ON a Lord's Day afternoon in a town hall in the country, not long ago, a person was introduced to me by a Christian friend, as anxious about her soul.
I found her case to be a chronic case of feelings, with very little intelligence about Christ, His work, or the word of God; but she was most sincere and earnest. My point was, that Christ could not be more willing to receive her to-morrow than to-day; His word could not be truer, or His work more complete; therefore, why not come now, believe, and rejoice?
The appeal in the afternoon for instant decision for Christ was founded on these two words, "COME NOW"; which had greatly interested her, and presented a new line of truth to her mind, Like most of this class, she would be ready to own that all she had heard was true, and that, she did not doubt a word of it, but it was not true to her because she did not feel it. She was waiting to experience that change within which would be her warrant for believing that it was true to her. She acknowledged that she had been waiting for this inward change for years.
Hardly anything can be more discouraging or hopeless to an evangelist than this, for the lives of such are generally most blameless; there being conscience enough to make them religious.
After pointing out her mistake, and assuring her that all her darkness arose from looking to herself in place of looking to Christ, and from trusting to feelings in place of trusting His finished work, we parted.
She was at the hall again in the evening, but I did not see her.
The following day her Christian neighbor, who had induced her to come to the preaching, let me know that the woman I had spoken to had found peace with God, and that she would like to see me. With the assistance of a friend I found her humble home. We had scarcely entered when she began to speak of the blessing she had received on Lord's Day; but all I will give in her own words is the following: "When I awoke on Monday morning, at five o'clock, the thought came into my mind, 'I have an Object now; I have an Object now.'”
And spreading her hand over her breast, she added, "I used to think I must feel it all in here first, but now it's all in Christ; and often to-day when I was at my work it came into my mind.”
From the simplicity of the woman, it was perfectly evident that she had no idea that she was saying anything particular;' it was the truthful expression of her new experience. But nevertheless, these few simple words went straight home to my heart, clothed with light and power. They contain truths of the very deepest and highest practical instruction and value. There is not a troubled conscience in Christendom that would not find peace in looking to that same Blessed Object; not a doubting heart that would not be settled; not a weary soul that would not find rest; not a lost soul that would not find salvation. True, we read, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." "Hear, and your soul shall live." "Only believe." But the power; the healing virtue, is not in the looking, the coming, the hearing, the believing; but all in the Object, the heavenly Christ, the Man in the glory.
And now the feelings, so long looked for and waited for, are come. But how? By making self the center? By some felt change within? Ah! no; but by looking to JESUS, and believing the word of God. The only thing that can produce the feelings so much desired is the written word, "Thus it is written," but until the word is believed, the feelings can never be experienced. But when the eye rests on its new Object, the Holy Spirit is free to reveal the grace and truth of Christ to the soul, filling it with all joy and peace in believing. (Rom. 15:1313Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13)).