THOUGHTS FOR
UNSAVED PEOPLE
Two Ways About It OME people seem to think that there are many ways to heaven. They appear to fancy that it matters little what a man beileves so long as he is in earnest. They .tell us we have no need to
and moving among us. The Acts are Christ preached, published and pro claimed. The Epistles are Christ writ ten of, explained, and exalted. All through, from first to last, there is but one name above every other, and that is Christ. But one golden chain runs through the whole Bible: NO SALVATION EX CEPTING BY JESUS CHRIST. The bruising of the serpent’s head, foretold in the day of the fall; the clothing of our first parents with skins; the sacri fices . of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the passover, and all the par ticulars of the Jewish law; the high priest; the altar; the daily offering of the lamb; the holy of holies, entered only by blood; the scape-goat, the cities of refuge— all are so many witnesses to the truth set forth in the text: all preach with one voice,. SALVATION ONLY BY JESUS CHRIST. In fact this truth appears to me the grand subject of the Bible, and all the different parts and portions of the Bible are meant to throw light upon it. I can gather from it no ideas of pardon and peace with God, excepting in connection with this truth. If I could read in it of one soul who was saved without faith in a Saviour, I might perhaps not speak so confidently. But then I see that faith in Christ (whether a coming Christ or a crucified Christ) was the prominent fea ture of all who went to heaven; when I see Abel owning Christ in his better sacrifice at one end of the Bible, and the saints in glory in John’s vision rejoicing in Christ at the other end of the Bible; when I see a man like Cornelius—who was devout, and feared God, and gave alms, and prayed— not told that he had
be so particular about doctrines; we are to be satisfied if people go to some place of’ worship: we have no right to doubt then that all must be right. All this would be very good if we had no clear account of the way of salvation in the Bible. But we. have such an ac count-plain, unmistakable, and easy to be understood. Let me tell you what it is. All through the Bible, from Genesis down to Revelation, there is only one' simple account of the way in which men must be saved. It is always the same; only for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ— through faith; not for our own works and deservings. You see it dimly revealed at first; it looms through the mist of a few promises, but there it is. You have it more plainly afterwards. It is taught by the pictures and em blems of the law of Moses, the school master dispensation. Every Old Testa ment sacrifice was a confession that a Saviour was expected who should die for sinners. You have it still more clearly by-and- by. The prophets saw in vision many particulars about the Redeemer yet to come. You have it fully at last, in the sun shine of New Testament history: Christ incarnate— Christ crucified— Christ ris ing again—Christ preached to the world. The Gospels are Christ living, speaking,
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