The open-air meeting was over. We passed among the listeners, distributing our tracts and looking for anxious souls, as the large company was dispersing. But there was one man who waited, evidently expecting to be spoken to. Well-attired and handsome, with intelligent eyes, he seemed to belong to the intellectual class. No sign of anxiety showed on his countenance, but rather the confident attitude of one who enjoyed a debate.
"Do you know the Lord Jesus, friend?" we asked, as we handed him a booklet. With a look of disdain he answered: "No! I believe in none of these things. I don't believe in God, nor do I believe in a hereafter.”
"But there is death, and you know you cannot escape his clutches. Are you not afraid to die?”
"Not I," he answered boldly.
"Possibly not. You have a good set of nerves; but what about 'After this the judgment'?”
With a slight twitch on his face, he admitted that "if there were such a thing, it would be a fearful prospect." This indicated to us that, even in his avowed unbelief, there was the terror of 'judgment to come' haunting his blinded mind.
"But we will not talk only of wrath: we desire to tell of redeeming love. We were once as far away from God as you are, and the light of His love revealed in Jesus came to our hearts finally from hearing the Gospel. The same precious grace and love that broke and won our hearts would melt and captivate yours, too, if you would turn now to Christ.”
But what an answer he made! The calm composure of his features fled; his eyes flashed with excitement; and the fire of hatred to God seemed to flare across his face. He almost hissed out, "Never! May I never know the love of God! Never!! I was once under the spell of these things, but the spell is broken.”
Our hearts sickened as we turned away. We have seen many a woeful sight in this sad old world, but none so full of horror and dark abandonment as the present gloom that enshrouded that soul and the coming eternal night that awaited it, if the mercy of God was still refused.
He had been under the spell! When, we cannot say; but somewhere, and sometime, he had heard with deepest interest the tale of divine love. He had been told that God had given the Son of His love to come to this dark, cold, distant world, where the victims to sin, and woe, and death were held in Satan's bondage. He had heard that only Jesus the Savior, full of grace and truth, brought hope and love to the doomed sons of men. The full, wondrous story of the triumph of that precious Savior this man had listened to, and had been enthralled to hear that He had borne the load of sin, grappled with death, annulled him who had its power, and risen victoriously, and ascended to the right hand of God.
That young man had heard this incomparable, irrepressible story, and for a time God's spell—the only gospel—had held him. But there he was now, cold and defiant, as if the very frosts of eternal winter had stiffened' his moral being. Why had this happened? Because that spell had only fastened upon his mind for the moment: it had not broken his heart! God's gospel is for the heart.
The writer, too, was once spell-bound. Thank God, that spell broke too. At one time the world with its glitter rose before him. Its honor, its wealth, its pleasure, its gilt and tinsel, seemed, in the clear light of early youth, to flash with splendor. Although he was the child of Christian parents, he felt his very life yield to the world's fascination.
But "Jesus Himself drew near," with His nail-prints and marred visage and peerless moral beauty. The cross of Christ stood before his soul clearly and distinctly in matchless grandeur. In its glorious light the vision of this world's mirage sped with scarce a flicker. That spell was broken only to give place to a greater; for by that same cross and that lovely Savior a charm seized his heart and still holds him fast. That spell can never break.
He rests there, for his heart is sweetly satisfied with Jesus; and he sings:
"Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fixed on this blessed center, rest;
Nor ever from thy Lord depart,
With Him of every good possessed.”
Poor sinners, desperate in your need, or complacent without Christ, come to Him. Bring not merely your mind, but your heart, right to His feet. Lay all your secrets bare before this glorious Savior-Jesus. In Him you will find light and life and love and everlasting peace.
"I hear the words of love,
I gaze upon the blood;
I see the mighty sacrifice,
And I have peace with God.”