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who died, the just for the unjust. If we know this, we know the great fact of Salvation, for it is here.
2. The second fact about sin is its stain. The soul is defiled by it. All sin is a defilement. Your most respectable sin leaves a mark on the soul. The soul is tainted by it as a glass of pure water is tainted by a drop of ink. The virgin beauty of the soul is lost. And sometimes the stain becomes so foul that we are shocked by the uncleanness of the sinner's speech and taste and actions. And the stain of sin, like the spot of blood on Lady Macbeth's hand, is something that we cannot wash out.
What must I do to be saved from the stain of sin ? Gather up your influence, and see how much has been for Christ. Then undo all that has been against Him. It will never be healed till then. This is the darkest stain upon your life. The stain of sin concerns your own soul, but that is a smaller matter. That can be undone — in part. There are open sores enough in our past life to make even heaven terrible. But God is healing them. He is blotting them from His own memory and from ours. If the stains that were there had lingered, life would have been a long sigh of agony. But salvation has come to us. God is now helping us to use the means for repairing a broken life. He restoreth thy soul, He healeth all thy diseases. But thy brother's soul, and thy brother's diseases ? The worst of our stains have spread far and wide beyond ourselves; and God will only heal them, perhaps, by giving us grace to deal with them. We must retrace our steps over that unburied past, and undo what we have done.
Tj A young man once lay upon his death-bed. He was a Christian, but for many days a black cloud had gathered upon his brow. Just before his last breath, he beckoned to the friends around his bed. " Take my influence," he said, " and bury it with me." 1
The lost days of my life until to-day,
What were they, could I see them on the street Lie as they fell ? Would they be ears of wheat Sown once for food but trodden into clay ?
Or golden coins squander'd and still to pay ?
Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet ?
Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway ? 1 Henry Druinmond.
ACTS iv. 12 75
I do not see them here ; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see,
Each one a murder'd self, with low last breath. "I am thyself, — what hast thou done to me?"
" And I — and I — thyself " (lo ! each one saith), " And thou thyself to all eternity ! " x
3. The third deadly fact about sin is its power. The sinner soon finds that he is in bondage to a habit. Sin has an enslaving power. The tragedies that have arisen from this deadly fact of sin ! The tyranny of evil that began with a single sinful act ! All human experience testifies to the fact that one sin makes another sin easier. Each sin weaves another thread in the rope that binds us, till liberty is lost, and sin's tyranny is complete, and the sinner seems to have ceased to be master in his house of life.
The third fact of salvation which is to be brought to bear upon this third great fact of sin is not our own efforts, our own religiousness, our own doctrine, the Atonement, or the death of Christ, but the power of the life of Christ. " He redeemeth my life from destruction." How ? By His life. This is the fact of salvation. It takes life to redeem life — power to resist power. Sin is a ceaseless, undying power in our life. A ceaseless, un- dying power must come against it. And there is only one such power in the universe — only one, which has a chance against Sin : the power of the living Christ. " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." "Power to become the sons of God " — the great fact of salvation. Receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
II.
The Saving Name.
The words of St. Peter are emphatic. The clause blends together two statements : (1) There is no other name in which men can be saved, and (2) This is the name given in which men must be saved.
1. Had St. Peter lived among us now, would he have put the matter in this way ? Would he not have avoided any appearance
1 D. G. Rossetti.
76 THE SAVING NAME
of comparison or rivalry between the Gospel and other religious systems ? Would he not have said : " It is enough for me to proclaim that there is salvation in Christ; I do not know, I am not concerned to determine whether other prophets, other doctrines, other agencies can save. I do not wish to claim for Him any monopoly of saving power; I have no inclination to dispute the pretensions of Jewish rites or of Greek philosophies. No doubt there is much to be said for every religion in the world, and the professors of a religion have only to be sure that they are consistent; that they are careful to fashion their lives according to its law and the light of nature. It is enough for me to say that the religion of Christ will save you if you choose : I am not so illiberal as to maintain that you cannot be sure of salvation without it " ? Why did not St. Peter say this ? Why did he state the very converse of it — "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved " ? It was because he had in his heart and on his lips, not a human specula- tion or theory, but, as he held, the Truth — the One, Final, Absolute Truth. The proof of that to his mind, the overwhelming proof, was the life and teaching of his Master, crowned, attested, by the miracle — the recent, the certain, the unassailable miracle — of the Eesurrection.