The Traveller's Guide

[Frances]

78 – The Conscripts Substitute

While the fierce war of 1848 was raging and covering the beautiful hills and valleys of Italy with many dead and wounded, a young man was, by the law of conscription of his country, called to the perils of the battle-field. The father’s tender affection led him to try every means to procure a substitute – but all in vain. One of the young man’s cousins, his noble and generous heart touched, took his hand and said ‘Cesare, thy sorrow is worse than death to me; give me thy uniform; it will fit me, I will go to the battlefield in thy stead. If I should die, only remember that I have loved thee’. The brave fellow at last persuaded Cesare to accept this proof of his friendship; so they went to the War Office to settle the substitution. In the excess of his gratitude the conscript’s father offered the cousin £100 but he refused it, saying ‘it is love not money that leads me to take his place.’ He went, he fought, he died. A grateful heart raised a monument to his memory, with this epitaph “the redeemed conscript Cesare Manati, to his voluntary substitute Carlo Donaldi.” But a faint shadow of the unbounded love of Jesus, the Son of God. He came and “gave His life a ransom ”He died for thee, reader.

[Frances]

I am young and likely to live. I hardly need think of these things yet do I?.
God says: “ Boast not of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth”. (Proverbs 17:1)

If I do die shall I not be done with?
God says: “the rich man died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.”(Luke 16:22)

But I suppose it will be determined at the Judgement day who will be sent there? “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.”(1 John 3:18)

But I live a comparatively harmless life; am I condemned?
God says “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10) “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3).

God is merciful, and I trust He will pass over my many misdeeds.
“He will by no means clear the guilty”(Exodus 34:7) “Because I have called and ye refused, I also will laugh when your fear cometh”.(Proverbs 1:24)

But I say my prayers and give to God’s Work, surely that will count in my favour?
“Many shall say to Me in that day . . . we have done many wonderful works – I never knew you, depart from Me.”(Matthew 7:22)

Why put me on the same level as the drunkard or social outcast?
God says “By one man Sin entered the world, and death by Sin; - all have Sinned (Romans 5:12). All we like sheep have gone astray”(Isaiah 53:6)

I cannot credit that I and the immoral are alike before God.
“Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”(James 2:10)

If that be the case I am guilty. I have sinned. What must I do to be saved?
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be Saved” (Acts 16:31).

Tell me exactly what I am to believe.
That “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”(Isaiah53:6) “He gave Himself for me”(Galations 2:20) “The Just for the unjust”(1 Peter 3:18).

But I must do nothing to gain Salvation? “A man is not justified by the works of the law; but by the faith of Jesus Christ”(Galations 2:16)

I have believed from my earliest years that Jesus died and rose again,, and yet I am not Saved.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be Saved. (Romans 10:9).

But does not the Bible say “work out thine own salvation”?
Yes when Salvation is already yours, but not until then.
God says “to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

Has God to do nothing for me?
“Without shedding of blood there is no remission”(Hebrew 9:22) St. Paul says “He loved me and gave Himself for me”(Galations 2:20). Could He do more?

To be Saved just by believing seems too simple.
“If He had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How musch rather then, when He saith to thee, ‘Wash and be clean”(2 Kings 5:13) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be Saved”(Acts 16:31)

Does God really Love me before I am saved?
“God commandeth His Love toward us, in that while we were yet Sinners Chriswt died for us”(Romans 5:8). “Hereby perceive we the Love of God, because He laid down His life for us”(1 John 3:16)

I often think I am too great a Sinner to be saved.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your Sins be scarlet, they shall be s white as snow; thou they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”(Isaiah 1:8).

But I should have to make so many sacrifices if I became a Christian. “What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”(Matthew 6:16)

I should not be able to bear the scoffs of my acquaintances.
“My Grace is sufficient for thee for My strength is made perfect in weakness”(2 Corinthians 12:9). “I, the Lord, have Called thee, I will keep thee”(Isaiah 42:6).

If I come to Him, perhaps I may afterwards fall away, and be lost.
God says “\i give unto them eternal Life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.”(John 10:28)

But suppose I left Him of my own free will?
Read of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32, and you will discover genuine repentance would be necessary, and sufficient; “for your brother was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found”.

It seems too good to be true.
“It is impossible for God to lie”(Hebrew 6:18) “By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses”(Acts 13:29).

