HE was a soldier whom I met a few months since. I. said to him, "Do you preach Christ?”
“No," he replied, " I am not a preacher, but a button-holer.”
“What do you mean?” said I.
“Oh, I get hold of them by the button-hole, and just show them what God says.”
“Well, that's good. Tell me how you were brought to Christ."
He then told me his little history. “I and another comrade were nearly the worst men in the regiment. He was converted. I tried by every means to get him back to old ways, and would have moved hell to do so; but he was hard and fast, which distressed me. I had lost my chance.
I was well up in the Scriptures, had received a good education, and had been brought up in a good position in society, but it profited me nothing. I enlisted, and went on from bad to worse.
“Well, one day a missionary came into the barrack-room. He seemed a nice man, and I thought, Well, I will soon start you.' I had always done so before, and had no doubt but that I should do so now. He listened to me, and when I had done, said, My friend, you want Christ!' He fixed his eye upon me and said again, '.You want Christ.'
“Instantly I looked for the pontoons ' for a way of escape, and soon went and lay upon my bed, sick and weary at heart. But he followed me there, saying, Friend, you want Christ, you want Christ,' which distressed me much. He would not leave me till he had extracted a promise from me that I would go to a preaching he was to hold that night. I promised, and went, in spite of every effort of Satan and man to prevent; and God sent me home saved.
'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' and Joh. 5:24, 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.'”
He then told me his besetting sins, but “God saved me and keeps me. I said when I came to Christ, Blessed Lord, Thou knowest what I am! If Thou sanest, Thou must keel, me'; and so He has in the past, and I trust Him to keep me in the future. Every morning I just tell Him that He knows what I am, and that I cannot keep myself; and every night I just thank Him that He has kept me. I have nothing to boast in but Himself.”
Perhaps the reader's case finds no parallel in that of this poor soldier, inasmuch as you are not openly profane or irreligious; but if you have not CHRIST, you are as far from happiness and heaven as he was before he found Him. Are you rich in this world? Alas, how poor if you have not CHRIST! Are you learned? In Him ONLY are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Are you toiling to add house to house and field to field? "Thou fool" (it may be), "this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou halt provided?" Are you seeking to drown the thought of a judgment to come in the giddy maze of pleasure, or in the wearisome round of fashionable frivolity? You cannot do it. Beneath a gay exterior you carry a burdened heart! You are an immortal being! You have cravings that none but Christ can satisfy! I say to you, my unsaved reader, You WANT CHRISTI You are beguiled by Satan into believing a LIE. Come to Him who is the TRUTH. You are wandering far from God. Come to Christ; He is "the way" to God. You are dead in trespasses and sins. Come to Him, and He will give you life, for He is "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment!" Are you prepared to face these stern realities? Not if your soul is unsaved, your sins unforgiven. In Christ you may have salvation and pardon, but without Him you must perish everlastingly, for "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." You WANT CHRIST. Reader, accept this blessed gift of God, His only begotten Son! Flee to this haven of rest; for He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Lay hold on this eternal life, anchor your tempest-tossed soul on this Rock of Ages, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).) "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9).)