Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

for we find in the New Testament such exhortations as these: Rejoice evermore;' Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice;' and the apostle Paul speaks of himself, as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.'

"I scarcely see," said Mr. Watson," how that can be done at all times. I think you might almost as well tell a sick man to be well, or a feeble man to be strong, as tell a man who has all sorts of things to trouble and depress him to be bright and happy.”

66

"Perhaps not, Edward; yet a feeble man may do something to make himself strong, and a sick man something to make himself well. If we can't actually resolve to throw off our depressions as we would throw off a damp and unpleasant garment, we can resolve that we will not look more than is necessary at what is gloomy, and that we will look as much as we can at the bright side of things. Now, setting aside religious considerations, how much is there to make you very thankful and happy! You're not quite bankrupt, are you?"

Mr. Potter said this very significantly, and with a slight twinkle of humour in the corner of his eye. He knew very well that his friend could sustain far heavier losses than any he had experienced without putting up the shutters.

"Well, no," replied Mr. Watson, with a sort of halfashamed smile," not exactly that."

"Then where's the use of troubling yourself so much. about a loss that won't deprive you of a single comfort, and respecting which the utmost you can say is, that it lessens, perhaps, by one hundred pounds or so, what you hope to retire upon, or to leave your children when you die? As to Morris coming back to set up business, why the town's extending, and there's room for you both. There's no great time lost for John to find a situation; and if George is a little thoughtless, why, he's only young yet, and you've every reason to hope that your teaching and prayers will not be in vain."

All this was said vigorously and cheerfully, and it was astonishing to see its effect on the downcast man.

"I sometimes think," said Mr. Potter, "that we are far less cheerful than we might be, because we are not sufficiently thankful. I often go to see poor old Jenny Ranson, and it always does me good to visit her. She is eighty years old; she is past work; she gets half-a-crown a week

from the parish, and what else she needs she obtains from the casual bounty of her friends. She has had her troubles in various ways; and yet I never found her downcast. She always speaks thankfully of her mercies, and I have no doubt whatever her thankfulness has much to do with her cheerfulness. I can't imagine a really thankful heart

greatly downcast."

“I am afraid, now that you speak of it," replied Mr. Watson, "that though I have used words expressive of thankfulness almost every day in my prayers, I have scarcely cherished as thankful a spirit as I should have done."

σε

"Then again," continued Mr. Potter, don't you think there is often a want of faith at the root of our anxieties? If we really believed in God's gracious providence, and committed ourselves into his hand as little children, assured that he will ever do for us what is best, how little we should feel many of the cares which now trouble us greatly! Be careful for nothing,' says the apostle, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"Yet how prone we are," remarked Mr. Watson, "to lose sight, practically, of God's care of us, and to care for ourselves as though there were so such thing as his fatherly providence; and then our anxieties deaden the life of prayer."

"Don't you think, too," said Mr. Potter," that if we rejoiced as we ought to do in the great objects of Christian joy-in the sacrifice of the cross, in God's forgiving love, in our adoption as children, and in our hopes of heaventhough we might still be sometimes greatly troubled, we should be total strangers to long continued gloom? Our joy in Christ would brighten everything."

"There is little doubt that it would," assented Mr. Watson.

"One thing more," resumed Mr. Potter. "I think that Christian joy springs not only from Christian faith and hope, but from Christian work. If we would be truly happy ourselves we must try to make others happy: now for some time past you have, for anything I have heard to the contrary, withdrawn yourself almost entirely from everything in the shape of Christian usefulness, at any rate

beyond the circle of your own family.

You have been living very much to yourself, instead of to Him who died for you. I think you will excuse my speaking thus freely. Now, if you feel youself not quite equal to the labours of the Sunday-school, let me beg you to find some other work which will call out your love to Christ and your compassion I answer for it that will do much to make you

for men.

a happier man."

"Faithful are the words of a friend." "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness." Mr. Watson left his friend's house reproved and humbled, yet greatly cheered. Ever since it has been his endeavour and his earnest prayer to be a rejoicing Christian.

THE OPEN DOOR.

