“There are two other thoughts I wish to suggest. This thief was received at the end of a long and wicked life. Some one has quaintly said, ‘It is the only instance of a death bed conversion mentioned in the Bible.’ He adds that God has given us one that no man might ever despair and only one that no man might ever be tempted to delay. The other suggestion is that that thief was received just as he was. He had no opportunity for reformation. He had no time for baptism even. He must be received just as he was or not at all. So if you are ever to be saved, you will be saved just as you are at the time of that salvation. If you are waiting to make yourself better than you are before coming to Christ, you will never succeed. The longer you stay away from Him the more your sins will accumulate. You must at last consent to be saved just as you are, by the forgiving, transforming and cleansing power of divine grace. If then, it is true that you must be saved just as you are, why not accept salvation today? ‘Now is the accepted time and now is the day of salvation.’ ‘Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’” — A.M. Fraser, “The Converted Thief” in William E. Hudson, ed., Dr. Fraser and His Sermons (1920), pp. 57-58