THE importance of receiving the gospel, when an opportunity of so doing is presented to the soul, cannot be overestimated. The truth of this was greatly impressed upon my mind in connection with some gospel meetings, which I had, not long since, in the East of London.
For three successive nights a large audience came together to hear the glad tidings of the grace of God.
The first night a fine intelligent young fellow named Fred―, the picture of health, and youthful physical energy, was brought by a converted comrade to the meeting. That night he was somewhat interested as to the matter of his soul’s salvation.
The next evening his friend again induced him to come and hear the Word, and he did so. The end of the meeting, however, still found him undecided for Christ.
On the third evening he had serious thoughts of coming to the meeting, but was waylaid by a number of godless companions, who chaffed him for attending gospel meetings, and eventually dissuaded him from going that night.
Mercifully for Fred his Christian friend just then crossed his path, and, dragging him from the clutches of the devil’s servants, induced him to carry out his first intention of going to hear the Word of Life.
At the close of that third meeting a very bright-faced young man came up the aisle, and with outstretched hand, grasped mine, as tears suffused his eyes, exclaiming that he had found the Lord, his sins were forgiven; that he knew he was saved; and that from that night, by divine grace, he would be on the Lord’s side.
On asking what had brought light to his soul, and led him to decision, he said, “It was that bit of the preaching about the blood.”
The part he referred to ran thus. I had been saying― “Some sinners are afraid to come to Christ, because they are so conscious they are sinners. Satan attacks them with the remembrance of their sins. He presses on them the enormity of their guilt―sins of thought, word, and deed, of daylight, and darkness; sins, the very memory of which makes them blush, and the exposure of which would utterly terrify them. How is the enemy to be dealt with in such a case? I will tell you how I deal with him.
“I say, ‘Oh mine accuser, write all my sins on that wall, do not leave out one, from the day of my birth till this hour, put them all down, write them big.’ And Satan, so to speak, writes them up, thousands, tens of thousands, millions, billions, trillions. Go on, I say, do not leave out one. And so he writes them, innumerable as they be.
“When all are written, he will say, ‘Now then what can you say to that list?’ My answer is very simple, ‘I can say nothing, but God says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from every sin.”’
“Hallelujah! They are all gone, and the accuser goes too. He cannot stand the testimony to the blood of Christ. That blood he hates, but God exalts it, while sinners trust and saints delight in it, for the Holy Ghost declares it to be ‘precious,’ and the believing soul finds it to be efficacious in the blotting out of every transgression.”
“That bit about the blood settled me,” said Fred, for this was he. His beaming face bespoke the reality of the change of heart. And that his ways were changed, I afterwards learned, was only too apparent, as he boldly testified among his comrades at work, that Christ was now his Saviour, Lord and Master; and, on every opportunity, he found his place with the children of God, for prayer, reading, and hearing the Word.
One short fortnight elapsed, and the launching day of an enormous Japanese war vessel arrived in the establishment where Fred labored as an artisan. The huge monster of the deep glided majestically into the Thames, then at flood tide, and just beginning to ebb.
Immediately she was launched, Fred, with a number of other young men, was dispatched in a boat to pick up some of the timbers, which formed her launching cradle, and were floating in the Thames. His comrades fell a-skylarking, upset the boat, and all were submerged in the rapidly flowing river. All came to the surface, but my dear young friend Fred. He never came above water, and his body was never found, but in the day of resurrection I have no doubt I shall see him in the likeness of Christ.
Well was it for him that on that third night he had decided for Christ. Had he not done so, how different would have been his eternity. We might truly say, he was only “just in time.” But thank God he was “just in time.”
Reader, 1899 is dying out. Are you the Lord’s yet? Are you converted? Are you forgiven? Are you saved? Are you washed in the Saviour’s blood? indwelt by the Spirit, and a child of God? Or are you still in your sins a stranger to God, a stranger to grace? unforgiven, unwashed, unblest, unsaved? Forget not that eternity is before-you, and that you may enter it at any time. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Be in time.
We heartily invite you to come to the Saviour now. Trust Him where you are, just as you are. He will pardon and bless you. Only trust Him. Believe His love. Believe His blood. Believe His name. Believe that Jesus is a Saviour, not only a Saviour, but may you be able to say, “He is my Saviour.” Should a new year come in, oh begin it with God. Let not the old year die out and find you still unsaved. What you need is decision for Christ. Decide for Him now!
W. T. P. W.