At the bank my friend Sam was at the teller's window and I chose him to wait on me.
"Well, Sam," I said, "what about your soul? Is all well with you for the future? Have you peace with God?”
He replied tersely in two words: "I'm busy.”
"Busy," I repeated. "At what, or about what? You are praying, I suppose; you want to have your sins taken away, and to have your soul saved?”
Sam kept busily writing, but he nodded his head in assent.
"Ah, Sam," I said, "you are making a sad mistake—one which hundreds have already made. You are putting prayer in the place of Christ. You are looking to and leaning on your prayers, instead of trusting only in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is not God's way, and He knows a great deal better than you or anyone else. His plan for saving lost and ruined sinners is very different from the plan you have adopted. It is only by faith in Christ that a sinner is saved, and not by prayers or by works. The Lord Jesus Himself finished salvation on the cross. By His death and resurrection He has accomplished all that was needed to save the very vilest of the vile.
"God does not say that you shall be forgiven through your prayers, but He bestows full and eternal forgiveness upon all who believe in Jesus. Now Sam, that is God's way. Do you see it?”
After a few moments' thought he exclaimed: "Oh, I believe you are right! I was on the wrong track! I was in error.”
"And do you," I asked, "understand that peace has been made by the shed blood of Jesus? Can't you just rest there?”
"Yes," he replied again; "I was on the wrong track.”
A few days later I called to see him again. His greeting was a very simple but intelligent one: "I have rest now in the blood of the Lamb.”
I asked him if the thought of the sins of a lifetime did not 'disturb his soul. He answered: "I have no fear now; I can trust the Lord Jesus.”
When I remarked that the blood of the Lord Jesus was the true foundation of the believer's peace, and never could fail, he assented and added, "Oh, I was so mistaken! Now I have seen my error, and know that Christ has done all. I was on the wrong track!”