My parents were children of God, and were anxious that my brothers and sisters, together with myself, should he brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. They insisted on our going to the Sunday school, and also to hear the Word of God preached. The preaching on one Sunday night I well remember. When it was over, the preacher went to the door, and spoke to the people as they passed out; presently he took my sister aside and spoke to her. I saw the tears flow, indeed I believe my sister was converted that night. In anger I said,
“If that’s the way he goes on, making people cry, he is not going to speak to me,” and, crossing over the room, I went out by another door.
I lived on without God, getting further and further away from Him after this, but at length the Holy Spirit arrested me, showing me that I was a lost, hell-deserving sinner. He also showed me that I could not get salvation by my own works.
I was miserable, and continued in this state for some time, praying God to save me before it was too late, for I knew that if I died in my sins, my portion would be outer darkness forever and ever. I knew if the Lord should come, and with His voice wake the dead and call the living, and take them to His Home, that my parents would go with Him and that I should be left behind. Though the Word told me that Christ came to seek and to save the lost, I could not make Him my own. Prayers and works were of no avail, and my misery increased, until God in His grace showed me what does avail.
One Saturday morning, while getting my breakfast, I was reading in a monthly periodical a piece entitled, “Because God says so.”
The story was about an old lady questioning a man as to how she was to know she had eternal life. The man told her to believe she had it, and on this ground, “because God says so.”
Those few words were used to the deliverance of the old lady from her doubts and fears, and, looking into self as I read it, God used it to my deliverance also. I knew I had eternal life, “because God says so.” How well I remember that morning, I could have danced for joy. I took God at His word, and knew I was saved there and then.
Now I can look forward to the coming of Christ with joy instead of fear. I know that I am a child of God, and that my Father has reserved for me a place in heaven. The Lord Jesus said,
“In My Father’s House are many mansions (or abodes): if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also.”
Thanks be to God, the place is prared, and blessed truth to know that where Christ is, that is the place where we shall dwell. He will not send an angel to fetch us, but will come for us in His own blessed person, and throughout the endless ages of eternity we shall be with Him and like Him.
“With Thee in garments. white,
Lord Jesus, we shall walk,
And spotless in that heavenly light
Of all Thy suffering’s talk.”
And now, dear unsaved reader, ask yourself this question,
“Where shall I spend eternity?” Where? Where?
If God were to stop your heart beating at this moment, where would your soul go that must live on throughout the endless ages of eternity?
Reader, it is a solemn reality. When your feet touch the cold, dark waters of death, and your soul is on the verge of eternal turnings, you will shake like a leaf in an eastern gale. The moment your soul leaves your body, its eternity will begin. What will be the remorse of those who are lost as they recall opportunities rejected, and pleadings spurned! O! shelter yourself under the precious blood of Christ while it is yet today.
Take God at His Word, believe it, “because God says so.” If you spurn the offer, your portion must be weeng and wailing throughout eternity. Eternity!
Where shall I spend eternity?
ML 10/31/1943