Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream,
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal.
Dust thou art, to dust returneth,
Was not spoken of the soul.

    True, there are some men who don't believe in God. But to me the problems of unbelief in God are greater than the problems of belief. To believe that unaided dead matter produced mind, that mind produced conscience, and that the chaos of chance produced the cosmos of order as we see it in nature, seems to call not for faith but for credulity.
 

    That is why George Gallup, the American statistician, says, "I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone – the chance that all its functions would just happen is a statistical monstrosity."

    Surely no thoughtful person would wish to base their eternal future on a "statistical monstrosity"?  Perhaps that is why the Bible says in Psalm 14:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'"
 

    You would probably consider me a lunatic and move farther into the crowd to escape my senseless chatter. Why? You know that where there is a design there must be a designer, and having seen other products of the human mind just like the plane in question, you are positive that it was planned by human intelligence and built by human skill.

    Yet there are highly-educated, professional men who tell us that the entire universe came into being by chance, that there was really no higher intelligence at work in it. They claim to know no God but nature.

    On the other hand there are many thoughtful men who believe that God is transcendent, namely, that while He reveals Himself in nature (in that its laws and principles are expressions of His power and wisdom), He Himself is greater than the universe. But all that atheists can offer us is the riddle of design without a designer, of creation without a Creator, of effect without cause.

    Every thoughtful person believes in a series of causes and effects in nature, each effect becoming the cause of some other effect. The acceptance of this as fact logically compels one to admit that there must be a beginning to any series. There could never have been a first effect if there had not been a First Cause. This First Cause to me is Deity.
 

    Dr Wernher von Braun, director of NASA research, and developer of the rocket which put America's first space  satellite into orbit, says,

    "In our modern world, many people seem to feel that our rapid advances in the field of science render such things as religious belief untimely or old-fashioned. They wonder why we should be satisfied in 'believing' something when science tells us that we 'know' so many things. The simple answer to this contention is that we are confronted with many more mysteries of nature today than when the age of scientific enlightenment began. With every new answer unfolded, science had consistently discovered at least 3 new questions.

    The answers indicate that everything as well-ordered and perfectly created as are our earth and universe must have a Maker, a Master Designer. Anything so orderly, so perfect, so precisely balanced, so majestic as this creation can only be the product of a Divine idea."

    The late professor Edwin Conklin, a noted biologist, very aptly said, "The problem of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of Chamber's Dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop."
 

    I know only 2 ways by which God's purpose and God's person may be known.  First there is the process of reason. As a good detective can, for example, tell you many things about my skills, habits and character just by examining something I may have made or handled, so much can be learned about God by a careful examination of the universe, the work of His hands.

    But the detective who examines only what I make can never say he knows me.  He may know some things about me, but before he can say that he knows me, there must be a process of revelation: I must communicate with him.  I must tell him what I think, how I feel and what I want to do. This self-revelation may be made in conversation, in writing, or in some other way.  Only then does it become possible for him to know me.  Just so, if God is ever to be known and His thoughts, desires and purposes perceived, He must take the initiative and make at least a partial revelation of Himself to men.
 

    To be fair to ourselves and to the Bible, we should read it through.  As a judge must not make his decision when the case is half heard, neither must we.  Rather, like the judge, we should compare the evidence of the witnesses, and weigh and consider every work, seeking its deepest significance rather than  accepting its surface meaning.  Surely, the importance of the Bible's claims justifies spending the necessary time on the study of its 66 books, which were written by at least 40 different writers over a period of 1600 years, in places as far apart as Babylon in Asia and Rome in Europe.  With such authorship one would expect to find a miscellaneous collection of contradictory statements.  Its unity is therefore especially striking, for each contribution is the complement of the others.

    In my consideration of this whole matter, slowly the truth of 2 Peter 1:21 became certain to me.  There was no other reasonable explanation.  "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."  This belief was confirmed as I read prophesy after prophesy in the Old Testament, which found their fulfilment, down to the letter, hundreds of years later. For instance, Isaiah in chapter 53 foretold the death of Christ with minute accuracy, 700 years before His crucifixion!  Yes, the difficulties in the way of doubting the Book seemed to me greater than those in the way of believing it.  The problems were all on the side of unbelief!
 

