SOME time since a Christian man well-known to me called at my house one evening, and thrusting a bundle of papers into my hand asked me to print them for him. Showing him the impossibility of printing a single book, I asked what they were. He replied that they contained the story of his conversion.
The story runs as follows: ― “I was brought up in a godless home and under the influence of everything that was evil. Indeed, my father was a confirmed drunkard, and during his drunken fits would savagely attack my mother, often inflicting severe wounds, and generally smashing up the few pieces of furniture that the home contained, and so terrible was his conduct that often I dare not venture home for days together, and at night would creep into some shed to snatch a few hours sleep.
“At the age of fourteen I was turned out of house and home to seek my living as a cook on board a fishing vessel, and during the voyages was brutally treated—indeed, it was the general custom in those days to illtreat the little cook boys. I had never heard the name of God spoken except in blasphemy, and had trodden only the paths of sin. Small wonder that God and His love for sinners never entered my thoughts.
“But one day in January of 1906, the voice of the Holy Spirit pressed upon me a line of a well-known hymn,
“When the Roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.”
For the first time in my life I began to consider these things, and to wonder whether, indeed, I should be in heaven. Then the Holy Spirit of God drew aside the veil and showed me myself in all my naked sin and wickedness, and I was afraid; my sins terrified me. I felt it was time to make amends and lead a better life. I stopped swearing and tried to keep from evil thoughts, and to cleanse my ways. Then commenced a terrible struggle. The burden of my sins lay heavy upon me. One night I lay on my bed but could not sleep, I saw nothing but death before me. I saw the graveyard with a freshly dug grave ready prepared for me. More dreadful still I saw the yawning chasm of hell ready to receive me, and in my agony of soul I turned over, and tried to blind my eyes to the awful sight, but I could not.
“My distress of soul continued, the dread of being lost was continually tormenting me, whilst the question contained in the line of the hymn only added to my sufferings. One Sunday morning an old man handed me a card of invitation to a Men’s Meeting to be held in a church in the neighborhood. I decided to go, and accordingly took my seat in the back of the church, feeling very strange. My heart was sorrow-stricken, so deeply was I convicted of sin as the minister read the Word of God. It was with great difficulty, that I kept from breaking down and weeping.
“The service over, I found myself standing in the street with the terrible struggle between good and evil going on in my heart. I decided I would wait until the people went away, then I would return to the church and have it all out with God. But on this occasion the devil got the victory. I waited too long, for when I went to the door I found it locked.
“When I got home I went to my bedroom and laid down, I was too worried about my sins to bother about dinner. All I wanted was to get right with God.
“When evening came I went to the Sailor’s and Fishermen’s Bethel, when a mission was being held, and took my seat in the beak of the hall. There was great power in that meeting. Every word uttered by the preacher searched the inmost recesses of my guilty heart, and try as I would I could not restrain the tears of deep repentance.
“When the meeting was over I rose to depart, but the devil was not to gain the victory that night, for one of the Lord’s people came and spoke to me about my soul. I asked if we could go into a room alone, which we did. He opened his Bible and began to speak to me of God’s love, and told me how the Lord Jesus died to put away my sins, and how I could be saved by simply believing in Him. He tried hard to make the precious gospel clear to me, but for the moment I got no relief. Then I said to him, ‘Let me pray for myself.’ So I knelt down and put my hands together, and in agony of soul cried, “O God, forgive all my sins.”
“And, true to His blessed Word, He forgave all my sins, for Christ’s sake. I was conscious that the burden was forever gone. I knew that the Lord Jesus had borne my sins in His own body on the tree. I rejoiced in the fact that on the 11TH day of February, 1906, I had passed from death unto life, and I have never lost the joy of it since.”
Reader, are you saved? Can you sing,
“When the Roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there?”
F. C. Green