Going by the Book [Tract]

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Two men, the one a foreman, the other one of his carpenters, were standing on the deck of a ship, then on the stocks, in one of the shipbuilding yards on the River Clyde.

“Well, Sam,” said the foreman, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you. I’m told you’re one of those people who say they know for certain that they are saved. Is that true?”

“Yes,” said Sam, “quite true, thank God. I know I’m saved; in fact, there is nothing of which I’m more sure than that I’m saved.”

“Well, now,” replied the foreman, “that’s something I can’t see through—how any man can say that he is saved as long as he is in the world. I think it is rather pre-sumptuous for anyone to say so.

“I used to attend a place of worship, a long time ago, and several of the leaders pushed me to become a member, but I couldn’t, for I knew I was not a Christian, and I told them so. In fact, I was disgusted with them. I knew so many who went to that place who were just as bad as I was. I left them and have never gone to any place since, for I concluded the whole thing was a sham, and that there was no reality in Christianity at all.”

“Well,” said Sam, “I’m not at all surprised at you, but there is a reality in being saved—in being a child of God, and in knowing it. By the way, what is the breadth of this waterway?”

The foreman, astonished at the apparently sudden change in the conversation, said, “Why, fourteen inches all around, to be sure. What makes you ask that, when you know?”

“But are you quite sure that it is to be fourteen inches?” asked Sam. “Certainly!” “But what makes you so sure?” asked Sam.

“Why, I’m going by the book,” and as he said so, he pulled a book out of his pocket, in which were marked the sizes and position of the various things on the deck. “I’m sure it is fourteen inches, for it is here in the book, and I got the book from headquarters.”

“Oh! I see,” said Sam. “Now look here. That’s exactly how I know I’m saved. I’m just going by the Book. It came from headquarters. It’s God’s Word. I found in here that I was a lost, condemned sinner, worthy of nothing but the lake of fire. But I also found that ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). I took God at His word, and I’m saved. And you, too, may be saved if you will, simply as you are, a lost, condemned sinner, believe in Jesus—that is, trust Him as your Savior. And then you are saved, and you can say without presumption, ‘I know I’m saved, for I’m going by the Book.’”

Can you say, on the authority of God’s Word, “I know I’m saved” and rest there? Profession without the new birth will never take you to heaven. Before it’s too late, hear the voice of Jesus calling, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24). “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).