IN the early settlement of the city of Cincinnati, there was only one way for persons to get there and that was by means of the flat boats that passed up and down the river.
On one occasion a boat landed there. It had come down the river from Pittsburg. There was a company of people on board that boat who were going to Cincinnati to live. Their friends were expecting their arrival, and had met down by the side of the river to welcome them. As they left the boat, their friends gathered round them to shake hands with them, and give them the warmest kind of a greeting.
But in that company which had just arrived, there was one who was a stranger. He had no friends, or anyone who knew him in Cincinnati. There was no one there to shake hands with him, or bid him welcome to the place. He had been feeling lonely before, but he felt ten times more so now.
The crowd was beginning to scatter, leaving that stranger alone on the boat. Leaning over the railing of the boat, he called out, saying,
“Friends, if there are any of you who love the Lord Jesus Christ, I am your brother.”
In a moment half a dozen of them were at his side. They shook him warmly by the hand, and bade him welcome to their homes.
How different Cincinnati seemed to that stranger now, than it did a moment before! The place indeed was the same; but O, how different the company seemed! He was among friends now, who made him feel at home.
How real and precious is the bond that the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith in Him, makes. The word of Christ to His Father that all might be one, is acknowledged with joy. For each one to have been taken out of all bondage and guilt, and judgment, and made a son of God, makes them know each other as well as if they had always lived together.
There is really nothing on the earth like this, in closeness. And then to think that directly all shall be with the Lord Jesus Himself, in heaven, knowing Him, and each other in Him! There will be no strangers there.
Can you say what this man said, that you are a brother to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ? You can say so if You are a believer in Him, for then you are in Him. You do not have to do something to get there. It is only to know you are lost and sinful and to rest on the precious blood of Christ, who was offered for sins.
He is fast gathering out His own. Do, therefore, now take Him as your Saviour, made for sinners, made to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
ML 02/03/1918