But Old Honest took his time. He walked, if
ever pilgrim walked, all the way with an easy mind. He lay down to sleep
under the oaks on the wayside, and smiled like a child in his sleep. And,
when he was suddenly awaked, instead of crying out for mercy and starting
to his heels, he grasped his staff and demanded even of an armed man what
business he had to break in on an honest pilgrim's midday repose! The
King of the Celestial City had a few names even in Stupidity which had
not defiled their garments, and Old Honest was one of them. And all his
days his strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure.
3. At the same time, honesty is not holiness; and no one knew that
better than did this honest old saint. When any one spoke to Old Honest
about his blameless youth, the look in his eye made them keep at arm's-
length as he growled out that without holiness no man shall see God!
Writing from Aberdeen to John Bell of Hentoun, Samuel Rutherford says: "I
beseech you, in the Lord Jesus, to mind your country above; and now, when
old age is come upon you, advise with Christ before you put your foot
into the last ship and turn your back on this life. Many are beguiled
with this that they are free of scandalous sins. But common honesty will
not take men to heaven. Alas! that men should think that ever they met
with Christ who had never a sick night or a sore heart for sin. I have
known a man turn a key in a door and lock it by." "I can," says John
Owen, "and I do, commend moral virtues and honesty as much as any man
ought to do, and I am sure there is no grace where they are not. Yet to
make anything to be our holiness that is not derived from Jesus Christ,--I
know not what I do more abhor." "Are morally honest and sober men
qualified for the Lord's Supper?" asks John Flavel. "No; civility and
morality do not make a man a worthy communicant. They are not the
wedding garment; but regenerating grace and faith in the smallest measure
are." "My outside may be honest," said this honest old pilgrim, "while
all the time my heart is most unholy. My life is open to all men, but I
must hide my heart with Christ in God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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