A good many years ago a country inn put up a notice to its customers consisting of a few lines in rhyme. The opening couplet was as follows:
“Since man to man is so unjust,
I am determined not to trust.”
The inn-keeper had evidently been having some unfortunate experiences in connection with the giving of credit, and he was now determined to draw the line, and stop credit in favour of cash transactions. Time may have rolled on, but it would not be difficult today to find thousands of shopkeepers whose experience is similar, and who would like to say just the same, if they dared.
And it is not only in matters of trade that man’s injustice is seen. Look at Europe today! How many trustful peoples have been enslaved because they put confidence in the peaceful protestations of Herr Hitler? They would have been wise if they had adopted a couplet of their own, and determined not to trust his word.
The late Sir Edward Denny, Bart., who was a Christian poet, saw the notice in the inn and it led to his penning these lines:
“Since man to man is so unjust,
I am determined still to trust,
To trust in Him, whose sheltering arm
Defends His saints from every harm.
Since He is mine, I may, I will
Fear man no more, but trust Him still.”
He must pretty surely have had in his mind the eighth verse of Psalm 18, which some say is the middle verse of the whole Bible, and which says,
“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”
It is a fact beyond dispute that each of us is acquainted with a man that we are sorely tempted to trust. We are more likely to trust in him than in all other men put together. The man you are likely to trust is yourself. The man I am likely to trust is myself. Yet, “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Prov. 28:26).
To put confidence in oneself, in one’s own righteousness, one’s works, one’s resolutions, is to court disaster. Are you doing this?
To trust in the Lord is indeed better. He is altogether worthy. He is “Jesus Christ, the Same, yesterday, today and for ever.” The atoning work he did, when He died for our sins and rose again, abides in all its efficacy, and it is for you, if you will simply receive it in faith. He will never let you down.
With the poet we are saying, “I am determined still to trust”; because we began to trust Him in days gone by, and we know whom we have believed, and have found Him entirely trustworthy. You may never have done so, and if this be the case we invite you to begin. Then you will be numbered among His “saints”; that is, among those who are set apart as belonging to Him. Such He will preserve, saving them to the uttermost, and carrying them through to glory. Let this be the hour in which you truly say,
“I am determined NOW to trust,
To trust in HIM.”
Then you will have the assurance that,
“Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed” (Rom. 9:33).
“He that believes on Him shall not be confounded” (1 Peter 2:6).
F.B.Hole
The Gospel Messenger, Vol. 55, No. 659