When John was a teenager, he went to college. While he had been a school boy, he just thought about playing and studying. But now that he was getting older, John was not happy. He thought of God and he was afraid. He began to read religious books and tried to live a better life.
Remember, John had never heard the gospel clearly. He did not know that what makes us holy in God’s sight is not what we can do but what Christ has done for us. Poor John’s efforts to make himself better only succeeded in making him more unhappy than ever. He met other friends at his college, including his own brother Charles, who started a club to try to help each other do good works such as visiting prisons and poor families. They did this in order to earn their salvation. They did not understand that in God’s sight “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
But God who is rich in mercy planned to save poor John from the thoughts of his own goodness and to show him instead the goodness of God that leads to repentance.