her heart. I was telling her that sweet verse, 1 Tim. i. 15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." It will answer you also, dear friend. Christ Jesus was God's dear son. He made all things, sun, moon, and stars, men and angels. He was from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and yet he came into the world. He did not say, "I will keep my throne and my happiness, and leave sinners to die and perish in their sins." No; "He came into the world." He became a babe, and was laid in a manger, for there was not room in the inn. The inn was like your heart; it was filled with other lodgers, and had no room for Jesus. He became "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He bore our sins upon his own body on the tree. While we were sinners, "Christ died for us." Why did he do all this? Ah! it was to save sinners. Not to save good people-not to save angels-but sinners. Perhaps you will say, "but I am_too bad a sinner;" but Paul says, "of whom I am the chief." Paul was the chief of sinners, and yet he was saved by Christ. So Christ is willing and able to save you, though you were the chief sinner on the face of the earth. If Christ came into this world and died to save such as you, will it not be a fearful thing if you die without being saved by him? Surely you have lived long enough without Christ. You have despised Jesus long enough. What has the world done for you, that you love it so much? Did the world die for you? Will the world blot out your sins or change your heart? Will the world carry you to heaven? No, no! You may go back to the world if you please, but it can only destroy your poor soul. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth," 1 Timothy, v. 6. Read these words in your Bible, and mark them, and if you go back that mark will be a witness against you before the great white throne, when the books are opened. Have you not lived long enough in pleasure? Come and try the pleasures of Christ-forgiveness and a new heart. I have not been at a dance or any worldly amusement for many years, and yet I believe I have had more pleasure in a single day than you have had all your life. In what? you will say. In feeling that God loves me-that Christ has washed me-and in feeling that I shall be in heaven when the wicked are cast into hell. "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand;" Psalm lxxxiv. 10. I do not know what is to be the result of your anxieties. I do not know whether you will be drawn to Christ, or driven back into the whirlpool of a perishing world; but I know that all will soon be settled for eternity. I was in a very wicked family today, where a child had died. I opened my Bible, and explained this verse to them over the coffin of their little one, Heb. ix. 27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Solemn words! we have only once to die, and the day is fixed. If you die wrong the first time, you cannot come back to die better a second time. If you die without Christ, you cannot come back to be converted and die a believer-you have but once to die. Oh! pray that you may find Christ before death finds you. "After this the judgment." Not, after this purgatory. No farther opportunity to be saved-"after this the judgment." As death leaves you so judgment finds you. If you die unsaved, you will be so in the judgment. May I never see you at the left hand! If I do, you will remember how I warned you, and prayed for you, and besought you to come to the Lord Jesus. Come to Jesus-he will in nowise cast you out. tionate friend, &c. Your affec TO A SOUL INQUIRING AFTER JESUS. The wise men-Guilt in us, righteousness in Jesus. ST. PETER'S, Monday, Sept. 18, 1842. MY DEAR C.-I do not and cannot forget you, and, though it is very late, I have to write you a few lines to say, follow on to know Jesus. I do not know if you can read my crooked writing, but I will make it as plain as I can. I was reading this morning, Luke ii. 29, what old Simeon said when he got the child Jesus into his arms-"Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." If you get a firm hold of the Lord Jesus, you will be able to say the same. If you had died in your ignorance and sin, dear soul, where would you have been this night? Ah! how shall we sufficiently praise God if he really has brought you to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! Psalm xxxvi. 12, 13, will suit your case. If you all are really brought to Christ, it will be something like the case of the wise men of the east. Matt. ii. When they were in their own country, God attracted their attention by means of a star. They followed it, and came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we are come to worship him." Herod and Jerusalem were troubled at the saying. No one was seeking Christ but themselves. The world thought they were mad; but soon they saw the star again, and it led them to the house where the infant Saviour lay-his robe of state a swaddling band-his cradle the manger. Yet they kneeled down and called him, "my Lord and my God"-they got their own souls savedand gave him gifts, the best they had, and then departed into their own country with great joy in their hearts, and heaven in their eye. So may it be with you. The most around you care not for Jesus. But you are asking, "Where is he-we are come to be saved by him?" None around you can tell. They think you are going out of your mind. But God is leading you to the very spot where the Redeemer is a lowly, despised, spit-upon, crucified Saviour. Can this be the Saviour of the world? Yes, dear soul; kneel down and call him your Redeemer. He died for such as you and me. And now you may go away into your own country again, but not as you came. You will carry with you joy unspeakable and full of glory. A young woman called upon me on Wednesday last, whom I had never seen before. She said she was a stranger from another part of Scotland; she came to this town about a year ago, and attended St. Peter's, and there for the first time, learned that she was a sinner and needed Christ. About four weeks ago she found rest and joy at the Saviour's feet. I said to her, "Then you will bless God that he brought you from your own country to this place." She said, "I often do that." Another woman came the same evening, whom I had never seen. She said she had been married eight years to a wicked husband. One of her neighbors had brought her to our Church, and now she feels that Christ has saved her soul. 66 Thus the work goes on-" The Lord added to the Church daily such as shall be saved." A young woman was with me to-night