64

THE GOD-MAN MEDIATOR.

This is the man whose influence so largely contributed to the abolition of slavery in the Southern States. Earth owes much to supplicating lips. Abundant harvests have been reaped from a little seed of interceding grace. How much more then does man owe to the Intercessory substitutionary work of the God-man Mediator? But :

He was scorned, and sold, and hated
By the men He came to save ;
With a cruel wrath unsated,

Followed by His three days' grave,—
Not one pitying thought for Him
When His failing eye waxed dim.
Yet He pleaded! "Forgive them, Father!
For they know not what they do!”
Not one note in sympathy

With that love so full and free,
When His tender spirit yearning

Wept those tears of God-like grief

O`er the lawless city, spurning
Help, and safety, and relief.

Yet! He'll feel, and plead, and pray,
Until their woes are wiped away!
Now He reigneth high exalted

Where the white-robed elders stand;
By the great throne rainbow vaulted,
Each with golden harp in hand.
Thousand thousand hearts adoring,
Thousand thousand vials pouring
Odours sweet of saintly prayers,
That embalm those heavenly airs,
Round the Lamb once slain and wounded,
Yet He pleads! till that great hour,
When by heaven's high host surrounded
He shall come again in power.

CHAPTER III.

REMARKABLE CASES OF

CONVERSION

OF

MERCHANTS, COMMERCIAL MEN,

TRADESMEN, YOUNG MEN, AND

OTHERS ENGAGED IN THE ACTIVITIES

OF LIFE.

"Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He were rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty may be rich."

F

A billion gold sovereigns! all will be burnt up!-A merchant millionaire.-Shall he die a pauper?-Making the best of both worlds.—The successful merchant.—He makes money fast.—How, and why?-Business tact and Christianity.—Motive power.— Humbling convictions.—A sinner saved by grace.—Luxuriating in God's presence.—-Dying ecstasies.—A thoughtless young man.— Unutterable emotions.-Son of a country gentleman.-Lengthened extravagance.—Suicide contemplated.—Mental agony.—The great debt paid.-Case of Mr. Haltridge.-Forgiven sins.-A Socinian deputation.-Laughs and mocks.—A soul, a Saviour, a heaven. -A youth of seventeen.—Four Ayrshire young men.-France and the Garde Nationelle.-The Landlord's New Testament. soldier's return.—Changed indeed.—The Saviour precious.—His treasure of all treasures.—The dumb eloquent witness.—Michael Linner.—“ All ! then for me!”—David Nasmith's conversion. -Few saved over fifty!—An old man saved.—Inquirers sent direct to Christ.—Study Christ!

The

pp. 65-104.

CHAPTER III.

"FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. FOR BY IT THE ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT."

Heb. xi. I, 2. "THE FASHION OF THIS WORLD PASSETH AWAY." I Cor. vii. 31. "BY FAITH ABRAHAM LOOKED FOR A CITY WHICH HATH FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD. STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS ON EARTH . . . CONFESS PLAINLY THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY, A BETTER COUNTRY, THAT IS, AN HEAVENLY: WHEREFORE GOD IS NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED THEIR GOD, FOR HE HATH PREPARED FOR THEM A CITY." Heb. xi. 8-10, 13-16. "THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE, AND THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, THE EARTH AND ALL THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP. SEEING THEN THAT ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE DISSOLVED, WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YE TO BE?" 2 Peter iii. IO-II.

A BILLION gold sovereigns touching one another will form a line sufficient to encircle the world 763

68

A MERCHANT MILLIONAIRE.

times! and a billion seconds of time will take 31,687 years to complete! The time will be ours! but the gold never! no one ever possessed a billion sovereigns—a million millions of gold! but God has stamped eternity upon human souls, and they will live billions upon billions of ages!—for ever! yes, for ever!

Only let the counter-balancing gases of which all solids are composed be separated from each other, and all in an instant will be in a blaze; the elements, including every atom of gold, will then "melt with fervent heat;" and in the truest sense of the words, all will be "burned up!" "Seeing then that all these things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be ?”

Now the end of all things is at hand. "Be ye therefore sober" in the pursuit of wealth, and "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth;" for "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

We must part with our gold; but if we welcome God's "Unspeakable Gift" to our hearts, we become possessed of a treasure "incorruptible, undefiled, and that passeth not away; reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation "- -a treasure "in readiness to be revealed in the last time." Converted men