only does it, by the power of God’s Spirit, convert the soul, but it also gives light and life, peace and joy, food and strength; and, in its formative power, sanctifies the believer to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. Yes, the word of God is “incorruptible.”

(2) the Blood of Christ

Man’s guilt reached its climax when the soldier’s spear pierced the side of the crucified Jesus, although he knew not that, in that very act, he was fulfilling scripture. For, “without shedding of blood is no remission”; and “it is the blood which maketh atonement” for the soul. Not only is it the one and only ground of peace between a guilty sinner and a holy God; but it cleanses, justifies, and sanctifies the believer, and he, in virtue of it, is brought nigh to God, and privileged to worship by the Spirit in the holiest of all. Such is its priceless value in God’s account that even the vilest sinner who trusts it can stand in glory’s unsullied light without a spot or stain.

“Clean every whit;

Thou saidst it, Lord,

Shall one suspicion lurk?

Thine, surely, is a faithful word,

And Thine a finished work!”

Not only so, but the sinner who believes is “redeemed” by it, and the ransom price paid for his redemption is nothing less than the precious blood of God’s Holy One. The same inspired apostle who tells us that the word of God is “incorruptible,” also says, “Ye know that ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold.... but, with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” That holy Lamb of God was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and the blood which flowed from that divine Victim stands in everlasting contrast, not only with the blood of bulls and goats (which could never take away sin), but with all earth’s richest mines of gold and silver which only sink into utter insignificance when compared with its priceless, infinite, and eternal value.

The sinner’s redemption (whether of soul or of body) could not be effected by anything that is “corruptible”; and herein all the Old Testament types come short of the divine Anti-type; for “He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption,” and the blood of that slain Lamb, who was without spot or blemish, alone avails as the believer’s title to present peace and future glory.

Let the reader of these lines mark it well, and ponder it in his soul. You must be “born again” (for Jesus says so), by the word of God, which is “incorruptible,” and you must also be redeemed by that which is equally “incorruptible,” even the precious blood of Christ; or else there is nothing before you save death, judgment, and the lake of fire.

(3) the Heavenly Inheritance

All “under the sun” is “vanity and vexation of spirit” says the Preacher, and is fast passing away. The “potsherds” may strive with the potsherds of the earth; but all the fond ambitions and brightest hopes of men’s hearts are obscured and blighted by the overshadowing power of death. But Christ’s death and resurrection bring the believer into new scenes altogether, where sin and death can never come; and therefore all his hopes are living hopes, founded on Christ’s glorious resurrection, where, as a consequence, corruption has no place.

Canaan itself, the hope of Israel, was, after all, but an earthly inheritance and defiled by sin; but the glorious inheritance to which the believer is hastening is “incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away.” It is “reserved in heaven” for all those who are “kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” What an unspeakable comfort, amidst the increasing chaos, ceaseless change, fleshly excitement, and growing corruption of all things here below, to have a glorious and incorruptible inheritance, “where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal.”

This will be the believer’s happy portion in and with Christ in the bright and coming day, and for this his pilgrim spirit waits and longs. Though the trials of his faith may be many, yet the end is sure and certain, so that even now he can “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” The groaning creation waits “for the manifestation of the sons of God”—but meanwhile we ourselves wait for that triumph shout, “when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.”

S.T.

Of the World, or, Not of the World - Which?

BEFORE Christ came the world was divided into two classes—Jews and Gentiles. The former were the seed of Abraham, on whom was enjoined the rite of circumcision, as the seal of God’s covenant. The Gentiles were outside the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise—without hope and without God. For the knowledge of God they had given up, and so were suffered to walk in their own ways. With what result let Rom. 1 declare.

God has given His only begotten Son that we might have eternal life, and have the knowledge of redemption by the Saviour whom, when He came, both Jew and Gentile despised, rejected, and crucified! But heaven has received and welcomed and exalted to highest glory this One who suffered on the cross, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.

There are those now who form a third class—who have, by the grace of God, been separated from the world now guilty of this greatest of all crimes and hastening to judgment. These are now sons of God by faith in the Lord Jesus. They have eternal life, they know their sins are forgiven, they are going on to eternal mansions of glory. The world loves its own, but these are not now of the world; they belong to heaven—to the Saviour who died for them. To which class do you belong? Are you a sinner in your sins, or have you bowed to God’s verdict against you “Guilty before God”? He then declares His righteousness in His justifying the ungodly by faith in Christ. What a Saviour God! Thanks be to Him for His unspeakable gift!

The Church and the World

Revised

The Church and the World walked far apart,

On the changing shores of time;

The World was singing a giddy song,

And the Church a hymn sublime.

“Come, give me your hand,” cried the merry World,

“And walk with me this way”

But the good Church hid her snowy hand

And solemnly answered,

“Nay, I will not give you my hand at all,

And I will not walk with you;

Your way is the way of endless death,

Your words are all untrue.”

“Nay, walk with me but a little space,”

Said the World with a kindly air;

“The road I walk is a pleasant road,

And the sun shines always there;

Your path is thorny and rough and rude,

And mine is broad and plain;

My road is paved with flowers and gems,

And yours with tears and pain;

The sky above me is always blue,

No want, no toil I know;

The sky above you is always dark,

Your lot is a lot of woe;

My path, you see, is a broad, fair path,

And my gate is high and wide,

There is room enough for you and for me

To travel side by side.”

Half shyly the Church approached the World,

And gave him her hand of snow;

The old World grasped it and walked along,

Saying, in accents low

“Your dress is too simple to please my taste;

I will, give you pearls to wear,

Rich velvet and silks for your graceful form,

And diamonds to deck your hair.”

The Church looked down at her plain white robes,

And then at the dazzling World,

And smiled as she saw his handsome lip

With a smile contemptuous curled.

“I will change my dress for a costlier one,”

Said the Church with a smile of grace;

Then her pure white garments drifted away,

And the World gave, in their place,

Beautiful satins and shining silks,

And roses and gems and pearls;

And over her forehead her bright hair fell

Crisped in a thousand curls.

“Your house is too plain,” the proud World said,

“I’ll build you one like mine:

Carpets of Brussels, and curtains of lace,

And furniture ever so fine.”

So he built her a costly and beautiful house—

Splendid it was to behold;

Her sons and her beautiful daughters dwelt there

Gleaming in purple and gold;

And fairs and shows in the halls were held,

And the World and his children were there;

And laughter and music and feasts were heard

In the place that was meant for prayer.

She had cushioned pews for the rich and the great

To sit in their pomp and pride,

While the poor folks, clad in their shabby suits,

Sat meekly down, outside.

The angel of Mercy flew over the Church,

And whispered, “I know thy sin”;

The Church looked back with a sigh, and longed

To gather her children in.

But some were off in the midnight ball,

And some were off at the play,

And some were drinking in gay saloons,

So she quietly went her way.

The sly World gallantly said to her,

“Your children mean no harm—

Merely indulging in innocent sports.”

So she leaned on his proffered arm,

And smiled, and chatted, and gathered flowers

As she walked along with the World,

While millions and millions of deathless souls

To the terrible pit were hurled.

“Your preachers are all too old and plain,”

Said the gay old World with a sneer;

“They frighten my children with dreadful tales,

Which I like not that they should hear:

They talk of brimstone, and fire and pain,

And the horrors of endless night;

They talk of a place that should not be

Mentioned to ears polite.

I will send you some of the better stamp,

Polished and gay and fast,

Who will tell them that people may live as they list

And go to heaven at last.

The Father is merciful, great and good,

Tender and true and kind;

Do you think He would take one child to heaven

And leave the rest behind?”

So he filled her house with “cultured” divines,

Gifted and great and learned,

And the plain old men that preached the cross

Were out of the pulpit turned.

“You give too much to the poor,” said the World,

“Far more than you ought to do;

If the poor need shelter and food and clothes,

Why need it trouble you;

Go, take your money and buy rich robes,

And horses and carriages fine,

And pearls and jewels and dainty food,

And the rarest and costliest wine.

My children they dote on all such things,

And if you their love would win,

You must do as they do, and walk in the ways

That they are walking in.”

The Church held tightly the strings of her purse,

And gracefully lowered her head,

And simpered, “I’ve given too much away

I’ll do, sir, as you have said.”

So the poor were turned from her door in scorn,

And she heard not the orphan’s cry;

And she drew her beautiful robes aside

As the widows went weeping by.

The so-called Church and the sons of the World

Walked closely hand and heart,

And only the Master, who knoweth all,

Could tell the two apart.

Then the Church sat down at her ease and said,

“I am rich and in goods increased;

I have need of nothing, and naught to do

But to laugh and dance and feast.”

The sly World heard her, and laughed in his sleeve,

And mockingly said aside,

“The Church is fallen—the beautiful Church

And her shame is her boast and pride!”

But a voice came down, through the hush of heaven

From Him who sat on the throne;

“I know thy works, and thou hast said,

I am rich; and hast not known

That thou art naked, and poor and blind

And wretched before my face;

Return, repent, lest I cast thee out,

And blot thy name from its place!”

M. C. E.

Ye who choose the pleasures of sin,

There is no heaven for you;

If you side with the World its joys to win,

You must share its judgment too.

After Many Days

ON returning to my native village on one of my summer holidays I was told there had been a stranger in the place who had come to find out if possible the men who some thirty years before had preached in the village where he then lived.

He had come to make known to them his father’s departure to be with the Lord. It appears that it was their father’s desire that these men should be told something of the goodness of God both to him and to his family, now by grace on the heavenly road. This dear aged pilgrim had but passed on in advance into heaven’s bright scenes with the love of God as a banner over Him. My memory still retains the marvelous way the Spirit of God had wrought in this case.

A sister who had been brought to the Lord in Bristol was desirous that the gospel should be preached in this village. After much prayer, two young men placed themselves in the Master’s hands for His use. It meant a cross-country walk of about eighteen miles every Lord’s day after the breaking of bread. But as we shall see through the prayers of the saints, and the Lord’s working with them, blessing followed. Strange to say, the only person the sister bid them not go near was the saved man of whom I am writing. For at that time, according to report, he was the terror of the village. Yet in the goodness of God, this very man was to be the first fish to be caught in the gospel net on that day. A great sinner as he was, he was brought into contact with another great sinner who had found in Jesus a great Saviour.

A shady place under the trees was selected for the first meeting. The tenth chapter of Romans was read. Then the speaker began to show that it was heart work spoken of there—and that nothing could ever have saved us from the enemy of our souls if Christ had not come down to deliver us. After speaking of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ he went on to show how truly divine was that love which led God to deliver up His only begotten Son that we might be saved. Also with what pity and compassion the Saviour must have looked on us thus to offer up Himself a sacrifice to God to redeem our souls from destruction. This love, said he, is what God now commends. This is the love that can reach the very hardest heart and bring a man forth as in this day to decide for Christ and to confess His blessed name before others.

No doubt the speaker sought to show the manner in which God delights to receive all who come to Him through Jesus, who died for their sins. Be that as it may, there was one in that company whose heart had been touched, whom grace had subdued, who felt what none but God could explain, and so it was with this very man who the sister feared would hinder the messengers of mercy from doing what she desired. Do we not see in this that if the desire of the heart is according to the will of God He can and will go far beyond the desire in blessing. From the first the preacher had dealt with the heart by the sword of the Spirit—the word of God.

The meeting was over. It was seen that the manner of the man they once feared was now completely changed. The gospel had been to him the power of God unto salvation. Much blessing was afterward enjoyed in the Lord’s presence with him. As a newborn babe he eagerly drank in the sincere milk of God’s holy word. This is the man whose desire when he came to die was that others should know that his children was on the heavenly road. That road in which the banner of God’s love waved over him as a sinner saved.

And now, dear reader, what have you to say to these things? Are you of those to whom the gospel of God—concerning His Son the Lord Jesus Christ—has been salvation? Or are you among those that are perishing—such things being to them foolishness? If so, may your eyes be opened and your heart be touched by the love that led Jesus to die. I do feel for you all—some of you, how careless! Some so wise in the things of this life, and yet so dark in their minds as to God and His Son. I close with words which the mind of man could never have conceived, nor human lips have ever spoken until brought down from heaven by the Son of God Himself who could say, We speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and this is His wonderful testimony: “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.” My own experience is somewhat expressed by the following lines:

I was blind, but now I see,

My Redeemer made me free;

When beneath that tyrant’s yoke,

All His bands my Saviour broke.

For my sins His blood was shed,

Love the banner o’er my head;

Christ who stooped for me to die,

As my Saviour lives on high.

Rest I’m finding day by day,

Traveling on my homeward way,

Yoked with Christ I journey on,

Singing still my happy song.

Joy in telling all around,

What a Saviour I have found,

For when souls to Jesus cling,

Then their tongues begin to sing.

Heaven with Christ in perfect bliss,

Clothed in spotless righteousness,

All His ransomed ones will share,

But will you be with us there?

E. T.

Can't I Be Converted?

HE was a soldier sent home on sick leave—or rather to die, for there was no hope for him. This was known to an earnest Christian worker who visited much in the neighborhood, and who lost no time in calling to see him, and then, reading John 3, pressed on him the necessity of being born again. The young man listened with attention, asked many questions, answered those addressed to him politely and correctly, but “I am sure he is not resting on Christ” was the mental verdict of the visitor as he bade him good-bye.

A short time passed, and again the two met. Feeling certain his opportunities were few, the Christian again spoke plainly and faithfully to him. Solemnly then came the confession that though not afraid of the article of death, on the battle field or in the sick chamber, the young soldier well knew that he was not prepared to meet that which comes after death—the judgment. God’s word was opened, and again His way of salvation was told out; how He has found a ransom, and because of the price having been paid by His beloved Son. He can say, “Deliver him from going down into the pit,” when suddenly the young man interrupted with the words, “Can’t I be converted?” “Of course, you can, if you take Christ at His word,” replied the visitor, and then he recalled to him again what he had read on the previous visit—that the same lips that said, “Ye must be born again” said also “The Son of man must be lifted up, that whosover believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Conversion—new birth—is the result of believing on Christ, of resting on His work and His word. The young man listened eagerly; he appeared deeply anxious to be saved; and the visitor left encouraged.

Two or three days later he called again. Still very anxious, he inquired if his friend would write him out a prayer that he could use night and morning. Poor fellow! He little realized that it was not his asking that would bring him salvation, but that God was beseeching him to be reconciled; that He was offering to him freely, as he was, the pardon, the salvation, the joy he wanted.

