“Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy” (Ps 109:26).
My father’s family lived in coal mining country in Lanarkshire, Scotland. My great-grandfather often brought the gospel into the mines by volunteering to work a shift for one of the miners who was unable to work.
I heard of one occasion when a miner objected that the gospel was too cheap. “We must do our part as well,” he opined. Without a direct answer, the evangelist asked the miner how he returned to the surface at the end of his shift. “Why, in that cage at the end of the seam.” “That seems very simple; don’t you need to do something to help yourself get up to the mine head?” “No, of course not. It takes us right up.” “Well, what about the people who sank the shaft and constructed the lift? Was there a great deal of work and expense in that?” “I see it now,” the miner replied. Christ’s work to provide the way up was very expensive. But for us it is only a step into Christ and to eternal safety.