“COME on, Mary, else we’ll be late. We were told to be in time, or the door would be shut,” and the bare thought of being excluded from the New Year Treat, to which the two girls had been looking forward all that week, and for which they had been learning some verses to repeat, made them scamper along the crisp, frozen road, upon which a slight shower of snow had fallen that afternoon.
The Sunday School to which Mary and her younger sister Annie went, had been the scene of a most wonderful visitation of grace. A great interest in eternal things had been awakened among the young people of that district and for three months, Sunday after Sunday, without a break, there had been conversions; boys and girls, and young men and young ladies led to Christ by means of the Gospel simply and faithfully spoken, personally to some, and to others in classes; but in the greater number of cases. Christ was received (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)) and, confessed (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)) through reading God’s Word, or being pointed to the Saviour by companions and friends at home.
The New Year gathering had been looked forward to and much prayed for, that it might be a night of conversion to souls still undecided, but anxious. Among these were Mary and Annie, two bright girls, daughters in a Christian family, whose home was some little distance from the Sunday School. They had heard the way of life from their earliest years, but, like many who have had the same privileges, they were still unsaved, still without Christ, and the chief cause of their Christ less condition was lest they should lose the world with its pleasures, and be laughed at by their companions.
As the meeting opened, one of the teachers announced,
“All who have trusted Christ during the year, might stand up, and sing together that grand old hymn beginning—
‘O happy day that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God.’”
At this request from an aged teacher a fine band of young folks stood up and sang, as only young converts, in the freshness of their earliest love, can, until the echo rang again,
“Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.”
Tears of joy filled the eyes of many of the older ones, as that glorious song rolled on. It was not difficult to see, that of those who could not stand to sing it as new born children of God, some were very uneasy. Mary and Annie, usually bright and cheery, sat with their heads bowed, while every line of the hymn sung with fervor and manifest enjoyment by those who had trusted in Christ, went like a sword to their hearts. There was real power with the simple story of the cross of Christ, and some were “added to the Lord” as the result of that New Year night’s meeting.
As the children filed out from the hall into the clear moonlight, they were given a paper telling of the conversion of two boys. Mary and Annie sat up and read the story of the conversion of these boys.
“If they were both saved by trusting in Jesus, so may we,” said Mary. And kneeling side by side, the two girls yielded themselves to Him, and were saved.
“Faith in Christ will save me;
Trust in Him, the risen One;
Trust the work that He has done;
To His arms I now may run: —
Faith in Christ will save me.”
ML 01/25/1925