A question often asked when one is urged to “Come to Christ and be saved.” Let me illustrate “How?” A well-known Christian worker in G. made it a practice to speak to at least one soul each day, a very good practice for one who is saved. One evening as he was thinking of retiring, he remembered that he had not spoken “a little word for Jesus.” Half-past nine at night. Was it yet too late? No. So he went and passing up a quiet street, he saw an old man coming towards him. Perhaps this is the very one the Lord wants me to speak to. As the old man approached, Mr. S. passed the usual greeting about the fine evening, then, after a short conversation he asked,
“Old man, have you ever thought of coming to Jesus?”
“Well,” replied the man, “that is strange. I have thought many times of coming to Jesus, but I do not know how to come. Tell me, how do you come to Jesus?”
A little taken aback at finding one “so near the Kingdom,” Mr. S. asked God for guidance to tell him how to come to Jesus. At once the thought was flashed into his mind.
“Take him back to boyhood days, for old folks like to think of the days of their youth.”
“Well,” said. Mr. S., “you remember when you were a little chap,” and the old man quite brightened up as his mind went back 60 or 70 years or more. “How did you take your first step? Mother placed you against the kitchen chair, stood off a little, held out her arms, and said, “Come, come to me, come along, take the step.”
She didn’t pull you off, she didn’t push the chair away, she waited, she pleaded; you ventured, you took the first step, and were in mother’s arms in a moment.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “that is exactly how I took the first step and came to mother.”
“Then,” said Mr. S., “as a guilty sinner in, the sight of God, will you here and now take the step, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved? Will you?”
The old man bowed his head, yielded his heart to the Lord, and in the gloaming of that evening was saved with an everlasting salvation,
ML 12/10/1939