This Huckster Jack was a poor, wicked fellow, who had gone about from village to village swearing, drinking, huckstering, and perhaps pilfering. Some thought him half-witted, but the story would show his mind to be sound enough. He heard a poor woman sing somewhere, I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in all. He remembered the words, and what was better, he felt their sense. And he kept on humming them to himself, till God's good spirit engraved them on his heart. There they were recorded, and Jack was a new man and a saved man, so he assayed to join himself unto the Church.

But the brethren looked suspiciously at him and inquired, What is your experience? He said he had no experience but this, I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. The good elders very properly asked, Are you converted? Have you been born again?" And Jack replied, I do not know much about these things. But this I do know, and am sure of. I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in all. They put him back for a while, to try he would grow in his knowledge, but he never went an inch beyond the first standard. He knew what he did know, and to that he held fast. I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in all.

Well, they must take him into the church." They could not well refuse a man with such a confession of faith. And when he was in the church, walking with the brethren, he was happier than the rest of them, at which they greatly marvelled. And one said to him, Brother Jack, don't you sometimes feel doubts and fears? Doubts, he said. What do you mean? I never doubt that I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all. For I have daily proofs of it, and why should I doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in all? For he says he is, and I must believe him. Ah well, said one, sometimes I enjoy good frames and feelings, and feel very happy, and then I lose them, and sink in spirit." Jack answered, I never get lower than I am, for I am down at the bottom, a poor sinner, and nothing at all. I cannot get lower than that, can I? But I am also at the top, for Jesus Christ is my all in all, and I cannot get higher than that, can I?"

They tried him many ways with their blessed experience, of which you and I have got cartloads, perhaps wagonloads. But he could not be drawn out of his one firm position. They tried him with their various attainments, depressions, anxieties, quibbles, and questions, but still the Huckster would not budge. He had bought the truth and would not sell it, and so he stuck to. I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.

The Cones are a feeble folk, yet have they their habitations among the rocks. They are safe, but they keep to their hiding place. Of course our new perfection brethren, spic and span saints as they are, are not like Jack, they are not poor sinners, and nothing at all, and I am afraid lest some of them should find out that Jesus Christ is not their all in all. But if you and I are as he was, poor sinners, and nothing at all, we may, with firm and resolute grip, lay hold upon the other line, but Jesus Christ is my all at all. Christ's fullness is meant for our emptiness. Christ's righteousness is meant for our sin. Salvation is for the lost. When you and I are no longer sinners, Christ is no longer our Savior. When you and I no more need Him, then we shall not have Him. Our need is our warrant. And if that be gone, all is gone. Jesus did not bleed and die to be a superfluity to us. He came to meet a grim necessity. As long as we are nothing, Christ is our all in all. We may be sure of that, and that is just the gospel in a nutshell.

I want to preach that same gospel this morning, in the hope that in after days this word may be scattered far and wide, and some Jack the Huckster or some other like him may find himself to be utterly empty and undone, and may then know that Christ is ordained to be his salvation.

Jesus came into the world to save real sinners, not sham sinners, for He is a real and not a pretended Savior. He saves those who are always confessors of sin, always needy in themselves, and therefore always glad of Him.

Even in their best estate, the saved ones need their Lord. Even if we walk in the light as God is in the light, and have fellowship with Him, we still sin, and still the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

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