in great distress. She said, I have a wicked heart within me that would sink a world." I said, "I am thankful to hear you complain of your wicked heart, dear friend, it is unsearchably wicked. There is not a sin committed on earth or in hell but has its spring and fountain in your breast and mine. You are all sin -your nature is sin-your heart is sin-your past life is sinyour prayers are all sin." Oh! that you would despair of being righteous in yourself. Then take the Lord Jesus for your righteousness. In him is no sin. And he stood for us, and offers to be your shield, your way to the Father. You may be righteous in Christ with a perfect righteousness, broad as the law, and pure as the light of heaven. If you had an angel's righteousness, you might well lay it down and put on Jesus. The robe of a bloodwashed sinner is far whiter than that of an angel. Do not fear the frown of the world. When a blind man comes against you in the street, you are not angry at him; you say he is blind, poor man, or he would not have hurt me. So you may say of the poor world, when they speak evil of Christians-they are blind. If they knew their sin, and misery, and the love of Jesus, they would cleave to him also. Fear not them which kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Keep close to the Lord Jesus. He is greater than all that can be against you-he is the shepherd of his sheep-he will defend you from wolves. Pray for the Holy Spirit, dear friend. Ask him to come into your heart, and abide there. It is a mean dwelling for such a guest Still he will make it clean and holy by dwelling in it. Ask him to teach you to pray; Rom. viii. 26, 27. He will give you "groanings that cannot be uttered." Ask him to change your heart and make it like that of Jesus. Ask him to write the law upon your heart, and to keep you in every time of need. I fear you are weary of my long sermons. Remember, if you are not saved, I will be a witness against you in the judgment day. Come ye weary, heavy laden, Not the righteous-sinners Jesus came to call. Farewell! Write me soon all your heart. Ever yours, till glory, &c. TO THE SAME. Trials from a blind world-How the death of Christ is an atonement. LONDON, Nov. 5, 1842 MY DEAR C.-I pray for you, that your faith may not fail. Hold fast by Jesus for a little while, and then we shall be forever with the Lord, where the unbelieving will never be. I got safely up to town without stopping. The young man in the coach with us was Lord P. He and I were alone all night in the railway carriage, and I would fain have told him the way to be saved, but when morning dawned I lost him. I preached twice on Thurs day, and once last night, and now I am preparing for to-morrow. I feel, like John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The mad world presses on like a bird hasting to the snare. They do not know that the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell. 66 I thank God without ceasing when I remember you all-how God opened your eyes and hearts, and made you flee from the wrath to come and believe the record which God hath given concerning his Son. "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," Rev. ii. 10. Do not be surprised if worldly people mock you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely. Jesus told you it would be so. If you were of the world, the world would love its own." You have been long enough of the world. Did the world ever hate you then? So now, when you have come out from among them, and are cleaving to Jesus, do you think they will love you? Remember Jesus loves you. God is for you, and who can be against you? Remember, all who have gone to heaven before you, suffered the same things; see Rev. vii. 14, "These are they that came out of great tribulation." You wish to understand more about Christ's death being an atonement. I shall try and explain. The curse which Adam by his sins brought upon us all, was this, "Thou shalt surely die;" 66 Genes. ii. 17. This included the death of the body, the death of the soul, and the eternal destruction of both in hell. This is the curse that hangs over every unpardoned sinner. And our sins have only added certainty and weight to the awful curse, for the wages of sin is death." Now, when the Son of God said he would become our surety and Saviour, the Father said, “Thou must die for them;" see John x. 17, 18. "I lay down my life." "This commandment have I received from my Father." It is true, Christ did not suffer eternal destruction in hell; but He was a person so glorious and excellent-God's own Son-that his short sufferings were equal in value to our eternal agonies. So that, in the eye of law, and in God's account, Jesus has suffered all that you and I were condemned to suffer. Hence that sweet, sweet passage, Isa. xl. 1, 2, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, for she hath received (in Christ) of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Christ's dying for us is as much in God's account as if we had twice over borne the eternal agonies of hell. Hence that sweet song which God enabled you and G. to sing, Isa. xii. 1, "I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me." Hence also that triumphant question, Rom. viii. 34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." 66 * * * Keep looking then to Jesus, dear soul, and you will have the peace that passeth all understanding. Whenever Satan accuses you, send him to the stripes of the Lord Jesus. Deal gently and tenderly with your unconverted friends. Remember you were once as blind as they. He was despised and we esteemed him not," Isa. liii. Honor your mother in the Lord. Give her all reverence and obedience in things not sinful. Ask to read and pray over Mat. xviii. 3, 6. I would love much to visit the cottage on my return, but I fear I shall be kept in town till Friday, so that I must travel night and day home. The Lord bless you, and keep you cleaving to Christ the true vine. You have found the pearl of great price. Go and sin no more. "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." God is able to keep you from falling. In his dear arms I leave you. Yours, &c. TO A SOUL THAT HAD BEGUN TO SEE CHRIST. What you want in yourself is to be found in double measure in Christ. DUNDEE, Nov. 1842. My DEAR FRIEND-Why did you not write me a few lines? It would be occupation to you, and your soul might find rest, even when pouring itself out to another. I do trust you are seeking hard after him whom your soul loveth. He is not far from any He is a powerful and precious Saviour, and happy one of us. |