"Will you not stay to our after-meeting and yield to Christ?" I said to a young man at the close of a preaching service.
"I cannot," he replied. "There is a friend waiting for me outside."
"And there is a Friend waiting for you inside. He has waited for you a good many years. Do you know His Name?" I remarked.
My young friend hung his head; the shot had gone home.
"You would not like to disappoint the friend outside," I continued; "but you do not mind disappointing the Friend who is waiting inside, and yet He continues to wait. Do you know His name?"
"It is Jesus," he replied.
"And will you still keep Him waiting?"
Thank God, that night he turned to the Friend who waits to receive and bless poor sinners.
This same wondrous Friend of sinners is waiting, waiting, waiting still—waiting for you who are still away from Him.
Outside, there is the world which professes lasting friendship; but you know full well its promises are false. Pleasure, sin, Satan, all wait outside to please you for a while, and then to cast you off, and leave you comfortless and lonely in the night of your despair.
Will you listen to the voices of the false friends outside? They would keep you outside of heaven and the blessing of God forever; or, will you listen to the voice of the "Friend that loveth at all times," who "sticketh closer than a brother," who, that He might have your friendship, showed Himself to be friendly, and laid down His life that He might be your Savior? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13. "Christ died for the ungodly." Rom. 5:6.