COME on Mary, else we'll be late. We were told to be in time, or the door would be shut," and the bare thought of being excluded from the
New Year Treat, to which the two girls had been looking forward all that week, and for which they had been learning some verses to repeat, made them scamper along the crisp, frozen road, upon which a slight shower of snow had fallen that afternoon.
The Sunday school to which Mary and her younger sister Annie went, had been the scene of a most wonderful visitation of grace. A great interest in eternal things had been awakened among the young folk of that district, in the Autumn, and for three months, Sunday after Sunday, without a break, there had been conversions; boys and girls, and young men and women led to Christ by means of the Gospel simply and faithfully spoken, personally to some, and to others in classes; but in the greater- number of cases, Christ was received (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)) and confessed (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)) through reading God's Word, or being pointed to the Saviour by companions and friends at home.
The New Year gathering had been looked forward to and much prayed for, that it might be a night of conversion to souls still undecided, but anxious. Among these were Mary and Annie, two bright girls, daughters in a Christian family, whose home was some little distance from the village. They had heard the way of life from their earliest years, but like many who have had the same privileges, they were still unsaved, still without Christ, and the chief cause of their Christless condition was lest they should lose the world with its pleasures, and be laughed at by their companions.
"All who have trusted Christ might stand up, and sing together that grand old hymn beginning-
O happy day that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God.
It seems but as yesterday since I first sang it myself as a young believer, and yet it is more than thirty years since I was born of God, and started on the road to heaven."
At this request from an aged teacher, a fine band of young folk stood up and sang, as only young converts in the freshness of their earliest love can, until the echo rang again—
"Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away."
Tears of joy filled the eyes of many of the older ones, as that glorious song rolled on, and it was not difficult to see, that of those who could not stand to sing it as new-born children of God, some were very uneasy.
Mary and Annie, usually bright and cheery, sat with their heads bowed, while every line of the hymn sung with fervor and manifest enjoyment by those who had, went like a sword to their hearts.
Well it was that the "tone" of that meet3ing was of such a character; for a jargon of frivolity seasoned with a little religion, might have eased them of their soul-trouble and driven them back to indifference.
How careful one needs to be not to stifle conviction, or drive awakened sinners back to carelessness through unworthy behavior. There was real power with the testimony of several boys who told their conversion, and some were "added to the Lord" as the result of that New Year night's meeting.
They were given a tract telling about the conversion of two boys, and they did not go to bed till they had read it all through.
"If they were both saved by trusting in Jesus, so may we," said Mary. And kneeling down side by side, the two girls yielded themselves to Him, and were saved.
Messages of God’s Love 3/20/1932