A Letter from a Teenager
“FOR MONTHS I have been going to write and tell you I was saved through the preaching at Belmont. From childhood I was brought up to attend Sunday school and church. I was a teenager when I first had any real conviction of sin. I wanted to be good and live as God desired me to, but how to attain to this I didn’t know. I had never heard of a Saviour who could both save and keep. “Be good” was about the only message I heard. I did many things in my efforts to be good but they all failed to give me peace and satisfaction. I saw other girls hang what I thought was a good time, and I joined in with them and became pleasure mad. I left the church and gave myself wholly to pleasure. Yet in the midst of it all I was so unhappy, miserable beyond expression, and I did not know to whom I could turn for help.
“Then I saw your tent at the end of the street, and I felt drawn to enter. The people seemed so happy and I could see you really meant what you were preaching about. I came again the following Sunday. Your text was Matthew 23:37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” You showed how God loved us and Jesus died for us, and that He was able and willing to save and protect us. Aer your address the hymn was sung: “In Tenderness He Sought Me.” I wept and
I wondered what He saw in me,
To suffer such deep agony.
Praise God, I was able to accept the Lord Jesus as my own personal Saviour. For nearly four years I have been so happy in His love and my greatest joy is to talk to others about Him. Isn’t He wonderful? ‘His name shall be called Wonderful,’ and try His works are wonderful! Oh that others might know this from personal experience as I do!”
So while the hours are passing,
All now is perfect rest;
I’m waiting for the morning,
The brightest and the best,
When He will call us to His side,
To be with Him, His spotless bride.
Oh the love that sought me!
Oh the blood that bought me!
Oh the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold!
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6
ML-05/25/1969