“Will you take a Gospel tract, please?”
“Yes, thank you,” said the man addressed. “I am always glad to get anything that speaks well of my Lord, and what He has done.”
Such was my introduction to a fine young fellow, a traveling salesman for a big wholesale house in Hill City. We met on a train.
Pleased with such a hearty response to our offer of a tract, we ventured to ask further how he came to know and love the Lord Jesus and the things concerning Him.
“I am glad to be able to tell you about it,” said he. “It was about five years ago. I had been promoted from the shipping-room to a place as salesman on one of the most important of our firm’s routes, and naturally I felt elated over my success. I was to leave on my first trip the next week, and when the time came my mother had everything ready and, as she told me good-by, she slipped a little booklet into my hand. I put it into my pocket, and for a time forgot about it.
“By-and-by, however, I began to think of home—it was my first journey away from it—and a feeling of loneliness came over me. I thought of my mother’s dear face and loving counsels.
“Then I remembered the booklet that she had given me. Taking it out, I began to read. The subject was, ‘The Coming of the Lord,’ and the possible near approach of the time when He would come for His people. The doctrine was stated simply and clearly, the time of His coming being left, as it is in Scripture, an open question; but the point was firmly pressed as to what the probable result would be to the reader if He were coming at that moment.
“WOULD HE RISE TO MEET HIM, OR BE LEFT FOR JUDGMENT?
“The thought made me wretched, and I tried to think of something else, but I couldn’t, and my distress increased as the day wore on. I met customers, sold them goods, and was what might be called fairly successful, but all the time I was miserable. Christ was coming! Should He come, my dear mother would go up to meet Him, but I would be left, and there would be an eternal separation. The thought was intolerable. I was glad when the day was over, and I could go to my room at the hotel to think over this new and startling question that had come into my life.
“I had heard Mother speak of the coming of the Lord as a ‘blessed hope.’ I had heard her say that it was not a certainty that she should die, for the apostle had said, ‘We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ 1 Cor. 15:51, 5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52). It had never dawned on me that this was anything more than a peculiar notion of Mother’s. But now God was bringing me face to face with the subject, as a matter of eternal importance in which I personally was interested. If Christ came then I would be left-for what? To hear the solemn sentence passed on me, ‘I never knew you: depart from me.’ Matt. 7:2323And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23).
“‘Oh, if I only had a Bible!’ I thought, ‘I would see if I could not find comfort there, or at least something to help me.’ Suddenly it flashed upon me, ‘Mother may have put one in my suitcase!’ Hastily I looked for it, and there it was.
“Eagerly I opened it to find comfort, but hardly knew where to look. Passage after of God—the righteous judgment of God on sin, and all this only made me tremble. It increased my trouble. I was a sinner; God was holy, and sin must be abhorrent to Him. I was lost, and I could see no pope.
“At last my eye fell on a scripture that fitted my case. It was Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8): ‘God commendeth His love toward us, in that, passage I read, but they told of the holiness while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ Turning to the references in the margin, I found 1st Timothy 1:15: ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’; and again, Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10): ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’
“It was just what I needed. I was lost, and guilty, and in danger of God’s wrath forever! But God had loved me, Christ had died for me, and had proved Himself both able and willing to save me. Would I have Him as my Saviour? Gladly and thankfully I said, ‘Yes, Lord, I will.’
“My soul was filled with joy and peace in believing, and my first letter home carried the joyful news to my mother that I was saved, and waiting for the Lord.”
Such, dear friend, was the story of my fellow-traveler’s conversion to God. And here we would pass on the question, “If the Lord Jesus were coming today, as He says He will one day, what would your destiny be?” The door of mercy stands wide open now, but it will not always be so. “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are!” Such words are used by the Lord in Luke 13:2525When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: (Luke 13:25). Then, why will you trifle? Why will you procrastinate? Time is short, time is precious, and the moments past are gone forever. The future is not yours. The only moment you can claim is now! Therefore while He waits “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).