A man stood looking into the water as a scrap of paper came floating down the stream, tossed from wavelet to wavelet. "I am just as helpless," said he to himself, "borne downwards by a tide which I cannot stem, and from which I cannot escape. There is no one to lift me clear of the tide of destruction as I can lift you, poor miserable scrap.”
As he spoke, he caught the paper with his walking stick and then lifted it from the water. He noticed that it was a fragment of a torn-up letter, and one word upon it attracted his attention as being in thorough keeping with his own feelings. The word was "miserable," and thus the writing read as a whole:
I assure you
I used to be very miserable
and trust Christ Jesus only
Salvation and now
joy and peace.
He read the words over and over. Although but an imperfect fragment, it was not difficult to see its exact meaning. It had been written, as he could see, by someone who had been, like himself, very miserable, but who had been led to trust Jesus Christ as his Savior, and so had attained to joy and peace.
"Oh that I could find the same," said this poor young man. "And yet, why should I not? Christ Jesus came to save sinners, even the chief (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). I believe if He chose He could lift me out of the stream of evil and ruin as I have lifted this scrap of paper. If He chose—I wonder if He would be willing to save me?" And then a verse of a hymn that he had sung in better days came into his mind:
"If I trust Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
Not till earth and not till heaven
Pass away.”
"Oh, is it true; is it true?" he cried in an agony of earnestness. "Is it true? I believe it is. When He was on earth He received sinners. And He bade the heavy-laden to come unto Him (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). And He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!”
With the fragment of paper in his hand he stole quietly away among the trees, out of sight and hearing of his gay companions.
There on his knees, sobbing like a little child, he told God of his sin and misery and asked Him for forgiveness and deliverance.
In vain his companions, when they missed him, searched and shouted. They could find no trace of him. And when the next day a companion went to his lodgings to upbraid him for leaving them, the answer he got was to have a small, torn scrap of paper spread out before him with the request to read it.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
"It means that just such a change has come to me. There was not in this world a more miserable creature than I was yesterday when you saw me last. I don't like to speak of my happiness now, it is so recent, and I deserve it so little; but oh, man, I think I know that Jesus is indeed able to save the chief of sinners.”
God has many ways of reaching the human heart, and can employ the very humblest and meanest of instruments. Let none doubt His willingness to save, for the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).
Believe in Him then, whoever reads this incident. There is nothing but disappointment, and sorrow, and weariness to be found in the ways of sin but all who come to Jesus, and trust Him as their Savior, and yield themselves to His constraining love, find in Him peace, and joy, and rest.
The following is a warning written by a convict in the Illinois State Prison