By:
Edited By Algernon J. Pollock.
SHE was an elderly, decent, hard-working woman. We asked her if she was a Christian.
She replied, “Yes, for many years.”
“And how did it come about?” we further inquired.
“Oh! I was confirmed, and take the sacrament.”
“Yes,” we replied, “you can be confirmed and take the sacrament, and not be a Christian.”
“But my name is on the register, and so I’m all right.”
“Yes,” we responded, “your name may be registered on the books of a church on earth, and yet not inscribed on the books in heaven. You may be all that you say you are, and not be a Christian. Multitudes all over the country are like you―confirmed and registered, but not converted.”
Alas! Alas! our words seemed to convey no meaning to her, and when she attended our Gospel preaching, and Genesis 1 was announced, she actually did not know where to look for the first chapter in the Bible. And this in so-called Christian England! And this after sitting for thirty years under a clergyman and taking the sacrament―as dark as a heathen as to the Gospel of the grace of God! What a rude awakening such will have! Is the reader one such?
Listen to the words of Holy Writ concerning the Lord’s Supper, “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:2929For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. (1 Corinthians 11:29)).
Forms, ceremonies, ritual, never yet saved a soul. Nothing short of conversion will do―conversion, not confirmation, redemption not ritual, alone will meet the desperate case of the sinner.
The woman we met, though taking again and again for years the bread, speaking of the body of Christ, and the cup speaking of His blood shed for sinners, had apparently not the faintest knowledge of what the Lord’s Supper signifies. She rested on a form, a ceremony, an ordinance, and unless she wakes up to her need of conversion and of a Saviour, what hope is there for her?
My reader, are you right for eternity? Are you safe on the Rock of Ages? Are you really trusting the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour? Are you converted? Without which, the Saviour said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall NOT enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:33And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)). The language is plain enough. There is no mistaking its meaning. Make no mistake here for eternal issues are at stake.
THE EDITOR.