THE PROOF IS OUTSIDE.

Hoa Maori, Issue 16, 1 April 1890, Page 3

THE PROOF IS OUTSIDE.

A WORD TO THE ANXIOUS.

jg IS 'tyfjfiH, if I only knew f. was saved !" T!rs iHg " But wait a moment: do you know you are lost "0 yes, I know that; and that is what makes me so unhappy; for I know I am lost, but cannot see how I am to be saved. I am praying and doing my best, but I feel no nearer salvation. I have not got assurance yet." " Shall I tell you why you have not got this assurance of salvation ? Because you are looking in the wrong place for it. You are looking for it within yourself, in feelings and experiences, instead of looking for it outside yourself, in the proofs the blessed God has given you.

“Take His Tove, for instance, and look at it in this light. But first let me ask you: Do you know a worse creature on the earth than yourself ?” “ No, Ido not. I know I have not gone to the excess which some have in open wickedness; hut I know my own heart, and Ido not know any other. So I can safely say I do not know any one worse than myself.” “ Very good. Now let me ask: Do you know any one in heaven better than the holy, blest, eternal Son of God ?” “ No; surely not.” “Then look at God’s love. He so loved you, the worst upon earth, that He gave His Son, the lest in heaven, to save you from going to hell, and bring you to Himself.” “Now, has He not proved His love to you ? Yea, in the most wonderful way possible. But remember this, the proof He loves you is not in yourself , but lies outside yourself, in the fact that He gave His Sou for you eighteen hundred years ago. You see God does not wait to see some goodness in you, and then express His love to you because of your goodness. Ah, no! But He expresses His love in this way: ‘ When we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’— v. 8. He died for you when there was no goodness in you, nothing lovable about you; and it is the knowledge of His wondrous love to you that will break your heart, and cause love to flow from you. ‘We love Him because He first loved us.- John iv. 19.” “ Oh, I see lam all wrong; I have been looking within for love to God, instead of looking out at God’s love to me.” Exactly. It is just where many anxious souls stumble and make a mistake : but we will go on. You see the proof of His love to you is the giving His Son; and that is outside yourself.. Now about your sins.” “ Ah, that is the point I am so anxious about just now. I want the assurance my sins are forgiven, and my soul saved.” “ Well we will look at that too. You say you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ?” “I do indeed.” “ Then I read in 1 Peter ii. 24, ‘Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.’ Now can you put yourself in.

Did He bear yours ?” “ Yea, I believe He did.” Now tell me this: when Jesus was on the cross, where -were your sins ? Where did God put them ?” “ On Jesus.” “ Did He put them all on Jesus ?” “Certainly.” “ Then Jesus had them on the cross ; but is He there now ?” “No.” “No, He is in heaven on the Father’s throne, and we know there are no sins on Him there. But mark, He Had your sins on the cross, and He has not on the throne. Now where are they ?” “ Oh, I never saw it that way before. I see they are all gone. He bore them. He suffered for them. He has put them all away, and is now in heaven without them. Thank the lord, I see it. How simple it is, and how blind I have been, looking for proofs within me, while the proof was, Jesus risen on the throne.” “Then can you now say your sins are forgiven ?” “ Certainly I can.” “ But how do you know ?” “Because God says, ‘ Jesus bore them on the tree, and now He is in Heaven without the sins which He had on the cross, and God will not, yea, cannot, judge me for those sins, for He has judged Jesus for them instead of me, and has proved He is satisfied by raising Him from the dead.” “ That is right my friend. Hold fast by God’s precious Word, which abideth for ever. When feelings, frames, and all such human experiences fail, God’s precious Word stands the same, immovable, imperishable, and eternal. ‘All that believe are justified from all things. Acts xiii. 29. God says it, and that is enough for me.” Is it enough for you, dear reader ?