Christ the Open Hospice

The Hospice on the Alpine Mountain of St. Bernard, is a beautiful emblem of Christ as a refuge for sinners. Let us briefly point out some of the coincidences, and hope that among our readers may be some awakened penitent who feels his need of a Saviour.

I. The Hospice is ample for all the weary and cold-struck travellers who knock at its gates. So did Jesus “taste death for every man.” The merits of His atonement are sufficient for a whole universe of sinners. It is world-wide in its efficacy as it is world-wide in its offer. And what was necessary in order to save a single sinner — a Paul or a John ISTewton — is all that is necessary to secure the salvation of a nation or a globe. How much would be required for the protection of one poor half-frozen traveller over the ice-fields of St. Bernard? Simply that he should be roofed from the descending snow, and walled in from the surrounding cold — -that he should have food, and fire, and shelter. But when the thick walls have once been reared, and the broad roof has once been spread above them — when the cellar has once been stored full, and the blazingfire once kindled on the huge hearth-stone, why may not hundreds come in and be saved from exposure and icy death? The great thing to be done was to build the Hospice, and so large, too, and so well provided, that accommodation should be assured to every Alpine pilgrim who could ever sue for admission.

So in the economy of grace, the great indispensable was to provide an atonement ample for a guilty race — to open a house of refuge so capacious, so strong, so safe, that a world of sinners could be saved, as well as a single pauper child. This has been done. Christ’s death has an infinite efilcacy. He satisfied the demands of the law, and purchased a ransom for every believer, and then invites every guilty perishing soul to become a believer. The Hospice does not save a solitary man who stubbornly stays outside; neither does the atonement of Jesus n6 Christ the Open Hospice.

avail for a single sinner who refuses to accept it and believe. Over the portals of the Asylum on Mount Calvary, the pierced hand has written, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And yet there is room.”

II. But while there is abundant room for you, my awakened friend, there is no room for your self -righteousness. A sharp-eyed sentinel stands at the door. He holds in his hand the fixed bayonet of this truth, u By the works of the law no man shall be justified.” You cannot evade this sentry. He will not let you bring in that back-load of your own paltry trash. Cast it away. There is room for you as a sinner in Christ’s Befuge, but not an inch for your worthless wares of self-righteousness.

Nor is there room for worldliness. If you come to Jesus with your head full of business and your heart full of lucre — if you wish merely to get out a “policy of insurance” for your soul against the hour of death, and then go back to your money-getting, you will find the door hedged up. The wary guard on duty at the gate will stop you with the challenge, Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. There is cordial welcome for you, bat Christ will not consent to share your heart with his own bitter enemy.

III. There are many contraband articles to which no admission will be allowed at the door of Gospel-love. No man will be permitted to smuggle in the implements of any illicit trade, or sinful practices. The flagons of strong drink — the cards and dice-box of the gamester — the passion-kindling literature of lust — the volumes of infidel lore; yea, even the beads and tapers of self-saving superstition, are all excluded. Nor will it fare any better with you if you are smuggling in a concealed enmity towards a fellow-man in your heart; or a darling appetite; or a favorite sin. Of all these must you make a “clean breast” when you knock at that door over which is written, Whosoever will, let him come. If you have ever wronged a fellow-man in any business- transaction, you had better make honest restitution, before you apply again, in prayer, for admission to the priceless blessings of salvation. Many an awakened sinner has failed to find peace, simply because he was cherishing in his li8 Christ the Open Hospice.

heart a wicked grudge, or was ‘withholding an honest due from some one he had wronged.

IV. While there is no room for your sins or self-righteousness, you will find ample room for all your talents, all your wealth, all your activities. If success in business has filled your purse, Christ will demand to share it with you. A large portion of your time he will levy on; and all your influence. Within the Church of Jesus there is ample scope for the most colossal reason — for the most brilliant imagination — for the most fertile invention — for the most soulcleaving eloquence. Come in. my friend: Christ hath need of thee; but yet not so much as thy guilty, wayward, condemned soul hath need of HIM.

V. We write this brief hurried paragraph for the benefit of some disheartening inquirer. Perhaps you have not yet found entrance into Christ’s House of Salvation, because you have been too intensely selfish in your search. You have cared for no one but yourself. Try now to do some good to other souls, and see if it will not bring blessings to your own.

You remember, perhaps, the incident — on the

St. Bernard mountain — of the freezing traveller who “was just settling down into the snow-drifts, despairing and half dead. The whirling snowflurries were fast weaving the white shroud around his dying form. Just as he is about sinking into the numb insensibility, he hears the distant cry of another traveller who, like himself, is perishing in the storm. He rouses up. He makes a sturdy effort to reach his companion in suffering — finds him — chafes him — lifts him on his feet, and supports his trembling steps onward towards the welcome light of the Hospice that now glimmers through the driving snow. The effort warms his own freezing frame into life again, and in trying to save another, he saves himself. Join hands with some friend who is yet out of Christ, and together struggle on towards the blessed” covert from the tempest.’’ There is room for you both in the heart of Christ, in the atonement of Christ, in the Church of Christ, and in that everlasting rest which his blood has purchased for you. Remember this — that no man perishes for want of an atonement.