Week 1. Day 3.

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I spent a season upon that small bench, observing the ceaseless flow of humanity, diligently looking into the very countenances of the people passing by. I beheld one simple vendor: her face arranged in a large, cheerful smile while servicing her customer with her goods; yet, the moment the purchaser departed, she slumped back into her seat, and the joy of the countenance vanished, leaving a mask of profound weariness. The air itself was heavy with humid oppression, clamor, and the odor of the street—a pure, unceasing chaos. It was plain to the eye that for most of these poor souls, the day had been long and brutally exhausting. In that moment of overwhelming sense, I felt entirely and painfully inadequate to the task. My flesh shrank, and I was seized by fear and nervousness, my single, fervent desire being to abandon the post and simply retreat. Yet who else will declare the Gospel truth to these fleeting, weary mortals? The fearful duty remained.

For a full hour I stood, and by the Spirit's strength, I courted and pleaded with the souls assembled. I pressed home the central truth of the Gospel: that God is He who alone justifieth the ungodly! My tongue labored to demonstrate that Christ perished not for the righteous, but for sinners; not for the good and self-satisfied, but for the morally bankrupt! The Physician is not for those who declare themselves well, but for the sick; the blessed Savior is for the sinner, not the self-styled saint. And it was then, towards the fading light of the evening, that I realized a profound, encouraging truth: the very vendors, hitherto consumed by their commerce, were silently and intently listening to the message. This marks the third day of such witness this week, and as a visible seal upon the work, seventeen vendors came forward, asking personally for the gift of the Holy Scriptures. May they be granted to ask for the Savior in the end.

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the latter it is a smell of death unto death; to the former a fragrance of life unto life. And who is sufficient for such things?
2 Corinthians 2:15

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