“WON’T you come and speak a bit at my little lads’ meeting next Sunday evening?” I asked of Joe, one of the Christian youths of my Bible-class. “I don’t mind if I do,” said he; so he came.
We had a good room full, and the little fellows, varying from seven to fourteen years of age, sang most heartily. The closing verse of our hymn:
“The wondrous story of the Lamb
Tell with that voice of thine,
‘Till others, with the glad new song,
Go singing all the time,”
seemed to lead to the story, to which they now listened with deep attention, of a sculptor whose life was saved in a giddy fall from a scaffolding by alighting upon a lamb, which thus died instead of him.
The boys looked all eagerness to hear what a preacher but a little older than some of them would have to say. He began with reading a few verses from John 10, and spoke of the Good Shepherd who loves the lambs, and who laid down His life to save the poor wandering ones; “and,” added he, “should you like to hear how He came to find me? Oh, it’s a grand thing to belong to Jesus, lads! And if He had found you, and saved you, you would like to speak of it; you would not be ashamed to show your colors any more than I am, wherever I be. Well, now, I’ll tell you what I’ve not told a many, and that is what led to my seeking the Lord, and to the Lord finding me, and to my getting converted.
“It was about four years ago, when I worked down at the farm yonder, and I hadn’t given a thought yet to my soul, though I was about thirteen years of age. Early one morning I was sent to fetch up the beasts from the far meadow. A lovely bright morning it was, and I loitered along the road, meaning certainly to fetch the beasts, but, meaning, too, to do a bit of destructive mischief by the way. So it wasn’t very long before I spied a bird’s nest, pretty high up in a tree hard by. I was right up after it in no time, but I can tell‘ee I came down a good bit sharper than I went up, or than I had ever meant to The bough I was on snapped, and before I knew where I was I had fallen heavily, and was lying under the tree on my back. How long I lay there unconscious I can’t tell you, but I know when I came to I could not stir, and was in sore agony. What do you think my first thought was? and who do you think I cried out for? God, do you say? No, it wasn’t. I cried out for my mother, but, bless you, lads, my mother was far enough away, and could not hear me. So there I lay alone, in terrible pain. Then I prayed to God to let me die, for I just felt I could bear it no longer, and that anything would be better than the suffering I was in.
“But God did not answer that mad prayer, and after a while it came to me what a mercy it was He did not, for what if I were to die? I was no more fit for death than nothing, and if I had died, there was naught but hell for me. Well, I lay and thought about it for a nice bit, and made up my mind I mustn’t go on no longer as I had been doing, or I should be lost forever.
“After a time I was able to get up and walk out, but, oh, dear, what pain it was! I made my way to the meadow as best I could, and fetched up the beasts. When I got back the missus saw how bad I was, and I told her I had fallen getting over that awkward stile that leads out of the lane, that I had come down on my back on the boulders. You see, I wasn’t much converted yet, for I thought nothing of telling a lie. She gave me some oils to rub my back with, but I felt it for months, and can tell ‘ee it did hurt me when I had to bend; it kept so that I could not forget the lesson I had learned under that tree.
“I began to ‘turn over a new leaf,’ as they say: I thought I would knock off swearing to start with, but as that was not easy I restricted myself to one oath a day. But, bless you, I mostly took out my oath so early in the morning, I had to have another before the day was done; so, you see, I did not make much way with my new leaf.
“Well, I was downright in earnest about my soul, so this sort of work didn’t satisfy me. I may say I was just hungering after righteousness, and you know, lads, what God’s promise is to such: He says ‘they shall be filled.’ But I didn’t get filled just yet, because I didn’t go the right way about it; I didn’t go to the right Person. I was like the poor prodigal in the far country, you have heard tell of, in Luke 15, who, when ‘he began to be in want, went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.’ But he wasn’t the one who had ‘bread enough and to spare,’ not he! Well, I thought if I became teetotal, I should surely be more pleasing to God. But, bless you, it ain’t blue ribbons, nor red ribbons, nor no other ribbons as can make us fit for God. I had to find out that the best robe of heaven was what I wanted.
“It was in the December, following the summer that I had that fall I have been telling you of, that I joined the Blue Ribbon army, and I was very zealous for it for a good bit. It cost me a pretty penny to keep along with it; they were always wanting money for this or that entertainment. My mother used to say I spent as much on being teetotal as I ever should have done on the drink! I paid up the money, but I never went to none of their entertainments, for all along I felt they weren’t what I was seeking for.
“About this time I left the farm, and took to the works at the iron foundry, where I am still. Now I was more free to attend chapels and meetings, and such like; and, as I wanted my soul to be saved, I went to all I could, but I didn’t get it there. I don’t quite know how it came about in the end; E. know I used to kneel by my bedside at night, and pray to God to save me. For some time I had been coming up regularly to the Sunday Bible-class here, whilst I was still at the farm, and the story of Christ’s finished work, and His full salvation for sinners, somehow at last was getting a hold of me. At the meetings held here for young Christians it helped me wonderfully to see the joy there was in being really a believer. It seemed to settle me like on Christ, the Rock, and after a bit I just felt as the hymn says, ‘like singing all the time, aye, and whistling, too, for I could not keep quiet with them sweet hymns running through my mind.
Now, you see, I worked at the foundry, where it wasn’t altogether easy to be a Christian, and yet there was one here and there among the workmen who feared the Lord, but on the whole they are a rough lot and no mistake. Do you think now I told them I was a Christian? Well, no, I didn’t, but they very soon told me! There’s a lot of cursing and swearing goes on there, and when I heard them taking God’s name in vain I could not stand it, so I checked them; and then they called out, ‘Oh, we’ve got another Christian among us, I suppose!’ And I wasn’t ashamed to say they had, for it’s a blessed thing to know one belongs to Christ, and to confess His name before men. We’ve good times at the iron foundry now, I can tell you, the other Christians and me. We stand shoulder to shoulder for Christ, and the Lord gives us the joy now and again of seeing one and another of our fellow workmen give up his sneering and scoffing, and turn right round to be for Christ, along with us.
“Well, I think I’ve about got to the end of my story. I hope I’ve made it plain to you, lads, that God didn’t want me to make myself good before I came to Him, because He is saving sinners, through Jesus Christ, who died for the lost. But after you are saved, through the finished work of the Saviour, and can say He’s yours, then the Holy Spirit will make you good, and help you to give up all that’s not fit for Christ— and oh, lads, He’ll fill your hearts with gladness, and with deep longing to tell out everywhere the wondrous story of the Lamb. With His help, I’ll never stop telling it so long as there’s any breath in my body.” D. & A. C,