We need to look to Jesus because we are all sinners and condemned to die. However, the love of God sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins but to rise from the dead. Come to Jesus and be saved. William Booth continues to speak about the necessity of looking to Jesus with the fourth point:

Fourth, Your Situation: I conceive of your case in this way: You appear to be like one who, by going too near the brink of a precipice, has slipped over it, and caught hold of the twigs of some shrub growing in the clefts of the rock, to prevent himself being dashed from crag to crag, and laid a mangled corpse in the abyss below. A friend is seen standing on the nearest ledge, and calls to him to let go his hold, and he will certainly preserve him from impending destruction. He believes, acts according to his friend’s direction, and is delivered. You feel that you are in imminent danger hanging over the brink of an eternal hell; and you are willing to hold by anything which seems to afford the slightest probability of deliverance. You may be holding firmly by the preaching of the Word, prayer, conviction of sin, reading of the Bible and religious books, by tears, repentings, resolutions, and anxieties, but all these are mere twigs by which you are catching, as you feel yourself hanging over the mouth of hell. You cannot be saved by them. If no one appear able to deliver you and bear you away to a place of safety, you will inevitably perish.

But the Lord Jesus the sinner’s Friend appears stretching out His merciful arms, and calling upon you to let go all human means of salvation, and He will certainly save you with an everlasting salvation. Hear His voice, listen to the “gracious words” which proceed out of His mouth (Luke 4:22), and let go your every hold. And if you do so in obedience to His call, and trust in His ability to save, you will find yourself leaning on the divine Redeemer, and feel that “the eternal God is your refuge,” and underneath you are “the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). This done with childlike simplicity, He, having sought and found His lost sheep, will lay you upon His shoulders rejoicing, carry you about all your life, and place you at last in the everlasting sheepfold on the banks of the “river of water of life,” in Emmanuel’s land (Psalm 119:176; Matthew 15:24; Revelation 22:1; Isaiah 8:8). 

I wish I could relate to you as it was once told to me, an account of a lady in Scotland, and of the way in which her doubts and anguish were removed. It was during a revival, in which several known to this lady had been brought to Christ. Among the rest, a particular friend of hers had been converted. Feeling some measure of concern herself, she went to a servant of Christ who was laboring in the place, and told him she was unhappy. He replied that he was glad to hear it. Astonished at this, and somewhat offended also, she told the minister what efforts she had made to obtain salvation, how she had read and prayed, but still seemed as far from peace as ever. He told her that it was not by anything that she could do, but by what Christ had long since done and finished on the cross that she was to be saved. All seemed dark and mysterious to her, and she left; resolving, however, to call on her friend, who had recently been converted. She did so, and asked her what she had done to obtain the peace of which she spoke. “Done! I have done nothing! It is by what Christ has done, that I have found peace with God.” The lady replied that this was what the minister had just been telling her, but that she could not understand it. She went home with her distress greatly increased; and, shutting up herself in her own room, she fell on her knees, resolving that she would never rise till her soul found rest and peace.

How long her agony continued I cannot say; but nature became quite exhausted, and she sunk to slumber. While thus asleep, she dreamed that she was falling over a frightful precipice, but caught hold of a single twig, which overhung the abyss beneath. By this she hung, crying aloud for help, when a voice from below, which she knew to be the voice of Jesus, bade her let go the twig, and He would receive and save her. “Lord, save me!” she cried; but the voice again answered, “Let go the twig.” She felt as though she dare not leave hold, but continued crying, “Lord, save me!” At last, the One below, Whose voice she heard, but whom she did not see, said, in the most tender, solemn tones, “I cannot save you, unless you let go the twig!” Self-desperate, she let it go, fell into the arms of Jesus, and the joy of finding herself there awoke her. The lesson taught her by her dream was not lost upon her. She perceived that Jesus was worthy of all her trust, and that not only did she need no twig of self-dependence, but that it was holding to the twig that kept her away from Christ. She let it go, and found Jesus all-sufficient. The one point which we wish to illustrate by this example is this: that the awakened one must quit all self-dependence, and, discovering the Savior to be a Person independent of and external to self, to trust “Jesus only” (Mark 8:34-36; Luke 14:33).

Fifth, salvation is a free gift. There is no object in the universe so free to you as Christ. He is willing to be your Savior. If you are willing to be saved, then all is well. Salvation is offered to you as a gift “without money and without price.” The God of grace has made salvation so free to every sinner, that it would be utterly impossible for us to make it more free. The salvation of God is set before a world of lost sinners; and the gracious invitation of Jehovah is given to every poor thirsting one: “Ho! Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). Could the Lord have invited you more specially had He writ- ten down your name in this soul-stirring invitation!

O dear soul, come to “the waters” of salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Only believe and your salvation from that moment will be as certain as if you were already in heaven. Salvation is no doubtful thing to the believer in Jesus “Thou shalt be saved.” The man to whom this language was first addressed believed, was saved, and rejoiced in God the self-same hour. This is to you “the day of salvation.” If you will only look to Jesus, and trust your soul’s salvation to Him, you shall have pardon, peace, joy, and hope of glory, this very day. Put your trust in God that He will blot out all your sins for Jesus’ sake, and you will soon be led to cry out in wonder, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity!” for you will then know in your own experience the preciousness of pardon to a burdened soul (Acts 16:31; 2 Corinthians 6:2; Micah 7:18). 

It is told of the great reformer, Martin Luther, that he was under deep and protracted conviction of sin before he was brought to peace, and that an aged monk was instrumental in bringing peace to his troubled conscience. It happened in this way: he was under soul-crushing convictions of sin, and had such spiritual conflicts, that his health gave way. He was laid upon a sickbed, and was brought near the gates of death. In this condition, he was awfully distracted by a vivid apprehension of God’s holiness and his own sinfulness. The aged man entered his cell, and repeated in his hearing this article of the creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:18). These simple words which the pious brother pronounced with sincerity in this decisive moment, diffused great consolation in Luther’s heart, “I believe,” he repeated to himself while on his bed of sickness “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” “Ah!” said the monk, “you must not only believe in the forgiveness of David’s or Peter’s sins, for this even the devils believe: It is God’s command that we believe in the forgiveness of our own sins.” From this time light sprung up in his soul, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, kept his heart and mind through Jesus Christ.

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