Glad tidings

Front matter

The Wa y of Life

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. $

W* fw^fja |

Chapter I. Good News

There is much misunderstanding in the minds of many in regard to the word " Gospel." Some think of everything they hear preached from the Bible under this general appellation Whether the minister be preaching on the being of a God, the immortality of the soul, or on the moral duties which arise from our social relationships, it is all, by such persons, called preaching the Gospel. Some time ago we heard a minister preach en the subject of prayer. It was a faithful and powerful sermon. It lifted the soul up to God, and made many a hearer say, " It is good to be here." At the close of the services we heard one of the hearers say to another, " That was a fine Gospel sermon." Now, the fact is, there was not one word of Gospel in it. A man may preach a whole year, or for that part, a whole lifetime, and preach truth, too, and yet not preach the Gospel.

The celebrated Andrew Fuller once heard a young brother preach a sermon which might be called eloquent and learned. When the preacher came down from the pulpit, Fuller laid his hand upon his shoulder, and said, " I thank you for your sermon ; it was very good, as fqr as it went'' "As far as it went!" said the preacher. " Yes," said Fuller, " as far as it went, for Christ was not preached." " But Christ was not in the Text," replied the young man. " My brother," said Fuller, *' there are no by-lanes in this country which do not lead up to the King's highway." All the lines of truth centre in Jesus, and that is a poor dry morsel of a sermon that does not contain enough of the Gospel, to lead any inquiring soul present to pardon and peace. We greatly admire the sentiment of one of the ancient Fathers — "Were the highest heavens my pulpit, and the whole hosts of the redeemed my audience, and eternity my day, Jesus alone would be my text."

The Gospel means "good news," and is a proclamation from the God of heaven to his guilty creatures on earth, that for the sake of what Jesus has done, he will pardon all who trust in his faithful work, and receive them as welcomely as if they had never sinned at all. It comes to tell of a way by which we can come to God as joyfully as Adam could before he fell. God's Fatherly voice sounds to us from the heavens, saying, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The good news is in that sentence. Observe, the voice from heaven did not say, with whom I am well pleased, though that is true. Neither does it say for whom I am well pleased, though that is also true. But it says in whom I am well pleased. It is only when we see God in Christ Jesus that we can see a well-pleased God. In that one sentence, God himself preached the Gospel to that awe-struck throng which stood upon the banks of Jordan ; and through them to all the ends of the earth.

If we approach God out of Christ, he is a consuming fire. Let the best man that ever lived come before God with the best action he ever performed, and out of Christ God cannot be well pleased with him. His best performances are in God's pure eyes corrupted to the very core by sin. But let the vilest sinner come to God in Christ, and there is lifted up upon him a reconciled countenance, the smile of approval beams upon his soul with the very joy of heaven, and lifting up his eyes to the face of the Judge, he exclaims, "Abba, Father." Indeed a holy and a just God could bestow upon guilty man no favor, either temporal or spiritual, except through the worthiness of His Son.

GOOD NEWS. 7

A person once said, " How am I to know that Jesus died for me ?" The reply was, " Do you acknowledge that you have been all your life a sinner?" "I do." "And do you believe that the desert of sin is the wrath and curse of God?" " Yes." " Why, then, is it that you have been all your life long getting nothing from God's hand but blessings?" This inquirer saw at once that the very sparing forbearance of God that had permitted him to live, and the goodness of God that strewed his pathway with blessings, could only come to him through the death of Jesus.

Suppose, my reader, that a friend comes into your house to-day and says, " I have good news for you ;" you would understand by that, that he had something to tell you that would make you happy. And if after he has made his statement you are not any happier than before, one of two things must be the case, — either your friend was mistaken as to the nature of the intelligence, and it was not calculated to make you happy ; or else you did not believe what he said. Now, when God sends the Gospel to us he says it is good news, that is, something intended to make us happy ; and if after we have heard it we are not made happy by it, either God calls that good news which is not so, or we have not believed his word. Yes, the only reason why you, my reader, are not now rejoicing in the forgiving love of God, is that you have not believed his testimony concerning his Son. You can believe your fellowmen when they say they have good news for you ; you can take up the newspaper, with a face beaming with expectation, when you are told there is. good news for you in it ; and yet your neglected Bible lies in your houses containing something calculated and intended to make you unspeakably happy ; and you will not believe it.

