Never Too Old

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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If the above story magnifies the grace of God in saving and keeping a boy through boyhood, manhood and exceeding old age, the following anecdote testifies to the patience of God in waiting for nearly one hundred years for a sinner to come to Christ.
This man had the notorious reputation of being one of the wickedest men ever in the area. Crime had been his occupation from his youth up. Much of his long, hard career had been spent in prisons here and there. Now at the age of well over 100, he lay dying in his sins.
But his desperate case did not pass unnoticed by a servant of God in the community. He frequently visited the old man, read the Bible to him, pleaded with him and prayed for him.
One Sunday afternoon knowing that the end was near, he resolved to pay him a final visit and plead with him once more to receive the Savior, before it was forever too late.
Entering the institution where the dying man lay, a great surprise awaited him. The old man hearing him talking to the matron outside his room, called out,
“Come on in! I've got something good to tell you.”
As the visitor walked into the room, the old man repeated,
“I have something good to tell you!" then added, "The Lord has saved my poor black soul!”
Amazed and incredulous, his visitor inquired how it came about.
“As I lay here thinking," said the old man, "my thoughts went back 100 years to when I was a little boy sitting on my grandmother's knee. There she taught me verses out of the Bible—how 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.' The Lord has helped me to remember it all. I believe it. And now He has saved my poor black soul!”
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. 1:15
Pass in! pass in! that banquet
is for thee.
That cup of everlasting
love is free.
Room, room! still room!
Oh enter, enter now!
"O taste and see that the Lord is good!" Psa. 34:8