MR. SMITH was an intelligent man, with bushy hair, and an eye that looked you straight in the face. He lived in a small country village and one after another had visited him, and spoken to him about his soul without any apparent effect.
One young lady who had been very anxious about him, and visited him very often, had that week gone back to her home in a distant town, and had sent the message by a friend,
“Tell Mr. Smith to meet me in heaven,” and while delivering this message, added, “And Mr. Smith, how will you get there?” which drew forth the answer, showing the deep darkness within,
“Through my goodness, I suppose.”
“But you HAVE no goodness, Mr. Smith.”
He did not deny the fact, though he seemed not pleased with the plain statement; and then, once more, the story of the cross was put before him, how the Lord Jesus took the sinner’s place, and suffered “in the stead of him.” At last he received the truth, and found out it was not his goodness which took him to heaven, but the precious blood of Jesus. The sinner has his badness, but not goodness, and one text from God’s blessed Word settles the point:
Dear children, how is it with you? What are YOU trusting in? Is it “I am as good as other people”? “I do my best”? or one of those refuges of lies so constantly repeated? If so, take care; no doings of your own, no goodness of yours can save or help to save you.
Or are you simply looking to the Lord Jesus Christ? and is your heart’s language this,
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all; But Jesus Christ is my all in all”?
ML 09/04/1927