I KNEW a young German lady, a Lutheran by profession, but who had been brought up in a Romish convent until she was seventeen years of age. On the second day of my acquaintance with her, I spoke to her of the love of Jesus in saving poor lost sinners, but alas! she thought the way to glory was by our doing our best, and said she hoped it would be all right with her at last. She said she believed that all her sins could not be forgiven until she individually had made some retribution for them.
I told her that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was a "finished work," and that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us who believe from all sin, from every sin of every kind. What could a poor sinner do to put away his sins, or to make retribution for them? Jesus Himself had finished the work.
All her answer was, that every one that had taught her could not be wrong. Her religious instructor had been regarded by religious professors as a very clever man, and he never told her that salvation was without money and without price.
In this state of soul two or three weeks of her life passed away. She accompanied me to gospel service one evening, and at the end was under deep conviction. On her arrival at our home, I again spoke to her of Christ, but the effect of my words seemed to be only to make her more miserable. I then bade her good-night, entreating her to cast herself wholly on Christ, warning her that perhaps before another morning dawned she might be in eternity, and it would be a Christless eternity if she rejected the free salvation of God.
She called me back to her room again, and said, "Oh, M., I cannot sleep another night without Christ.”
“Christ has paid the debt, you have only to accept Him. His own Word declares, ' He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.'" (John 5:24.)
In a moment the dark, miserable expression vanished from her countenance, and she answered brightly, "Yes, I see it now; Christ paid the debt, and I am saved.”
She is now a shining witness for her newfound Saviour.
Reader, what of you? Can you, like my young friend, bless the Lord Jesus Christ for having paid the debt with His own precious blood? Or are you still trying to do your best, and hoping it will be all right at last, as my young friend was but a few weeks ago? May God in His grace enable you to say—
"Jesus paid it all;
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
M. P. C.