Conversation 14

(Mr. Truman meets with Messrs. Sumday, Works, Cicure, Synsum, and Waters.)

Mr. Truman—Well, my dear friends and kind neighbors, I am glad to see you all together this morning. How are you?

Mr. Sumday—As for me, I am feeling very well. How are you? You look as if you had some good news to tell.

Mr. Truman—I have been anxiously waiting to tell you what the Lord has done for me. For years, I have been seeking for what I have now found. I am saved. My sins are all under the blood. I am God’s child. I have found the peace and rest that Christ promised to give to those who come to Him.

Mr. Works—I am glad you have found what you have been wanting.

Mr. Truman—Yes, I long have wanted to be a Christian but did not know how. Some would say that salvation was by works, others that it was by water, and others that we could not have it at all, so I did not know what to do to obtain salvation. I regret, too, men, that I have not had a better example set before me by many of those who professed to be Christians. I am sure I would have been saved long ago if all professing Christians had lived as the Bible says they should live.

Mr. Works—Well, now, since you have become a Christian, we shall look for a righteous example in you.

Mr. Truman—By the help of God you shall find it.

O my brethren, why not love God with all intensity of soul and give proof of that love by the most careful obedience to His Word? I know that I am saved and that by grace through faith. I am expecting to be saved in the figurative sense by baptism when Brother Goodman comes next month, and then I expect to work out my salvation, and that, too, with fear and trembling, Mr. Cicure, lest I fall from grace.

Mr. Cicure—I have no use for that Mr. Wright nor for his religion, and if you are going to follow him, you will soon be as big a fool as he is.

Mr. Sumday—I tell you, friends, while we may not all agree with him on the Bible, we must admit he is a most kind and obliging man. He is a neighbor in every sense of the word, and as for me, I will say that I wish I now lived as good a life as he does. The other day Widow Marshall’s cow broke the pasture fence down and got out upon the highway, and he left his own work to put the cow back and worked for nearly two hours fixing up her fence. And he would not take a cent for it.

Mr. Synsum—The other evening when I was over there, one of the boys coming from milking fell and spilled a whole pail of milk. Mr. Wright said in the kindest way, “You should be more careful, son, and you would save yourself the fall and the calves their supper.” He told me that God had saved him from anger so that he does not get angry anymore, and since that, I have been watching him. If a man on a farm can live without getting angry sometimes, he is, beyond doubt, something more than an ordinary man. He must have some supernatural help.

The other day, I was given a lesson that I shall not soon forget. I, with my little boy, was in the woods splitting wood. As I was about to strike, my axe caught on a small bush behind me pulling the bush over my head so that it struck me a smart blow in the face. It made me so mad that before I had time to think I said a bad word. My little boy looked at me seriously and said, “Papa, my Sunday school teacher said that if I used bad words, I would not go to heaven when I died. Can you use bad words and go to heaven just because you are big?” Gentlemen, I tell you I want to live better than I have been living. I want to set a better example before my boy. What if after all our years of profession we should miss heaven at last!

Mr. Cicure—Well, you have a very weak religion, to be scared by the words of a boy and a man like Wright. I am saved, and when we once are in grace, we shall always be in grace. We shall never fall.

Mr. Synsum—I am not sure that I was ever in grace, but I would like to have the grace that Mrs. Wright has. As I was passing her home yesterday morning, she was hanging out her clothes and singing, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” All at once the clothesline broke and down came the clothes in the dirt, and to my greatest surprise, she never stopped singing. She had just gotten to the words:

“Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.”

If ever words came from the soul of anyone, these came from her soul. I never saw anything else so much like heaven.

Mr. Works—But think how long we have belonged to church, and now to say that we have had no religion, or salvation, as Mr. Wright is pleased to call it, all these years, is more than I am willing to do.

Mr. Cicure—I have no fears of falling from grace.

Mr. Synsum—No, I do not think you need have any fears. A man who is lying flat on the ground cannot fall.

Mr. Cicure—I guess I am as good as any of you.

Mr. Truman—I have heard you men in your talks with Mr. Wright. It was plain to me that he was speaking according to the Bible. Now, since I am saved, I know he is right. I have found the rest that Christ promised to those who would come to Him. I exhort you all to give up your ways and turn to God.

Mr. Sumday—It seems to me that your advice is good. I think we all are confused and do not know just where we are.

Mr. Truman—Brother Wright asked me to invite you all over to his schoolhouse the first Sunday in next month at 10:30 a.m. Mr. Goodman is to preach, and Mr. Wright wants you all to come at least that one time.

Mr. Sumday—I shall certainly try to be there.

Mr. Synsum—I will come if I can.

Mr. Waters—I guess it will not hurt me to go, so you may look for me.

Mr. Works—I shall be glad to hear him.

Mr. Truman—What about you, Mr. Cicure, can you come?

Mr. Cicure—Well, I could, I suppose, but I have better employment for my time.

Mr. Truman—I will come over in my automobile and take you, if you will go.

Mr. Cicure—Thank you, sir, but I would not go if you were to come in an airplane.

Mr. Truman—Well, I will look for you gentlemen over. Goodbye to you all.