Sailor Bob sat in a bar with his friend, Jack. He had just returned from a long voyage, and now he was busy catching up on his drinking.
"Just look at this," said Jack, as he pulled a little gospel tract out of his pocket. "Can you imagine these religious people giving out such stuff as this? How could it do you any good, I would like to know? It is just another way they have of trying to get your money."
Bob took the tract and tried to read it, but he was too intoxicated to read, so he thoughtlessly tucked it into one of his pockets.
Later, Bob was changing his clothes when the little tract fell out of his pocket onto the floor. He picked it up to see what it was, and then he remembered that Jack had given it to him in the bar. It was something about religion. He sat down and read it through, but he still could not understand what it was all about.
He realized that his life needed changing, but he did not have time to think about that right now. So he tossed the tract aside and went out. But he did not feel quite as comfortable as before. He began to realize that there was something seriously wrong, and that he needed something he did not have.
One evening soon after this when Bob was taking a walk, he saw a big crowd of people on the street ahead of him, and heard some shouting.
"Must be a big fight," he exclaimed, as he began running to see what it was all about. There was a big Irishman standing in the middle of the crowd. "After I spent my last dollar for whiskey, I would go home and beat my wife. Poor woman, she needed food, but all I gave her was a beating. I don't see why she put up with me. I did try to stop drinking and be decent to her, but the very next payday I got drunk as ever and then went home and beat her again. I just couldn't leave the drink alone.
"And then Jesus found me. A man told me that Jesus loved me enough to die for me, and that if I would accept Jesus as my Savior, I would receive the forgiveness of sins. That, was just what I needed, so I came to Him and received Him as my Savior. And thank God, He did save me and made a new man out of me. Now we have a happy home, a Christian home, and God has taken away my desire for liquor. What I needed was Jesus, and that is what you need, my friends. Come to Jesus, and He will save you from judgment and make you happy."
"That's what I need, too," said Bob, as the Irishman finished his testimony. Bob received the Lord Jesus as his Savior then and there, and he has lived to prove that what the Irishman said was true. Jesus can deliver you from the bondage of sin forever, and make you happier than you have ever been in your life before.