Just then his mother entered the room, and proceeded to give her version of salvation—the exact opposite of God’s declaration about it. Earnestly the visitor prayed that this obstacle, placed by the devil in the way of his prey’s escape, might not be allowed to succeed; and again he pressed both the young man and his mother too to rest simply on the word of God about the work of the Lord Jesus.

Again he called at the well-known house. Ten days had passed, and he found the invalid apparently somewhat better. But still he was occupied with his own ideas, anxious to be converted, but refusing all the while God’s terms— “To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” No, he would be converted; but, like Naaman, who would be cleansed, he desired it to be in his own way, “I thought he would come down to me, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.”

Putting once more the truth before him, the visitor left to fulfill an engagement he had that afternoon in the country. He did not return till the next day, and then heard to his surprise and sorrow that the one he had left apparently better the day before, had suddenly passed away that morning. Passed away—where? It is written, “But the fearful and unbelieving.... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”

Reader, if you are halting between two opinions; if you would like to be saved, but you want it on your own terms—to purchase it by the new leaf you hope to turn over, or the prayers you offer, or the penances you endure, you will never have it. Take warning by the young soldier. God says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life FREELY.” Will you, then, not take, and drink and live?

"The Worst Woman in the Town"

“WHAT a sad character to give anyone,” some of my readers will say. Strange as it may appear to you, the person in question used these words to describe herself. I had lived near her for some time and feel sure that none of her neighbors would have spoken thus of her. She was known as a devoted wife and a loving mother. Neither had she neglected her “religious duties.”

What then could have led her to use such words? I will tell you. It was through hearing the Gospel preached! This may puzzle some of my readers, but it is nevertheless a fact. As she heard it preached week by week the conviction deepened that she was a sinner and therefore was unfit for God’s presence. She had often heard that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), and that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15); but now it had become a personal question.—What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16 30).

Then it was that the grand old answer came to her, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). She believed in Christ, took Him as her Saviour and has known ever since that she is “saved.”

One is led to value that word “saved” more and more as the days go by! It seems to speak of so much blessing to those who have come to Christ! How many like the one of whom I write have been content with something short of this, until God has shown them their need of a Saviour! It is to be feared that very many are resting in their religious observances, but nobody ever knew what it was to be “saved” in that way.

Reader! turn from your own poor doings and trust in Christ! Learn that God has a delight in saving those who are lost, ruined and helpless! Hence He loved and gave His Son. Think of the cost at which He has been in order that you might be saved.

The subject of this short paper will never regret the experience she has passed through. Humbling indeed it is to have to own that I am a sinner and unable to fit myself for God’s presence; but surely it is a blessed thing to know that God’s grace is fully adapted to meet my case. How important it is that souls should take their true place now, while it is the day of salvation! While one delights in the fullness and certainty of the gospel message, yet the thought that my readers may soon hear it for the last time forces itself upon one’s attention, That which is indeed the “blessed hope” of the believer—the coming of the Lord—will close the day of grace for all who now refuse the gospel.

Believe in Him now, own Him as your Saviour and Lord, and then may you wait for His coming from heaven to receive you to Himself.

“Watching and ready may we be,

As those that wait their Lord to see.”

C.W.

Rest

Rest for the weary, rest,

In this dark world of sin;

Say, can it anywhere be found

Midst life’s unceasing din?

Rest for the weary! rest

From sorrow, strife, and care,

Vexation, worry, man’s self-will,

Around us everywhere!

Rest for the weary! rest;

Sin’s captives, in their chains,

For such can rest indeed be found?

Yes, while life still remains.

Rest for the weary! rest

Is found in Christ alone,

Who once was “Man of Sorrows” here,

Yet all God’s will hath done.

Rest, through His finished work,

Rest, through His precious blood;

Rest from the weariness of sin,

Rest from its guilty load.

Light at Eventide; or, the Eleventh Hour

A CHRISTIAN who through a long and tedious day had been following his usual laborious calling, feeling very fatigued, was retiring to bed rather earlier than was his custom, when he heard a timid knock at the front door. “Who’s there?” he asked. “If you please, sir, I’ve come to ask you to come and see mother,” were the words he heard uttered in girlish tones. “I cannot tonight,” he replied, as he wondered how ever he could drag his aching limbs to the address given. “Oh, do come,” pleaded the child. “I will call early in the morning,” he rejoined. But as the child was turning away he felt suddenly constrained to go, so called out after the retreating child, “Tell mother that I will come along in a few minutes.” And hastily putting on his shoes and lifting a silent prayer to God for His guidance and blessing, he set out to the address given, endeavoring to forget his bodily weariness.

When he arrived at the lowly cottages, and was ushered into a bedroom, he saw lying upon a bed a woman whom he at once recognized as being a listener to the glad tidings of God’s salvation, which he had proclaimed in an adjoining factory some time previously. Upon her face was a look of utter dejection, and she was uttering the solemn words, “I’m lost, I am going to hell. I’m lost, I am going to hell.” “You know then that you are a poor, lost, helpless sinner,” remarked the visitor, “but let me remind you that God has in His great love provided a way of escape for you. Do you believe the Scriptures?” “I believe the Bible,” was her faint reply. So turning to that beautiful passage in Gal. 2:20, “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,” he asked, “Do you believe that Christ loved you?” There was a stillness in that chamber for a few minutes, for God the Holy Ghost was speaking to that woman’s heart. She was halting between two opinions. Should Christ or Satan have the victory? Should there be rejoicing in heaven over another brand plucked as it were from the burning? “Do you believe that He loved you?” again asked the visitor. “Yes,” was her hesitating reply. “Very well, then,” he continued, “not only does He love, but the verse says, ‘He gave himself for me’ —for me, so you see it requires individual application.” There was another momentary pause, when suddenly the sick woman exclaimed, her face radiant with newly-found joy: “I’ve got it, I see it” ; for she saw for the first time in her life, that although she was lost, sinful, and passing onward to endless ruin, yet the love of Jesus Christ was so great that He died for her sins, gave Himself for her. Thus was she born again and made through divine grace an heir of God, even at the eleventh hour. At midnight her ransomed spirit was set free; under three hours after the glorious knowledge that her many sins were all forgiven.

The Credentials of Salvation

This is your PERMISSION to come.

“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

This is your INVITATION to come.

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

This is an ENTREATY for you to come.

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

This is a COMMAND for you to come.

“This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.”

Here some are COMPELLED to come.

“Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.”

This is the RECEPTION for those who come.

“Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.”

The Victims of the "Titanic"

IN a leading London journal, usually correct and a trustworthy in its information, the following statement may be found under date May 1st, 1912:

“Two miles beneath the ocean nearly thirteen hundred bodies are entombed in the remnant of what once for a brief space was the undisputed queen of the seas. There they will remain for eternity, undisturbed by even the rack of the tides.”

With all respect to the editor and his correspondent, we would ask, Is this really true, that there they will remain for eternity? How so? Who can tell us about eternity? Only the High and Holy One who inhabits it, He of whom Moses wrote, “Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” And what says He? “So man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep” (Job 14:12). “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.... And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works” (Rev. 20:11, 13). Every one of those thirteen hundred shall rise again. Down the two miles of ocean depth the voice of the Son of man shall sound, and at His command every one of those imprisoned in that shattered giant of the deep shall come forth.

And every one of the readers of Gospel Gleanings shall hear His voice also. In that day of The Great Assize every one shall appear. Not alike, not for the same purpose, but they shall all be there. There are some in those ocean depths who will not lie there “to all eternity,” nor even for all time. There are some there who in life and health heard the voice of the Son of God calling them from a state of death and sin into possession of life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24); and they believed His word. Just as they were they trusted Him, and they passed “from death unto life,” and when the crash came at midnight, and the deep cold Atlantic billows rolled over them, they simply “fell asleep through Jesus,” and their spirits passed in peace to His own blessed presence.

And in a little while His well-known voice shall call again, when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4). From their watery bed those redeemed bodies shall rise, changed to the likeness of their Saviour’s body of glory. Is my reader going to join them when they meet their Lord in the air? There at home with Him shall they enjoy His and their Father’s house; from His hand shall they receive the white marriage-robe when all that His grace has wrought in them shall be manifested at “the judgment seat of Christ,” and heaven shall ring with the bridal joys of the “marriage supper of the Lamb.”

And while heaven is celebrating all this, and ocean’s depths lie undisturbed, still holding in their quiet bed the “Titanic’s” lost victims, this guilty earth, with its vaunted pride, its godlessness, and its sin shall be the scene of its forgotten Creator’s just judgment, when He “shall arise to shake Terribly the earth,” and then, having purged from His kingdom “all things that offend,” His beloved Son, the murdered Man of Calvary, shall reign for a thousand years in righteousness and glory. And with Him shall reign His risen glorified saints. “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom,” this earth and heaven shall pass away, and again the voice of the Son of man shall sound summoning every sinner in earth or sea or hell from their graves, to stand before His judgment throne. In the dark caverns of despair lost demons are awaiting that day “in chains of darkness,” sinners for whom no Saviour has been found, no salvation provided, but for whom the lake of fire has been prepared (Matt. 25:41). And with them in their eternal doom shall be associated those for whom a Saviour died, to whom a salvation, divine, blood-bought, has been offered, but who have spurned God’s invitation and despised His grace, and perished accordingly. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”

The Fisherman's Waif

KING GEORGE IV. was nearing the end of his reign, but the Pavilion at Brighton was still gay with the court who accompanied their sovereign to his favorite seaside resort, when the subject of this narrative was left a helpless, homeless orphan at the age of three and a half years. There were no “Dr. Barnardo’s Homes” in those days, but there were kind hearts beating even under rough jerseys, and the fishermen on the beach took pity on the tiny waif, supplying him with food, and letting him curl up at night in one of their boats! Such was the upbringing of this poor child, earning as soon as able a livelihood among his kind but rough protectors, and even when arrived at manhood, for five years never sleeping in a house, but always on the beach, on one occasion at least having to be dug out of the snow under the cliff after a heavy fall!

It may well be imagined that “God was not in any of his thoughts.” Sunday and week-day alike his hoarse rough voice, the result no doubt of the years of exposure, could be heard about the town calling out his fish; and when he married, it was to a woman of bad character he united himself. But though he had no thought or care for God, he was the subject of God’s thoughts, nay, of His predestinating, calling, saving grace. First, his wife was brought where another “woman of the city” had been drawn—to the feet of Jesus; and there she too had heard the blessed words, “Her sins which are many are all forgiven,” and had gone in peace to lead henceforth, even up to the present moment of writing this, a God-fearing consistent life as a Christian.

Was it the testimony of this life that God used to bring about the purposes of His grace, when the former homeless waif, now nearly sixty years of age, was induced to enter a mission room? The word that night was preached in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the poor man found out he was a guilty sinner in the presence of a holy God. Too shy to stay behind when the invitation was given at the close for any anxious about their sins to wait for further conversation, he hastened home, and falling on his knees alone before God, he, with tears, confessed his sinfulness, and claimed the work which the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary as wrought for him. And He who said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” received and accepted the poor guilty sinner, who rose from his knees assured that he was pardoned and “reconciled to God by the death of His Son.”

“If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new”; and among the “old things,” now gone forever, was the Sunday trading. No longer was the gruff voice, so well known, heard in the streets on the Lord’s day, “the first of the week,” the day on which his Saviour and Lord rose from the grave, and appeared to His own when gathered together, was henceforth sacred to him, and to be used for His glory, not as hitherto for business or pleasure. Good was it that when he heard the word of God, he “received it not as the word of men but, as it is in truth, the word of God,” for before long the seeds of consumption sown during his youth developed themselves, and after a long illness, which was “a great blessing” to him, as he confessed, leading him into a deeper, fuller knowledge of Him who had loved him and given Himself for him, the once outcast homeless orphan passed into the presence of His Saviour to be forever “at home with the Lord.”

The Village Green

WE read in the New Testament of a woman whose heart the Lord opened, and who attended to the words spoken by God’s servants. The women of which we now write were not sellers of purple like Lydia, but women so secluded and reserved that those who knew them best looked upon them as almost miserly in their manner and mode of life. ‘Tis true their house was situated in a lovely spot with a good thick set hedge around the garden. But even then, what took place was unexpected, for on the other side of the hedge, at the end of their garden, week after week, those noisy preachers were there telling of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, showing the people as best they could what Satan by sin had done for the destruction of man, and what a helpless state sin had brought us all into. Yet that into this ruin the love of God had come down to us in Jesus, that God had loved us, sending His own Son into this world to be our Saviour.

And they went on to show that this only could be done by the very Son of God Himself taking our place and dying for us, actually sacrificing His own life to save us, giving Himself a ransom for us all. If Jesus had not come into the world, as the light of the world, we should all have remained in darkness and have died in our ignorance and perished in our sins.

But while these things claimed their attention, it was as the Lord Jesus was presented as Saviour, not only to give us light and life, but to suffer for our sins, that hearts seemed affected. And no wonder, for the Holy Spirit is ever delighting to show us more and more the value of the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanseth from all sin and can bring even the sinner, as one now saved by faith in Jesus, into God’s presence, clear from every stain of sin. Those who had traveled so far to convey the glad tidings were gladdened to see many interested, week after week, in the word spoken, but there were two sisters behind that garden hedge whom the preachers could not see, yet in whom the Spirit of God had been working, and as of old, had opened their hearts. How long God had been working in them we cannot tell, but with full hearts they came forth to confess Jesus as their Saviour.

What a change in them now! One of their first acts, after the heart was opened, was to open their purse. This the preachers at first refused, but it was of no avail. Having found Jesus so precious to their own souls, the money must be spent to purchase tracts and books that others might enjoy the blessing they now enjoyed with such real sweetness. Here were these women now in the possession of a new life through faith in Christ Jesus. How sweet, and yet how simple. As their souls found rest and peace in relying on what had been done by Jesus for them, they began to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord whom they now loved by drinking in the sincere milk of God’s word.

As I write, the vision of these two newly-born ones rises up before me. I see them wending their way to the place where those who had been brought to the Lord on the village green before them were gathering together to show forth the Lord’s death in the breaking of bread, as the Lord desired that those who found salvation through His death should do. What a remembrance it was in their souls of Him whom they now loved, because they had been so loved.

