An Extract.
IN the county of Kent there formerly lived a Christian minister and his wife, who took an active interest in the Sunday-school connected with the parish church. In this school was a boy, the only son of a widow, but who was notoriously wicked. He utterly contemned the admonitions of his Christian teachers, and despised their prayers; yet out of pity for his widowed mother, the clergyman kept him in the school, bore with his evil behavior for eighteen months, and sought by every means in his power to reclaim him. At length, however, be found it impossible to keep him any longer, and was compelled to dismiss him, as a warning to others. Left now to his own evil courses, and disgraced in the eyes of all who were acquainted with him, he only grew worse, and finally enlisted as a soldier. The regiment he was in was ordered to America, as these events occurred during the last American war, and the poor widowed mother saw her ungodly son no more. The infirmities of age, increased by sorrow, were telling upon her, and her days were drawing to a close. She was ready by grace to depart, her hope was in the ever blessed Saviour of sinners, through whose precious blood her sins were forgiven, and her only care now was her unhappy son. She had long prayed for him, and, bad as he was, she still counted upon Him with whom nothing shall be impossible. Well knowing by happy experience the power of the WORD, she resolved to send a pocket Bible as a farewell gift to her erring child; and hearing that a detachment of soldiers was about to follow that in which her own son was, she sought out a pious sergeant, and to him entrusted this, the gift of her faith and hope in the love and power of her precious Lord.
The sergeant, upon his arrival in America, found the widow’s son the very ringleader of the regiment in every description of vice. Taking a suitable opportunity, he introduced himself as the widow’s messenger, adding, solemnly, “James, your mother has sent her LAST present.”
“Ah!” he replied, in a careless manner, “is she gone at last? I hope she has sent me some cash.”
The sergeant replied that he believed the poor widow was now dead; “but,” said he, “she has sent you something of more value than gold and silver;” then producing the little Bible, he added, “James, it was your mother’s dying request that you would read one verse at least of this book every day. Can you refuse her dying charge?”
One would have expected that this last token of a mother’s love would have touched the heart of the prodigal; but he showed no other feeling than that of a too evident dislike, as, taking the book from the sergeant’s hands, he exclaimed in stone of bravado, “Well, it is not too much to ask; so here goes, to begin at once!” and opening the Bible carelessly, his eye fell upon the words, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He had doubtless found, as all such do find, that the way of transgressors is hard.” In spite of the air of indifference and even defiance which he had assumed, conscience was at work, and he was “heavy laden.” The hand of God was upon him; for never yet has the Father forgotten the promise of His dear Son to His own, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you;” and He whose tender heart yearned in pity over the widow of Nain, when her only son lay dead upon the bier, “is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever.” This “only son of a widow” lay “dead in trespasses and sins,” but now “the hour” had come when this dead one should hear the voice of the Son of God and live.
As the bloodshot eye of this sinner fell upon the passage he exclaimed, in a startled voice, “Well, this is very odd! I have opened to the only verse in the whole Bible that I could ever commit to memory when I was in the Sunday-school. I could never for the life of me learn any other by heart. It is very strange.” Then, turning to the Christian sergeant, he asked, “But who is this ‘ME’ who speaks in this verse?” The passage was explained to an awakened ear, and the result was this great sinner’s conversion. From that hour he, who had been the ringleader in all manner of wickedness, became as noted for his Christian consistency and earnestness. The widow mother’s prayer was fully answered. But not long after the above conversation the regiment this man was in engaged the enemy. At the close of the engagement the pious sergeant, walking over the field of blood, came upon the dead body of James. There beneath a wide spreading tree, his head reclining on the little Bible, lay the widow’s son. On lifting the head of the dead man to get at the book the sergeant found it open at the words which had been used in his conversion: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Faithful to His gracious promise, the Saviour had given him “rest” from the moment he believed, and now, through blood, and fire, and death, he had entered into his eternal rest.
The widow was not long separated from her son. Parted for a little while in sorrow, and in seemingly eternal separation from her only child, yet supported by faith, whose eye can pierce the deepest gloom, and see the joy beyond, she now received him again truly “alive from the dead.” What a complete and most gracious answer to prayer! What encouragement to those who may be mourning over some unconverted child or relative! What a warning to those children of believing parents who may be resisting grace! This prodigal was saved, but his life of service was short―his reward cannot be great; and it was through fire, and blood, and pain, that he entered the rest he had so long despised. K.