MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, — I will tell you of my conversion, which took place when I was about fourteen years of age. I had attended the Sunday school, and God’s Holy Spirit had shown me that I was a sinner, and that I needed the pardon of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then I thought I must give up all pleasures, and become a dull and miserable creature. Perhaps some of you are as I was, and think you will lose your happiness if really converted. Now I soon found that this thought was a mistaken one, for the joy after finding the Lord Jesus as my Saviour was far, far greater than any joy I had had before.
While concerned about my soul, I put off the real question to some future occasion; till one Sunday evening when, reading a story of Satan tempting people to put off coming to God, until at last it was too late, and life was passed, I there and then determined to yield up myself to God. But I did not find this easy, for I was dreadfully tempted.
At last, having tried to venture my all on the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought, “I will sit down and wait for Him to give me His blessing,” and then repeated to myself these verses of the dear old hymn: ―
“There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged in that blest flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
“The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day,
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.”
God gave me to know that my sins were washed away, and I realized then that I was, saved.
I can never forget it, for all seemed so simple, just to believe what God says is true; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” I have found it to be true since that happy evening years ago that true religion will do for dark and cloudy days as well as for those when the sun shines. Jesus is a Friend whether in affliction or in comfort. He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” “God bless you” is the prayer of your friend in New Zealand, who signs herself. E.S.