SENT to work in a coalpit at the age of five, where he drove a locomotive when only nine, Samuel J. grew up in ignorance and vice. God and His word, His grace and His truth, were absolutely unknown to him, while sin had its willing slave and Satan a passive captive in this poor Yorkshireman until he reached the age of forty. Then, as in another of the same age long ago, a miracle was wrought through the power, and to the glory, of the once crucified but now risen and ascended Son of God.
A drunken bout, a fall, a broken limb, and removal to Sheffield Hospital of necessity put a stop to his course of active evil, and through grace, a final stop. As he lay on his bed his attention was attracted by a pretty illuminated card hanging on the wall opposite. Unable to read, he wondered and enquired what was written on it, and for the first time there fell on his ears the wonderful words:
“THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S SON, CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN.”
Once heard they were never forgotten. “Sin” — “all sin” —ah, how much of this he had! There was no need to impress on him that he was a sinner —he knew it too well. But it was not simply conscience that told him so now, but the Holy Spirit of God convicting of sin, and His goodness leading to repentance.
“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanseth us from all sin”! As a drowning man clings to the rope thrown to him, so did Samuel J. trust himself to these precious words of God Himself, and proved their efficacy. To him they came with the same power as those once uttered by Peter: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.” He arose from his sick bed cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus, henceforth to walk in His name.
His first act on leaving the hospital was to buy a wedding ring and a large type Bible; to marry the woman against whom and with whom he had sinned; and then to feed and strengthen the new life he now possessed by faith in the Son of God, by reading His word. His spelling book and textbook was the Bible, and he soon learned to read fluently.
Employed then as an engine driver on the L.B. & S.C. Railway, he believed he could best glorify the Lord who had redeemed him by his careful attention to duty, and his felt responsibility towards the lives of his passengers; and while he made the line ring with his fervent songs of praise as he drove along, his punctuality was such that the gentlemen who daily went to town by his express would say, “J, we could set our watches by you.”
For many years now that voice has been silent here. He rests in the presence of the Lord who loved him and washed him from his sins in His own blood; and throughout eternity the songs begun on earth will resound in glory from those once defiled but then raised and glorified lips, “Thou art worthy... for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.”
Will the reader join that chorus? The blood that cleansed Samuel J. the desperate, ignorant sinner, can cleanse the refined, the educated, but yet guilty sinner wherever found who trusts it and Him who shed it; but “without shedding of blood is no remission.” “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
T.