And now, dear reader, are you among the saved ones? Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

If not, how is it? There must be some cause for your present state. In the case of these two, sisters we see how clear the truth of God is—that Faith comes by hearing the word of God. They heard it behind their garden hedge. They believed in the blessed Saviour of whom it speaks, and were saved. New life was evident, as their afterlife clearly proved. People do not like to be told that they cannot see. But Christ has come, the Rock of Ages has been smitten, the waters of life are flowing freely, sinners are brought out of darkness into God’s own marvelous light. The true light is shining, sinners saved are standing in the true grace of God. Surely it must be the truth, that the enemy of our souls is blinding the minds of those who believe not lest the truth should be seen and Christ received, and the soul saved.

After this, can you still remain among that class—who have no place in their hearts for Christ?

We would not put before you anything that our own souls have not felt. By the working of God’s own Spirit in our souls, we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, and as one who has been in the enjoyment of it for so many years, I can only truly give expression to my own feelings by saying, How I long that others should really know the truth as it is in Jesus. What unsearchable riches God has treasured up for us in Christ, and oh! how freely are they all dealt out to needy souls—all in contrast with the vanity on which Satan is ever seeking to feed the human mind. Those who trust in God will ever find comfort for their life here in His own presence with them, in all through which they may have to pass in this world, now so opposed through Satan by sin to the goodwill of God to His creatures. Still, with Christ their Saviour, God as their Father, the Holy Spirit guiding by the word, the children of God may move safely on as our little hymn describes it:

Our Heavenly Father knoweth the throbbing of each heart,

Though all may seem against us, He takes a Father’s part;

Whatever now seems changing, His love remains the same,

How blessed are the people who trust in Jesus’ Name!

In Jesus God has given a solace for the soul,

Whatever opposition across our path may roll;

The blessed work Christ finished brings everlasting fame,

And, oh, how blest the people who trust in Jesus’ name!

Not all man’s sad confession, not all our fears or doubt,

Can stay His loving kindness, or shut His goodness out;

Far, far above all darkness, our God remains the same,

Still blessed are the people who trust in Jesus’ Name.

Nothing their hope can wither, nothing their life destroy,

A living Friend in glory, oh, what should touch their joy?

Grace ever leading onward, through scorn, contempt and shame,

But what should stay their boasting of Jesus’ blessed Name?

E. T.

Two Unsinkable Ships

CONFIDENCE is a happy thing when the object in which we trust is worthy of it, but it is far from blessed, however, imposing in pretensions, the greater the more delusive, when it is otherwise. It fills one with sorrow to think of the almost unqualified trust with which so many regarded the now sunken “Titanic.” Unsinkable indeed! Never so, has been or will be, zany vessel constructed by man. Ice, wind, water, etc., are all God’s servants, and occasionally by their use He is pleased to prove to men that in the things in which they deal proudly He is above them.

There are, however, two vessels, one recorded in the Old, and one in the New Testament, which really were unsinkable, and we propose briefly to consider these, what rendered them so, and the lessons to be learned from them.

In the Old Testament we have the ark, only a wooden vessel with its rooms pitched within and without with pitch, but its dimensions divinely given. Where it was erected we are not told. There is nothing to lead us to suppose it was on the top of a hill or rock or near any water. It may have been on level ground, and human reasonings may infer that while the waters rose higher and higher till “the mountains were covered,” as the ark rose with them it might easily have been dashed against a rock and smashed to pieces. Was it not ill found—without compass, chart, life-buoy, or lifeboat? No; God shut its occupants in; they were provided for perfectly, and were secure. They were safely landed on the new earth after “the world that then was being overflowed with water perished” (2 Pet. 3:6). How was this? GOD WAS ITS PILOT. Safely it rested on the mountains of Ararat, and right it was that “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl and offered an offering unto the Lord.”

There is nothing to lead us to suppose that the ship described in the end of chapter iv. of the Gospel of Mark was anything but an ordinary vessel, a fishing smack, for we read, “that there was a great storm, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.” One, however, was there, whom they had taken “even as He was,” from all His labors, and He was “asleep on a pillow.” However, He had said, “Let us pass over unto the other side,” therefore wind and sea might blow and surge as they list, and the faithless passengers imagine they were perishing and awaken Him. They were safe WITH HIM awake or asleep. He has but to say, “Peace, be still,” with the result that “they came over unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes” (Mark 5:1). Yes, safely landed at their destination.

To sum up. It is essential then to have God for our Pilot; in other words, that our faith and hope should rest in God, in His word (1 Pet. 1:21), that we should be with Christ resting in the Lord Jesus, His death, His precious blood, His resurrection our only vessel of safety. Both confidences are comprised in this one verse, viz., “He that heareth my (Christ’s) word and believeth him (God) that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Is the love of God in sending Jesus, and the Saviour Himself, with His finished work, the only confidences of my reader’s heart? If so all is well for time and for eternity, “for whether we live we live unto the Lord, and whether we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).

Apart from this, for the unbeliever there is only one certain thing, “a certain looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”

I conclude with Miss Bowley’s hymn:

Many sons to glory bringing,

God sets forth His heavenly name;

On we march, in chorus singing,

“Worthy the ascended Lamb.”

God who gave the blood to screen us,

God looks down in perfect love;

Clouds may seem to pass between us,

There’s no change in Him above.

Though the restless foe accuses,

Sins recounting like a flood,

Every charge our God refuses

Christ has answered with His blood.

In the refuge God provided,

Though the world’s destruction lowers,

We are safe to Christ confided:

Everlasting life is ours.

And ere long when come to glory,

We shall sing a well-known strain;

This the never-tiring story,

“Worthy is the Lamb once slain.”

W N. T.

What a Title!

THE writer was sitting, a few days ago, in a shelter provided for tramway passengers, waiting for a car, when a young lady entered and sat down also. Under her arm she held a book, evidently taken from some library, the title of which was read, and re-read, with a growing feeling of horror at such an appropriation! “When God laughs.” Who the writer of the volume is or was I know not, or the contents of the work —in appearance a novel—but that reckless title! Solemnly the words of Scripture floated over memory— “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov. 1:26).

Yes, four times over in His unerring word does God refer to His “laughing.” In Psalm 2 it is written, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and their rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath” (vers. 2-5). And in Psalm 37 it is written again, “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him; for he seeth that his day is coming” (vers. 12, 13).

Also Ps. 59:7, 8, “Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for who, say they, doth hear? But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.”

And again, the verses above quoted, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov. 1:24-26).

And four times over also in the same Book of God is it recorded of His guilty creature man that he laughed at Him!

In Matt. 9:24, Mark 5:40, and Luke 8:53, these five awful little words occur, “They laughed him to scorn.” “They”! Who were they? A few poor puny creatures, gaining their pitiful livelihood by simulating grief they did not feel, hired to weep over departed loved ones they had not lost; who could dry their tears and check their sobs at a moment’s notice to laugh—laugh derisively—at whom? “They laughed him to scorn.” And who was He? They very Truth itself! The One who “spake and it was done, who commanded, and it stood fast,” who was exactly what I say unto you, “the Creator God,” their Creator God—yes, they laughed Him to scorn, as He stood by the couch of the sleeping maiden and declared, “The maid is not dead, but sleepeth.”

And again, in a darker hour, even amid the horrors of Calvary, that same holy Sufferer declared, “All they that see me laugh me to scorn” (Psalm 22:7).

He was there, the holy Martyr, suffering from their guilty, nay, lawless hands, for righteousness’ sake. He was there, the holy Victim, bearing the wrath of God against sin—the very sin that reached its climax in the guilt that murdered Him —and then and there, in those unutterable horrors, they “laughed him to scorn”!

God is righteous; He is a God of recompenses, and He will laugh in His turn. But oh, my reader, before that day comes, before His wrath burneth as an oven, turn to Him. Now the fullest, freest, welcome of infinite grace awaits every sinner that comes to Him! The work that Jesus has accomplished is infinite in value. He has atoned for sins, and He is the propitiation for the whole world, so that not one need perish—yet “if ye believe not that I am,” said our Lord, “ye shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come.” But now He calls you to be reconciled. Why go on in your rebellion? Why continue with those who mock and spurn Him until too late? If you refuse His offer now, there shall be no reconciliation for you when He shall have reconciled all things to Himself. God grant no reader of these pages may ever know the dread reality of His laugh against them for all eternity.

Letter to an Agnostic

8th Aug., 1901.

Dear Mr.—

I trouble you with this letter, only because I am sure that you are under a very great mistake. If you held shares in a company under the impression that you would come out well, and I had reliable information to the contrary, ought I not to enlighten you?

But suppose you said: “Let me alone! I don’t care if I am ruined; I am quite content at present. I am determined to go on living upon the illusion; you say it is so, but I don’t know it, and I don’t want to be disturbed. Let me alone I say; if I am to starve, if I am to be turned into the streets and my furniture sold over my head, I don’t care, as long as I am happy and comfortable at the present moment, I will just shut my eyes to the future.”

Now, dear Sir, what do you think of that for a rational, intelligent man? And yet,—is not this an exact picture of yourself in relation to eternal things?

You say that you do not know. But that is not because you are not capable of knowing, nor because information is not to be had. Is it not because you do not wish to know? Because you deliberately shut your eyes to the light?

Then let me tell you one thing, of which perhaps you may not be aware. If, dear Sir, you are finally lost it will not be merely because you were born in a sinful state, which you were; nor merely because you have committed actual sins, which you have, as well as I: for all that, there is a remedy, through a Saviour, whom God has provided; BUT “THIS is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

You are pleased to call yourself, dear Sir, an “Agnostic.” But adopting this name will not relieve you of responsibility. You are by creation capable of knowing God. You have faculties for investigating and ascertaining truth, for which you are accountable to Him who created you. With one half of the earnestness with which you would investigate a company in which you were about to invest, you could ascertain the truth of the gospel.

For all this, dear Sir, you will give account to God. To say “I DON’T KNOW,” only augments the heaviness of your responsibility, if, along with the ignorance, you have faculties capable of knowing, and ample means of information at hand.

But I have always found that Agnostics never read the evidences of Christianity: they do, however, read with gusto anything against it. Take yourself, for instance, you will not receive me as a visitor, unless I agree to ignore my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. I might talk on any other subject under the sun—but not about God’s blessed salvation for sinners.

All this reveals the secret of your will. It is not simply that you do not know, but that you will not. Your ignorance is like what Peter describes: “Of this, they willingly are ignorant.” There is a word which, while it sweetly encourages the earnest soul, condemns the opposed or the indifferent—the Lord, who knows all hearts, has said: “If any man WILL do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17).

There is another point I wish to put before you. It is the wildest folly for an agnostic to suppose that his belief or unbelief, his knowing or not knowing, will make the smallest difference in the facts themselves. If God is going to “judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ”—my ignoring it or disbelieving it, will make not a bit of difference, except in the pangs of remorse I may feel—bitter, eternal remorse—at having neglected and rejected the golden offer of salvation that had been held out to me. A large class of persons seem to think that they have quite disposed of Christianity, gospel and all, by saying that they don’t believe it. They may indeed dismiss it from their minds, but if there is to be a GREAT WHITE THRONE before which the dead, small and great, will stand, disbelieving it now, will make not the smallest difference as to the holding of that solemn Session. A man may tear up a summons and trample it under his feet, but the Courts of Justice will know how to find him, and to bring him face to face with his responsibilities. The African Republics disbelieved the power of Great Britain, when declaring war, but they have now discovered it to their destruction. They know it now, but too late. Millions will be in the same position as to the gospel which they are despising today.

There is awful deception in that name “Agnostic.” One makes up his mind to reject the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; but he flatters himself that he is not a common unbeliever. Oh! no; he is an “Agnostic.” That sounds so much better! An “Agnostic”! One would think it was a sect of deep philosophers, whereas it simply means one who does not know; translate this Greek word into a Latin equivalent—an “ignoramus” — “we are a lot of ignoramuses”! How does that sound? Ah! there is much in a name; and this high-sounding term “Agnostic” is one of the falsities which Satan uses—the small deceptions and follies by which he turns man away from Him who has said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Dear Mr. — , I trust you will not be offended at this letter, but there is one more point I want to make. It is this. The short space of life remaining to you has a character of value, greater than all the eternity that lies before you. Never in eternity will you have such a time as the present. How so? Because you are in the world where the gospel is made known. You have rejected it all your life. In the short period remaining to you, you may undo that error if you will. If, between now and your leaving the world, you come to God, through Christ, there is full and free forgiveness for you for all your sins. God is now “reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

Let me beseech you to consider what a golden offer is made to you. Do you really apprehend that a “clean balance sheet” is offered to you as a responsible human being? The Boers have till the 15th September to surrender. You have the present time to surrender to God. You may have a year; you may have ten; you may not have ONE—not even six months! No one can tell. The only time you can be sure of is the present time, and of that the Scripture says: “Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” To believers it is said, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.”

But if you say, “No! I don’t want cleansing; I don’t want forgiveness or pardon, or remission of sins”; then you bind your own sins doubly upon yourself; and deliberately, and audaciously go into eternity with the load of a life’s sins upon your back; and, added to them, the sin of despising God’s mercy, and rejecting His Son—by that action virtually ENDORSING THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST—crucifying Him afresh, as it were, unto yourself.

I should be delighted to come and see you, dear Sir, but cannot accept the condition that Christ is to be left outside. They don’t reject Him in heaven, and those who would have Him in heaven must come to Him on earth.

Believe me, dear Mr. —

Yours sincerely, E.J.T.

"We Know"

IF there are men who vainly boast of knowing nothing, there are nevertheless those who can, as taught by the word and Spirit of God, say—and this not vauntingly— “We know.” But what is it that these know? They know that once they were walking in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them. But out of this darkness and ignorance they have been brought, through belief in the Saviour who has come—who came to seek and to save the lost. “We know,” says the apostle John— “WE KNOW that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him, that is true; and we are in him, that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life (1 John 5:20). “And as He, the sent one of the Father, is eternal life,” so also is it true, as He himself declares, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou didst send.”

