Have you ever had a toothache? This picture of a dentist’s office reminds me of a boy who had a very important toothache, and I rather wish that you had one just like it! That may sound unkind, but wait till you hear this story.
He was a big boy, working in a grocery store, but as he handed out pounds of sugar and tea and flour, that tooth really bothered him. So, at the first opportunity, he climbed the steps to the dentist’s office. While waiting his turn, he picked up a gospel tract and began to read a touching little story. A few moments more and he was seated in the dental chair.
“Did you like that little tract?” asked the dentist.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Are you saved?” was the next question.
“I don’t know what you mean,” said the young man. “I go to church and to Sunday school too, but nobody ever asked me that before.”
That was all he had time to say, for he had to open his mouth wide, and let the dentist begin his work. While the dentist worked, he talked, and explained earnestly that the Lord Jesus is the only Saviour of sinners. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12). It is not optional. It is necessary. God commands us to repent, and to turn to the Lord Jesus and accept Him as our Saviour.
The boy with his mouth wide open could not answer, but he could think. He thought himself a good enough boy indeed, treasurer and librarian of the Sunday school, and nobody had any right to talk to him as if he needed to be saved. When his teeth were fixed, he strode proudly out of the office. It would be a long time before that dentist got a chance to talk to him again!
It was a long time, too. If he saw the dentist coming, he would cross the street, rather than even say “Good-morning” to him. But another tooth needed attention, and there was no other dentist within reach. The boy put it off as long as he could, but finally he just had to be seated in the same dental chair, and operations began again.
The kindly dentist guessed the feelings of his patient. He had been snubbed before, for speaking about Jesus, but he was not discouraged. Very gently he opened the subject again, and reminded the young man that God says that “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). He was either a saved sinner or a lost sinner. Still the patient could not answer, but his mind was deeply troubled, for he began to see that it was God, and not just the dentist who was speaking to his soul.
After a few unhappy days, during which the Christian man was praying for his young friend, they met on the street, and the boy did not try to slip away. He was too miserable.
“Will you come with me in my car to an all-day meeting?” asked the dentist.
Perhaps this would give him the peace he longed for, and so off they went together. All day he listened wonderingly as these happy people talked over their Bibles, in a manner that seemed so strange to him. But in the evening, when the speaker told out the glad tidings of salvation through faith in Christ alone, the light broke through. He knew he was a sinner, and his “good works” were of no avail in the presence of a holy God, but he saw the Lord Jesus by faith as the One whose precious blood was shed on Calvary that he might be cleansed from all sin.
That was twenty years ago, but the dentist and his patient are still rejoicing in the Lord together. The Saviour has not let them go, and will not, until they are gathered together in His Father’s home forever. Dear reader, will you be there?
ML 01/10/1954