Mise

It was a miserable night for any one to be out in. rable everywhere-most miserable in the dirty, foggy streets of London. There was a keen, biting wind and drifting sleet. Those who were strong and hale, well fed and well clothed, shrank, as I myself know, from the damp, searching cold of that winter night. I was hurrying on as quickly as I could, anticipating with more eagerness than usual the warm and pleasant fireside, which I knew had a place vacant for me, and the bright faces which were there waiting to welcome me. On my way I had to pass through one of the great squares in the West End, and, cold as I was, I turned aside to look for a moment at a sight common enough during the season, but which has always occurred to me as one of the most touching of all the many sights presented in our London streets.

There was a splendid mansion, the abode of wealth and fashion, brilliantly lighted up from basement to roof-the light, which was flooding the rooms within, streaming hospitably forth from almost every window. The hall door was open as I passed, and the spacious vestibule, decked with rare exotics, seemed filled with attentive servants and welcome guests. You could hear the sweet strains of pleasant music as you stood there, and fancy that through the open door there reached you the perfume of rare flowers. There was evidently some great entertainment provided for all who passed within that portal, and the invited guests were now arriving in rapid succession. And there, all around that open, or frequently opening door, you might

see a crowd of miserable figures, men, and women, and little children even, watching these successive arrivals, fixing eyes of wondering curiosity upon those forms of grace and beauty which from time to time flitted before them, and casting, as they had opportunity, a glance of eagerness into that brilliantly lighted hall; their famine-stricken and miserable faces looking all the while more wan and wretched in the flickering lamp-light that falls upon them.. These are the outcast poor of our great city; they have no home worthy of the name, no sufficient food to appease the craving of their hunger, no suitable clothing to defend them from the piercing cold of this winter night. They can only look with hopeless wonder through a door which leads to scenes of beauty and luxury and abundance, such as they in their poverty cannot imagine. What a contrast is there between those who are within, and those who are without! We can only pity them in their misery and destitution—as they look through an open door by which they may not enter. It is not for them that the feast is provided and the tables so richly spread. It is not for them that the flowers give forth their perfume, the lights their lustre, the music its pleasant sound. Were they to seek to enter by that open door, they would meet no kindly welcome, but only repulse. The feast is not for them. The door answers not to their knock, nor stands open for their admittance.

I passed on, leaving that little crowd of miserable ones around that open door through which they might only look, but never enter; and as I walked homeward I thought of another open door-around which many are ever standing in a state of greater misery and more terrible destitution, not because they may not, but because they will not enter.

There is the banqueting hall radiant with the glory of the Divine presence; there the richly provided feast; there the tables already spread; there the master of the house, the founder of the feast, who has invited, with large liberality, men of all classes and conditions, of all climes and countries, to partake of the feast, waiting with long patience for the invited guests to assemble. And there not only before the doors, but in the streets and lanes of the city and the highways and hedges of the country round about, are the heralds blowing their silver trumpets and saying to all whom they meet, "Come, for all things are ready."

And there around this door, which is ever open, or ever ready to open at the most hesitant and trembling knock of

the sincere applicant-there, all around, are many ever negligently standing, who do not, who will not enter.

Do you want to know what door this is of which I speak? Listen then to the words of Christ himself. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.'

[ocr errors]

What a blessed change is experienced by every one that enters by that open door! It is a change from darkness to light, from danger to safety, from sin to holiness, from weary wandering, or listless waiting, to the enjoyment of a blessed rest, from misery and destitution to all the rich abundance of a divinely furnished feast. Enter by that open door, and you at once leave behind you all the wretchedness and misery of sin, and pass on to the realization of that complete and endless blessedness which can only be experienced in the favour and presence of God. How wonderful is it that there should be so many unwilling to enter in by that door!

None need stand without and hesitate about seeking admittance by that door on account of any sense of unworthiness which may distress you. Millions of perishing and destitute sinners have passed into the guest-chamber and the richly furnished feast. The door which admitted Aaron after his idolatry and David after his adultery,-Manasseh with his strange abominations and his murderous cruelty, -the crucified thief with his late repentance,-and Saul of Tarsus who was injurious and a blasphemer—will not be barred against any. In God's word there is everything to encourage a believing application on the part even of the greatest sinner. The words of Christ himself are: "Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And what can we have more free than the invitation given by the prophet Isaiah: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."+

But the time is coming when this now open door shall be closed; and many, by the closing, by the unexpected ‡ Isa. lv. 1, 2.

*John x. 9.

† Matt. xi. 28.

« PreviousContinue »