A few days ago I was in a small tea-room. There some school teachers were eating lunch, and they were chatting freely about their work with the children.
One of the group asked: "How much of religious teaching do you think our pupils can understand?”
I was at a separate table, but was close enough to hear. Another said, in reply, "Well, when I was a child I had to go to Sunday School every Sunday, but I never understood anything. "Oh, how I hated it!”
Then another said: "Yes, and in those days they used to talk about being saved or lost. Do you know, I had an old aunt who positively believed that! She used to go to people's doors and ask if they were saved.”
There was a great deal of laughing, and several remarked, "How very absurd," and "I wonder who believes it now! Let us ask Mr. White what he thinks it means to be saved.”
The one male teacher with them, a quiet, grave person, had not joined in the conversation, or the sad mockery of sacred things. In reply to their appeal, he said: "You will find a passage in the Acts of the Apostles which gives us the true idea: 'The Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved,' as the better rendering gives it. That means we are being saved all the way along. We persevere and walk in right ways and there is no need to talk of being lost in the end.”
As he began talking I thought he was a Christian, but now I could see it was a plan of his own he had developed, or of some man. I was greatly stirred in my soul. "What am I here for?"—So I questioned myself. Surely I must confess my Lord.
The scoffers soon left Mr. White to finish eating alone. When he rose to go, I said: "Excuse me, please. I have been intensely interested in what I overheard of your conversation. What you said of being saved all the way along is true of a believer; but I fear you are leaving out conversion. The question of sin must be settled first. 'It is the BLOOD that makes atonement for the soul'.”
Mr. White then sat down and took great pains to explain his theory. "I think we must be a little elastic in these days of advanced knowledge," he said. "We must be willing to look at things a little differently.”
Most earnestly I explained that God's truth had not changed with the changing times, and the Bible states that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Those who are saved by faith in Him want nothing new. I begged him to take his true place before God as a sinner and accept Christ as his Savior. "Then you can teach those children the truth. How responsible you are in their lives for good or evil!”
The Lord gave me a fitting message for him and all such: "If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:2020To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20).
Mr. White hastily said his time was up. I felt definitely but kindly dismissed, and my heart was sad as I thought of the opportunity he was missing of influencing aright the young lives around him. I said aloud, "Oh, dear! If these are our teachers, what will become of the children?”
A young lady arose from a table across the room. She gladly received my proffered booklet, saying, "I am so pleased to have this. I am a Sunday School teacher, and I am often grieved to hear Mr. White talk so. He has great influence, but misuses it, I fear." As I look back at that tea-room encounter, let me tell you that I, too, had "an old aunt" who went from door to door with the gospel message, seeking to point sinners to the only Savior. And it occurs to me that, as I have also become "an old aunt" and now follow in the path, I must say to you in real affection and concern for your soul: "Are you saved or lost?”
The waves of judgment are fast rolling in on this poor world. The best that Satan offers you, poor lost one, must prove a "refuge of lies," while the believer has a rich store-house always at hand:—"The Word of the Lord endureth forever." 1 Peter 1:2525But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25).
Saved or lost: what a contrast! Our thoughts and words all fail to gauge—it so vast and deep in meaning and in result. May God Himself be your Teacher here and now, that He may lead you away from the school of man's wisdom to find pardon and peace in the work and Person of His beloved Son. Accept Christ as your Savior; and instead of being "a little elastic" you will be "girt about with truth." There is nothing uncertain or changing about a faith which is founded on Christ, the Rock.
"On Christ salvation rests secure;
The Rock of Ages must endure!
Nor can that faith be overthrown,
Which rests on Christ, the Living Stone.”