SOME time ago Mr. B—, a young man, was walking down the City Road on his way to business in the City, when his attention was arrested by a group of persons around a poor blind man of color, who was sitting begging on one of the canal bridges. Curiosity drew him to the spot.
The blind man was at that moment turning to his New Testament to read from it, for the instruction of those around him. This he was wont to do many times in the day. The passage he was seeking for was: “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Whilst seeking for the passage he kept repeating the words: “There is none other Name.” “There is none other Name.”
Mr. B— smiled at the poor man’s difficulty in putting his finger on the verse he wished to turn to, and passed on. But the words he had heard repeated remained with him and rang in his ears throughout the whole of the day.
Wherever he went and whatever he did, there were the words: “There is none other Name.” “There is none other Name.” He would gladly have forgotten them to think only of the things that successively asked for his attention, but he still seemed to be listening to the colored beggar. He returned to his home in the evening, and tried to employ himself as usual, but the words that had followed him all day followed him still. He repaired to his chamber and threw himself upon his bed. But the stillness of the bedroom rendered the voice which had addressed him through the day, and which addressed him still, only more distinctly and emphatically.
He was at last compelled to consider what it meant. The truth which the passage reveals flashed upon his mind. The surrender which Jesus asks for was made, and the Name which had thus singularly and unexpectedly been brought before him, and which had rung in his ears without cessation for so many hours, became to him the “Name” which is above every name—the sweetest of all sounds—as ointment poured forth.
Surely, then, no man need despair of doing good if the utterance of “There is none other Name” be sufficient under God to secure the salvation of a soul. Yet anyone who knows the words may utter them! The child may utter them as well as the man—the wayside beggar may speak them as any minister of Christ. Only let a man hold forth the word of life, and do so with the view of glorifying God and he will not fail to be the means and medium of life to others.
And now, dear reader, let me ask you, Do you believe there is no other Name whereby we must be saved? The word of God plainly declares there is no other Name. Are you despising, or are you confiding in, that Name, and in that Name only? If the latter, salvation is yours, if you are a confessor of Jesus Christ. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
It makes the wounded spirit whole,
It calms the troubled breast;
‘Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary rest.
Blest name, the Rock on which I build
My Shield and Hiding-place;
My never-failing Treasury, filled
With boundless stores of grace.
Jesus my Saviour, Shepherd,
Friend, Thou Prophet, Priest and King!
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring!”