life." We dwelt on this until it was plain, using John 3 :18 to emphasize the fact that salvation now depends upon our acceptance of Christ. Satisfied that my aged friend realized what Christ had done for him, I asked him if he was ready to kneel down and tell God he believed His word, that he now ac- cepted Christ as his substitute Saviour, surrendered his life to Him as his Lord, and that he knew, on the authority of God's word, that he had eternal life. After he had done this, and I had fol- lowed him in prayer, I said, "Now, let us see about the witness of the Spirit," and turning to Romans 8:15, we read: "For ye have not received the spirit oT bondage again to fear; but ye have re- ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." I pointed out to him the changed attitude of the be- liever to God—no longer at enmity against Him, deliberately and wilfully disobeying Him, no longer afraid of Him and wishing to keep away from Him; but lovingly striving to do His will, longing to be with Him, and hoping to hear Him say, "Well, done, good and faithful servant." For a minute Mr. M looked at me silently, and then a smile broke over his face as he said, "I have just thought of something that is like the witness of the Spirit. When I came to Montana first, I built the best house I could for my wife, little daughter and myself. It was only a log house, and had only two rooms a living room and a sleeping room. My little girl's bed was close to my side of our bed, and sometimes in the dark the little one would awaken and begin to cry for me. Then I used to reach over and get her hand in mine, and her little heart was comforted, and she would quiet down and go to sleep again. I haven't thought of that for thirty years, but it seems to me that the witness of the Spirit is just feeling Father's hand in the dark." Now, that may make a theologian smile, but the tears in the smiling, con- tented face, so different from the trou- bled face I had looked into a quarter of an hour before, convinced me that my old friend had found his Father's hand. Reader, have you?
year ago, and then he had been so con- ' victed of sin that he had to get up and leave in the middle of the service. This conviction had remained with him all the year, and had increased, until now he was afraid there was scarcely any hope of his being saved at all. After_ he had Unburdened his heart, and calmed down a little, a question disclosed the fact that what he wanted was-, in his own phrase, "the witness of the Spirit." Opening my Bible, I turned to Ephe- sians 1:13, and said: "Let us see what one must do to receive the witness of the Spirit." As the light was too dim for him to read, I read slowly: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye lieard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, y e' were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." "Now," said I, "that is what you want." He said it was. "Then, let us see just how these people in Ephesus were sealed with the Holy Spirit. The verse tells us that they trusted in Christ, but before they could trust in Him they had to hear about Him. So, first of all, before they became Christians they heard the gos- pel; then they believed the gospel a;nd trusted in Christ; then a f t er they be- lieved they were sealed with the Holy Spirit. Did they believe because they were sealed, or were they sealed because they believd?" "Why," said Mr. M——," thy be- lieved first and then they were sealed." "Quite right," said I. "A man is not saved until he believes in Christ, and so the Holy Spirit cannot witness that he is saved when it is not yet true. Now, Mr. M—j—, what have you been wanting the Holy Spirit to do?" "Oh," said he, "I see it all now." "Very well. Let us go back a bit now, and see what Christ has done and what you are to believe." - Finding Isaiah 53:6, we went over it, step by step, until Mr. M saw the great truth that all his sins had been laid on Christ when He died on the cross, nineteen hundred years ago. Turning from t h ai to John 5:24, we found that every man who believes God's word concerning Christ "hath everlasting
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