PART 1.
Near to L—was a woman who trusted in her own goodness. She was outwardly religious and inwardly self-righteous. Nothing that was said to her by an earnest Christian preacher, to show her, her need of Christ, seemed of any avail. She clung to her own imagined goodness and would not let it go.
Now the Word of God makes clear and plain that the only true way of salvation is our Lord Jesus Christ, and tells us,
But many trust to themselves and not to Him. They rest on their being religious, or on some supposed difference between themselves and others. But, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).
All are alike guilty and undone in God’s holy sight. Well it is to learn this and to flee to Him who alone can save.
At length a friend said he would-visit her and see if he could help her at all. Very soon he did so, and told her he had come from Mr. P— who said that she was willing to see anyone who talked of religious subjects. The statement set Betty at liberty and soon she was unfolding a history of her long continued church going and prayer saying and good living.
The visitor sat still and let her tell her story, which showed him how very self-satisfied she was, and unaware of her true condition. When at last she came to a conclusion, he got up and stood pointing to an old three-legged stool which was on the floor in front of the fireplace. At once Betty exclaimed,
“Yes! indeed, it’s an old worthless thing, fit only for the fire. It should have been there long ago.” The visitor now looked her full in the face, and in serious tones said,
“And you are just like that three-legged stool, fit only for the fire.”
Then taking his hat, and without saying another word, he passed out of the house. Betty was thus left alone to her thoughts. At first she questioned with herself, “What could the man mean?”
Then, as she remembered all she had said to him, she came to the conclusion that he had meant that all she was, and all that she had done, in her good life was nothing better than her old, good-for-nothing stool, and “fit only for the fire. At this her temper rose high, and to relieve her feelings she went to her next-door neighbor to tell her how she had been insulted, and to seek her sympathy.
Now the neighbor was a humble-minded Christian, who long since had given up all trust in herself and who, taking the guilty sinner’s place, had claimed the guilty sinner’s Saviour. Betty told her all, indignantly saying as she closed.
“And be had the impudence to tell me that I was no better than an old three-legged stool, fit only for the fire.”
“As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Heb. 9:28,29.
ML 10/20/1940