[Frances]

80 – Is the Blood Sprinkled
(if you have not read the 12th of Exodus please do so)

The Jews tell a story in connection with that dreadful Passover night. A Jewish father had one little boy about 10 years old. He was his only child and he was very fond of him. As the firstborn child in that family he would be the one to die if the angels stroke fell on their dwelling. Before going to sleep he asked his father if the blood was sprinkled on the doorposts; he said it had been. His sleep was disturbed and he woke several times through the evening, and each time asked anxiously if the blood was sprinkled. Assured that it was he tried to sleep but in vain. Just before midnight he asked his father to show him the blood sprinkled on the doorposts. He carried the lad in his arms, and discovered to his horror there was no blood. It had been left to a servant to attend to it, and he had neglected it. The father ran to get the blood, and sprinkled it himself. His child saw the blood, and knowing that he was safe, went sweetly to sleep.

[Frances]

81 – What Must I Do to be Saved? (by Sir Arthur Blackwood)

God has drawn many striking pictures of Salvation, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, from coming Judgement, but none clearer than the story of the Passover in Egypt. It contains in the simplest language the answer to the all-important question ‘what must I do to be Saved.’
The condition of the Israelites in Egypt before their deliverance illustrates the condition of the unsaved sinner; and the way of their deliverance is typical of the way of the Salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Israelites in Egypt were helpless slaves. They could not help themselves, or devise a way of salvation. Exactly the condition of the unconverted man who is the servant of the world, the bond-slave of Sin, bound hand and foot. Just where you and I are until we are taught, in God’s Mercy, the way of deliverance through the blood of the Lamb. The judgement that was coming upon Egypt would have overtaken Israel if God, in His Mercy, had not provided a way of deliverance. And so with us: we are lying under the sentence of God, ‘by nature of the children of wrath’ – ‘condemned already’(John 3:18). Sentence is thus passed upon us, but not executed; it is passed, as it was upon the Israelite in Egypt, before God revealed the way of life: and until we are sheltered beneath the blood, we are alike under the condemnation. A lamb was to be slain, and the blood to be sprinkled on the two side posts and lintel of the doors of their houses. Each family was then to assemble within those blood-sprinkled doors, and with ‘loins girded’, ‘shoes on their feet’, and ‘staff in hand’, was to eat the flesh of the lamb ‘roasted with fire’: but it must be clearly observed that it was upon the fulfilment of these particulars that the salvation of the Israelites depended and that was on the blood outside the door; for God had said “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The lamb was slain, and by it’s death saved from death the first-born of those on whose doorposts the blood was sprinkled. The Israelites took shelter under the blood – trusted in the blood for salvation. It is remarkable that one of the radical meanings of ‘trust’ is that of ‘taking shelter under’. In like manner the sinner that trusts in Jesus is one who shelters himself under the blood. He knows that he is guilty, he believes that Judgement is coming, yet knows God said ‘When I see the blood I will pass over. Without cavillings or questionings, he trusts in the efficacy of Christ’s death in his stead, to save him from wrath. But it was not on the blood alone that safety depended, not on the particulars connected with the Passover, so with us, it is on the blood of Christ alone that Salvation depends. Before the Israelites were saved God never said ‘ if I see you with your loins girt, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, I will pass over you’. You can easily imagine a man obeying all these commands regarding dress, shoes and staff, but yet failing to put the blood on the doorposts – However exact his compliance with every other particular, yet if the blood were omitted death would have been the inevitable result. It was only the blood that saved. Do not lose sight of this. You are not safe from coming Judgement unless you have sheltered under the blood. You may have the outward appearance of being a Christian; you may use the language of one, be a moral person may be baptised and confirmed, and be a regular communicant, and go through all the rites and forms of your church, but if you are not ‘sheltering under the blood’ you are not safe. Neither morality nor holiness, on the one hand, nor contrition and repentance on the other, ever saved a soul. The blood alone Saves. As the unleavened bread did not contribute to the Israelites salvation in Egypt, so neither will ‘sincerity’ nor ‘earnestness’ stand the sinner in any stead.
What are you doing with the blood of Christ? That night, when the Israelites sheltered under the blood their life as a nation began. And your life will date from the moment of you actually trusting in the blood of Christ, or you have none at all.

