PHYSICALLY, John was a very tall, good-looking, young Scotchman of strong build.
MORALLY, besides being what is termed “a good-natured fellow,” he was quite steady and proper in his habits, but had little or no religion about him, either in form or reality. Like many of his fellows he had seldom, if “ever, given the all-important question of his” soul’s salvation “five minutes’ serious consideration.
Careless as he was about spiritual things, God broke in on his dead, indifferent soul, in a way he little dreamed of.
An evangelist was having a series of Gospel meetings in the village where he lived, and two Christians, who took a lively interest in the Lord’s work, worked beside John. They spoke much to him about his soul, and tried their best to get him to promise to come to the meetings, but failed. Though he boldly resented all they said at the time he was spoken to, yet some of their words, to his great annoyance, he could not shake himself clear of.
On reaching home, after one of these unpleasant days, his wife observed a marked change in his manner, but said nothing to him. He took his tea, washed, dressed, and seated himself at the fire side, without exchanging more than two or three words with his young wife. After gazing into the fire for some time, he turned his expressive eyes upon her as she occupied a chair on the other side of the fire and said, with deep emotion, “Mary, these men torment my very life about getting SAVED. They tell me people are being saved every night at Mr. Y― ‘s meetings; and because I will not go and hear him, they lecture me about my soul, saying if I don’t get converted like themselves I shall be lost, and go to hell. I consider I am as good as any of them, though I cannot quote as much of the Bible, or speak about religion as they do. But what annoys me most is to hear them saying they KNOW, for CERTAIN, they are SAVED. Now I don’t, think any person can be sure about that in this world.” Then appealing to his wife, he said, “Do you?”
Slowly and tremblingly came the answer, “Yes!”
“You really believe that can be known here?”
“Yes,” she said, with more firmness.
“Then if you believe such a thing can be known why do you not know it for yourself?”
With blushing face she said, “I do know it John.”
“You know you are saved, and yet never told me of it before? How long have you known it?” Since before our marriage.”
“Then why did you not tell me of it before now?” asked John.
“Because I knew you did not care about these things, and thought it would displease you to mention it.”
“But if I had died and gone to hell, would you not have felt you were greatly to blame?”
A flood of tears was the only answer.
If the reader is a true child of God, but has not yet confessed Christ to any one, we plead earnestly with you to do so at once. By doing so your own happiness will be increased a hundred-fold; you may also be a blessing to others, and, what is more important still, it will delight the heart of the blessed Saviour, who laid down His life for you, and bring glory to His worthy name.
It was now evident that a great change had come over John, for he proposed that both of them should go to the meeting that night, and added, “If there is the possibility of knowing one is saved, I will not rest till I get it.”
John’s remarkable experience for the next few days shows what an effort the devil makes to keep the poor sinner in his grasp, and no one knows the awful power Satan has over the unsaved until they are awakened to see they are lost, and want deliverance.
At eight o’clock that evening John and his wife were side by side in the meeting. Not long had the preacher spoken till he felt the Word of God cutting sharp and deep into his guilty conscience. He saw now he was really lost, with nothing but a yawning hell before him, ready to engulf him at any moment. His agony was intense; he thought his case was hopeless.
At the close of the first meeting the preacher gave out that there would be a short meeting “for prayer, and helping anxious souls.” “This opportunity,” John said, “I will not miss,” and kept his seat accordingly. What with his deep agony of soul, mingled with feelings of shame to be found in such a meeting, he hung his head for a considerable time; and on lifting it his eyes fell on one of his fellow-workmen, who had been speaking to him that same day, and whose entreaties he had so sternly resented. The thought of his present position as an anxious inquirer, in view of the hostile attitude he had assumed towards Christ’s things in his presence a few hours before, was more than his proud heart could bear. The devil too, who is always on the alert, whispered in his ear, “You are making a perfect fool of yourself, just showing yourself to be a mere child, with no mind of your own.” This effort of the arch-enemy of souls on his proud spirit so overpowered him that he rose to his feet, and left the meeting.
He had not gone fifty yards, however, until he began to reflect on what he had done. “What a wretched fool I am,” he said to himself. “I might have got saved if I had stayed in. I fear God will never give me another chance after the way I have acted tonight.” In the midst of his deep misery of soul a happy thought struck him. Mr.―, a Christian farmer, who had been much used of God in leading souls to Christ, had to walk home about two miles after the meeting. He thought he would put himself in his way, and by a conversation with him he might get what his soul longed for―the knowledge of forgiveness.
