. Reader, either you are mad or
you once were. George Milne, Lessons for the
Christian's Daily Walk, 1859. The hearts of men are full of
evil, and there is madness in their hearts while they live,
and afterward they join the dead. Ecclesiastes 9.3. In life a madman,
a madman still in death. Such, such is man. Man thinks
he is wise. He looks with pity on the poor
maniac. How little he suspects that he
himself is tenfold mad. Not only mad for time, mad also
for eternity. He brings madness into the world.
He imbibes madness with his mother's milk. He learns madness at school. He confirms and strengthens madness
in manhood. He feeds madness by all he does. He reads madness in books. He finds madness in every company. He bears madness along in every
walk of life, sleeping or walking, silent or speaking, learned or
ignorant, rich or poor, He is a maniac still. A madman was
his father, and so was his father's father. Go backwards until you
come to Adam. They were all maniacs. All his
children are mad, and so will be his children's children, even
to the final child. They will all be maniacs. What
do you think of a man who walks blindfolded on a yawning precipice? Is he not mad? And what are all
men? What do they do? They sport with
life, they play with death, they slumber above the flames of hell,
they defy their Maker and their Judge, they think nothing of
judgment and eternity, and thus they die. Is it a libel then
to say they are all mad? And what comes after death? Does
wisdom then come? Will madness cease then? They
will hear of wisdom, but they will not have it. Man will then
discover how mad he has been. He will see his madness then,
but only to know its endless misery. Happy the man who, coming
to himself, resolves once more to seek his father's house. Luke
15, 17 and 18. Yes, coming to himself. Thus speaks the parable. I ask
you to mark the words, they are full of meaning. As though the
man had been asleep, or drunk, or mad, or had swooned away,
unconscious of himself and all around him. And then, as touched
by a sudden hand, and sense as suddenly infused, he awakes,
comes to himself again, and immediately he lives as another man. Such
is fallen nature, and such is grace in its effects. Happy is
the man who thus recovers the gift of reason. Happy is the
man who sits at Jesus' feet, in his right mind, and clothed
with grace, cured of his madness. Jesus has said the healing word. The legion is cast out and gone. The man is a maniac no more. Luke 8 35 Reader, either you
are mad, or you once were. Say, Have you looked to Jesus,
or are you a madman still?