We were walking along a country road, a gospel preacher and I, when a man confronted us. He was a small farmer in the neighborhood. In his usual earnest way, the preacher spoke to him, telling him of Jesus and His finished work on the cross, when He gave Himself for us, on the ground of which God's salvation is freely offered to all.
"This eternal salvation," he said, "is not because of any good in us, nor for anything we can reach to or attain, but to be believed in and received."
The man listened with close attention. As he did so, he seemed almost unconsciously to thrust his hand into an inside vest pocket and slowly drew out a little book. It was tattered and torn and worn by much reading.
"I cannot tell how often I have read this," he said. "It was given to me when I was a soldier, and I have carried it with me ever since. I hope I never lose it, for through reading it I have found peace."
He put it into the preacher's hand, and as I looked at the title of the booklet I said, "Oh, the one into whose hand you have put it is the one who wrote it."
A look of astonishment and pleasure lighted up the farmer's face as he stretched out his hand, saying, "I'm so glad to meet you, sir. May God bless you."
It was a moment of deep feeling, stirring the heart with the thought of God's wondrous ways. And now the gospel was more fully and clearly put before the ex-soldier, and this anxious and seeking soul now received further blessing from God by the mouth of His servant, the preacher. Like Abraham of old, this farmer believed God, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness. There was Abraham at one end of the line and God at the other, and faith between.
Who gave that booklet, so carefully kept, to the soldier on foreign soil? Who? None can tell; but the record of it is on high—another of those links in the chain of God's working which will be known hereafter. Through it the precious Word accomplished God's purpose, and a trophy of God's grace was led into full blessing.
Friend, an assured salvation for you too can be had on the authority of the living God, if you will now bow to and receive it. He says in Isaiah 55:1111So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11): "My Word... shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."