THE following anecdote was related recently at a gospel meeting in order to explain the question asked in James 2:2121Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:21): “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”
A young man came to London from the country, and was converted. He received peace to his soul through reading Romans 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1): “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
After his conversion, his thoughts returned to his native village, and he recalled with regret some of the misdeeds of his boyhood. He remembered how on one occasion he had defrauded an old lady by passing a bad penny, and that he had successfully played a similar trick upon the village postman. What would his former companions say, he thought, when he declared that he was now a Christian? They would remember these things. He obtained six stamps, Sand forwarded three to the old lady, and three to the postman. The lady, who was a Christian, was much surprised and pleased to receive the letter, and would indeed have been glad to have it, even without the enclosure, as it contained the news of the writer’s conversion. But the action was the fruit of the new life which he had received from God, and he wished to prove to his former friends that he was truly converted. He gave evidence of the faith which he had, even as Abraham long ago had done. Abraham’s faith had been counted to him for righteousness, and he proved that he had faith in God by his willingness to give up his son Isaac in obedience to God’s command.
ML 11/15/1903