It is not the knowledge of the world that gives happiness or satisfaction. A hundred and fifty years ago there lived a distinguished nobleman of brilliant accomplishments. Advantaged in every way—by birth, education, travel, position and wealth—he acquired a knowledge of the world, for he drank deeply of its fascinating but poisonous pleasures. And he brought up his son to know the same. But the world failed to satisfy. This is his own testimony: “I have seen,” said he, “the silly rounds of business and of pleasure, and have done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their real value, which is, in truth, very low. Whereas, those that have not experienced always overrate them. They only see the gay outside, and are dazzled at the glare. But I have been behind the scenes. I have seen all the coarse pullies and dirty ropes which exhibit and move the gaudy machines, and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminated the, whole decoration to the astonishment of the ignorant audience. When I reflect on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry of bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality. But I look upon all that is past as one of those romantic dreams, which opium commonly occasions; and I do by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose, for the sake of the fugitive dream. Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholy situation with that meritorious constancy and resignation which most people boast of? No, for I really cannot help it. I bear it, because I must bear it, whether I will or no! I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can, now that he has become my enemy. It is my resolution to sleep in the carriage during the remainder of my journey.” “Truly the way of transgressors is hard.”

Fifty years later there lived another who tried the world, and wrote these words: “He that knows a little of the world will admire it enough to fall down and worship it; but he that knows it most will most despise it.” And this professed gamester, who in the short space of two years had gained as much as £25,000 came to blow out his brains, although he had written— “The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide renounces earth to forfeit heaven.”

“What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” is the soul-searching question of the Lord Jesus. Will you not be warned before it is too late? Despise not His warning, I pray you; but bow to His word and judgment against yourself, and receive God’s gift of eternal life.

Over the portico of the Delphian shrine of Apollo were once written in Greek, in golden letters, the oft-quoted words, “Know thyself.” This is a wiser precept of man than to know the world. But, my friend, you cannot truly know yourself until you know God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy (or, holy things) is understanding.” “Acquaint,” then, “thyself WITH HIM, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.”

“We know that... THE WHOLE WORLD lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19).

“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know HIM THAT IS TRUE, and we are in Him that is true even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

“These things have I written... that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).

“We know that we have passed from death to life” (1 John 3:14).

“I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim. 1:12).

“We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands; eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1).

“We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

The Truth

Lord, give us grace Thy truth to love,

And in our hearts to hide,

That, as its sweetness we enjoy,

So may its fruit abide.

Communion is the secret spring

Which links the soul with God;

And strength and solid peace are found,

By feeding on His word.

The “Truth” reveals things as they are,

Made known in Light divine,

Thus nothing can from God be hid,

When “Truth” itself doth shine ;

The “Truth” declares that man is lost,

Yet tells him “God is love,”

Unites with “Mercy” at the Cross,

And thus that Love we prove.

‘Tis when “the loins” with Truth are girt,

That safely we can stand,

‘Midst foes without, and fears within,

All evil can withstand ;

Then let us put “God’s armour” on,

And never cease to pray ;

Thus, with the Spirit’s two-edged sword,

“Truth” needs must win the day.

The “Truth” is what the soul sustains,

In every trying hour;

It keeps the heart in touch with Christ,

Preserves from Satan’s power;

It foils the Tempter’s snares and wiles,

It sets the prisoner free;

And brings us, through the Saviour’s death,

Both life and liberty.

The world, we know, is full of lies,

Which only “Truth” dispels;

But he who walks “alone” with God,

Truth’s holy message tells;

The rage of hell it silences,

Brings peace to souls distrest,

Demolishes the haunts of sin,

And gives the weary rest.

Then let us love God’s holy truth,

More than our daily food;

Thus shall we truly “grow in grace,”

And be a power for good.

The Master said, “I am the Truth”;

Lord, let us learn of Thee,

Then shall we walk in Wisdom’s ways,

And Thou our Joy shalt be.

S.T.

Spiritual Experiences

I HAVE no distinct remembrance of yearnings after God in my early childhood. “Jesus” was not regarded in our home. “To pay your way, and be honest and straight in all dealings with others, and to do a good turn to another if you could,” was what my father often expressed as being his religion.

I went to Sunday school, and always enjoyed it. I looked upon my teacher as a good and holy person, and God, Jesus, and heaven, as most solemn and sacred subjects. At the age of fourteen I lived with Church of England people, and attended church with them. I think it was there that I heard the words which strangely impressed me, giving me fear and misgivings which I could not get rid of. They were these: “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The one whom I asked to explain this passage told me that we were so born anew at our baptism in infancy, and as my parents had neglected to have me done, I must see about it myself as soon as possible.

How well I remember the wretchedness of those days and nights before I went through the form—my mind being possessed with a dread that I should die before it could take place. How little I knew of the love and grace of God! When it was over, I felt I was now a child of God, and must “live up to it,” which I really believe I tried to do. After that, for some years I was completely influenced by those around me. If they were careless, I was; but I was happiest with those who cared for better things. I remember being terribly grieved when a young woman said in my hearing “that she had heard people say that the Bible was just a made-up book, to prevent people, by frightening them, from being wicked”; but as I was very ignorant I could only declare that I was sure that wasn’t true. I do not remember taking any real pleasure in the Bible, or having anything but a sort of superstitious belief in its truths, until I was about twenty-three years of age. Before this I yearned for something more satisfying than this world’s pleasures, and even sought out a stranger who I had heard could give sympathy and advice to any in soul difficulty, but I was then living a business life, surrounded by ungodliness, and soon wandered again into my old state. I was proud of a reputation for smartness of speech; and few things were sacred to my sharp tongue, until one day, before I could think what I was doing, the precious name of that dear Saviour was uttered in lightness. There was a surprised look on the face of one who heard me, but what made me most wretched was the words spoken to my own soul: “Why persecutest thou me?” “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”

I never was really happy in my surroundings after that; and many events in a short time led up to, and made the way clear for me to leave them. This is too brief a sketch to record all details, but oh! it has been blessed to look back and see how God made a way out for me at this time. I spent some months in the quiet home of a friend, but though without a single desire to return to my business life and pleasures, there was a void in my heart which, I did not understand, Christ alone could fill. I was now with those who made no outward profession of religion, attended no place of worship so-called, and, according to my old habit, I fell in with their ways.

I went one day to the house of some Christians whom I knew only slightly. I was at this time rather anxious to find a situation, and having determined never to go back to a business life, I hardly knew what to seek for, and I felt that they might held me to decide. They begged me to accompany them to a revival meeting in the evening—and I did so—and that evening marked the time of my restoration to God. I hardly like to call it conversion, because of my previous experiences, yet it was the first time I had a clear sense of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. My friends begged me to stay the night with them, which I did, and never shall I forget how tenderly one (whose faithful lovingkindness I shall ever praise God for) prayed with me, and whispered sweet words of peace and encouragement to my soul. The next day I returned with these words in my ears and the peace of them in my heart: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus,” and under my arm a Bible given by my Christian friend. How I was tempted to tuck it out of sight from my fellow passengers in the train! But strong in my new joy, I resisted the desire, and sought to occupy my mind with the beautiful truths I had now laid hold on.

Very shortly after this, I found a situation near my Christian friend, and expressing to her, after I was settled in it, a desire to go to the Lord’s table, she, being a Church woman, advised me to give my name as a candidate for confirmation, without which I could not go to the church communion. I did so, and was in due time confirmed. I regarded the ordinance as very solemn, and my preparation for it was real and heartfelt, as was also my joy on the day of receiving it.

Just before this time my friend left her home near me, to enter into training for missionary work, and though for a time her influence remained with me, I soon began to miss my dear earthly prop, and became disheartened by the difficulties I found in trying to walk in the narrow path. I was, as many are, surprised to find religious exercises had not changed me; that still wrong thoughts, desires and habits possessed me, while fell easily into all sorts of temptation. The people I served were also church people, enjoying the world’s pleasures, holding what they called broadminded views of right and wrong, and having no clear perception of even the truths of the gospel. One, of whom I was very fond, went regularly to “communion,” and I sometimes accompanied her. I began after a time to consider that perhaps my first Christian friend was a trifle strait-laced, yet my conscience told me her life was more consistent than those with whom I was living. She came to see me once, but I did not find the same pleasure in her society, for my heart was growing cold towards God.

A reviving came with the offer of a post as rescue worker. I felt my unfitness to undertake definite Christian work, but was persuaded to accept it, and so went to God for grace to honor Him, and to act rightly towards those who would come under my care. The superintendent of this little home was a very high-church woman, and finding much to esteem in her character, I was the more ready to respect her principles and fall into her ways. I felt keenly the responsibility of my new position, and tried to keep close to God in order to help the poor girls who came to us.

I was conscious of a barrenness in the teaching of the vicar of the church I now attended, but a feeling of dogged loyalty had sprung up in my heart for the institution (Church of England) with which I had associated myself; and though questions would arise in my mind, they were easily lulled to sleep again, by the argument that since we were individually so imperfect, one could not find infallibility in any collective body.

Having gained experience in this country post, I sought a better, and found one at Knightsbridge, S.W. Again my fellow-worker was a high-church woman, and because of our mutual love of our work, we were soon drawn closely together. We had the joy of watching souls turn from darkness to light in those early days together, and though hampered by the formalism of system, we sincerely sought to live up to the light we had. Finding confession appeared to be a great help to my companion, after much considering, I went myself. I must admit a joy after my first confession to man, so convinced was I that this exercise was pleasing to God; but after only two (I think) more visits, uneasy feelings about it obliged me to give it up.

I had lost my mother when a little girl, and our home was broken up early in my life, and my father sent me to friends of his; but after a few years I drifted away from him, and seemed to lose all natural affection for him. After my restoration I began to write to him again, and now when I had my first holiday at this London post, I decided to spend it with him. During my stay with him I went to see a relation some miles away—a mere duty call I felt it to be, as I knew little of her, except what I had heard from others. However, so kindly was I received that I accepted their (my aunt’s and her husband’s) invitation to remain the night; they told me a few neighbors were coming in the evening for a Bible-reading, and I was rather curious about how such an informal meeting would be carried out. From its commencement I was impressed by the simplicity yet power with which the word was read and explained; or rather one passage was used to explain another; spiritual things were compared with spiritual; and my hungry soul feasted as it had never had before, on the precious things of God. I was amazed at the beauty of the chapter we considered—amazed that I had never, though I had read it, understood or enjoyed it.

I went away next day feeling sure that whatever the outward expression of my relations’ religion was, God was with them, and in a fuller, clearer way than He was with me. l went over the scriptures that had been pointed out to me, and soon found myself full of joy, and praising God for the blessed certainty that I was inn Christ and that nothing could pluck me out of His hand. Never before had I so bowed to the truth of the written word. I spent a few more hours with my aunt, during which our love for Jesus drew us so close together that I returned to my post, knowing that an earthly Christian home was open to me, and my heavenly home and privileges no longer a vague uncertainty, but a blessed hope and present possession.

My fellow worker was struck by my brightness, and seemed ashamed of her own doubtings. “Do you remember,” I asked her, “how, when we have spoken of heaven, I have expressed a doubt of ever being there. I shall never do that anymore, for I know Christ has made me fit, and however I may fail, I can never undo His work.” We spoke together sometimes of those things in our system which we saw were not consistent with the word of God, but she generally concluded such conversation by saying emphatically, “I was born and brought up in the Church of England and I shall never leave it.” I too, thought that where God had blessed me, where I had many true Christian friends, and where my work lay, was the correct place for me to be. I soon lost my joy, and the word its sweetness and power, and some months afterward—after many trying cases had passed through the home, I fell into a condition of nervous irritability and depression which had the effect (combined with other things) of alienating me from my friend, for whom I had conceived an affection amounting to adoration, and my very life was a burden. The doctor pronounced my condition nervous breakdown, and I was sent to the seaside by my committee to recruit. The most awful feeling I had was that God had deserted me; attending church was a weariness. One night I lay awake, feeling inexpressibly miserable, and suddenly cried aloud, “Oh, what do I want?” As if an angel had spoken them (but it was God’s Holy Spirit brought them) the words came: “Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find.”

“Oh, yes!” I cried again. I want Him, but He has cast me off. Yet again came the words, “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” I fell asleep in the comfort of this precious truth.

I returned somewhat better in health. But trouble—in the home—now no longer ruled by love and sympathy, soon proved more than I could bear, and I decided to leave my post and rescue work altogether for a time. It was pleasant to remember—at this time I had a home to go to. My aunt received me gladly, and I had not been in her house (a simple country home in Essex) a week, before—the old peace began to steal into my heart—the word (so often appealed to, so entirely relied on, by these children of God in this little home) began to have its old preciousness. I went to bed with some sweet promise giving peace to my heart. I awoke often with another on my lips. Through it all there were a few words which brought a measure of discomfort, but which were continually with me. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Then came a request that I would fill a temporary rescue post during the holiday of the workers, and I went with a heart full of love and gratitude to God for His goodness in opening such a home for me, where I had learned more of Himself than I had ever known before, and promising to come back to it when I had fulfilled this engagement.

Again I was with Church of England people this time those with evangelical principles, and the clergyman, who was chaplain of the home, was an earnest, godly believer, whose preaching was faithful and his life consistent. The misgivings I had had about remaining in the Church of England vanished; I was only too glad for them to do so, for I clung to the friends in it and the associations of it with all my heart. “God meant me to stay,” I reasoned, “or he would not have allowed me to come here and see how real many of its persuasion are, proving that all could be.”

I applied for a post at a rectory, and secured it, but went for a short time before entering it to the little Christian home. In this visit, I tried to throw the feeling off, but was conscious that I went back to my aunt’s home less happy than I left it. I generally attended a church three miles from my aunt’s home, not caring for the one nearer, but on my last Sunday I resisted the persuasions of a friend who held office there, and decided to spend it with my relations at their little meeting room. I had been before with them to the gospel service, but had missed the music and outward attraction of my usual “places of worship.” On this Sunday I might have “remembered the Lord” with them, but I would not, but sat behind, feeling very miserable and out of place—in truth a struggle was going on in my own soul. Again God was calling me out of man’s order to Himself, but I clung to those earthly advantages which I must, if I did so, let go. Particularly He used the verse, “In a great house” (2 Tim. 2:20), and the context; but oh, how I struggled against it! In the evening the subject was 2 Kings 5—Naaman the Syrian. It was interesting, but when it came to that part where Naaman asks permission to bow in the house of Rimmon, I despised him in my heart. “He felt the power of Israel’s God,” I mused, “why didn’t he boldly declare he wouldn’t even bow to a false god any more?—afraid of losing his position, I suppose.”

