WILL you decide for Christ tonight?" asked a Christian friend, as we were returning home together one evening after a stirring gospel address. “I will think about it," I said. He urged an immediate decision, saying, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation," reminding me that tomorrow might be too late.
“Not yet," I thought;” I am too young; it would mean giving up my pleasure, and going about with a long face”; so, giving him an evasive answer, we parted.
That night, when retiring to rest, I thought over the truths I had heard, and I thought, too, of the change that had come in my parents' lives since they had been converted. But I made up my mind that I would wait until older. The devil was rocking me in his cradle of “by and by."
My friends wished me to continue attending religious services, but I sat them out merely as a duty, and became completely gospel hardened. Thank God in His long-suffering love, He said not to me during this time of sin,
"This night thy soul shall be required of thee," or I should have been banished from His presence for ever.
For three years I remained in the awful condition I have described; but one Lord's Day evening, when I went as usual to the service, I felt as soon as the preacher began his address, that God was speaking to me.
The subject was the parable of the Sower, and we were implored not so to hear as to let the devil catch away the good seed. I listened with rapt attention, and resolved to come to Christ when I reached home. Then an awful thought came over me; what if I were to die suddenly on my way home, as others had done after leaving meetings like these. I felt I dared not leave without knowing Christ as my Savior, and yet I felt unable to trust in Him.
What was I to do? I saw myself on the brink of hell, my many sins flashing before my mind, and I thought of the times the Holy Spirit had striven with me, and how often I had resisted Him. I thought I was lost, lost for eternity! What could I do? I had rejected Christ once too often, I thought; while the words “Too late! too late! “kept ringing in my ears. I could almost fancy myself in hell. "Don't you trouble, if you are to be saved, you will be," whispered Satan. But I heeded not what he said, and prayed earnestly that Christ would reveal Himself to me.
And what did I receive from the Savior I had so often despised? Rejection? Was I turned empty away? No, oh no. Jesus, who says, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," gave me rest. A flood of heavenly light poured into my dark soul. I saw Christ dying upon Calvary for me, and I could say in the language of the hymn—
“‘Tis done the great transaction's done!
I am 'my Lord's, and He is mine:
He drew me, and I followed on,
Glad to confess the voice divine."
And since then goodness and mercy have followed me every step of the way.
And you, dear reader, if you have not yet turned to Christ, do so now. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Do not reject Him any longer. Do not trifle with your precious soul, do not sell it for a few fleeting pleasures of this world.
A. G.