His, hopes, however, were blighted; for after pacing to and fro till past midnight he had to go home without seeing him. He went to bed, but sleep he could not, yea dare not! He ventured, in his distress, to make a solemn vow to God, that if He would spare him till the next meeting, he would not let anything make him leave the anxious inquirers’ meeting in the same way as he had done on the previous night.
A day of misery passed, and John found himself again at the meeting. The preaching over, and the usual invitation given for anxious souls to remain, he fully determined to perform his midnight vow, and sat still in his seat. No one came near him for some time. At length, the farmer referred to above was in the act of coming, to him, but on seeing him approaching, all the satanic thoughts and feelings of the previous night rushed in upon John’s soul with increased vigor, and so overpowered him again, that, almost without knowing what he was doing, he made for the door as fast as his legs could carry him. He halted about the same spot as on the night previous; and as if not sure whither all this was only a dream, he said to himself: “Is it really possible I have yielded to the devil again? My case is most surely hopeless now, for I cannot ask God to give me another chance. Oh, what shall I do? Will I have to spend my eternity in hell? I cannot reconcile my mind to such a fate, though I know I deserve it.”
At this distressing moment the hope of seeing the farmer on his way home came again as a momentary relief. He thought if he, could only see him alone on that road under cover of darkness, how much easier it would be for him to tell out all his difficulties to him there, than having so many looking at hint while being spoken to in the “inquiry meeting.” But he had to learn that though God is always ready to bless the poor sinner, He does not see it to be for our good, nor His glory, always to fall in with our plans and ways. That night he had to go home again after two hours’ waiting and watching, without seeing his friend the farmer; he having taken a near way through fields both nights.
Words could not express the intense agony John’s soul passed through that night, as he lay in bed in perfect terror, lest God should take him away in His Anger by a stroke of judgment before morning light. In his desperation he ventured to renew his vow of the previous night with additional emphasis, that he would not allow all the powers of hell, the pride of his own heart, nor anything else, make him leave the meeting as he had done, if God would only give him one more chance.
The longed for meeting came, and found John again in his seat. Never once had he wavered in his determination to carry out his vow, from the moment he made it till the end of the Gospel meeting, when the usual invitation was given for anxious souls to remain behind. The sound of the last word from the preacher’s lips had scarcely died away, when Satan, with one of his fiery darts made his last great effort to keep John in his fiendish grasp, by again overpowering him with all the proud feelings of the previous nights; and so successful for the moment was this foul archenemy of God and man’s blessing, that his poor dupe was the first in the meeting on his feet, and in an instant vanished out at the door. “Thanks be to God,” Satan’s success was only momentary, the hour of the poor sinner’s deliverance had come. He had not gone twenty yards till, realizing what he had done, he said “This is awful,” then turned right about, pushed his way through the people leaving the meeting, and placed himself in the first empty seat; then hanging his head he prayed to God to hold him in his seat till he got saved. A good many prayers went up to God from His people, who had been witnessing this awful conflict, before John was spoken to. That night, after a short conversation with the preacher, John was SAVED.
The scripture used of God to set this poor captive free was this: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou SHALT BE SAVED” (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)). The battle that had raged in his soul these few days between the powers of light and darkness, was now ended. The victory was the Lord’s. John was no longer the dupe and captive of Satan, but translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Col. 1:1313Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13)). Instead of the bondage of sin and Satan here, with the LAKE OF FIRE hereafter, he was now in the enjoyment of the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free, and if God’s Son makes us free we “are free indeed,” and unspeakable bliss and glory with Christ hereafter forever is our portion (see John 8:32,3632And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36); Galatians 5:1-131Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. 7Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? 8This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. 9A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 10I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. 11And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. 12I would they were even cut off which trouble you. 13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. (Galatians 5:1‑13); Hebrews 2:14, 1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15)).
Now, dear reader, in whose kingdom are you a subject? It must either be Christ’s or the devil’s. You cannot be half in the one and half in the other. If you have never been “born again,” be assured you are yet in the kingdom of Satan. Ever since man listened to Satan in the Garden of Eden, obeying him, and disobeying God, he has by nature been a subject of his kingdom, and before man could be delivered out of it, Christ, as the sinner’s substitute, had to atone for man’s sin by dying on the cross. There He met every claim of God against the sinner, and now He can righteously claim and deliver the poor sinner―whose case He has taken up―out of the hands of the devil. This is what He has done with millions, and what He will do with you just now, if, as a lost sinner, you believe on Him, as your own personal Saviour. Why not do so Now? For “Now is the accepted time” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
J. M.