It must have been nearly two hundred years ago that little John Nelson sat by the fireside with his father. It was Sunday evening, and the man was reading aloud to his family the twentieth chapter of Revelation. John, who was then nine years old, sat on the floor by his father’s chair listening earnestly until he came to these words:
“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” Rev. 20: 11, 12.
The boy hid his face at these words, for he did not want anyone to see that he was crying. He did not ask any questions, but carried that great fear in his heart all through the years of his youth. He was fond of pleasure and sport, but whenever he allowed himself to think, the awful scene rose before his mind again, and he saw him. self standing before the great white throne, guilty, condemned before God.
When John grew to manhood, he married, and resolved to live for the glory of God. In a short time, however, all his good resolutions were broken. He determined to go to London and look for work there, hoping that a change of surroundings would bring a change of heart. He found good employment there, but work, pleasure, and religion all failed to satisfy him. His sins were as high as a mountain, black and unforgiven in the sight of God.
The young man then resolved to pray often, to hear many sermons, and this he did most earnestly, but still his soul was in darkness. But God, who “knoweth the secrets of the heart,” had mercy on him. He was walking along the street one day when he overheard a group of young men preaching earstly. One of them was telling very simply how he had been a sinner “going headlong to hell,” how he had tried to turn from his sins but the pull of his old companions had brought him down again— “until,” he added, “I believed in the precious blood of Christ, and was saved.”
John Nelson had heard this message often in sermons, but here was a real, living example of it. He went to his work again, with a renewed resolve to be a Christian, but his fellow woran tormented him and took away his tools. Poor John lost his temper and flew into a rage.
But Satan had now led him one step too far. Instead of eating his dier, John went up to his room and knelt down to pray. Poor John, he could not pray. “I was as dumb as a beast,” he said afterward. God was taking away the last prop on which he had been leaning.
And now, when he could not even pray, the Holy Spirit brought clearly before his soul the blessed truth that Christ had borne the punishment for his sins at Calvary, and in believing, his sins were all put away. “Christ,” he said, “was plainly set forth, crucied for me.” From that happy day, John Nelson was a saved man.
Would you like to be saved and to be joyfully sure as John Nelson was, that your sins are all put away? God is ready and willing to forgive you also if you come, as John did, with every human prop gone.
ML 10/03/1954