ONE cold October evening, a young man was aimlessly wandering along the busy thoroughfare of a northern seaport, utterly dejected, sin-sore, and heart-weary. He had come to that blessed point where the sinner and Saviour meet―an end of all trust in self.
A few months before, this young man had been of the gavest of the gay. The world and sin had held him captive. But one evening, in company with some godless companions, when returning from the theater, he had to pass through a square, in the center of which one of the Lord’s messengers was proclaiming the glad tidings of a free and full salvation. Laughing and jeering they passed on, but one word had caught this young man’s ear, and that word was “ETERNITY!” Ever since, whether mixing with his gay companions in their drink and song, whether in the crowded workshop, the busy thoroughfare, or alone, whether waking or sleeping, that one word― “Eternity”— kept sounding like a death-knell in his soul. An eternity there must be, he said; an eternity there was. Where should he spend it? How soon should he be ushered into it?
But surely, he thought, God would be merciful if he gave up his old life, his old companions, his old sins, and from henceforth led a different life. So he altered his whole course of behavior, and tried to reform, but his efforts in that direction proved a failure—even while he sought to change his ways, his past life rose up against him; and then, as he remembered how God had said that nothing that defileth shall ever enter in, he cried, “Oh! that I knew where I might find Him.” Such was the burden of the cry from this sin-stricken heart, on the evening we have referred to, as, all unconsciously, he turned his steps to the place where God had first spoken to his soul.
Hark! what words were those? Not eternity, with its terrors to him, no; but words of balm and healing to his weary soul were those he heard, as, standing rooted to the spot, the sweet refrain―
“Him that cometh...Him that cometh...Him that
cometh to Me,
I will in nowise...I will in nowise...I will in
nowise cast out” ―
fell upon his ears. Jesus Himself had said it― “Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out,” and through these words did this young man find rest, peace, and joy. Oh, it was rest and peace indeed for him, as he came to Jesus with the simplicity and trust of a little child that lays its weary head upon its mother’s breast.
Eternity has now no terrors to him, but is to his soul burdened with joy, for he looks forward to spending its endless days with his loving Saviour.
Dear reader, where! oh, where I will you spend eternity? Jesus loves you, He gave Himself for sinners. He is now waiting to receive you. Why delay? Cease from trying to better self; come, just as you are, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in coming you shall find rest and peace. K. R.