St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-28
What will make Him a Christian ?
BY EGBERT l.. BANGS.

A note came to me not long ago in
regard to the average boy of fifteen
years. This note was from the father
of such boy, and doubtless not IL few
parents have the same anxious thoughts
about their boy that the writer of the
note evidently had about his. The
note contained this question: "What
will put the average boy of fifteen in
the way of salvation, and make him a
Christian ~ 1t has occurred to me
that as other parents are asking the
same important question, in answering
it for one | will answer it for many.
The question implies that the average
boy of fifteen is not Il Christian. 1t
does not ask what will save him, but
what will put him in the way of sal
walton. Now where does the average
boy stand
here assume that the writer of the
note meant, not the rough boy, not the
boy on the street, airing his fast ten
denotes, but the decent, well behaved
boy, whose conduct is Outwardly cor
rect, and who is reasonably thoughtful.
| believe many such are a good deal
nearer being Christians than they think
they are, and that what they most need
is, not the acceptance of a creed, but
the performance of some specific act
that shall commit them to known duty.
Suppose an acorn lying on the ground
could look up to the tree from which 1T
fell, and say, "What will put me in the
way of becoming an oak tree 7" The
possibility of the oak is in the acorn.
Place it in your bureau drawer, and it
a. Il. - hoo
ing Il tree. Put it in the ground, and
you place it under conditions that put
it in the way of becoming an oak tree
in time. The average boy of fifteen
must place himself under conditions
that are suitable for his becoming a
Christian, in order to become one. If
wish to go to a given place, | must take
the road that leads there, and then
keep in the road. What then is the
one specific act for the average boy to
perform b? The man who is going the
wrong way must change his course, and
strike into the right way. That in
wolves choice between two courses
II determination to stop going in one
direction, and to begin to go in another.
To get into the way of salvation,
then, is simply to change ones purpOs-
es that need changing. A Christian is
a Christ person; and one cannot be a
Christ person and not come into prop
er relations with Christ. Our acorn
has the law of growth within it, but
must be in actual contact with the
ground that is to nOuIish it, and bring
out its latent powers, or it will remain
un acorn. Such u contact us the acorn
has with mother earth, the human heart
must have with Christ to become a
Christian heart. There is rap at the
door. | say, "COme in" "But," says
one on the outside, ~ can't get in; the
door is locked" push back the bolt
and open the door, and my friend comes
in. To me, the whole process of be-
coming a Christian resolves itself into
this: First, there must be belief i'll
Christ and it is as easy to believe in
him as it is to give our honest conf
dence to a earthly friend. Secondly,
there must be deliberate purpose to
do what Christ has told us to do; and
the summary is a brief one, it is only
to do right by God and man. Christ,
admitted to the heart, in the same con-
fidiug way that friend, in whom we
have all confidence, is admitted there,
and an honest decision made to live as
Christ tells us to live,-that is all that
is needed to be in the way of salvation.
Conversion, if you chose to use that
word, is thus IL simple, comm0n-sense
affair, that the average boy need be no
more puzzled about than he would be
in making any other decision what
ever.-S. s. Times.