Does it matter if I can't remember precisely when I was saved?

A great many can. They can put their fingers upon a certain day in the almanac and say, "That is my spiritual birthday." But all cannot do that, and I don't think any should be troubled on that account. If you are sure that you are converted, that you have been brought out of the shadowland of sin into the sunshine of grace and liberty, it is enough. There is no need to be anxious because you cannot tell the precise moment of your conversion.

There are some Christians, who can take you to the very spot where they were converted. They can tell you the very day and hour when it happened. Many, cannot do this, especially the children of Christians, who have had the truths of the gospel presented to them from their infancy. We have known Christians troubled because they could not tell the time of their conversion. We remember years ago a soldier Christian in Canada saying with a bright smile, “I have had two birthdays one natural, the other spiritual. I don’t know the year in which either took place. But I know I was born naturally into this world for I am alive now; and I know that I was born spiritually because I trust and love the Lord.”

Ques.—Is it necessary that a Christian should know the exact date or time of his conversion? Some claim that we should know.

Ans.—The date of our natural birth is not gotten from our experience, but from our parents' testimony. In like manner we depend upon God's testimony for the certain knowledge of our new birth. (See John 5:24, etc.) On the authority of God's Word therefore we may, and should, have a present assurance that we are born of God and have eternal life through faith in Christ; but what is the need of trying to fix the date of its beginning, which we cannot prove? Many Christians can speak of the time when they found “peace with God;” but this may be subsequent, or separated in time from new birth. To trust to our experiences for assurance in such matters is a poor foundation.

"Could I be sure," said a troubled soul to the preacher one evening, "of the very time, circumstances, and means of my conversion, I should be quite happy." Happiness resting on such a foundation, she was told, would not last long. Satan would soon beat her in argument and plunge her soul in deeper troubles than ever. Then how can I be sure, many will be ready to inquire, that I am converted? If you are now really caring to be assured that you are converted, most likely you are. Both the desire and that which satisfies it must come from God. But the word of God alone can give assurance. "Look unto me and be ye saved," are the Lord's own words. From the first moment that the eye looks to Christ as the Saviour, the soul is beyond all question saved. It may not believe it; it may be judging of its state by its feelings; it may be miserable, even on the brink of despair; but the word of God must ever be true notwithstanding. "Look unto me and be ye saved." Our unbelief cannot make the word of God untrue, but it hinders our enjoyment of Christ and salvation.

No doubt, the former will have a deeper sense of the value of the life-boat, but that is a matter of experience and not a question of salvation. There are hardly two cases of conversion alike. Some go through exercises of soul before they come to Christ, others after. It is the Christ I reach and not the way I reach Him, that saves my soul.

So when we ask, “How, when, or where, were you converted?” we really mean, “How were you led to trust in Christ? When did you find out that He alone must be your Saviour? Where did you get that sweet rest in Him?” And if, perchance, your exercises covered a number of weeks or months, out of which you emerged at last resting on His mighty arm and trusting His finished work, do not be distressed that you cannot particularize, but boldly confess Him as Saviour and own Him as Lord. All who have turned from self to Christ are in the fullest, clearest, scriptural sense converted.

This is surely typical of what has happened in the history of every true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. Who that has known it, can forget the day when the claims of God, expressed by the action of the true Man of God, were recognised, and the heart won to Himself? The actual date may be unknown, the real fact, however, is undeniable.

But the stream of time rolls on, and the Lord calls one after another; not by a vision, like Saul of Tarsus, but still something passes from the Lord of glory right down into the soul of that particular person, just as it did to Abram or to Saul. Most of us can say there was a time when we did not know Christ, and a time when we did know Him. Nineteen years of my life were spent in vanity and folly; but when He revealed Himself to me I was turned right round, and people thought I was mad, as they did Paul.

Souls, dear -, are enabled to make so short a journey in these days. It used to be an age to pass from death unto life, but now 'tis a journey accomplished in haste. And really this is more according to the New Testament model. Zaccheus and the thief, the Samaritan and Peter and Matthew, took but little time to travel that road. But it is comforting, however, to see other cases, souls finding their way more gradually step by step. The spirit of Nathaniel may have been under the shade of the fig-tree for years; we cannot say. Lydia may have been in "the place where prayer was wont to be made" for years; we cannot say. Cornelius may have had his feasts and his religious services and his legal fears about his soul and his gracious almsgiving for years; we cannot say. But we do see the slow-heartedness and creeping progress of Nicodemus. And yet he has surely reached Jesus at the end, and all the time was on the road, as they did who took a short cut as it were across the fields.

Souls, dear -, are enabled to make so short a journey in these days. It used to be an age to pass from death unto life, but now 'tis a journey accomplished in haste. And really this is more according to the New Testament model. Zaccheus and the thief, the Samaritan and Peter and Matthew, took but little time to travel that road. But it is comforting, however, to see other cases, souls finding their way more gradually step by step. The spirit of Nathaniel may have been under the shade of the fig-tree for years; we cannot say. Lydia may have been in "the place where prayer was wont to be made" for years; we cannot say. Cornelius may have had his feasts and his religious services and his legal fears about his soul and his gracious almsgiving for years; we cannot say. But we do see the slow-heartedness and creeping progress of Nicodemus. And yet he has surely reached Jesus at the end, and all the time was on the road, as they did who took a short cut as it were across the fields.