Near a large city lived a woman who boasted of her own goodness. Mary was outwardly religious and inwardly self-righteous. Nothing that Mr. Parks, an earnest Christian preacher, said to show her her need of Christ seemed of any avail. She clung to her own imagined goodness and would not let it go.
Now the Word of God makes clear and plain that the only true way of salvation is through our Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us: "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).
Yet how many trust to themselves and not to Him! They rest on their own religiousness, making a difference between themselves and others. But God says in Rom. 3:22, 2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23): "There is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
At length a friend of Mr. Parks offered to visit this woman and to see if he could help her at all. When she answered his knock he told her he had come from Mr. Parks, who had said that she was glad to receive anyone who would talk on religious subjects. The introduction set Mary at liberty to unfold a history of her long continued church-going and prayer-saying and good living.
The visitor sat still and let her tell her story. It showed him how very self-satisfied she was and unaware of her true condition.
At last she came to a conclusion. He got up and stood pointing to an old three-legged stool on the floor in front of the fireplace. At once Mary the self-righteous exclaimed: "Yes, indeed! It's an old worthless thing, fit only for the fire. It should have been burned long ago.”
The visitor now looked her full in the face, and in serious tones he said: "And you are just like that three-legged stool, fit only for the fire." Then taking his hat and without saying another word he left the house.
Dumbfounded, Mary was thus left alone to her thoughts. At first she questioned: "What could the man mean?”
Then as she thought back over all she had said to him, she came to the conclusion that he had meant that all she was and all that she had professed was no whit better than her old, good-for-nothing stool, "fit only for the fire." Her temper rose high, and to relieve her feelings she went to her next door neighbor to tell her how she had been insulted, and to seek her sympathy.
Now the neighbor was a humble-minded Christian. She long since had given up all trust in herself and, taking the guilty sinner's place, had claimed the guilty sinner's Savior.
Mary told her all, indignantly saying as she closed: "And he had the impudence to tell me that I was no better than my old three-legged stool, fit only for the fire.”
Her neighbor listened quietly and tried to calm her, praying secretly that God would use the visitor's words to show Mary her need of Christ.
Returning home, Mary kept repeating to herself: "Fit only for the fire—fit only for the fire.”
She was deeply distressed and soon went to bed. But she could not sleep. She began to go over her life's history. Little by little she saw how her religiousness had been but an outward show. She realized that though she had drawn near to God with her lips her heart had been far from Him. She was convicted of her sinfulness: that she was not right with God. Her conduct might have been correct enough in the sight of those around her, but God judges our hearts while man looks only at the outward appearance. Seeing herself now in the light of God's holiness Mary began to cry aloud for salvation. Her neighbor heard her. She dressed at once and went in to find out what was the matter.
"Is there any mercy for me?" cried Mary as she entered. "Oh, tell me! Will God save a sinner like me?”
The Christian neighbor pointed her to the Savior of sinners-to Him who came not to "call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The value of His precious blood which "cleanseth us from all sin" was presented to her.
Mary heard with the hearing of faith. She gave up all hope in herself and cast her soul unreservedly and only upon Christ. Peace came and filled her heart; for He who heard the cry of the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner," had heard her cry and now answered it. Thereafter Mary's boast was no longer in her own goodness. With the apostle Paul she humbly sought to live the truth of Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14):
"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”