"I WISH to write to tell you that, through the finished work of Jesus Christ I, a vile sinner, am saved. Dear mother, when you used to speak to me about my soul's salvation, I used to back out of it somehow; I did not want to hear anything about it. But still, mother, you and nearly everyone else kept speaking to me about my precious soul, and I used to think how much I should like to know, and be able to say that I was saved.
" Still I cannot remember that the Lord Himself was really at work with my soul until the first time I went to Mr. B.'s; he asked me whether I was saved, and oh, what an awful thing it was for me to be obliged to say I was not! After that it seemed to me as if everyone knew that Harry W. was not saved.
“It was last Sunday, as I was listening to Mr. C. preaching, that I began to understand this wonderful reality, that God's salvation was wailing for me.
"I am so certain of it. It is wonderful to think that I can really say I am saved. Tell my father and my brothers and sisters, and everyone I know, that I, a sinner, am saved by the grace of God.
"Oh, mother, to think that I have now a Friend who sticketh closer than a brother; a Friend who never alters; a Friend for this present time, and for the bright and glorious time to come! To think how I used to hide or go out, or do anything so that God's word might not come home to me! But it has, in spite of all that Satan could do to hinder. There is no getting away from God, who in His unspeakable mercy gave up His only begotten Son, that we might have eternal life.
“I daresay you will be surprised, dear mother, and yet not surprised; for I know you have been looking to the Lord for this.
“Your affectionate son, HARRY."