O, it is matter of vastest difficulty to get men to believe that the whole work of their salvation is finished already ! They will acknowledge that the favor of God is a precious thing; they will speak of making their peace with God ; and hope that he will be reconciled to them. But tell them of a love that has already made the peace ; tell them of a grace that has already finished the salvation; tell them of a goodness so abundant o GLAD TIDINGS.

and overflowing that it has absolutely left them nothing to do but to believe that all is done, — and you seem to them as one who mocks. Whenever they think of becoming serious, of cultivating good feelings, of breaking off their outward sins, and of prayer, they think of things that are to qualify them for coming to Jesus, and that will make God pleased with them ; forgetting that until they go to Jesus through faith, and come to God for acceptance through the righteousness of his Son, they have not taken the very first step in true religion.

Self-righteousness, in some form or other, is the universal sin of man. Wherever man is found to exist, it reigns supreme in the unrenewed heart. The moment the sinner begins to think or speak on religion, this evil shows itself. With the light of the Gospel blazing around him, with Calvary's solemn scenes portrayed in blood before him, he yet feels as if he must be accepted by God on the ground of some good prayer, some good feelings, or some good deeds performed by himself. Now, the best obedience that man can render in his fallen state is imperfect. And an imperfect obedience is just a sinful obedience — a wicked obedience. Now, if God were to accept men on the ground of such obedience, it would be virtually declaring that his law had been too strict — had been wrong. From that moment his holy law would be impeached, would lose its power among all intelligent beings, and its holy authority would be forever gone.

Let the sinner start for heaven on the ground of his own imperfect righteousness, and he can only get there by trampling, at every step, upon the holy law of the God of heaven. And allowing him at last to get there on the ground of his own imperfect obedience, his presence would strike terror into every holy heart in heaven. The songs of that holy place would die away in groans. Its inhabitants would feel that all protection was gone, all confidence gone — if God's perfect law was gone. How, then, can the sinner hope for salvation in a way that would swallow up heaven itself in the misery of hell.

Were God to accept the sinner on the ground of his own righteousness, it would be declaring the death of his own Son

GOOD NEWS. 9

unnecessary. It would be saying that it had been in vain that the blood of Jesus was shed. It would be to declare the atonement a piece of folly — nay, of absolute wickedness. The very fact that God's own Son had to die, shows that nothing but a perfect righteousness would do, a righteousness so perfect that God's pure eye cannot see a single flaw in it. It shows that we needed a righteousness no less than Divine, and here it is provided in Christ crucified. Sinner ! abandon at once the vain attempt to make a covering for yourself, by patching together the fig-leaves of your own works ; for to you in God's great name we proclaim the Gospel's joyful sound — a righteousness unto all, and upon all, who believe.

My dear reader, if you are ever saved at all, you must be saved by simple faith in Christ's work. We know that the natural heart hates this doctrine, and that it contradicts all man's preconceived notions of religion. It lays pride in the dust and leaves the soul no room for boasting. Take the holiest man now living, and the vilest sinner that treads God's earth, and it is faith in the merits of Jesus that has made the difference.

Suppose we had been in the city of Philippi that night when the jailor was converted. It is the dark, midnight hour, and the city is wrapped in silence and gloom. We stand opposite to a gloomy-looking building, and as we gaze upon it through the darkness, it begins to heave to and fro, as if rocked in the grasp of an earthquake. Hark ! A voice of deep human agony breaks upon our ear. It is the voice of the jailor himself, smitten by the bolt of divine truth, and his words are, "What shall I do to be saved?" And what are the directions which the Apostles give him ? Do they tell him he must pray, that he must get deeper feeling, more convictions of his sinful state, and do something to prepare himself for coming to Jesus ? No such directions do we find coming from the lips of these heaven-inspired men; though, alas ! there are not wanting in our day professed ministers of the Gospel who would give just such instruction.

An inquirer was urged some time ago to go to the Lord's Supper, by a minister. " How can I, when 1 have no hope in Christ ?"

