One Honest Hour with Jesus
Ttthile conversing with an inquirer once in Mr. Moody’s meeting our chief aim was to get the young man to unloose himself from every body and every thing else, and to get close up to Jesus. The powerful sermon he had just heard in the Rink could not save him; the friend who knelt by his side in prayer could not. Our aim was to shake him off from every floating object in his reach, and bid him lay strong hold on the omnipotent Saviour. The salvation of every soul is to be settled directly between that soul and the atoning Jesus. Any person or thought which comes between the soul and its Saviour is a fatal impertinence.
This is the counsel we offer to every anxious seeker for pardon and peace who may read these lines. Do you really long for pardon? Then come close up to Jesus as she did, in olden time, who flung herself on his feet, and moistened them with her tears. Confess to him your own sins without concealment or apology. Do not spare your own favorite sins; call them by name and implore him to blot them out, and to give you strength to avoid repeating them. Tell him no lies. It would be an impious falsehood for a man to confess to God the sin of gambling while he had a pack of cards in his pocket, and secretly intended to use them again. It would be a mockery to ask forgiveness for an act of dishonesty while the ill-gotten money was hidden in the purse, and not yet restored to the one who had been wronged. What right lias any man to ask Jesus to forgive him, when his heart is still burning with hatred or festering with grudges against a fellow-creature? Confession, to be of any avail, must let go of its hold on the sin confessed. Then the lips can speak without reserve. Then the petitioner is in an honest attitude and may hope to be heard. But while the iniquity is still harbored in the heart, God will not listen to your confession, be it ever so loud or long-continued. Come right to Jesus and tell him that you so loathe your sins that you have put the amputating knife to them. He will hear you then. And then you have full right to ask for the benefit of that “blood which cleanseth from all sin.” Surely you can not expect the Lord Jesus to cleanse your heart while you are constantly defiling it afresh by a repetition of the same wicked words, or thoughts or deeds.
Jesus invites honest sin-surrendering confession. No mother’s arms can be so open to the erring boy who comes back to her with the sincere sobbing words, “Mother, I did it; forgive me, and if God help me, L will never do it again.” Sinners are too apt to be afraid of Christ. You may feel quite willing to open yourself to some old friend; but to go into your room alone with Jesus Christ and there make a clean breast of it by telling him your guilt, and asking his forgiveness, is more than you dare do. But you commit a fearful mistake.
‘Sinning soul, come nearer Jesus;
Come! but come not fearing thus; Come with faith that trusts more freely
His great tenderness for us!”
As long as you let any fear or any doubt, or any secret hankering for sin keep you away from the Saviour himself, you are without hope. You will perish where you are. Christ waits for you with open ear and open hand. He asks your confidence. Every hour spent elsewhere is an hour lost. Every hour with your pastor or in an inquiry-meeting that you spend in getting relief from human aid, is utterly wasted. It is the solemn duty of that pastor, or of the friend with whom you converse, to shake you off from clinging to their skirts or their prayers. There is such a tendency to hold to somebody else than Jesus only, that we warn you against it.
When you have honestly and penitently sought out Christ and confessed your sins to him, and put yourself wholly in his hands, then stay there. Follow him. Keep close to him, and him alone. In your store, in your shop, in your field, in your home, or whereever you are, be ever saying, “Now, Jesus, lead me! Teach me thy way! Hold fast to my hand! Keep my conscience quick and active, and my will in submission to thy will! If my old sins come back to tempt me, then give me the grace to resist.”
This is Bible - religion — this is doing all that you possibly can “do to be saved.7’ These steps exhaust the divine requirement. Paul must have meant just this when he commanded the inquirer to “trust on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” A vague idea is floating before many minds that if certain famous preachers come to preach or sing to them, or if certain services are attended in their own town, or church, they will receive some undefined benefit. This is a delusion. Reader! Jesus the atoning Lamb of God, the sin-pardoner, the life-giver, is within your reach to-day. Come close up to him, and lay a heart-hold on him. Sooner or later you must do that or be forever lost. One honest hour with Jesus may be the first step towards an eternity of glory.