A well-known preacher was ready for bed one night when he heard a knock at the front door.
Upon answering it he found a poor little girl, wet with the rain. She had come through the storm, from the slum district where she lived, to find the preacher.
As he stood looking at her thin, haggard little face, she inquired, "Are you the preacher?"
"Yes, I am," he replied.
"Well, won't you come down and get my mother in?" she asked.
The preacher wisely answered the little girl: "My dear, it is hardly proper for me to come and get your mother in. If she is drunk, you should get a policeman. He is dressed for the occasion."
"Oh, sir," she replied quickly, "you don't understand! My mother isn't drunk; she's at home dying, and she's afraid to die. She wants to go to heaven, but doesn't know how. I told her I would find a preacher to get her in. Come quick, she's dying!"
The preacher could not resist the little girl's appeal, so he promised her he would come as soon as he was dressed. As he walked with her through the dark streets, she led him into an old house, up a rickety stairway, along a dark hall, and finally to a shabby room, where the dying woman lay in the corner.
"I've got the preacher for you, Mother. He wasn't ready to come at first, but he's here. You must tell him what you want, and do what he tells you, and he'll get you in!"
At that, the poor woman feebly raised her voice and asked, "Can you do anything for a sinner like me? My life has been lived in sin, and now that I'm dying I feel that I'm going to hell, but I don't want to go there; I want to go to heaven. What can I do now?"
The preacher stood looking at the poor woman and thought, What can I tell her? I have been preaching salvation by reformation, but this poor soul has gone too far to reform. I have been preaching salvation by character, but she hasn't any. I have been proclaiming salvation by good works, but she doesn't have time for that.
Then he thought: Why not tell her what your mother used to tell you as a boy. She's dying, and it can't hurt her even if it doesn't do her any good.
So bending down beside her the preacher began: "My dear woman, God is very gracious and kind, and in His Book, the Bible, He says, 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' "
"Oh," exclaimed the dying woman, "does it say that in the Bible? My! That ought to get me in. But, sir, my sins, my sins!"
"All sin, did you say?" she asked earnestly. "Does it really say, ALL sin? That ought to get me in."
"Yes," he replied, kneeling down beside her. "It says ALL sin. The Bible also says that 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.' "
"Well," she said, "If the chief got in, I can come. Pray for me, Sir!"
With that the preacher bent down and prayed with that poor woman. Just as she was she came to Jesus, who never turned anyone away, and SHE GOT IN.
"And in the process," added the preacher, "while she was getting in, I MYSELF GOT IN. We two sinners, the preacher and that poor woman, were saved together in that little room that night."