John Bunyan was not the only swearing tinker in the world! The one of whom I write was a match for the John of Bedford fame; and, like Bunyan, he became a changed man. The public house had been his refuge, his home, his church, his workshop, his all. He had a wife—more the pity for her! It was certain she had no true husband. She was tied up to an animated piece of selfishness who spent his first penny and his last upon his own evil appetite.
One Lord's day a band of Christian people passed along singing, and the drunken tinker listened. It was a hymn about a cross and a crown; and he thought to himself, "No cross and no crown for me!”
He hardly knew whether he said it with contempt or regret, for evil spirits had possession of at least a part of his manhood; but at all events he followed the crowd. Some of the Christians, seeing his condition, took him in hand after real "Good Samaritan" fashion, and made him a cup of strong tea. Thus cared for and sobered, he stayed to the meeting; and there he made the discovery that he was a sinner, a lost sinner, bound by sin for hell. Others had seen this fact long before, though the tinker had not been aware of it. He had been blind to his own ruined state. Now he saw his heart was black as the pots he mended, and no scraping, or soldering, or tinkering of any sort would answer for his poor soul.
While he thought of this he heard the music of heaven's great gospel bell: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
"Whosoever" included him; and he was certainly in "the world," though he might soon be out of it. God "loved the world"; therefore God loved him, drunken tinker though he was. There was another word in that verse which struck home—"believeth"—"whosoever believeth." What was "whosoever" to believe? That God loved him and gave His only begotten Son that "whosoever" (he, the tinker) "should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Was that true? If so, and he did believe on God's Son, he wouldn't perish.
That night he went home sober, the first time for many months. The singing had drawn him, the tea had sobered him, the gospel message had enlightened him, God's love had conquered him, and believing had saved him. And God's Spirit had done it all.
He had two sisters, the terror of the neighborhood. Of course they laughed at him. They would have beaten the new life out of him, only the Lord had put it in a little too firmly. Neither jeers nor tears, kissing nor kicking, man, woman, nor devil, could get that eternal life out of him to whom God had given it.
The public house was now forsaken. His work was looked after. His home life improved. His poor wife was cared for. His children were clothed and fed. Months passed, yea, years; and today the drunken tinker is, in the truest sense, a gentleman. His wife has learned that "whosoever" means her too. She has believed on Jesus; and the once brawling, battling, brazen-faced sisters have seen their portrait in the same glorious old word, "whosoever.”
Let me hold up this golden mirror and ask you, my reader, whoever you may be, to look into it steadily. Trace your own features: Are you an unbeliever? Then you are in danger of perishing! If you are a believer, then you are one of those about whom God says they shall "not perish, but have everlasting life.”
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”