I HAD the inestimable blessing of a Christian mother, who continually prayed for me, and besought me to accept God’s offer of salvation in Christ.
When fifteen or sixteen years old I was under deep conviction, but the Devil got the victory by persuading me that it was impossible for me to live the Christian life in the place where I was apprenticed. I then made up my mind to wait till my apprenticeship was over, when I would obtain work in another part of the country, and there begin an entirely new and religious life.
Alas! I was no longer troubled. God left me to myself for several years, and I went on quite happy, doing my own will on the broad road that leads to destruction. In 1894 I joined the Royal Navy, with the settled conviction that it was impossible to be a Christian there, but have found out since that there is nothing impossible with God.
In 1896 I was drafted to a commission in H.M.S. “Polyphemus,” and commenced to make my own plans for life. But God’s eye was upon me in tender mercy; my dear mother had not ceased to pray on my behalf. Never did I get a letter from her without the enclosure of a tract, or a written reminder of my lost, sinful condition, and beseeching my acceptance of Christ.
God began to work afresh with me, and I was troubled about the future. I set myself a high moral standard. I would go to church and chapel regularly at Gibraltar. I became a teetotaler. I tried to give up cursing and swearing. Alas! alas! no sooner were resolutions made than they were doomed to failure. Thus three or four years passed over my head.
God at this time was watching over me, and at a time when I least expected it His loving hand came upon me. I was engaged to be married, when God took away the object of my affections. All my castles in the air came to naught; I knew God had spoken.
I was utterly broken down, and cried to God for mercy. I yielded to Christ. Oh! the relief and joy of that moment. I sat down and wrote to my dear mother that God had answered her prayers. Only those who have prayed for their loved ones can know the deep joy the news must have been to her.
God has kept me these fifteen years. I can truly say I never knew what true happiness was till I knew Christ as my Saviour. Like the Apostle Paul, in my feeble measure I can say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)).
Reader, have you repented? Have you yielded? Have you believed? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
J. J. A.