    Confronted with such a statement, can you claim to have lived up to that standard throughout your life?  Have you put God first in everything?  No man can honestly claim such perfection.  Every honest heart echoes Romans 3:10 and 3:23 : "There is none righteous, no, not one... For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."  All have failed to reach God's standard.

    A young man once asked me, "Do you think it is fair of God to set the standard of holiness so high that we cannot reach it, and then judge us for falling short?"

    I replied, "God has not set an arbitrary standard of holiness as an official sets an arbitrary standard of height for his bodyguards.  In such a case, a man may have all the other qualifications, but if he is an inch too short he is disqualified.

    God has not really set a standard at all: He is the standard.  He is absolute holiness, and to preserve His own character He must remain absolutely holy in all of His dealings with man, maintaining that standard irrespective of the tremendous implications which it may hold for both Him and us."
 

    If Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then we may indeed be sure of salvation; but the difficulty faces us:  Is Jesus Christ really the Son of God?  He could only be one of  three – the Son of God, or a deceiver, or an honest man Himself under a delusion.  But we find Him meeting some of the cleverest men of His day, who were purposely sent to catch Him in His words, and He so silenced then that they did not dare ask Him any more questions (Matthew 22:46).  And when we ourselves consider the wisdom of His statements from an intellectual standpoint, we see plainly that He was under no delusion as to Himself.

    Then was His wisdom so great that He was using it to deceive the people?  Have you ever heard of a young man associating with swindlers and rogues and, because of that association, becoming ennobled, pure and honest?  No!  You admit you have not heard of such a case; but I know a young man who by the reception of Christ into his life has been lifted from the basest desires to the noblest manhood.  I simply cannot believe that the reception of a deceiver into one's life could transform it for the good.

    The other day I heard a man say, "I owe it to Jesus Christ that I can walk down the street with my head held erect and my shoulders squared to the world.  I owe it to Him that I can look a pure woman in the face and grip an honest man by the hand."
 

    Leaders from several professions have this to say about Jesus Christ:

    United States Senator Mark O Hatfield testifies, "I saw that for 31 years I had lived for self and decided I wanted to live the rest of my life only for Jesus Christ.  I asked God to forgive my self-centred life and to make my life His own.  Following Jesus Christ has been an experience of increasing challenge, adventure and happiness.  Living a committed Christian life is truly satisfying because it has given me true purpose and direction by my serving not myself but Jesus Christ."

    Robert E (Bob) Richards, former Olympic track star, said, "My only reason for being in sports is to give my testimony to the youth of all the world that Jesus Christ can save from sin, and that one can be a Christian and still excel in good, creative things.  Young people need to realize that God unleashed a power when Jesus Christ died on Calvary."

    Lt Gen (Ret) William K Harrison, former Senior Delegate of the United Nations Command Truce Team in Korea, and later Commander-in-Chief of the Caribbean Command, wrote, "It is wonderful to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I am exceedingly thankful that God has graciously led me to saving faith in Christ. God gives us who believe in Christ a daily, personal experience which is convincing evidence of the reality of the new life in Christ."
 

    On telling my conviction to a friend, he replied, "You are all right, but so am I, although I don't see things as you do.  It seems to me that it doesn't matter so much what a man believes, so long as he is sincere in his belief."

    Let us test that statement.  One fine Sunday morning a neighbour of mine said to his wife and family, "Let us take the car and go for a picnic."  Travelling north, he came to a railway crossing and, sincerely believing that there would be no trains on a Sunday morning, attempted to drive across. He was killed on the spot, one son had an arm broken and his little daughter was in a cast for months.  Did his sincere belief save him?  No, it did not.

    I know a nurse who, while she was on night duty, administered what she has sincerely believed was the right medicine.  But she was wrong, and in twenty minutes her patient was dead in spite of frantic efforts to save him.

    Of course we need sincerity, but we must sincerely believe truth, not error.  In fact, having sincere belief in error can be the very means of deceiving and finally destroying us.
 