Even as I despised him for his want of courage, a voice said in my soul: “‘Thou art the man’—do you not feel—have you not acknowledged, the power of God’s word, revealed by His Spirit? Yet you would go back to the place where both are allowed only a secondary place—where the guidance of the Holy Spirit is set aside.” I heard no more of either hymn or prayer; a fierce struggle went on in my heart. I went straight to my room on returning home, and begged God to give me courage to do His will, to let go my very dearest wish if it stood before Him.

Before I lay down that night I had seen clearly that I could not with God’s blessing and approval return to the Church of England. These verses were very precious to me:

“Is the wilderness before thee,

Desert lands where drought abides?

Heavenly springs shall there restore thee,

Fresh from God’s exhaustless tides.

“Light divine surrounds thy going,

God Himself shall mark thy way;

Secret blessings richly flowing,

Lead to everlasting day.

“In the desert God will teach thee

What the God that thou hast found:

Patient, gracious, powerful, holy,

All His grace shall there abound.”

It was too late to withdraw from my engagement, and the next day I went to my duties at the rectory. I shall never forget those three months there, where I, who had always leaned on man, was taught to depend on God alone—nor shall I forget the sense of His approval which never left me, though I suffered persecution, and ridicule for the step I had taken in leaving the Established Church. I could not express what I proved by experience when for the first time I remembered my Saviour in Spirit and in truth. To those who ask, “Do you think you are right now?” I reply, “I trust so, for God is right, His word is truth; His Spirit reveals and guides, and my prayer and desire is to be kept subject to all these.” God’s word must be right, and if believers adhere faithfully to it, as is the duty of every one, they will have the mind and approval of God.

I can be thought peculiar for Christ’s sake, so long as I possess that white stone with a name that no man knoweth save he that receiveth it (Rev. 2:17). I have appropriated the salvation offered to me in God’s word. I am not my own, but bought with a price. He leads me in the path of righteousness; so I seek to ask myself in all I enter into—in all I undertake, “Is Christ leading me here?” And if the Spirit beareth witness with my spirit, I can go with joy; otherwise I must abandon the path, however dear to nature, for I have died, and my life is hid with Christ in God.

I cannot refrain from adding—and those who seek to follow Him closely will know the blessedness of these words: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psa. 23).

“Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psa. 16:11).

A. E. S.

"The Mystery of Godliness"

1 TIMOTHY 3:16.

The mystery is great, disclosed but never probed,

How the eternal Word in flesh and blood was robed;

Apart from sin and spotless—as Babe the Holy One—

How right the Magi’s worship of Him who left the throne!

How blessed to adore and God’s salvation see,

As Simeon confessed in wondrous ecstasy

When gazing on that Infant face which satisfied his heart

And set him longing, full of peace, that moment to depart.

Who but the holy Babe had widowed Anna too?

And yet she spoke of Him to other souls she knew,

Who for redemption looked; and all expectant

Beheld it in that Babe not yet the Lord triumphant.

About His Father’s business in childhood’s early age,

Asking and answering questions amid the elders sage,

Refusing blame His mother gave, but yet in accents mild,

Obedient and subject, although not Joseph’s child.

Exhibiting eternal life in all His peerless ways,

In youth, or when He had attained unto full manhood’s days;

How beauteously it shone when there upon the cross

He gave His mother to the care that might supply His loss.

So we worship Thee, blessed Lord, in each step of Thy pathway here,

And offer our adoration in reverent godly fear;

As Babe, or Child, or Youth, or as the rejected Man,

Thy glories are far beyond our ken, yet for faith’s eye—to scan.

Ascended now, Thou hast a name beyond all others high,

Thou’rt seated on Thy Father’s throne and girt with majesty;

But not more now art Thou true God and the eternal Life,

Than here along Thy lowly path, and ‘mid Calvary’s awful strife.

W. N. T.

A Day to Be Remembered

WHAT an advantage it is to have been where the word of God is read and His love unfolded—where, too, the Holy Spirit was present to enlighten the understanding; with the knowledge of the work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour! And where God’s testimony is received there is a new life given to the soul. Further, through divinely given faith in Christ’s redemption, heavenly peace is imparted, and the blessed Son of God endeared to the heart.

If others believe not, this in no way hinders the blessing to the one that does believe. The gospel is the truth of God, and rests upon accomplished facts. Its simplicity is worthy of its divine Author—God only wise; while its effect on those who truly receive it as God’s word proves it to be indeed the power of God unto salvation. Often do we see this in the very strongholds of Satan, where his servants are actively seeking to oppose the truth of God.

On “a day to be remembered” a large crowd of people was assembled on Blackheath—and amongst them was a man professing to speak of Jesus of Nazareth as a good man, yet disparaging the holy sufferings of the blessed Lord Jesus in words not fit to be in print, and sarcastically speaking of those who believed in the sacrificial suffering of Christ as void of common sense.

Attracted by this crowd was a man just fresh from the country, who drew near to listen. Hearing his own blessed Saviour spoken of in this awful way and the atoning work of Christ so contemptuously, he was compelled to vindicate God’s holy word and the Saviour’s wondrous death for poor sinners. The Spirit of God blessedly used His own sword—the word of God—against the power of Satan there working that day by his dupes, and on Satan’s own ground.

The child of God took his stand some distance from the crowd and began to preach Christ—the Christ he himself knew as his Saviour. He spoke of the grace of God that had reached him, a once guilty sinner—of the precious blood of Jesus, shed for the remission of sins. A day to be remembered it was. For the crowd gathered around the one who had taken his stand for Christ, and for the truth so real to his own soul; and many that really did love the Lord were gladdened by the testimony concerning Christ thus rendered. Others, too, confessed their faith in Christ through the words spoken that day; and the man who had sought to prevent the truth never ventured on this ground again, and has long since passed into eternity. Let us hope that the scales had dropped from his eyes, that he had learned to rest on the atoning work of Christ—the sinner’s only hope and security, and that he had received the forgiveness of his sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemption.

And now just a word to you, my dear reader. As an old man who has seen not a little of the ups. and downs of life, let me impress on you two great facts. One is, that you need in this life a Saviour, or you will be lost for all eternity. Here, the love and wisdom of God exclude all the thoughts of men. God has given His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. If you die in your sins, it will not be everlasting “life,” but everlasting existence in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.

The other is, that you want a friend, a guide, a counselor, and the Lord Jesus is all that to His own. Satan is bent on your destruction, and he rules where God is not owned and trusted. The believer indeed knows that the enemy is always against the one that seeks to walk pleasingly to God as a confessor of Jesus his blessed Lord and Master. But what of this, when God is trusted? Greater is He that is for us, than all that can be against us. It often is the case when Satan has lost one of his servants that all the serpent’s subtlety shows itself in producing what at first is not detected, but which brings out in the end trials which only God in His wisdom can give us to understand, and He leads His children through all.

A case of this kind is in my mind now. Yet, how the enemy has been defeated! The Lord had blessed him with a large family of sons and daughters, who came to be believers in Jesus as their Saviour. With his family around him he reads Psalm 28. This, he could say, is exactly true of me. God has been my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him, and I have been helped. Therefore with my song will I praise Him. The clouds have all passed over, and he who had become a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus still finds himself in that love of God which first reached him, and from which nothing can ever separate him—the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May this love, the key through faith to the unsearchable riches treasured up in Christ Jesus for our use now, and yet more to be unfolded, be the portion of all who read these words. Thus cleaving to the Lord may we be able to make the following lines our own.

Sweetly clinging to my Saviour,

Christ the true the living Vine;

All my hopes are centered in Him,

I am His, and He is mine.

While He lives I fear no evil,

Naught can wrest me from His head,

And with such a mighty Saviour

I may smile at Satan’s dart.

Sweetly clinging to my Saviour,

As the ivy to the oak,

Rooted in His deathless favor,

Simply through the words He spoke.

Time may cast its shadow o’er me,

And unfurl its withering blast,

But with Christ my precious Saviour,

I shall reach my home at last.

Oh, how sweet to rest in Jesus,

Fount of every springing bliss;

Weak and helpless, yet relying

On His strength and righteousness.

As we journey through a desert,

Full of sorrow, shame and pain,

‘Tis so sweet—possessing Jesus

As our everlasting gain.

Thursday and Tuesday

NO doubt the sanitary authorities were quite right when they condemned as unfit for human habitation the courts and alleys near which our narrative occurred. But among the condemned buildings—scenes, many of them, of squalor and vice—there was one over which angels had often rejoiced, as sinner after sinner had there heard of a Saviour’s love, and by the goodness of God had been brought to repentance.

But the old place was now to come down, and He whose love still lingered over the needy ones there, provided a site where a neat, and much more commodious, building should be used for His service near the old spot. It was now just completed, and an earnest evangelist from a distance had been invited to hold special meetings in it. But before this, those engaged in the work there had sought unto God, and night after night had gathered—working men just come home from their daily toil, poor women who had been busy all day among their families—many of them unable even to read, but each and all having “heard the voice of the Son of God” speaking to their hearts and consciences in the power of the Holy Ghost, had, through believing, received life through His name.

Thursday came—and with it a half-holiday, and in consequence, freedom for some who, on other nights, were hindered by business ties—and some seventy people, such as those described above, gathered there. Their hearts were full, one desire pervaded all; and from every part of the building they rose, one after another, and cried to God to save their fellow men. As one hoarse rough voice ceased, another began, and, in unconventional, ungrammatical language, poured out the Spirit-given desire that the grace that had met them might reach others, and that God would magnify His name as a Saviour God.

Reader, the power of the Holy Ghost is a reality. Do you know it in your own soul? Has He shown you your guilt in the sight of a holy God? Has He made you conscious that, as you are in yourself, you are unfit for the presence of that God with whom you must have to do? And has He shown you somewhat of the glory and preciousness of Him, the Son, whom the Father sent to be the Saviour of the world—and consequently the Saviour for you—the very one you need, and the only one who can supply that need, but who, in order to do so, went to Calvary’s Cross, and there offered Himself without spot to God, for the bearing of our sins? If by faith you are truly resting on this once offered, once accepted, sacrifice, the same Holy Spirit who first showed you your need, and led you to Christ, becomes the seal of that transaction, marking you as His own, and in-dwelling forever the one purchased at such a cost. Oh, take care such a guest be not grieved, and His power hindered! He is the Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind; and such indeed was He proving Himself to be that Thursday evening. “I was never in such a meeting in my life,” said one of experience then present.

The special meetings commenced on the Monday, but nothing particular marked that evening. Tuesday came, and many of the poor creatures from the streets around came in, till nearly two hundred were assembled there. When the meeting was about to begin, the one referred to above, as he stood on the stairs, welcoming one and another in, heard the caretaker at the door refusing admission to some one. Hurrying down, a terrible spectacle presented itself. There stood a woman, with a face so debased and disfigured by sin as scarcely to appear human. Her face, as well as her dress, ragged and untidy, was covered with blood from cuts on her head, and she was even then under the influence of drink.

So repulsive was the poor creature’s condition, one could not wonder that the caretaker was turning her away; but N— remembered it was for such as she the Lord Jesus died, that He had said, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out,” so he called her in, and found her a seat at the back of the hall. The “power of the Lord present to heal” was realized that night, as the preacher told of God’s love in the gift of His Son; but the poor woman at the back sat apparently unmoved until the close, when the speaker asked those present who could to join in singing the Doxology.

Then, instead of praise, her tears broke forth, and while others were singing she wept bitterly. The one who had spoken to her before, again went to her, but her emotion was so great she could not enter into conversation with him. Finding, however, that she was unwilling to leave for what she called “home,” through fear of the drunken fury of her husband, who had threatened to kill her, he got her a bed elsewhere, and the next day called to see her. Then he learned she had only been a week in the town, having come from the west of England, and, to his intense surprise, that she was not ignorant of God’s way of salvation—at least theoretically—and in her old home had been a “member” of a chapel there. But she had gone back from the profession she once made, she had fallen grievously into sin; and now she realized she was an utterly lost sinner, deserving nothing but hell, and standing on the brink of it.

That she was just the one that Jesus died to save she did not realize, nor that she was just in the condition in which alone He could save her, on the ground of free, sovereign grace— “without strength, guilty before God.” She wanted to do something to merit it; but these are not God’s terms, and as the day wore on, she found herself still away from Him—dark and unhappy. Nevertheless, she presented a different figure as she entered the halt again that evening from that on the preceding night; but while the gospel was being proclaimed she yet remained in the same condition. Thought several afterward talked with her, there seemed no effect; and then about ten o’clock, she turned to the one who had been the first to take notice of her, and begged him to pray again. He and another did so; and then she herself broke out in prayer and confession to God. She felt her need; she knew that only He could meet it, and she was determined not to sleep that night until she knew the burden was gone, and herself forgiven.

But, dear soul, she was making a great mistake. All the while God was offering her salvation; He was infinitely more ready to give than she to ask. And the moment she really owned herself in His presence a helpless sinner, and rested, not on her determination to be saved, but on the finished work of Christ—that moment her burden passed away, and she heard from His own lips in the secret of her heart, “Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

Oh, the praise that followed then! There was joy in heaven among the angels of God, there was joy in heaven before the angels—God’s own joy as He welcomed another wanderer home—and there was joy in that room among those to whom the glory of Jesus was precious, as well as in her heart. It was late that night when she returned home, but she could say then, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” And though she had afterward to endure much persecution from her ungodly neighbors, her life thenceforth was spent to the praise of Him who had loved her and given Himself for her.

Conversion of a Frenchman

ONE Sunday afternoon, when visiting about with books, hoping to meet some interested in the gospel, I came upon a Frenchman and his wife who had lately come from Paris in the hope of finding laundry work. Having myself at one time lived in Paris, we soon felt at home with each other, and I led the conversation on to the Bible. They were Roman Catholics, and listened politely, but I did not perceive that they were much interested. I was able to assist them to get work, for which they were grateful. I went occasionally to see them to have some further conversation on the Bible, but the Lord had something for me to do through them.

One Sunday afternoon I called on them, and there met a Frenchman who had been in attendance on a wicked queen of Spain. His conversation was most depraved when relating to the deeds of this Queen. He was a rapid talker, and I feared that I should not get a chance to speak of my beloved Saviour, so I lifted up my heart in silent prayer to God.

Suddenly he paused to say “I must not speak of others, for I am a vaurien” (bad man). “Oh!” I said. “Like these people and myself, you are bad.” “You bad!” he said. “You are not bad.” “But,” I said, “the Bible says we are all bad. ‘All have sinned’ (Rom. 3).” He looked surprised, so I offered to give him a New Testament to keep, and he promised to read it.

