(Extract from a Letter to the Editor.)
“A GERMAN by birth, I came out to South Africa in 1881, after having served my year as volunteer at Dantzic, with the only object of making money. When here two years, being clerk in a country shop, I was traveling, and happened to come to a solitary farm. After breakfast the owner of the farm had the Bibles brought, and asking if I liked to stay for their reading, to which I consented against my will, read the 64th of Isaiah, and ‘All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ (ver. 6), went down into the bottom of my soul, thank God!
“Self-righteous to the utmost, I could not bear that statement, and got so vexed with that gentleman for hurting me so, that I purposed never to cross his threshold again. For eighteen months I did so; having to pass that way occasionally I took always another road, not to touch that place again.
“However, I could not get rid of the sentence mentioned, and each day it seemed to sound louder. I began to realize the truth of it, and became as wretched as a prodigal in a far country can become. At last I could not stand it any longer, saddled up my horse, and rode the six hours’ distance straight to the man who had caused this wretchedness, as I supposed.
“When I told him that he was the cause of my unhappiness he said he was ‘very glad,’ which almost drove me to despair. When I asked him what I should do to get rid of this wretchedness, he said, ‘Nothing, young man, you can do nothing.’ I was overwhelmed with his answers.
“Sitting down, in my sorrow and anguish, he then said, ‘It is all done, you have just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and His finished work.’ I could not understand it. Dear Mr. G. W. G―, who was there visiting that family, spoke to me too, but I could not find rest, and went back to my home in much sorrow. But they were praying for me, as was my dear godly mother at home, and about a week after my visit to my father in Christ, light broke upon my soul. Ah, what Light!
“All the people around me who knew me thought I had become mad. Now God, in His mercy, has kept me these fourteen years, and has never allowed a cloud to come over my mind as to His salvation.
“Excuse me for writing at such length, but I know your heart will rejoice to hear how God sent a rebel from Germany to a Karoo farm to be saved.”
E. S.
[N.B.―No excuse needed! Such testimonies to God’s abounding grace will be welcome from any part of the globe. I should like to hear of your conversion, dear reader. ―ED. G. M.]