ABOUT half-a-dozen young men were sitting one evening in a comfortably furnished room, where they had assembled in response to the kind invitation of a dear servant of God, whose pleasure was it thus to gather young people together, and then to speak to them of the Lord Jesus.
Most of these young men knew the Lord as their Saviour, but one of the number had come there for the first time, and was as yet a stranger to the knowledge of His grace.
When all were comfortably seated, their host began to speak to one, who was a believer, asking him, gently and affectionately, how he was getting on in the ways of the Lord; and then he answered the young man’s replies by sweet Christian counsel.
Turning to the stranger, he afterward for a few moments spoke to him in such a manner as to win his confidence, and then put to him the all-important question, “Do you know Jesus as your Saviour?”
The young man had often heard the gospel preached, had attended prayer-meetings, and had often wished he were a Christian. But this earnest question produced a feeling in his heart never experienced before. Bursting into tears, he replied, “No; but I only wish I did.”
His kind instructor then, in simple words, told the sweet story of Jesus and His love.
The young man had “come to himself”; he had found he was in “a far country,” but he had not yet arisen and gone to his Father.
On his way he thought of the prodigal, and began himself to say, “I will arise and go to my Father.”
When he arrived he found his father reading aloud a portion of the Scriptures. After listening attentively until his father had finished reading, he took the Bible himself, and read the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel.
When the next morning came, Satan sought to remove the impressions of the past evening but a power stronger than Satan’s way drawing this young man, and by the grace of God, while at his daily work, he determined to seek the Lord.
Like many more, he at first sought to do something to merit God’s salvation; but he only found disappointment and sorrow. Acting on the advice of a friend, he shut himself up in his room, determined not to sleep until he had found peace. He studied, he prayed, yet again he was disappointed. Why? Because he was trying by efforts of his own to win peace, instead of simply coming to Him who is our peace.
He turned to the word of God, seeking to find something that would give him the peace he so longed after. There he read, “That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” (John 20:3131But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:31).) By the eye of faith he looked to Jesus, and he found through Him peace with God.
He had no joy, no peace, no rest, until he saw that Jesus made peace by the blood of His cross, and that He is the sinner’s only refuge.
It is his joy now to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to learn of Him; ready to rise at His bidding, to serve Him, and to tell to those who will listen the story of God’s wondrous love to man displayed upon the cross.
Dear reader, will you refuse the love of Jesus? His is the joy of bringing even the wanderer home, upon His shoulders, with rejoicing! Oh, come to Jesus now, and you shall be saved, even as others! A. J.