Salvation in Extremity

‘** Yea, from the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me.”’ — PSALM xxii. 21.

HERE is a man proclaiming that he has found deliverance from the very jaws of death. He has been saved in the extreme limit of peril when salvation seemed humanly impossible. The wild oxen were out. They had overtaken him and he was just about to be -impaled. The breath of death was upon him. And when no earthly ministry could intervene between him and destruction, he was rescued by the merciful providence of the Lord. ‘‘ Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me.”’

Is this salvation, even in the very leap of death, a vital part of the evangel of our day? How far do we go in our proclamation of the saving grace of God? Are we telling everybody that God can deliver from the horns of the wild oxen? Or is there something lame in our assurance, and does our evangel consequently stammer in hesitancy and reserve? Unless we can speak of salvation in uttermost extremity in a confident tone that will arrest and startle the world, we have really nothing worth saying at all. What can be done for men and women when the wild oxen are upon them? This is the crux and test of our religion. When a herd of wild passions are goring some poor soul to death, has our gospel any invincible means of deliverance? When a life is all broken to pieces, and is registered in the lists of human judgment as absolutely hopeless, do we know a secret that can stagger and beat the wild oxen, not only setting the victim free, but restoring him to health and wholeness again? Are there any circumstances where the wild oxen are most assuredly the lords of the field?

It has been the glory of all great preaching that its evangel has covered the most awful perils in human necessity. It has proclaimed its good news to men and women who were in the murderous grip of apparently certain destruction. It has sung of dawn at the midnight. It has sung its songs at the very mouth of hell. I delight to turn over the pages of John Wesley’s Journal and note with what untrembling confidence he brings his gospel to the field where the wild oxen are goring their victims to death. ‘‘ This morning I went and offered free salvation to four condemned felons in Newgate gaol!” There are hundreds of entries just like that. They are the words of a herald who had invincible faith in the power of redeeming grace. Let the wild oxen be foaming and tearing up the ground in their rage, here is the assured secret of salvation!

Are we saying these things as they ought to be said to-day? Or are we afraid of - seeming too dogmatic? Have we the note of certainty that cuts through hesitancies and ambiguities as the clarion notes of a bugle ring through the confused murmurs of a market place? Do we believe that our Lord can save even unto the uttermost? Is His grace all-sufficient? Can His blood make the foulest clean? This would surely be good news, and it is the news which, more than anything else, the world is waiting to hear to-day. Our Lord can answer from the horns of the wild oxen! Such is the power of redeeming grace.