THE members of a Christian family had concluded their accustomed reading of the Scriptures before retiring for the night, when one of them, turning to a visitor, remarked, "You have never told us anything about your conversion, Mrs.— When were you converted?
"Converted!" exclaimed the shocked and indignant lady, "I have never been converted. We don't use such terms”
“But you told me that you were not afraid to die, and that you were quite happy, yet Christ says, 'Except ye he converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' But before the words were finished the angry lady had swept from the room and closed the door.
If the question put to her had been, “When did you become a drunkard?” she could hardly have shown more indignation.
“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3.)
With this Scripture before us, which shows the absolute necessity of conversion, may I ask you, my reader, "Have you been converted" Has there ever been a time in your life when you turned to God (for that is conversion), and then received the Lord Jesus Christ—the One who "came into the world to save sinners," as your own personal Savior?
The one we read of in Luke 15 was converted when he "came to himself," and said, "I will arise and go to my father." And, my reader, the attitude of God towards every poor sinner who comes to Him in all his guilt and helplessness is exactly the same as that of the father towards the repentant son. "When he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
The experience of one soul may differ considerably from that of another, but if you know nothing of this conversion or turning to God, be warned, I beseech you, for you are as yet one of those of whom Christ said, “ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." F. A.