“GEORDIE” had fallen out with his minister, and for a number of years after that event, he attended neither church nor chapel, except on rare occasions. Yet he was far from satisfied, for he had really spoken the truth when he told the minister he wished his soul were saved. To reach this end George first tried self-reformation, and set himself to the task of making himself a new man. As drink had long held the mastery over him, with firm purpose he broke from under its power. Endowed with a resolute will, he next freed himself from the power of the pipe. After that he took in hand the vice of swearing; and, together with his two brothers, who worked with him in the mine, he entered into a covenant to abstain from bad language. They agreed that for every oath, any of them uttered, a halfpenny was to be paid into a common fund, which money was to be applied to some good purpose. Suffice it to say, George was completely vanquished in his halfpenny system of casting out the swearing devil, for, as he said afterward, “It would hae taen a’ oor pay, if we had paid a ha’p’ny every time we swore.” George thus learned that while it is comparatively easy to abstain from such a vice as drinking, when it comes to curbing the passion of the heart, there is but little power in man to keep the evil words from coming out of the lips. What shall then be said of evil thoughts? What power is there in sinful man to bring them into captivity?
Thus some seven years passed by, and only once or twice during all that time did George hear a sermon. Yet he was no further from God than multitudes who attend so-called “places of worship,” and say prayers with readiness and regularity. Frequently, however, in his endeavors to promote self-reform, he formed the resolution to make a fresh start, and to go regularly to church; but this resolution was never carried out.
One morning, some two hours after George had begun his day’s work in the mine, a great quantity of coal fell suddenly upon him. He was in a lonely place, and though he cried out, there was no man to answer. As he lay buried beneath almost a ton of coal, bruised and crushed, all his life, yes, all his black guilty career, passed before his eyes. All was there in a moment of time as he realized eternity was but a few minutes’ distance from him. He felt that he had mocked God, and his agony of soul was intense. He tried to drag himself out from beneath the mass of coal that was crushing him, but was powerless. He saw death was at hand, unless help should quickly come, and he knew, that, if he died as he was, hell must be his portion. There was only one resource left, and that was prayer, and out of the depths of his soul, George called upon God. His prayer was not a long one; he cried, “O God, if you will only take me oot o’ this, I’ll be a new man.”
Now there was a man in the pit, whose duty it was to watch for fire-damp; he was stationed at some considerable distance from the spot where the accident had occurred, but, at the moment of the poor miner’s cry to God, a strong desire came over him to go to George. This was not his duty, for he had examined the place where he worked that morning, and there was no need for him to go there again till evening; but, why he knew not, he felt he must go and see him.
Thus it was that, within fifteen minutes of George’s cry to God, help was at hand. The coals were rolled off, and careful, though rough, hands brought him to the bank, and thence in a cart he was taken to his home.
As he lay upon his bed, George’s heart turned to God, and he earnestly sought salvation.
About a month afterward a gospel tent was pitched on the village green, and one of George’s brothers, whose heart had been softened through the illness of a child, attended the meeting. There the Saviour found him, and the young man made a profession of faith in Christ. On the Saturday evening at the end of the first week of the tent services, this brother came to see George, who was out of bed, though not yet able to go to work, and told him that he had been to the gospel meetings, and was now saved.
This brought George to the tent the next night, where he listened with deep attention to the preaching of the men, and at the close of the meeting he took his place among the enquirers.
On the following Tuesday I visited him in his home. We sat down together before the open Bible, and I read to him a portion of the fifth chapter of the first Epistle of John. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Then we knelt in prayer on the stone floor, and before we rose, George yielded him self to God, and rejoiced in Christ his Saviour.
This is the word on which his soul rested, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” R. C.