By:
Edited By Heyman Wreford
I HAD it from her own lips—the record of his conversion. They had been engaged some lime; and she had found the Lord, but he was still unsaved; and all her wish now was that he might have the same happiness she had. I will tell the story in her own words.
“I had over and over again prayed that he might be saved, and the answer had not come. One Sunday afternoon I was reading my Bible and I came to the verse, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in faith, believing, ye shall receive.’ Something seemed to tell me as read, that now was the time for me to pray for him. I went on my knees and prayed for nearly an hour; I prayed that he might be saved that day; and before I rose the answer seemed to come to me. He went to hear you preach that evening and was deeply impressed by the word; he called you to come and speak to him about his soul, but he left the room still unsaved, you strongly urging him to believe that night.
“I saw him after the meeting and he said, ‘I shall go to hell; I have heard the gospel so many times, and never would heed it; and if Christ comes to night as Mr. W― says, I shall be lost, I shall be lost!’ I pointed him to Jesus who died for sinners; but nothing seemed to convince him that he could be saved. Before leaving me he said, ‘If Christ comes tonight, I shall never see you again; for I shall go to hell, and you are going to heaven.’
“I begged him not to sleep that night until he was sure he was saved.
“Next day he came to see me in the morning with a great joy written on his face; he told me he went home determined to find peace before he slept. He found it, he said, by simply taking God at His word. He believed that text ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ He said he had it now and he belonged to Jesus forever.”
Such was the simple story, and it gladdened my heart to hear it. How is it with you, reader? Can you put yourself into the middle of that sixteenth verse of the 3rd chapter of John and say, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that if I believe in Him, I shall not perish but have everlasting life?”
Take your Bible now this moment, sit down before it, open at John 3:16, and read it over and over again. Do it for the sake of your immortal soul; do it, remembering Christ is speaking directly to you in that verse, and He is looking at you as you read it, and He says, “He that heareth my word and believeth (on) Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”