    The real reason we want some other way is because the way of the cross is a humbling way, and we are proud at heart.  But let us remember the way of the cross was a humbling way for Christ also, as we read in Philippians 2:5-8:

    "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

    All the argument over the "many ways to God" will not be necessary if it is accepted that Jesus is God, which Scripture affirms over and over. Jesus said in John 14:9-10, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ... I am in the Father, and the Father in Me."
 

    Let us assume that the manager of a business goes to his accountant and finds that his company owed $50 000 to the manufacturers and other merchants.  He says, "Write letters to all those people and tell then that we are not going to trouble about the past, that we have turned over new pages in our ledger, but we promise to pay 100 cents on the dollar in all future businesses, and from now on to live up to the highest standard of business integrity."

    The accountant would think his employer had gone mad, and would refuse to put such a proposition to the creditors. Yet thousands of otherwise sensible people are trying to get to heaven by just such a proposal, offering to meet their obligations towards God for the future, but refusing to worry about the past at all.  Yet in Ecclesiastes 3:15 , we read, "God requireth that which is past".  Even if we assume that we can somehow begin to live an absolutely perfect life – which is no better than what we ought to do, but which is certainly impossible for us – we are still sinners.
 

    To hide past sin, either thoughts, words or deeds, by what seems to be an absolutely perfect life, still leaves us sinners in the sight of Him to whom the past and the future are as open as the present.  According to God's standard of holiness, we all have sinned, and we must bring that sin out in the open and have it dealt with righteously.

    We each need someone who can clear the books.  The Bible declares that Jesus Christ is the only One who could pay his penalty.  "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Romans 5:10).  Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ gave up His life in place of ours that we might go free. Our past sin is paid for, and God, against whom we have sinned, has given us His receipt showing His satisfaction with the completed work of Christ on the cross in that He raised Him from the dead. Christ once crucified is now our living Saviour.  He died to save us form the penalty of sin and now He lives to deliver us form the power of sin.
 

    The Bible says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."

    On one occasion an unfinished court case extended to a second day and, as is the usual practice, so that no outside influence could be brought to bear, the jurymen were kept in custody overnight.  On entering the court the next morning, the judge, addressing the jury, said, "Gentlemen, the case is dismissed: the prisoner has been called to a higher court."  The accused had died in his cell during the night and there was no use going on with the case, since the law cannot judge a dead man.

    Again, if a man murdered one person he is put to death, but if he murdered 6 people he is still just put to death, because this is the utmost penalty of the law.  No matter what a man's sins may be, the law knows no greater penalty than to take his life.

    Therefore it matters not that there are sins in my life I have long since forgotten.  I fear none of them, for I have this confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ, my Substitute, suffered the utmost penalty of the law on my account, freeing me absolutely form all its claims against me, both great and small.
 

    Here is an illustration.  It is a bitterly cold winter and unemployment is rife in one of our great cities, with many in dire need. The municipal authorities provide free meals.  You meet a poor fellow on the street who says he is starving.  Naturally you ask if he does not believe the notices that are up all over the city, that there is enough food for all provided free.

    "Yes," he replies.  "I believe that is true in a general sort of way, but I am still hungry."

    You tell him that he is likely to remain hungry in spite of the provisions unless he eats and drinks personally of what is provided for all.

    Just so, although the death of Christ provides salvation for whosoever will, only those are saved who personally accept Christ and believe that He died in their place. I must take Christ as my Saviour, or His death will avail me nothing – just as a man could die of thirst beside a spring of water, if he refused to make its life-giving stream his own by drinking of it himself.
 

    That seems a fair question – a problem in arithmetic that can be demonstrated on paper. Christ was God manifest in the flesh – Divinity in humanity – so that the life He gave was an infinite life, which can meet the needs of any number of finite lives. Get a sheet of paper and write down all the big figures you can think of – millions or more – and add them up. Now that you have a big number, multiply it by 10 or 100 – a million if you like. Fill up sheets of paper with repeated multiplication, and after that you still have a finite number, a number that has bounds set about it – a beginning and an end, however far it may extend. No, by adding finite things together no man has ever been able to make that which is infinite. The infinite life of Christ given for sinners is more than sufficient to save all who accept Him as the One who died for them.