I saw him a second time, when he told me that Dr. Wylie’s was a true account of the state of society in Spain under Queen —. All Spaniards dressed alike, in long cloaks and slouch hats, and carried a stiletto in their girdles, with which they stalked anyone who offended them.

The third time I met him was when I happened to call on the laundress about our linen. “Oh!” she exclaimed, on seeing me. “I am glad you are come. Monsieur is here, and is longing to see you.” He came from the back room with extended hand, and grasped mine warmly. His whole countenance was changed. His face was beaming, and he said, “Do you remember our first conversation? Two words remained engraven on my memory, and you showed me the railway to heaven. How is it that I have lived to be 65, and not seen salvation through the Saviour?”

I left, promising to see him again.

That same night he was found dead, leaning on his bed with the little Testament by his side. I afterward sent it to his wife in France. She acknowledged it gratefully, and I trust it was blessed to her.

Reader, do not lose any opportunity of making known this great gift to perishing sinners.

S. G. A.

Jesus of Nazareth: 1

I AM now about to record what I shall ever consider as the providential turning point in my life, the incident which led my steps into the presence of the true King of the Jews, the Light which illuminates the mind of every sincere seeker after truth.

One Saturday afternoon I had occasion to go into the Mile End Road. There I saw a large crowd of Jews, —and on inquiry I was told that a converted Jew was preaching. I pushed my way through the crowd, but when I came near the speaker he had evidently finished his discourse, for I only heard him say, “We all agree in the main doctrines, namely, that the Bible is the only sufficient guide in all matters necessary to the salvation of the soul. We all, therefore, profess to reject any teaching contrary to the word of God. And we all agree, as I have plainly proved to you from the word of God, that He that was predicted by the prophets, and anxiously waited for by all the godly Jews of old, is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. He came precisely at the time appointed (Gen 49:10; Dan. 9:25, 26), and accomplished the object for which He was preordained; for ‘he was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities’; ‘and he bare the sin of many.’” (Isa. 53). Then the preacher closed by begging his bearers to read the Bible without prejudice, and with prayer for guidance from on high, “this being,” he said, “the only means” by which they could be led to drink at the fountain of life; and then bade them farewell, saying, “I hope to be here again next Saturday about the same time.”

I was in a fury of indignation, and shouted at the top of my voice, “Yes, and I shall be here too. You are a deceiver, you believe in a deceiver; I will not soil my lips by pronouncing his name, and you wish to deceive us by making us believe that the Crucified One was the Messiah; but I will meet you and soon make short work of your arguments,” and I was about to strike him with my umbrella, but was prevented from doing so by someone in the crowd.

But still greatly exasperated, I turned to the people, and told them that I was quite ashamed to see so many intelligent-looking young men willing to have their minds poisoned by listening to such trash, which they must hear from the fellow who had just left them. They could never learn any good from such men, for they were enemies to our Rabbis and to our holy religion.

“If you want to know,” I said, “what cruelties the Jews have suffered from those who believed in that Nazarene, you have only to read the history of England, and you will find enough there to make you shudder....Let us resist every effort to estrange us from our God. We will all be here next Saturday to hoot that young apostate from this place.”

Extracted

Christ's Glories

Prince of life, and Lord of glory,

How my soul delights to hide

In the secret of Thy presence,

Where no ills can e’er betide!

There I learn the sweet unfoldings

Of Thine all-surpassing grace,

There, in ever deep’ning worship,

Gaze, with rapture, on Thy face.

Brighter than the golden sunshine,

Deeper than the ocean wave,

Sweeter than the choicest lily

Is His rove, who came to save.

Lord, in ceaseless adoration,

Prostrate at Thy feet I fall,

Thou, and Thou alone, art worthy,

Son of God and Lord of all!

What are heaven’s richest glories

To one look at Thy dear face?

What are all creation’s wonders

When compared with sovereign grace?

What are earth’s most costly treasures

But a mass of dung and dross?

Vain and worthless ‘neath the shadow

Of Thine all-prevailing cross.

Who shall utter all Thy praises?

Who proclaim Thy peerless worth?

Who express the matchless glories

Of the “Lord of heaven and earth”?

As I think of all Thy sufferings,

All Thy sorrow, toil and shame,

Broken-hearted, I remember,

‘Twas Thy death which brought me gain.

S. T.

Jesus of Nazareth: 2

ON my way home I passed a bookstall, and seeing a New Testament, I bought it, to confirm me in greater enmity against Jesus. I was determined to read it carefully, and to discover the falsehood of the Christian religion in all its parts, so that I might be fully prepared to meet my opponent on his own ground, and to whip him with his own cords. But as I proceeded to read the New Testament, which I was taught from my very childhood was full of falsehood, my surprise increased, and a sacred awe pervaded me; and I could scarcely refrain from exclaiming, when I read some impressive passages, “Oh, that this Jesus were my Saviour!” It was nothing like the blasphemous book I read when a youth.

Saturday came, but I could not go to Mile End Road. I was already afraid to speak against Jesus. I went on reading the New Testament, and when I had finished it I was greatly astonished at myself, and exceedingly perplexed in spite of my earnest desire to find fuel in the gospel for the increase of my burning enmity against Jesus. I had discovered nothing deserving of hatred, but on the contrary much that was great, sublime, heavenly, and divine. I became very wretched, and at last I told my wife the unhappy state of my mind, who at first thought I was jesting, but when I assured her that I meant what I said, she laughed at me most heartily, and called me the most foolish man in the world, adding, “You, who thought of stopping the mouth of every Christian, are you going to be so silly as to believe in that crucified One yourself? I did not think you such a simpleton,” and she earnestly advised me not to read that book anymore. “Put it in the fire,” she said, “and have done with it. You know many Jews have lost their senses through reading it. Be persuaded by me and have nothing to do with it,” and she entreated me to take her advice. I told her had she known the anguish of my soul she would not have talked to me like that. I could not express my feelings to her as to how and what I felt, at the same time I promised her that I would think about it, and after a severe struggle I resolved to leave off reading the New Testament, but did not commit it to the flames as my wife advised me to do. I trembled at the very thought of doing such a wrong.

The appointment at the Mile End Road was almost forgotten by me, when one morning I was accosted by a young man, who asked me how it was that I had not been at Mile End Road according to promise. I did not know what to say, and I was about to stammer out something, when he interrupted me by saying, “You need not trouble yourself about that gentleman. You cannot touch him; he knows what he is about.”

“Are you a Christian?” I asked.

“I cannot say that I am, but I believe I am not far from being one. If Jesus is not the promised Messiah, who and what is He? He was no imposter, that is certain. Imposters are selfish, money hunters, money graspers; this was not the case with Jesus. Trace His history,” he said, “as given in the New Testament; follow it from His birth to His cross on which He died; see His mocking, His reproaches, His insults, and all the complicated miseries which made His sufferings the most affecting that ever earth beheld; and then ask yourself the question, Was this a deceiver? Look,” he said, “at His calm, meek, and lowly behavior, His open and severe treatment of hypocrites, His great and numerous miracles! Is all this compatible and reconcilable with the pretensions of a deceiver? Many false Messiahs appeared before Jesus, and thousands of our people believed in them; but no sooner were they put into prison or to death than their disciples were dispersed; and at the present day you cannot find a single Jew who can or will say that his forefathers believed in any such as the Messiah. Not so with Jesus. His very death is life to those who believe in Him, and millions have, and still are hearing testimony that He is the Messiah of God, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.”

“But,” I remarked (more for information than anything else), “the Christians believe their Messiah to be God, while you know we Jews look for a Messiah who is to be man.”

“Yes,” he replied, “that is what I once believed, but since I have read the Bible for myself I am inclined to think differently. Take, for instance, Isaiah 9:6, where it says, ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ This is the same child whose name was to be ‘Immanuel, God with us,’ according to Isaiah 7:14.”

I told him that I always thought that the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6 referred to Hezekiah.

“So did I,” he said, “before I read the Bible, but now I cannot see how it can apply to Hezekiah without distorting the sense of the prophecy by false interpretations, but the truth of it cannot be altered. I admit,” he said, “that Hezekiah was indeed a king of eminent piety, and he might well be the subject of joy to the people who were so lately ruled by an idolatrous and oppressive monarch; but how, with all his piety, he may reverently be called. ‘THE MIGHTY GOD,’ I know not. Unless he was divine, I know not with what propriety it can be said of him, that he shall fill the throne of David from henceforth even forever (Isaiah ix. 7). This prophecy can apply to no mere man, and I think we learn from it, first, that the Messiah was to be man, for ‘a virgin was to conceive Him,’ and then He is also God, for His names are ‘Immanuel, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Besides,” he said, taking a small Hebrew Bible from his pocket, “to whom does the me refer in Zechariah 12:10, ‘They shall look upon ME whom they have pierced,’ etc.”

I must confess that I was quite at a loss who could be meant, but when he showed me from the connection that it was (and I could see that it could be no other than) the speaker who declared at the beginning of the verse, “I will pour upon the house of David,” etc., and from verses first and fourth that speaker was Jehovah, all this made me feel very uneasy, and I told him that I must leave him now, but hoped to meet him again some other day. And in wishing me good-bye, he said, “ From what I have seen of you this morning, and the conversation we have had together, I am quite convinced that you are a true inquirer after the truth as it is in Jesus..

You are only one of the many hundreds of our brethren who, at the present day, are tired of groping in Rabbinical darkness; their souls are panting after that satisfaction which they know cannot be found in Judaism. They are not ignorant of the fact that life and immortality are to be found in the gospel, but the fear of man very often predominates over the fear of God, and they try to stifle their convictions; but the work which the Lord commenced in their souls He will not leave unfinished, and sooner or later they are bound to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah and Redeemer.”

(Extracted)

The Dying Gipsy

“Do you know there is a young gipsy lying very ill in a house close by?”

“No,” was the reply, “but one has been attending the meetings regularly till the last week or two. I’ll go and see him.”

And the missionary started off at once to the house indicated. It was as he expected, and he recognized the invalid as one whom he had frequently seen at gospel meetings. But he was not prepared for the answer to his kind question, “Why did you not send for me, and let me know of your illness before?”

“Well, sir, you have so many to see to who are not saved. And, thank God, I am all right. For me to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord.”

Utterly astonished to hear such words from one whom he expected to find without salvation, the visitor inquired what he meant; and in reply, was told how that eighteen months before, the speaker had heard of God’s love in sending His Son to die for sinners—that he had believed the message then given, and had since known peace with God through Jesus Christ. “And,” he added, “I am a poor gipsy and can’t read, but I do feel I want to hear more of the word of God; and I always heard it explained by you so that I could understand it.”

If the gospel “bringeth forth fruit in all the world,” as it did at Colosse, we need not be surprised at such words and such conduct from a poor gipsy. Truly much of the fruit of the Spirit was manifested in this dying man and in his unselfish thoughtfulness for the busy missionary. His care for perishing souls around that they should not be deprived of hearing words whereby they might be saved; the calm assurance, in the presence of approaching death, that he was “all right”, and the humble confession of his own ignorance and love for the word of God were all indeed Spirit wrought. “The word of the truth of the gospel” and “the grace of God in truth” do produce mighty results when truly believed and received.

The “word of the truth of gospel” shows the sinner’s utter worthlessness, for there is none that doeth good; his feet are swift to shed blood, and destruction and misery are in his ways, and there is no fear of God before his eyes. Thus brought in “guilty before God” (Rom. 3), it nevertheless also reveals in the fullest way the love of God to such, and captivates the believing heart. If man has no righteousness for God—there is none righteous—God declares His righteousness, even “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”

The “grace of God in truth” makes its own captives most assuredly, for sin has not been trifled with, but righteously and completely judged in “Him who knew no sin, but who was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Faith in the person and work of “the Holy One,” who made peace by the blood of His cross, brings not only life, but satisfaction, and this now, as well as for eternity. He who cried when suffering for our sins, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” had also prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Have you, my reader, availed yourself of that prayer and rested in that precious blood which God sets forth for your trust. Now He does set Jesus forth a propitiation, or mercy seat, through faith in His blood that cleanseth from all sin, and now “he is just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” It will not always be so. The day is coming fast when “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10-12). Will you not then, my reader, be at once aroused to flee from the wrath to come, while yet you may? For Jesus has said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

The Cross of Christ

THE subject before us is one of thrilling interest, and has many sides. It is the center of two eternities. Eternity past looked on to it. Eternity future looks back to it. In the cross of Christ we see God in the fullest manifestation of His holiness and love; His righteousness and peace; His mercy and truth; His greatness and power. In whatever way we look, we see Him in His essence and attributes acting in a way worthy of Himself towards His sinful creatures.

It was ever God’s gracious purpose from the beginning that man should be blessed, not only on earth, but for eternity. And the Lamb of God was “fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.”

What an easy dupe of Satan was the first man, notwithstanding his pleasant and happy surroundings provided without cost to himself. Yet, by one act of disobedience, he dishonored God and fell an easy prey into the enemy’s hands.

Could he improve his condition? Impossible!

Could he really hide himself from God? Impossible!

Could he repair his loss? Impossible!

Could he recover his confidence? Impossible!

Communion with God was snapped in a moment, “so He drove out the man.” There was no getting back into the presence of a holy God by the Way he came out. For God “placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Adam’s offspring, constituted sinners by his own act of disobedience, proved themselves atrociously corrupt. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). And God had to judge the world, bringing in the flood which swept the whole creation off the scene, save those who were saved by His grace and shut within His ark of safety.

After the Deluge, man was put under the government of the sword; and on the ground of sacrifice God blessed Noah and his sons. This was evidently the way of approach to God. On this ground alone could untold blessings come to man. “Jehovah smelled the sweet savor” of the offering, and in virtue of it could righteously be gracious to His creatures, setting His bow in the sky as a token of the everlasting covenant with the renewed earth.

Alas! man in his sins would build a city and a tower, and make himself a name! so that Jehovah had to confound the language of men, and scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth. Then idolatry came in, and Abram is called out by God from his country and kindred that in him should all families of the earth be blessed. Gal. 3:16, tells us that the blessing was to come through the promised Seed, that is, Christ. And in due time we see that blessed One shining forth in the fullness of grace and truth, honored indeed by a few, but rejected by the many, to their ruin and destruction.

