M. you are very ill; perhaps you may die. Are you ready? Do you think you will go to Jesus?” asked a Christian friend who visited him in his illness.
“Yes, yes,” said he; “I am sure I shall go to heaven.”
“And why are you so sure?” she asked again.
“O, ma’am,” was his answer, “Jesus says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you’; and that’s me. ‘He that heareth My word’—and I do listen to His word— ‘and believeth on Him that sent Me’—and I believe— ‘hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life’—and Jesus never told a lie.”
Here was his happiness, here his peace and assurance, Jesus was true; He could not tell a lie. If Jesus said,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you,” M. believed what He said; he did not trouble himself to reason on the words of the blessed Saviour, but received them as a little child. And thus the dear boy was perfectly happy.
“He who believeth not God,” saith the Scripture, “hath made Him a liar.”
O what a beautiful thing is a little grain of simple faith! By it the soul is saved Forever—Jesus glorified, heaven gladded, Satan disarmed.
Have you, my friend, this boy’s faith in Jesus—is it quite enough for you that He who hung on Calvary, that He who for love to such sinful creatures as we; gave up His pure life a ransom on our behalf—is it enough, I say, that He says,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation?” &c. John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
Are these blessed words an answer to the accusing’s of your troubled conscience, to the roars of the adversary? They are the words of Him who cannot lie, as He says, “I am the truth;”
“The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life.”
Do you believe the words of Jesus? If so, you have everlasting life. If you will not believe, you make Him a liar, and you will perish in hell.
What a grand thing it is to be simple, like a little child with God! Eternal joy depends upon it, and happiness here also.
ML 05/31/1931