THE DAY OF REST. The Engaged Ring: A Parable.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 351, 16 March 1889, Page 4

THE DAY OF REST. The En gaged Ring : A Parable.

BY THE REV. JAMES OALt,

A. You aay you are anxious about your aoul, but are you really willing to be saved? B. Of course I am. A. You remember what the angel said to Joseph, " Thou shnlt call his name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins." Are you willing that Jesus should save you from your sins ? B. I am most willing. A. Just think for one minute. Are there no darling sins that you ate not willing to part with ? — for if there is even one that you are nob prepared to surrender, it is impossible for you to be saved. Jesus must either save his people from their sins, or not at all ; He must either have you altogether, or not at all. B. That is the very thing that troubles me. There are sins that beset me, and I find that I have no power to give them up. At one time I thought I could whenever I chose, bub when I did try I found that I had no power. A. In that case allow me to tell you that you may be saved iwio— without another hour's delay. B. How is that? For months I have been praying to God that He would give me a nevr heart, and that I might be born Again. A. And has He nob answered your prayers ? B. lam afraid not. But I suppose that I must continue to pray, and, like the importunate widow, give Him no rept until He answers my prayers. If I continue to pray He will hear me at last— at least, I hope so. A. You have made a great mistake. It was not necessary for you to pray. B. What ! Can Ibe saved without being born again, and without getting a new heart ? A. Certainly not. Bub all that has been waiting upon your answering God's pra} r ers to you, not on his answerine your prayers to Him. B. Ido not understand you. Can I regenerate myself, or create a new heart within me? Please to tell me what you mean. A. Do you see that diamond ring upon my finger ? B. I do. But what has that to do with my salvation ? A. I will tell you the story of that ring, as it will illustrate what I mean. I gob it from my Lite husband before we wers married. I was very younj? and foolish, bub he loved me when I was almost a child. At first I had a great dislike to him, but he was so gentle, so kind and so patient, that I began bo love him in return. Ho then asked me bo marry him, but what do you think I did? b. I do not know, unless ib was that you accepted him. A. lam ashamed to say that I did not. B. You did not refuse him ? A. No. Bub I did worse : I avoided giving him an answer. B. Why? A. I did not wish to bind myself so soon ; for I was afraid that if I answered " Yes," I should not b j to free to speak to other younc men, and so I kept him a long timo without giving him an answer. B. Were you nob afraid bhab he might leave you and never ask you again ? A. If he had, could I have blamed him ? B. Of course not. If you kept yourself free, you left him free too, as-d he had a perfect right to leave you and marry another if ho chose. A. And how could I have bound him ? B. By simply sayine "Yes," and then you became his affianced wife. Bub you did ib at lasb. A. I did, and when I answered " Yes," he took this ring from his pocket and put ib upon my finger, saying, " Now, my darling, you are mine." Now tell me whether ib wop his answer to mv prayer, or my answer to hi?, bhab made bhe difference? B. I see ib. It was your answer to his prayer, and not his answer to yours, that mnde the change. It was the one word " Ye 3" that did it all. Bub how does that apply to me ? A. Allow me to ask. Was ib you that first loved Christ, or was ibChrisb thatfirsb loved you? B. I see. Ib was Christ that first loved me. and entreated me when I cared nothing about Him. Bub how am I to answer his nrayers ? A. In his Woid and by his Spirit God has been entreating you to accept of hi? Son a<* your Saviour, and so long as you give Him no answer you are not saved. A. How then am I to say " Yes" ? If any one says "Yes" to Christ, will that save him? A. That depends on what yon mean by saying " Yes." What I said " Yes" to im husband! gave up my liberty,and consented lo be his. If I did anything wrong after that he had right to remonstrate with me as he had nob before. So if you tell Christ that you give yourself up to Him, to be altogether his, so that He must take charge of you, He is bound to receive you ; and'it' you' go astray from Him after that, He is engaged to look after you, and if need be chasten you, bub He will never leave you nor forsake } r ou. B. Bub what about the engaged ring ? You have not told me aboub that. A. The moment you surrender to Christ and accept Him as your Saviour, that moment the Holy Spirit enters your heart, and you become a new creature. " Beho'd, I stand ab the door and knock : if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in." "To »3 many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." You are then able to live a holy life as you never were before, because the old corrupt tree cannot bring forth any fruit but of its own kind. This is the putting on of the engaged ring, because the Holy Spirit is the "earnest of the purchased pospeseion." B. But I am afraid that even after I surrender and tell Him that I do accept of Him as my Saviour and Lord, I shall be no better than I was before. A. Are you afraid thab God will nob be true to his promise, that when you have opened the door to Him He will nob come in, and that when you have received Him He will nob give you the power to become a daughter of God ? B. At all events, it will be safer for me nob to let it be known bhab 1 have given myself to Chrieb, until I see that I am really chanced. A. Why?' B. Because if I should happen to fall into sin after I am converted, I will bring no disgrace upon the cause of Christ. A. But Christ will not have you upon any such terms. »Vhen my husband put that ring upon my hand he intended me to wear ib before the world, that it might be known thab I was no longer free. Would ib have been any satisfaction to him if I haddeclined to wear it in order that he mierht not be dis graced if 1 acted improperly ? The very profepsion of your engagement to Christ if one of the best safe-guards to your loyalty. Satan isalways anxious for the young convert to leave the door open behind him, «o that its may be easier to sin or to go back to the world. But you must mak« no provision

for the flesh or for backsliding ; and when the world will again attempt to allure you to its embraces, you musb point to your ring and say that you are no longer your own — you are engaged to Chiist.