An Atheist Stumbles on a Child

The Man Who Had Nothing

William Hone was an atheist lecturer who traveled around the country speaking against the teachings of God’s holy Word. One day he was taking a walk in the country and lost his way. He came upon a poor, tumble-down cottage, in front of which a little girl was reading a book. After getting directions to his road, he picked up the book the child was reading. To his surprise he found it was a copy of the New Testament. Throwing it on the ground, he said to the girl, “You foolish little thing, how is it that you read such stupid books as this?”

The child looked at him in shocked surprise, and cried, “Oh, please don’t talk that way about my Book. My mother is sick in bed, and this book is our only comfort.” 

All I do is take away people’s hopes. No God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell.

Reality Opens a Heart

The simple words spoken by the girl set William Hone thinking. “Those poor, simple people,” he said to himself, “are in trouble; the mother sick, the child young, and yet they have found something real in that Book; they have got something on which to live and die. What could I give them that would be a comfort now, or a support in death? All I do is take away people’s hopes. No God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell. And what have I for myself but nothing, instead of something real?”

William Hone began to study the Book, and was saved with an everlasting salvation. It became his greatest joy to tell to others what great things God had done for him. On the flyleaf of his Bible he wrote the following words:

“The proudest heart that ever beat

Has been subdued in me.”

Have you carefully read and thought about God’s Word, the Bible? Do you take time when alone to see in it what God’s thoughts of sin and salvation are? He loves you, and He wants to save you and to satisfy your heart forever.

“I am come that they might have life and that they have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

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Adapted from His Riches.

I’ll Never Walk Again

She had been disappointed by a man. He had promised to love her always, and had gotten hold of all her money. Then he left her―an old, old story.

Without God, despairing, she had gone to the railroad tracks and thrown herself in front of a train. After a long while, when consciousness returned, she found herself lying in the hospital. She looked around the strange room, then tried to rise. A terrible shriek burst from her, a scream of despair. Both of her legs had been cut off by the train!

For days her cries and groans filled the hospital, and she could hardly be quieted even by sedation. A Christian nurse was given charge of her. The nurse cared for the poor woman, in a quiet way, loving her and praying for her.

At first the poor invalid would pay no attention to her, but the nurse waited on the Lord to open the way to speak to this despairing soul. The moment came at last. “Oh, my feet! My feet! Why did I wake? Why didn’t I die on the track? Why? Why?” After a pause: “Now I’ll never walk again, never be able to go where I want. I’ll be a cripple, eternally fastened to a bed.”

Going Through the Roof

The nurse came to sit by her and gently held her hand. The unhappy woman was quiet for a moment. “Where did you go when you had good feet?”

The patient looked up and said, “In the morning to work.”

“And then?”

“After work I went home for my supper, and then walked the streets and met my friend…” She began to cry brokenly.

“And then?”

“Then we would go to a party.”

“And then?”

She tried to raise herself and said in pain and despair, “I strayed somewhere! Anywhere! I livedon the street.”

“And if you had feet today?”

She wept some more. “It was the only life I knew. But now I’ll never walk again―never―never―”

That night she couldn’t sleep; she was thinking of the way…

The nurse gently touched her hot, feverish hand and said, “There is one way you can still travel, and it’s the best and most glorious way. If you had good feet possibly you wouldn’t think of going this way.”

“What did you say, Nurse?”

Now the nurse told her of the way the man with palsy went through the roof straight to the Lord Jesus and how he had his sins forgiven.

The invalid didn’t speak; she allowed the nurse’s words to carry her, in thought, through the roof to Jesus. That night she couldn’t sleep; she was thinking of the way, the only right way, that even those without feet could travel.

The next evening the nurse was on duty again. The sick one was eager to hear more of the Saviour of sinners. And the nurse was glad to respond, “I came to Jesus also, and He is mine and I am His.” Then the moment came when the invalid too came to Jesus saying, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

“When He [Jesus] saw their faith, He said…Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Thus she also, without feet, learned to travel the way to heaven. After this, in telling her story she would say, “It’s most beautiful this way, more so than wherever I‘ve gone before.”

Now she tells others how she came to Jesus without feet, and how happy she is in traveling the narrow way. And she has become a guide for many to the Saviour. Though she has no feet, she has a heart for the Lord. It is cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus.

Many have good feet, but stray away from the Saviour. Do you?

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Adapted from Living Waters.

A Burglar in the Night

Braley Buries His Past

Joe Braley, a rough man of unenviable notoriety, was often in prison, and when not there was usually wanted by the police for one crime or another. In one of his short periods of freedom he made plans to burglarize a rural area.

