It is a solemn thing to contemplate; but the curtain drops and leaves him outside, and the younger brother within. To him the language of the Saviour under other circumstances seems appropriate: > “Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew
A lady once came to me and wanted a favor for her daughter. She said: “You must remember I do not sympathize with you in your doctrine.”
I asked: “What is your trouble?”
She said: “I think your abuse of the elder brother is horrible. I think he is a noble character.”
I said that I was willing to hear her defend him; but that it was a solemn thing to take up such a position; and that the elder brother needed to be converted as much as the younger. When people talk of being moral it is well to get them to take a good look at the old man pleading with his boy who would not go in.
But we will pass on now to the other class with which we have to deal. It is composed of those who are convinced of sin and from whom the cry comes as from the Philippian jailer, “What must I do to be saved?” To those who utter this penitential cry there is no necessity to administer the law. It is well to bring them straight to the Scripture: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31). Many will meet you with a scowl and say, “I don’t know what it is to believe;” and though it is the law of heaven that they must believe, in order to be saved—yet they ask for something besides that. We are to tell them what, and where, and how, to believe.
In John 3:35 and 36 we read: