ames Cowie, to read in the Epistle to
the Romans to him, and when Cowie came to these words, 'I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy,' his master burst into tears, and said,
'James, I have nothing but that to lippen to.'

Look now at the prices that are demanded and paid in the poor man's
market. And, paradoxical and past all understanding as are so many of
the things connected with this matter, the most paradoxical and past all
understanding of them all is the price that is always asked, and that is
sometimes paid, in that market. When any man comes here to buy, it is
not the value of the article on sale that is asked of him; but the first
question that is asked of him is, How much money have you got? And if it
turns out that he is rich and increased with goods, then, to him, the
price, even of admittance to this market, is all that he has. The very
entrance-money, before he comes in sight of the stalls and tables at all,
has already stripped him bare of every penny he possesses. And that is
why so few purchasers are found in this market; they do not feel able or
willing to pay down the impoverishing entrance-price. As a matter of
fact, it is a very unusual thing to find a young man who has been so well
taught about this market by his parents, his schoolmasters, or even by
his ministers, that he is fit to enter early on its great transactions.
And increasing years do not tend of themselves to reconcile him to the
terms on which God sells His salvation. The price in the poor man's
market is absolutely everything that a rich man possesses; and then, when
he has nothing left, when he has laid down all that he has, or has lost
all, or has been robbed of all, only then the full paradox of the case
comes into his view; for then he begins to discover that the price he
could not meet or face so long as he was a rich and a well-to-do man is
such a price that, in his absolute penury, he can now pay it down till
all the market is his own. Multitudes of poor men up and down the land
remember well, and will never forget, this poor man Rutherford's so
Isaiah-like words, 'Our wants best qualify us for Christ'; and again,
'All my own stock of Christ is some hunger for Him.' 'Say Amen to the
promises, and Christ is yours,' he wrote to Lady Kenmure. 'This is
surely an easy market. You need but to look to Him in faith; for Christ
suffered for all sin, and paid the price of all the promises.'

'Faith cannot be so difficult