Hector Mabien was born and brought up in Scotland. After his conversion he used to say of himself that in early life he was "an infidel of the worst kind." He did not call himself this because he was very profligate,—for he was not, nor was he a drunkard, nor profane. Hector Mabien was so moral that people could point to him and say: "There is an infidel, yet he leads a better life than some of you Christians!" Thus his influence against Christianity was greater than if he had been living in open sin.
The conversion of his sister upset him badly. Together they had gone to the theater and the ballroom, and had enjoyed the same mutual pursuits. Now their paths separated. She found her sources of pleasure elsewhere, and could go with him to such places no longer. Mabien had to acknowledge that she was as good and kind a sister as ever; but the change in her spiritually only embittered him against the gospel of God. What could be done with such a man? How could he be reached? God had the answer.
One day he was browsing around in a book-store, as he often did. A beautifully bound book attracted his attention, and, seeing that it was something "religious," he bought it as a present for his Christian mother. It proved to be Dr. Keith's "Evidences of the Truth of the Christian Religion derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy.”
God's hand was in this. Hector Mabien was an unbeliever, but he was not an atheist. He believed in the existence of a Supreme Being, but he had never been convinced of the genuineness, authenticity and inspiration of the Scriptures. To exhort him, however earnestly, to become a Christian had little effect. What he needed was not to have his feelings played upon, but to be shown evidence that the Bible is a revelation from God. He was a great reader; and no book could be long in the house before he began to examine it. This purchase of his proved to be just what he needed.
As the author, Dr. Keith, quoted the passages of Scripture concerning the Jews, Judea, Edom; Babylon, Tire, Egypt, etc., and many others which were written undeniably thousands of years ago, and cited the testimony of travelers and historians as showing the literal fulfillment of the prophecies, Mabien became thoroughly convinced that no mere man could have foreseen and foretold with such minuteness what has happened! Only God could have known, and only through the Holy Spirit could this Book have been written.
Later, telling of his exercise of soul, Mabien said: "The first time I prayed, I had been sitting alone in the parlor. All had gone to bed but myself. As I read the predictions of the prophets which Dr. Keith cites, and over against them the undesigned testimony of the infidel Volney, in his "Ruins of Empires," as to what he saw in those lands, I could not but admit the claim of the ancient writers, that 'they spoke not of themselves but as they were inspired of God.' Believing I ought at once to confess to God, I got down to pray. Why, it seemed I shook the room in so doing. Like Saul of Tarsus, my question now was, `Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?'”
He soon openly confessed Christ, and identified himself with the people of God. Step by step he was led onward, until, as "a pedestrian missionary," Hector Mabien did, with humility and joy, "the work of an evangelist" in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. His was "the pen of the ready writer," and many are the articles which he wrote in defense of the truth as it is in Jesus.