Editor’s NOTICE. It is remarkable that the following narrative, by the pen of one brought to Christ through the instrumentality of “Samuel” should reach us, unsolicited, just now. May it be God’s message to you, dear unsaved reader!
The writer is one of scores, possibly hundreds, who will thank God through eternity that they were brought into contact with the dear servant of the Lord, known affectionately to so many as “S.T.”
When but three years or so of age, a cousin asked my parents if she might take me with her to Sunday School.
On looking back, how I thank God for thus leading me there! That He did so, I have no doubt. How I thank Him for the faithfulness of dear “S.T.” and his band of teachers, while for nine or ten years the “bread” was being cast upon the waters.
As I write, I can picture that dear servant of the Lord, with tears rolling down his face and with trembling voice, pleading with the children, and beseeching them to come to Christ the Saviour.
Yes, I can hear, as it were, those loving tones still, repeating the words of the One Who is now my precious Saviour, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). Many times while listening has the writer been “almost persuaded to be a Christian.”
When I was leaving the meeting room to have a little more pleasure, and waiting for “some more convenient season,” “S.T” would say: “Charlie, is it alright now? Has Jesus washed your sins away? If my precious Saviour should come before you reach home, would you be ready to meet Him? The teachers will go; the children who know Him will go; and all others who know Him not will be left behind!”
Though but a child, the coming of the Lord was to me a reality. It is so now; but oh, what a difference!
I knew I was unsaved. I intended to be saved, but would put it off for a little longer!
The time came when the one who writes thought himself too big for Sunday School. He must try the world, but only to find, as all do, that “This world has nothing new to give; it has no true, no pure delight.” Oh, the mercy of our God! The bread “cast” came back after many days.
Never did I retire without the thought that the Lord might take all the saved ones to meet Him in the air before the light of another day.
The words of dear “S.T.” could not be forgotten, “What if Jesus comes now?” Well do I remember the New Year’s Eve, when, fearing to meet the Lord, and fearing, too, to go on in sin, I accepted the Saviour’s loving invitation, so many times unheeded, and
“I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting place—,
And He has made me glad.”
It may be that some who will read these lines may have known “S.T.,” too, but do not yet know his precious Saviour, to Whom he has now gone. To such, yea, and to any unsaved reader I would ask the all important question, What if the Lord come while you read? What if He should take His own home before the light of another day?
Are you ready to meet Him? His coming again is very near. Only they who are Christ’s at His coming will be caught up to meet Him in the air!
Only those whose sins have been washed away in His precious blood will go to be with and like Him, to sing His praise throughout eternity! Oh, unsaved soul, be wise in time! “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”
While Jesus calls you, while the door of mercy stands open, Come!
Oh! come now as you are; He will save. Trust Him now, and be among the company of those who will be with Him and like Him forever, to sing of His love in laying down His life, that we poor, lost, hell-deserving sinners might be saved.
E.C.F.