NOT long ago, a young man in delicate health, named Horace W., came to San Remo; he was about twenty-one years of age, naturally intelligent, but of a reserved disposition. I visited him, and began to speak of the comfort of being safe in Christ, at peace in life, ready for death, but the poor fellow had a hopeless, weary look upon his face, which it was most painful to me, and to his loving, praying mother, to see. I asked him one day whether he had peace with God, and whether he knew that his sins were pardoned.
“I don’t know,” he replied, “I hope they will be, for I have tried very hard to pray and do what is right.”
“Well,” I said, “have you succeeded?” “No,” he answered, “I cannot say I have, so well as I ought to have done.”
I looked up for direction, and then spoke to him of our Lord’s words (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)): “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” trusting the Holy Spirit would teach Horace to apply them to himself.
Next day he told me he had thought over all I had said, but could not quite understand what I wished him to do, as he believed all the Bible, and always had done so. Again I spoke to him, from the same passage of Scripture, of the love of God in the gift of His Son, and directed him to Christ as the only way of salvation. God in mercy showed him that he had been going all wrong, and he asked earnestly if it could be true that to be saved he had only to believe what God said, adding, “But it seems so easy.” My heart went up to God in silent praise at these words, and I said nothing. After a time, he added, “But it is so new! I never heard of such a way before, how is that?”
“I don’t know,” I said; “but it is written in God’s word, and that is what you and I have to go by.” When I next saw Horace W., I found Him resting upon Christ, and believing that eternal life was his through His name. Deeper and brighter grew his knowledge of the Saviour, his very face showing the change, so that all about him remarked it; and at the same time the knowledge of his own sinfulness and weakness made him daily more dependent upon the strength which is made perfect in weakness, and upon the grace which is ready for every time of need. W.