At times one hears from the pulpit or at the Friday fellowship meetings illustrations and notes that are worthy of preservation for the benefit of a wider audience than those who first heard them. The following are examples:—
The Knife in the Mouth.—It is one thing to have saving faith; it is another to have assurance that the believer has it. He can have this faith and not know that he has it; he may have a hope which he would not give up for the whole world that he has and is closed in to Christ for Salvation and yet be afraid to express it in so many words. Rev. Peter MacRitchie when in Garrabost, Lewis, used the following illustrations which made a telling appeal to the fishermen who heard it from his own lips and which has had the same effect as often as it is heard on Fridays at the question meetings.
When hauling in the small line and especially the big line with their hundreds of hooks attached, it is necessary for the fisherman to have his knife ready for an emergency. The common practice was to hold the knife in the mouth to leave the hand free and in the excitement of pulling in a good catch the fact of the knife being in the mouth would be forgotten. The fisherman seeing that he would have to cut and leave the hook in the fish’s mouth or else get his line entangled was seen looking about for his knife, and not seeing it beside him on the seat opens his mouth to ask:—”Where is my knife?” Whereupon the article which he thinks he has not got, falls out of his mouth. “Thus it is with some Christian people,” said Mr. MacRitchie. “It is when they open their mouths that it is revealed to themselves or at least to others that they have in possession the faith they are looking for.”
Forgiveness and its Effects.—At a fellowship meeting in the days of the fathers in Ross-shire, one of the men gave this as a mark of saying grace:—”If you received forgiveness, you have never forgiven yourself.” Mr. John Macdonald, the saintly minister of Redcastle, took up the point when closing the question. “I will put the remark of him who gave this mark in this form:—”If you received forgiveness, it was steeped in Blood, and you have never forgiven yourself. And if you received forgiveness, steeped in Blood, and if you have never forgiven yourself, you value the forgiveness you have received much more than you do yourself who has received the forgiveness. Further, if you have received forgiveness steeped in Blood, and if you have never forgiven yourself, and if you value the forgiveness you have received much more than you do yourself who received the forgiveness, you value Jesus Christ, the One for whose sake you received the forgiveness, than you do even the forgiveness you got yourself.”—Malcolm Gillies.