'_One God--and one Mediator!_'
It is the glory of our humanity that it needs both the one and the
other. We need a God and cannot be happy till we find Him. The instinct
of adoration is in our blood, and we are ill at ease until we can find
One at whose feet we can lay the tribute of our devotion. We need a
Mediator, too, and are at our best when we recognize and confess our
need of Him. It is, I say, the glory of a man that he can yearn for
these two things. The most faithful and intelligent of the beasts feel
no desire for either the one or the other. We know how Dr. Davidson
died. I said that his conversation with Drumsheugh was his last. I was
mistaken. His last conversation was with Skye, his dog. When John, the
serving-man, paid his usual visit to the study before he went to bed,
the doctor did not hear him enter the room. He was holding converse with
Skye, who was seated on a chair, looking very wise and deeply
interested.
'Ye're a bonnie beastie, Skye,' exclaimed the doctor, 'for a' thing He
made is verra gude. Ye've been true and kind to your master, Skye, and
ye 'ill miss him if he leaves ye. Some day ye 'ill die also, and they
'ill bury ye, and I doubt that 'ill be the end o' ye, Skye! Ye never
heard o' God, Skye, or the Saviour, for ye're just a puir doggie; but
your master is minister of Drumtochty and--a sinner saved by grace!'
Those were his last words. In the morning the doctor was still sitting
in his big chair, and Skye was fondly licking a hand that would never
again caress him.
Skye, the noblest dog in the world, had no sense of sin and no sense of
grace, no need of a God and no need of a Saviour!
Dr. Davidson, Skye's master, is a sinner saved by grace. And it is his
sense of sin and his sense of grace, his need of a God and his need of a
Saviour, that remove him by whole infinities from the faithful brute on
the chair. 'A sinner,' as our fathers used to sing:
A sinner is a sacred thing,
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
When the soul feels after God, and the heart cries out for a Saviour, it
is proof positive of the divinity that dwells within us.
V
'_One God--but no Mediator!_' sighs Job.
'_One God--and one Mediator!_' cries Paul.
None! One! The difference between _none_ and _one_ is a difference of
millions. _None_ means nothing, _one_ means everything. _None_ means
failure: _one_ means felicity. _None_ means despair: _one_ means
delight. _None_ means perdition: _one_ means paradise. The difference
between '_no Mediator_' and '_one Mediator_' is a difference that can
never be worked out by arithmetic.
'_One God_'--and only one!
'_And one Mediator!_'--only one!
But one is enough. It is only in the small things of life that I long
for a selection; in the great things of life I only long for
satisfaction. When my appetite is sated, and food is almost a matter of
indifference to me, I like to be invited to choose between this, that,
and the other. But when I am starving, I do not hanker after a choice. I
do not want to choose. Put food before me, and I am content. If I am
taking a stroll for the mere pleasure of walking, I like to come to a
place where several roads meet, and to select the path that seems to be
most tempting. But if, weary and travelworn, I am struggling desperately
homewards, I do not want to have to choose my path. I dread the place
where many roads meet--the place where I may go astray. My felicity lies
in simplicity: I want but one road if that road leads home. Robinson
Crusoe climbs the hills of his island solitude and shades his eyes with
his hand as he sweeps the watery horizon. He is looking for a sail.
_One_ ship will do: he does not want a fleet. There is but _one_ way of
salvation for my storm-tossed soul: there is but _one_ Name given under
heaven among men whereby we must be saved: '_there is one God and one
Mediator between God and Men_'--and _one_ is ample. The difference
between '_no Mediator_' and '_one Mediator_' is a difference that has
all eternity within it.