Jesus the Only Saviour (2)¹

A Sermon by James Begg
Acts 4:12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

¹The first part of this slightly-edited sermon was printed last month. Begg set out first to “remove an objection which naturally arises in the minds of some” to the truth that “there is only one way to heaven”; second, to “explain further the truth itself”.

1. Let us now show that Scripture concurs in the truth of this text. The whole stream of revelation from the beginning points to Jesus and His finished work. The law which was given by Moses pointed to that grace and truth which were to come by Jesus Christ. The prophets prophesied beforehand of the coming and the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glory that should follow; “to Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins”.

The first dawn of prophetic light in Eden, amidst the wreck of a fallen world, pointed to Jesus. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed: He shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Christ was the seed of the woman. On the cross Satan bruised His heel, and at that very time He bruised Satan’s head – spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

He is the seed of the patriarchs, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. I say of the patriarchs, for you will find that the promise which was first made to Abraham was repeated afterwards in nearly the same words to Isaac and Jacob: “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed”, a statement explained by Paul when he says, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ,” who endured the curse of the law and wrought out an everlasting righteousness. Even already it has been fulfilled in the experience of myriads, “a great multitude which no man could number”, but it shall receive a more glorious and literal fulfilment when the Jews shall be brought in with the fulness of the Gentiles, when nations shall be born at once, and from the rising of the sun to where it goes down, the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.

He is the “Shiloh” who was foretold to Jacob and was to come before the sceptre departed from Judah, and unto whom the gathering of the people was to be. He is the Messiah introduced by David when sacrifice and offering and burnt-offering were declared to be unavailing, saying, “Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart”. He is the “Redeemer” of whom Job speaks, who should stand at the latter day upon the earth, and whom the patriarch was confident he would see with his eyes, although worms destroyed his body. He is the “daysman” of whom the same patriarch speaks, who should lay His hand on us both – that is, the offending and the offended party – and so make peace. He is the “mighty one” raised up from among the people, the “man of God’s right hand”, the Son of man whom He made strong for Himself. He is the “stone” which the builders rejected, but which was to become the head of the corner.

He is the Saviour Solomon described as “set up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere ever the earth was”. He is the “child” of Isaiah, whose name was to be called “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”. He is the “root of the stem of Jesse”, who shall stand for an ensign to the nations, whom the Gentiles were to seek, and whose rest was to be glorious. He is the king who was to “reign in righteousness”, the man who was to be “as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land”. He is the servant of God who was to be given for a covenant to the people, and a light to the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, and to bring the prisoners and them that sit in darkness from the prison house. He is the messenger of God, anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Therefore when He was on earth and entered a Jewish synagogue and read as the usual lesson of the day this beautiful passage, we are told that He gave the book back to the minister and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”.

And “who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?” The Messiah Himself will answer the question: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save”. “Why art Thou red in Thine apparel and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” The Messiah will answer again: “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Me”. He is the “righteous Branch” of Jeremiah, that was to be raised up to David, in whose day Judah was to be saved and Israel to dwell safely, and whose name was “to be called Jehovah our righteousness”. He was the “Messiah” of Daniel, who was to be cut off, but not for Himself; “the ruler of Israel”, to be born in Bethlehem Ephratah, the least among the princes of Judah. He is the “desire of all nations” spoken of by Haggai, who should suddenly come to the temple of God: “I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come”. He is the man whose name is “the Branch” spoken of by Zechariah, who should build the temple of God and bear all the glory – the king who was to come “just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”.

The angels of heaven filled the air with melody at His birth, and announced that the great Deliverer had at length arrived. The star of the east pointed the wise men to the manger of Bethlehem, where the infant Saviour lay. The Spirit of God descended like a dove and rested on His head, and a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him”. John, who baptized Him, pointed Him out to his disciples, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. When old Simeon took Jesus in his arms, he said, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation”. Philip said to Nathaniel: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write”.

Peter, James and John saw the Messiah on Mount Tabor, arrayed in robes of light, and they heard a voice from the excellent glory, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him”. And hence Peter says in one of his epistles: “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty . . . when there came such a voice from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice . . . we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” The woman of Samaria said, “I know that Messias cometh . . . when He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.” Jesus said to the man born blind, whom He had cured: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Jesus saith, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He who talketh with thee.”

