November 29

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. - 1 Timothy 1:15.

HERE is an exhibition of grace and truth, of truth and grace, in connection. The gospel message is truth; and therefore we are to receive it with the firmness of conviction and assent; the more important the news, the more evident assurances are necessary to establish it that it is true as to its object. It was thus regarded in the beginning; the original receivers of it felt their feet upon a rock; their goings were established: a new song was put into their mouths; they received this saying as it is in truth the word of God. Their confidence in it was equal to the reality; we are told that it is the “substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” Yea, their works proved not only the reality, but the degree of their confidence in God to be such that they ventured their all upon it, all for time, and all for eternity. Do we thus receive it? Are we thus convinced? Can we say that we know that we are of the truth, and can assure our hearts before him.”

Then it is a gracious message. It brings us “glad tidings of great joy;” and therefore it is impossible to receive it properly unless we receive it also with cordiality, gratitude, and with joy. The first Christians thus received it. The people were not only taught the truth as it is in Jesus, but they were made blessed by it. The jailer at Philippi who, a few hours before, found his soul filled with horror and despair, “received the word with joy, believing with all his house;” and the Thessalonians “received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.” It was universally the case then; they believed, and believing “they rejoiced with joy unspeakable, and full of glory;” they knew the truth, and the truth made them free-free from the burden of guilt- free from the torment of sin-free from worldly anxieties and future forebodings; they were “careful for nothing;” “the peace of God which passeth all understanding kept their hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.” They were happy without the vanities and dissipations of the world; they were borne up under their trials; they gloried in tribulations also; they triumphed in the valley of the shadow of death.

Do we thus regard the gospel? Do we thus receive it? Alas! there are thousands called by the Christian name who do not thus consider the gospel worthy their acceptation; or that it is the truth and grace which hath come unto them by Jesus Christ. They neither seem to believe the one, nor feel the other. We can never too frequently nor too seriously reflect that the introduction of the gospel has placed us in a condition of the most solemn responsibility, for it may “become the savour of life unto life;” or it may become “the savour of death unto death.”

If we have received the gospel, we are to exemplify it, “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye with him;” and we are also to extend and diffuse it by our prayers, and by our practical devotedness to his cause. There is no Christian but may do something in his own sphere, and in his own circumstances, to make manifest the savour of these glad tidings.