One night just before the Armistice we were gathering the boys in khaki into a hall for a gospel service. A young corporal came by, leisurely smoking his pipe. "This is the place for you, corporal," I said; "come in, and hear the story of Jesus, the soldier's Savior and Friend."
"What place is this?" he asked. I told him that it was a hall in which the gospel of God's salvation for sinful men was preached without charge; that we did not want his money, but would be very happy if we could win his soul for the Lord Jesus. He took his pipe from his mouth and knocking out the ashes said, "I think I'll come in."
He listened with the rest to the story of the death and resurrection of the Savior—an old story— intensely precious to many, and yet reckoned out of date and discarded by the majority. When the preaching was over he got up to go. I stopped him, and said, "A lot of the men are staying for a second meeting, corporal. Won't you stay, too?"
"I'd like to," he said, "I'll tell you the words that came into my mind when you asked me to come in here; they were: 'maybe this is the way to liberty.' "
"That was good," I said, "and true too, if here you yield yourself to Christ! But tell me, do you need liberty? Are you in bondage?"
"I surely am," he said. "I thought I was fairly decent before I joined up, but I'm all wrong now. I'll stay with the boys and listen in."
The corporal had given me a good text for that second meeting. I pass it on to you; it is a well-known one, but they are generally the most useful. It was this: "I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out (there is liberty for you) and find pasture." John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9).
These are the words of Jesus, and they tell us as plainly as words can tell us, that He is the way to blessing, to liberty, and satisfaction for any and all men. I endeavored to make plain to those listening soldiers in that informal talk, how Jesus had become the door of salvation for us all by giving His life a ransom for all. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isa. 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5).
Feeling that the time had come to press them to make a decision for Christ, I said to them, "If I were to write these words on a sheet of paper, 'I am a lost sinner unable to save myself. I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and yield myself to Him,' who among you would sign it?"
I waited for answers, and the first one came from the corporal. He raised his hand, and said: "Put the corporal's name down." And, thank God, he meant it.
Perhaps like you, my reader, he was an unhappy man. It was the mercy of God that had led him to the gospel meeting that night. He had been an unconverted churchgoer before he joined the army, religious but not saved. But when he donned the khaki he had doffed all religious pretense. Getting his corporal's stripes did not help him; the pleasures of sin did not make him happy. He realized that, like chains, his sins were binding him a helpless prisoner. He needed deliverance. He longed for liberty. He had become sick of his sinful life and the devil's service. He found that night the Lord releases the prisoners.
You say, how can this be? Listen. Our Lord Jesus Christ "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
"Where sin abounded grace did much more abound."
Sin no longer has dominion over those who are the Lord's freed men. God means what He says. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Gal. 5:11Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)