Margaret's or her nephew's. How this poor and solitary old man had
obtained these notions does not appear; he could not have told the
process himself, though, as he afterwards told Tamar, all the rest he
knew, had seemed to come to him, through the clearing and manifestation
of one passage of Scripture, and this passage was COL. iii. 11. "But
Christ is all."
"This passage," said the old man, "stuck by me for many days. I was made
to turn it about and about, in my own mind, and to hammer it every way,
till at length, I was made to receive it, in its fulness. Christ I
became persuaded, is not all to one sort of men, and not all to another
sort, nor all at one time of a man's life, and not all at another; nor
all in one circumstance of need, and not all in another; nor all to the
saints and not all to the sinner; nor all in the hour of joy, and not
all in the hour of retribution; being ready and able to supply one want,
and unwilling to supply another. For," as he would add, "does a man want
righteousness? there it is laid for him in Christ; does he want merit?
there is the treasure full and brimming over; does he want rest and
peace? they are also provided for him; does he want faith? there also is
faith prepared for him; but the times and the seasons, these are not
given to him to know; and, if confusion and every evil work now prevail,
Christ being all, he will bring order out of confusion, when the fulness
of the time shall come.
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