[Frances]

82 – Change of Regiment

Yes, we had soldier blood in the family – my grandfather fought at Waterloo, my uncle in the Crimea, another in the Indian Mutiny, and my brother in Burma. But I was cautious, and tried the militia first. That only gave me a taste for more, and in 1887 I enlisted into a regiment of the line, stationed at Colchester. In spite of drill and a little hard work we found plenty of time for the public house; I could sing, dance or box with any, and the drink helped it all. I was taken captive by the devil, and at his will. Then came the last night in Taunton, and a good drink – I was so drunk that I fell on the stove – thank heaven someone was sober enough to help me up and get me to bed - and we were off. Had I died that night I should have waked up I hell. We had hardly settled into our new quarters before we had made an expedition to all the most notable public houses in the town; then I went to “the Lifeboat” a very hell! I shall never forget what I saw there – even I was disgusted! God’s eye must have been on me in mercy. This sort of thing went on for some time but deliverance was at hand. “A Tea to the Draft” at the Soldier’s Home was reported, so we went for a laugh. The temperance talk at the end was almost too much, but we felt obligated to stay. We also thought it a laugh to sign the pledge of temperance. After that I went with some of the men to a lady’s house to prepare decorations for the hospital for Christmas, and was asked to go again, which I did, and managed to get over Christmas without a drink. Some time after this I was asked pointedly about my soul, and was told not of ‘it’ but of ‘Him’. After more talk we prayed together. On the way back to barracks God’s Spirit revealed to me Christ’s finished work. Praise the Lord, O my soul! Now I thought, I must confess Christ. My stay in the army was not very long after this, but long enough for offices and men to know Whose I was, and Who I intended to serve. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be Saved.” (John 3:17)

[Frances]

83 – A Noble Roman

I dare say some of you have heard the story about a young Roman who had been condemned to death by the judges, when up stepped a brother, an older one, who had served in his country’s wars and had both his arms cut off. This brother, standing before the judge, holding up the stumps of his arms, pleaded for his brother’s life: not for what his brother had done, but for what he had done. He confessed that his brother was guilty; he confessed that his brother was worthy of death; but for what he had done in service of his country, he pleaded that his brother’s life might be spared. Looking on what the soldier brother had done, for his sake the judge pardoned the guilty brother. Ah, that is just what Christ does for us guilty Sinners. Christ died on Calvary that we might Live. We deserve death; but for the sake of Christ, and because he laid down His life that we might live, God pardons our Sins

[Frances]

84 – Reformation Useless

If thou art not born-again, all thy outward reformation is naught in the sight of God; thou hast shut the door with the thief still in the house.
Struggling for Life
Law, presents a man struggling for life by obedience, but never obtaining it; Grace, presents a man receiving Life as a free Gift, through faith in the finished Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reformation Necessary
A Gift must be accepted and used to be any use – so having accepted Christ’s Gift of Life and freedom from the power of Sin, thou wilt demonstrate His Power in your life by denying all forms of sin any expression, even in secret.

[Frances]

85 – Settled in Full

“Thank God! That is a relief!” said a man as his friend finished paying a bill for him. “I do, indeed, feel it a relief; I shall sleep sound tonight.” It is indeed a relief to know one’s debts are paid, that no unwelcome visitors will come at awkward times to make demands it is impossible to meet. A friend who will pay our debts is a friend whom we cannot too highly value. How much more precious is that Friend, Jesus, the Saviour – Who is waiting to pay our debt of Sin. Those who have gone to Him have found it removed, and been able to say the Lord Jesus is able and willing to pay your debt, as He has paid the debts of thousands. The question is not one of amount, nor of how the debt was contracted, but only to let Him pay it.

[Frances]

86 – Satan and Martin Luther

Martin Luther once had a remarkable dream. He dreamt that Satan approached him with a scroll, broad and long, and closely written, which he unrolled before the Reformer’s eyes, and bade him read therein . Luther did so, and perceived that it was a record of his sins. when he had thoroughly scanned the scroll, he asked Satan ‘Is that all my Sins?’ ‘Nay’ replied Satan ‘Then let me see them all’ said Luther. Satan departed and shortly returned with another scroll equally broad and long; and again Luther scanned the damning evidence of his guilt. Satisfied at length with the correctness of the record, he again asked Satan ‘is that all?’ ‘Yea’ replied Satan ‘Then take my pen, and write in red across the scrolls, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanseth me from all Sin.” Reader, can you thank God for that blood?

[Frances]

87 – Cleopatra’s Needle

Thirty three centuries ago, - says Mr Canton in his history of the Bible Society – Cleopatra’s Needle was cut in the red granite quarries of Syrene. Under clouds of gnats, and driven hard by rods of taskmasters, long files of captives dragged this enormous column on sledges to the sacred river, while gangs of water-carriers poured a flood of water under the runners to keep the groaning wood from catching fire. It was then floated down the Nile on a ship, and erected with infinite labour before the splendid heathen Temple of the Sun, in the city of On. Nearly forty years ago the English got permission to move it. And at great expense to carry it away to London. It had to be built into a small iron ship or barge on the spot, and after getting it into the sea, it was tugged round from the Mediterranean, through the Bay of Biscay to London, and this wonderful Cleopatra’s Needle was raised upon it’s pedestal on the Thames Embankment. In the pedestal was placed a jar containing copies of the Bible in four languages, and also one particular verse in two hundred and fifteen languages.
Is it not strange that after 3,000 years the Bible should have been committed to the care of this same obelisk, whose gold-capped summit flashed out to the far pastures of Goshen in an age in which the story of Exodus had scarcely yet begun? It is indeed, yet not more strange and wondrous than the whole story of the Book – the Bible.
What was the verse translated into 215 languages and deposited into the pedestal? Once called “the Bible in miniature” here it is “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting Life.”(John 3:16).

