It was in the stable that a young farmer came to Christ. For long he had been in anxiety of soul, as he knew that he was not right with God.
"Not right with God." And yet he was religious. In his attendance at church he was most regular, and not only on the Sunday, but to the week-night prayer meeting. Never was he absent.
"Not right with God." For he knew that he was a sinner.
It was a preacher, who had himself been recently converted, whose ministry finally led to his conversion. The young man told of the way in which he himself, had received the blessing. No sermon was preached by him that Sunday evening, but a simple account was given of a journey from death to life and from the power of Satan unto God.
Stirred to the depths of his being, the young man returned to his home alarmed at his condition. He realized as never before, his unfitness to meet God. No one was near to tell him of the simplicity of God's way of salvation and to say,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The next morning there came to his mind the remembrance of a farmer in the neighborhood who was converted. He thought that if he could be blessed, there was surely salvation for him.
Leaving the work he was engaged in, he went into the next stall and falling on his knees on the straw, he repeated the well-known verse
"Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come."
This was his prayer, for he felt he could not utter anything else. And with these words on his lips, he came just as he was to Christ.
Then, "Believe that I have received you," seemed to be spoken to him, as by the Lord Himself.
At once, the light of life filled his soul and he said, "I am saved."
Heaven began on earth for him. He at once felt he could no longer go on with the things of the world which had attracted him hitherto and so he remained away from a dance which was to be held that Monday evening. His soul was filled with divine merriment and he needed no other. Eternal joys outshone the temporal pleasures of sin. The Word of God became his constant study and his whole course being changed, the neighbors thought he was bereft of reason.
How strange it is, that when a man gets right with God and for the first time is truly in his right mind, that then, those around, esteem him "peculiar." But man's thoughts are not as God's. And a man who is not born again cannot perceive the kingdom of God.
Then service for Christ became his joy. First as a Sunday School teacher, he sought to win others for Christ. Finally, after a missionary meeting, at which all he had in the way of cash was given to the work, he felt that God wanted him himself and he became a missionary.
Today he lives and in the mission field, tells the story of redeeming love among those who have hitherto, sat in the gross darkness and corruption of paganism.
His Savior is willing to be yours today.
We cannot come to Christ a day too soon, but we may come a day too late.