A Letter

Dear Sister:

In one of your letters you write, “Father was asking about your conversion.” Abounding grace is connected with that conversion. As early as twelve or thirteen years of age, God exercised my conscience about my sins, but I loved the world and would not give it up, so in spirit I said, “Go Thy way for this time.” Many other times in His grace He came to me, but always got the same answer.

Coming west from Massachusetts I listened to atheist sentiments and quite accepted them. In August I went back to visit Mother, and she spoke to me about eternal things. I combated her with my atheist reasonings, and fairly closed her mouth. After this she said, “William, do you read your Bible and pray every day?”

“No!” I replied.

She said, “If you do this, my boy, you will get light,” and she left the room with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Left alone in the room, the Lord made me feel how I had grieved my mother, whom I loved, and He led me to realize there was one thing I had not done, that was to read my Bible and pray every day. I made up my mind to try it, partly because I knew it would please Mother and partly to test my atheist position.

I left the room and got a Testament that I had owned when a boy, and put it into my pocket. Going to bed that night, I read the first chapter of Matthew and knelt down beside the bed to pray. I had no interest in what I read, only I remember my thought on my knees: “I would hate to have anyone catch me in this position!” However, I had taken up the matter as a test and would not be diverted from it.

This went on until about the end of the year. Then the Lord began working in my soul, making me realize I was not as good as I thought I was. I sought to make myself better, but the more I tried to make myself better, the worse I became, until I saw myself only fit for hell. Then the Lord came and showed me that trying to make myself better was the wrong principle—that faith is the principle on which peace with God is secured. Giving up doing, and resting now on God’s Word, I was brought into peace that first Lord’s Day in the new year. To Him be glory!

Your brother,

Will

March 7, 2014May 28, 2014

A Message of Mercy

A man stood looking into the water as a scrap of paper came floating down the stream, tossed from ripple to ripple. “I am just as helpless,” said he to himself, “borne downwards by a tide which I cannot stem, and from which I cannot escape. There is no one to lift me clear of the tide of destruction as I can lift you, poor miserable scrap.”

As he spoke, he caught the paper with a stick and lifted it from the water. He noticed that it was a fragment of a torn-up letter, and one word upon it attracted his attention as being in thorough keeping with his own feelings. The word was “miserable,” and thus the writing read as a whole: “I assure you…I used to be very miserable…and trust Christ Jesus only…Salvation and now…Christ Jesus only Salvation and now joy and peace.”

He read the words over and over. It had been written by someone who had been, like himself, very miserable, but who had been led to trust Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and so had attained to joy and peace.

“Oh that I could find the same,” said this poor young man. “And yet, why should I not? Christ Jesus came to save sinners. I believe if He chose He could lift me out of the stream of evil and ruin, as I have lifted this scrap of paper. I wonder if He would be willing to save me?” And then a verse of a hymn that he had sung in better days came into his mind:

“If I trust Him to receive me,

Will He say me nay?

Not till earth and not till heaven

Pass away.”

“Oh, is it true?” he cried in an agony of earnestness. “Is it true? I believe it is. When He was on earth He received sinners, and invited the heavy-laden to come unto Him, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! I do not deserve it, but He will receive me!”

God has many ways of reaching the human heart, and can employ the humblest and meanest of instruments. Let none doubt His willingness to save, for the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

March 7, 2014May 28, 2014

A Peculiar Poster

The walls of the community hall were nearly covered with posters of all sizes. But, strange to say, one poster alone drew the attention and anger of the custodian. It was a large piece of cardboard on whose white surface the simple, black printed message “stood out like a sore thumb,” as he described it. And what were the words which made him so angry?

“He that believeth on the Son

hath everlasting life:

and he that believeth not the Son

shall not see life; but the wrath of god

abideth on him.” John 3:16.

Glancing around, he saw among a group of young people a pleasant-faced young man who, he decided, was the culprit who had placed it there. “Hey, Sam,” he called out, “you are one of the religious type that would do this. Why do your kind of people put up these posters on the walls? Why don’t they keep these things to themselves?”

“Why? They have as much right, if it comes to a question of that sort, to do so as others have to put up their notices or advertise their wares.”

“Yes, yes, of course; but what does this thing mean?”

“Just what it says, sir. Read it the same as you would read anything else. Use the same thought in reading it as you would in reading another poster and it will be clear enough.”

“But will you just explain it a bit to me?”

“It needs very little explanation,” said Sam. “It is from the Bible, and thank God, the Bible is plain enough to those who want to understand. It is difficult only to those who won’t.

“These words tell us that everlasting life belongs to those who believe in the Son of God―that is, to those who take Him to be their Saviour, their Redeemer, their Lord―to those who accept Him as the divine Substitute for them, bearing their sins and taking their punishment on Calvary’s cross.”

“But what if a man does not believe that?”

“Then there is the other thing: he shall not see life. If you will have Christ as your Saviour from sin, you will have everlasting life. That is God’s way. It is ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’

“It does not matter what you are; unless you are `born again,’ become a new creature in Christ, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Scripture says: `Ye must be born again’ (John 3:7).

“Now be clear on this point―no new birth now means no entry into heaven later. Take Jesus Christ into your heart now, and be ready for a blessed eternity with Him in glory.”

It was a very subdued and thoughtful custodian that walked away thinking about those solemn words.

March 7, 2014March 28, 2014