HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Peter 2:10

In old libraries, there are palimpsests (a parchment from which the text has been scraped or washed, off so that it can be used again). The parchment once, long ago, carried another writing from that which you read on it now. But the ancient writing has been obliterated, and something new and different has been put in its place. Perhaps a heathen poem, with foolish and evil stories of the false gods of Olympus, was there before. But the pagan poem is gone, with its ensnaring witchery and glamour — and in its place, there is one of the Gospels in Greek or Latin — the blessed history of Jesus and His love.

Every redeemed and renewed heart is just such a palimpsest.

Formerly the heart had written on it all wickedness, and all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speakings. But the old lettering has been washed off by the grace of God, and now the heart bears this inscription:

• A newborn babe,
• A living stone,
• A spiritual house!
• It is a soul for God’s own possession.

It shows forth the excellencies of Him who called it out of darkness into His marvellous light. It is an epistle of Christ, written by His Spirit, and sealed with His autograph!

I wonder whether my heart is among the palimpsests of the kingdom of God. Once “disregard of Him” was engraved there — but now a passion of delight in Him. Once the world filled it from title to end — but now it lives in eternity’s sunrise!