Three Reasons for Being a Christian
“Yesterday and to-day and xiiL 8.
THESE three divisions of time present to us three good reasons for accepting Jesus Christ. This expression has to do with Him and for that reason it is not only suggestive, but its truth is inspiring. All things about us are constantly changing, therefore to know that He changes not is a great joy. It is like another Scripture which is found in the Revelation where he is described as the Alpha and Omega; it would seem from this as if the alphabet had been exhausted to represent the beauty of His character and the power of His life.
Leigh Richmond, in his “Dying Cottager,” tells of the last visit which he made to the deathbed of one whom he had led to Christ, and as he sat near her bedside, he asked her as to her hope for eternity. Putting her wasted fingers upon the Bible she said, “Christ here,” and then pointing upward she exclaimed, “And Christ there.”
Three times the expression “Alpha and Omega,” is used and each time with suggestive force.
Revelation i. 8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” He is the Alpha and Omega of the Book. He binds the Word of God together. His story in prophecy and fulfilment runs through all its pages and makes the Book one.
Revelation xxi. 6, “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” He is the Alpha and Omega’ of the thirsty soul. Drink of the world and you must drink again; try to quench your thirst with riches and the thirst will be but increased; try to be satisfied with honour and distinction and you will cry out, “Oh, wretched man that I am;” but drink of the f oimtain of living water and you will never thirst again.
Revelation xxii. 13, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first and the last,” He is the Alpha and Omega of the homecoming. He journeys with us all the way. When our eyes are blinded by sin and we do not know that He is near, He is by our side. In sickness and in health, in sunshine and in shade. He is with us, but when the last day’s work is done and life’s race is run, and we cross over to the other shore, His is the invisible presence with us constantly, but there we see Him face to face.
Everything about Jesus was masterful.
There was power in His presence, for when He appeared devils fled away and were glad enough to drown themselves in the waters of the sea.
There was power in His voice. The waves were rocking the boat and even the trained fishermen are afraid; but at the sound of His matchless voice the waves are hushed, the storm is over and the sea is calm.
There was power in His hand. He has but to touch (REi^SONS FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN 45
sightless eyes with his fingers and lay his hand upon the pain-racked body and stretch forth his arms to a wicked and gainsaying world to bring peace to those in distress. Indeed, He is powerful in every way. The Scriptures are filled with the story of his miraculous work, and again and again devils, disease and death, acknowledge Him as their conqueror. It is of him that the text is speaking, and He is described as being the same “Yesterday and to-day and forever.”
In the Revised Version there is a little word of three letters, “Yea,” added to the reading of the Authorised Version. It is as if the writer were saying “Jesus Christ is the same to-day that He was yesterday “; a truth which was filled with sweetness and comfort. It is just here that the “Yea” comes in, which. is literally “Amen,” and it is as if all the angels in the skies were giving assent to the statement of the writer.) If He is the same now that He was when He blessed little children, and forgave sinful women, and comforted broken-hearted men, then I must receive Jlim*)£ith alj my heart.
I present three reasons for being a Christian.! DouSP
less someone will say there are ten thousand/easons,
and this is true, but they all head up underjhreejnaitj
divisions.
YESTERDAY
Your yesterday and the day before that’ anSTtHedays reaching back to the beginning of your earthly pilgrimage, present a reason for the acceptance of Christ. Men lose sight of the yesterday of sin when they lalk about reformation. If you have broken God’s law you cannot ignore the fact, if you have spoken unkindly or falsely of another you cannot just let the matter slip and expect that somehow, somewhere it will be all right
“Boys flying kites,
Haul in their white-winged birds;
But you cannot do that,
When you are flying words.”
But I am not speaking concerning generalities, my message has to do with sin. Reformation cannot effect a cure, for the trouble is with the heart and it must be treated. No outside application of good resolutions will avail.
