“THERE, it doesn’t matter what becomes of our bodies, so long as our souls go to heaven,” said a poor shopkeeper to me, only a week or two since, after she had told me the painful story of her own and her husband’s bodily afflictions.
“No,” I replied, “eternal life is beyond all comparison more valuable than natural life, very precious though this latter is, indeed.”
“I keeps on praying and praying. One can’t do better than do the best they can,” she answered. “Sometimes I am praying nearly half the night.”
Having said this, while waiting for me to respond, she fixed her eyes so earnestly upon one, that I felt I had been brought suddenly face to face with an anxious soul.
“Happily for us, our salvation does not depend on our doing the best we can, but simply and entirely upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your prayers will never avail to save you. If you are saved at all it must be by Another. The fact is, before ever you thought of Him, the Saviour loved you, and suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. However anxious you may be to be saved, the question is not so much whether or no He will accept of such as you — (His own Word assures us that He came to seek and to save the lost, as also that him that cometh unto Him He will in no wise cast out)—but rather are you at this moment willing to open your heart to Him?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Have you told Him so?”
She waited for me to proceed.
“My advice to you now is, tell Him that you are willing to receive Himself into your heart. It is He who seeks admission there, even as Himself hath said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and He with Me.” Do be advised by me; tell Him that you are a poor lost sinner, seeking salvation, and that you do want Him to come in.”
“Thank you, sir, thank you,” said this poor anxious woman; “I will, sir, yes; I will; thank you.”
“I will tell you what will take place the very moment you open your heart to receive Him. You cannot have your sins within your heart and the Lord Jesus Christ at the same time. If He enters the sins must go; His precious blood cleanseth from all sin. And not only will your sins be at once and for ever washed away; but if you really receive Christ, He will henceforth be in you the hope of glory.”
Such was the substance of our brief conversation, as I stood in front of, and she behind her own counter. I left the shop with a thankful heart, because the Lord had given me the privilege of speaking “heart to heart” with her, assuredly gathering that He Who had set her soul longing for Christ, and for salvation through His finished work, would not fail to satisfy her longing heart, and to fill her hungry soul with fatness.
But am I now addressing some poor anxious inquirer, who has prayed and prayed without obtaining any rest from their heavy burden of sin? Be persuaded and go at once where you can be alone with Himself, and tell Him all about yourself, and that you want Him to enter your heart. Surely the living water — the gift of God — is worth asking for, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” A. J.