The evil spirits that He expelled, the deaf and dumb and blind that He cured, the dead whom He raised, the angels that ministered to Him, the sun that was darkened at His death, the rocks that rent and the graves that were opened, all the prophets that spoke before the Saviour came, and all the eyewitnesses that recorded the facts of His history, unite in assuring us that He is the only, the omnipotent, the all-sufficient Saviour. And what was the uniform doctrine of the Apostles? “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to sinners their trespasses. In Him alone we are chosen from before the foundation of the world, called in time, justified, adopted, sanctified, saved. It pleased the Father that only in Him should all fulness dwell. Even as there is but one God, so there is only “one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”. And “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries”.

Hence the song of heaven is full of Christ’s atonement: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever”. Hence the most wonderful and glorious object in heaven is the adorable Redeemer in the midst of the throne, “a Lamb as it had been slain”. Hence the “white robes”, in which all the ransomed of the Lord of every age and nation and kindred and tongue are arrayed, are robes which have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. “What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?” “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” John heard “a new song, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, and dominion, and power, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood”.

Suppose a ladder were let down from heaven and an angel were sent to say, Come up hither and I will shew thee the wonders of the sanctuary above. When you gazed round that region of glory, the greatest wonder you would behold would be Jesus, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, the Lamb of God, the great centre of worship and influence. If you were permitted to speak to the glorified inhabitants of that blessed place and to ask them in what way they reached the realms of glory, they would all give the same answer. Adam, if in glory, went there through the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Abel went there by faith in the coming sacrifice of the Messiah, Noah by means of the true ark of God, Abraham because he saw the day of Christ afar off and was glad. All the patriarchs went there because they “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. All the apostles went there because they “determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”, and all the martyrs because “they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”.

Where are the self-righteous multitudes who despised the perfect righteousness of Christ and went about to establish a righteousness of their own – the crowds of worldly formalists, whom false churches impiously professed to send to heaven? They are not there. No one is there who will not rejoice to cast his crown at the Redeemer’s feet and to join in the blessed anthem of eternity which will fill the arches of heaven for ever: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain”. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”; “and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder”. If, therefore, any truth is more clearly revealed in the Word of God than another, it is that of the text: “Neither is there salvation in any other”.

1. From this subject, therefore, we may infer the hopeless state of such as continue far from Christ, or trust for salvation out of Him. They that are far from Him shall perish; and one of the objects for which He shall come again is to punish such as “know not God and obey not the gospel”. Mark, the awful result is the very same whatever state you are in if you are not in Christ, for there is salvation in no other. He warned: “He that abideth not in Me is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire”.

Do you speak of the mercy of God? What greater proof could He give of His mercy than in not sparing His only-begotten Son? But it is the very mercy of God you are despising; and if you trample on the offers of His love, if you are determined to be saved in your own way, and not in the way of God, you are not to wonder if you find yourselves barred from heaven and left to perish in your own devices. Christ is the way to heaven; Christ is the door; Christ is the shepherd; Christ is the mediator; Christ is the king; Christ is the intercessor. Out of Him you have no promises; out of Him God is a consuming fire – but in Him, God “hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel”.

1. If these truths have been brought home with power to your souls, happy are you. “O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!” Be assured that He that has begun a good work will carry it on until the day of Christ. The smoking flax shall be kindled into the light of the perfect day. The feeble shall become as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. “Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

2. But press forward to higher attainments. You must hunger and thirst after righteousness; you must grow in grace and in knowledge; you must ask, knock, use every effort and, above all, call down by prayer that grace without which you can do nothing, but with which you can do all things. Watch over yourselves with a godly jealousy, and let it be your desire that you may be like Christ here so that you may be with Christ hereafter. What miserable self-deception abounds in this world! Luther tells us that in his unconverted state he knew some who fasted and prayed and did penance, and yet open infidels behaved better, and murderers died more peacefully than they. So, alas, is it now. Many come to the house of God, but in works they deny Him – they do not do to others as they would wish others to do to them; they are liars, drunkards, swearers, covetous, tyrannical. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.” “Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”

But if men are not saved, it is because they love darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil. It is because Satan “hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ . . . should shine into them”. Christ is a sufficient and a willing Saviour. All fulness dwells in Him. Mark the expression. It has been in Him for ages. It is an unchangeable, inexhaustible supply of grace. The well of salvation is full, although many in ages past have drunk of it. The water of life is as pure as ever, though myriads have washed in it and become whiter than the snow. The riches of Christ are undiminished, although they have already enriched an exceeding great multitude which no man can number. Come in, therefore, O sinner, why standest thou without? It is for you the Master calls. The Lord says, “Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee”.

