Two men, the one a foreman, the other, one of the carpenters under him, were standing on the deck of a ship in a dry dock in a shipyard.

"Well, Sam," said the foreman, "I have long been anxious to have a conversation with you. I'm told you are one of those people who say they know for certain that they are saved. Is that true?"

"Yes," said Sam, "quite true; thank God, I know I'm saved; in fact, there is nothing I'm more sure of than that I'm saved."

"Well, now," said the foreman, "that is something I cannot see through. I think it is rather presumptuous for anyone to say that he is saved as long as he is in this world.

"I used to attend a place of worship a good many years ago, and several of the leading men in it pressed me to become a member, but I could not, for I knew I was not a Christian and told them so. In fact, I was disgusted with them. I knew so many who went to that place and pretended to remember the death of Christ who were just as bad as I was. I left them and have never gone to any place since for I concluded the whole thing was a sham, and that there was no reality in Christianity at all."

"Well," said Sam, "I'm not at all surprised at you, but there is a reality in being saved, in being a child of God, and in knowing it. What is the breadth of this waterway?"

The foreman, astonished at the apparently sudden change in the conversation, said, "Why, 14 inches all around, to be sure; what makes you ask that when you know?"

"But are you quite sure that it is to be 14 inches?" asked Sam.

"Certainly, said the foreman.

"But what makes you so sure?"

"Why, I'm going by the book," and as he said so, he pulled a book out of his pocket in which were marked the sizes and positions of the various things on the deck. "I'm sure it is 14 inches, for it is here in the book and I got the book from headquarters."

"Oh, I see," said Sam; "now look here; that is exactly how I know I'm saved. I'm just going by the Book. It came from headquarters—it is God's Word. I found in here that I was a lost, condemned sinner, worthy of nothing but the lake of fire; but I also found that 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). I took God at His word, and I'm saved; and you may be saved too, if you—a lost, condemned sinner—will simply believe in Jesus and trust Him as your Saviour. Then you can say without presumption, 'I KNOW I'm saved, for I'm going by the Book.'"

Reader, can you say on the authority of God's Word, "I know I'm saved?" Before it is too late, hear the voice of Jesus calling, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). "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" (John 5:24).