IO GLAD TIDINGS.

was the reply. " O come to the communion, and you will feel better," said the minister. How beautifully do the Apostle's words contrast with this. " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." And what did the jailor do? Did he say, " That is too easy a way of being saved : it is not possible that so vile a man as I am could be saved in that way" ? No ! at once he believed in the Son of God as his Saviour, and his heart was brimming over with joy. An old writer says there are but three steps to heaven — " out of self, into Christ, and into glory." If you are out of Christ, whatever may be the outward morality of your conduct, you are condemned already — living under the curse of the law, and the bolt of God's wrath may at any moment strike you. There is but one safe spot for you in the whole universe, and that is as a humble believer at the cross of Christ.

Chapter II. Immanuel, God With Us

" He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."

These words came from the lips of the Lord Jesus, and there are no words like his words. They burn into the soul for they are words of heavenly fire. Words of wisdom have been spoken by Christ's people, for the brightest intellects and the most powerful eloquence have been devoted to his service ; but " never man spake like this man." Something of God, it is true, we can learn from his works ; and as we gaze upon the lofty over-hanging cliff, the sky-piercing mountain, or the vast ocean, we are penetrated with feelings of profoundest awe ; we exclaim, "Great and Infinite God !" and the cry is taken up in the heavens, and is re-echoed from world to world throughout infinite space.

But nature, in all her vastness, says not one word on what, as sinners, we most want to hear — pardon. Not a whisper of forgiveness comes to us from the blue heavens above us, nor from any of the works of God around us. The thought of the great God, girt with omnipotence, makes us afraid. The great, infinite, all-pervading Spirit we cannot comprehend. The thought of going into his presence repels rather than attracts. — " I remembered God and was troubled."

But when God comes near to us in human flesh, when God approaches me in the person of a man like myself, when I hear God speaking to me through human lips, looking kindly upon me through human eyes, dropping over my wretchedness human tears, and heaving over me human groans, as he speaks to me of love, of pardon, and of adoption into his family of love, the guilty dread of God flees away, and perfect love, that casteth out all fear, takes its place. Now this is what we see in the God-man — "God manifest in the flesh."

Suppose that you were to enter a friend's house, and see his little children amusing themselves with that perfect enjoyment of the present peculiar to childhood ; not a cloud upon their fair brows, not a shade of sorrow upon their faces. You are standing and admiring the lovely scene, when, all at once, the father of these children is heard at the door, and in a moment the whole scene is changed. The children look around in terror; the faces so lately flushed with joy are now pale with fear> and they each make haste to hide themselves from the father as from an object of aversion and dread. Now, in witnessing such a sight as this, you would know that one of two things must be the case : either that father is a tyrant, and i$ in the habit of abusing his children, or else these children are conscious of having done wrong in his absence, and, therefore, are afraid to face him.

Why has the sinner that dread of God which makes him shun the very thought of his Creator, as the essence of all that is gloomy and forbidding ? Why does he dread the idea of going into God's presence, and coming so near the universal Father as death brings men ? It cannot be because God has ever done him any wrong, for the hand that he dreads has been engaged in scattering mercies upon his pathway, and every gesture of that hand has been inviting him near. The voice he dreads to hear has been tuned to accents of love, and has sounded after him down the broad road to death — " Turn ye, turn ye, — why will ye die ?" Why, then, this slavish dread at the thought of God ? Why this enmity and aversion ? Ah ! it is because the soul is conscious of guilt, and of having wickedly lifted the standard of rebellion against its best friend. It is because this consciousness of guilt makes him think of God as a God of wrath, the red thunderbolt of whose indignation is about to leap from his right hand for the sinner's destruction.

Now, man can neither love God nor enjoy happiness till this feeling is destroyed, and till entire confidence in Jehovah's love is restored. We see these remarks illustrated in our first parents. As long as they believed in God's love, they remained holy and happy; the moment they believed Satan's lie, who taught them that God was selfish, — that he was keeping some-

IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US.

thing back from them that was really good for them, and the reason why this good was kept back was lest they should come to know as much as himself, — the very moment they believed this falsehood, they fell, and guilty dread of God took the place of confidence and love.

The very beings who but a few moments before were sending up their songs of love and joy, and forming no unhappy harmony with the loftier songs of heaven, are now in terror fleeing from the sound of the Lord's voice, and trying to hide themselves among the trees of the garden. Why is Adam now so unhappy ? As yet there is no change in his outward surroundings. The fruits are as pleasant to the taste, the flowers are as fragrant to the smell, the air as balmy, and the music of the birds as sweet as ever. His body is yet in paradise, but in his soul have begun the very elements of hell — a plain proof that no outward possessions can make man happy while his soul is estranged from the fountain of all good.