    But how could Christ suffer for my sins when they were not committed till more than 1 900 years after He died? At first this seems a problem to a thoughtful person, but the more thoughtful you are, the more readily you will see the solution. God is omniscient, that is, He knows all things, and God is eternal. In Exodus 3:14 , God calls Himself "I AM" (present tense), and Christ says in John 8:58 "Before Abraham was, I AM" (present tense). In other words, to one who knows all things and is eternal, there is, as it were, neither past nor future, but one eternal present. Events to take place 2 000 years ahead must be as clear to Him as events which happened 2 000 years ago, and both must of necessity be as clear to God as events happening now.
 

    If I had the power of hypnotism, I would be able to put my 2 sons into a hypnotic state, thus robbing them of the power of intelligent choice. I could then say, "Sit on those chairs till I return" – "Get up and eat" – "Stop eating" – "Kiss me goodnight" – and unfeeling arms would go around my neck, and unresponsive lips would be pressed to mine. I would have prompt and perfect obedience to my every command, but would I find satisfaction in it? No!

    I want boys with free wills, who are capable of disobeying me, but who willingly choose to carry out my instructions, which are the outcome of my love for them and are given for their own good. I cannot conceive of God, who put these desires in my heart and yours, being satisfied with anything less than Himself.

    God does not want puppets who jump in a given direction according to the wire that is pulled, not does He want robots in the form of men who mechanically and absolutely obey His will as do the planets whirling through space. God can find satisfaction in nothing less than the spontaneous love of our hearts and our free-will decisions to act in ways that please and honour Him. But it is obvious that this same power of free action enables us to defy and dishonour Him if we so choose.
 

    What does God care about this little world of ours compared with the vastness of the mighty universe?

    Think of our own solar system, with the planet Neptune 30 times as far away from the sun as Earth, so that it takes 164 Earth years to make 1 Neptune year, and beyond this, suns with planets revolving around them as our solar system revolves around the sun! Of what importance can Earth be to God, and of how much less importance can man be?

    So said the astronomer as the faith of his youth fled – this is what the telescope had done for him. The vastness of the heavens had robbed him of faith in his mother's God, for how long could God trouble Himself with man, who is smaller than a grain of sand in comparison?

    But his thirst for knowledge would not let him rest. The heavens were available for study only at night; how should the free hours of the day be spent? Why not a microscope? And lo! Worlds were opened at his feet – worlds as wonderful as those above, and slowly his faith came back. Yes, the God who could attend to such minute details as to make a drop of ditch water throb with miniature life, was sure to be interested in man, the highest form of His creation. The man found balance instead of bias, and balance brought him back to God. John 3:16 was true after all.
 

    If you check up carefully, you will find that most of the things you know are a matter of faith in human testimony, written or spoken, for you have not verified them for yourself. Then, having accepted the testimony of men on other matters, will you not accept the testimony of thousands of Christians when they affirm that they have verified the things written in God's Word and have proved them to be true?

    Men will not believe, not for lack of convincing evidence of God's power, but because of the hardness of their hearts. Recall the stubbornness of Pharaoh in Exodus. The mighty acts of God wrought by the hand of Moses merely hardened his resistance in unbelief. More astonishing and lamentable was the unbelief of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Not even the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army – still fresh in their minds – could stop their rebellion against God and Moses.

    Our faith is not founded in supposition or speculation, but on the words and works of the ever living Christ, who reigns on high and will soon return to judge the unbelieving world. Hold fast, therefore, the profession of your faith without wavering, till He comes!
 

    It may be just, but is it merciful of God to refuse to take us all to heaven, even if we reject Christ as our sin-bearer? Yes, both just and merciful. Would it be kindness to transfer a poor ragged beggar into the glare of a beautiful ballroom? Would he not do his best to escape to the darkness of the street? He would be infinitely happier there. Would it be kindness and mercy on God's part to bring a man in his sins into the holy light of Heaven if that man had rejected God's offer of the only cleansing power there is? If you and I would not wish our friends to see inside our minds now and read all the thoughts that had ever been there (and our friends' standards are perhaps not any higher than our own), what would it be like to stand before God, whose absolute holiness would reveal our sin in all its awfulness?
 

