Make it plain, Father!

After the Battle of Gettysburg, a young man lay seriously wounded in a hospital. His father was sent for. The doctor said to him, “Your son cannot last long.” With heavy heart the father said to his son, “You may go at any time!” “But,” pleaded the son, “I cannot die; I must not die. I am not ready to die. Father, make it plain to me now how I can die right with God, and have all my sins forgiven,” implored the son. At once, an incident in the school life of the son came to the grief-stricken father. “Son, do you remember when you were expelled from school, how I rebuked you for the wrong you had done, and how you abused me with harsh words? Do you recall how, later, you came in great sorrow and begged my forgiveness? Do you recall how freely I forgave you?” “Yes,” replied the son. “Son, did you doubt that I would freely and fully forgive you?” “No, Father, I knew that you forgave me from your great heart of love!” Then the father said, “My son, just as freely and as fully as I forgave you so also will God forgive you your sins, blotting them out, never to remember them against you!” –LouisAlbert Banks, D.D.

The Christian rose

Dr. Howard A. Kelly usually wore a beautiful rose in the lapel of his coat. That was how he illustrated that the hidden source of the believer’s life is in Christ. “That’s a lovely rose,” friends greeting him would say. “Actually, it’s a Christian rose,” the physician would reply, as he turned back the lapel of his coat and displayed a tiny bottle in which the stem of the rose was submerged  in water. Then he would say, “When the Saviour pardons our sins, He unites us with Himself, thereby nourishing and strengthening us.” –Walter B. Knight

“Absolutely worthless!”

A friend once showed John Ruskin a costly handkerchief on which a blot of ink had been made. “Nothing can be done with it now,” said the owner. “It is absolutely worthless.” Ruskin made no reply but carried it away with him. After a time he sent it back, to the great surprise of his friend, who could scarcely believe his eyes. In a most skillful and artistic way Ruskin had made a design in India ink, using the ugly blot as a center for the design. A blotted life is not necessarily a useless life. Jesus can make a life beautiful if it is yielded to Him. –Moody Monthly