Riches of grace : $b A compilation of experiences in the Christian life; a narration of trials and victories along the wayByrum, E. E. (Enoch Edwin)
Religion
Riches of grace : $b A compilation of experiences in the Christian life; a narration of trials and victories along the way
Byrum, E. E. (Enoch Edwin)
Christian life
Eighteen or twenty years ago he attended a revival held by the United
Brethren people and began to seek God. Night after night he went forward
for prayer, but for lack of proper instruction, failed to find the peace
he so earnestly sought.
A DISCOURAGEMENT
One day in this great soul-struggle, he called at the home of one of the
ministers to know just how to get rid of the great load of sins he was
carrying. He was completely baffled and disappointed. The minister said:
"It is like this: A man might be carrying a heavy sack of sand upon his
shoulders, and if for some reason there should come a little hole in the
bottom of the sack and the sand begin to escape, it would leak out so
slowly that it would be sometime before the burdened man would realize
any difference in the weight of his load, and only in the end, after it
had all slipped through a little hole, would he awaken to the fact that
the entire load was gone. Now, just so it is with your burden of sins.
As you begin to seek God, they begin to run out, but you will not
realize any change at first, and it will take some time for you to
realize that your load of guilt is really gone after you are fully
forgiven."
Poor father! He turned away sick at heart, for he longed for an
instantaneous work to be done in his soul. Through this discouragement
he gave up trying to find God and for many years continued in that
unhappy, dissatisfied state of soul and mind, although he often desired
to be a true Christian for the sake of his family as well as for his own
peace of mind, and yearned to be able to "read his title clear to
mansions in the sky."
In the spring of 1906 his brother and family came to make us a short
visit before their departure from the homeland as missionaries to a
foreign country. For some months they had been especially burdened
that at least one of our relatives should be saved before they crossed
the ocean to their mission field. Their pure, holy lives made a deep
impression upon me, and through their earnest prayers and fastings for
my poor soul, I was constrained to forsake sin and yield myself to the
Lord. I was glad to embrace the privilege of being with the humble
people of God who worship him in spirit and in truth, and to become one
of them. I had a feeling, however, that my father might be displeased
with me for making such a decision; but when I met him a few weeks
later, my soul leaped with joy, for he expressed himself as being glad
that I had given my heart to God, and even made a favorable expression
concerning my decision to associate with the people of the church of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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