Before we accept Jesus as our own Savior, our religion is a melancholy one. For many years I had just enough religion to make me miserable; now I know Jesus as my Savior, and having Him I am indeed happy. I wonder what your religion does for you, dear young reader?
A man I had met several times, had always a gloomy countenance. Upon one occasion I accosted him with these words, “Not many years ago, I had enough religion to make me miserable, but not enough to make me happy; may I inquire how it is with you?”
“This is my ease exactly,” he answered, startled into the confession by my own former experience being so like his own.
On another occasion, soon after my conversion, a friend called upon me, and clasping me in her arms, exclaimed, “Something has taken ten years from your face since I last saw you!”
“O!” I replied, “the years from my face are as nothing to the burden that Jesus has taken from my heart.”
Thus, our countenance is at times an index of the condition of the heart. Many faces I have looked upon, since my own conversion, bear traces of the burden “grievous to be borne” upon the heart, and I felt keenly for them; while others, though furrowed and wrinkled with age, have borne a bright and glowing testimony to the peace within.
Dear young reader, I cannot look into your face, but I long to know if the burden is still resting upon your heart, or if you know Him, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” The apostle adds, “By whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)). Dear reader, do you know the deep meaning of these wonderful words, “By His stripes I am healed”?
Do you say, “He died for me; He poured out His soul unto death for me”?
Whatever your past experience has been, accept Jesus now, and in future you will have enough religion to make you happy in all conditions, and under all circumstances.