Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

“Rejected Convictions”

The following solemn fact was some time ago related by one who could attest its truth. It is inserted here, with the earnest hope that any who read it may be warned by it not to resist the dealings of God with conscience. Man’s way and wish seems to be to work upon the feelings; God’s invariable way is through the conscience: —

A young person who had been a hearer of the truth from the lips of one recently brought himself to know it, was conscience smitten and arrested. She had deep convictions, she told her mother, and she, a woman of pride and fond of the world, determined as far as she could to hinder what she saw plainly enough in her child; for this purpose she set every kind of worldly trap and snare for her feet, and when the child would plead her unhappy state of soul with her mother, she made her think lightly of it, saying, religion was never intended to make people gloomy or morbid; that she must go into society, that she must enjoy herself, and the world around her. Accordingly, she did go into society; but it was only for a little, as she sickened and drew near to death. As she lay on her dying bed, she called her mother and said, “Mother, when I am dead, and in my coffin, when my coffin is put down into the grave, do not allow any tombstone to be placed over me; neither let there be any epitaph chiselled on my grave stone, but let me be simply buried. And when I am in my coffin, and covered up under the sod, and you are in this room, open that wardrobe, dear mother; and you will see my last ball dress, and when you look upon that dress, you will see the sign of your sin, and of my doom.” Thus she died. Oh reader, be warned; be entreated to pause and reflect ere you say like Felix, “Go thy way for this time.” Remember, TO-MORROW is the word by which Satan blinds and deceives.

W T Turpin.

“Complete in Him”

 Now I live in resurrection,
   Death and judgment past for me;
 Jesus bore it all in person,
   Bare the cross, and set me free.
 
 Once I stood in condemnation,
   Waiting thus the sinner’s doom;
 He in death has wrought salvation,
   God hath raised Him from the tomb!
 
 Once I lay in death’s dark prison,
   Bound in fetters fast and strong;
 He who took that place, now risen,
   Shares with me His victory won.
 
 Once I was to God a stranger,
   Fill’d with enmity and fear;
 He, the Father’s great Revealer,
   Made Him known, and brought ME near.
 
 Now I see in Christ’s acceptance
   But the measure of my own;
He who lay beneath my sentence,
   Seated high upon the throne.
 
 Quicken’d, raised, and in Him seated,
   I a full deliverance know:
 Every foe has been defeated,
   Every enemy laid low.
 
 Now, I have a life in union
   With the risen One above,
 Now, I drink in sweet communion
   Some rich foretaste of His love.
 
 Love so great that none can measure,
   Length, nor breadth, nor depth, nor height —
 Love, which found in me its pleasure,
   Which has turn’d to day my night.
 
 Soon, O Lord, in brightest glory,
   All its vastness I’ll explore;
 Soon I’ll cast my crown before Thee,
   Whilst I worship and adore.