A Remarkable Conversion

The parents of Mr. J. Hudson Taylor, the well-known founder of The China Inland Mission, were earnest Christians and sought to bring up their son in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." He tried hard to imitate the lives of his godly parents, and failing in this, he drifted to the opposite extreme (as such cases frequently do) and became somewhat skeptical in his ideas.

One day his mother, who was away from home on a visit, became deeply concerned for the salvation of her son and retired to her room for prayer. She cried to God to save him at that very time, and did not leave off pleading until she had the assurance that God would save her boy that very day.

God saw her faith and heard her earnest prayer. His Spirit was working in young Hudson's heart that very hour at home. Having a half hour to spare, he wandered into his father's library and looked aimlessly through the books for something to divert his mind. He found nothing to interest him until he saw a narrative tract. He took it up to read the story (as you, reader, may have done with this) intending to leave off as soon as the application of the incident commenced. Suddenly he came upon the words, "The finished work of Christ." They were a revelation to him; light burst in upon his soul, and falling on his knees, he confessed to God his sin and unbelief, and found "joy and peace in believing."

A few days later his mother returned, and he was fully prepared to confess the Saviour by whose finished work his soul was saved.

Said he, "Mother, I have some news to tell you." "Oh, I know what it is," was her confident reply; "you are converted!" Astonished he asked, "Who told you?" "God told me," she replied, and together they praised and worshipped the "God of all grace" who, at the same hour of the same day gave one to believe, as a saint, for the saving of her son, and the other, as a sinner, to the saving of his soul.

In relating an account of his conversion, Hudson Taylor said, "Then there dawned upon me the joyous conviction that, since the whole debt was paid on the cross, there was nothing left for me to do but to fall upon my knees, accept the Saviour and praise Him for evermore."

The lesson we may learn from this conversion is the all-sufficiency of "the finished work of Christ" to save the sinner who believes.

It spoke peace and pardon to young Taylor's soul and to the souls of multitudes before his time and since. And it can still speak its life-giving message to hosts of sinners who abide in the dark regions of the shadow of death.

Reader, are you in distress of soul? Do your sins stand forth as impassable mountains between your soul and God? Rejoice! The Son of God has rendered infinite satisfaction in His atoning death on the cross for those very sins that now weigh like unbearable burning millstones on your guilty conscience. "It is finished" was the triumphant cry of your divine Substitute when the atoning work was done. Believe and live, and evermore rejoice!

To speak of trying to be a Christian is absurd. Suppose you try to be a prince; will you succeed? No, you must be born a prince or be made one. You could never make yourself one if you tried for a lifetime with all the determination and perseverance possible. No more can you, by trying, succeed in becoming a child of God and an heir of glory however earnestly and perseveringly you go at it.

"Not saved are we by trying,
   From self can come no aid;
'Tis on the blood relying,
   Once for our ransom paid;

'Tis looking unto Jesus,
   The Holy One and Just;
'Tis His great work that saves us,
   It is not try but trust."

If God gave you eternity in which to try to make yourself a saint you would not succeed. If really in earnest you would soon give away utterly, and sink hopelessly beneath the unbearable burden of disappointment and despair.

But thank God,

"No deeds of ours are needed
   To make Christ's merit more;
No frames of mind, or feelings
   Can add to His great store;

'Tis simply to receive Him,
   The Holy One and Just,
'Tis only to believe Him,
   It is not try but TRUST."

Scripture says, "But to him that worketh NOT but BELIEVETH on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

Cease your trying, anxious reader, and begin this hour to trust. The Gospel saith, "BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED" (Acts 16:31).

—C. Knapp