[Frances]

88 – The Remedy for Rum

For 31 years Edward was a drunkard and sunk in all the depths of debauchery, despised by others, and not respecting himself. A broken-hearted mother and sorrowing wife were sent to untimely graves, and his children’s lives were blighted. Having heard the story of the Cross, and how Christ was watching and waiting for him – convicted of Sin, he found in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Salvation of both body and soul, the true remedy for rum. None are too far gone. None too depraved. The Salvation that Christ gives, goes down to the lowest depths of Sin. His arm is long enough and strong enough to rescue the worst and vilest sinner that exists. Though God says we are ‘a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers’ He adds ‘Come now, let us reason together . . though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow; tough they be as crimson they shall be as wool(Isaiah 1) and ‘ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting Life.’(John 3:16) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our Sins (1 John 4:10), ‘Christ suffered, the just for the unjust. (1 Peter 3:18).

[Frances]

89 – Four Bright Jewels

There are 4 bright jewels in the crown of forgiveness.
The 1st is full forgiveness. Wherever God Forgives, He forgives all – every Sin – be it ever so dark and deep. I John 1:7 says “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all Sin.” “Our God will abundantly pardon”.
The second jewel, it sparkles, it is ‘freeness’ yes, than God’s forgiveness is free. Free. It is neither goodness in man that makes God willing, nor yet evil in man that makes Him unwilling to forgive. It is only, and entirely, for His own sake that He pardons the guilty Sinner.
We have a third jewel in this crown: Christ’s Forgiveness in final. No after charges; No blotting out today and writing down again tomorrow. And there is yet one more jewel –
Forgiveness, of repented Sin, is a present blessing. It is not something in prospect, but for present possession. It is not a mere plank on which to cross the stormy waters of Jordan at death, but a staff on which to lean all our journey through life. It is not a promissory note payable in the next world, but a treasure possessed and enjoyed now, in this world. Fellow sinner, Sin is no trifle, fable or fancy, but a dread reality. And, thank God, His forgiveness of Sin is no mere fancy but a grand truth. It is our first, our greatest need, and obtained only through accepting the substitutionary work of this Man, Christ Jesus; who said “My sheep shall never perish. I give unto them eternal life. (John 19:28).

[Frances]

90 – Difference Between History and Faith

A Japanese Christian convert thus put it:-
Believing that Jesus died will save nobody – it is simply a matter of history.

Believing that Jesus died for me will save anybody – it is a matter of faith.

St. Paul put it thus – “He Loved me and gave himself for me.”

[Frances]

91 – God’s Love Beyond Realisation

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.(Romans 8:31)
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; but God commendeth His Love towards us, in that while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:6).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish , but have everlasting Life. (John 3:16).
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ who died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.”(Romans 8:33).

[Frances]

92 – Such and Offer

An only daughter of wealthy and worldly parents in America, when absent from home, was brought to hear of, and accept, Christ as her Saviour. With joy she returned to tell her parents but, in their displeasure, they alternately reproached and pleaded with her to give up her new-found riches; finally her father, threatening her with loss of home and inheritance, asked her decision. With tearful eyes and aching heart, she went to the piano and sang her reply in the following words.
“Such an offer! Full and free!
Is it really meant for me!
That all my Sins on Christ were laid,
That all my debt by Him was paid?
Yes: Jesus said it, who has died;
“Believe, and thou art justified.

Such an offer! Pardon now
For hidden Sin and broken vow!
For years of cold neglect and scorn;
Can mercy’s ray upon me dawn?
Yes: Jesus died instead of thee;
His death for thine must be thy plea.

Such an offer! Peace and joy
Untainted by the world’s alloy;
The sweet assurance of a Friend
Who, loving, loves unto the end;
The knowledge now of Sins forgiven
And of a Home prepared in heaven.

Oh, what goodness! Lord I take
This offer thou doest freely make!
My one desire shall henceforth be
To live for Him who died for me.
Spread glad news through every nation!
Instant, free, and full Salvation.