“Ah! Thee the world knew not,

Created erst by Thee;

Its kings and rulers cast Thee out,

And nailed Thee to a tree.”

It is written, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” Also, “There they crucified him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.” In the cross are seen man’s direst hatred, and God’s most marvelous love. Here indeed, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. They hated Him without a cause. They led Him as a lamb to the slaughter. They mocked Him. They spit upon Him. They crowned Him with a crown of thorns and with purple and reed they derided the co-equal, co-eternal, Son of God, and bowed the knee, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Every possible indignity of wretched sinful man was heaped upon that blessed One.

“Those kind hands that did such good,

They nailed them to a cross of wood.”

Oh! what darkness, what blindness! what malignity! to nail the holy, blessed Son of God to a gibbet as a malefactor! “They that passed by reviled him.” “They laughed him to scorn.” “They gaped upon him with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.” The assembly of the wicked enclosed Him: they pierced His hands and His feet, and not content with that, a cruel soldier with a spear pierced His side, and there came out blood and water. They brake not His legs—that the scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him shall not be broken.”

But oh, the triumph of God’s love therein. The cross of Christ is the foundation of every blessing. “The God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus.” Him whom man slew and hanged on a tree God exalted with His right hand to be “a prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins,” so that “in the thing wherein they acted proudly” God “was above them.”

Oh, what a sight! the Saviour now in the glory, and able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him! Able to bless the worst sinner that ever lived and the best of men coming to Him in their nothingness through that all-sufficient, God-glorifying death on Calvary’s cross. Now, through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven we are able to see the purpose of God. “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).

My friend, would you know your sins put forever away? Look to Christ! See Him on the cross suffering for your sins! Hear His agonizing cry for you! See His shed blood for you! A ransom for you! A mediator for you! A substitute for everyone who really believes in Him.

Do you now believe? May you rest on the finished work of Christ and be saved.

C. H. C.

A Page From a Diary

“I was talking today to a man named H— who complained a great deal about the ritualistic practices in a certain church... However, I was anxious that this should not be a sop to his conscience, so said to him, ‘It does not matter whether there is the observance of practices contrary to the truth, relying on a foundation of forms and ceremonies, or the utter disregard of the gospel and neglect of God altogether—the result is the same—separation from God for eternity.’

“He said, ‘I believe in the Protestant faith, and although I do not attend church much, I am not opposed to the Bible.’

“I replied, ‘You fall into the common mistake of supposing that we start, as it were, with a clean sheet before God; whereas the word of God declares that we have all sinned, and are born in sin; therefore separated from God; unfit to come into His presence with a sinful nature, and unable to fit ourselves. But He has provided a remedy. Suppose you had a disease which could be cured only at the hospital. You subscribed even to its funds, believed in the skill of the doctors, and all that; would you be cured if you persisted in neglecting to go there?’

“‘Certainly not,’ he answered.

“‘Well, then, that is just what you have been doing for years. Who would be to blame for the continuance of the complaint which grew worse and worse?’

“‘He was silent for some moments, and then replied, I see what you mean; I never looked at it in this way before.’”

G. I. B.

Meditations at St. Niklaus, Switzerland

AUGUST, 1912

Depths of mercy, can it be?

Heights of glory, all for roe!

Boundless ocean of God’s love,

Every moment do I prove.

Washed in Christ’s atoning blood,

Gone forever is sin’s load;

Knowing this, gives peace divine,

Jesus, Saviour, Thou art mine.

Round me stand those giant peaks,

Each one of Jehovah speaks;

Balanced cloud, or roaring flood,

Tells me of the living God.

Naught but rapture fills my eyes

As I gaze on yonder skies;

Heaven’s deep azure vault makes known

How He spake, and all was done!

Foaming torrent, quiet dell,

Both alike His wisdom tell;

Snow-capt mountains, tinged with gold,

Silver moon, His power unfold.

Every star by name He calls,

At His feet each seraph falls;

Heaven and earth alike proclaim

Countless glories of His Name.

This is He who for me died,

And my soul is satisfied;

Yet, like Sheba’s queen of old,

I can say, “Not half was told”

I. S. T.

Jesus of Nazareth: 3

ONE Saturday afternoon my father-in-law called on me, and after the usual Sabbath salutation, said in a most solemn tone of voice, “Marks, listen to what I have to say. Sarah (meaning my wife) has told me of your unhappy state of mind, and all through reading that bad book called the New Testament; and from what she has told me, I fear you believe in that Nazarene. I can only express my great surprise and regret that you, with your abilities and standing among our people should have degraded yourself, to the disgrace of your family, as will assuredly be the case when it becomes known that you believe in that crucified One. Think of your dear father and the princely education you have received from him, in return for which you will disgrace him in Paradise by the black curtains being drawn before his face through your believing in that Nazarene.”

I told my father-in-law that as yet I could not say that I was a believer in Jesus Christ, nor did I now read the New Testament. I had left off doing it months ago, and that I had read nothing but the Old Testament ever since. But I found in reading it that which I never discovered before, and I should like him to tell me who was represented to Adam as the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15); to Abraham as the source of blessing in his posterity to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 22:18); to Jacob as the Shiloh to whom the gathering of the peoples should be (Gen. 49:10); to Moses as the great prophet like unto him, who should speak in the name of the Lord (Deut. 18:15); who was it that was to be born of the virgin (Isa. 7:14); who was it that was to be distinguished for His wisdom (Isa. 11:2), and righteousness (Jer. 23:6), and meekness (Isa. 53:7); who was it that was to open the eyes of the blind, and cause the deaf to hear, and lame to walk, and the tongue of the dumb to sing (Isa. 35:5, 6); who was it that was to be despised and rejected of men (Isa. 53:3), yet was to be the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely (Cant. 5:10, 16); who was it that was to be a man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3), yet was to be anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Ps. 45:7); who was to be a worm and no man (Ps. 22:6), yet the mighty God (Isa. 9:6); who is that Son we are to kiss, and all are to be blessed who put their trust in Him (Ps. 2:12); and who is that Messiah who is to be cut off, but not for Himself (Dan. 9:26)? All these things I told him greatly perplexed and troubled me, and I should like to be instructed in these points, and my mind relieved and convinced. “As to the Talmud,” I said, “you know I have been studying that ever since I was eight years of age, and the more I know of it the more I feel that it cannot give peace to a troubled conscience.”

My father-in-law listened to all I said, but not without interrupting me at times, and at last he said, “I am not sufficiently versed in these deep matters, but I will bring some of my friends to speak to you and they will soon put you right in a very little time.”

I told him that I should be pleased to see them, and so we parted friends. Next Saturday he called again. At this time he was not alone, he was accompanied by my uncle and another venerable looking gentleman, whom I had never seen before, and who at once commenced by saying, “Your good father-in-law has told me that you are rather inclined to believe in what the Goiim call their Messiah. But they have no Messiah; no Messiah was promised them. He whom they called Messiah (you must know) was a great impostor. To us Jews God promised a Messiah, and we are looking for Him; or, as our creed most beautifully expresses it, ‘I believe with a perfect faith, that the Messiah will come, and, although His coming be delayed, I still await His speedy appearance.’ This,” he said, “is our hope.”

“I should like you to tell me,” I replied, “if God did not promise a Messiah to the Gentiles, as you affirm He did not, what does Isaiah mean when he says, ‘In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign for the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek’ (11:10)? Who is this root of Jesse? And again, the same prophet says, ‘I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth’ (Isa. 49:6), Who is he who was to be a ‘light to the Gentiles’? All I want to know is the truth, and to have my mind set at rest.”

He said, “I can answer all your questions, but I do not see that it is necessary for me to tell you, and for you to know. Besides, the Goiim believe their Messiah to be God, while we Jews believe in one God, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.”

I said, “That is perfectly true, but when I read such passages as Gen. 1:26; 3:15; Prov. 8:22-31; Isa. 7:14; 9:6; 48:16, 17; Jer. 23:5, 6—these and many other scriptures incline me to think that the Messiah must be something more than a mere man—that He must be the Son of God.”

On hearing these words they all three rose from their chairs together, and my uncle said, “I cannot stand this talk any longer. I can now plainly see what you are. You are as much a Meshumad as that young man is who was baptized last Sunday,” and so left me without saying another word.

(Extracted)

"A Mad World - Very Few Safe"

SUCH was the heading of a column in one of this country’s leading newspapers a few days ago. The article in question had reference to the annual report of the Lunacy Commissioners, which disclosed facts and figures to prove that insanity is largely on the increase, and that comparatively few are altogether free from this affliction in some form or other.

Dear reader, I would like to point out to you that what is true in regard to the subject referred to, is also painfully true respecting another, and more serious subject, and that is, the world’s attitude towards Christ, together with the alarming fact that there are but few saved.

This world’s estimation of Jesus is fully shown out at the cross of Calvary, where the first act of the leaders of this age was to crucify the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). There we find gathered together, against Him, the combined powers of the world’s political, intellectual, and religious representatives, as set forth in Roman, Greek, and Jew respectively. Hence the inscription over the cross was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. “Though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain” (Acts 13:28). The portion meted out to God’s beloved Son at the hands of man was also afterward shared by many who bore His name, for we read of one who (though subsequently by God’s grace turned from darkness to light) gave consent to their death, “compelling them to blaspheme, being exceedingly mad against them” (Acts 26:10, 11).

This then was the world’s estimation of Christ when here upon earth, when, in their madness and folly, wicked men imbrued their hands in His blood, denying the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them. Sad to say, though nevertheless true, the world’s attitude towards Christ is still the same, in spite of all its boasted progress and improvement. Satan is still the god of this world— “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2).

To come a little closer home, dear reader, what is your attitude towards Christ? “He that is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30) are the words of Jesus. Are you still linked up with that which sets itself against Christ, and now stands convicted of sin by the Spirit of God? I beg you to pause, consider, and bow to the wondrous grace of God that shines through it all, inasmuch as the crowning act of man’s wickedness is made by God the ground upon which “he can be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”

Surely it is madness to continue in sin and opposition to Christ, when all the time God is calling in tenderest tones and saying, “Come now let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat.

Oh, will you not accept God’s gracious provision for your need? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). May you have repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! “For many are called, but few chosen.” May you be found amongst the “few,” for His Name’s sake!

C. S.

"Mind the Eggs!"

IN the course of his duty a carman entered a grocer’s shop with a heavy load on his back, and inquired, “Where shall I put these goods, sir?” “Down in the cellar,” replied the grocer, and down the stairs went the carman. Coming, however, from the bright sunshine outside, the cellar seemed darker to him than it really was, as he peered anxiously round to find something on which to let down the two hundredweight he was carrying. “Just the thing,” he thought, as he saw, or imagined he saw, several sides of bacon piled one on another to a convenient height, and he proceeded to gently let down the load on them. Crack! crack! went something, and bending down he discovered that instead of bacon he had let it down on a box of eggs!

“What have you done?” cried the horrified assistant who had followed him down, to which the carman honestly replied, “Had an accident, and broken these eggs. Gather up the cracked ones as quickly as you can, and I will pay for them.” Instead of doing so, the youth told the grocer who, much to the carman’s annoyance, at once telephoned to his employer. Instead, however, of finding fault, quick as a lightning flash the latter sent back word, “Tell him not to trouble; I will pay for them all.” Very relieved, the carman went his way with the resolve to look more carefully another time when entering a dark cellar.

A week later he again reined up his horses outside the grocer’s shop; again queried as he entered with a load, “Where shall I put these?” and again, was told, “In the cellar—but mind the eggs,” added the shopkeeper.

The following week the same thing was repeated, and again a third time the grocer bade him “mind the eggs” as he went down to the cellar. By this time the carman was troubled. He was a Christian, and he knew the grocer professed to be one too. Long years before, the carman had rested on the word of God which says, “Through this man (the Lord Jesus Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 39). He knew that that precious Saviour, when “He had by himself purged” his “sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb.1:3), and that the blood of Christ had purged his conscience front dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14). And he knew, too, by blessed experience, that the worshipper once purged had no more conscience of sins (Heb. 10:2), because God has declared, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17). And since that glad day he could say, with one of old, “Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

Hence it was that the fact troubled him that the grocer should so often remind him of this mischance. He had himself owned the fault, his master had, unasked, paid the price, the matter was settled; why should it be constantly flung in his teeth again? So as he left the cellar that third week the carman approached the counter, and looking the shopkeeper steadily in the face he said, “Sir, when God forgives a man He never brings up the past!” Very astonished was the grocer, and much profitable conversation ensued, as the carman sought to show him how God can only forgive on a righteous basis. How that basis being laid, His holiness and righteousness satisfied—yea, more, Himself glorified—through the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, God’s grace and mercy can go out to the vilest. His righteousness is “unto, all” (Rom. 3:22), though it is only “upon all them that believe.” But that the moment a poor sinner does believe God’s record concerning His Son, and, owning his lost condition, trusts only to Him and His finished work, that moment God is “just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”

Well then may such an one joyfully sing, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” (Who shall remind them of broken eggs?). “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:33, 34).

Story From a Young Doctor's Diary

TUESDAY, July 20th, 1858.—Taylor, 23, Coalpit Lane. Getting worse. Asked me whether I thought he could recover or not. I told him that I feared not, but said that the great matter was to be prepared for anything that might come, and asked him if he could say he was ready to die.

T. “I am afraid I cannot.”

Dr. “Well, you know that there is but one way, if Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.”

T. “Ah! that’s what I want—to be saved and have my sins forgiven, but I’ve been trying forever so long. I’ve been praying and reading, but I am as far off as ever.”

Dr. “I’m glad you think so. Nobody ever was saved by reading and praying, and doing good works; or ever will be as long as the world lasts.”

T. “Then how can anyone be saved?”

Dr. “The Lord Jesus Christ says, ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out’; and again in another place it is said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ None that ever came to Christ was lost.”

Mrs. Taylor. “But is that sufficient? Haven’t we to read and pray, and give up worldly desires and objects before we can be saved?”

Dr. “No, we have simply to believe that Christ died on the cross to put away our sins there, and we are saved.”

Mrs. T. “But haven’t we to get faith? How can we believe without faith, and how can we get it?”

Dr. “‘Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ God will give you faith if you ask Him, believing that you shall get it; and all these things will be added then. You cannot be saved by them, for you cannot do them, as they are the fruits of the Spirit; and you have not got the Spirit till you are forgiven.”

