CONFIDENCE is a happy thing when the object in which we trust is worthy of it, but it is far from blessed, however, imposing in pretensions, the greater the more delusive, when it is otherwise. It fills one with sorrow to think of the almost unqualified trust with which so many regarded the now sunken “Titanic.” Unsinkable indeed! Never so, has been or will be, zany vessel constructed by man. Ice, wind, water, etc., are all God’s servants, and occasionally by their use He is pleased to prove to men that in the things in which they deal proudly He is above them.
There are, however, two vessels, one recorded in the Old, and one in the New Testament, which really were unsinkable, and we propose briefly to consider these, what rendered them so, and the lessons to be learned from them.
In the Old Testament we have the ark, only a wooden vessel with its rooms pitched within and without with pitch, but its dimensions divinely given. Where it was erected we are not told. There is nothing to lead us to suppose it was on the top of a hill or rock or near any water. It may have been on level ground, and human reasonings may infer that while the waters rose higher and higher till “the mountains were covered,” as the ark rose with them it might easily have been dashed against a rock and smashed to pieces. Was it not ill found—without compass, chart, life-buoy, or lifeboat? No; God shut its occupants in; they were provided for perfectly, and were secure. They were safely landed on the new earth after “the world that then was being overflowed with water perished” (2 Pet. 3:66Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: (2 Peter 3:6)). How was this? GOD WAS ITS PILOT. Safely it rested on the mountains of Ararat, and right it was that “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl and offered an offering unto the Lord.”
There is nothing to lead us to suppose that the ship described in the end of chapter iv. of the Gospel of Mark was anything but an ordinary vessel, a fishing smack, for we read, “that there was a great storm, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.” One, however, was there, whom they had taken “even as He was,” from all His labors, and He was “asleep on a pillow.” However, He had said, “Let us pass over unto the other side,” therefore wind and sea might blow and surge as they list, and the faithless passengers imagine they were perishing and awaken Him. They were safe WITH HIM awake or asleep. He has but to say, “Peace, be still,” with the result that “they came over unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes” (Mark 5:11And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. (Mark 5:1)). Yes, safely landed at their destination.
To sum up. It is essential then to have God for our Pilot; in other words, that our faith and hope should rest in God, in His word (1 Pet. 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)), that we should be with Christ resting in the Lord Jesus, His death, His precious blood, His resurrection our only vessel of safety. Both confidences are comprised in this one verse, viz., “He that heareth my (Christ’s) word and believeth him (God) that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)). Is the love of God in sending Jesus, and the Saviour Himself, with His finished work, the only confidences of my reader’s heart? If so all is well for time and for eternity, “for whether we live we live unto the Lord, and whether we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:88For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:8)).
Apart from this, for the unbeliever there is only one certain thing, “a certain looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”
I conclude with Miss Bowley’s hymn:
Many sons to glory bringing,
God sets forth His heavenly name;
On we march, in chorus singing,
“Worthy the ascended Lamb.”
God who gave the blood to screen us,
God looks down in perfect love;
Clouds may seem to pass between us,
There’s no change in Him above.
Though the restless foe accuses,
Sins recounting like a flood,
Every charge our God refuses
Christ has answered with His blood.
In the refuge God provided,
Though the world’s destruction lowers,
We are safe to Christ confided:
Everlasting life is ours.
And ere long when come to glory,
We shall sing a well-known strain;
This the never-tiring story,
“Worthy is the Lamb once slain.”
W N. T.