MY dear young friend, you must not think that an old, gray-haired man seeks this opportunity of writing to you, for that is not the case by any means, as my school-days only lie about eight years behind me.
One evening in the month of November, 187-, a group of schoolboys was passing along a certain street of the town of I―, when they were attracted by the sight of a very large gathering of people, eagerly listening to an earnest, touching address delivered by a well-known Scotch evangelist. The boys drew near, were interested, and at the close of the outdoor meeting, proceeded with the people to the hall, which was crowded to the door. In a corner of the hall, close to the speaker, sat the boys. At the beginning of the address the attention of one of them was riveted, and as the plan of salvation was unfolded and God’s love revealed, God so touched this boy’s heart that, as the evangelist described Jesus upon the cross dying, “the Just for the unjust,” the little fellow became quite unconscious of the throng around him. He seemed to see the dying Jesus unloose one of His nail-pierced hands and, bending down, look upon him with eyes all tender and full of love, saying, as He offered him His wounded hand, “Take Me as your Guide and Friend through life.” Ah! that tender appeal won his heart, and by faith he laid his hand in that of Jesus, saying, “Lord, I take Thee; be Thou my Guide.”
So ends my tale. Why, you ask me, do I tell it to the schoolboys? Because I believe that as you live a schoolboy so will you live a young man, and as a young man so an older one. Therefore, seeing what importance is attached to your schoolboy life, I want you to come to Jesus now, and find Him to be your Friend and Guide. Oh! what a Friend He will prove to you. I have known Him as such for nearly ten years, and what a precious Friend He has been to me, even the “Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Therefore I say again, do give Him your heart. “Son, give Me thine heart.” Do come to Him, for it does not matter how young you are. “Him that cometh to Me, I will in nowise cast out.”
Should my reader be a father or a mother, may I ask that this my story be read to your schoolboy son? or, if my reader be a sister, kindly read it to your brother, joining with me in the earnest prayer that, even as the Lord was pleased to deal with me, so may He deal with your loved one. J. G.