"All right at last!”
This was the greeting that involuntarily escaped my lips, as I saw approaching me, at the close of a gospel meeting, an elderly man whose smiling face bespoke a new-found joy.
“Yes, thank God, it is," he said. The long life of a self-satisfying religion, or rather one which lulls but cannot satisfy, followed by the past few weeks of painful discoveries of the sandy foundation on which he had for so long and faithfully built, had now ended, and he was at peace! Well might he say, "Thank God!”
The smiling face, cloudless and sunny, told the tale. There is joy in heaven, yes, and joy in the heart of all who receive Christ, and to whom power is given to become children of God. The change in his countenance was so striking—the transition from gloom to gladness, from despair to rapture—that I felt constrained to ask him: "Isn't conversion a wonderful thing?”
“Yes," he said, "it's just like—like—like coming out of darkness into light—out of the storm and rain into the clear shining sunlight.”
“A good illustration," thought I. So it is—and "marvelous light," too. Hence we find it written of the believers in Jerusalem immediately after their conversion, when they had so much to endure for Christ's sake: "after ye were illuminated." How expressive and true of all who are truly converted!
Friend, have you ever known this marvelous transition from darkness to light? It can be realized in full by all who, in simplicity, abandon the shadows-their own preconceived ideas for the substance Christ Himself. For in Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Let Christ alone be the object bright and fair" to illuminate your heart and life. Then, you too will be able to enjoy the peace "that passeth all understanding," and to "show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9).