People may live for years agreeing to the necessity of salvation, and yet remain all the time unsaved. Numbers and numbers of souls assent to the needs-be of salvation, yet die without it.
The greater number of our readers assent to the needs-be. O, let us ask each one—Have you turned to God? Has your heart bowed before Him? Have you owned your sins to Him, and have you really and truly cast yourself on the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon? Be assured of this, dear friend, that there must be direct and personal dealing with God, or the soul is still afar off from Him.
Some little while ago, three Christian men were speaking together of the moment in their lives when they had truly decided for Christ: One had been a drummer boy. A Christian soldier of his regiment was dying in the camp, and he had called the heedless drummer boy to his bedside, and made him promise he would that night kneel down beside his cot and pray to God. The boy declared he would, and went slowly and thoughtfully back to barracks. It was a testing moment for the boy. The men observed something strange about his behavior, and chaffed him, till at length the hour for sleep came. Four times did that drummer boy walk round his cot in fear of man, yet not daring to break his promise made to the dying soldier.
Presently he fell down upon his knees by the cot-side, in the sense that God’s eye was upon him. He could but kneel, pray he could not, for he did not know how to pray—all he could say was, “God, teach me how to pray.”
For a month he knelt thus by his bedside, each evening being pelted with boots and brushes, until at length God showed him from the Scriptures, salvation through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The turning point with that boy was his kneeling down by the side of his cot. There the battle was fought and the victory won. That one act of decision was of eternal importance.
The second man was the son of Christian parents, and had been brought up with every religious advantage. The day he left his home in the country, his godly parents had pleaded with him to give himself up to Christ, but the young man had come up to the large city unsaved. He entered the police force. He was a quiet, moral man, but morality will not save the soul or give us peace with God.
One night, when in the police station off duty, he could not. sleep, but for hours cried to God to save his soul. At about two o’clock in the morning, God showed him that neither prayers, tears, nor good wishes can procure us salvation, but that in Christ, and Him crucified, salvation is to be found. There and then he closed with Christ, and received Him as his Savior, and is now at peace. As he said, the moment of decision with him was that in which God was showing him by the Holy Ghost, that not in his goodness, but in Christ and His blood, is salvation for sinners. He, by grace, decided in his soul as God spoke to him.
The third man had been led by a pious friend, an old comrade. to attend a chapel, where God showed him His word, “Whosoever!” He laid hold on that one word, whosoever. The deciding point with this man was believing God’s word, that it was true, and true for him, and the result was, he testified that God had given him life everlasting in His Son.
God may deal with men’s souls variously, but let us learn from these three witnesses, who agreed that a moment came in their lives, such as they had never had before, when they in spirit had decided for Christ, and from that moment all had been changed to them.
Now, God may lead up to this point by a long process, or bring the soul to it at once, but certain it is, that every sinner saved by grace, does come into close quarters with God. He is no longer standing afar off considering the needs—be for salvation, nor at a distance from God making resolutions, but he does believe God.
Again we would repeat our question, “Have you decided for Christ?”
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isa. 1:18).
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for—it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” (Rom. 1:16).