A young fellow came pushing his way to the platform; “Please, Sir, may I address the meeting?” said he.
Very surprised, I replied: “I hardly know you; what do you want to say?”
“Only this. I came here this evening with those other fellows at the back there, just to make fun of it all. You may have noticed us carrying on while the other man was speaking. But I can’t stand up against what I have heard; I have given in and asked Christ to receive me. And I want to tell the people.”
“Oh, then by all means come up here,” I said.
So up he came. His knees were literally knocking together for nervousness, but, clearing his throat, he began: “Lots of you people know me, and you don’t know any good about me. But tonight I have taken Christ for my Saviour. I believe He has saved me, and now, as long as I live, I never want to be bad again.”
The dear fellow was in dead earnest. There were tears in his voice, if not in his eyes. But salvation does not make us perfect. We are still weak and prone to sin, though our Lord and Saviour gives us power to resist temptation when we seek His help. We have to learn our own helplessness by experience. As to this young fellow, he had many a slip and did wrong many a time, but he had a real Saviour. He learned that He is a Saviour from the power, the love, and the practice of sin as well as from its guilt and penalty.
ML-01/15/1978