At the close of a service in a tent in a section of Chicago called “Little Hell,” I went to the door of the tent to speak to the people as they walked out. A large share of the audience were Roman Catholics. I shook hands with one after another when a young Roman Catholic Irishman walked out. I held out my hand to him and said, “Why don’t you take Jesus Christ as your Saviour?” “Oh,” he said, “I am all right.” I said, “You haven’t peace.” He said, “Yes, I have.” I said, “No, you haven’t.” He said, “Perhaps you know better than I do.” I said, “No, but God knows better than either of us and God says, ‘There is no peace to the wicked’ (Isa. 57:2121There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:21)). Now,” I said, “either God lies or you do, but I know God does not lie and God says you haven’t peace. ‘There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.’” The man got angry and said, “If you don’t want me to come here anymore, I won’t.” I said, “Yes, I do want you to come but I want you to understand that you don’t deceive me. I can read your heart just as well as if I could see into it, and I know there is no peace in your heart.” He said, “There is, too,” and broke away and passed out of the tent.
The next night at the close of the service as I looked over to the side of the tent to my left I saw this man on his knees with a worker beside him. In a few moments he and the worker arose and the worker came to me and said, “That young man wishes to apologize to you.” I said, “He has nothing to apologize to me for. He has never wronged me.” “Well,” she said, “he says he did and wants to apologize.” I said, “Very well, bring him over.” He said, “I want to apologize to you. I lied to you last night. I said I had peace when I had not.” I said, “I knew you hadn’t, for God says, ‘There is no peace to the wicked.’” But now the man had peace, real peace through the acceptance of Christ.