I am now far from you in bodily presence; but I can with truth say, that my heart is nearer to you than before, as my eye turns joyfully, from the awful contemplation of sin and ungodliness around me, in this poor town, to those favoured spots of my dear native land, on which the Holy Ghost has lately been pouring out his quickening grace. I lately sent you, in print, a letter on the all-important subject of “THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN;” and as I have many duties pressing on me here, I must fulfill my promise of writing to you in a very hurried way, hoping that you will read the letter I have alluded to, as if sent to you in writing, and addressed to you alone. I shall, then, say a word to the following classes among you.
Arthur Walkington Pink, a writer of good theological books, was born in Nottingham, England, on April 1st, 1886. His father was a diligent Christian, who read the Bible and good religious books to his children. He had a younger brother and sister. Pink joined the theosophy movement as a young man. His father, however, awakened his son’s soul by quoting to him the text, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). A. W. Pink was converted by this text in the year 1908.
Dear friends, our communicating work at this time is over; our preaching and your hearing work is almost over; but our account for these things is still before us—who knows how near! Let us think what we have done, and what we have got, that will abide the trial. In this solemn charge of Heaven, now read and directed to your conscience and mine, we have: 1) An awful warning of the future judgment, from the lips of the Judge: Behold, I come quickly. 2) A solemn charge to take heed to ourselves in the view of our certain and sudden appearance before God, the Judge of all. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
The book of Proverbs brings men out in their blacks and whites. It shows the difference between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial. Our text, in few words, sets forth the portrait of two men, and contrasts them with the word “but.” It tells us of the man of understanding, and the fool. The former fixes his attention on something near, the other on things far off. The former fixes his attention on something excellent, the other on anything at all, or, rather, on nothing at all.
When a country is invaded by some foreign foe, when the armies of the aggressor have overspread the land, when a blighted surface marks the progress of their ravages, when the chains of unoffending victims display the relentless cruelty of their revenge, when the active movements of hostile squadrons are discerned, and the voice of the trumpet that hitherto has sounded the certain note of battle and defeat is heard from the watchtowers of the fortress, that forms the last and lingering hope of a once flourishing, but now greatly diminished power; when it is dreaded that within are many faithless men, whose treacherous machinations are concealed under the mask of friendship, and who only await the critical moment of disaster or despair, to strengthen the hands of those who have laid bare many an altar, and left many a city smoking in its ruins—shall he be hailed as a patriot citizen, who whispers in softest accents that danger is far distant; who circulates and foments the ruinous suggestion to relax those efforts that might yet render resistance successful, and, turning the tide of conquest, lay prostrate the insulting foe; who encourages the thousands around him to banish idle cares and silence unfounded alarms, and speedily betake themselves to gay and luxurious delights, and loll in the lap of voluptuous ease, and run the round of lawless revelry? No. He is pronounced a traitor to his country’s cause; to him is awarded a traitor’s doom; and over his remains are raised the insignia of a traitor’s grave.
It is good for either man or woman to be first married and engaged with Christ ere they be engaged with any other, otherwise we shall never carry well in a marriage state. When once the heart hath made its choice, it is hardly brought to choose Christ; and therefore our days of youth are days of choice, in which we are to “remember our Creator” (Eccles. 12:1). The Lord was merciful to me, in engaging me with Christ ere I settled any other way, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 6:33).
The influence of a mother over the future character and destiny of her child, whether for good or evil, is incalculable. She has the moulding of its moral frame almost as much under her control as the management of its body; and, during the tender years of childhood, the one is almost as yielding and plastic as the other.
He is crying unto us, “Sing, O heaven”—that is, “Sing, O Church; and rejoice, O earth. Sing, O State: sing both Church and State of Scotland.” Oh! how should we sing? Hath not the Lord forsaken and forgotten us? Nay, though it appears so, yet it is not really so. “A woman may forget her sucking child, but the Lord cannot forget his people.” The purpose of God is pregnant and about to bring forth a great deliverance unto the Church and State of Scotland. If we saw the days that our Lord is to bestow upon us in Scotland, and had a view of the ministers that shall be in it, it would make us sing. Ye think now that the ministers are gone. Indeed a great part of them are so, and the magistrates are rejected by us. We declare before sun, moon, and stars that this is the case. But the Lord hath yet ministers that shall be polished shafts in His quiver; and He will yet give us rulers, and will make out that promise: “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers;” so that if we saw the good days that are coming upon the back of these troubles, we would not get men and women kept from dancing for joy. Ye would all go home with gladness, rejoicing as if ye were frantic for joy. But you may say, “How can this be?” For there are two things to be objected against it:
We are all in a state of trial and probation, for a permanent and eternal existence in another world. The space in which we move is but short at best, and by several circumstances very much contracted; but short and contracted as it is, scenes of the most weighty and important nature are transacted upon it. Man in his present fallen condition is truly forlorn. He is appointed to endure many severe afflictions, which he can neither foresee nor prevent. In the distribution of afflictions there is no doubt but the unerring wisdom acts, nor can chance have any place in His vast dominions, where even a sparrow falleth not to the ground without Him.
Next to the Bible, my father’s chief delight was in studying the works of the old divines, of which, in time-worn editions, he has succeeded in accumulating a goodly number. These, he was wont to say, contained more of the “sap and marrow of the gospel,” and had about them more of the “fragrance and flavour of Paradise, than aught more recently produced.”
