A NATIVE JAPANESE gospel preacher tells of his experiences as a boy of only ten. This is his story: “It was when I was ten years of age that for the first time I began to realize the fact of death. I remember waking in the middle of the night and sitting up in bed. I began to think of death. I saw in imagination that I was lying dead in a coffin, and then buried. It was so dark. I could not cry, though my young mind agonized beyond all endurance.
“The thought that came to my heart was that the only one able to help must be some supernatural being, and I began to think about the gods. I counted them up one after the other; but they were almost numberless. I sought for what I thought was the highest of them all. I did not know who he was, or what I could do. But I was in dead earnest, and I wanted someone to help me, and so I cried aloud: ‘Help me, O God; I am so helpless!’
“On going to school the next day I asked my teacher who the god was that I had worshiped. He said he was one of the ancient heroes, a great man who was long since dead and buried. Oh, the disappointment when I realized that I was only praying for help to one who was himself dead and buried! I knew that I needed more than a dead man to help me. So the days went on into months and years.
“My father used to talk to us about ‘heaven,’ as he was a disciple of Confucius, so I used to go out into the garden and look up into the sky. I thought, ‘if I cried to the heavens, to the blue sky, is it possible that they will answer?’ "
I am glad to tell you that our story does not end here, for God never leaves a seeking soul in the dark. His Word tells us, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” Jer. 29:1313And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13).
It was not long afterward that our Japanese friend heard the wonderful story of God’s love to poor sinners, and of the Lord Jesus who came down here to save everyone who comes to Him by faith. Our friend is now a preacher of the Gospel and loves to tell to others of the Saviour he has found.
Has my reader found the Saviour too?
ML-02/10/1963