"I am as bad a man as ever stepped in shoe leather." So said one to whom we were presenting the gospel, and urging the necessity for immediate decision.
"Not as bad as one who, we are told, was the chief of sinners," we replied. "And even if you were, it is those like you that Jesus takes a special delight in saving. He wants bad ones! Real bad ones!! Will you accept Him tonight?”
Dave knew the gospel well enough; and although naturally we would have thought that he would be the last to bow to it, he got blessing that night. Like many, another, he was afraid of the second step before he took the first. He thought, if he confessed Christ, he could never hold out against the taunts and jeers of his fellows.
Perhaps our reader is such an one, and would like to decide for Christ, yet is afraid of the consequences. Satan whispers, "What will my friends think or say?" Beware! Do not let your never-dying soul be damned through Satan's lies, or the thoughts and sayings of friends. Accept Christ. Trust Him. He is able to keep as well as to save, as Dave has found.
Standing there on a country road, the claims of Christ were put before him, and he bowed to them. "Yes, I will accept Christ now," he said. That moment he passed from death unto life.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:'24.
We left him, and home he went to tell "what great things the Lord had done for him." The following Lord's Day at a meeting he said: "I would not be here had the Lord not made a great change in me.”
He has gone on in the happy path even amid persecution from his fellow workmen. He still stands humbly for Jesus and rejoices in His love, saying: "It's grand to live for the Lord.”
Dave had tasted the joys of the world, and had found that they could not satisfy. Now he could say:
"I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But ah! the waters failed;
E'en as I stooped to drink, they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
"Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me;
There's love and light and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”