I was walking along a country road one afternoon, and came across a group of laborers just leaving their work. We got into conversation, and I asked "Where do you think you'll go when you die?”
There was a pause, and all but one slipped away. He was physically a fine specimen of a man, but trouble and discontent marked his features. He came closer to me, and said: "I'd like to know the answer to that, sir.”
"Do you know that Jesus came into the world to save sinners?" I asked.
"Well, I suppose that is true," he responded, "but I can't say I feel it.”
"Are you a sinner?”
"That's just it, sir. I am, as all my mates know, a downright bad guy. I do feel that, sir.”
"Jesus Christ felt your sins and my sins on the cross far more than you or I can feel our own badness," was my response, "and, whether we feel miserable or happy, the truth which Jesus Himself declared remains ever the same: if I be lifted up [speaking of His death] from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' And He said, "The Son of Man [must] be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.' You are a 'whosoever,'" I said, "for it means everyone, and He did not say, 'whosoever feeleth,' but 'whosoever believeth,' trusteth in the God-Man who died for sinners, and is now the glorified Man living in heaven. Trust in Him, and you shall never perish, but shall be saved from 'eternal judgment' and the 'vengeance of eternal fire.' You shall possess eternal life.”
He answered earnestly, "I do wish, sir, I could feel that way.”
"Well," I said, "whether you feel it or not, God is true, and He 'so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Before he left me, he looked so happy, so relieved, that I could not but believe that God had done His work through His word. However, I may have spoiled it by my weak and stupid way of expressing it. We parted with such a hearty good-by, that I thanked God I had spoken to him.
Months after this I was again walking in this neighborhood with an eminent lawyer, distinguished in his profession for acumen and learning as much as he was in the religious world for orthodoxy and piety. He was, however, afraid to believe that he was saved for eternity, and thought it presumptuous to be so. Yet, with his knowledge of the Bible, he could not be quite satisfied with this uncertainty, and this was the topic of our conversation: "I cannot but think," he said, "that much is in the Bible in favor of what you urge as to being quite sure. Can you give me, from your own experience, some instance of this sudden conversion, from anxiety and darkness to happy assurance, and of the permanent results? Can you?" he added, searching me with his eyes, as one accustomed to weigh evidence.
For a moment I was at a loss. Many instances flashed across my memory, but as often the recollection of some failure or defect deterred me from giving one as a test case. Suddenly I looked up, and away down the road I saw walking towards us the identical laborer I had spoken to some months previously.
This, I felt, could be no coincidence, and I drew my friend's attention at once to the man as he slowly advanced. As accurately and briefly as I could I told him of that previous encounter, though I must confess I felt a little fearful that, after all, the work might have been superficial and transitory; but as he drew near he looked so bright and happy that I was reassured I called out to him, "Do you remember me, my man?”
"Can't say I do, sir," was the answer.
"Do you remember someone speaking to you on the road near Tottenham nearly a year ago?”
"That I do, sir. I remember you now, and what you said. I have been happier and better in body and pocket ever since. I've got it, sir," said he, striking his many buttoned big waistcoat a great blow with his fist. "I've got it in here, sir that internal life you spoke of.”
"Internal life!" said I. "Why, it was eternal life I spoke of!”
"So it is, sir, but for all that I have it in here, and I rest all upon Jesus Christ, who died for me.”
"Has it changed your life at all?" I asked.
"Indeed it has, sir. I haven't touched a drop of liquor since. And I am going home to my old lady with this," said he, pulling out a bag of money from his pocket.
"This is what keeps me going," he said, pulling out from the other pocket a well-worn Bible. "But in spite of all that, I never felt I was so bad as I do now. Still I am happy, and God bless you for telling me of Jesus.”
His happy, frank, earnest countenance was most convincing. It answered all the questionings of the reasoning, legal mind; and, as he said afterwards, it was clear that this man rested his happiness not on any imparted holiness to his body or his soul, for he still sorrowfully owned how bad his heart was. Nor was it on his feelings that he relied. No; it must have been that he was born from above, renewed by God's Spirit. The eternal life, the gift of God, was clearly his, and was to him "internal." "He that hath the Son hath life" was his present possession and his future comfort.
Bidding him farewell, we walked on a long time in silence. My learned companion plainly was deeply touched, and readily confessed the reality of the man's testimony.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).