THE year 1897 witnessed the ” Diamond Jubilee " of the late Queen Victoria. Celebrations and illuminations were general throughout the whole Empire, and nowhere were they on a more extensive scale than at its very heart—the City of London. There nightly during those few days great crowds paraded the streets, reaching their greatest density before the Bank of England. It was not the extent and magnificence of its illuminations which attracted them, for more elaborate schemes were to be viewed in the City, but rather that the single sentence which stood out above the main entrance in -letters of blazing light had fairly taken the popular fancy. There the people stood, fired with an enthusiasm which now and again found vent in a mighty roar of cheers.
And what was this sentence? Not a record of great battles won, of great improvements made, or of great laws passed, but just a simple line from one of Tennyson's poems:
"She wrought her people lasting good.”
If ever a sovereign deserved such words Queen Victoria did. Do you wonder that the people cheered?
Good is what we all want. Lasting good is yet more to be desired. Best of all—though but a day-dream as far as man is concerned—is everlasting good.
Victoria's reign, though the longest of reigns, reached its end, and the great queen died. Her influence for good upon the nation lasting the name of Victoria no more to coming generations than the names of Alfred the Great or William the Conqueror to us.
Yet there died at Jerusalem, upon a Roman gibbet, One who now lives, and lives in heaven; and after the lapse of so great a period His influence is immense—there are some millions upon another to-day who eagerly respond to the very mention of His Name—His influence will yet become greater, until at the name of JESUS very knee shall bow (see Phil. 2:1010That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)).
And the reason of this is, that He has brought His people good which shall last for ever— EVERLASTING GOOD.
Do you know Him? And is that "good" our own?
It is only sober truth to say that if your sins had no painful results in eternity, had you no hell to shun, nor heaven to gain, yet it would be downright loss to go through life without Him.
Is it not true that!" There be many that say, Who will show us any good? (Psa. 6.) They say it below their breath, if not audibly. Are you not one of them? for have you not often It an aching void this world can never fill?
Oh! why do you spend the transient moments of your existence in this world in the pursuit of bubbles? Your pleasures and your prospects sparkle before your eyes; you have but to firmly grasp them, and they are gone! What you want is real good, good that will last forever.
And for this you must be delivered from your sins—not only from their penalties, but from their power.
To whom will you turn for this? To JESUS. Before His birth the angel said: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)
Again, you must have an object to live for, and a life that is well worth living. Your heart must be filled with joys which are deathless and eternal.
And then eternity will come. Not that dark night of gloom and speechless woe that shall inevitably be the doom of the Christless, but a bright day of eternal blessedness in the presence of God and of the Saviour Himself.
Millions—untold millions—will be there, and He shall be the center of the blood-washed throng: the object of their worship, and the theme of everlasting praise. His fame will be twofold:
"He wrought His God everlasting glory,”
and
“He wrought His people everlasting good.”
When that day comes,
WILL YOU BE THERE?
F. B. F.