The Woodcutter of Gutech | Page 4

great Sacrifice offered up. Do you
understand me, my friends? The sacrifice has been offered up, the debt
has been paid, the obedience has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who
came on earth and took upon Himself the body and nature of man, sin
excepted. He was obedient in all things--first by God's wish coming on
earth, and then dutiful and loving to His parents, merciful and forgiving
to those who persecuted Him, ever going about and healing their
infirmities, and teaching them the way of salvation. The good Saviour
allowed Himself to be hung upon the cross; His hands and feet and
sides were pierced; His blood was poured out for us,--ay, for us,--for
you and me,--for the vilest of sinners. All this was done by the Just One
for the unjust. God tells us to believe in Jesus, and that through
believing we are saved,--in other words, that we should take hold of it
by faith, and thus accomplish what that loving God, through the Holy
Spirit, said: `The just shall live by faith.'"
The young people drew in their breath, and gazed steadfastly at the
speaker. To hear of sin and the cross was not new to them, for they had
been at churches sometimes at holy days; but it was all a mummery and
spectacle, with which the priests alone seemed to have to do. The truths
now uttered were assuredly gaining some entrance into their minds.
"I do not understand quite what you say, friend Spena," said the old
man; "but surely God does not intend to give us the blessings of heaven
without our doing anything to merit it? He intends us to labour, and toil,
and pay the priests, and perform penances, and go to mass, and make
confession of our sins to the priests, before He could think of letting us
into that blessed place."

"I once thought as you do," answered the book-hawker. "When I read
God's word, I learned to think very differently."
As he spoke he opened the Testament. "Listen. The Holy Spirit says
through the book, `God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.' Here He says nothing about penances, or doing
anything of that sort. Listen again: A ruler of the Jews, a learned man,
paid a visit once to Jesus, to ask Him about the way of salvation, and
His answer was, `Ye must be born again.' He does not say you must do
anything, or you must try to mend your ways, or you must alter your
mode of living, you must go to confession, or pay for masses, or
anything of that sort. The ruler could not at first at all understand the
answer. Our blessed Lord then explained it in these words: `As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life.' Now in the Old Testament we read of a circumstance
which happened when the Israelites were travelling through the desert,
on their way out of the bondage of Egypt to the land of promise. They
were there bitten by fiery serpents, whose bite caused certain death.
They felt themselves dying, and cried to be saved. God told Moses to
make a brazen serpent, and to raise it up in the midst of the camp, and
directed him to inform the people that all those bitten by the serpent
who looked up at the serpent should be saved. Every one of them,
without exception, who did thus look, was cured. You see, my friend,
by putting the two accounts together, we see clearly what our Lord
means,-- not that we are to do anything in a way of obtaining merit, but
simply look to Him who hung on the cross, was thus lifted up for us,
and is now seated on the right hand of God, pleading as the only
Mediator all He did for us. A king, when he bestows gifts, gives them
through his grace. It is an insult to offer to purchase them. Far more
does God bestow His chief gifts as an act of grace. I do not say that He
does not expect something in return; but He gives salvation freely, and
will allow of nothing to be done beforehand, but simply that the gift
should be desired, and its value appreciated, or partly appreciated; for
we never can value it as it deserves."

The woodcutter and his grandchildren listened earnestly to these and
many other simple truths, as their guest went on reading and explaining
portion after portion. Nor did he omit to pray that God, through the
Holy Spirit, would