"It is more than forty years since I heard of the Lord's coming," said an old friend to me. I could see she had a story to tell, and was as ready to speak as I was to listen.
After a word of encouragement, she began: "I was a very worldly girl and never thought of eternal things. However, one day I was walking along a street and I saw on a board outside a theater in big letters this notice: 'Come in here, and bring your Bibles.'
“‘What an extraordinary thing!' I thought. 'Bring your Bibles to a theater? What can it mean?'
"I had often been to a theater, but had never been told to bring a Bible. Indeed, I did not own one! However, I made up my mind to go that night, to see what it was all about. I would borrow a Bible, just for once. I did so; and returning in the evening, full of curiosity, I entered the hall.
"I never shall forget my astonishment. On the walls near the stage were charts, and a gentleman stood up to explain them. He had a long cane in his hand and pointed to the different diagrams as he spoke. He continually referred to the Bible, and asked his hearers to turn to the different passages for themselves.
"There I sat unable to find one verse. I had never read the Bible. I could hear the flutter of the leaves as the people turned from chapter to chapter, and I listened to the preacher's voice. He told us of the Lord's coming again. 'He may come,' said he, 'at any moment.'
"How terrified I was! For the first time I learned I was a sinner, and I felt the great burden of my sins.
“‘Suppose it should be true,' I said to myself, 'that the Lord is coming quickly. Amos 1 ready to meet Him?'
"I knew I was not; so I sat with my head bowed down, feeling that God's wrath was hanging over me! One thought occupied me: 'The Lord Jesus is coming soon.'
"I left that place and sought out a neighbor whom I had more than once insulted because she had tried to speak to me of my eternal welfare. She and her husband gladly received me and thanked God for my soul's distress. They told me what they knew themselves; and I learned that the Lord Jesus had died upon the cross for sinners. My heart opened to Him when I learned that He had died for me. Yet I was not at rest, for I had not learned that the Lord is now in glory, and that God can righteously forgive a sinner; but felt that my safety depended partly upon myself-upon my being good and doing good.
"Sometimes I was bright and happy, and would say to myself: 'I wish the Lord would come today; I am sure I am ready to meet Him now.' At other times I would say, 'I hope He will not come today; I believe He would leave me behind.'
"I went on like that, up and down, for forty years.
At the end of that time a neighbor to my daughter invited her to a meeting. She went just to please her, and the Lord saved her soul. Then she came to see me and urged me to attend those meetings.
"I did not want to go! So accustomed had I become to my doubts and fears that I thought there was nothing better. But my daughter persuaded me and on the next occasion I went.
"I shall never forget that preaching! The subject was John 5:2424Verily, 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. (John 5:24): '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.'
"The preacher explained so clearly that the work was finished. I had but to believe what Christ had done. I could doubt no longer and, half rising from my seat I exclaimed: 'I believe it!'
"From that moment I knew that I had passed from death to life. I turned my eyes from myself to the Person of the Savior in glory. Do you think I have ever doubted since?
"Then the preacher spoke of the coming of the Lord. I had heard nothing of His return since that evening in the theater forty years before. Now I live in daily anticipation of seeing Him, and comfort myself with the thought that His coming is forty years nearer than when I first heard of it.”
May my friend's story speak to your heart, dear reader. May her Savior be your Savior, and may you, with her, look daily and hourly for His return.
"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.”