One morning while out for a country walk I followed a foot-path across some fields. A stile over a thick hedge afforded me a fairly comfortable seat, and I rested there.
As I sat there I tried to call to mind the words of a hymn which had struck me as suitable for my message at that evening's meeting. I recollected the chorus:
"What shall I do? What shall I do?
Oh, what shall I do to be saved?"
But I could not remember the first lines of the opening verse. I continued humming the chorus until at last the forgotten words flashed into my mind, and I sang them out lustily:
"Oh, what shall I do to be saved
From the sorrows that burden my soul?"
"THAT'S JUST WHAT I WANTS TO KNOW," came a gruff but rather muffled voice from somewhere nearby. I looked in every direction, but could see nothing of the speaker. I climbed down from the stile and there under the hedge sat the man. He was evidently a farm laborer and he was eating his lunch of bread and cheese.
"What is it you want to know?" I enquired.
"Why, what you was a-singing about: how I can be saved."
"You were not at the meeting last night at the schoolroom, were you?"
"No, I warn't," said old "Hodge," for that was his name.
"Do you ever go to church, or to any religious meetings?"
"Aye sometimes I goes to church, and sometimes I've been to meetings but Lord bless ye, sir, it's too much for me! I ain't no scholar, ye see, and I can't understand what the learned gentlemen says. WHAT I WANTS TO KNOW IS, HOW I CAN BE SAVED. CAN YE TELL ME THAT?"
"I'll try," was my reply. I sat down by his side and put my hand on one of his. Looking into his honest face, I asked him solemnly:"Do you see yourself to be a sinner?"
"Aye, and a black one, too!" Tears dimmed his truthful eyes as he spoke. Here was a precious soul under deep conviction of sin, just ready to be pointed to the sinner's Savior.
We were seated near an old oak stump, and opposite to us appeared two gnarled roots of the tree. Pointing to the root on our left, I said: "Let this stand for you, the sinner. You said just now that you are a black sinner." Taking off my black hat I covered the root with it and left it there.
"There you are, black, in your sins. Do you see that?"
"Aye, I sees that plain enough."
Next I pointed to the root on our right, saying: "Let this root stand for the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know who He is?"
"Aye, I knows; He is the Son of God."
"There was no sin in Him, was there?
Nothing black there?"
"No."
"No; He was pure, sinless, spotless," I said. "Do you see that?"
"Aye."
I then covered the root on my right with my white handkerchief. In front of us we now had, on the left, the root covered with the black hat; and on the right was the root draped with the white handkerchief.
"Now," I said, "see God's way of saving the sinner. He takes the sin off you and lays it upon Christ." I here moved the black hat from the root on the left and placed it over the root on the right, saying: "And where the sin was laid, there God's awful stroke fell."
"O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
Our load was laid on Thee;
Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead,
Didst bear all ill for me.
A victim led, Thy blood was shed:
Now there's no load for me."
"He, the sinless One, suffered for you, the sinner; He, the just One, for you, the unjust. Do you see that?"
"Aye," said Hodge; "but is that all?"
I opened my Bible and read to him 2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) (revised version): "Him" [Christ] who knew no sin, hath He [God] made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
"Now what have you to do in order to be saved?" I asked.
"That's what I wants to know," answered the anxious one.
"You have simply to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus receive Him as your own blessed Savior. As you believe on Him, you receive Him: He becomes your righteousness. For 'Christ Jesus... is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' " 1 Cor. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30). As I uttered these words I removed the white handkerchief from the root on the right to the naked root on the left, and I asked, as I covered it: "Do you understand that?"
"I SEES IT! OH YES, I'LL TRUST HIM!" shouted dear Hodge, with a radiant face. And he did. TO YOU, READER:
Before you throw this booklet aside with the thought in your mind, very probably that it is fit only to be read to an infant class in Sunday School, please read what follows.
That evening the Gospel meeting in the large schoolroom was well attended. Having been told that there were some present as ignorant as was my friend Hodge, I repeated, in the course of my address, the conversation I had held with him that morning. I also made use of the simple illustration, or object lesson, of the hat and handkerchief.
Seated near the front were Dr. and Mrs. Deane. I knew the wife to be a follower of Christ; and, partly, perhaps, from the fact of her husband attending this simple gathering, I concluded that he too was on the Lord's side.
Next day, while at luncheon at my kind hostess's table, I was told by the maid that Dr. Deane was there and would like to see me. As I entered the parlor, the doctor met me. Taking both my hands in his, he said in a tone of deep feeling: "Can you believe it—I never saw God's way of salvation until last night when you gave us that childishly simple illustration with the hat and handkerchief? I never understood it before."
Kindly mark these facts: Dr. Deane was a noted surgeon and was well known as an unusually intellectual man. He had regularly attended church services for years; and yet (to quote his words) he had been partly depending upon ordinances, partly upon giving a vague mental assent to the truth of the Gospel, and partly upon someday rendering himself acceptable to God (he hoped) by his good works. He astonished me by saying: "I knew as little of God's way to be saved and of my need of a personal transaction with Him as did that uneducated laboring man."
Now, my reader, are you depending upon religious forms, church connections, or personal attainments for your salvation? Mark it well: "God is no respecter of persons." Acts 10:3434Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: (Acts 10:34). For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). High and low, rich and poor, must alike "come unto God by Him." Heb. 8:25.