Years ago in Atlanta a well-known evangelist was holding gospel meetings in a tent. Crowds came every night to hear the blessed news of God's salvation. Many ministers of the city and other Christian workers were scattered among the congregations, devoting their prayers, their time, and their talents to the personal work of leading souls to Christ.
One night a tall elderly man of distinguished appearance and with decidedly Jewish features took a seat near me. When the meeting closed he prepared to leave. As quickly as I could I intercepted him, asking the question: "Are you a Christian?"
Never shall I forget the kindly smile that brightened his face as he replied: "Oh, yes! For these many years."
"But," I said, "Are you not Jewish?"
Upon his answering in the affirmative, I asked: "Would you mind telling me how you became a Christian?"
"I will gladly tell you," he graciously replied, and as a little group was gathering around us he told us the sweet story of his conversion. Wonderful in its power— beautiful in its simplicity— this is Mr. Ehrlich's story.
"My father was a Jewish Rabbi in the old country. To escape persecution, while still a young man, he brought his little family to the United States. He was ambitious for his children, desiring for them a good education and business success. He worked hard, lived frugally, and gradually accumulated a fair bank account. As each child came of age, he established him in his chosen business. When my turn came, he started me out as a merchant with a fully stocked and well equipped grocery store.
"The very day I opened my store to the public, a little girl about six years old, with sunny golden hair, came to buy a loaf of bread for her mother. As I handed it to her, she asked me in a sweet, childish voice: 'Do you love Jesus?'
"Astonished and amused, I replied: 'NO! I DON'T LOVE YOUR JESUS. I don't believe in Him.'
"Without a protest she turned way, but only to come again day after day for some small purchase. She always asked the same question, and was always answered— sometimes impatiently— in the negative. She never argued or asked why; but sometimes her eyes held a strange wistfulness.
"One day little Mary came when I was alone in the store. Once again there fell on my ears the oft repeated childish question, which I had now come to find annoying rather than amusing. Irritated at her persistence, I answered roughly: 'Now look here, Mary, you have asked me that question every day for months, and every day I have told you I DO NOT LOVE YOUR JESUS. Now don't ever ask me that again.'
"Not one word did the little one speak to me, but she dropped to her knees, bowed her shining head on a cracker box, and cried to her Father in heaven, `Lord, save Mr. Ehrlich! Lord, save Mr. Ehrlich! Lord, please save Mr. Ehrlich!'
"Such a short prayer from a little child's lips—and such a simple one! Yet in that brief time I saw myself as a godless lost sinner sadly in need of Mary's Jesus as my Savior. In a flash I knew Him as the Messiah I had long worshipped; and I now accepted Him as Jesus, the Christ, the anointed of God. For the moment, I could not speak; but as I saw the child, Mary, leaving the store, I ran after her. Lifting her in my arms, I said: 'Mary, I do love your Jesus—oh, I do love Him now. From now on He is my Jesus, too.'
"I locked up the store and went home with the child. To the mother I said: 'Mrs. Brown, you have been my customer for months. You have never spoken to me of your Savior, but your little girl has never failed to ask me if I loved Him. I have come to tell you that, because of her interest, He is now my Savior, my Jesus too.' "
What a story! And is that all? No, Mr. Ehrlich paused a moment in his narrative, then continued in a voice tinged with sadness: "You Gentiles do not know what it costs a Jew to be a Christian. It cost me my father and mother, my sisters and brothers, my home and my inheritance.
"When I went home that night and announced to my family that I now believed in Christ, a storm of grief and protest burst forth. They tried in every possible way to induce me to give up my newfound faith. When they failed to win me from it, my parents were heartbroken.
"My father wanted to give me every possible chance to return to Judaism. He announced that he would give me three years. If in that time I did not renounce Christianity, I would be forever cut off from the family. My inheritance would be divided among the other children; and among them all, I would be as though I were dead.
"Thanks be unto God, the end of the three years found me firmly established in the faith of my Lord Jesus Christ. However, my poor father was true to his word: my family observed the Jewish customs for the dead in the burning of candles and incense for the prescribed number of days of mourning. In their hearts and minds, they buried me. Though I might meet them face to face on the street, they give no sign of recognition. To them I AM DEAD."
The sadness became more pronounced for a moment as Mr. Ehrlich continued: "Oh, yes! In losing my people, I have lost much, for I loved them dearly. But"—and the expressive face beamed with joy—"I have gained far more. I have gained CHRIST, and now He is giving me the unspeakable joy of being used in leading other Jews to the Lord Jesus. Many of these who have accepted Him as their own Savior are also proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation through the shedding of His precious blood."
As we who were listening to this story of God's power by His Spirit to save, to keep, and to use for His glory poor human recipients of His grace, we could well apply to this converted Jew the same expressions the Apostle Paul used in Philippians 3:7, 8:
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."
SAVED through the blood of Jesus,
Saved from the curse of sin,
Saved now to share Christ's glory,
Are all who trust in Him.
Joy is among the angels,
And in the heart of God,
As each unworthy sinner
Trusts in the precious blood.