The Light of a Holy Example¹

R L Dabney
Matthew 5:16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

¹Taken with slight editing from Dabney’s Discussions, vol 1. It is clear from his Life and Letters by T C Johnson that the “young minister” was Dabney himself.

FG was a lawyer of the old school. Born about the year 1785, the son of a large landholder in one of the Atlantic States, he was reared in the midst of that society – at once graceful, chivalrous, cultivated and irreligious – which followed the Revolutionary War and the influence of the French alliance. He was, like the lawyers of his day, deeply read in the old English law, and well acquainted with the English classics, scrupulous in his integrity, deliberate, shrewd, perspicacious in intellect, disdaining all personal and professional meanness with infinite scorn, scrupulous and gravely ornate in dress, and ever dignified and courteous in manner.

The “flush times” of 1816, following the depression of the second war with Great Britain, found him in one of the Atlantic cities, in the full tide of his early success. He was tempted, like so many others, to venture everything in the purchase of real estate; and in a few years, chiefly by the treachery of some whom he had trusted, he was bankrupt. This misfortune left him a soured spirit. To gain the means for the more speedy payment of debts he departed alone to the extreme southwest; and for 20 years his friends saw him no more, and heard little of him, save that he was making large professional gains, had paid off his debts to the last penny, and was living the life of a bon vivant and man of society among the French of the light-hearted Southern capital.

At the end of that time he returned to the home of his fathers, a man verging on old age. His caustic wit, his ancestral and intellectual pride, his fondness for elegant literature, his sourness, were in no wise diminished, and his irreligious and epicurean habits much increased. Although the surviving kindred whom he found were decided Christians, he never accompanied them to the house of God, spent his Sabbaths in amusements, and observed the most jealous reserve concerning his religious views. It was understood that he had long learned to disdain both Protestantism and Popery as rival delusions, and was a low-type Socinian or rational Deist.

As the monotony of unmarried life crept on, his habits of free living grew upon him, until they threatened serious consequences. The account given by a simple servant, who was his valet, was as graphic as it was truthful. “My master,” said he, “was very anxious to get some good old spirits, and yet he condemned all he got as adulterated. One time he says to me, ‘Take my demijohn [a bottle containing from 3 to 10 gallons], and go to old Mr J; he is an honest, old-fashioned merchant. Tell him to send me some genuine French brandy.’ I brought it, but he was as dissatisfied as ever. Then he said, ‘Go to Mr H; he deals with the honest German farmers of the West; tell him to send me some honest, farm-made, old rye whiskey’. But when this came he pronounced it ‘vile stuff’. However, I noticed that, though it was ‘vile stuff’, wherever it came from, the demijohn always went down very steadily. Well, so it went on, until one day he was very sick, and seemed to have a sort of fit, and not to know anything. I was so frightened I went off for Dr A, and he came; and he bled him in a great china basin from the washstand. However, he got entirely well; and he nibbled at the ‘vile stuff’ very skittishly after that.”

Soon after this, Mr G astonished his friends by deliberately destroying his stock of drinkables with his own hands, and adopting the most rigid total-abstinence customs. But he declared that he did this from no temperance principles. He considered good wines and liquors a legitimate and very pleasant indulgence which, he said, he should certainly allow to himself if they could be procured. But he considered himself a connoisseur; he now found that all wines and liquors in America were adulterated. In good old times they exhilarated, now they stupefied; then gentlemen could indulge, even freely, in these convivialities and live to a ripe old age; now he noticed that free-living men died in a few years. He had determined therefore never to taste even malt liquors again, simply because he did not wish to be poisoned like a rat.

Not long after this his solitude and approaching infirmities caused him to remove to the house of a widowed sister, where he spent the closing years of his life. Among the children of this Christian family was a son, a young minister of the gospel, but residing away from his native place in his far-distant charge, and a younger sister just budding into lovely womanhood. She was beloved by all for her sweet and consistent piety and her gentle, disinterested charity. This change of residence brought the wearied man of the world into contact with books and associates somewhat different from the former. The son was accustomed to visit his widowed mother annually during vacations; and on one of these visits he noticed in the uncle some such hint of an intellectual interest in Christianity as led him to introduce the subject, though with trepidation.

