TRAVELERS to Lake Itasca, in the heart of the lakelands and forests of Northern Minnesota, find themselves at the watershed, or source, of the Mississippi. There the waters of the great river begin their long winding course of twelve hundred miles southward to the Gulf of Mexico. However, at Itasca, one might be walking through the woods, and scarcely thinking of what he was doing, step across the rocks in a tiny stream which gushes forth at a pretty spot among the shrubs and ferns and turns toward the sunny southland. If the place were not clearly marked by signs, one would not know that he had crossed the Mississippi.
However, suppose he does not step across there, but walks on and on beside the stream, perhaps waiting for a better place to cross, or seeing no necessity for crossing at all. Suppose by and by he wishes very much to be on the other side of the great river? Will it not take a great deal more effort to cross over, and will not the crossing make a profound impression upon his mind as he realizes how broad and vast the waters are? Yet, once over, he will not be any more definitely on the other side of the river than if he had stepped across the rivulet in Itasca.
Like such a crossing, dear friends, is conversion. All of us, children of fallen Adam, were born with a sinful nature, and the fruits of that nature begin to manifest themselves in sinful thoughts and acts early in life. This stream of sin in our lives, binning with a trickle, broadens out into a dark flowing stream as the years go by. In childhood, when the heart is tender and easily impressed, it is much easier to “cross over"—to be converted to God, to be saved, “to pass from death unto life,” to leave the place of sin and guilt and Satan’s power and pass into the place of safety and the sunshine of God’s love — made fit for heaven. Later on the heart gets harder, sin gets stronger; it is a much greater struggle to get free from sin and Satan’s power, and to enter into life and peace in Christ.
Some have been saved later on in life, but even so such a one is no more on the other side than the boy or girl who trusted Jesus and followed Him in the early days of youth, and who all these years has come walking happily on toward the heavenly land, the eternal glory with Christ.
Oh, dear young friends, take Christ while you are young, step over now, be on His side, and walk the happy path with Him on to His heavenly Home. You’ll be glad you did.
Those who are young, O God,
Make them Thine own;
Hear from Thy blest abode,
Make them Thine own;
Now in their early days,
Turn them to Thy blest ways,
Save from the giddy maze,
Make them Thine own.
SCRIPTURE QUOTATION
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” 2 Cor. 5:14,1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15).
ML-03/20/1966