The Little Gleaner Part 29

"About a year afterwards, a minister of the Gospel and another gentleman came to me and told me I was pardoned, at the same time handing me a doc.u.ment signed by the Governor, and a hundred dollars, adding, 'Go and be a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, and G.o.d Almighty will bless you in all your ways.'

"All this seemed like a dream, but it was a reality, and I spent several days and nights weeping for joy, and blessing the G.o.d of my salvation.

"Some years after that, we heard of the gold mines, and I started, in company with several others; but I separated from the others, for I wanted to be alone, and pray to my G.o.d as I walked along.

"After a long march, I came to a beautiful spot between three small hills, whence a brook was running to the plain below. I sat down to eat my dinner, and, while doing so, my eyes fell on a stone by the brook about the size of a goose's egg. The rays of the sun shone on it like a mirror. I picked it up, and found it was nearly all gold of the purest kind....

"With the money I gained from that place I afterwards bought a piece of land, and became one of the wealthy men of Australia. I married and settled here; ... and it is to you, after G.o.d, I owe my life and all the privileges I now enjoy."

They wept and praised G.o.d together in the beautiful language of the 103rd Psalm. Both could say, with a full heart, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

The next day Pastor Chiniquy dined at the house of his unexpected visitor, and felt warmly interested in the family and all that he saw and heard, and the two separated, not expecting to meet again on earth, but confidently hoping to meet around the throne of G.o.d, to praise the wonders of redeeming love for ever.

May we also be glad, and rejoice in His salvation, and join to sing the heavenly song with heart and voice, even now--

"Till sweeter notes our bosoms swell, In yonder world above."

WISE work is cheerful as a child's work is.

A BROTHER'S DREAM.

"_G.o.d speaketh ... in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings on the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction._"--JOB x.x.xiii. 14-16.

Superst.i.tion attaches much importance to the night wanderings of a disturbed mind, and augurs good or ill, according to the nature of the dreamy imaginings. Thousands have dreamed themselves to ruin, by following the empty speculations of a fervid imagination, and neglecting the path of prudent industry.

The text above does not teach that G.o.d speaketh in _all_ dreams, but that He is pleased _sometimes_ (and the writer believes very occasionally) to communicate instruction by such means. He that made the soul can approach it by any avenue He pleases, and is shut out from none.

Winters and summers, as many as fourteen, have rolled over my head since the night made memorable by "a brother's dream." Thirteen years have likewise pa.s.sed since my arms were placed beneath this dying brother--since the glad angels conveyed his sweet spirit to the paradise of G.o.d.

Oh, the heavenly smile--oh, the beaming eye he cast upon me--as he gently subsided into endless rest! Never shall I forget that scene.

Never will be erased from memory's tablet that chamber, and all that there I felt, and saw, and heard.

"Friend after friend departs; Who has not lost a friend?"

Come, then, all sympathizing hearts; come, ye who know what sorrow is; come, all who

"feel an aching void, The world can never fill,"

and listen to "a brother's dream."

Brought up to attend public wors.h.i.+p, and under religious instruction, the period when spiritual life first animated his soul is not known to any survivors; nor, also, what were the peculiar exercises of his mind during the first year or two of his Christian life.

Up to the time of his dream, he was a.s.sociated with many of those whose religion consists chiefly in name and show, carnal excitement, and flesh-pleasing formality; and, being of a very cheerful disposition, and generally beloved by all who knew him, it needed no small effort--nothing short of divine power--to sever the confederacy.

As will always be the case where the life of G.o.d is, his soul began to languish and starve under the "Yea and nay," "Do and live," orations to which he from time to time listened. He could not feed on husks.

Distressed, hungry, and thirsty, his soul at last fainted. Then he cried unto G.o.d in his trouble. Full of vexation and perplexity, not knowing where to go or what to do, he dreamed.

He saw, as he thought, an old woman with a cross-handled basket crying her saleables. "Who wants to buy any religion? Who wants to buy any religion?" she repeated again and again. Gladly, _eagerly_ he vociferated, "I do! I do!"

He bought a large supply. It consisted of a great number of props, which supported him all around, and on each prop was written something which he was to do--some deed or good work he was to perform.

Almost as soon as he was in possession of his purchased religion, he saw, at a great distance, a fire raging, which soon increased, so that it seemed to compa.s.s the whole sensible horizon. But what was more fearful, it burned still nearer and nearer to the spot where he stood, consuming everything as it approached. Alarmed, amazed, terrified, his horror was increased as he beheld his props already on fire.

Everything had been destroyed as the burning ocean approached, and could he escape? Alone and helpless, how could deliverance be effected? Power and hope were alike gone, and into the infinite fire he was just sinking, when, lo! the mighty Jesus, before unseen, stretched out His gracious arm, and with words of promise, instantaneously performed, said, "I'll hold you up!"

Forthwith the fire was quenched, and he sang delivering grace.

These solemn scenes, so visibly portrayed in his imagination while asleep, became a subject of serious consideration when awake. Who could explain the matter to him?

