THE armies that have sprung into being during the last few months are engaging the philanthropic energies of large numbers of kindly people. Socks, mufflers, belts, shirts, sandbags, packets of food of all kinds, have been provided by the hundred thousand.
Besides all this praiseworthy effort, earnest Christians have been seeking to care for the spiritual welfare of the brave soldiers. And well it is that this should be so.
Alas! the great need of the present day is the sense of SIN; its greatest crime, INDIFFERENCE. How little men think of God, His claims, His abhorrence of sin, the terrible judgment that awaits those who die in their guilt. The late Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, said that the terrible fact of the hour was that no one was afraid of God. Oh that some mighty voice might awaken sinners from their sleep.
A soldier, sorely wounded in France, his young life barely won from the grave by the skilful surgeons and attentive nurses, told me in an English hospital, three days ago, that the soldiers will pray when faced by death, and promise God to give up swearing, but as soon as the danger is over prayer and promise are alike forgotten, showing there is no reality in either. Thank God, this is not so in every case, but we fear it is so in far too many cases.
One of the chief and the happiest forms of Christian effort lies in presenting the soldiers with pocket Testaments. They fit the pocket admirably, and they have been known to ward off a bullet, and thus save the wearer's life.
But I would like to ask a serious question. Will the New Testament in the pocket be of any use whatever if its message does not reach the heart? Far rather die a savage, without clothes, without pocket, ignorant of the existence of a New Testament, than die on the battle front with the New Testament in the pocket, carried in much the same way as the savage carries his charm, amulet, talisman, and the message the New Testament contains unknown in the heart.
Can you pity a man, who dies of hunger when his pockets are full of banknotes, and he is living over a large provision store? Can you pity a man, who drowns, when he has refused to accept a life-belt and a place in the lifeboat? And what can be said of a man, possessing a New Testament, and yet who has failed to appropriate the message of forgiveness and salvation that it contains?
If a soldier reads these lines, let me, as an unknown friend, beseech you to face the facts of your sins, death, judgment, the great white throne, and hell. Turn to your New Testament. Take it often out of your pocket. Read such passages as John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16); 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); Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43); Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31); Rom. 3:10-2810As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:10‑28); Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5); Rom. 4:23; 5:223Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; (Romans 4:23)
2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2) Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9); Eph. 2:8-98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9); 1 John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13). See that you get the message of salvation into your heart. See that this most important matter of your soul's eternal welfare is settled according to God. Then sudden death will be sudden glory. If otherwise, what then? Answer!
Or, are you a civilian? Do you read your Bible? You live in a land of Bibles. What a responsibility!
Are you like the old lady, who was most indignant because a colporteur wished to sell her a Bible? "What!" she exclaimed, "do you think I don't possess a Bible? Do you think I am a heathen?" and so saying she angrily went into the house, returning to show the colporteur that she possessed a copy of the Scriptures.
Opening its pages, she espied her spectacles. "Why," she exclaimed, "here are my spectacles, which I have lost over these three years." She was true when she said she was not a heathen. She was—WORSE THAN A HEATHEN. I fear the majority in these so-called Christian lands are so. May God graciously use this appeal to reach many. May it reach YOU. A. J. P.