YEARS AGO an evangelist visited a little country town to proclaim there the glad tidings of the grace of God. He took up his stand outside a store where there were some cider barrels, and he chose for his pulpit one of the empty barrels.
The man who owned the store didn’t love the Lord and he didn’t appreciate those who spoke of Him as the Saviour of sinners. So, when some of his friends told him of the novel use to which one of his cider barrels had been turned, he left his house with the intention of upsetting the barrel, and thus bringing the preaching to a sudden close.
As he drew near to the spot, hover, something in the manner of the evangelist arrested his attention and he paused to listen. Like many others, before and since, he came to scoff but remained there to pray.
There the story of Jesus and His love for poor sinners went as an arrow to his heart. The storekeeper was converted. On that very spot, later on, he built a chapel in which for many years he delighted to tell out the blessed truths of salvation.
Dear young reader, you may not be on the scoffer’s road, as this man once was, nor on the despiser’s road; but remember, if you are on the neglecter’s road, it leads to the same end hell.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31) — the words which mean as much now as they did when Paul addressed them to the jailer of Philippi. But after the Lord Jesus has come and taken all those who love Him to be forever with Himself in heaven, prayers for salvation will then be all in vain.
ML-06/23/1963