DURING the first week of January I was once traveling in the North of Scotland. An earnest Christian worker had accompanied me to the railway station of the village near the Grampians, where he lives and labors for Christ. In a few minutes I was seated in a compartment alongside of the only other occupant, who looked like a farmer, about fifty years of age, stoutly built. He was clad in good home-spun tweed, with a real Balmoral bonnet on his head, and from his dialect I should think was near home among those Grampian glens.
Ere I got well seated my fellow-passenger opened the conversation by saying: "Man, he's a fine fellow that," referring to the friend just left behind. “Oh, yes, he is saved, and on the way to heaven, "I answered. The old farmer looked into my face as if he wanted to make sure I was sane, then drew a long breath and shook his head. I waited patiently, for I guessed he had something to say, and at last it came slowly and seriously." Ah, but there's naebody kens that! He has his balance sheet to fill up yet." “What do you mean by 'filling up his balance sheet '?" I asked." Oh, he's nae done with this world yet; we'll wait till it be past, then we'll see at the end what happens." " Then I suppose you think no one can tell whether he is to be in heaven or hell, saved or lost, so long as he is in the body; but that he must wait till his life here is over, and the final issues of it be seen at the judgment. Is that it?" “Aye, aye, of course, we must do what we can, and hope for the best." "But there's no ' best ' to ' hope ' for. You know that one side of your balance sheet has fifty years of sin on it already, more is daily added, and God has declared you are guilty, ruined, and condemned already. The only ' best' that a guilty sinner can ‘hope’ for, at the hand of a righteous God, is to be punished eternally in hell, for such is the doom of all who die in unpardoned sin. Is not that so?" "Oh, yes, we are all sinners." "True enough. But suppose we never mind the rest just now, but only think of ourselves—you and—and of how we are to balance with God and of the filling up of our balance sheet, and what must be the final issue to us. Will you answer me a question first, then I'll tell you how I got saved, and in what way it comes about that I know my sins are forgiven and am so sure about it—aye, and happy about it, too. Well, what are you going to have on the credit side of your balance sheet over against your fifty years of sin?" The old man paused, thought for a moment or so, then looked up, and replied: "Watch and pray till the last moment.”
“And what then? Will the fifty years of sin be gone? Will ' watch and pray' cancel all the old score, or will the debt be heavier than the credit, think you, at last?
Whatever he thought about this he kept to himself; so I went on to tell the state of my balance sheet, concluding with saying: " See, this is how our balance sheets stand—
THIS IS YOURS. AND
"Watch and pray till the last
moment,"
And the debt remains.
THIS IS MINE.
The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin,”
And the debt is gone.
The train reached the terminus, we parted, but may meet again. Reader, what have you on your balance sheet? J. R.