I found a young man, with whom I conversed cm a journey, had been earnestly seeking a knowledge of the forgiveness of his sins for many years. That very morning he had been reading his Testament, and thirsting for the waters of life. “Would you be willing,” I asked, “to be saved in God’s own way? And would now, in this very carriage, be too soon for you to become a Christian?”
“Let God save me in any way,” was the reply, “and now!”
“You have been looking for evidence,” I continued, “where you will not find it. God’s word, sealed by the Spirit, is God’s evidence; none other is needed. If you received, by the mouth of an angel, the message from God that your sins were all blotted out of God’s record, you would believe that Christ had saved you. If you were suddenly filled with a flood of light and joy, you would believe that you had received remission of sins.” He assented, and I continued, “But in one case your confidence would be founded on sight, and in the other on feeling. It pleases God to save by faith, founded on the evidence of His own word―not by either sight or feeling; and you may now, as you sit in this carriage, calmly take the promise of our Lord, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life’ (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47)), and, through faith in the sacrifice of Christ, find forgiveness of sins.”
“It never seemed so simple,” the young man exclaimed. Seeing that the Spirit was teaching him, I thought best to say no more, and dropped into silence, in confident prayer for him. After some interval he turned to me, with his face beaming with joy, and said, “I’m not afraid to die now! Those trees are not more clear to my eye than to my soul it is certain that Christ is my Saviour!”
God, who had prepared his heart for the message, had revealed to me that “it must needs be” that I should be in that carriage, and it now became plain why it had been made evident to me I should take that journey, and not have been suffered to stay longer where I was, for God had a work for me to do.
Christian reader, it is not in vain that we trust our Father in the guidance of His Spirit.
In conclusion, a few words to those who are not sure their sins are forgiven. This little paper is printed in the hope that you this day may believe the word of our Lord, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
D.