IN an Oxfordshire village lived an old Christian woman she was greatly troubled about the dark spiritual condition of the place, and prayed persistently for fourteen years for its blessing.
One day two young men preached on the village green. One statement that they kept repeating puzzled two of their hearers. They betook themselves to old Ann, as likely to give an explanation.
“Ann," they cried, "there be two young men preaching on the green, and they do say that 'new is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.' What be they meaning, Ann?”
Here Was Ann's opportunity. Her answer was not only true but wonderfully graphic. Her desire for the spiritual blessing of her questioners quickened her, faculties, and the answer shows the true heart-longing of the winner of souls. Ann replied: "If you believe on Jesus NOW, and died to-night, you would be in heaven to-morrow; but if you did not believe in Jesus, and died to-night, you would be in hell to-morrow.”
There was no Mistaking the plain English of the answer. One of the women weighed it over, and trusted the Lord Jesus without delay the other woman, who asked old Ann the question, put off deciding. Two weeks later she was returning from her work in the fields, intending to light her fire, boil the kettle, and have an early cup of tea. Alas! the fire was never lit. The cottage threshold was scarcely reached when a neighbor saw her stagger up the little garden path, and fall prostrate to the ground. She ran to her help, but before further assistance could be obtained and the poor woman placed upon her little sofa in the small kitchen, she had died. So far as our knowledge goes she made no profession of having trusted the Savior, and thus she passed into eternity.
Beyond the inexpressibly sad warning contained in this incident, and the bare possibility of my unconverted reader dying to-night and being in hell to-morrow, ay, and sooner than that, our desire in bringing this incident before you is to press upon your acceptance the truth of God's own words:
God offers to save you on the spot. Sometimes people will tell you they are waiting for God's time. They cannot do that. It is an impossibility. If God promised to save you five minutes hence you could wait God's time, but when He says, "NOW is the accepted time," you cannot wait for NOW. Oh! that the loving importunity of a Savior-God would lead to a wise and instant decision.
And I will tell you why "Now is the day of salvation." Because the Savior has died. Because the work of salvation has been gloriously and perfectly accomplished—the work whereby God can in righteous grace save the vilest sinner who puts his trust in Jesus.
Just as in the parable the servants were instructed by the King to say, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage," so we, as servants of God, can say, Jesus has died, atonement has been made, all things are now ready, come and trust the Savior. You will find that if you accept God's time and offer He will accept you, for did not Jesus say, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out"? If you make NOW your day of salvation, and "died to-night," in old Ann's graphic words, "you would be in heaven to-morrow," ay, sooner than that, for did not the Savior say to the dying thief, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise"?
And if you really trusted the Savior to-day, and there is no reason why you. should not, and every reason why you should, and you lived for many years to come, then you would have the "joy and peace" that believing gives, peace as to your guilty past, peace as to your certain future, joy in the knowledge of the Savior, joy in the prospect of being with Him and like Him forever.
Oh! close in with God's proffered mercy, is the writer's earnest advice, and do it NOW.
A. J. P.