“The Wrath to Come.”

How appalling is the thought that multitudes of human beings are every day drawing nearer and nearer to “the wrath of God!” And yet how few seem to be alive to the fact! How many go on day by day with their accustomed duties, seeking, it may be, to come up to their usual standard of moral propriety, and perhaps also of virtue and refinement, without for one moment crediting the truth, that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness!” Now God is preaching peace, and delivering souls from condemnation, in the exceeding riches of His grace; for “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,” so that “He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36.) It is impossible that any language can be plainer, and yet how awfully solemn the fact, that the wrath of God abides on them that believe not! Those, then, who do now receive the Son of God as their Saviour are safely sheltered from coming wrath, and are enabled to worship and rejoice before God in virtue of the peace-giving, sin-cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. It was so with those who believed the gospel at Thessalonica— “they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
It is when a soul is bowed by God’s love and truth ix judge himself wording to it, that soul-distress woes eerily becomes known; for how can anyone make the solemn discovery that he is going on to “the wrath to come,” and contemplate its everlasting misery and woe, without his whole heart crying out, “What must I do to be saved?”
We have lately read of one who was thus bowed before God by His truth. He says, “I was out that awful night, the fifteenth of December, when the hand of God so visibly rested on the congregation, and when so many souls were given to Christ. I cannot tell you what I felt. I have been in all sorts of danger, by land and by sea, but I never found myself a coward till then. My knees smote together, and I trembled, every limb. It seemed to me as if God had written down in letters of fire all the sins I had ever committed, from my youth up, and had set them in order before my eyes. There they were in all their terrible minuteness. Circumstances which I had forgotten for years came up with all the freshness of yesterday. The mouth of hell seemed to open under the pew in which I sat; and I had no expectation of leaving the place alive. How I reached home I cannot tell, for of that I have no recollection. But this I can testify, that day and night the burning thought which racked my brain was, ‘The wrath to come!’ ‘The wrath to come!’ And yet, amidst it all, it was not the fear of hell that frightened me; it was the thought of having so ill-treated so good a God, and so gracious a Saviour. Last Sunday week, as I was at prayer, it seemed to me as if someone standing by addressed me by name, and said, ‘You may as well give over praying, for God will never answer your prayers.’ I rose and said, ‘No, never! no, never! Now that I have once learned to pray, I’ll never give over praying, if I die upon my knees.’ Still, all was dark, and I could see no hope. Things went on from bad to worse, and I began to fear that my reason would give way. But at length deliverance came. Last Thursday evening, as I was reading about cutting off a right hand and plucking out a right eye, it struck me that there must be something which held back my soul from God, and so I entreated Him to show me what it was, and to dispose my mind to any service or any sacrifice He might require, even to the cutting off of a right hand, or the plucking out of a right eye, when all at once I had such a view of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, that the whole mountain of my guilt melted away like snow in the sunshine, and I arose from my knees with a heart large enough to lay hold of the whole world, and bring it to the feet of Christ.”
Dear reader, what say you to these things? Is it not high time to be aroused to the heartfelt consideration of the safety of your own soul? Lovingly we would ask, Are you sheltered by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died to save sinners from the coming wrath? Why not? Is not God worthy to be believed, His word to be credited, the atoning work of His beloved Son to be trusted? Flee then, at once, to the Saviour’s outstretched arms; take Him at His word; think of the sin-cleansing virtue of His blood; and, while looking up to His dear face, rest in His faithful word, that “whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Glimpses of Jesus’ Ways.
No. 2.
READ Mark 5:22-24, 35-43. “And He commanded that something should be given her to eat.” How very kind and thoughtful was this of our precious Lord Jesus! and how strikingly it illustrates His own gracious words, “Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” Here, then, we get a little “glimpse” of one of those many “ways” in which He “declared the Father.” (John 1:18; 17:6, 26.) The poor girl, you know, had been ill of a fever, and no doubt had suffered much; and when people suffer they can’t eat. But she had not only suffered and been sorely weakened by the fever, but it had killed her outright. Then came Jesus, and with that word, “Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise,” He gave her life again. His word sufficed. “He spake, and it was done.” And if in thus speaking the dead into life He showed His power, a power greater than that of death itself—if thus He would show that He was the life, and His word life, how tenderly, how humanely, He does it! He “took her by the band,” all unconscious as she was; for He would befriend the very DEAD. Nor was this all “He commanded that something should be given her to eat.” Wonder, amazement, and joy unspeakable, might have caused the parents and friends to forget at such a moment the need of the poor child; but Jesus forgets nothing. How calm He is in all the turmoil and excitement of this scene; how conscious of power! yet how He stoops to think of giving a poor girl “something to eat.” What tender pity for a little one! As the beautiful curtains of the tabernacle were all of “one measure” (Exodus 26:2), so the precious features of Jesus’ character were all equal. His tenderness was as deep as His love, His pity as great as His power. No doubt this little scene shadows forth a glorious future, when the daughter of Judah shall be “taken by the hand,” raised from “death in trespasses and sins,” and fed on the meat that endureth forever. But just now I want you to think over the tenderheartedness which could care for the need of a child just raised from the dead by His own almighty word. God and man stand before us in one person, and in one little scene. The resistless power that can raise the dead is united to a compassion not less tender and thoughtful than that of a mother for her little one. Love was the spring of it all; and He is love, for He is God; but, blessed thought, He is man too, and His pity is equal to His power. What a Friend to have forever! Is He yours by faith? Do you know Him as your own precious Saviour, whose blood cleanseth from all sin? Only such can have Him for a Friend, and to all such He is “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” But to know Him as a friend you must walk in obedience and communion. (John 15:14; 13:23-26; 19:26, 27.)
K.
“READER, this year may bring to thee
A summons to eternity!
If welcome thou would’st have it be,
To Jesus come.”