In my home in the country an old farmer came in one day to tell us that in some unaccountable way the water in the well on my place had been poisoned, and that it would be exceedingly dangerous to drink of its waters or to allow the cattle to drink, and if I had informed him that I expected to erect a new well sweep and that that would cure the difficulty, or build a new pump house and the waters would be purified, I would have been speaking quite as wide of the truth as the man who talks about reformation being a cure for sin. t [And doing your best cannot count, for if your best from to-day should be most admirable, the sin which you have committed is in the past, the law which you have broken was an act of yesterday, and your many offences against God occurred sometime in the past, reaching from to-day back to the earlier days of your experience. Then remember your sin is against God, and certainly reformation could not make provision for that. What man needs is a divinely prepared atonement The Scriptures have clearly stated that the “wages of sin is death,” but again as plainly declared that “the soul that sinneth it shall die,” but do not forget that we are likewise told that “He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” and the Scriptures also state that “Christ died for our sins.”
Then sin is a debt not to be paid by human effort. In Isaiah the 40th chapter and the second verse, we read, “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Rev. Dr. Bailey, of Denver, Col., once told me that this did not mean that she was to receive double punishment, for that would be unjust, but he said in the old Jewish days when one was in debt and gave his note as a promise for payment, he gave it on a perforated piece of parchment and wrote the obligaton across the perforation; it is thus that the expression “this indenture witnesscth” was originally used. The debtor took one part of the parchment while the creditor held the other, and when the debt was paid the portion held by the creditor was given to the debtor and was nailed to the door as a sign of payment. So remember that in our debt of sin, “He hath taken the handwriting which was against us and hath nailed it to His cross,” and we are free from the law. Oh, happy condition. The best solution of the sin problem is found in Christ as the Redeemer who is described in the Revelation as “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
My associate and friend of years, Dr. Henry Ostronij, has described an African prince visiting the African settlement at the St. Louis Exposition. He was clad in citizens* clothes, and the people from Africa appeared in their native costumes. When this stranger proclaimed himself a Prince they ridiculed him. However, an aged man said, “I can tell whether you are a prince of the royal blood,** and he ran his fingers down the back of the neck of the one who claimed to be a prince and found the scar that was there, the mark of his royalty, and he fell upon his knees with all the others to worship him, “And He stands before us as the Lamb that had been slain; scars in His hands and feet, in His side and back and on His blessed brow. He is our Redeemer.”
“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe.”
TO-DAY
If we were set free from the penalty of sin an3 then expected to stand in our own strength we should fail, but that is not the hope of the Christian, nor is it the doctrine taught in the New Testament. We have not only a Redeemer who is now our Great High Priest at the right hand of God, seated because His work is finished, but we have an indwelling Christ. As Dr. A. J. Gordon used to say,” We have a two-fold Christian experience; there is life and life more abundant; regeneration and renewal; conversion and consecration; son-, ship and communion; righteousness and holiness; peace with God and the peace of God, and we cannot live as we ought except we be united to Christ; He is the way, the truth, and the life. Without Him as the way there is nothing but wandering; without Him as the truth there is nothing but error; without Him as the life there is nothing but death.
U i
If I could live to God for just one day,
One blessed day, from rosy dawn of light
Till purple twilight deepened into night — A day of faith unfaltering, trust complete.
Of loved unfeigned and perfect charity.
Of hope undimmed, of courage past dismay.
Of heavenly peace, patient humility — No hint of duty to constrain my feet,
No dream of ease to lull to listlessness.
Within my heart no root of bitterness.
No yielding to temptation’s subtle sway — Methinks, in that one day would so expand
My soul to meet such holy, high demand
That never, never more could hold me bound
This shrivelling husk of self that wraps me round — So might I henceforth live to God alway.’
Such a life as this is possible if we are united to Christ by faith,”
I once purchased an old-fashioned clock, a grandfather’s clock, only of modern workmanship. I took it to my home in the country, set it up, started the pendulum going, and the family sat with admiring gaze looking upon it, but it marked no flight of time and the pendulum swung for a time and stopped. I tried it again and failed, and we were a disappointed household, but when I came down in the morning and with my son was examining its mechanism, I found that back behind the face there was a little hook which should have been slipped into the pendulum rod, and when I did this and started the pendulum again its marking the flight of time was perfect and ever since it has been a satisfaction to us. Human effort will last but a little while, but the life united to Christ by faith will move on with ever-increasing beauty and power. These are times when men must be like Christ. These are days of sham and graft, days of greed and of awful sin, and nothing will count except being like Him who is the son of God and perfect in all His ways.