He found that the old man had been reading a number of Christian books, but only for mental amusement. He talked of their topics with the tone with which a naturalist might talk of some curious researches in entomology. “Nephew,” said Mr G, “I have been reading lately Dr Hanna’s Life of Chalmers. Did you know that great divine confessed he was a Presbyterian minister many years before he was a converted man? Isn’t that considered very singular among you? And Dr Hanna – who, you know, is his son-in-law – relates that one thing which opened Dr Chalmers’ eyes was his observing that many evangelical persons, all of whom he had considered fanatical, were more zealous to live holy and diligent lives of obedience, while claiming no merit therefrom, for their justification, than he and his friends were who relied on that sort of merit. I suppose it must have been true; but it strikes one as very queer, isn’t it?”

In this strain he chatted on in the most communicative and amiable tone. He would make no avowal of any personal concern of the heart in these great truths, but admitted that his intellect was interested, and avowed himself willing to re-examine the system of redemption, more because it would occupy his abundant leisure in a pleasing manner than for any other reason. The young minister directed him to some suitable books and especially to the careful study of the Scriptures themselves. His visit ended without other developments.

The next summer he again went, according to his wont, to cheer his widowed mother. Soon after his arrival, she availed herself of a moment of privacy to say: “My son, strange things have happened here since you went last. Your Uncle F has confessed Christ. He sent for the session of the church, excusing himself for his difficulties in walking, and desired them to examine his fitness for the communion of the church. They held a sessional meeting in his room; and Rev Mr W, who moderated the proceedings, says that never was such a meeting of session seen. The elders were so astounded by the strangeness of the change, and still so overawed by his reputation for sense and cynicism, that they were the questioned rather than the questioners. And then his religious experience was so original and queer. They say he seemed only afraid that they should give him credit for more grace than he thinks he has. He regards himself as a mere babe in grace, but says his mind is clearly made up to live and die in faith, and therefore he thinks he ought to confess Christ at once. He was as methodical and lawyer-like about it as though he had been writing somebody else’s will. However, he was received and is now a regular member of the Q church.”

This narrative the young minister heard with open-eyed wonder. “Do they really think,” he asked, “that there is a saving change in him?” “Indeed we do,” she replied, “there has been a progressive change for some time. You know, though he was always the gentleman, we were always a little afraid of him; but now he is always gentle; his sourness and sarcasm are all gone, and he appears to be as willing to die as to retire to his nightly rest.”

The young minister sought the first convenient opportunity to express to him his thankfulness for the wondrous change. It must be confessed there was also a little tendency to congratulate himself as one of the instruments of it; and hence, he was curious to know how far the instructions he had given or the books he had recommended had been useful. But the developments did not seem at all to gratify that vanity.

Had Uncle F read such and such books, which he named last year?

“Yes.”

Had he been impressed by them?

“No; not particularly.”

After a little while the old gentleman seemed to apprehend the drift of these inquiries, and said rather drily, “If you are asking for the means of this change, I cannot say that any of your books wrought it”.

“What then,” he was asked, “is the instrumentality which has wrought this great revolution? We all know that since last year your infirmities have not permitted you to go to church.”

“Well,” he replied, “I suppose that, so far as it was any one thing, it was Katy.” (The niece.)

“Why,” exclaimed the brother, “has she presumed to take on her the task of religious monitor? Does she preach to you?”

“O no; she is too modest for that. But you know, Nephew, she is the best person in the world” (and this he uttered with the peculiar air of nonchalance and brevity with which he asserted his deliberate opinions), “and what I have seen for myself of her principles and conduct since I have lived here has changed all my convictions.”

Being encouraged to explain himself, he proceeded as follows: “You know that I was all my life a sort of Socinian or rational Deist, and regarded the whole system of experimental religion as a fanatical delusion. I saw so much falsehood, pretence and hypocrisy that I believed in no pretensions of superior holiness. Of course I did not deny a God or a hereafter; but I thought Christ one of the few sincere and pure men whom the world has possessed; and I expressed contempt for the idea that there was any Holy Ghost or regeneration. I supposed that, so far as anybody could penetrate the darkness beyond the grave with his hopes, those who were philanthropic, truthful, courteous and just had the best chance. And I felt that our chance, who cultivated these social virtues and made none of these pretences to superior grace, was far better than that of the Christians.