    You see the absurdity of talking about God taking us all to heaven – heaven is a condition as well as a place. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ will constitute heaven to those who are cleansed from their sins, while that same presence would make a hell of remorse in the hearts of any who, still in their sins, should stand in the infinite light of His holiness. Let us be quite reasonable – could you really be happy in the presence of One whose love you had rejected, and whose great sacrifice you had not counted worthy of your acceptance?
 

    God's love would have forgiven the sinner, but God's righteousness prevented the forgiveness. God's righteousness would have judged the sinner, but God's love restrained the judgement. How to reconcile His inherent righteousness with His character of essential love was a problem that no human philosopher could have solved, but divine wisdom and mercy find their highest expression in the solution – the vicarious suffering and death of God the Son.

    "But", one may object, "does not Christianity fail at its very foundation by basing everything on substitution?"  Substitution will not stand thoughtful investigation. It makes Christ, the Innocent, bear the penalty for the guilty and thus lets the guilty go free. It is diametrically opposed to our every idea of justice, for we believe that justice should protect the innocent and bring the full penalty upon the guilty.
 

    God, against whom we have sinned, in justice sat upon His judgement throne and passed the heaviest penalty He could – the sentence of death upon the sinner. Then, in mercy, He stepped from His throne and in the person of His Son took the sinner's place, bearing the full penalty Himself, for 2 Corinthians 5:19 tells us that "God was in Christ" – not through Christ but in Christ – "reconciling the world unto Himself".
 

    But is the acceptance of Christ as my Saviour all that is necessary to save me for all eternity? Yes. I admit the very simplicity of it seems to make it hard to grasp. But if I owe $500 and have nothing with which to pay, and a friend pays the debt for me and gives me the receipt, I don't worry about it any more. I can look my creditor straight in the face, for I hold his signed receipt. As Jesus Christ gave His life in place of mine, He said, "It is finished ,"meaning that the work of atonement was completed, and God gave me His receipt. The assurance that He was satisfied with Christ's finished work is that He (God) raised Christ from the dead on the third day.
 

    "But I can't see it," said a certain cabinetmaker, as a friend tried to explain this to him. At last, an idea came to his friend, who, lifting a plane, made as though he would plane the top of a beautifully polished table that stood near.

    "Stop!" cried the cabinetmaker.  "Don't you see that's finished? You'll simply ruin it if you use that plane on it!"

    "Why," replied his friend ,"that's just what I have been trying to show you about Christ's work of redemption. It was finished when He gave His life for you, and if you try to add to that finished work you can only spoil it. Just accept it as it stands – His life for yours, and you go free.  "Like a flash the cabinetmaker saw it and received Jesus Christ into his life as his Saviour.
 

    This question arises from a confusion of ideas. A Christian is not different in degree from a non-Christian; he is different in kind, just as the difference between a diamond and a cabbage is not one of degree, but of kind. The one is polished, and the other is crude, but the one is dead while the other is alive, therefore the one has not what the other has – life – in any degree whatsoever, and such is the difference God sees between a Christian and non-Christian.

    Here is one of the many such statements He makes in His Word. 1 John 5:11-12  :"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.  "So the vital and all-important question for everyone of us becomes not, am I cultured or uncouth, but, am I alive or dead towards God? Have I received God's risen Son who brings me life from above, the life of God, called in the Bible eternal life? Or have I not received Him and am I therefore classed by God as among those who" hath not life"?
 

    A wealthy man loses all his money, and rather than sacrifice his social position, he agrees to give the hand of his daughter to a rich man whom she despises. At first she refuses point-blank, but when her father shows her the expediency of the marriage, that it is his only hope of being saved from utter want, she consents, and goes through the marriage ceremony, and becomes, according to the law of the land, the rich man's wife. But is her heart really his? Surely not!

    You see it now, don't you? When a man and a woman would truly be one, they must love with such a love as to receive each other into the innermost recesses of their hearts, in such a deep way that they cannot fully express in words all that they feel.

    We all have the innermost recesses of our beings, which is sacred to us, where emotions stir that no one else could possibly understand. Jesus Christ, God's Son, because of His love for us, claims the right to enter there. He will take no other place in our lives. The love He had shown for us entitles Him to that place. Will I withhold it?

