Extract from letter.
I AM sorry to hear that you are still in distress about your soul. One line or two in your letter to your aunt touched me very much; she quotes your words to her, “Oh, Betsy, I am so bad! I must die, and I am not prepared”!
But if you could just turn your eye away from yourself to Christ, and say, “Lord Jesus, because of my badness, Thou knowest that I am not to be trusted; but if Thou hast been good enough to die for me, surely Thou art to be trusted,” this would be a very consistent conclusion; consider it!
I once saw a little child in its nurse’s arms, and did my best to induce it to come to me. Just as I began to think I should be successful, the little one’s mother came in view; and then, instead of coming to me, its tiny arms were instantly stretched out to their utmost reach toward the mother, although not a word was uttered!
Now here was a picture of simple confidence. There were two persons before the child―one it could not trust, the other it could trust; and those stretched-out arms left no question as to what it felt about both.
Now there are two persons that you have to do with, yourself and Christ. To which does your eye turn and your confidence cling? To whom do you stretch forth your hands?
The mother of this little one was busy just then, and did not want to take the child, and this brought forth a cry. You could not have said, after seeing and hearing it, that it had no trust in its mother. That longing look and those outstretched arms clearly proved otherwise; and if any other proof were needed, the cry of disappointment would have been amply sufficient. Yet the child was not thinking of its trust, nor wondering if it could trust, or if its trust was of the right kind. It was only thinking of the trustworthy object that had come before it. Why not do the same?
I feel I need not speak to you of the work of Christ; you have long known that this work was finished on the cross. What I feel you really need is to have your heart conducted to Him Who did it―to the living Saviour Himself risen from the dead, and now enthroned in glory. Turn, I beseech you, to Him; and if He is really worthy of your heart’s confidence, do not talk about Him to others as though He were not! For this would only please the enemy and dishonor Him.
Remember it is to Christ, and not self, that the Spirit is drawing your attention. For every thought of what kind of believer you are, think a thousand times of what kind of Saviour Jesus is; and I have no doubt as to the happy result. GEO. C.
A Wise Decision of an Aged Christian. ―
“I want to go in for the things I shall take with me; not the things I shall leave behind me.”