A young woman married a man engaged in government service. She loved her church and was regular in attendance; otherwise she was of the world, worldly, and did as the world did. Her husband was a modern, light-hearted young man. He smoked, drank, and gambled like other young men of his set.
As the years progressed he was promoted in service and had increased responsibilities; but he became a confirmed gambler and blasphemer—the leader of a circle who boasted that they could individually drink two bottles of whiskey and be nothing the worse for it!
As the husband went deeper into sin his wife, through anxiety on his account, became deeply anxious about her own soul. As a lost, guilty sinner she cast herself and all her burdens on the Savior. By His grace she became a patient, tender wife. How she longed to bring her husband to Christ! For thirteen years she prayed with never-failing faith that the Lord would convert him. Every Sunday she would ask him to accompany her to church, and he as often refused. He would sometimes say: "If you will go with me once to the theater, the circus, a dance, or some other place of pleasure, I will go forty times to church with you.
Invariably her reply was: "As much as I long to have you with me, I could not bring reproach on my Savior by going once with you where He could not be."
Then one December evening, the last Sunday of the year, she repeated her invitation. He laughingly said, "You have not converted me yet, old lady."
Throwing her arms around his neck, the loving wife said: "No, and I never can; but the Lord Jesus Christ can convert you, George."
Now she felt more than ever cast wholly upon the Lord, risen from the dead, and "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Her faithfulness to God only made him become very uneasy, and more determined to resist his wife's entreaties.
On New Year's Eve he had dinner with some of his chosen companions. After the dinner he went home to take his usual New Year's present to his wife and children. While distributing the gifts he found that for the first time since he was married he had forgotten a present for his wife. He was utterly at a loss to account for it and said to her: "I never forgot you before; now you may ask what you like, and I will give it to you."
Looking to the Lord, she quietly and earnestly said: "Come with me to the watch night service tonight —that will be my present."
"Oh, no," he said. "I cannot be such a hypocrite; ask for some present." But she was firm, and held him to his promise.
He left the family group, and when the time came for his wife to go to the meeting, she waited for him. The children questioned, "Do you think Daddy will go with us?"
"Yes," she said; "your father never broke a promise to me."
He had returned to the room and, overhearing this remark, his uneasiness increased. When they started for the meeting, he went with them, to the great joy of his wife. But at the church door he turned and left them, intending to go back to his companions and cards.
But why did he not go to his intended hangout?
Something impelled him to return to his home. In its familiar quietness, he gazed around. Pictures were hanging on his walls, pictures he had often reversed. Now, before he could do so, his eye fell on a representation of Christ on the cross. It attracted him; it smote him to the heart. The words which his devoted wife had so often read in his hearing came fresh to his memory: "He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him... But was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Isa. 53:3-53He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3‑5).
He thought of his past—a wasted life! His future, with an awful eternity, brought only dread to his soul. Here in this One who was despised, rejected, wounded, bruised, appeared the only hope of true peace now and true joy hereafter.
He gazed and gazed until it seemed to him as if it were Christ Himself hanging on the cross, and saying to him: "I DIED FOR THEE."
"For me, Lord?" the wondering man cried. Then and there, in soul agony, he called on the Savior to save him, to put away from him forever the taste for liquor and the desire for all sin. Like the "chief of sinners" he "fell to the earth." (Acts 9:44And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:4)). Upon his knees in his own house, with no one near but God, he acknowledged his "manifold transgressions and mighty sins." He accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as His own and only Savior. He believed on Him "who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." He rose from his knees a redeemed man, with Christ as his Savior and his almighty Deliverer. He went directly to the meeting, and startled the midnight watchers with his triumphant cry: "Praise God, I am saved."
Ever since that "Happy New Year," Christ crucified-dead, buried, and risen-is his constant theme. As a brand plucked from the burning, this trophy of God’s grace joyfully tells what great things the Lord has done for his soul.