There were four of us, all men, sitting close together on a train. Quite suddenly the door was opened not by the conductor but by a young man evidently timid and nervous. Before any of us had time to speak he had put a gospel tract into each of our hands and passed on.
“Well," said one of the men, "I call that impertinence. What right has any man to thrust his religion at you like that? It's the second time that has happened to me recently.”
I waited until he quieted down and stopped talking. Then I said: "You may think it strange, but it did not strike me like that at all. I felt glad that there was somebody on the train who wanted to do me good! I intend to read the tract and see what it is all about. It looks all right, for listen to this, 'God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' What do you think about that?”
"Are you another of them?" he asked.
"Well," I said, "I'm evidently just one with you today. The young man surely didn't see any difference between us, for he gave me the same sort of tract that he gave you. I suggest that we read them; and if they are not true and good, then we'll complain.”
The man sitting opposite me had thrown his tract on the seat. Now he took it up again and began to read it with marked interest. When he had read it through we exchanged tracts, and he read mine as well. By this time our train had reached a station and the angry passenger along with one other went out. The man who had read the tracts and I were left alone.
“What do you think about them?" I asked. And it was not long before he began to unburden his heart to me. He was sure of nothing, and as miserable as he was uncertain. He knew that he was a sinful man; and he had tried, had often tried, to give up his sinful habits. With only himself to lean on he had failed; and he was afraid of death and God.
How glad I was to tell him that once I was also afraid of death and God, for I too had known that I was a lost sinner; but I had found the way of salvation and peace. I had found it in the Lord Jesus Christ. I told him of the death and resurrection of this great Savior, and how because of His death and blood-shedding, He could save the greatest of sinners. If one would only cast himself on Christ He would save and give peace to the troubled and anxious heart.
How eagerly he listened! It was just what he had been needing to hear for a long time. Before he left the train he gave God thanks for saving his soul and for that tract distributor who had not been idle on this Saturday afternoon.