While he was waiting for dark to cover his crime, he heard a distant voice that seemed to carry far through the quiet country air. Curiously, he followed the sound for half a mile until he found himself on the outskirts of a crowd listening to the earnest words of a gospel preacher.

About an hour later, as Mr. Russell, the preacher, was sitting down to his supper there came a knock at his front door. Joe Braley wanted to see Mr. Russell.

He went to the door, while Mrs. Russell slipped quietly behind her husband. There at the door stood a sturdy figure, and a rough voice asked, “Are you Mr. Russell?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Do you know me?”

“Yes, Joe, I do.”

“I want you to come for a walk with me.”

Then Mrs. Russell made her presence known by catching hold of her husband and begging him not to go out at that late hour into the dark night, but her pleas were unsuccessful.

Cutting the turf carefully, he dug a little grave and…

Together the preacher and the burglar walked in silence, Mr. Russell wondering what could be Joe’s errand. On they went until they passed out of town and up a lonely lane between two high hedges. Then Joe came to a sudden stop and said, “I was out walking this evening when I heard your voice. I had some time to kill, so I walked on till I came to a crowd and heard you speaking. I want to know if all you said is true.”

“Yes, Joe, every word of it,” was the reply.

Buried By the Road

“Then do you think there is any hope for me? Can Jesus save a sinner like me?”

“Yes, Joe; the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.

“Then I want you to see me bury these things and kneel with me on their grave.”

Cutting the turf carefully, he dug a little grave and deposited there his revolver and various burglary tools. Then stamping down the dirt, he relaid the turf and he and the preacher knelt in the darkness while Joe Braley confessed to God his sins and his need of a Saviour.

When they rose, Joe left Mr. Russell and was heard of in the neighborhood (and on the police “wanted” list) no more. It was evident that he had put distance between himself and his old associates as his best chance for a different life.

Since “conversion” means “a turning back,” “a spiritual and moral change attending a change of belief with conviction” (Webster), Joe Braley was truly converted. More than thirty years later Mr. Russell met him in another part of the country, and the ex-convict, ex-burglar was living an upright life and telling all he met of the wonderful grace of God.

“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, And gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

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Adapted from His Riches.

Jose, the Burglar

Jose, once a burglar but now a Christian, tells the story of his conversion.

One evening I broke into a house and, hiding myself under a bed, waited for the family to go to sleep. When they were ready to go to bed, to my horror, they all gathered in the room where I was hidden and sat down! The father came over to the bed itself, and for one awful moment I thought he had seen me. But he picked up a book and sat down to read to his wife and children.
I didn’t stop to steal anything else, but went out into the night with the…

They were wonderful words he read―I had never heard the like of them before. When he had finished he put the book back on the table and then the family knelt in prayer. I hoped they wouldn’t see me under the bed! As I heard them pray, it seemed like they were talking to a friend in the room. I had never heard anyone talk to God like that before.

At last the family went to bed. When I thought everyone was asleep, I crept from my hiding place, stole over to the table and picked up the book. I didn’t stop to steal anything else, but went out into the night with the book in my hand. It was a Bible.

As I read the Bible at home, I became more and more disturbed, yet I felt that in it lay the secret of true happiness. The day finally came when I confessed my sins to God and asked Him to receive me through the Lord Jesus Christ.

My life was completely changed. I wanted to live honestly. I knew that I should return the Bible to its owner, so I did so. The father of the family seemed even more pleased to hear about the story of my salvation than to receive his Bible back!

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Adapted from Living Waters.

God’s Surprising Methods

Two Irishmen

The conversion of two Irishmen is a very remarkable story. One of these men, knowing that Charles Wesley was to preach in a barn, had gone in beforehand and crept into a sack close to the door, intending, as soon as the preaching had begun, to open the door to the mob outside–the Methodists had agreed to lock themselves in, for fear of an attack. The man in the sack, being fond of music, remained quiet while the hymn was sung. But something more than the music reached him—it was the voice of God, speaking through the words of the hymn to his conscience. He didn’t dare open the door, but waited to hear the prayer. He now felt himself to be a lost sinner, and, forgetting where he was, he began to pray aloud for mercy, to the astonishment of the congregation, who helped him out of the sack. This man was from that moment a true follower of Christ.

The other man, who was also fond of music, had gone to the meeting to hear the singing. He was determined not to hear the preaching, but to stop his ears as soon as the first hymn was over until the second hymn began. He, therefore, sat, after the hymn, with his head down, and his fingers in his ears.

