05.03. The Altar

3. THE ALTAR

We who believe in the "old-fashioned mourners’ bench" and use it as a means of helping people come to a decision for God should be careful and not deify it as essential.

We should never leave the impression that any one particular place is necessary in order to seek and find the Lord.

I believe in the altar. I was saved at one and sanctified at one. So were my family. I know it is an effective place and a blessed place to deal with seekers and I hope it will never be relegated to a back room in our church, but I also know that God will meet anywhere those who desire to know Him.

I have had men find God where they sat while the message was being delivered. I have seen them saved on their way to an altar of prayer.

Scores of testimonies could be had from people who found the Lord at home, in the field, in the store, the shop, the factory, or on the highway. Anywhere men earnestly seek Christ He will be found of them.

Parting of the Ways A worker should approach the altar in awe, with fear and trembling. The person kneeling there is at the parting of the ways. What he does here may settle the whole course of his life for time and eternity. What he does here may settle the course of lives yet unborn.

There is a life, a soul, in your hands. Deal carefully. If he takes the right way, he may go forth to live for many years a good life and bless others. If he takes the wrong road, it may mean to go forth into a life of sin and disgrace, to be a curse, contaminating all whom he touches or influences.

What you do or what you say may help to turn him right or wrong. Deal carefully.

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