IT may be that some are just in that stage of their spiritual history wherein the following letter was useful to the recipient of it, a man who came under concern about his future at some special meetings in Scotland.
The person indicated was an officer in the mercantile marine, a man of superior breeding and intelligence. He went to several meetings, and was conversed with by one and another, my wife being among the number. It was thought that he had come out of darkness into light; and one night I was introduced to him as a recent convert.
Soon after, I received a letter from him, the general drift of which is sufficiently expressed in the following words which I quote from it: “I was sorry to leave home so soon, for I felt as if I could get some good from you, whose faith seems to be so strong. I want to have that faith and trust. I want to know that I have got it. Can you help me?... I am anxious to receive your reply to my question—Can you help me?”
I answered as best as I could, and enclosed several tracts that I thought might assist him. His Second letter came four days later, saying: “Your remarks are very comforting, and I trust will help me out of my great difficulty. But I must take time, and study your letter and Bible references, and examine myself to see if I have a real faith. I pray for it night and morning, and try to be earnest in my prayers. The books you have sent I shall study carefully, and hope to get some help from them.”
Again I wrote to him, and a few days after came his third letter, saying: “I thank you for the plain way in which you have put before me the matter of feeling; also your remark, ‘Examine Christ (not yourself or your faith) and see if you can as implicitly trust Him with your soul as you can trust a bank with your money.’ I say to myself that I do trust Him―that I know He can save me, that I know His blood was shed for me, &c., ―but still I am not sure if I fully realize it all. I seem to be like the man in the pamphlet you sent me― ‘I have long tried to be religious, but cannot,’ only I cannot say, as he did, ‘I see it now.’ I keep your letter in my pocket, and often take it out to read, hoping that light will come to me.”
At this juncture it dawned on me that I had been on the wrong tack with him in my attempts to argue and explain. Here, evidently, was a man who was dead in earnest, and who, I believed, was ready to come to God in His own way, only the devil was raising difficulties. This seemed to be a case wherein the man must be brought at once to a definite transaction with God―a deliberate conscious surrender of self, and acceptance of Christ. I accordingly wrote a letter to that end, grounding it wholly on God’s word. Let me introduce the letter by my correspondent’s answer to it.
He writes: “I am most happy to tell you that through your letter I have got hold of the ‘mainsheet’ now, and with God’s help will never let go of it. I saw it all at once on reading your letter, and as I could say from my heart that I believed God raised Christ from the dead, and that I was willing to accept this living Christ as my Lord, I followed your advice; and it seemed as if a load were lifted off my mind ever since.”
Here is the advice referred to, as contained in my letter, and may God bless it now, dear reader, to the salvation of your soul.
“In this verse you have the entire conditions of salvation. Read it carefully; note the two conditions―confessing something, and believing something, and then ask yourself: ‘Am I now willing, at this moment, to accept Jesus as my Lord?’ If your heart replies: Yes, God knows I am! ‘then kneel down, and say to Him aloud: Lord Jesus, I really believe in my heart that God raised Thee from the dead, and that Thou art listening to my words―and now, according to this verse, written by the Holy Spirit of God, I hereby come to the point of decision, and now, at this moment, deliberately, willingly, and thankfully, I confess with my mouth, that I take Thee to be my Lord, my Master, my, Saviour; and I give myself to Thee, the best way I know how, body and soul, for time and eternity. Lord Jesus, I do not say I do this; but I really mean it and do it. Amen.’
“When you have done this, and really done it, as really as your wife did when she accepted you as her lord (her husband) ―she did not merely say she accepted you, but she did accept you―then you have God’s word to your soul, ‘Thou shalt be saved,’ in other words, ‘This is salvation.’ He does not ask you to feel or realize your salvation. He relieves you of all doubt, or trouble, or anxiety, or speculation on the subject, by coming down with His Almighty ‘shall.’ He takes all the responsibility, and says: ‘That is salvation, feel or no feel.’
“When you believe that God in this verse, in the last four words, speaks the truth, says only what He means, and means just what He says, then kneel down a second time, and humbly and gratefully thank Him for saving your soul.”
Let me add the following lines as singularly appropriate:
“‘Tis done, the great transaction’s done;
I am my Lord’s, and He is mine;
He drew me, and followed on,
Charmed to confess the voice divine.”
D. A. M.