WHEN I was visiting a friend some time ago, she asked me to speak to her young relative, a boy of about fourteen years of age. His parents were godly people, but he was still unconverted.
We spoke together on the necessity of repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
He listened attentively for some time, and then said that it would be very difficult for him to become a Christian.
“Why so?” I asked.
“Because all the boys would laugh at me.”
“Don’t you know any Christians amongst your schoolfellows?”
“No,” he answered: “none of them speak of these things.”
At length he said, “I will tell you what I will do; I will wait till I’m a man, and then I shall get away from all my companions, and go into the country, and live there away from all temptation, and I will turn a Christian then.”
“Oh!” said I, “what a cowardly thing that would be! What would any king think of a man who said, I am going to be a soldier, but I will wait till all the wars are over, and the fighting done.”
My young friend then told me that the boys in the school had once agreed to play a mischievous trick on one of the teachers, and that they had all joined in it but three.
“Were you one of the three?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“And why did you not join in it? Did you think it would please God if you did not?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“Why did you wish to please God? I thought you told me that you had not come to Jesus, and that you did not belong to God!”
He owned again that he was not the Lord’s.
“Yet you did this to please Him. Remember there are only the two masters—the Lord or Satan. If you don’t belong to the one, you must belong to the other. The Lord Himself says, ye cannot serve two masters.”
“Now,” I continued, as he was silent, “suppose there was a king, and this king had an army, and some of his soldiers deserted, and went over to the ranks of his enemy, and when the king heard of it he was grieved, and sent word that he would freely pardon every deserter who would come back. Now suppose some of them did not come back, but while still in the ranks of the enemy, said, ‘Well I know the king would like me to do this, or would not like me to do some other thing’; they might do many things to please him, but would the king be pleased with anything they did as long as they were on the side of his enemy? No, he could not. They must first change ranks. Now, is not this what you have been doing? God is now offering you pardon; and He offers it today—not tomorrow. You might be in eternity in a few minutes. His word is, ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ All that you are now doing,” I said to him, “and all that you are refraining from doing, in order to please God, will go for nothing. He cannot accept your service while you are in rebellion. First, be His, and then serve Him.”
As we parted, he promised me very solemnly to consider what we had been speaking of. The Lord Himself perfected the work, and some months after when I again heard of him, my dear young friend had openly confessed Christ.
After going on well for about a year, this dear boy’s health began to fail, and in little more than two years from the time of that Conversation, he was in eternity.
How very different might his end have been had he delayed repentance to a future time. He never lived to be a man!
Many boys are just in the same condition. Halting between two opinions, seeking to serve two masters, doing many things, but neglecting God’s way of salvation.
My reader, remember that you have a soul that can never die. If you have not been born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. You are either on the broad road, which leadeth to destruction, or on the narrow way that leadeth unto life.
I can never forget a remark made by an old woman in a country town where an evangelist had been proclaiming the glad tidings.
The people were very dark, and some of them got angry with the preacher, saying one to another, “What presumption to tell people that they can know that their sins are forgiven, and that they have eternal life!” This old woman on hearing their remarks, made the following reply: “Weel, sir, the twa roads are no sae very like one anither, as that ye may mistake which ye’re on; they are just as opposite as night and day, or light and darkness!”
Be honest, then, dear young reader, with yourself, and judge your state, not by your own thoughts, nor by comparing yourself with others, but by the word of God. If you find that you are indeed a lost sinner, remember that the Lord Jesus said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
I. D.