A True Story

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 5
PASSING through Deptford (London) one day, I saw, sitting on a counter in a shop, a man looking dreadfully ill and apparently soon to pass out of time into eternity. I could not but enter the shop, hoping the Lord would be pleased to give me a word from Himself which might prove a blessing to this man’s soul. I soon engaged him in friendly conversation; and remarking how poorly he looked, he admitted that he was very bad. I said, although his body Alight die, yet he had a never-dying soul which would live for ever, and where. He became interested and eventually asked me if I would answer him two questions. I said I would do my best. He asked me if I preached that all men were sinners by nature? I called his attention to what God had said in His word that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God... that all the world was guilty before God (Rom. 3). But the poor man said, “You also preach that God is Almighty?” “Yes,” I said, “that is quite true also.” He replied, “If God is almighty, why did He permit sin to come into the world?” I told him I would answer that question by another: “Suppose,” said I, “you were called up in the night and were told that your house was on fire, what would you do?” He replied, “I would try to escape.” “But would you not first try and find out where, and how, it commenced?” “Not me,” he said. I replied, “Your never-dying soul is far more important than your body, yet you are waiting to find out how sin came into the world. You see the results of sin in your poor body and in all creation.” I then showed him God’s remedy for sin, and exhorted him to flee to Christ the only refuge for poor sinners, reminding him that his time seemed to be very short. I quoted Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18), “Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Trusting the Lord to bless this feeble effort to win a soul from death, I left my card, hardly knowing at the time why I did so. Only a few days after, his son invited me to call and see his father. I thanked God and went. I found him greatly distressed about his sins. I told him how thankful I was to find him in that condition, because I had brought a remedy for the cure of sin. I asked him if he believed the Bible to be the word of God. He said, “Yes.” “Then,” I said, “I have a message of God to you,” and quoted to him these words, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). He appeared to receive the message; and after referring to other scriptures, I left him. In a few days he passed away, trusting in Jesus.
“O sinner, seek His face, whose wrath thou canst not bear;
Fly to the shelter of His cross, and find salvation there.”
H. D.