“My theory about conversion was this: In many, it was a rascally pretence (as my dealings with mankind showed). In the rest, it was an amiable delusion. I saw great numbers find out for themselves this fact. And they were truthful enough to avow it and frankly go back to the world. I saw a number of others who had evidently found out also that their supposed conversion was a delusion; but they did not have the candour to say so and they therefore continued to wear the mask – some from mere cowardice and false shame, others from calculated rascality. The third class was of those who continued sincere and, evidently, honest devotees. My theory about them was that they also were deluded, only they had not found it out yet. Many acquaintances whom I highly esteem were among this class and, as you know, some of my dearest relatives. I thought I saw in the enthusiasm of their natural temperament the reason why they remained undeceived. And as they, unlike the second class, were perfectly honest in their amiable fanaticism, I could love them none the less for this social virtue, nor had I any desire to undeceive them. They seemed to enjoy the delusion, and I was glad that they should do so.

“Such was my theory, and I was thrown close to Katy, and I have studied her thoroughly. I know that my estimate of her principles is correct; I have seen her tried too often. I saw in her not only amiability, which I have often loved in others, but an unaffected and supreme disinterestedness and love. I saw in her one person where there was no selfishness. I had seen many affect unselfishness, but this I saw was real, for I know the signs of hypocrisy only too well. She wasn’t like anybody else.

“Now, Nephew, I know human nature, unfortunately for myself. I know all about it, and I know that it is a poor, selfish thing. I know what it is capable of in its lovelier phases, and what it is not. And it was perfectly clear that Katy had something which I, with all my pride of integrity and philanthropy, never had – which nobody has by nature. And it was an admirable thing too. Now, you see, I was obliged to ask myself where it came from, and as I was sure it could not come from nature, it must come from above nature. Here then was a divine principle actually at work. What else could I conclude? Well then the doctrine of regeneration must be true, absurd as I had thought it was before. There was no other solution. I saw that there is such a thing as the implantation of a superhuman, divine principle in a human being. And I had to believe that it came by this gospel. You see, Katy always says that, if there is anything good in her, it comes from God, through Christianity; that she gets it by believing the gospel and praying through Christ, and I am obliged to believe her. Besides, there wasn’t any other way, which was not absurd, to account for it except that. But there was the thing, and it had to be accounted for.

“Now, you see, when I saw there really was a way in which God gave a person a new nature, as a man of sense I could not but know that it was good for me too. So I desired it for myself. How can a person see perfect disinterestedness, love, purity and truth, and not want it? At least I wanted it; I knew I had needed it all my life, amidst all my pride. Well, of course, the only thing to do was to seek it, and I did so. And that is just the history of the matter.”

“And you believe, Uncle, that you have received it?”

“Why, yes; that is my hope. Understand me, I don’t think I know much about it; I know very little. I have only this one point: I know there is a redemption in Christ, for I see it wrought in one person; I know I need it; it is promised to prayer; I rely upon that.”

After an interval he added, with the same tone of inimitable nonchalance: “Nephew, I am not the least afraid to die; I should like very well to die this evening. I have pains and infirmities that nobody knows of and, as I am getting of less and less account, I should like to be gone. But it is all right; I am ready when my time comes.”

His time did come after some months of increasing sufferings, which he bore with Christian resignation and gentleness, and his darling Katy was one of those who received his parting breath. A few years after, she followed him, in the prime of her loveliness. We doubt not that they are now together before the throne; the old man of learning and logic and earthly wisdom as spiritual child, and the gentle young maiden as spiritual parent.

This remarkable experience of a very singular man is not presented as a symmetrical type. But it is exceedingly instructive as showing how the witness of a true and holy life is made the divine warrant of the gospel. This is the continuous miracle, the spiritual resurrection, which proves that “Christ is risen indeed.” Mr F G had doubtless been conversant with other genuine instances of holy living before, and he had not been convinced by them. But the living power of this last holy example, where previous ones had failed, may be partly explained by the exquisite tact, grace and genius which embellished this instance of the divine life, disarming his spirit of adverse criticism and gaining for it a dispassionate judgement – and chiefly by the fact that God’s time to set to work by His Spirit had now arrived.

The most valuable lesson of this history is this: We see here how the logic of a holy life wrought, when once it was listened to, with a mind singularly perspicacious, deliberate and cautious, trained in all the learning of the law to the appreciation of valid evidence, and the distinguishing of false from true. When circumstances at length enabled this man to verify one instance of undoubted spiritual-mindedness, it was enough. He recognized it as the signature of a divine work, and by a process of inference as rigid as legal proof, ascending from effect to cause, he ascertained the personal agency of the Holy Ghost, the divinity of Christ, the doctrine of regeneration, the duties of faith and prayer.

The light of a holy example is the gospel’s main argument.