WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED

A young man was once employed as a clerk in a telegraph office, in a town in England. In some way or other God had led him to see that he was a sinner, and this caused him great distress of mind. Like a poor lamb in the mountains, he felt he had wandered from God’s fold, and was in a lost state. But he could not tell where to find the Shepherd, nor how to get to His fold. But Jesus, “the Good Shepherd,” took a singular way to find him and bring him back.

The young man went to the office one morning in great distress of mind, from the burden of his sins. He was lifting up his heart in secret, and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” when the click of the telegraph machine before him told that a message was coming. He looked and saw that it came from Windermere, up among the beautiful lakes of England. There was first the name and residence of the person for whom the telegram was sent; and then followed these words from the Bible: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” And then followed the name of the person sending it. This was a strange message to send by telegraph. The explanation of it was this: the telegram was sent to a servant-girl living in that town. She was in distress about her sins, and trying to find Jesus. She had a brother who was a Christian. He was a servant in the family of a gentleman who was spending the summer at the lakes. The poor girl had written to her brother, telling him about the trouble she was in, and asking him the great question. “What must I do to be saved?” Her brother had no time to write her just then, so he sent her this telegram. The poor girl was led to Jesus by means of these sweet words from her brother, and so was that young man in the telegraph office. This was a telegram from heaven to him. Those precious words—”the Lamb of God”, “taking away sin”, “redemption through His blood”, and “the riches of His grace”—were used to bring him to Jesus, and he found peace in Him. The Good Shepherd made use of the telegraph wire to bring one of His lost sheep back to Himself.