    When I think that Christ's love for me was so great that He left His Father's glory and came to earth to die in my place and give me eternal life, my heart softens towards Him.

    If I were to lie sick and helpless in a burning building, and a friend rushes in to save me, and is himself critically scarred and burned on the face and arms, would not my heart go out to him? God knows it would!
 

    But even if we could enter sympathetically into the physical sufferings of Christ until tears streamed down our cheeks, and that was all, we would still have failed miserably to comprehend the true significance of the cross. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that "He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin."  Come with me, I plead with you, with bowed head and humbled heart, and let us, if we may, enter into the soul-sufferings of Christ the Son, and of God the Father, as that Holy One, who loathed sin as we would loathe leprosy, is "made to be sin for us."

    Ponder in your heart God's amazing love outpoured for rebels such as you and me. Recall the words of Isaac Watts –

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down !
Did ever such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown ?
 

    Have you ever heard of a venerable old gentleman, justly proud of his honoured name – a man who would sooner lose his right hand than use it to do a dishonourable deed? His son and heir go astray from the paths of virtue and in a drunken brawl murders someone. And the old man walks no more erect, his head is bowed in shame, and soon his soul-suffering brings his grey hairs in sorrow to the grave. If that were possible (and it is possible even for us to feel the disgrace of a greater sin than we are used to), think what sin must be like in all its awfulness to an absolutely holy God! Now we understand why, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ turns in loathing from sin and cries in agony of soul, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will" (Matthew 26:39). Yet in spite of that agonised plea from Gethsemane, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" – "made Him to be sin for us" – "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
 

    Just as you leave the mystery of the electric current with the engineer and take the benefits of the light for yourself, so leave the mystery of salvation with God and take the infinite benefits of a personal Saviour to yourself. Yield to Him now – He wants to come into your life. Say and mean it:

    "I am Thine, Lord Jesus; yielded to Thee, body, soul and spirit, and Thou are mine.  Before God, who knows the innermost secrets of my heart, I accept Jesus Christ into my life as my Saviour and Lord. I yield absolutely to Him, and Him alone.  I know, on the authority of His own written Word in John 5:24, that I have everlasting life, for there He says, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life'.  In coming into God's family, I shall endeavour my utmost, as a filial child, to read and meditate on God's Word daily, and to speak to my Heavenly Father in daily communion. This is my sincere desire, so help me God".
 

    "Harry," I said, "let me illustrate. You are out with the boys some night scouting an enemy post. And on the way back you get hit hard. Another soldier stops long enough to pick you up and carry you back to your own lines, and for his trouble gets 2 bullets in the back. You are both taken to the hospital and by tender care are won back from the very jaws of death.

    Two months later the doctor brings in a poor fellow who limps badly and moves with evident pain. They stop at your bedside, and the doctor says, `Harry, I want to introduce you to Bill Smith, the man who risked his life to save you.' You fold your arms and say, ` I'm not sure I want to meet him. I'll think it over.' Now, you wouldn't say that, would you? You would grasp him by the hand and try to tell him something of the gratitude you feel.

    I want to introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man who not only risked His life, but sacrificed it, to save you. And you propose to turn your back on Him and say you'll think it over?"

    "No," he said, "I'll accept Him."

    Together we knelt while he told the Lord that he, at that moment, accepted Him as his personal Saviour.
 

    You say you have accepted Christ; go and tell someone, do not be ashamed to confess Him.  Why should you be?  Suppose I had fallen off a wharf, injuring myself so that I could not swim, and a labourer working on a coal barge had plunged in and saved me.  If a month later you saw me walking down Main Street and the same labourer, all begrimed with coal dust, coming up from the opposite direction; and you saw that I noticed him first but deliberately turned to look into a store window, so that I would not have to stop and greet him, what would you think of me?

    You have declared that you believe the Lord Jesus Christ had given His life to save you.  Occasions will arise when you will meet Him face to face in the presence of those who despise Him.  Will you be ashamed and look the other way, or will you honour Him in both word and deed as your Lord and Saviour?  Having really accepted Him, you must and you will acknowledge Him.