An old man, Robert Jones, lived in a little village. He was poor in earthly goods, but rich in faith. He had known the Savior for many years, and sought to live well-pleasing to Him. The poor, far and wide, knew the kindly old man. He had always a word in season ready, and gladly would share his last piece of bread with the needy. He was faithful and earnest in visiting the sick, and even the danger of infectious disease could not keep him away. Where others drew back for fear, there was Robert Jones, consoling dying believers, or pointing the unconverted to their lost condition, and to the crucified Savior of sinners.
One day he came home very tired. He had been going from house to house for hours, and was glad now to rest his weary limbs. Scarcely had he sat down when someone called for him to visit a dying man in the next village. Our friend at first felt little inclined to go. His weary body seemed to say: "I can really walk no more." An inner voice whispered, "Try it; the Lord will give strength! It is for a dying man." At length he got up, saying "I shall go. It is written: 'Let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.' " Gal. 6:9.
Arriving at the village, he soon found the house to which he had been directed. It was a poor little cottage surrounded by a garden. At his knock, the door was opened by a neatly dressed woman who said: "Come in! my patient will be real glad to see you. He has asked for you repeatedly. The doctor has just been here and thinks he will not live over the night."
Robert entered and found the sick man very weak indeed. After a few questions about his bodily condition, he said: "My friend, it is a very solemn thing to lie there with the consciousness of having to appear soon before a holy God to give account for every word, thought and deed."
"Yes, Mr. Jones, it is a very solemn matter," replied the sick man. "But the Lord is shepherding me, and when I appear before God I shall be unafraid."
Robert was greatly surprised, for such an answer he seldom met. Indeed he was not quite convinced, for he knew that many rest on false hopes. He put a few more questions, therefore, to the sick man; but the answers proved beyond a doubt that he had come to Jesus with his sins and had found forgiveness and salvation through His blood.
"How long is it since you received the Lord?" asked Robert, overjoyed.
"About twenty years ago. Yes, my conversion was quite a wonderful one. It happened through an extraordinary miracle."
"A miracle?" said Robert. "Every true conversion is an extraordinary miracle. Is it not the greatest miracle that a man who is dead in trespasses and sins, becomes a 'born again' soul through the Holy Spirit?"
"Yes, indeed, that is true," said the sick man. "But my conversion was an extraordinary miracle like those in Scripture."
"Impossible, my friend," was Robert's answer. He feared that the sick man was putting his trust in the remarkable manner of his conversion rather than in the work of Christ.
"You may think so," replied the sick man; "but you will judge differently when you have heard about it. Till about twenty years ago, I had led a godless life. I drank, I swore; and I made Sunday especially a day of sin. One day I was sent into a field to mow hay. Before that I had promised some comrades to spend the evening in a saloon, drinking.
"I went to the field, taking my dinner with me, for my house was too far away to go back for it. It was only bread and cheese, for I was too poor to buy better food. Arriving in the field, I sought a place to hide my lunch. I tied it in my handkerchief and put it in a hole in the hedge. There was nobody besides myself in the field.
"When midday came, I went there to eat my scanty meal. My little package still lay in the same spot where I had left it. Carelessly I unwrapped it; but what was my astonishment, when out dropped a tract! At the first glance I could scarcely believe my eyes; but it was actually so.
"I opened the tract and read it; and then I began to tremble. No one had been in this field but me. If so, I would have seen him. God Himself, I thought, has sent me this tract by an angel. I read it, and read it again. The tract spoke of my sinful and lost condition, and warned me to flee from the wrath of God. I fell on my knees; and for the first time in my life I cried from the depths of my heart: 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'
"I resolved firmly, since God Himself had sent me this tract, to begin a new life from that hour and to live only for the Lord. You can easily understand that I did not go to the saloon that night. I was miserable and felt all broken down.
"I knew the greatness of my sins, and it was a long time before I found peace and the knowledge of forgiveness. The Lord had mercy on me, and granted me the grace to accept the Lord Jesus through faith in His atoning death. Then my heart was filled with peace, joy and thankfulness. I was a new creation, as it is said in 2 Cor. 5.
"I have had much persecution and experienced much weakness; but He is faithful, and has sustained me. Now I rejoice that I shall soon go to be with my Lord to praise Him throughout eternity for His unspeakable grace. Tell me, can I not say truthfully that my conversion was brought about through an extraordinary miracle?"
The dying man looked at his visitor questioningly. Robert, however, seemed deeply moved with the account and remained silent for a time. Finally he asked: "How long did you say it was since this happened?"
"It will be twenty years next month," replied the sick man.
"Was the place where the field lay not called Ponder's Bush, and the owner's name Jones?" questioned Robert in an agitated voice. And when the sick man answered in the affirmative, he continued: "Praise the Lord! I can explain the miracle. On that morning, I was taking a walk near the field. Through the hedge, I noticed a man hiding something. I was curious as to what it was, thinking it might be stolen goods. When the man departed, I went and examined the little bundle, and found it contained only bread and cheese. I was about to go away, when I remembered some tracts in my pocket and thought it might do no harm to place one inside. I did it, thought as I went on my way: 'Who knows whether the Lord will not bless the reading of this tract to the heart of that man!' "
It was now the turn of the sick man to be astonished. Indeed, it was a happy moment. Old Robert was moved because he had found the fruit of seed he had planted twenty years before. The sick man rejoiced because God had made known to him before his death the man who had been the means of his conversion.
Soon he fell asleep in quiet peace; and old Robert went again with renewed courage to his work of making souls acquainted with salvation through Christ.
Reader, have you too been going on in a course of evil and disregard for God? Or has your conscience heard the warning to "flee from the wrath to come"?
Do not delay to seek peace and forgiveness, for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, says:
"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10.