A little girl who was in the secret of those words, "I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me" (Prov. 8:1717I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. (Proverbs 8:17)), was very anxious to form a class of boys and girls who did not go to any Sunday school, and to have an earnest Christian lady to teach them about Jesus and His love.
The first house she called at, a man answered her knock. In answer to her question, "Are there any children here who do not go to any Sunday school?" he angrily replied, "Yes, there are, and I do not intend that they should go to any. Do you know who I am? I am an infidel."
The frightened child ran back to her teacher and told her all about it. She ended her story with the inquiry: "What is an infidel?" This is the simple but solemnly true answer: "AN INFIDEL IS ONE WHO DOES NOT LOVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST."
Infidelity has nothing to comfort or cheer the heart in life or in death. To bear this out, here is a letter recently placed in my hands. It was written by a dying young man to a well known infidel.
"Dear Sir,—Some time ago you sent me a tract entitled `Who is Jesus?' I have not the strength, either physical or mental, to reply to the objections brought forward in that tract against faith in Jesus, or even to answer the question as to 'who He was'; but I thought I would just like to tell you what Jesus is to me now, as I lie on my sick-bed.
"I find Him able to sustain and comfort me, uphold and keep me in the midst of suffering and agony that without Him would be unbearable. Through nights of sleeplessness and days of pain He is ever with me, my loving, present Savior—`the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.' He is so near, so precious, that in that which would otherwise be darkness—not knowing what is the end of this sickness— I can trust Him and rejoice. I know that He who has died for me will do all things well. Whether in life or in death He will never leave or forsake me. His presence, His love, Himself, are no myths to me now, but living realities. I have found Him to be what He says He is in days of health and activity, and now in sickness and helplessness I am proving more than ever His reality.
"May I ask you one question in reply to yours? Have you ever been in my condition with but a breath between you and eternity? If so, did you find in your infidelity that comfort, that joy, and that rest which I am finding now in Jesus? If you were lying here in my place, would you glory in your system, as I can in my Savior?
"You want me to give up Him who is my life, the light of my darkness, the joy of my sorrow. What do you propose to give me instead? Could you honestly recommend me to change my faith for your unbelief, to give up my positive assurance for your doubt and uncertainty? I cannot tell you even what I find Jesus to be to me. Words cannot express it, and none can understand it except those who know Him as their own personal Friend.
Only I find that my faith—which is Jesus—can bear the test of pain, sorrow, and disappointment, and that even the near approach of death only serves to intensify both its reality and its preciousness. Can you say as much for yours?
"Your sincere well-wisher."
And now I would ask each reader of the above remarkable letter, IS JESUS A LIVING REALITY TO YOU? If not, I put to you the question:."WHY DON'T YOU LOVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST? Are you aware that it says in the Word of God: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha" (accursed)? 1 Cor. 16:2222If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22).
If you were now called into eternity and God were to ask you the question, "Why did you not love my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners?" what answer would you give? Ah, you know right well, poor guilty sinner, that you would be speechless.
Dear one without Christ, I beg you to think of the love of God. Think of the death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the strivings of the Holy Spirit with you, until your hard heart melts, and you are able to look up and say, "The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me"; and, "Now I do love Him, because He first loved me."
Let the Savior into your heart. Then you can say, "CHRIST IS A LIVING REALITY TO ME." And when you can, by the grace of God, say this, then remember that Christ "bare our sins in His own body on the tree, THAT WE, BEING DEAD TO SINS, SHOULD LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).)