Not long he lacked a teacher. The Gracious Interpreter sent a messenger to blow the Gospel trumpet in the neighbourhood. He went; he heard. Oh, what a sermon! Never had such statements fallen upon his ears; never had such light shone into his mind. And what a text!--"The hail shall sweep away your refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place."

One after another, the preacher described the vain hopes on which he had rested, and showed their frailty and destruction, in the way he had felt. And then his refuge, his hiding-place, his _props_, away, away they go, just as he saw, exactly as he felt. In short, the preacher's sermon was a map of the path--a verbal unfolding of the secrets of his heart.

What was the consequence? The meshes of the devil's fis.h.i.+ng-net were broken; free-will, creature-dependency, were gone; and hope--Gospel hope--"good hope through grace"--filled his anxious bosom. He had been down in the horrible pit; he had been sinking in the miry clay. Now he is brought to the verge of deliverance. Now he sees, he hopes in, the boundless prospects of covenant grace.

Not many miles distant in another direction, lived and preached a servant of the Lord, lately taken to his everlasting home. He bent his steps to hear the words of truth and grace from his lips. "Wonderful!

Astonis.h.i.+ng! Was it an angel I heard before--one who had a.s.sumed a bodily shape, to bear those joyful tidings to my soul, and now appears again with other features and with another voice? No; he was a man; and this is a human voice I hear. But how astonis.h.i.+ng! He seems to know all the other told me, and to begin where the other left off. Their sermons seem like two following pages of a book, in which I read the secrets of my life, and behold in legible lines those things I never breathed to human friends. 'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in my eyes.'"

It _was_ the Lord's doing; for not only was his whole Christian pathway mapped out, but his soul sweetly delivered from legal entanglements, from slavish fear and anxious doubt, and brought into that liberty with which G.o.d makes His people free. He was made "wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ." Moreover, by continuance in that Word, he gave unequivocal demonstration that he was a disciple indeed; one who was a learner and follower of Jesus; and so, knowing "the truth as it is in Jesus," he rejoiced in hope of the glory of G.o.d. Nor did he have long to wait, for, sinking under the merciless hand of pale consumption, in a little more than a year he was suddenly removed to that land of peace and love where

"Jesus sheds the brightest beams Of His o'erflowing grace."

Reader, the dream was instructive to the dear departed; but was it given for him alone? It can no longer benefit him, for with him all is reality--no shadowy emblem, but everything substantial. May not we therefore derive instruction?

Let us look at some of its prominences. Standing out with towering majesty and grandeur, like a cloud-capped mountain, appears

_Divine sovereignty_--the sovereign mercy of the Lord, who "hath mercy on whom He will have mercy." You will not see this through reason's misty gla.s.s (which perverts and confuses all things beheld through it), no more than the loftiest eminence is discernible in the darkness of midnight. But in the light of G.o.d's truth it is clearly visible. There are many with whom he was a.s.sociated when he "sought the living among the dead"--when he was entangled in the carnal schemes of a false religion--who remain where he could not stay, and seem contented, too.

There have been but comparatively very few brought to seek what he sought, and to know what he was taught. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

We also discover _the danger of false religion_. Behold that burning flame! Thus burns G.o.d's wrath against sin. No human efforts can quench it or check its progress. All creature performances, like the PROPS, will be consumed by it. The best of human works are but as stubble to the fire of wrath divine. Indeed, when G.o.d tells of that dreadful day which shall burn as an oven, the self-righteous, or proud, are put before "those that do wickedly," as objects of G.o.d's displeasure, and doomed to that dreadful burning.

Oh, could I make my words thunder and lightning, to peal and flash this solemn truth from hill to hill and from vale to vale!

All false religion begins on the outside, and attempts to alter principles by renovating practice; but all true religion commences within. The Spirit produces a change in the practice by implanting new life and holy principles. "Ye must be born again." Religion is not a new patch on an old garment, but a new fabric entirely. "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature."

We see, likewise, the trouble and anxiety which are felt when one is soundly convinced of his sinful life and state. Salvation is then a matter of life and death. "Life, life, eternal life!" is the earnest cry. Conviction of sin, when it merely penetrates the skin, is soon soothed and forgotten; but when the arrows from the bow of G.o.d's Word pierce the heart, no hand can withdraw them but His who directed them, and no balm can heal those painful wounds but that administered by Jehovah-Jesus.

It may be seen also that, till He who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," was proclaimed to his eager soul, he found no solid satisfaction, no stable peace.

"In vain the trembling conscience seeks Some solid ground to rest upon; With long despair the spirit breaks, Till we apply to Christ alone."

He is the only Antidote to our sin, ruin, and disease; and He is freely set forth in the Gospel as the gracious, willing, almighty, and everlasting Saviour of the lost and undone. Until we are brought sensibly to feel our sin and dest.i.tution, we are ready and willing to try everything but that which G.o.d has provided; but when we are brought before His infinite holiness, and see the "filthy garments" in which we are clad, no arm is long and powerful enough to reach our case but His, who is "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto G.o.d by Him."

The blessed Spirit will always glorify Jesus by His teaching, and will lead the soul to Him as the All in all of salvation.