“I DON’T want you to think that I am a rank outsider, sir,” said John S—, a fine young fellow, one Sunday evening after the gospel meeting. He was no doubt a real soul, an earnest seeker, and his presence at that meeting was evidence of both.
John S―is an engineer by trade; not an operative merely, but a man who uses his brains as well as his hands. He has gone from shop to shop in most parts of the world, to see what could be learned of his trade, here, there, and everywhere. But down deep in his soul all the time there was a sense of need; and he had used the many opportunities afforded him for attending the preaching’s of the Lord’s servants of every kind and creed. The eloquence of some tickled his ears; the pathos of others moved his heart; but still his unrest of soul remained.
Three years ago, he was working at his bench near to a man who was a Christian, one who enjoyed and lived in the power of divine things. John S—watched with interest the bright unclouded sunshine of this man’s life, and secretly longed for the same.
One day during the dinner hour, he noticed his fellow-workman reading a small book, and his beaming face emboldened him to ask that he might join him in his reading.
Nothing loth, the Christian workfellow at once acquiesced, and began reading on from the part he had reached in the third chapter of John’s Gospel. It was a stumbling reading, and yet whenever there appeared to be any hesitating as to proceeding, John would encouragingly say, “Do please go on.”
The chapter finished, its lovely and salient points were for a few moments discussed, and then, the dinner hour over, they both resumed their work.
Soon after this, John S―left England for the West Indies, and while there, continued his search after the “one thing needful.”
It was but a few weeks ago that he returned to his old home and workshop, and made it almost his first business to search out the bright Christian who had real the Scriptures to him three years previously.
A hearty greeting and earnest inquiries as to the state of his soul, led to an invitation to go with his friend to a gospel preaching at the Mission Room, where the remark at the opening of this narrative was made.
John S―arranged to meet his friend and conductor at a given spot on the following Sunday evening, and exactly to the minute he was at the trysting-place, and with business-like eagerness the two came to the meeting. The subject of the discourse that evening was Mark 5―Christ undoing the work of the devil―the Satan-possessed soul delivered; the poor diseased woman healed; and the dead daughter raised to life again―a wonderful chapter telling out the heart of the blessed God for man, and how that now “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”
The meeting over, John S—and his friend stayed behind, and I greeted them both, the one as a well-known brother in Christ, and the other with an inquiry as to his soul’s state. At first John was quite silent, but after a little pressure, replied, “I don’t want you to think that I am a rank outsider, sir.”
“My friend,” said I, “believe me, you are either a rank outsider―as you term it―or a rank insider; in other words, either lost or saved; bearing your sins or knowing they are forgiven you; going either to hell or heaven; in Adam and under judgment, or in Christ and in divine favor. And more than this, I would add that I feel confident you know exactly where you are and what you are. Come, tell me now, are your sins forgiven for His name’s sake?
“I could not say that,” he owned, “but at the same time I am not so very bad.”
“Are you anxious to be saved?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, I am really, and I have sought this everywhere.”
There was an eager earnest look in the man’s eyes, and the perspiration was streaming down his face. The two or three present felt it was a moment fraught with eternal issues.
I broke the little silence by saying, “Shall we pray?” We then all went down on our knees, and prayer after prayer went up from hearts and lips to a throne of grace, cries for the salvation of this precious soul, which God was soon to answer.
We rose from our knees, and read together John 5:24; Romans 10:8-11; and as we opened up the Scriptures to him, God let the light of His truth into his heart. It was joy indeed to see “the perfect love casting out all fear,” and the once troubled face now at peace, the heart resting in a new-found joy.
We grasped one another’s hands, and turning our faces heavenwards, rang out our Hallelujahs to the “One who loves us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
The meeting over, and as once more we clasped hands and said good-bye, John turned and said, “Thank you, sir, I shall never forget May 15, when yen treated me as a rank outsider, and God saved me,”
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Dear reader, have you ever had the grace to take the place of “a rank outsider,” a lost sinner?
Time is passing, the dawn of that long long eternity is breaking. Now is the only time God gives you for salvation. Why delay accepting freely that which your soul so deeply needs, and that which the blessed God so graciously offers—a full pardon, present peace, eternal life, and glory with Christ through the rolling ages of eternity.
Come! Accept!! Believe!! and that now!