Mr. Martin was sitting in the big railway station in Detroit waiting for the train. An old man came and sat down beside him. In a few moments Mr. Martin turned and offered him a gospel tract, and this started a conversation between them.
The old man said he had come to Detroit to see a doctor, because he had been feeling very sick. The doctor had just told him that nothing could be done and that he only had about four months to live.
“And are you not afraid to die?” Mr. Martin asked.
“Oh, no, I am not afraid to die.” “Why not? Are you sure you are going to heaven?”
“Yes, I am sure. I have lived all my life in the north of Michigan, and neither my wife nor myself can read. I had never heard a sermon since I left home as a boy, and we had no Bible in our home. Our own little boy, Donald, went to school up there and learned to read. Then one day a man spoke to him on the way home from school and gave him a Testament to read. Every evening after that, we would all sit around the supper table and Donald would read to us from the Testament.
One night he was reading in 1 Timothy 1 until he came to verse 15: ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.’
“When I heard that wonderful verse, I well remember I called out, ‘Stop! Stop! Wife, isn’t that good? We are sinners and Christ Jesus came into the world to save us — isn’t that good?’
“And right then we both knelt down beside the supper table and thanked God for His great gift which in simple faith we had just accepted.”
Perhaps, dear reader, you have often heard that wonderful verse before. You may even be able to quote it and many others from memory. But have you ever knelt down and thanked God for sending the Lord Jesus to die for you?
ML-12/12/1976