THOUGHTS FOR
UNSAVED PEOPLE
‘their conversation was about the coming of the Lord Jesus. He was greatly annoyed, and on reaching the next sta tion, he could see the boat. “Ah, there is the boat,” said he; and on looking again, he saw, going on board, a number of happy young men and women. “At last,” said he, “I have found what I want.” But as soon as the steamer had started he found that it was a Christian school treat. He wandered downstairs to the saloon, where he saw the Captain sit ting writing. “Good morning, Captain,” said the young man. “Where can I go to get rid of these cursed Christians?” The Captain, who was a worldly man, looked up with a laugh and said, “To Hell!” The answer so struck the young man that he could not forget it, and God used it, not only to him, but to the Captain also, and now they are both Christians themselves. The Scoffer’s Text In the days of Whitefield, a man named Thorpe, one of his most violent opponents, and three others, laid a wager as to who could best imitate and ridicule Whitefield’s preaching. „Each man was to open the Bible at random and preach a sermon from the first verse that presented itself. Thorpe’s three competitors each went through the game with impious buffoonery. Then, stepping upon the table, Thorpe exclaimed, “I shall beat you ,all.” They gave him a Bible, and, by God’s inscrutable providence, his eye fell first upon this verse:
MADE SIN FOR US He hath made him to he sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the- righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor. 5:21. The idea of atonement is a difficulty to many. They see no need for a sacri fice. If “God is love,” if He be a Father, He can forgive upon repentance without any atonement. But God can not deal so lightly with sin. Sin is too deep, too terrible, too tragic, to be dis missed with a word, a stroke of the pen. To make forgiveness possible, God Him self had to suffer in the person of His Son,—-sweat, pain, wounds, blood and death. To vindicate His holy law, God Himself, through HiS Son, gathered to His own heart the pain, sname and curse of sin—our shame and curse—and bore them for us, offering in our stead the sacrifice of a perfect obedience to God’s holy law. Those who unite them selves to Christ by a living faith share in the saving benefits of Christ’s atoning death.—J. D. Jones. Where No Christians Are Found A young man in Switzerland, son of a Christian mother, was expressing him self as “sick and tired of Christians,” or hearing them or talking to them. So he decided to take the train to a lake where he could be out of their way. No sooner had the train started than two passengers began an earnest con versation about the Bible. “Oh, dear!” thought the young man, “I’m not going to stay here.” As soon as the train stopped, he jumped out and got in with some old ladies. To his dismay he found that
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