A retired army officer told his own experience. He was a young lieutenant at the time, arid as wild as any of his brother officers, when God saved his soul and changed his whole life. Not only he but several others were affected in the same way, but his conversion was the greatest surprise because it was the least expected.
These young officers felt that they would like to preach the gospel that they had believed, and in a way that could easily be understood. If a man had been cured of a very painful malady by a skillful doctor, we should expect him to talk about it and recommend his doctor to others, and it ought not to make people surprised when men whose souls have been saved by the Great Savior should want to speak of Him. So, they rented a hall in the town in which their regiment was stationed and started their preaching, and my friend’s turn came to tell the story. He decided to take for his text those wonderful words,
He could not have chosen a better text. But when he had read it and looked up from his Bible to the crowd before him, he could not think of anything to say about it. Anyhow he would repeat the text, if he could remember it, and so he began,
“God—God loved the world—God, God so loved the world Yes, God so loved the world that, that” —and that was as far as he got, and catching sight of an open door at the back of the platform, he made a dash for it, and disappeared through it to the astonishment of his audience.
He paced up and down the anteroom, abusing himself for his folly in attempting to preach a sermon, and vowing that he would never do it again, when a knock came to the door and a young woman was brought in. The tears were running down her cheeks and she could not speak for sobs,
“What’s the matter with you?” said the would-be preacher, “is your father dead?”
“No,” came the answer that astonished him, “but Captain, I never knew before that. God loved me.”
It was an astonishing result from what he had thought was a great failure. The stumbling words had gone home and done their work, and there knelt together in that anteroom two astonished people—she that God loved her; he that God should have used his blundering to show her this.
And this is an astonishing fact surely: we would never have believed it if Jesus had riot told us. If God had been angry with us because of our sins, and cast us out of His holy presence forever, we should not have been astonished, but that He should have loved us, and shown us His love by giving his only-begotten Son for us!
This is the wonderful thing. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and was lifted up upon the cross for us. Yes, for sinners! He was wounded for our transgressions, He died for the ungodly. This is the one and only way of salvation, and the love of God provided the way.
What a wonderful story it is. Does it not appeal to your heart, my reader, and will you not allow the light to shine into your soul, and say with wonder and thanksgiving,
“I never knew before that God loved me.”
But, beware of rejecting the message. God gave His only-begotten Son that you might not perish, but if you refuse this great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will perish, There is no other way. You will have everlasting life through Him, if you believe in Him; or you will receive eternal judgment if you do not accept Him as your own Saviour. We do beg of you not to spurn His wonderful love.