SOME years ago I was asked by a fellow-Christian in a town in the West of England to visit with him an old woman in whom he was much interested. We wended our way one evening to one of the poorer parts of the town, and on the second floor of a many-tenanted house found the person in question. She was one of those who, according to her own story, “had seen better days;” and there was an air of gentility about both the old lady and her single apartment, that now served for sitting-room and bedroom, that told of a struggle with poverty and a long effort to keep up appearances. She received us kindly, and having got over the little commonplaces of introduction, I began very gently, and I hope with some degree of reverence for her age, to try and get at the condition of her soul; but we had not got far before she found an opportunity of introducing the subject of her family and her younger days. My friend had prepared me beforehand for her weakness on this point; so we just let the old lady go on with her story, and tried to feel interested in it. At length she offered to show me the papers themselves to prove her noble birth, and, going to a box that stood beside the bed, she unlocked it and drew out a roll of faded yellow papers, carefully folded and tied; and, spreading them out on the table, traced the genealogical tree from her own parents up to some nobleman, of what name and title I do not now remember.
We patiently followed the old lady; and when her story was fairly told I asked her to allow me to show her my pedigree; to which, of course, she gladly consented., “Well,” said I, “if it’s a question of earthly parentage, I am afraid I cannot boast; for I should go further back than you, and find I was descended from the man who was turned out from the garden of Eden for disobedience; but I have a lineage of another line that I think is higher far than yours.” Taking my Bible from my pocket, I read her John 1:13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;” and tried to show her the wondrous blessedness, as well as the absolute necessity, of this divine and eternal relationship. The animation that lit up the old woman’s furrowed face as she traced her earthly pedigree now faded away, and a look of anxiety took its place; for she could not yet “read her title clear to mansions in the skies.” She had not yet “believed on His name,” and received Christ in such a way as to settle all doubts and fears, and give her settled peace of conscience and heart, both as to present and future.
My reader, have you? Have you believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Just see how simply this scripture puts this all-important matter: “He [Christ] was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
The Revised Version of the New Testament gives us this twelfth verse more plainly still. It reads, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God,” &c.
Can anything be simpler than this? England’s noblest blood, yea, the blood of royalty itself, may run in your veins; but if you are not thus related to God, you are lost. Your poor proud head will ere long be laid in the dust by that great leveler, Death, and your narrow portion of “God’s acre,” as men say, will be all that is yours of this earth. 1 Corinthians 1:2626For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: (1 Corinthians 1:26) tells us that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” I have heard that the late pious Countess of Huntingdon used to say she was saved by one letter of the Bible; for if the verse above quoted had said “not any noble,” how could she be saved?
No, my reader, it is not a question of high-born or low-born, noble or plebeian, great or small; but the question is, Have you received Christ? And the way you receive Him is, that you believe on. His name. If so, you are one of the children of God; and, mark, there are no doubts here—no disputed questions of legitimacy can arise. “Now are we the sons of God.” (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2).) We haven’t to wait until we get to heaven to know this or enjoy it either. One thing we do wait until then for, and that is to be like the One who was in His own right and title the Son of God. The believer is to be like Him, changed into His image, however low and degraded, sinful and rebellious, he might have been. This is what grace does for man. The only-begotten Son of God came into this world, sent by the Father, to be a Saviour. He suffered for sins, the Just for, the unjust; He finished the work God gave Him to do, and was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father—a Prince and a Saviour. Your eternal salvation depends on your believing on Him; an eternity in the lake of fire awaits you if you do not. You are lost now, and will be eternally so, if you have nothing better to boast of than this world’s pedigree, be your relations who or what they may. “Ye must be born again.”
T. R.