An old man named Robert J. living in a certain village was poor in earthly goods, but rich in faith. He had known his Lord and Saviour for many years and sought to live well-pleasing to Him. The poor, far and wide, knew the simple old, man who had always a kind word ready, and when necessary did not think anything of sharing his last piece of bread with the needy. He was so faithful and earnest in visiting the sick, that even the danger of infectious disease could not keep him away. Where others drew back for fear, there he was, consoling dying believers, or pointing the unconverted to their lost condition, and to the crucified Christ.
One day he came home very tired. He had been wandering about for hours, and was glad to have the chance of resting his weary limbs, but 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 and said to himself:
“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. 6:99And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9)).
Arriving at the village, he soon found the house he had been directed to. It was a poor dwelling enclosed in a little garden. At his knock, the door was opened by a cleanly dressed woman who said,
“Come in, the sick person 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, it is a very solemn matter,” replied the sick man; “but I know whom I have believed.”
Robert was greatly surprised, for such an answer he seldom met. Indeed he was not quite convinced for he knew how often 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 have found 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?” asked 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 born again through the Holy Spirit?”
“Yes, indeed,” said the man, “that is true; but my conversion was an extraordinary miracle like those in the Old and New Testaments.”
“Impossible, my friend,” was Robert’s answer, for he feared that the sick man was putting his trust in the remarkable manner of his conversion, instead of 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 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 stocks of food. 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 just as I had left it. Carelessly I unwrapped it; but what was my astonishment, when I found a tract inside! At the first glance I could scarcely believe my eyes; but it was actually so. I opened the tract and read it, and then my whole body began to tremble. I knew that no man had been in the field. 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, cried from the depths of my heart,
‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
I resolved firmly, as God Himself had sent me this tract, to begin a new life from that hour and only live for the Lord. You can easily imagine that I did not go to the saloon that night. I was very unhappy and felt all broken down. I knew the greatness of my sins and my crimes. But the Lord had mercy on me, and at last granted me the grace to accept the Lord Jesus through faith; and from that time my heart was filled with peace, joy and thankfulness. I was a new creation, as it is said in 2 Corinthians 5. I have since then been much persecuted and through it have unfortunately experienced much weakness, but the faithfulness of my heavenly Father has sustained me, and I rejoice that I shall soon be up there with my Lord, and praise Him throughout eternity for His unspeakable grace. Now, can I not say truthfully that my conversion was brought about through an extraordinary miracle?”
With these words, he looked at Robert questioningly, who, however, seemed to be deeply moved with the account and remained silent for a time, till 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 Jonas?” questioned Robert with 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 to know what it was, thinking it might be something stolen. When the man had departed, I went and examined the little bundle, but found it to contain only bread and cheese. I was about to go away, when it occurred to me that I had some tracts in my pocket and thought it might do no harm to place one inside. I did it, and thought as I went away: ‘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 striking moment. Old Robert was moved because he had found the fruit of seed he had planted twenty years before; and the sick man was moved, because that God had made known to him before his death, the man who had been the means of his conversion.
Old Robert went again with renewed courage to his work of making souls acquainted with salvation through Christ.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:5858Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)).