A LITTLE BOY named Jimmy had for many years attended the school conducted by an earnest evangelist. During the time of his attendance of the day school, he was awakened to see his state as a sinner in need of a Saviour, and often during the Bible lesson he wept. Yet, strange to say, he left the school an unconverted boy, and went forth to earn his living without Christ. He still continued to attend the night school, being anxious to learn. It was the teacher’s habit at the close of lessons to have a short gospel talk with the young men, seeking to lead them to Jesus. One evening, the subject chosen was decision for Christ, and the teacher sought to point the subject and press it home upon them by a blackboard sketch, which was as follows,
Which?
Choose you this day
It was a solemn, searching time. Life and death, Christ and Satan were held up, contrasted, and then the solemn question was pressed home, WHICH?
Some said “Life,” but Jimmy remained silent, his eyes resting on the board, with the startling question—WHICH? As he rose to go, the teacher asked, “WHICH?” Jimmy said,
“I will trust.”
“Whom?” asked the teacher.
“Jesus,” was the firm reply.
“When?”
“Now and always,” was Jimmy’s emphatic answer, and with these words they shook hands and parted, neither of them thinking it was for the last time.
A few days after, while Jimmy was attending his horses as they worked a threshing machine, he fell, and his arm being caught in the wheel was crushed to the shoulder. In a moment more he must have been killed, but the horses stopped, and the dear boy was thus saved from such an awful death. He was carried to the house, and loving hands did all that could be done to relieve the sufferer.
“God’s hand is in it, and it must be right,” said Jimmy, and to the astonishment of all, he began to sing his favorite hymn ending with the lines,
“My only plea, Christ died for me,
O! take me as I am,”
thus showing us where his faith was resting, and on what ground he expected to be received into heaven.
He was removed to the hospital, where it became necessary to amputate the arm, and to remove part of the collar bone in hope of saving his life. But all was in vain; he rapidly sank. Full of joy, he sang his-favorite hymns, told his father who was by his side he had no fear of death, and begged his parents and lids brothers and sisters to meet him in heaven. Among his last words were, “I’m glad I trusted Jesus,” and so he passed away to join the ransomed host above, saved just in time, because he made his choice that night of “Jesus, life, and glory,” and escaped that other side on which the words— “sin, death, and judgment” were written.
Reader, which of the two sides is your choice—WHICH? Your present choice will fix your future destiny for heaven or hell; and your present state for salvation or condemnation. There is no time to lose, not a day to spare.
ML-12/01/1935