ONE Monday night, in the month of February, more than twenty years ago, in a house of business in a well-known English country town, four young men might have been seen very intently engaged in playing whist.
For some time previously they had been thrown much together, and at the early part of their friendship nothing was more opposed to the thoughts and practice of each than playing cards; but through visiting friends who, though highly moral and respectable, indulged in card-playing at home, they had all four caught the spirit of the game, which grew upon them to such an extent that at last they did not care to play at all unless it was for money. The remarkable thing about this select little party was that all its members were very religious, and most careful as to the company they kept. One attended Wesleyan class-meetings; another sang in the choir of a fashionable chapel, and taught in the Sunday school; the third played a harmonium in a Church of England Sunday school; the fourth was the principal supporter of the superintendent of another Sunday school in the town.
They each wished to be considered religious by all who knew them, and certainly nothing could exceed their zeal on Sundays in attending all the services at their respective so-called places of worship. As to their life and conduct both in private and public, they were all deservedly highly esteemed and respected.
The question of whether or not it was consistent for Christians to play cards at all, and especially for money, had frequently been discussed between themselves. This exercise had so far ended in all four agreeing that if there were no cheating, it could not be condemned on any grounds; and having rightly unlimited confidence in each other, they became at last thoroughly infatuated, and lost no opportunity in meeting together to pursue the game. The moving spirit of the party was a delicate young man, nearly homeless and friendless, the most religious of all four, who boasted more than the others that he could play cards without feeling condemned.
But in the secret of his heart for a long while past he had been deeply exercised about it. For several years he had been much concerned about his soul. Sometimes he thought he had “peace with God,” and the forgiveness of sins, and said he was not afraid to die; at other times he was filled with the greatest terror at the thought of death and judgment to come (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)).
He had been confirmed, and had taken the sacrament; but this gave him no rest of heart; and in order to keep a good conscience (not that there was anything morally wrong, but because he felt his relations with God were not right), he was compelled to tell the clergyman he must discontinue “holy communion.” He was conversant with religion of almost every phase, from revival meetings and penitent forms to Roman Catholicism; listened most attentively to sermons; read everything religious that came in his way; with the result that at the date when our tale begins, his heart was as restless and unsatisfied as ever.
On the Monday night referred to, about eleven o’clock, he started off alone to go to his lodgings, when his exercises as to his course returned more deeply than ever. The darkness and gloom of the well-nigh deserted streets, and the fear of sudden death and judgment to come, combined to impress him with fear and terror almost intolerable. He hurried upstairs, flung himself on his knees at the bedside, and found relief only in a flood of tears. Many were the resolutions he made that night that, if God would only spare his life, under no circumstances would he ever touch a card again.
All through the morning of the next day these good resolutions were before his mind in the most determined manner, but he had yet to find they stood only in his own strength. Towards the evening the old infatuation returned, then the reasoning that nothing dishonest was allowed overcame his pious scruples, and in due course he formed one of the select little party, shuffling the cards as eagerly as ever. Before midnight the religious young leader was smitten with the same experience that he had passed through on the previous night — cards, repentance, dread of meeting God, prayers, tears, resolutions, followed each other in bitter succession. On Wednesday all was repeated over again; so on Thursday, Friday, and on Saturday, the week was finished precisely as begun. The following Sunday he was very religious as usual, and many were the resolutions made, on the strength of Romans 7:19,19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Romans 7:19) never to play cards again.
So very earnest and scrupulous had he become, and zealous, too, in siding with Evangelicals against Ritualists, that he did not care for any but “Low Church” services, and often would walk some distance out of the town to hear a clergyman who always preached in a “black gown,” the only “robes” our young friend thought it was consistent to preach a sermon in.
The following Monday, towards evening, the old temptations again got the upper hand, and all the experience of cards, repentance, and prayers of the previous week was gone through before his eyes closed in sleep. It seemed as though there was no hope of his recovery from the snare, and he was himself beginning to feel it was distinctly leading to other temptations and into associations which otherwise he would not have dreamed of. But the time of his deliverance, in the mercy of God, was near at hand.
An evangelist had been holding special gospel services in the Town Hall all the previous week, and a crippled old man, who appeared to see the danger to which his young friend was exposed, had at last, after much earnest persuasion, got him to promise to give up his cards for one night, and go and hear what this strange preacher had to say.
Accordingly, on Tuesday he went. That night the message was blessed to his soul, and he returned to his lodgings with a joy and peace with God (Rom. 4:23-25, 5:1, 2 8:1) such as he had never known before. Instead of tears of repentance over cards, his long-troubled and weary heart was at perfect rest. Every night during the week he was found at these meetings, and all that he heard seemed to confirm the distinct blessing he found on the Tuesday. Two well-known questions — one in Genesis, the other in Exodus — were the special portions used of God in thus reaching him, and presenting not only the atoning work, but the person of the Lord Jesus to his soul. His taste for cards at once completely vanished, and never returned.
His deliverance was also used to break up the card party altogether.
Not many days after he was present at a special afternoon service, held at the meeting-room of the “Society of Friends,” to give thanks to God for those who had been blessed at the Town Hall. It was a cold, bleak day, and on the way there he had an attack of hemorrhage for the first time in his life. This brought back vividly the fear of early death; but his conscience and heart being now at rest through faith in the “blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:18-2218Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:18‑22)), he had not a trace of fear as to meeting God. Only a little while before his chest had been carefully examined by a physician, and he was given to understand his life was practically not worth a straw. But none of these things could now disturb his newly found joy and peace of soul; he could say, “All things are yours... whether life or death” (1 Cor. 3:21-2321Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. (1 Corinthians 3:21‑23)). In spite of the adverse judgment of doctors, his strong tendency to consumption did not terminate fatally at an early age; in fact, he is alive at the present time.
Neither the preacher, nor any of those who promoted the meetings in question, have ever had the slightest idea of the existence of the young convert, nor of the blessing he received by their means. The coming day of glory will declare it (1 Thess. 2:2020For ye are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:20)). He stayed behind at the after-meetings at the Town Hall, placed himself broken-hearted, but saved, with those interested and awakened, but all others seemed to receive attention except him.
But the “peace with God through our Lord Jesus” was deep and solid, and though since then he has learned by further experience more of what it is to possess a wicked and deceitful heart (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9); 1 Kings 8:3939Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) (1 Kings 8:39)), that peace, which he then received through faith in the “blood of Christ,” has never once been disturbed, and a doubt as to his standing, acceptance, and the relationship with God of a child crying “Abba, Father,” has never crossed his mind.
Should this true narrative meet the eye of any professedly Christian young man who is in danger, through card-playing, of being drawn into the well-nigh national vice of betting and gambling, and thus making shipwreck of faith, it is hoped that God may use it to induce him to forsake this evil practice, and thus prevent Satan from accomplishing his evil design. Many such have never intended to go far; they have been induced to look at it as innocent in itself.
In the end it has paved the way for their utter downfall, both as to body and soul.