How were you brought to know Christ as your Saviour?” I said to a gardener who kept trim many of the little gardens in the neighborbrood, and whom I knew to be a Christian.
“Seeing a man’s life did it,” he replied. I looked at him inquiringly, and he went on, “I was very fond of Sunday school when I was a boy, and when I left I determined I would lead a good life. I found, however, that I could riot keep myself right. I don’t think any one can till he gets Christ.
“Seeing this man’s life, was the turng-point with me. He worked in a signal-box on the railway. I went to him one day, and asked him if he would give me some oil for my bicycle.
“‘No, Fred. I am sorry I can’t,’ he said.
“‘Why not?’ said I. ‘You’ve plenty there?’
“‘Yes, but it belongs to the railway company, and it would not be right for me to give it away.’
“This, and other similar things about him, made a great impression on me. I longed to live a life like his, and I tried—tried to live a Christian life before I was a Christian, and I could not do it. I saw I was a sinner.”
“But you knew the way to be saved?”
“No, I did not. Nobody ever told inc that! I got peace at last through a sermon. I can’t remember the text, or a word that was said, but what I got out of it was, that Christ had died for me, and I was overjoyed.”
It is sad that any should be able to say, “Nobody ever told me that. No one ever told me that Christ had died and shed His blood on Calvary’s Cross to atone to God for in sins; and that on the ground of His atonement for me, God was offering me the full forgiveness of all my sins, if only I would turn to Him as a lost sinner.”
Alas! many Sunday school teachers have never turned God, and know nothing of the full, free salvation He offers to all who do so. These, guided by their own natural reason and judgment, will teach the boys and girls that salvation must be earned before it can be gained; that their being saved can only be the result of their being “good.”
God’s Word teaches me that I am saved solely by what Christ has done for me.
ML 03/23/1941