11. Our Substitute
Our Substitute AN OPPORTUNITY LOST.—It is said that an artist once gained permission to paint a portrait of the Queen. This was a great opportunity and would probably have made the man’s fortune. A place was fixed and a time was set, and promptly the Queen appeared, but the artist was not there—he was not ready yet. When he did arrive, he was informed that her Majesty had departed and would not return. So, because he was not ready, he missed the opportunity of his lifetime.
BAXTER’S ASSURANCE.—Richard Baxter once said, in substance, something like this: “If the Bible would say Richard Baxter should have everlasting life by believing in Jesus, I could not be certain that I was meant, since there might be others named Richard Baxter, but it declares whosoever, and I know that means me.”
MASTER HAS KEY.—A Frenchman who doubted the dispensation of Providence in the world, one day visited a ribbon factory. His attention was attracted by a marvelous piece of machinery. Countless wheels and thousands of threads were twirling in all directions, but he could understand nothing of its movements. He was informed that all this motion was connected with the center, where there was a chest which was kept shut. Eager to understand the principle of the machine, he asked permission to see the interior. “The master has the key,” was the reply. The words were like a flash of light. Here was the answer to doubt and unbelief. Yes, “Master has the key.” He governs and directs all.
JEW’S CONVERSION.—A minister in his sermon had been holding up Jesus as the way of salvation and noticed a Jew in the congregation listening attentively. At the close, if memory serves us, a private interview was arranged to be had at the minister’s home. Here the Israelite expressed his failure to see how a look by faith to Jesus could save. The preacher then kneeled in prayer. When they arose, the Jew exclaimed: “I see it! I see it! Now it is plain! Now it is plain!” “What do you mean?” asked the astonished preacher. Then the Israelite went on to tell that during the prayer his mind ran back to his boyhood home in Germany, and to a picture in his father’s house of the bitten Israelites gazing upon the brazen serpent. “As I gazed upon it,” he said, “gradually the pole changed into the form of a cross with the Messiah upon it hanging, bleeding, dying. I looked! I live! and now it is all plain.”
NICHOLAS PAID THE DEBT.—A soldier in Russia owed a great deal of money, and he knew not where to get it. On a piece of paper he made out a list of all his debts, and underneath wrote: “Who shall pay these debts?” He then fell asleep, and while in that condition the Emperor of Russia passed by, and taking the paper, read the question. Having read it, he took a pen and at the bottom signed his name “Nicholas.” When the soldier awoke, he thought it was all too good to be true, but in the morning the money came, and the debt was paid. NOT AFRAID.—Brown, on being asked if he were not afraid to enter a world of spirits, answered, “No; a persuasion that Christ is mine makes me think that when I appear in that world all the spirits will use me well on Christ’s account.” Warren, being asked in his last hours how he was, answered, “I am just going into Eternity; but I bless God I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die.”