THE following is the story of the conversion of a young lad of about fifteen years of age. He went to some special services, which were conducted by an earnest evangelist, who, being himself happy in Christ and rejoicing in the knowledge of sin forgiven, was longing that others should share in his joy.
“Dear friends,” said the speaker, “you are all of you saved or lost. You are on your way either to eternal happiness and joy, or you are on the downward road that leads you to everlasting torment; you cannot take a middle path, for God says there are only two ways — the strait and narrow way that leads to life; the broad one that ends in hell.
“A terrible shipwreck happened a short time ago, when many precious souls were ushered into eternity with scarcely a warning. Very few of the passengers that sailed in that ship ever reached the land to tell the sad tale.
“Now, if you had been on the beach at that time, and a man had come to you, saying, ‘Do you know that there were sixty passengers on board that vessel which has just gone down? — twenty escaped safe to shore, twenty were drowned in the sea, and twenty were neither saved nor lost!’ what would you think of such a man? You would at once say, ‘The man is mad.’ Well now, many are just like that man, for they say, ‘I know I am not saved, but I should not like to say I am lost: it’s far too dreadful to contemplate such a thing.’ But now listen for a minute to what God declares in His word, and we know every word is true: turn to John 3:1818He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18), what do we read there? ‘He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’”
So ran the address to which the lad D —L― listened. He saw the force of the illustration; he knew he could not say, “I am saved,” but hitherto he had not considered himself lost. His conscience was throughly aroused, and he opened his heart to an earnest Christian, who was the means of leading him to accept God’s mercy, and he now rejoices in Christ as his own Saviour.
Dear reader, Are you saved or lost: which is it? Answer this most solemn question before God, and if you cannot truly say, “Thank God, I am saved,” then, like the young lad of whom I have told you, do not rest till you, can say, “I am saved.” Life is short; you may never see the light of another day. Oh, look to Jesus now; He has died that you, the sinner, might never die, and — oh, wondrous thought! — that you might live forever with Him in heaven. Simply take Him at His word, trust Him with childlike faith, and thank Him for His salvation.