THE pride of the infidel mainly consists in opposing the truth of what God has revealed in His holy word. It protests against what is true and certain, and gives nothing positive to lay hold on. “Hold fast, Mary,” said an infidel visitor to a dying woman; “hold fast, Mary.” But Mary, half-choked, scarcely able to articulate, replied, “You have given me nothing to hold!” And so it is. It suits man’s conceit and pretended acuteness and greatness to bring God before his tribunal, instead of being judged by God; consequently there is no certainty, no peace; no rest for the conscience, no assurance of safety, no hope as to glory.
How different is the gospel of God! It meets man exactly as he is—a sinner lost and guilty, as judged in the light of God’s most holy presence. It assures the sinner of God’s deepest love and interest in him as a sinner, though He perfectly hates sin: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).) It is this wondrous love of God in giving His only-begotten Son to die for lost and guilty man, brought home by the Holy Ghost, that melts the heart, and gives it true confidence in God as the sinner’s friend, the God of peace. And when he learns that salvation could be in no other way, that none less than the holy Son of God Himself could be a fit sacrifice for sin, that He only could answer all the claims of divine righteousness from man as a sinner, He alone satisfy the demands of God’s throne, or meet the need of lost, guilty sinners, then it is, through Jesus and His precious blood, he finds peace with God. He is reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Every question of sin and transgression is then righteously cleared up—his conscience is purged, and his soul made happy in God’s most holy presence. How blessed this is! How different to the proud mind of fallen, rebellious man, boasting itself in the conceits of a depraved imagination, and seeking praise among his fellow-mortals for bold assertions and out-spoken sentiments, becoming, as they would insinuate, a free-thinker, and a being endowed with such noble faculties and abilities as man!
The soul that looks to the Lord Jesus now in the heavens as the object of faith, His precious blood-shedding and death as the ground of peace, and His infallible word as the immovable basis of confidence, can triumph both in life and in death; for of such God declares, “Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” The infidel, while blooming with bodily health, when pressed hard about the wrath of God abiding on all those who have not the Son of God as their Saviour, says, “I’ll chance it!” but alas, alas, there is no chance about it. Nothing can be more certain than eternal salvation, and eternal damnation. The word of God abounds with the certainty of these realities. Many, however, tell a different story when nearing the regions of eternity. They are often serious then, and many go down to their dark abode in terror and anguish.
The author of “the Leviathan” was a celebrated infidel of the last age, the man whose writings poisoned the mind of the Earl of Rochester, as that nobleman himself declared after his conversion. He lived to be an old sinner; for he was upwards of ninety when he died. His life was rendered remarkable for the many blasphemous expressions he uttered against God and His holy word. It is said that he was always bold in impiety when in company, but very timid when alone. If he awoke in the night, and found his candle extinguished, he was full of terror. His last words, as rated of him, were, “I shall be glad to find a hole to creep out of the world.”
The Great Apostle of Infidelity, as he affected to be called, of a neighboring nation, in great agonies of mind, exclaimed to his physician, “I am abandoned both by God and man! Doctor,” cried he, “I’ll give you half I am worth if you can give me life six months!” And upon the doctor telling him he feared he could not live six weeks, “Then,” he replied, “I shall go to hell!” and expired soon after.
A celebrated historian of our own spent his last days in playing at cards, in cracking jokes, and in reading romances. He is said to have acknowledged that, with his bitter invectives against the Bible, he had never read the New Testament with attention.
How many others, who have despised the gospel of God when in health and strength, have cried out with bitterness and despair, when finding themselves on the confines of eternity, “Too late! Too late! I’m lost, I’m lost!” To one, the trifles of everything of time and sense, its wealth, pleasures, honors, and amusements, seemed so worthless, that he with anguish exclaimed, “I’ve sold my soul for a straw!” Another cried out, “I shall be in hell at six o’clock!” and just as the clock struck six her eyes closed in death. Solemn indeed is the wise man’s testimony concerning those who deliberately refuse the glad tidings of God’s present and everlasting salvation: “Because I 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; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.” (Proverbs 1:24-2724Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. (Proverbs 1:24‑27).)
And now, dear reader, we would most lovingly ask if you have received God’s testimony concerning the atoning work of His beloved Son? Have you given up reasoning about it? or are you still priding yourself on your “powerful arguments on religious subjects,” as some say? Remember that God has given us His word to believe, not for us to reason about; and “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” (Romans 10) Rationalism is not faith. Many souls are ruined by reasoning; many saved by believing. Beware, then, of fatally wasting your time, of letting slip the present precious opportunity of knowing peace with God! Refuse the temptation to reasoning about what God’s word declares, instead of receiving it into your heart as worthy of your soul’s trust and full confidence because it is His word. This is faith. All the time you are reasoning about it, arguing and judging as to how you think you can be saved, you are discrediting His word, refusing to hearken to His voice, neglecting His great salvation; or, as Scripture so solemnly puts it, making God a liar, because you have not believed the record that God gave of His Son.
Happy indeed are those who have received God’s glad tidings concerning His Son Jesus Christ. Such have present peace, real rest of heart and conscience before God. Well indeed hath the apostle said, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).) Such, too, can sing—
“A mind at ‘perfect peace’ with God:
Oh, what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood—
This, this indeed is peace!
“By nature and by practice far,
How very far, from God!
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him
Through faith in Jesus’ blood.
“So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son
I am as near as He.
“So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be:
The love wherewith He loves His Son,
Such is His love to me.
“Why should I ever careful be,
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me, ‘All is thine!’”