“DO you believe that God loves you?” was the earnest inquiry of an evangelist, addressed to the writer when he was yet unsaved. “No,” I emphatically replied. “How could God love such a sinner as I am? If God gave me what my sins deserve, He would put me into hell forever.”
Such was the judgment I had of my own state. I thought it was only those who were good and deserving that God loved, not knowing that “God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
I had been brought up under a godly father’s influence, whose words often penetrated my heart and conscience. I was religiously inclined. When I was very young I liked to attend gospel meetings, if perchance a passing word spoken might bring me what my soul was craving for. Oh! how I longed for “peace with God.” Yet I was kept in this miserable anxious state for years. I often longed that some kind friend would lay his hand on my shoulder, and take me quietly aside, and direct me to the Saviour. I had, like many others, the greatest timidity about making my feelings known. I thought if only someone could anticipate my difficulty, and bring before me what was needed without asking me any questions, that possibly my case might be met.
Death I dreaded; judgment I was rightly in terror of. Damnation, dark and dreadful, I knew would be my everlasting portion, if I died in my sins without Christ.
Every human means I could think of I tried, if thereby I could get from under the burden I was bearing, and thus work deliverance for myself. I became more zealous in my religious duties, said my prayers more earnestly, and read my Bible more diligently. Many a resolution I formed, and many a new leaf I turned over, but only to break the resolution and blot the newly-turned page. I tried hard to work myself into the peace I heard others say they were enjoying, and which I believed was the true portion of every forgiven person; but alas!
PEACE DID NOT COME BY THESE MEANS.
I found every effort unavailing, and I often wondered if I were destined not to be saved, and if I must perish in hell forever. I had often heard good people speak of the wonderful work of God’s grace in 1859, when so many were deeply affected, and I longed that such a wave of blessing might again pass over the country, if perchance I might be irresistibly caught by the flowing tide. I heard some speak of how they came to Christ, telling how they wrestled with the Lord, like Jacob of old, and would not let Him go except He blessed them; and after hard struggling and weary waiting they obtained the blessing.
But all this did not comfort me. There was a burden upon me — even the heavy burden of my sins, which prayer-saying and Bible-reading and increased zeal in religious duties could not atone for. At this period in my history, I shall never forget attending a Sacred Service of Song, given by the renowned Philip Phillips. As might be expected, there was a great rush for seats, and I was determined not to be shut out, and so gained admission half an hour before the service commenced. When we got comfortably seated, an aged minister of the gospel passed a gospel tract into the hand of each person in the pew. Having plenty of time before the singing commenced, I read the tract, the title of which was “Corporal A―.” It related how he had been visited by a servant of the Lord, who spoke to him plainly about bow he was to meet God. Amongst the questions addressed to the corporal, I shall never forget one, viz.,
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU MUST DO TO BE SAVED?”
The reply given was very common. “Well, I think I ought to pray,!’ The illustration used by the Lord’s servant on the occasion arrested me very much, because it exactly suited my state.
It was this. “Suppose you ask your wife to prepare you a cup of tea. When the table was spread, and the tea poured out, what would your wife think of you, if you continued asking her for the tea?”
“She would think me very foolish,” he replied.
“What would be your simple duty then?”
“To take the tea, and thank her for it.”
“And you would be right,” replied this servant of Christ.
“Well, now to apply the illustration, what must God think of you when you continue asking for what He is so freely offering? He has provided a full and free salvation through the death of His beloved Son, who in richest grace died for guilty sinners, even for ‘the unjust’ and ‘the ungodly.’ When He was expiring on Calvary, He cried, ‘It is finished,’ leaving nothing to be done, and now God can in righteousness save you for nothing.”
I had never seen it like this before. I had been asking, asking, asking, and had determined to give up praying any more, as I thought I had never felt any good from prayers. But now, for the first time in my life, I learned that God was asking me to take what He had provided, even So believing in Jesus we rest in the justice of God.
SALVATION AS A FREE GIFT,
because the work was all finished by which I could be righteously saved.
The effect produced I shall never forget. I could have leaped and shouted for joy. What so astonished me was my own ignorance. To think how simply God had put it in His Word, and that I should have gone the wrong way about obtaining it.
Dear reader, should I have in any way described your state by giving an account of my own conversion, allow me to direct your attention to one verse in Revelation 22:17,17And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17) “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
There are three words in this scripture which I would desire to fix your eyes upon — (1) Whosoever; (2) take; (3) freely. Whosoever means yourself. Take means to accept or receive what God in His rich grace is offering to you. Freely means for nothing — all for nothing on your part.
“How easy the terms,” says one. Indeed, a Roman Catholic said to me the other day, in the West of Ireland, that the way was too easy. But let me ask you, What other terms would suit a complete bankrupt? “When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.”
Thank God, the price hat all been paid already by the blood and dying agony of God’s blessed Son.
JUSTICE ASKS NO MORE.
He is “just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”
“Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” Is your faith in His person and work? Do you rest alone on what He has accomplished? Then be assured from God’s blessed Word that you are justified from all things. For it is written, “And by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). Rejoice, and give God thanks that He is your Justifier; and if so, “Who is he that condemneth?”
P. W.