T. “That’s blessed news! I’ll think of that by the time you call again, sir.”

Thursday, July 22nd.—Taylor worse, pain in chest and side for the first time today.

Saturday, July 24th.—Taylor. Still slowly sinking. Says that he has thought about what I told him on the 20th, and prayed that God would give him faith to believe on Him. I pointed Him again to the only Saviour of souls, and left him the tract, “I do depend upon the blood.”

Tuesday, July 27th.—Taylor says that he has. attentively read the tracts, and liked them much. Still prays for salvation.

Thursday, July 29th.—Taylor worse. Through the mercy of God he has at last given up all hope of saving himself, and clings only to Christ, trusting Him for both time and eternity. He is calm and peaceful now, and says that he shall not now fear to meet the last great enemy, death, and the grave.

3 p. m. Taylor. Dropsy. 8 p.m. Extremities cold.

Friday, July 30th.—Sinking fast. Cannot live very many hours. Fully sensible of his condition, and rejoicing in the love of God manifested by the sending of His Son to die for him. Says that he quite longs to be gone to be with Jesus. That name seems to have a charm to him more than ordinary. At the mention of it his face brightens, and his whole appearance shows how he appreciates the value of that name. He bade me Good-bye, saying that perhaps we should never meet again here, but certainly we should in heaven, and concluded by saying, “God bless you, sir, for what you have done for me, and let Him be thanked that He sent you to me.”

The readers of the above may be interested to hear that exactly seven weeks from that day both patient and doctor were together again, no longer in that little close room, but forever with Christ, “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” as each had learned to know.

In the young medical student’s pocketbook were found the following lines, which have already appeared in print, but may not be out of place here:

Banks of the Clwyd, May 6th, 1858.

Oh! I have been at the brink of the grave,

And stood on the edge of its deep, dark wave,

And I thought in the still, calm hours of night

Of those regions where all is ever bright;

And I fear’d not the wave of the gloomy grave,

For I knew that Jehovah was mighty to save.

And I have watched the solemn ebb and flow

Of life’s tide which was fleeting sure though slow;

I’ve stood on the shore of eternity

And heard the deep roar of its rushing sea;

Yet I fear’d not the wave of the gloomy grave,

For I knew that Jehovah was mighty to save.

And I found that my only rest could be

In the death of the One who died for me;

For my rest is bought with the price of blood

That gush’d from the veins of the Son of God.

So I fear not the wave Of the gloomy grave,

For I know that Jehovah is mighty to save.

The Loss of Loved Ones

“Which wouldst thou lose

Of all thy dear ones, now so bright around?

Lord, didst Thou ask me this—my heart to sound—

I could not choose!

“Some I may see

More ripe for heaven, and thus more fit to go;

But, more they are Thine own, alas! they grow

More dear to me.

“Fain I would sue

The whole to keep, but know ‘tweer vain request:

Choose, Lord, Thyself the offering; what is best

Most is Thy due.

“And still I pray,

Spare them a while! justly, O Father, Thou

Call’st them to home! Yet, in Thy grace, allow

Some further stay!”

Jesus of Nazareth: 4

MY wife, who was present at our conversation, burst into tears as soon as her father had left. She begged me to think of my foolishness, and of the dear children, who would be despised by all the Jewish children in school, when it would be known that I entertained ideas favorable to the gospel, saying, “You know bad news travels faster than good.”

I assured my wife that nothing would be done by me without asking the God of Abraham for guidance and blessing. I Only wished to do His will and live to His glory. This had the desired effect of calming her, at least for the present, which I was truly glad to see.

On returning from the office on Monday evening I found my wife weeping most bitterly, and the children around her doing the same thing. At first I could not get a word from her, but at last she said that the interview her father had with me on Saturday was too much for his advanced age, being eighty-two years old, that he had suffered a severe nervous shock, and the doctor had told her that he could not live much longer. “Oh, my dear father,” she exclaimed in the greatest agony, “I cannot bear the idea of losing you.” I hastened to see him, but to my great disappointment I was told that I could not do so unless I would promise, holding the phylacteries in my hand, that I would give up every idea of Christ and the gospel. This I felt I could not do, and I told them so. In consequence I was ordered to leave the house at once, which I did reluctantly and with regret. On my way home I meditated on what I had read in the New Testament, that he who loved father and mother more than Jesus was not worthy of Him. I was hungering and thirsting for the bread and water of life; my soul was panting after something higher and nobler than what Judaism could afford. The consolatory and heavenly instruction which I received from the gospel left such an indelible impression upon my mind that I felt that I could surrender anything and everything for Christ’s sake. On my arrival I told my wife that her father had refused to see me. To this, however, she made no reply, which was strange conduct for one who had never before treated me with silent contempt.

Early next morning I called again and made another effort to see the sick man. He was still alive, and although I begged with tears to be allowed to be admitted into his presence, if only for one moment, I was again assured that this could not be unless I promised to comply with the request of the previous night. I was so cast down that I could not eat my breakfast, and I went to the office fasting. On returning home in the evening my dear wife told me that her father was no more, and that his last words were that I was not to follow him to his grave. This was more than I could bear. The funeral day arrived, and desiring to see the last of him, I took my stand at the corner of the street where I knew the procession would pass, and as the man who rattled the tin box came near me, saying, “Tzokhah Matzel Lammoveth,” or, “Alms deliver from death,” I put in my mite. Here I stood until the crowd was out of my sight, and then I turned away sick at heart. I felt the life of my father-in-law on earth was now closed, and no earthly power could bring him to earth again—he was gone, but where? I was no longer ignorant of the great fact that Jesus had declared Himself to be “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” as well as the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Did he believe in Him? I could not say, but in my sorrowful musings I hoped that he did. I thought of eternity, that long eternity without Christ and without hope, and I trembled for his soul, and felt greatly relieved by a flood of tears.

(Extracted)

The Collision

IT was a beautiful, bright, clear day when we sailed from Beyrout, with sunshine enough to make every heart happy and glad. Soon everyone settled down to his station, and quietness reigned on this Thursday afternoon—the sailors’ half-holiday.

This is a time throughout the Navy when you will find in sea-going ships the ordinary work suspended, and the crew employed in various ways for their own personal comfort. You will see some making or mending their clothes, others reading, but the majority indulging in sleep.

On the occasion of which I am writing, all was calm and peaceful throughout the fleet, when about 3.30 p.m. it became evident to us that something unusual had happened. We soon learned the awful news that the two flagships of the fleet had suddenly collided, and that H.M.S. Victoria had been rammed by H.M.S. Camper-down with appalling loss of life.

It would be impossible to describe one’s feelings at that time, the principal thought being, should the Victoria founder, how many of her crew are believers in the Lord Jesus, the only and all-sufficient Saviour whose grace would be enough to sustain and cheer them, even under these painful and trying circumstances. And another thought was, how little had one made use of the time and talent God had given to tell out the glad tidings of His grace to dear shipmates—men who go down to the sea in ships. The suspense, although short indeed; was greatly felt by all on board the many surrounding ships, and every officer and man were ready to obey this oft-repeated word, “England expects every man this day to do his duty.”

It was not long, only ten minutes, before the whole of the Victoria’s ship’s company were launched into the sea, there to struggle as best they could for life, those above board trusting to self, friends, boat, or spar; those under hatches being helpless, for it was not possible to extricate themselves. They could only cry to the “Helper of the helpless”; and many longed to know whether indeed they did cry to Him of whom we can sing

Glory, glory everlasting,

Be to Him who bore the cross!

Who redeemed our souls by tasting

Death, the death deserved by us.

Brought face to face with death, how vain to trust to good works or ordinances! the merit of the precious blood of Christ is the only passport into heaven; and those who, even in their last extremity, called upon God to save them, believingly, were undoubtedly saved, to His eternal praise and glory.

Be warned, my dear friend outside of Christ who may read this narrative, whilst you are out of danger, and in health! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” What could the blessed Son of God do more than lay down His precious unforfeited life to save you from sin, from death, and from hell, and to have you in His presence forever?

The following came under the writer’s notice in connection with this appalling disaster: The boatswain was saved through the life-buoy. How beautifully this illustrates the Lord Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation—something outside one’s self to trust to!

A seaman, who had given up trying to save himself, was sinking, when he came in contact with a broken spar, which pushed him up to the surface, and by this means this seaman was saved. Here is another illustration of a sinner in a perishing, helpless condition, and God bringing His way of salvation to him to which he may trust and he saved.

An officer was saved through the kindness of a seaman, who allowed him to share an oar when on the point of exhaustion.

Here again, God provides the means of salvation through a friend.

Most were saved by boats, but all needed something outside themselves, and surely one cannot fail to see God’s rich provision for the needy perishing soul in Christ, the Lamb, whom God Himself provided.

Many again were lost because of the shortness of the warning; others through not taking the offered opportunity; some through accident; many through trying to save themselves, while others again could find no way of escape.

One, a personal acquaintance, had a rope thrown to him, but he missed it and sank.

These incidents remind us of many, alas! who are still away from God, careless, heedless, forgetters of Him who gave Himself a ransom—came to seek and to save that which was lost, not willing that any should perish. Be wise enough, dear friend, just as you are in your lost condition, to look to the Saviour who is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him.

How joyous it must have been for fathers, mothers and friends to receive messages like the following:

“C— P— saved.”

“O— O— saved.”

“Saved, Tom.”

“Saved, Albert.”

And is there not far greater joy in heaven, in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth (Luke 15)?

C. H. C.

A Living Gipsy

To the Editor of “Gospel Gleanings.”

Dear Mr. Editor, In your October number you give an account of a “Dying Gipsy,” and it may interest your readers to know what the grace of God is even now doing with a living member of those strangely interesting people.

This man (whose name we need not give) heard the gospel last year in the hop fields, where so many of these wanderers congregate in the autumn, and the seed sown fell into good ground. His wife is an earnest Christian, and no doubt her example and her prayers have been blessed of God, according to 1 Pet. 3:1. It is her custom to walk six miles each Lord’s day to hear the word of God, and one Sunday, last winter, her husband accompanied her. As they trudged along she heard him say, as if to himself, “Now is the day of salvation,” and she questioned him as to his meaning.

“I mean,” was his reply, “that now, today, is the day of salvation to me; I have today accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.”

Overjoyed, the poor woman introduced him to a fellow Christian on arriving at the place of meeting, to whom also her husband made a good confession of his faith in Christ. Since then the change in his life has been marked, and amid much persecution he has continued steadfast in the faith, letting his light so shine before men that they may see his good works and glorify his Father which is in heaven.

It is sweet to know that in these closing moments of the “day of salvation” the grace of God is magnifying itself, by bringing one and another to own their lost condition and to receive empty-handed all the riches comprised in the word “salvation.”

May many of your readers know the blessedness of simply accepting the Saviour whom God has Himself provided!

Yours faithfully in Christ, * * *

Rock or Sand?

Which Are You Building on?

It fell—with what an awful crash!

The ruin, oh, how great!

The builder perishing as well,

How terrible his fate!

‘Tis true, his house was large and fine,

Its battlements were fair,

Stately its rooms, well furnish’d too,

And all within was rare;

The porticoes were handsome too,

In fact, the house was grand,

But—as the truth must needs be told—

‘Twas built upon the sand!

It happen’d thus:

One day the sky

Grew dull and overcast,

The wind blew high, the storm-clouds rose,

Yea, gather’d thick and fast;

The rain descended, and the waves

Beat high upon the strand;

The whirlwind’s blast then struck that house,

And wreck’d it on the sand!

But lo! hard by on yonder rock,

Far up above the sand,

I see a quiet tenement,

‘Tis anything but grand;

No handsome furniture adorns

Its unpretentious hall,

It rests on a foundation sure

“The rock”—and that is all.

Its owner aims at no display

Inside that house or out;

Wisely he built, works hard each day,

And keeps a good “look out.”

He’s waiting for a coming guest,

With Him to cross the sea,

And, till He comes, he “occupies,”

So cannot idle be.

The storm which wreck’d his neighbor’s house,

The wise man’s house doth mock,

The reason is not far to seek,

‘Twas built upon the rock;

Hence, while the stormy waves destroyed

The house built on the sand,

The one that rested on the rock

Secure and safe did stand.

Poor sinner, thou may’st surely learn

A lesson from my tale;

Yea, take the message from my Lord,

Whose words can never fail;

Whatever thou dost build upon,

Which is not “Christ alone,”

Will prove at last but “sinking sand,”

And launch thee in hell’s tomb.

Fellow believer, thou art wise,

Thy Saviour’s voice hast heard;

Thy building rests on Jesu’s work,

And on God’s faithful word:

This is the Rock that stands for aye,

His blood doth cleanse from sin,

And when the storm of judgment bursts,

With Christ, thou’lt be within.

S. T.

Gospel Gleanings: Volume 12 (1912)

Table of Contents

The Suffering Invalid

"Forty-Five"

My Sister

"Quite Happy"

"By the Help of God, Sir"

One Hour With God

"Is Not This a Brand Plucked Out of the Fire?"

"She's Dead, Sir"

"Saved for Nothing": A Conversation

Two Words of a Tract

A Converted Jew's Address to Jews

The Coming of the Son of Man

The Dying Tinker

"He Suffered for Us": (an Extract)

The Secret of a Happy Day

"I Am Very Happy"

The Ten Lepers

The Christian's Enjoyment

A Bookmark

Three Incorruptible Things

Of the World, or, Not of the World - Which?

The Church and the World

After Many Days

Can't I Be Converted?

"The Worst Woman in the Town"

Rest

Light at Eventide; or, the Eleventh Hour

The Credentials of Salvation

The Victims of the "Titanic"

The Fisherman's Waif

The Village Green

Two Unsinkable Ships

What a Title!

Letter to an Agnostic

"We Know"

The Truth

Spiritual Experiences

"The Mystery of Godliness"

A Day to Be Remembered

Thursday and Tuesday

Conversion of a Frenchman

Jesus of Nazareth: 1

Christ's Glories

Jesus of Nazareth: 2

The Dying Gipsy

The Cross of Christ

A Page From a Diary

Meditations at St. Niklaus, Switzerland

Jesus of Nazareth: 3

"A Mad World - Very Few Safe"

"Mind the Eggs!"

Story From a Young Doctor's Diary

The Loss of Loved Ones

Jesus of Nazareth: 4

The Collision

A Living Gipsy

Rock or Sand?