February 29
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"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1.
It is one of the most blessed truths of the covenant of grace, that the God of the covenant is a very present help in every time of trouble. Loving His people as He does, dwelling in them by His Spirit, their people and circumstances continually before Him in the person and the intercession of His dear Son, how can He possibly lose sight of them for a single moment? They may, and they often do, lose sight of Him. They, do not, alas! set the Lord always before their face. They do not train and discipline themselves to see Him in every event, circumstance, and incident of life. They are not clear-sighted to recognize, nor prompt to acknowledge, Him in every providence that darkens or lightens upon their way. Were they but right-minded, they, would exclaim of every good and of every evil as it came, "The Lord is in this!" But they are never for an instant out of His heart, out of His thoughts, out of His hands, or out of His eye.
How near to them, too, is the Holy Spirit! Dwelling in and overshadowing them, He is at their side to guide, to uphold, and to cheer; bringing to their memory a precious promise, or writing upon their heart an animating truth, or opening before their eye some endearing glimpse of Jesus, just at the moment it was needed. What a happy, what a favored people are the Lord's! "Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Happy is that people that is in such a case: yes, happy is that people whose God is the Lord."
ition of the almost Christian — of the one who is not far from the kingdom of God, of him who lacks but one thing — is peculiarly fragile and dangerous. How often have we noticed that a man may live all his life near some grand object in nature, such as Niagara Falls, and yet never visit them; because, being so near to them, he thinks that he can at any time he chooses go to them — and hence his very nearness causes him to delay and procrastinate and never make the oft-purposed visit. While thousands and tens of thousands will traverse seas and continents to visit or gaze at those majestic falls, whose voice is as the sound of many waters.
So it is in spiritual things. Because men know so much of the truth, understand its claims, and have so much of religious reverence and sensibility — they imagine that they can easily take the step which will make them altogether Christians; easily bridge over the narrow space between the not far from the kingdom — and the kingdom itself; and at their pleasure supply the "one thing lacking"; and so they rest content, procrastinate, and die at last almost Christians! While thousands and tens of thousands who were "afar off" — who were "aliens and strangers to the covenant of promise," who lacked not one — but many things — press into the kingdom, become altogether Christians, and are saved!
You cannot be told with too much emphasis, that no matter how much of an almost Christian you are — if you are only almost, then you are not a true Christian, and hence must be altogether lost! It matters not how near you may be to the kingdom of God — you may be so near indeed that you might touch its walls if you stretch forth your hand, or pass its gate if you took but one step — yet if you are only near it, you are not in it. And remaining outside of it — you must certainly perish.
It matters not that you lack but one thing — and that perhaps a very little thing; for if you continue to lack and die lacking it — you can not be saved. It is the aim of your soul's adversary, to make you rest contented in this closeness to the kingdom, in this almost Christian state. He will rather aid you in getting into this position, in the hope that once there, he can keep you there, flattering your soul with false hopes, deceiving conscience with false positions, and cajoling you into that self-satisfied condition, which is the sure precursor of eternal death!
I can hardly picture to myself a person in more imminent danger than an almost Christian. A man on the verge of a religious profession — yet held back by the lack of some one thing — the lack of moral courage to do, what reason and conscience and the Bible urge him to do; come out boldly in the name of Jesus, and avouch him to be your personal and only Savior, and make Him yours by a personal and a living faith. Do this and you will make practical — what before was theoretical. Knowledge will be transformed into duty; and the one condition which the almost Christian lacks to make him an altogether Christian — will be supplied. That factor is faith, that personal belief in and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, which unites us to Him as the branch is united to the vine, so that we have a oneness of life with Christ on earth, and a oneness of glory with Him in Heaven.
Be persuaded, then, to continue no longer in this dangerous, this insecure, this almost Christian state. Come out on the Lord's side. Take your place as Christ's disciple! For so long as you remain hesitating and undecided . . .
you are putting in jeopardy your salvation;
you are disobedient to God's commands;
you are setting at naught Christ's blood;
you are doing despite to the Holy Spirit; and
you are weaving the winding sheet of your immortal soul!
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