"Will you come in and rest while you listen?" I said to a man who was standing in the doorway of a room where one of God's servants was just closing his address on Man's Ruin and God's Remedy
"No, thank you," was his reply, "I have heard all the preacher has said, but I am a backslider for many months, and fear I cannot be restored.”
In an instant a text of scripture came into my mind, and turning over the leaves of my Bible I read to him these words, "I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him." Hos. 14:44I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. (Hosea 14:4).
"This verse," I said, "must be sent straight from God to you. It is a verse that is not familiar to me, yet it seemed to be given me immediately after you told me your difficulty.”
"It must be so," he said; "where is it?" and he took out his own small Bible and handed it to me, and then read the words himself.
I touched his arm and asked him to come in and speak to the preacher.
"No! No need," said he, "I have what I wanted. I have Christ. Thank you very much," and shaking my hand, he turned and was gone, but his face bore a smile of joy instead of sadness.
Dear reader, if you should be one who has known the love of Jesus, and yet got away from Him in heart, you need to be restored.
Or if one who is seeking peace with God, and listening to one or another, and trying to get light from what they say as to the way of salvation, can you not see from this little incident that what you seek is only to be found in Christ Himself? He says, "Come unto Me... and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28).