As I passed through a park in the town of Brockville in June last, I was hailed by a boy who, I suppose, had seen me giving away tracts, and in a boy’s blunt fashion he wanted what was going. “Mister, give us a bill, will you?” said he. “Certainly,” I answered, selecting one called Polly Moran. “What’s it about?” enquired another. “Oh,” said I, “it’s about a bad little girl that got saved.” This led to further conversation, and quite a group of boys gathered around. Finding them interested, I said, “Perhaps some of you boys are Catholics?” “Yes,” they said, “he’s a Catholic, he’s a Catholic, and he’s a Catholic,” suiting the action to the word, and pointing out three individuals of my little audience. “Well,” I said, “I have two Bibles here. One is a Catholic Bible, and one is what you call a Protestant Bible. And I am going to read a verse to you out of each of them, and I want you to tell me which of them you think is right. So I read Revelation 22:1414Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14), ‘Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city, and in the other, ‘Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that they may have right to the tree of life.’ Now which of those do you think is right?” I enquired.
“Oh,” said several voices, “the one that says ‘do His commandments.’ “Yes,” I replied, “that is what I used to think. I used to think that in the last great judgment day God would take all my had deeds and put them into one side of a great big scale; and then would take all my good deeds, if I ever had any, and put them into the other side, which ever was the heavier would decide my fate. If the good deeds were the heavier, I would go to heaven, and if the bad deeds were the heavier, I would go to hell.”
Well, the boys thought that was about right; but one, standing somewhat behind me, spoke up, “No,” said he, “that can’t be right. Because the thief that died on the cross beside the Saviour, he didn’t have any good deeds, and yet the Saviour said he’d go to heaven.”
“That’s a good argument, my boy,” said I. And then I proceeded to tell the boys how I found out a different way of being saved. When I was a boy of thirteen, I was spending the summer in the country, and a servant of the Lord came there to preach the gospel. He preached one night from Isaiah 6, where the prophet saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, and one cried unto. Another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. And I told the boys I was not ashamed to confess that the seat was wet with my tears that night, as I thought upon my sins.
The evangelist saw that I was sorry for my sins, and spoke to me after the meeting. We were staying in the same house and had to row across the river to get to it. The good man made me get my own Bible and showed me a verse that I had no idea was in it—no, nor anything like it. It was John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” What good news was this? I knew I was perishing. and here was a way of salvation, not by works. Oh, God be thanked for that verse, and that ever I was directed to it.
No, dear young reader, salvation by works “can’t be right.” It is all of grace by faith. But man, everybody, naturally thinks the other way, the way of works, the right way, so when someone was copying out the Revelation, instead of copying exactly what the Apostle John had written, “Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb,” he changed it to “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,” and the error was not found out until after the translation that we commonly use was made, but in the Catholic Bible this verse is correctly printed, “Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
ML 12/25/1904