ARRY CALLED ME AT 2:00 a.m. "I HAVE to talk with you now."

"It's 2:00 a.m. It is pouring rain. Can you wait until the morning?"

"No. I must see you now."

Harry lived 30 miles away. I arrived at 3:30 a.m. He was in his dressing gown. I was hardly through the door of his house when he told me the story. He'd been unfaithful to his wife. She'd left him. He was in debt. He was performing badly at work. Three nights previously he'd decided to commit suicide. He'd purchased two bottles of whiskey and several boxes of sleeping tablets. He got into a warm bath, swallowed the tablets, and drank the whiskey. He had come to on the floor of his bathroom an hour before he called me.

He asked me the question, "Pastor, can Jesus forgive me for what I have done?"

ulie was one of a family of four, two sisters and two brothers. She was divorced, suffered from a variety of illnesses, and was on Social Security. Her children were a constant problem. Her teenage daughter was living with a man old enough to be her father. Her son was in trouble with the law. She had debts she could never hope to repay.

She was one of a group of three with whom I was studying the Bible. We were talking about heaven as described in Revelation 21 and 22. Suddenly Julie said, "All my life I have dreamed about living in a place like that. What would I have to do to be there?"

t was around 9:00 in a home in a Christian ghetto in Pakistan. The only light came from a low-wattage lightbulb and the small fire. The women were sitting on one side of the floor, the men and young boys on the other. The study had ended, and as was the custom, a period of time was allowed for questions. One woman spoke up. She said, "The Muslims offer sacrifices of sheep and goats on Fridays. Should we eat this meat?" The question brought me back to Paul and his letter to the Corinthians and their questions about meat offered to idols.

Response to Harry
When Harry asked the question "Can God forgive me for what I have done?" I was hesitant to answer, because I had never been asked such a question about suicide before. Internally I prayed for guidance. There came into my mind some words of an old gospel hymn:

"Down in the human heart, crush'd by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more."*

Immediately I replied! "Yes, Harry, Jesus can forgive you. And more, He can restore you." I then quoted the words above. We talked and prayed together. Harry recovered and renewed his Christian walk with God. He found in Jesus the help he needed to live again.

Response to Julie
When Julie asked the question "What would I have to do to be there?" I turned to John 3:16 and read it to her and said, "Julie, God sent His Son Jesus to make it possible for you to be there. If you are willing to turn your life over to Jesus, He will get you there. Would you like to do that now?" She said, "Yes." Her question and her response were so sincere that they affected the other two persons in the study group. We drew together in prayer and asked Jesus to fulfill in our lives His saving power and to especially bless and assure Julie that she would have a place in His heavenly kingdom. I remember that night as one of the happiest I have ever known. Jesus had come close to a woman who had little of this life's benefits, giving her a wonderful joy and peace in His love, and the hope of life everlasting in His kingdom.

And to the Pakistani Woman
When the woman in Pakistan asked the question about "sheep and goats," I told her the simple story of Jesus the Lamb of God, beginning with Genesis and ending with John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (RSV). I told how He died in our place that we might not die. That He took our sins and set us free. As I finished I became aware that the woman was crying, and so were several others. Then she spoke words that I will never forget as long as I live. She said, "In all my life nobody has ever told me about such beautiful things."

It is difficult to recapture in words the experience of sitting with a group of people in semidarkness in very primitive conditions and seeing the manifest presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit upon receptive human hearts.

esus is not an idea. He is not a theological construct. He is not only our Lord. He is our Savior-the only Savior; there is no other. Jesus is a living Savior, not a dead Lord or a historical figure. Of Him and of Him alone it can be truly said:

"There is no stain of human sin
So dark and hidden deep within
That Christ who died on Calvary's tree
Cannot cleanse and set us free."

Jesus never passes by anyone as useless or hopeless. Ellen White made this encouraging observation about Him and about our mission as Christians:

"Hanging upon the cross Christ was the gospel. . . . This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer. If we can awaken an interest in [people's] minds that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ, we may step aside, and ask them only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God" (manuscript 49, 1898).

It is our inestimable privilege in a world polluted by sin, which has stained the hearts and minds of millions, to lift up Jesus. We can set Him forth in His beauty and love. We can make Him great in the eyes of men and women, boys and girls, that they with us may experience the soul cleansing He and He alone can give. His power to save is contemporary. There is no life so stained that He cannot cleanse.

* From the hymn "Rescue the Perishing," by Fannie J. Crosby. (This verse is not included in The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal.)

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Patrick J. Boyle, now retired, was the senior pastor of the Stanborough Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South England Conference.