“ON whose side are you?” The youth to whom this question was addressed looked up with a smile as he answered brightly, “I am on the side of Christ.”
“Thank God! you will never regret it,” said the questioner, adding, “You will never find a Christian who regrets having come to Christ.”
“Never!” echoed an aged believer, who had been listening to the conversation. “My only regret is that I did not come to Him sooner—regret at the thought of the years I wasted living without knowing Him as my Saviour and Lord.”
“Then how were you brought to Him?”
“Ah!” he replied, “God must have been working with me in my childhood, for I often trembled to think of the judgment, but I tried to Comfort myself by making a promise to God that I would ‘give my heart to Him’ when I was a little older. Then as a young man I determined that I would be converted after I had married and settled down; and in God’s exceeding grace that was fulfilled.”
“One Lord’s Day evening we went to hear a man preach whom I knew very well. To my alarm he solemnly announced as his text the words: And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” He spoke earnestly and with power, and God pressed the reality of eternity upon me.
“Both my wife and myself were much concerned that night and went home to cry to God for mercy. We truly felt that nothing was too bad for us and that we deserved the judgment. Yet we did not then get peace with God, and week after week my anxiety increased.”
“For months I was in a terrible state of soul-distress. I well remember one cold winter’s, day I was walking along the country road, then covered with snow. The Holy Spirit was striving: with me and I was very miserable. I knelt down in the deep snow and prayed what I had been taught to pray: ‘O God, make me more sorry for my sins.’ I know now that the mistake I was making was that I was looking within, occupied with my repentance instead of turning in all my need to the Saviour; and, of course, no peace came.”
“I went home and said to my wife, ‘It is no use, I am in despair; I shall have to give up or I shall put an end to myself.’ She had already found peace, and she begged me to get alone with God; so I went into the kitchen, knelt down, and cried aloud to God.”
“I shall never forget that moment; it was as though the enemy was determined not to let go of me, and he suggested the thought: ‘What is the use of a wicked man like you praying?’”
“Then, as a voice from God, the words of Scripture came before me: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin.’ A great sense of relief filled me, for I knew I was forgiven. I rose from my knees with tears of joy mingled with my tears of repentance.”
“I had been for a long time examining my own heart, asking myself how much I loved God, but in His great grace He directed me to hear one of His servants, who brought before us the blessed truth that, ‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,’ so that instead of being occupied with the feebleness of my love to Him, I learned to enjoy the greatness of His love to me, and then could say, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’”
What is your regret, dear reader? Should you continue to neglect the Saviour and the great salvation that is to be found in Him, it will, alas! be your everlasting regret that you let your opportunity slip.
Why continue to live a wasted life? ―for life is wasted if it is lived for self-gratification and without the knowledge of God. Spare yourself those terrible regrets, that fearful remorse, and put your whole confiding trust in the Living Saviour, and henceforth live unto Him Who died for you and rose again.
Perhaps, however, you have been trying to get the blessing; trying to be good enough; trying to make yourself fit to receive it. You will not be blessed that way. It is not trying, but trusting. Let the same words that brought such relief to our friend enlighten your soul: “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Notice the words, “The blood cleanseth... from sin”; for
It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,
But the blood that atones for the soul.
On Him, then, Who shed it thou mayest at once
Thy weight of iniquities roll.
Nevertheless it remains true and intensely important that “God now commands all men everywhere to REPENT,” and repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus, Christ are linked together by the Spirit of God. Repentance is the door through which you must enter, but do not stay examining the door. Let, your eye of faith rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Object of faith, the One Who shed the precious blood, the Saviour Who is waiting to receive you.
Is there one, whose eye is scanning these pages, with whom the Spirit of God is striving? Be encouraged by the simple story of our aged friend to get alone with God and there close with Him. Do not seek to quench those convictions nor despair of the blessing. God is waiting to hand you His free, unconditional pardon the moment you surrender to His beloved Son.
Wanderer from home, the Spirit is striving,
Seeking to win thy long-hardened heart.
Do not resist Him; He would persuade thee
E’en to surrender just as thou art.
F. S. M.