" DINNA ken ye me?” said a Scotsman to an evangelist at the close of a gospel meeting.
“I ken ye fine,” said the evangelist, “you’re Sandy. It is years since we last met, and you have not altered much. I hope you have grown in grace as you seem to be growing in usefulness. I am glad to hear you are still teaching the Sunday School.”
“Aye, man,” said Sandy, “I thank God every day for you night you slept with me. It was a memorable night.”
Years before when the evangelist was a young man he shared a room with Sandy. The first night they were together he asked Sandy if he were a Christian. Sandy replied, “Yes, I’ve been a Christian all my life.”
“Then what makes you think you’re a Christian?” said the young evangelist.
“Well,” he replied, “I’ve always attended the church and Sunday School. I’m a member now, and a teacher in the Sunday School, and if I’m not a Christian I wonder who is?”
“Well,” said the evangelist, “let us turn to the Bible and see what it has to say. It kens a lot about us.”
“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.” If we take Romans 3, it’s a very dark picture, and a very true one. “There is none righteous, no, not one. They are all gone out of the way. We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
“Or if we listen to what the Lord Jesus said, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ That does not seem as if any of us have been Christians all our lives.”
“No, it does not,” replied Sandy.
The next evening as the evangelist entered the room Sandy was sobbing. “What’s wrong now,” his friend asked.
“O, I’m just a poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinner,” he answered.
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” said his friend, for “it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
They knelt together and the evangelist explained as fully as he could the way of salvation. Before they retired to rest that night Sandy passed out of death into life. He longer trusted in himself and his good works, but he trusted in Christ alone as his Saviour. He became a Christian indeed, and a Christian in deeds.
The following day he went home to a nearby town to tell his parents the good news of his salvation. Within a few months it was his great joy to win his father and two brothers for Christ, and to hear them openly confess Him as their Saviour and Lord. From the first day of his conversion Sandy was a happy, devoted Christian and Sunday School teacher.
“They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.”
ML-07/30/1972