He was determined not to hear the preaching, but to stop his ears as soon as the first hymn was over…
But when God will speak to a soul He can make his voice heard. As the man sat there, a fly landed on his nose. For a moment he moved his hand to drive it away, and, in so doing, nine words only reached his ear — “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” From that moment this man, who was an ungodly tavern-keeper, had no rest in his soul. He went, afterward, to seek out the Methodists: listened eagerly to the gospel, and became a converted man.

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Gospel Story 046 from The Story of John Wesley by F. Bevan

Index–Powerful Word

Stories To Encourage Evangelists

Gospel Tracts/Bibles

How God has used and is using His written Word in many forms.

Parents/Teachers

Parents may pray for children for decades and Sunday School teachers see little fruit. Does that mean there won’t be any? Of course not.

Personal Witness

One on one work requires faithfulness and courage. But God supplies, provides and encourages.

Remarkable Circumstances

Sometimes the Lord uses some pretty unusual ways to reach hearts. Never give in, never assume a persona is unreachable.

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A Near Miss

A Near Miss

A captain nearly misses the opportunity to share Christ with a young and supposedly wild young lieutenant.

Mr. Cooper was a young, careless and somewhat wild young officer. But inside he was longing for some real Christian to speak to him about his spiritual need. Because of this, he exchanged from one regiment into another, knowing that in the latter was a captain who was well known as an earnest Christian, and Cooper thought that, if he got near him, the captain would be sure to speak to him about such an important subject.
Cooper thought that, if he got near him, the captain would be sure to speak to him about such an important subject.
 The two officers had adjoining rooms in the barracks which they sometimes used to change into their uniforms before going on parade, and, while so doing, would often run in and out of each other’s rooms carrying on a conversation, but the captain never brought up the subject of Christ. One day, the young lieutenant decided to force the matter, and he placed an open Bible on his table where it would be seen. The captain soon came in and, seeing the Bible, said, “Hey! I didn’t know you went in for that kind of thing.” “I don’t,” replied the young officer, “but I would like to.” That opened up the way for a heart-to-heart talk, through which  the young officer definitely accepted Christ as his Saviour, bringing joy to the captain’s heart. But, mixed with his gladness, I think there must have been a sense of rebuke that he had not seen the soul ready to be won. He had almost missed the low-hanging fruit.

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Gospel Story 006 adapted from Hand-Gathered Fruit

Forgiveness Illustration

“Father Forgive”

Often God uses weak things to accomplish His great purposes.

A little girl was given a New Testament as a prize at her Sunday school.

Naturally, she was delighted and at once tried to read it. She was very young, and could only read the simplest words.

One day, her father, who had no interest in the Bible, sat near the window reading the Sunday newspaper. The child was reading the story of the cross, and reached those deeply touching words of our blessed Lord: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The child haltingly spelled out “F-A-T-H-E-R, father.”

“Why father!” she cried, “here is your name; Jesus is talking to you here.”

“Nonsense,” he said, “nonsense,” and adding, “go on reading to yourself, child, and don’t make so much noise about it,” he returned to his paper.

But his attention was caught, and instinctively he listened in spite of himself. “Father, F-O-R-G-I-V-E, forgive―Father forgive him.”

“No, child, that is wrong, it is not ME―I mean it is not HIM―it is “forgive them. There now! Don’t interrupt me again.”

But the little girl, persisted in repeating the words, “Father, forgive, father forgive,” then hesitated at the word “them.”

Her father, in a tumult of annoyance and vexation, nervously folded his paper and, almost snatching the book from her hand, told her what the word was, and went out of the room.

But an arrow from God had pierced his “armor,” and the words echoed ceaselessly in his brain: “Father, forgive,” “Father. forgive.”

Finally he admitted, “Yes, it’s ME! I have sinned against God, and yet Jesus died for me. Forgive me, my God,” he prayed, “forgive my sins.”

Did God hear his cry? Of course. Has God EVER turned a deaf ear to a contrite sinner’s cry? Never! Even an angry thief, convicted and repentant, found pardon, and exchanged a malefactor’s cross for the crown of glory. “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

He is the same today.

Adapted from In The Cleft of the Rock

A Footstool in Heaven?

A Footstool in Heaven?

My mother was born in a small town in Germany. As a child she was brought up in the popular religion of the country, which impressed upon her the fact that she was a sinner.

Often as a child, Mother would pray, “Lord, make me Your footstool in heaven but don’t cast me down to hell.”

