It was a lovely afternoon, and the steamer on her return trip, was laden with excursionists and tourists, who were passing the time in singing favorite songs. After a time a fresh program was designed, and one and another asked to give their names as willing to play a part.
A young lady, well known in former years as a singer at high-class concerts and entertainments, but who had been converted to God, and had consecrated her voice and talents to the service of Christ, was present. An old friend of bygone years asked her to allow her name to be put upon the program for a song, and before she could answer, he had written it down and was gone. When her name was called, there was a “hush.” It was well-known to some of the passengers that she had ceased to sing the world’s songs, and they were curious to know what she would do. Standing up, she sang the now well-known hymn,
“Now, none, but Christ can satisfy,” which then was new; her silvery voice ringing across the calm sea, the words so strangely true, once of herself, and still of others, as many felt.
“I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But ah, the waters failed.
Even as I stooped to drink, they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
“Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me;
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus found in Thee.”
A solemn silence seemed to brood over the gay company, while that sacred song was being sung by one whose heart was Christ-filled, and knew in blessed experience its meaning. There is a wonderful charm in singing or speaking in the power of what is felt and enjoyed in the heart and soul, and that young believer, who had cast herself upon God for special help in the strange circumstances in which she was called upon to testify for her Lord, was wonderfully helped to sing her experience of Christ. There was power in that song; it went to hearts, we know, and there was no call for anything to follow it that afternoon.
There is a reality in being saved, in having Christ, in being able to speak and sing of what He is, and gives to the soul. Those who are not hardened feel the power of such testimony, for there is nothing like it under the sun.
Men may sneer at what is called “religion”: they may argue and question the “doctrine” of the gospel; but a true “living epistle” in whom Christ’s likeness is seen, and in whose heart He is truly loved, they cannot so easily ignore, although as in the case of Stephen of old, whose face shone with the reflected glory of Christ (Acts 7:1515So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, (Acts 7:15)), they may hate and even murder him if they dare.
Do you know the Lord as a Saviour and satisfying portion. Can you sing in truth that He has saved and now satisfies your heart; or are you lifeless, careless and Christ-less? Soon the world’s pleasures will all perish and fade away, or your grasp of them be forever relaxed by the icy touch of death.
Your companions in sin and its scenes, will be far away from you in that dread hour, when you enter the dark and unknown eternity, you will meet God, unmasked of all that now hides the true state of your soul, and pass into the place you have fitted your soul to fill. Where will it be? In a heaven of bliss and glory, or lost to God, and banishment from His presence by sin and Christ rejection?
Fairest flowers soon decay,
Youth and beauty pass away,
O, you have not long to stay,
Be in time.
While God’s Spirit bids you come,
Sinner, do not longer roam,
Lest you seal your hopeless doom,
Be in time.
Satisfied with Thee, Lord Jesus,
I am blest;
Peace which passeth understanding,
On Thy breast;
No more doubting, no more trembling,
O, what rest!
Taken up with Thee, Lord Jesus,
I would be;
Finding joy and satisfaction
All in Thee;
Thou the nearest, and the dearest
Unto me.