Mary Martin wanted to be converted. She longed to be numbered among the Christians she knew. Coming home from work one day, she heard someone in the street proclaiming the truth, as it is in Jesus, to a small company of poor men and women. Attracted by the sound, she listened. Inwardly she resolved that she would surely go where the preacher would tell out his message on the next Sunday.
Mary ascertained the place where the preacher was to preach, and many times after that did she listen to his voice. Always she hoped that her turn would come, that God would change her heart and make her like others whom she knew. But, though she longed to be converted, she seemed to have been passed by.
Was there no mercy for her? Was she to be among the lost in the day of the Lord?
She dreaded death, and justly, for she knew her sins were unforgiven. She prayed devoutly, read her Bible, attended public religious instruction. But for all this, to say her peace was made, and that she was accepted of God, she could not. One after another of her Christian friends visited her, but she seemed hopeless.
Then despondency stole over her. No words seemed to have any affect upon her, and her concern in her soul's salvation gradually lessened. Those interested in her feared she was sinking back into the world from which she had appeared to be escaping. But God is rich in mercy; just as Satan seemed to triumph, He came in, in grace, and made her His.
One night the preacher chose 1 Tim. 1:55Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (1 Timothy 1:5) as his text, and dwelt on the three things that characterize a Christian―"love out of a pure heart," "a good conscience," and "faith unfeigned." He showed that God is happy in bestowing these things on the sinner who receives the gospel; that it is indeed a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus had come into the world to save sinners―"of whom I am chief," said Paul, who wrote that epistle.
Mary listened most attentively. When she heard that Saul, the "persecutor, blasphemer, and injurious," was saved through faith in Jesus, a new light burst in upon her soul.
"What," she said, "that murderer, Saul of Tarsus, saved! Then why not I? He believed that Jesus who died on Calvary was the Son of God, and his Savior. Why should not I do just the same? I see it now as it never crossed my mind before. Jesus who is now in heaven has satisfied His Father's righteous claims upon the cross, and at the same time He took away my sins! Then I am free to look up into His face and call Him my Savior!”
She could scarcely restrain herself from going at once to the preacher to tell what the Lord had done for her. She went home, singing in the fullness of joy, to tell her family how her peace was made; for as she said, "Christ has put away all my sins.”
Mary still remains a bright and blessed testimony to the grace of God, in whom she has put her trust, and whom she now seeks to please.
Dear reader, will you be one of those who rejoices in Christ? The world has cast Him out, but He saves all those who come to Him―saves them just as they are.