She always longed for a real sense of peace, but the years went by and she did not find it. In her twenties, she was invited by a school friend to move to America. She got a job as a stewardess on an ocean liner, and soon found herself in Boston.

Still the search in her heart went on. Crossing the ocean had not changed her, nor did her marriage, nor yet another move to California to live. She continued to pray, “Lord, make me Your footstool in heaven!” Still she was conscious of a dreadful fear that He might reject her at the last.

One day Mother was hanging out clothes and singing in German. Her surprised neighbor called to Mother in German, and a warm friendship was begun. As they talked, the neighbor said, “We’re Christians, and if you would like to come over and read the Bible with us we’d sure like that.”

Soon the Bible study with her neighbors grew to be a vital part of Mother’s life. But one day as they were sitting around the table with the Bible open, Mother shut the Book hard and said, “It’s no use to go on. I’m such a sinner.”

The neighbor replied, “How wonderful!”

Mother exclaimed, “How can you say that? If you only knew how I suffer!”

Then how happy her Christian neighbor was to tell her again of the One who has finished the work of salvation for sinners and now says, “Come.”

This was what Mother was looking for; this was the answer to her halfway-around-the-world search. She was ready to go on her knees that afternoon and accept the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. But―a friend came by and said, “Come with us for a little drive.”

Taken by surprise, Mother went. As she sat in the car she just groaned in her heart and prayed, “Lord, please bring me home in safety so that I can have the opportunity once again to come to You and be saved.”

The Lord did bring her home again, and she wasted no time before she came to the Lord Jesus and knew that He had received her. The search was ended; there was peace in her heart―and she prayed no more to be a footstool in heaven. She had learned that “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). Not a footstool, but a child of God at home in the Father’s house was to be her portion forever.

A Jew’s Faith

A Jew’s Faith

I was brought up a Jew and taught to observe the ceremonies and rites of Judaism. When I grew up, I became friendly with some atheists and began to believe that they were right in claiming that there is no God.

While I was still outwardly conforming to the ritual of the synagogue worship, skepticism was undermining my belief, and I was beginning to lose faith in God’s revelation.

At this time God began to work with me in a special way. Even then His unseen hand was guiding, and He brought me into contact with a godly Christian man.

I soon knew that this man had something about which I knew nothing. It was not so much what he said as his reality and his godly walk that impressed me. What surprised me most of all was to see a man delighting in the One whose name I despised and blasphemed.

Seeking to follow in this Christian’s footsteps, I began to pray and read my Bible. I became a teacher in a Sabbath school, and very devoutly followed the Jew’s religion.

I vainly imagined that what faith in the despised Nazarene could procure for a Gentile, Judaism could surely give to a member of Jehovah’s chosen race. I did not know the scripture which thunders out in unmistakable language: “ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES ARE AS FILTHY RAGS” (Isaiah 64:6).

One Sunday afternoon I took a walk into the city. There I saw and joined a crowd surrounding three men who were singing on the street corner. They were just singing the words, “Whosoever will may come.” That word “whosoever” stuck to me.

When the singing was over, the three friends asked the bystanders to follow them to a meeting room. Among others, I was invited by one of the preachers, but declined. Thereupon he looked me in the face and asked me, “Are you saved?”

I replied, “Yes, but not in your way.”

He replied: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

I began to argue with him, but he quietly answered, “Friend, in a little while I will be praying for you.”

Not long afterward, his prayer was answered. God showed me my real condition before Him. I learned that I was a sinner against God who is “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.”

I was stripped of my self-righteousness, leaving behind a dismal void and an accusing conscience. Sin, my sin, was making life a burden and existence a misery.

“The pains of hell got hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow.”

The thought came to me with awful intensity, “Where shall I flee for refuge?” Everything in which I had trusted proved insufficient to bear the weight of my guilty soul. My friend, whose life had so impressed me, began to tell me at this time of the Lord Jesus, though he was utterly unaware that I was anxious about my soul. I did not argue this time, and soon learned that “salvation is of the Lord.” I learned that, if I were ever to be saved, it must be by faith in the Lord Jesus, and by Him alone.

At last, one afternoon I came to Jesus as I was. I rested my weary soul on Him who died for me on Calvary’s cross. From that moment I knew that I was one of the WHOSOEVERS. I believed in Him and my sins were forgiven for His name’s sake.

Now my heart rejoices in His Word, knowing, as I could not before, that my “transgression is forgiven” and my “sin is covered” in His precious blood (Psalm 32:1).