A MIRACLE OF GRACE. BY THE REV. D. T. K. DRUMMOND. WHENEVER a sinner is taken out of the family of Satan and placed in the family of God, it is "to the praise of the glory of his grace." And that grace is specially glorified in particular cases. Some have, from temperament or habit, or long neglect, acquired a resistance to the entering in of light upon the soul, which makes their change of heart a miracle of grace indeed. Not that a miracle of grace is lacking in any instance of a changed heart,—that it is a more difficult thing, so to speak, for grace to overcome the strong passions, and deeply seated prejudices of a Paul, than to draw to the feet of Jesus a listening Mary; but the result, as it appears before men, is much more striking in the one case than in the other. The greater the contrast presented in the life of an individual between the state of nature and the state of grace, the more amazing does that work of the Spirit appear, which has effected so great a change. Nor to the reflecting mind does the contrast appear in its deepest shades, and most wondrous consequences, in those cases where sin, such as that of the thief upon the cross, is followed by repentance and faith like his, but rather in those instances where the boastful self-righteous Pharisee is changed into the humble self-condemning publican. The actual triumph of divine grace does not appear so marvellous when the poor victim is snatched from the hand of Satan, while that dark and deadly spirit drags him at his as will through all the mire of a world's ungodliness, as when we behold the soul disenchanted from the fascination in which it was held by the evil one in the garb of an angel of light, who had so successfully endeavoured to drown the hissing of the serpent in the counterfeit tones of the garden of Eden. Alas! that men should be found calling themselves shepherds of Christ's little flock, who are nevertheless doing the adversary's work in helping him "to blind the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But if there were "false apostles" even in the days when Peter preached, and Paul laboured, and John prophesied, we need not be surprised that they exist now, to trouble the church of God. The following narrative will furnish sad evidence of this fact. It will also exhibit some of the deepest wiles and devices of Satan to hold his prey, and yet illustrate a glorious triumph of the grace of God. In the summer of 1846 a young lady, Miss A-, was residing at W-. Though not more than twenty years of age, she was yet a confirmed invalid. |