In " Immanuel, God with us," we see Satan's lie fully refuted. We see the God we supposed was full of vindictive wrath, coming near to us in human flesh, with the tear of pity in his eye and words of inviting love upon his lips. We see that God so loved us, that he stepped from his throne at the very summit of glory, and sought for us on the mountains of sin. We see that we do not need to do anything to make God love us, for that love has existed all along; that we do not need to do something to reconcile God to us, for whoever was in the wrong must come and be reconciled to the right ; hence God is in Christ reconciling not himself to the world, but the world to himself.

In short, we see that as man departed from God by believing Satan's lie, and disbelieving God's truth, so he must return by disbelieving Satan's lie, and believing God's truth. And as he lost his happiness when he lost his confidence in God's disinterested love, so he can never regain his happiness till he believes in that love as displayed in Christ Jesus. Hence it is written, " Acqtiaint thyself with God and be at peace with him." And again, " They that know Thee shall put their trust in Thee." That is, the moment they really know God, as he is revealed in the Gospel, that moment they are at peace with Him. But a man may know about God, and yet not know God. He may be a profound theologian, and be able to discourse eloquently upon the attributes of God, and yet in the true spiritual sense know no more of him than a Hottentot. To know God is to know him as my forgiving Father, and this I can only know through Jesus Christ His Son.

In the light of these remarks, how important does the doctrine of Christ's divinity appear ! Take away that truth out of the Bible, and you shatter to pieces humanity's life-boat, and leave man a miserable wreck upon the shores of eternity. This is the keystone of that bridge that crosses the gulf of human despair, and let it be taken away and the whole fabric falls to pieces. This is the most dangerous error that has ever cursed our world, for it strikes at the root of the atonement, the only Vope of man. Hence, when Infidels would destroy Christianity under the most plausible form, they have begun by denying the divinity of Christ. If some being vested with great power wished to destroy our solar system, it would not be necessary to go from orb to orb, destroying one after another : it would only be necessary to dash out the sun, and the whole would rush wiloHy into one mass of ruin. So men wishing to be called Christians, have taken away our Lord's divinity, and thus removed the life and power of the whole Christian system. But they cannot impose upon the pious soul, the dead body for the living form. When they talk of Christ, it is not the Christ of the Bible they speak of, but a Christ formed in their own train imaginations ; and however much they may extol him as a good and, virtuous man, the believer says, " Ye have taken away my Lord, and I know not where ye have laid him."

Sinner ! In the tears and sufferings of the God-man, see how great must be your danger. The tears of Jesus over your perishing state, and the deep anxieties of his soul for your salvation, show how fearful is your peril. You are out in a steamboat upon the lake, enjoying a pleasure excursion, on a lovely summer day. There is not a cloud in the sky, nor a ripple upon the waters. The calm bosom of the lake reflects

1MMANUEL, GOD WITH US. 1 5

all that is bright and beautiful in the firmament above. The thought of danger never crosses your mind, and you are sinking down into sweet enjoyment of the whole scene, when suddenly you see the captain rush across the deck with tears rolling down his cheeks, and much excited ; you also see the crew deeply affected, and you would at once begin to think there must be danger, though you could not see it.

Now, when we see God in human form weeping and bleeding for sinners, there must be some fearful peril — there must be some deep damnation, on the brink of which your soul is toppling ! O, at once go to the Captain of our Salvation, and cry, " Lord save, or I perish ! " — and that hand that bears the print of the nail, and yet is the hand that guides the stars in their courses, will pluck you from destruction, and give you a place among his loved ones on earth, and at last among his redeemed ones in heaven. But remember that the same hand that is strong to save is also strong to smite. The feet of those who have carried others to their burial, may be at the door to entomb you. The shuttle may have passed the loom and have woven the last garment in which your cold corpse is to be enshrouded, and this night your soul may stand before God. Dear reader, would you dare to stand there in a Christless state ? As a consuming fire would that holy presence be to your guilty soul.

CHAPTER Til.

SINAI AND CALVARY.

" He that believeth not is condemned already."