“A Japanese colonel who was captured within the Russian lines was condemned to be shot as a spy. He took from his pocket a large roll of bills, and asked that they might be given to the Russian Red Cross Society, saying in explanation, ‘^ I am a Christian, and I wish thus to follow Christ in forgiving my enemies/* Was not that the right sort?
A missionary barely escaped the blow of a club that was designed to crush his skull. “Kill the coward 1 Tear him to pieces!” cried the multitude, but the missionary protected his would-be murderer. Brother f* he said to the affrighted man, ‘’Christ taught me to love my enemies; ‘* and he made the man, and all who beheld, friends of righteousness as no severity could have done.
When Rev. Thomas Waugh, of Liverpool, lost his eldest son in a railway accident for which the signalman was to blame; broken-hearted as he was, and crushed by the great sorrow of l;iis life, he found time to write a sympathetic letter to that stricken signalman.
FOREVER
The third reason for one’s being a Christian is found in his future, and this last reason has to do with his eternity. We cannot realise the duration of eternity.
I found in my father’s pocketbook after he was dead the following lines:
“How long sometimes a day appears.
And weeks, how long are they;
Months move as if the years
Would never pass away.
But days and weeks are passing by, ’
And soon must all be gone,
For day by day as moments fly
Eternity comes on.
Days, months, and years must have an end.
Eternity has none;
‘Twill always have as long to spend
As when it first begun.”
We would not be careless if we realised eternity, and if we understood that there is but a single heartbeat between us and the future, and that as we are in death we shall be for an unending eternity.
“Eternity! Eternity!
How long art thou. Eternity?
A little bird with fretting beak,
Might wear to naught the loftiest peak.
Though but each thousand years it came.
Yet thou wert then as now the same.
Ponder, O man, Eternity.”
There are two experiences for us, either of which we may have as we pass out of this world.
There is darkness. This means to be away from God, and we were made for Him and without Him we will be most miserable.
There is doom, for the Books shall be open and we shall stand face to face with the Judge.
Some years ago a gentleman driving a spirited team of horses lost control of the team. As they dashed through the streets a distinguished judge sprang out, caught the bridle-reins and at the risk of his own life saved the man who was driving. By a singular coincidence this same man was on trial for his life some littile time after, before the judge who rescued him. When the trial was over and the lawyers had made their plea, then the judge addressed him saying, “Have you anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon you?” And the prisoner tremblingly arose and said, “Your Honour, don’t you know me? *’ and when told that he must speak on and not address the judge, he said again, “But, your Honour, don’t you know I am the man you saved, have mercy.’’ And the judge replied, “I do remember you, but then I was your saviour and to-day I am your judge and must pass sentence.” And if you have sinned against the Saviour of men one day you must face him in judgment.
Then there is the land of light. It is a place of many mansions, and the thought of a mansion is beauty; it is also reunion; and there are streets of gold, and the thought of gold is purity, and only the pure in heart shall walk there. And there are gates of pearl, and the thought of pearl is suffering, and it is through the sufferings of Jesus that we are to enter the city. Then there is the presence of Christ.
The light of Heaven is the face of Jesus.
The joy of Heaven is the presence of Jesus.
The melody of Heaven is the name of Jesus.
The theme of Heaven is the work of Jesus.
The fulness of Heaven is Jesus Himseli
And no text could describe the glory of that city.
A friend of mine told me of a little blind boy who received his sight by the operation of a skilful physician, and when the last bandage had been removed and he saw his mother’s face and then looked out upon the beauties of nature, he exclaimed, “Oh, mother, why didn’t you tell me of this beauty?” And she said, “I did try, my son, but I failed,” and it is so with us concerning Heaven.
