Old Jim was nearly deaf and ignorant as well. He had never been to school, never been to church, never heard the gospel of God's grace. Not a very promising subject to preach to, was he? But somehow he heard of the meetings going on in Farmer White's big barn, and one cold afternoon he walked the three miles from his own house to see for himself what was happening.
At time for the meeting to begin, the preacher said to the old man: "You shall sit near the platform, and if you can't hear me, raise your hand and I'll speak louder."
The meeting began, and soon the hand was uplifted while the old man exclaimed, "You can go on, sir; I can hear every word you say!"
The speaker thanked him but saw that, though he heard, he was not taking in what he said, so he broke off the subject of his talk and gave this simple illustration to make it clear: "Suppose that an old man in this place owes $100.00 to a storekeeper and cannot pay it; he is to be sent to prison for the debt, but the owner of this barn does not want the man to go to jail and he says to the storekeeper, 'If you will let him off, I will pay half of it.' No,' says the storekeeper, 'I must have it all.' Well,' says the farmer, 'I will give you $60.00 to let him off."No, I must have the $100.00 or he must go to jail.' I'll give you $80.00. "No, I must have $100.00 or nothing.' Then I'll pay you $99.00 if you let him off."'
"He'll take that," shouted the old man, "or he ought to go without!"
'No,' says the man, 'I'll take nothing less than $100.00. "Very well then, I'll pay the $100.00,' and down goes the money, paid in full. Now how much does he owe?"
"Nothin'," exclaimed the old man excitedly.
"Just so," said the preacher. "Now listen to me. Our sins are our debts. Jesus knew we could not pay them, so He came from heaven to earth and died on the cross, so that our sins might be forgiven. Now the sinner who believes on Jesus is free. All He wants from us in return is for us to accept what He did and to thank Him for it, and when we die we shall go to live with Him who has redeemed us with His own blood, and borne our sins in His own body on the tree."
The meeting ended, and the old man exclaimed joyfully, "I don't care if I don't get home till morning, I'm so happy. The man said He paid it all. I never heard it afore, but I'm glad I came over tonight. The man said He paid it all!"
This was all he knew, but it was enough. Through the very narrow chink in his mind that seed had found a way, and it brought forth fruit to life eternal. He grasped it, and would not let it go. The old man lived for several years after that and testified to the reality of his conversion to God. He has now "gone home", having lived and died peacefully and happily. His last words were: "He paid it all."