It is not necessary for the man out of Christ to wait tiTl the day of his death, or the day of Judgment, to be condemned, for now he is under the curse of the law ; and the curse of the law is the curse of God. Go where he will, do what he may, that curse is upon him. He may banish the remembrance of it from his thoughts ; he may plunge into scenes of gay and fashionable resort ; he may engross his mind with the cares and perplexities of business ; he may roam amid the fields of literature and art, and expand his intellect amid the wonderful revelations of t science; but employ himself as he may, the sentence of death has gone forth against him ; and the execution of that sentence is only suspended to afford him an opportunity of going to Christ for pardon and eternal life.

When he lies upon his bed at night that curse surrounds it like a curtain ; when he walks by the way it is his attendant ; and when he laughs in the theatre, or in the bar-room, or at the festive board, that tremendous curse frowns in wrath over his head. The law says, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now, dear reader, if you can show that since the moment that you became a responsible being to the present time, you have never sinned in thought, word, or deed ; that you have loved God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, during the whole of your life, — then you are not under the curse, but can claim eternal life as a right, according to the terms of the law : " Do and live." Your conscience testifies, however that you have not thus lived a perfectly holy life, and the want of this perfect holiness brings upon you the curse of which we have spoken.

SINAI AND CALVARY. I 7

No man will ever go to Christ for a blessing till he feels himself burdened with this curse. The hoarse, stern voice of justice, must be heard from Sinai, pronouncing our condemnation, before we will listen to the " still small voice " of love from Calvary, declaring our justification. It is in vain that you press food upon a man who is not hungry, or offer alms to one who thinks himself rich and increased in goods. So, till the soul feels its lost and undone condition, there will be no music in the name Jesus, and no attraction in Calvary. The sinner must be made to feel that God cannot permit his law to be trampled upon with impunity, and that sin is the most fearful thing in the whole universe ; for if it is pardoned, it can only be blotted out through the untold sufferings of God's own Son, — if unpardoned, it must be followed by an eternity of woe.

A German Prince, upon visiting France went to see the place where many convicts were confined. In compliment to his rank, he was permitted to signalize his visit by giving one of the convicts his liberty. He spoke to one man, whose intelligent look attracted his notice, and asked him for what crime he was suffering. In reply the convict began to tell him the most unlikely story of his innocence, and of how false witnesses swore against him. The Prince left him and put the same question to another, who also denied his guilt, and averred that he was mistaken for another man. The same question was put to several others, and with the same result ; till at last he came to a man whose solemn and melancholy cast of countenance attracted his notice. The man's reply was, " I have been a vile wretch, and have deserved far more than my present punishment. I have set at open defiance the laws both of God and men, and am not fit to look upon God's blue heavens or the green earth." The Prince, turning to his attendants, said, " Set this man free ; he is in a fit state of mind to make a proper use of his liberty."

It is thus that the Prince of Peace receives and pardons the sinner, when he is in a state of mind that justifies God and condemns himself. When the pride of the soul is subdued, then the sinner ceases to look at himself in the mirror of the world's notions and maxims about human nature, which makes the most deformed look comely in their own eyes; but he now looks at himself in the mirror of God's law, and the result is, he sees himself in some measure as God sees him; and " abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes."

We have an illustration of the truth of these remarks in the religion? history of the Apostle Paul. He says, " I was alive witaout the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." He stood high in his own estimation. He thought himself in high favor with God — as good as any of his acquaintances, and better than most. He tells us that the reason of this good opinion of himself was, that he was " without the law." This does not mean that he was without the knowledge of the law, for, doubtless, from a child he could repeat the law of God correctly.

But it means that he was ignorant of the far-reaching spirituality of God's law, extending as it does to the thoughts and feelings of the heart. He could point to one commandment after another, and proudly say, " I have never broken any of them," and so far as the outward act is concerned, this was doubtless true ; but he forgot that the revengeful thought is murder, that the covetous thought is theft, and that the unchaste thought is adultery ; he forgot that it is in vain that we go through a heartless round of religious ceremonies, if love to God is not the grand motive power that governs our lives. Hence, when the spirituality of the law flashed upon his mind, in the light of a new conviction, and, to use his own words, "the commandment came, sin revived, and I died," then the sins of his whole life appeared before him, unpardoned, black in their aggravations, and loudly calling for God's wrath upon his head. His hope perished ; his delusion was torn away ; the fabric that he had built upon the sand lay around him, a pile of ruins. Sin seemed "exceeding sinful."