WHEN I was a boy of fourteen years of age―the eldest of five―my mother, who had been ill for several years, one afternoon, just previous to her passing away to be with the Lord, called us all to her bedside, and asked each one of us individually to meet her in heaven, and I remember well that each one promised to meet her there.
Several years had elapsed, when I joined the British Navy, having a desire for the sea, and to see foreign lands, which I thought would satisfy me, being at the time ignorant of God’s Word, which says, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing.” I then spent five years in a wild reckless life, always being the first and foremost in the devil’s work, forgetting all about my promise to my mother.
Take courage, mothers, and pray for your boys.
One night when asleep in my hammock, the Lord caused me to have a dream. It was this: ―
The world was coming to an end, and I was not saved; the moon and the stars were shooting daggers of fire at me, particularly one large blue star, and when it burst the world was at an end. The devil was behind me to seize me, and to take me to hell forever. Just at that moment I was awaked by one of my shipmates. He cried out, “Oh, Bill, what’s the matter?” for I was making such a dreadful noise in my dream that it aroused all my shipmates, and they sat up in their hammocks wondering whatever had happened to me. As I awoke, I exclaimed, “Oh, thank God! it is only a dream,” Just then my duty called me on deck, and as I stood there gazing on the water and the heavens around, there came a dreadful feeling over me. My flesh crept, and my blood ran cold; the ship, the heavens, and the-water, were coming together to crush me. I ran down the ladder to the lower part of the ship, fell on my knees with my face to the deck, and cried from the depth of my heart and soul, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!” There and then I believed that Jesus had bled and died for sinners; the burden rolled away from my heart, and I got up singing,
“Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.”
My shipmates said I had “religion on the brain” and “would go mad;” but I exclaimed, “I have not religion on the brain, but Christ, God’s beloved Son, in my heart― ‘for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,’” and I preached unto them Jesus Christ. Some said I would “stand a week,” others said “one month,” but through God’s mercy fourteen years have passed away since then, and still free grace keeps me on the way to glory.
On the night following my conversion I had another dream. I dreamed that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming in the air, and I went up to meet Him; and instead of being afraid at this, I was singing praises unto Him that loved me and washed me from my sins in His own blood. Just before I met Him I awoke, and was disappointed at finding myself still in this scene, having thought that I was in the glory, to be with Himself forever.
Now, unsaved reader, I warn you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to flee from the wrath to come. God is offering you a full and free salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
“Jesus for your choice is waiting;
Tarry not; at once decide!
While the Spirit now is striving,
Yield, and seek the Saviour’s side.”
W. W.