Going to Jesus

Gospel Tracts

 Select a tract to read:

• Tracts 1-50

  1. How I Received the Holy Ghost 2. Jesus Is Coming Again 3. You Must Be Born Again 4. Stir Up the Gift of God 5. The World’s Most Dreaded Hour 6. What is Salvation? 7. Stand Still in Jordan 9. Grieved Hearts 10. The Second Death 11. The Father and the Son 12. Suffering and the Saints 13. Cancer Conquered 14. The Church? 15. How Shall They Preach, Except They Be Sent? 16. Have You Received the Holy Ghost Since You Believed? 17. Patience 18. Alone With God 19. Tithes and Offerings 20. Prayer 21. The True Sabbath 22. The Besetting Sin 23. The Cry of the Righteous 24. What Will the Harvest Be? 25. Marriage and Divorce 26. Taking the Name of the Lord 27. The Keys of the Kingdom 28. Works 29. Politics and Believers 30. Unequally Yoked in Marriage 31. Coming Out of Babylon 32. The Forgiven Woman 33. The New Earth 34. The Sin of Silence 35. Freedom 36. Gods of the Gentiles 37. Why Some Are Not Healed 38. The Seven Pillars 39. Life, More Abundantly 40. Fear 41. The Comforter’s Testimony 42. This is My Friend 43. Conversion 44. The Time Is Drawing Near? 45. Songs in the Night 46. The Master’s Net 47. Trials are Opportunities 48. Receiving the Messenger 49. Seven Messages to the Seven Pastors 50. Keep Yourself Pure

• Tracts 51-100

  51. The New Birth 52. John the Baptist and Jesus 53. Denying Jesus 54. Bruised Reeds 56. The Wise and the Foolish 57. Holiness 58. Is Jesus God? 59. Christ or Christianity 60. Have Faith In God 61. Worthy to Suffer 63. Four Kinds of Soil 64. Communion 65. The Fullness of Time 66. Baptism 68. No Room 69. Crucified With Christ 70. Homosexuality and the Bible 71. The Kingdom of God 72. The Gospel of Christ 74. Perseverance 75. The Resurrection 76. Salvation 77. Sanctification 78. New Commandments 79. The Sacrifice of Christ 81. The Sound of the Spirit 82. The Wrath of God 84. God’s Compass 85. Perfection 86. The Abomination of Desolation 87. Antichrist 88. The Way of Grace 90. Relationships 91. The Vineyard of God 93. Subdued 94. The Spirit of Christ 95. The Blood of Christ 96. Spirit of a Serpent, Spirit of a Dove 97. Gluttony 98. The Lost Lamb 99. Scripture Burners 100. Bleating and Lowing

 

Gospel Tract #45

Songs in the Night

by George C. Clark

Paul and Silas, because of their zeal for God, were stripped, severely beaten, and cast into prison.  The jailer, having received strict orders to keep close watch on them, put them into the inner cell, and fastened their feet in the stocks.  But, thank God, this did not quench their evangelistic spirits for “at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying, and they began singing praises to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).  Indeed, my Reader, not only the prisoners heard these two late-hour worshippers, but God our Maker, “Who gives songs in the night” also heard them: ‘When all of a sudden, there was such a great earthquake that it shook the foundations of the prison, and all the doors were immediately opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. And the jailer was woken up, and seeing the prison doors opened, he drew out a sword and was about to kill himself, assuming that the prisoners had escaped, but Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm! We are all here!” Then, when he had called for lights, he rushed in, trembling with fear, and fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your house.” And then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house. And he took them at that hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was straightway baptized, he and all his house. Then he brought them to his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced with all his house, believing in God’ ” (Acts 16:26–34).

This was something new to the jailer, especially at such a late hour – prisoners praying and singing.  Perhaps the other prisoners, at first, thought Paul and Silas were fools.  “Is it a new kind of religion?” doubtless they asked.  Nevertheless, it changed the spirit of the prison.

Life itself often seems to be a prison, burdens and trials cutting our hearts until we cry for peace and mercy.  Is it not possible for us to find, through prayer, a song we can sing in this midnight hour of sin and sorrow?  Surely, if we obey God, it will be as the Psalmist said, “By day, the Lord commands His lovingkindness, and by night, His song is with me” (Ps. 42:8).

It was a song from the Lord in the hearts of Paul and Silas that caused the jailer and those in his house to walk out of the darkness of sin into the light of life.  Now, what about your song, my Reader?  Do you have one?  One that you can sing, and feel the glory of God as it springs up within you, and lights from time to time the dark cells of distress and perplexity that so often overtake us?  Or are you like the Psalmist, when he said, “I sought my Lord in the day of my distress. At night, my hand was stretched out and did not grow weak. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and groaned. I complained, and my spirit was fainting away. Selah. You held my eyelids open; I was so troubled that I could not speak. I considered days of old, the years of long ago. I remembered my songs in the night; I communed with my heart, and my spirit made inquiry: “Will my Lord cast off forever and ever? And will He never again show favor? Has His mercy forever ceased? Is the promise to all generations no more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Or in anger, has He shut up His compassions?”

No, beloved, God hasn’t forgotten to be gracious.  He still loves you, even if you have lost your song in the night.  I know what it means to lose this heavenly tune – “singing and playing in your heart to the Lord.”  I went a long time once when “my song in the night” was only a memory.  And as the Psalmist said, “I remembered God, and groaned. I complained, and my spirit was fainting away.”  But, thank God, I did as the Psalmist did, “In the day of my distress [I was seriously ill], I sought the Lord.”  Yes, Reader, “I considered days of old, the years of long ago.”  In other words, the early years of my ministry.  Indeed, “I remembered my songs in the night.”  “I communed with my heart, and my spirit made inquiry.”  Consequently, the joy of my salvation was restored; and today, I have an established testimony, a testimony that God can and will “make a new, steadfast spirit” in anyone who will pay the price.

As we look about us today and see so many believers who have lost their song of victory, our mind runs back to the days of Job, when he saw the transgressions of God’s people being multiplied, and yet, they would not repent.  As Job states it, “No one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night?’ ” (35:10).

Do not despair, my friend, if you stumble along the way.  No failure need be final except the failure to repent and begin anew.  For “if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart” (1Jn. 3:20).  And if our hearts rejoice, He is able to make us “rejoice always”!

Child of God, “Keep your heart with all diligence ” and keep your “songs in the night”.  If you can do this, I am sure that when the midnight cry is made, “Behold the Bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him!”, you will be able to respond, “In the middle of the night, I rise to praise you for your righteous judgments” (Ps. 119:62).  Until that day, may God bless and keep you, and may you ever retain your comforting song in the night.