Salvation by Faith
DAY NINETEEN
PONDER THIS ENGRAVING
MEDITATE ON THESE VERSES
Psalm 3:4 | Psalm 79:9 | 1 Peter 1:5, 9 | Psalm 62:7 | Romans 10:17 | Galatians 5:6 | Ephesians 2:8 | Hebrews 11:6
Let not the water-flood, overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Psalm 69:15 –– He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. Psalm 18:16.
POETIC REFLECTION
The pleasures of a summer’s day prevail,
And tempt the youth to hoist the flowing sail:
The river, placid, rolls its waves along.
He glides exulting, like the notes of song;
But soon a cloud, dark, brooking, mounts on high,
A tempest threatens, soon it fills the sky;
He strikes his sail, and plies the lab’ring oar,
If haply he may reach the wished-for shore:
Now booming thunders shake the solid ground,
And angry lightnings fitful flame around:
The rains, descending, now begin to lave,
The winds come dancing o’er the rippling wave,
The stream still bears him from the distant shore,
Appalled he hears the cataract’s dreadful roar.
To stay on board is death–he leaps. The wave
Still bears him onward to the yawning grave.
Just as he reaches the terrific brink,
O’er which, if plunged, he must forever sink.
The king from his fair palace hastens down––
A king who wears far more than regal crown––
He saw his plight, nor feared the thunders’ roar.
He threw the rope and drew him safe on shore.
DEVOTION OF INTERPRETATION
A young man, tempted by the delightful stillness of a summer’s day, launches his little boat, and spreads his sail. The light winds spring up, and bear him some distance from the land, but he regards it not; the scenery is lovely, the banks of the river are clad in the beautiful robes of the season; all conspire to make him enjoy his sail. But his pleasure is short-lived; a storm arises, he strikes sail, and attempts to make the shore by rowing, but he cannot succeed. The eddying winds keep him in the middle of the stream; he drifts down to the place where there is a tremendous cataract; he hears the dreadful roaring thereof; his heart sinks within him. What shall he do? To stay in the boat is death; he cannot swim if he leaps out, yet he thinks it is the best course. He jumps overboard; still he continues to drift toward the awful gulf. But just as he is going over, one comes to the rescue. The king, who had been watching him from his palace on the fill, hastens through the pelting storm down to the river-side, and throwing him a rope, draws him safe to land.
This emblem sets forth the glorious doctrine of Salvation by Faith. The drowning man represents the sinner in his sins. The fearful tempest––the anguish of his soul, occasioned by the terrors of God’s violated Law. The forsaken boat––his self-righteousness. The king who flies to his help––the Lord Jesus Christ. Laying hold of the rope––Faith. His arrival on shore––Salvation. And as the individual rescued would most assuredly ascribe the merit of his deliverance to the prince upon the bank, and by no means to himself for seizing the rope, so every sinner saved by Faith will, despising self, give the glory of his salvation to Christ. As the rope connected the man dying in the waters with the man living on the land, so Faith unites the sinner to Christ. The power or ability to believe is the gift of God, but man is responsible for the use of the power. He must lay hold of the rope. God does not repent for man, neither does He believe for him, yet man has nothing whereof to glory. By grace he is saved through Faith, and that not of himself. God worketh in him both to will and to do.
“With pitying eyes the Prince of Peace
Beheld our helpless grief;
He saw, and O, amazing love!
He ran to our relief.
“Down from the shining seats above,
With joyful haste he fled,
Enter’d the grave in mortal flesh,
And dwelt among the dead.
“O, for this love, let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues
The Savior’s praises speak.
“Angels, assist our mighty joys,
Strike loud your harps of gold;
But when you raise your highest notes,
His love can ne’er be told.”
Barber, John Warner, 1798-1885. Bible Looking Glass: Reflector, Companion and Guide to the Great Truths of the Sacred Scriptures, and Illustrating the Diversities of Human Character, and the Qualities of the Human Heart.
Philadelphia, Bradley, Garretson & Co., 1861