William Reid was editor of the Drummond’s Stirling Tract Depôt. In about 1857-8, Reid edited the British Messenger. It was a time when churches were so crowded that the preachers could not enter the street in which they stood, let alone get to the door of the churches. His best-known book was written at this time: The Blood of Jesus. James Nisbet of London published it in 1865. His lecture “The Feasts of the Lord” was delivered on Monday evening 7 August 1865 and subsequently published by James Taylor of Edinburgh. In 1867 Reid became the minister of the Warwick Road Presbyterian Church, Carlisle. He also preached in a Wesleyan chapel, where, a century before, John Wesley had himself preached. However he eventually found that his ecclesiastical position was inconsistent with what he believed and taught. And after further help from correspondence with William Kelly (1821-1906) determined to go outside the camp and gather among the brethren. He severed his connections with the Presbyterian church and went to the Hebron Hall meeting of brethren in Bank Street, Carlisle. During all this time he had been a busy publisher of magazines. Among those he edited were the following: the British Messenger a religious newspaper c.1857, with a tremendous circulation of 120,000 in print. This periodical continued long after his death, until at least 1948! The British Herald was issued between 1864 and 1875.

William Reid also edited the British Evangelist from 1869 onwards with W. P. Mackay (the author of Grace and Truth). He also wrote several books. One of his publishers was R. M. Cameron who was well known as a school textbook publisher at the turn of the 19th century in Scotland. He also made a notable contribution to the collection of songs and hymns for use by the church of God. His “The Praise Book” is a comprehensive collection of over a thousand hymns. The compilation of which took him ten years. It was first published in 1872. C. H. Spurgeon reviewed it in a subsequent issue of his magazine Sword and Trowel. He was competent in some modern languages as well as Greek and Latin. He died on 8th August 1881. The text on his gravestone from Titus 2:18 reads: “Looking for that blessed hope.”

He wrote “Look to Jesus,” which leads the readers to the Savior of sinners, Jesus of Nazareth. It has four sections including 1) our need of Jesus, 2) look to Jesus, 3) the nearness of Jesus, 4) rest for the weary. I hope that you will benefit by reading his preaching through the Lively Hope in the next few weeks.

1. Our need of Jesus

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

First, are You a Sinner? Dear Friend, Has God’s Holy Spirit shown you that you are a sinner? “What!,” you may ask, “I cannot discover that I am a sinner except by the light of the Holy Spirit, can I?” I tell you frankly and at once that you cannot. Without the Holy Spirit, you can easily learn that you are a sinner from the Word of God, or confess yourself a sinner in prayer. But to see yourself a sinner in the light of divine teaching, to feel it with a divinely enlightened conscience, and to realize the terrible fact, as in the very presence of the God of infinite holiness, and in reference to the solemn realities of a coming eternity this is a matter of awful experience, not of mere learning or customary confession!

Oh, how dreadful it would be were you convinced by the Holy Spirit that you are “condemned already,” ruined, lost, and in danger of hell every breath you draw! I wish you were so convinced: I pray God you may be so, even this very moment; for were you to die an unpardoned sinner (and you may die any moment), you would lift up your eyes in hell being in torment, and find yourself a sinner forevermore where no Savior ever comes!“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

Perhaps you say, as another once did, “I admit I am a sinner, I know that I have sinned; but I cannot understand what you mean by saying that I am a lost sinner a ruined sinner. I am not lost; I am not ruined, as you say.” “Well, I know you are not finally lost, or you would not be here. Bless God for that mercy. But if you are not lost, you can have nothing to do with the Savior, for He has come ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’” (Luke 19:10). Man, as soon as he fell, was lost, for God’s first question implies this “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9). God, in grace, was seeking man at the Fall because he was lost; and God in Christ is seeking sinners still, just because they are lost.

It may be, however, that you have heard so much in the preaching of the sanctuary about sinners and lost sinners, that you will readily admit that the Bible teaches that, as sinners, we are all utterly ruined and lost. But do you feel that the Bible speaks true to you, when it comes to you personally, and says, You are a sinner: you are ruined and lost, for you are “condemned already,” and the wrath of God abides upon you? “God be merciful to me a sinner!” is quite a different thing from the easy- going acknowledgment, “we are all sinners.”

When D’Aubigne (1794-1872) was a student, he heard Robert Haldane (1764-1842) reading a chapter from the EpistletotheRomans, concerning all men being sinners by nature. He was astonished at it, but being clearly convinced by the passages read to him, he said to Mr. Haldane, “Now I do indeed see this doctrine in the Bible.” “Yes,” replied he, “but do you see it in your heart?” It was a simple question, but it proved the sword of the Spirit, and awakened his slumbering conscience to recognize the terrible fact, that sin was in his heart; and, by the grace of God, it led to his conversion to Christ, for he immediately felt his need of Jesus when he found himself a lost sinner.

My friend, has this experience been yours? Have you seen sin in your heart? Have you seen and felt it to be a poison which has passed through every part of your moral nature?

Second, false Security through “Religion”: Thousands of persons in Ireland, as well as in other places, have had such a soul- harrowing sight and sense of sin in their hearts and lives, that it has so burdened their spirits that they have been well-nigh driven to despair, and some of them have been almost deprived of life. Perhaps you have never lost an hour’s quiet sleep, nor relish for a single meal, by a sight of your soul’s sinful and lost condition! And yet, if you only saw it by the grace of the Holy Ghost, your condition is quite as bad and hopeless as theirs!

How dreadful your case! A sinner not far from perdition, and yet happy, careless, and reckless of eternity! Notwithstanding all your outward correctness of deportment and periodical religiousness, your case is desperate! But, if you will go to hell, do not mock God by the way, pretending to serve Him when you know that all your praying, hearing, praising, and communicating is but a downright insult to the All-Seeing One!

More Lively Hope

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