UP to sixteen years of age, J― F― was outwardly moral and religious, went to school regularly, and sang in the choir every Sunday. His education completed, he joined Her Majesty’s navy, and became efficient in the duties of a seaman, traversing various seas in one or another of Her Majesty’s vessels.
Becoming tired of a seafaring life, and finding it hard work to rise in the service, he had resolved to leave it; but hindrances, through his being a valuable servant, were put in his way. This preying much upon him, in a moment of temptation he deserted, and for about a year secluded himself from the authorities. However, at the close of this period, he gave himself up to them, and had to suffer an imprisonment of three months.
This punishment was used of God, as he said afterward, “to bring him to his senses” (Luke 15:17); and that not only before his fellow-men, but also before God, and he was led to see himself a sinner in His sight, and to feel the burden of his sins, so that he was enabled to turn to Him, confessing his sins; and this, as it always does, resulted in his receiving His eternal forgiveness.
A little tract, called “A Present Knowledge of Salvation,” was a great help to him at that tune.
He saw, too, that his early moral life would no more fit him for the presence of God than his subsequent sinful one could; that neither his own righteousness (Phil. 3:9) nor his own sinfulness was the question, but that faith in Christ the Saviour was God’s only way of salvation; that God could only accept the sinner who came to Him, trusting in His blessed Son.
J― F―wrote to a friend about this time, the writer of the above tract: ― “You ask me, Fred, do I believe that our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ, died for me, and am I willing to accept Him as my substitute? I do with all my heart, and I pray that God will give me grace so that I may not depart from that belief.” He further wrote three weeks later, “What a blessing it is to me now that God’s own dear Son died upon the cross to save all such sinners as I am. I feel how undeserving I am of His love, but I am willing to accept Him as my substitute; and I feel that I have true joy and peace in my heart, and my thought shall be all of the future. I will, as you tell me, forget the past. ―Your old schoolmate, but now, thank God, your brother in Christ Jesus, J. F.”
Again, he said in another letter, “How thankful I ought to be, and how I ought to love that heavenly Father who has spared me, and brought me into this state of salvation through His dear Son... How happy I ought to be to know that I have a full assurance of salvation in Christ Jesus.”
Then J― F―was not only saved, but he knew it, and confessed it, and was happy, as it is God’s intention that every one of His children should be; and if they are not, it is because of unbelief. God speaks in the written Word. Do you, my reader, believe Him? Let Him be true, though every man be a liar. “These things have I written, that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
After this, notice how blessedly the Lord led J―F― on. He writes, “I have not any one on board here, save one that I know of amongst our class, that is a believer.... I thank the Lord He has given me a companion who is a believer, and another came on board yesterday, and my joy is reinforced. We do spend some pleasant minutes together, talking of a Saviour’s love for us, and we are endeavoring to let our light shine before men.”
So, after receiving full assurance of salvation, through believing God (Rom. 4:3 and 24), taking Him at His word, we see J― F― valuing the fellowship of other believers, loving the children of God, and finding “his own company” (Acts 4:23)
being with them. Then together were they found in sweet communion, and in prayer to God for others, resulting, as he writes, in “one man coming to express his wish to go on the Lord’s side;” and, he adds, “there is a lot to be done in the service (the navy) for Christ.”
The last letter his friend received from J — F — is most interesting. He writes: ― “Dear Brother in Christ, ― ‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost’ (Titus 3:5). How great, dear Fred, is the mercy wherewith He saved us, that He should look upon such worms as us; but there still remains the fact that it is so, that ‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:8), ―a blessed thought, ―and that we are ‘seated in the heavenlies in Him’ (Eph. 2:6). How can we follow the things of the world, when we are not of it? ‘Ye are not of the world’ (John 17:16), ‘therefore the world knoweth us not’ (1 John 3:1); but yet we find the old man coming up and trying to gain the mastery. But, thanks be unto Him whose strength is perfected in weakness, He will enable us to overcome. Dear F., I must tell you that we have met another dear brother here, ―one who has remained out in the ship. We meet every evening, when we are not kept away by our several duties, and have some very happy moments of praise ‘unto him who hath washed us,’ and a talk over the Word; and we often get an opportunity of speaking a word for Him who has done so much for us. I am (God willing) going on shore this evening to meet with a few of the Lord’s that are gathered to His name.... I thank the Lord. that I have had a very pleasant passage thus far; it has indeed been most happy. The Lord was showing me some pictures on one occasion. It was while I was in the ship ‘Nepaul.’ I looked out one morning, about four o’clock, and all was as black as ink across the sea; I turned back into my hammock, and laid till about half-past five, when I looked out again, then I saw the sky was red. About half-an-hour or so after, I looked again, and I saw that it was golden, and with that sight I was filled with glorious thoughts. There I had been looking at a transformation, figuring the one that had been wrought in me. My sins were black, but they were washed away in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; henceforth there awaits me a crown of glory. I did indeed feel built up by that, and was rejoicing all day, in fact have been ever since, to think that the Lord should show me by His manifold works in the heavens what He had done for me....”
How wonderful and manifold indeed are the works of the Lord, not only in creation, but much more in redemption; and how manifest in the case of this young sailor, leading him on step by step, giving him still further to see himself as “seated together in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 2:6), consequently not of the world; and to know the blessed power of this in his own soul, the strength too of Christ made perfect in his weakness, enabling him to overcome daily the world, the flesh, and the devil. We see him also enjoying the privilege of the worship of Him who loveth us, and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood; valuing the reading of the Word of God; and finally, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), looking for the Sun of righteousness to appear in glory to this sin-stricken world. One thing, would we add, is our desire for him, and for you also, dear reader, to know and realize also. We know, ere the Lord Jesus arises as the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), He will shine as the bright and morning star in the heavens (Rev. 22:16), coming quickly for His own; and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, will J― F―, with all the saints of God,―the sleeping ones raised, and the living changed,―be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air, and so be forever with the Lord (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Phil. 3:20, 21).
Had J― F― looked closely before the sun rose that morning upon the “Nepaul” on the high seas, doubtless he would have discerned the morning star in the material heavens, thus completing the interesting picture, as he styles it, “the Lord gave him to confirm and strengthen his faith, and to rejoice his soul.”
May some other sailor lad, or reader of this unvarnished and true story, be brought as simply as J― F― to see himself a sinner in the sight of God, with whom each one has to do; and to accept His provision, in the Person of the blessed Saviour, so as to share with all the saints these glorious blessings so freely given by the God of all grace, Who, having not spared His Son for us, with Him freely gives us all things (Rom. 8:32). J. S. C.