"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered"
(Ps. 32:1).
Can this defilement be removed? This surely is the question for every child of Adam; for what conscience is there which has not been stained with sin? It is a question which the conscience itself cannot answer. Conscience prescribes our duty and rewards us if we perform it. If we fail, it fills us with alarms and forebodings, but it cannot tell how these may be removed. This honor belongs to the Gospel of Christ. Like the law, conscience is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Conscience may be compared to a stern guide, who gives a lantern to a cripple and orders him to go the way which the light reveals on pain of death; but it has no concern for his pitiful inability to surmount the difficult path. It is Christ who heals the cripple, putting strength into his feet and anklebones, so that he walks and leaps and praises God. Yet it is questionable if anyone can appreciate the blood which cleanseth us from all sin who has not felt the shame and pain of a conscience defiled, or if anyone can understand the easiness of the yoke of Christ who has not felt his bones broken by the yoke of the law. Though conscience does not of itself know the way to reconciliation, yet it wanders restless and excited till it catches sight of Calvary, when its eye kindles like that of the exile who sees on the horizon the cliffs of his native land; and, when it reaches the cross, it pitches its tent there forever.
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James M. Stalker filled a large place in the religious life of this country [Scotland] and he was more widely known in America than any other Scottish preacher of his day.
Although he spent twenty of the later years of his life as a professor, it is as a preacher we still think of him. And it was by his two remarkable handbooks (still unsurpassed in their own way) on the "Life of Christ" and the "Life of St. Paul," and by his preach ing, that he made his name famous.
Stalker, like Henry Drummond, was one of those who shared in the revival movement which followed the Moody and Sankey mission of 1873, and he was, after Drummond, perhaps the most active of the youthful enthusiasts of the time. The experience left a lasting effect upon him. "At that time," he said, "we had many experiences which have ever since made Christ intelligible; and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles especially has a meaning to those who have passed through such a movement which it could scarcely, I should think, have for anyone else."
The Evangelical glow of those early days remained with Stalker ever after. It was felt in all his preaching; it gave him an interest in every movement, however humble, to carry the Gospel to the people. Even in old age he maintained a keen interest in aggressive work of all kinds - religious and social.
James Stalker was born in Crieff, Scotland, and filled a large place in the religious life of Scotland. He was more widely known in America than any other Scottish preacher of his day.
Stalker, like Henry Drummond, was one of those who shared in the revival movement which followed the Moody and Sankey mission of 1873, and he was, after Drummond, perhaps the most active of the youthful enthusiasts of the time. He was the Pastor of St. Brycedale, Kirkaldy, 1874 - 1887, then the Pastor of St. Matthews, or Free St. Matthews, Glasgow, 1887 - 1902.
Although he spent twenty of the later years of his life as a professor, it is as a preacher we still think of him. And it was by his two remarkable handbooks on the "Life of Christ" and the "Life of St. Paul," and by his preaching, that he made his name famous.