"Well, Walter, it is good to see you here at the meeting. By your coming, I judge you are still going on with the Lord.”
So the evangelist greeted a young man whom he had not seen for some time and who at previous encounters had manifested a sincere love for Christ. This time, however, Walter's face flushed as he avoided a direct reply by hastily drawing forward an attractive, fashionably attired young woman. "This is my wife," he stated, with evident pride.
For a moment the preacher was too surprised to acknowledge the introduction; but quickly regaining his usual poise, he congratulated the young couple. To the bride he added, "And you have chosen a dear child of God.”
"That's funny! He didn't tell me anything about that." This was her flippant answer.
Taken aback, but still seeking to put Christ first in the conversation, the minister replied: "I trust that you, too, know the joy of sins forgiven and have the certainty of eternal salvation.”
With a toss of the head came the haughty answer: "I consider that my business. Come on, Walter, let's go." And off went the embarrassed young husband and his bride of a few weeks.
In seeking to speak well of Christ and urge upon others the importance of things eternal, the Christian is often told to "mind his own business." Friend, that is just what the believer in Jesus is trying to do. He knows your danger in attempting to live— or to die— without Christ, and wants to tell you of God's grace in providing a Savior for time and eternity.
After a gospel meeting in a large city, the speaker of the evening addressed a worldly looking woman whom he had never seen before and sought to tell her of God's gift of His Son to save such as she. When her husband rejoined her, and she mentioned the circumstance to him, he said: "If I had been there, I would have told him to go about his own business.”
"Why, John," the lady replied, "if you had been here you would have said that he was about his own business.”
Friend out of Christ, do not disdain the voice of warning. It is every Christian's business to remind others that TIME is brief, that ETERNITY is near, and to urge them to flee to the only Savior of sinners for refuge from the coming storm of God's wrath.