Mr. Nyi was a successful business man in the Chinese city of Ning-Poo. One day he was passing along the street when he heard a bell ringing, and following the people he came to what the people in China called a “Jesus Hall.” It was a little mission where the missionary was preaching about Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.
A young man was preaching. He was dressed like a Chinese student, and he was preaching from John’s gospel, Chapter 3.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
“For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” vv. 14,15,17.
It was the first time that Nyi had ever heard the gospel. He had often thought about God and about his sins, and the more he thought the less he liked God, for he felt that God must be angry with him on account of his sins.
But this story the young preacher was telling was indeed good news, and Nyi listened with both eyes and ears open. He was not what you would call a bad man, but he was unable to find peace in his Chinese religion and he had founded a new religion of his own, one that had new ways in the hope that he might find God and rest for his soul. For the first time, Nyi heard about Jesus and the love of God, of His mercy and goodness, and his heart was glad. When the preacher ceased speaking, Nyi rose and began to talk. This is what he said: “I have long sought the truth, as my father before me, but without finding it. I have traveled far and near, but have never searched it out. In Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, I have found no rest; but I do find rest in what we have heard tonight. Henceforward, I am a believer in Jesus.”
Everyone present knew Nyi, and his little sermon had more effect than the preacher’s longer one.
When the people were gone, Nyi remained to talk with the young missionary. His name was Hudson Taylor. They talked long into the night, and afterward Nyi, the cotton merchant, became a great help to the missionaries and often preached the gospel to his people. He spoke bore his friends, and told them why he had become a Christian, and asked them to come to the Saviour and become Christians too.
One day he was talking with Mr. Taylor about the great change that had come into his life, when suddenly, looking up into the face of the missionary, he asked: “How long have you had the glad tidings in England?”
The missionary was ashamed to tell him, so he tried to pass it over by saying that it was several hundred years.
Nyi was thunderstruck and cried out in his surprise: “What! Several hundred years! Is it possible that you have known about Jesus so long and only have come to tell us? Why, sir, my father sought the truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it.”
Then with a sigh in his voice, that spoke the pain of his heart, he add, “Oh, why did you not come sooner?”
Oh, dear reader, you who have heard the gospel many times and are still unsaved, how solemn it will be to stand before the great white throne of judgment in all your sins, to know and feel that you might have been saved, but now it was too late. Oh, may you come to Christ now. Accept Him as your Lord and Saviour, while it is yet the day of grace, and go on your way happily to heaven.
May we who know that blessed Saviour and have eternal life in Him, go out in love to souls and seek to bring them to Christ.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15.
ML 07/16/1967