One day, when I was a young girl, I was walking along the street and saw a notice outside a theater: COME AND BRING YOUR BIBLES!
What a strange thing! I thought. To a theater? What can it mean?
I had often been to the theater, but had never been told to bring a Bible. I did not even own one! But I made up my mind to go that night just to see what it was all about. I would borrow a Bible just for once. I did so, and that night, full of curiosity, I entered the theater.
On the wall near the stage were charts, and a man stood up to explain them. He had a long stick in his hand and pointed to the different diagrams as he spoke. He continually referred to the Bible and asked his audience to turn to the different passages for themselves.
I sat there unable to find one verse. I had never read the Bible. I could hear the flutter of the pages as the other people turned from chapter to chapter, and I listened to the speaker’s voice. He told us the Lord’s coming again. He said, “He may come at any moment!”
I was terrified! For the first time I learned I was a sinner, and I felt the great burden of my sins.
Suppose it should be true, I said to myself, that the Lord is coming quickly. Am I ready to meet Him? I knew I was not, so I sat with my head bowed, feeling that God’s wrath was hanging over me. One thought was in my mind: The Lord Jesus is coming soon-and I am not ready.
I left that place and went to a neighbor who had tried to speak to me of the Lord Jesus. She and her husband welcomed me into their house. They told me what they knew themselves, and I learned that the Lord Jesus had died on the cross for sinners. My heart just opened to Him when I realized that He had died for me.
But I was not at rest, for I had not learned that God can righteously forgive a sinner. I felt that my safety depended on myself-on my being good and doing good. Sometimes I was bright and happy and would say to myself, I wish the Lord Jesus would come today; I am sure I am ready to meet Him now. At other times I would think, I hope He will not come today; I believe He would leave me behind!
I went on like that, up and down, for forty years. At the end of that time a neighbor of my daughter invited her to a meeting. She went, and the Lord saved her soul. Then she came to see me and urged me to attend those meetings.
I didn’t want to go! I was so used to my doubts and fear that I thought there was nothing better. But my daughter persuaded me, and on the next occasion I went.
I can never forget that evening. The subject was John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24): “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
The preacher explained so clearly that the work was finished. I had only to believe what Christ had done. I could doubt no longer and, half rising from my seat, I exclaimed, “I believe it!”
From that moment I knew that I had passed from death to life. I turned my eyes from myself to the Savior in heaven. Do you think I have ever doubted since?
Then the preacher spoke of the coming of the Lord. I had heard nothing of His return since that evening in the theater forty years before. Now I live in daily anticipation of seeing Him and comfort myself with the thought that His coming is forty years nearer than when I first heard of it.