Or,
How a Young Lady Became “Right With God.”
THE train was making a twenty-minute stop at Beaufort West, and I was pacing up and down the platform, glad to have an opportunity of using my legs again after being cooped up in a confined space for so many hours. The railway journey from Port-Elizabeth to Cape Town is long and wearisome, and any break in the monotony of it is welcome to the tired traveler. Pausing in front of the bookstall in the course of my walk I was glancing over the assortment of books and papers, when a large picture upon the cover of a magazine caught my eye. It was a photographic view of the interior of the Bingley Hall, Birmingham, during one of the evangelistic services recently held there by Dr. Torrey. The famous preacher is shown standing upon a raised dais, supported by hundreds of workers, and the seats in the body of the hall filled with thousands of eager listeners.
What struck me most in the picture, however, was an immense placard on the wall behind the platform, high over the preacher's head, containing four striking words, which could easily be read from any part of the vast hall. What were the words? "GET RIGHT WITH GOD.”
Purchasing a copy of the magazine, I seated myself once more in the train and began to turn over its pages. Presently I came across the story of how a young lady was converted through a visit she paid to the Bingley Hall. During the service she was much impressed. The preacher's ringing words made her feel the seriousness of her position as an unsaved sinner. She realized that she was without a shelter from the coming storm of judgment, that her sins had exposed her to extreme and imminent peril, and that she was a stranger to the only One who could save her; but she could not bring herself to the point of accepting Christ as her Savior there and then. The things of the world still had a strong hold upon her. Satan was doing his utmost to keep her in darkness and bondage. She decided to put the matter off, for that night at least.
In this state of mind, when the service was over, she was making her way towards the door. Owing to the large crowd her progress down the aisle was slow, and as she waited for those in front to move on, her eyes rested on the placard behind the platform, "GET RIGHT WITH GOD." By-and-bye she found herself in the street. But these four words still stared her in the face. She could not banish them from her thoughts. The Holy Spirit brought them home to her conscience in power. There was no rest or peace for that young lady after that, until, as a repentant sinner, she knelt at the Savior's feet and through faith in Him got right with God.
Do you realize the importance of being "right with God?" If so, let me remind you that now is the time and here is the place for it to be brought about.
A party of gentlemen had just finished their dinner. The chairman rose to propose the toast of the evening. "Gentlemen," he said,” I give our old friend the World!
“Our entrance into it, naked and bare;
Our progress through it, trial and care;
Our exit from it, we don't know where,
But if all right here, we'll be all right there.”
I am not prepared to endorse all the words of the speaker. There are multitudes who, when they make their exit from the world, do know where they are going. The believer in Jesus knows that he is bound for eternal glory. The Christ rejector may know with equal certainty that he will spend eternity in the hell that he deserves. But the chairman of the dinner party assuredly spoke the truth when he said: "If all right here, we'll be all right there." The only way to be "all right" there, in the next world, is to be "all right" here, in this world. The sinner who does not get right with God now will find that he is all wrong by-and-bye, hopelessly, eternally wrong. The importance, then, of getting right with God at once can scarcely be over-estimated.
Somebody perhaps will ask, What is it to be "right with God"? The question deserves attention, for many labor under a mistake as to this very point, and imagine they are all right when in reality they are all wrong.
Jesus said, "I am the way." No way is right (however right it may seem), unless it is the way of faith in Him and in His atoning work. Simon Magus was a man who thought he was all right. He credited the statements of the preacher, he was baptized, and was to all appearance on the right road. But when the Apostle Peter arrived at Samaria he soon perceived that Simon was all wrong. "Thy heart is not right in the sight of God," he said.
You may be right with your friends, right with your employer or with your servants, right with your neighbors. You may be on good terms with all who know you; but it does not follow that you are right with God. There may be nothing in your life which anyone would consider wrong, yet in God's sight you may be all wrong.
Again I repeat the four words that arrested the attention of the lady at the hall in Birmingham: "GET RIGHT WITH GOD." Let me explain, as simply as I can, how a sinner can get right with God. The first thing to remember is that He desires "truth in the inward parts." He does not look for righteousness in you. He knows that you have none. But he would have you acknowledge the truth as to your lost and helpless condition. The first step towards getting right is to frankly confess that you are altogether wrong. What is it that has alienated you from God? Sin. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isa. 59:22But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)). The disturbing element is your sins. Now, if you are to get right with God, it can only be by the disturbing element being removed. In other words, your sins must be dealt with in such a way that it shall be righteously possible for God to justify you.
This is just what God sent His Son to accomplish by His death upon the cross. When hanging there the great question of sin was entered into between Him and God. God poured out His wrath. It fell, in all its dread severity, on Jesus. Made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)), He bore sin's bitter penalty. In virtue of this, God can freely exercise His mercy. He is the Justifier of "him that believeth in Jesus." The moment that you, a guilty sinner, turn to Christ in simple faith, you are brought into the blessed results of His atoning work. You can think of your sins as having been all laid upon Him. He suffered what you deserve to suffer. He "appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." All who believe in Him are saved. It is by this means that a sinner is set right with God. Not by his prayers, or his efforts, or his feelings, but by the precious Blood of Christ.
Have you put your trust in the Savior? Can you truthfully say, "I have bowed at His feet a heart-broken sinner, and believe that He was judged and punished in my stead"? If so, you are right with God. Christ is your Eternal Savior. Peace with God is your happy portion. Not one trace of your guilt remains. Is not Jesus risen? Does He not sit upon the throne of glory? You may be sure that in going there He has left sin and everything connected with it behind, and in God's reckoning you are as clear of sin as He. H. P. B.