GOD’S PLAN
God has a plan for our lives, and it includes the future, and if we do not take it into account we shall be most miserable. It is best described in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the first chapter and the 12th verse, “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” The glory of the sun is in its shining; the glory of the diamond is in its brilliancy; the glory of the song is in its sweetness, but the glory of God ought to be in yourself as redeemed by Christ.
It is further described in Ephesians, 1.18, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” One of the most pathetic pictures describing the Son of God represents Him as treading the wine press alone, but He has passed through all His privations into the majesty of the Heavens; but remember if He has any glory there it will not be in the streets of gold or in the gates of pearl, but in yourself.
It is also pictured in Ephesians ii. 7,” That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.” God’s plan does not end with death nor with the coming of Christ. We do not know but that there are other worlds inhabited, and that we who have been redeemed by the precious blood are to be sent on errands to these worlds to proclaim the riches of His grace in His kindness to us through Christ, and ten million years from to-day we shall be fulfilling His will and working out this plan. This all settles so many difficulties. You said that your prayer was not answered when your loved one died, but God was just calling that loved one to a better position on high, and He knows best. You said that the education of your child amounted to nothing because the day after the graduation the accident meant the sudden death of your loved one, but God had the child in training here for a marvellous mission in the other world. If life ended with the grave, then we might be discouraged and broken-hearted because of trial, but every trial and every heartache are but the touch of the Master’s hand to shape us for the future.
A WARNING
This is such a warning. Men think very little about the to-morrow. We have the name to live and are dead, and the man who calls himself a Christian and is indifferent, inconsistent, not generous, ought to tremble in the thought of it.
The other day there was a terrific accident on the D. R. & G. Railroad in Colorado, and when the switchman was called to accotmt he tremblingly said, “I have nothing so say, I was asleep,” This is the situation of many a Christian.
But there are those who have not accepted Christ, many who are not Christians who must go into the future and will then wake up to what they might have been. They will remember God’s call, the preaching of the minister, the prayers of their mothers, the appeals to conscience, but this memory will profit nothing.
“Good-bye, I said to my conscience,
Good-bye for aye and aye,
And I put her hands off harshly,
And turned my face away.
And conscience smitten sorely
Returned not from that day.
“But the time came when my spirit
Grew weary of its pace.
And I cried, ‘Come back,’ to my conscience
For I long to see thy face,
But Conscience cried, ‘I cannot.
Remorse sits in my place.’”
God save us from such a dayl So you see there are three reasons for one’s being a Christian:
His past, he needs an atonement; his present, he needs an abiding Saviour; his future, he needs to fit into the plan of the Infinite One, but if I am a child of Crod I need not fear.
“I know not when, I know not where
My time will come to pass away.
And so I live, by faith and prayer
As if I knew it were to-day.
Por * Watch, the Scriptures say to me.
Thy Lord will come in grace and power — *
Be ready when He calls for thee.
Thou knowest not the day nor hour.
**Why should I be appalled at death? By God’s decree man dies to live-Eternity hangs on a breath, Which God alone can hold or give,
It dominates man’s nature o*er,
The end of watching pain and strife.
And is to man God’s parlour door.
By which he enters endless life.”
The Christian’s death is beautiful. When the Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon died, they sang at his funeral this sweet hymn:
“Sleep on, beloved, sleep, and take thy rest; Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour’s breast; We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best — Good-night I
“Calm is thy slumber as an infant’s sleep;
But thou shalt wake no more to toil and weep, )
Thine is a perfect rest, secure and deep — Good-night I
“Until the shadows from this earth are cast;
Until He gathers in His sheaves at last;
Until the twilight gloom is over-past — Good-night I
•”Only ‘good-night,’ beloved, not ‘farewell,’ A little while and all His saints shall dwell In hallowed union, indivisible. Good-night!
“Until we meet again before His throne.
Clothed in the spotless robe He gives His own.
Until we know even as we are known,
Good-night!”
Oh, that my last hours might be like his, and they will be if I have Christ as my Saviour, if He abides in my Ufe and if I look forth into the future, by faith realising that even He will not forsake me, and that yesterday and to-day and forever He is the same — the Saviour of my soul; the inspiration of my life of service; and my imending joy throughout eternity.