ers, and though God is so
just that He cannot let sin go unpunished, yet Jesus undertook to be
punished instead of you, and He died on the cross and shed His blood
that you might go free of punishment. If you will but trust in Him, and
believe that He was so punished, and that, consequently, God no longer
considers you worthy of punishment, but giving you, as it were, the
holiness and righteousness which belong to Christ, will receive you into
that holy heaven where none but the righteous can enter."

The wounded man groaned and answered slowly, "I am afraid that I am a
sinner, though I have been trying to make out that I am not one. But I
really have had a very hard life of it, and no good example set me, and
shipmates around me cursing and swearing, and doing all that is bad; and
so I hope if I do die, as you say I shall, that God won't keep me out of
heaven."

"Jesus Christ says, `There is only one way by which we can enter; there
is but one door.' `I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light.' `He that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the
only-begotten Son of God.' Jesus also says, `He that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life;' and again,
`Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' Jesus came
not to call the righteous, or those who fancy themselves good enough to
go to heaven, as you have been doing, but sinners, to repentance--those
who know themselves to be sinners. Think how pure and holy God is, and
how different you are to Him, and yet you must be that holy as He is
holy to enter heaven. Christ, as I have told you, gives you His
holiness if you trust to Him; and God says, `Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool;' and, `As far as the east is from the west, so
far will I put your sins from me.' Believe what God says; that is the
first thing you have to do. Suppose Jesus was to come to you now, and,
desperately wounded as you are, tell you to get up and walk; would you
believe Him, or say that you could not? He said that to many when He
was on earth, and they took Him at His word, and found that He had
healed them. There was, among others, a man with a withered hand. When
He said, `Stretch forth thine hand,' th