“JUST as we were leaving Oxford a gentleman whom I had met before, got into the same compartment.
“We had previously conversed on eternal realities, but the only effect produced upon him was a determination to resist the truth, and not to allow such subjects to disturb his mind.
“I longed to embrace this opportunity of again presenting to him the grand truths of pardon, peace and eternal life through and in Christ.
“Whilst we were conversing together, he showed me a letter he had received from his son in America. In order that I might understand its meaning, he explained that his son, when quite a lad, had been discovered robbing a shopkeeper’s till.
“The owner was apprised of the theft, and, upon examination, it came out that the boy had stolen a sovereign.
“In terror as to the consequences of his act, he immediately left home and friends, and fled the country.
“Years rolled by, and the prodigal was still a wanderer from his father’s house.
“One morning the postman brought the letter I now held in my hand. It told of the deep sorrow of the young man for his past act, and was full of contrition. The letter concluded with subscribing himself ‘Your repenting son.’
“The father wept at the acknowledgment of his son’s guilt, and, with the impulse of a love he had ever borne to the boy, hastened to telegraph a reply.
“The telegram contained one word only. I was asked to guess what the word was, and on my failing to do so, he told me it was the word ‘FORGIVEN.’
“‘Oh!’ said I, ‘what an illustration this affords of the way God receives a sinner.’ I there and then besought him to take the place before God which his son had taken before him, confessing his guilt, and owning his sin, assuring him that if he did so, the telegram from heaven would be FORGIVEN.”
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The above is an extract from a letter just to hand. Whether the gentleman ever owned his guilt to God, as his son had to him, or not, I cannot say; but, my unsaved reader, will you not do so?
To encourage you to confess your sins to God, let me quote two scriptures from God’s own Word. One is in the Old Testament. “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27, 2827He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; 28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. (Job 33:27‑28)).
The one scripture tells us that the only platform on which God and the creature can meet is that of confession of guilt on the sinner’s part; the other illustrates the full and free character of forgiveness awaiting the one who takes this place. “Frankly,” that is without reserve or hesitation, God forgives. But it must be through the Lord Jesus, there is no other channel, there is no Saviour beside Him.
Can YOU turn away from such a forgiveness? Will you refuse to own YOUR guilt?
H. N.