THIS fact, dear reader, compels me to take you by the hand and to look into your eyes, exactly as if I were your brother. Come now, my dear one, fear not, I mean you well, from the depth of my heart, you can believe me. Tell me now, openly and honestly, would you like to be saved? Do not beat about the bush, don’t let my hand go, look at me with confidence. I know that a voice speaks down deep in your heart, “Yes, yes, I would.” And if you seek to keep that voice back, saying, “Silence! do not be a fool!” and if you keep your mouth fast and closed, yet you cannot silence it. And if you can only groan and sigh, still it speaks, if only ever so low, “Yes, I would like to be saved.”
Good! Now let me read you a passage out of the Bible. “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, &c.” (Acts 2:22, 2322Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:22‑23)). These words were slung by a simple fisherman right in the face of many thousands in the open street, seven weeks after Christ’s death and resurrection. Yes, you say, what does that matter to me? Now, gently, dear friend, it matters a great deal to you. In that these words of that fisherman are taken up in the Bible, and are held out to the whole world to read; God will say thereby to the world, “Oh, you wicked perverse world, don’t you run away with the thought that the Jews only nailed My Son to the cross. No, no, you all did it, for you all come from Adam. Your accursed sins, they cost My beloved Son His life. And what would have become of you, if I had not sent Him, and if He had not died for you? You must all of you together have been cast into the fiery pool of hell.” See now, my friend, this word of the apostle Peter stands before you, exactly as it stands before me, and is a very decided accuser against our sins, and a very earnest exhorter that we should repent, you just as much as I. Now then, come, and let this word go right into your heart; make no ado, don’t be stubborn, like the godless King Pharaoh in Egypt, no, on no account. But come, repent, judge yourself in the presence of God!
And now, just listen with all attention, and hear what follows. See, when this single text has entered your soul, you cannot get rid of it; you are exactly like a fish that has swallowed a hook. It may struggle and spring ever so, it is no good, the hook holds. And so it will be also with all the sayings of the Bible, which take you by the neck and toss and shake you, saying, “Sinner that you are, wake up! wake up!” Read now just a little in the Bible. Hear now, and you will certainly say: The Bible is right. Now you must not think that the Bible is only a double-edged sword, which pierces between bone and marrow, and nothing more than a judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)). If the Bible were only that, then it would be a terrible book. Ah, no! When the Bible has brought a soul to the ground, so that the poor thing now lies there groaning, moaning, and sighing, “What shall I do?” then it comes in a wonderful way to set up and to comfort like a friend, turning the poor despairing soul to Him who died on the cross, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and also thine, even thine!”
Think of that vast crowd, standing around the poor fisherman, the apostle Peter. Into the hearts of thousands went that fearful word. And when they were frightened to death, and said, “What shall we do?” then the apostle exhorted them to judge themselves, and believe that the precious Saviour had died for them. Then they were cast down, and confessed their great misdeeds. And having yielded their hearts to the crucified One, and believed that He had redeemed them from sin and death, the devil and hell, then were they joyful and made happy by God, you little know how deeply.
And now see, dear friend, when you do the same then you will find it is just the same for you.
When you have once received the crucified Son of God into the heart, no power in the world and no devil can rob you of this truth, but you will always say, “Here, here it is in the Bible―my Saviour has redeemed me, now come what will; even if my head is cut off, I stand by that.” FR. GN.