Ah! He'll Soon Give Over.

 •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 7
 
ABOUT fifteen years ago, I, and three other men, were employed in Glasgow. At the week's end we used to drink and play cards. We spent our time in folly and sin. We had many escapes with our lives, one of which occurred late one Saturday night. We were all drinking together, and were all intoxicated. The master of the house, a powerfully-built man, came into the room where we were with a large ax in his hand. He, too, was intoxicated, and in his condition could not command his passion. He struck at one of my companions with the ax, and just nicked him on the chin. He was aiming for a second blow, when my companion shouted out to me; I was behind, and caught hold of his arm. Had I not prevented the ax from descending, I believe this blow would have severed his head from the body. I pulled the man with the ax down on the floor, and the others took the dangerous weapon from him, when his wife and children came in screaming, and begged us to let him go.
It was when living in sin, as I have described, that it pleased God to show me my lost and sinful state. He showed me I was a lost, hell-deserving sinner.
I was awakened to a sense of my sin and guilt by hearing a poor ignorant man preaching by the Glasgow jail just when, like Saul of Tarsus, I was going out to fight against the Lord. God spoke to me from this verse in the sixth chapter of Revelation:—"And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shalt be able to stand?" A fortnight after this, after God had broken me down, I heard the glad tidings of salvation from another servant of His, a poor collier, who pointed out simply God's love to this poor world in giving His Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I went, a poor, miserable sinner, into the large building where the collier was speaking; I knew that I was in I danger of perishing in my sins; I came out rejoicing, having believed God's record that He had given concerning His Son, and the gracious words respecting the work which He accomplished. The work of the Lord Jesus has brought glory to God; and through grace it has brought everlasting blessing to my poor soul, as one saved by grace, through faith, and that not of myself—it is the gift of God.
Now, being saved myself, I began to preach Christ and Him crucified to my fellow-workmen; nor did I rest' satisfied till I had cleared myself of the blood of every one of them, telling them in my simple way the story of the cross. A month or two afterward, God saved two in answer to prayer. One was a fighting man, who has, since his conversion, gone to the Lord.
About twelve months after this the Lord opened my way to come again to England, and it was then that the words at the head of my story were uttered:—"Ah! he'll soon give over; we shall soon hear of him going to the alehouse and theater, as he used to do." Five years after, the man who uttered the above words came to work where I was at Tutbury, in Staffordshire. I saw him coming out of an ale-house, and, going up to him, I inquired after his health, telling him that I was still rejoicing in my Saviour, and was exceedingly happy. The man sighed and said, "Ah! I cannot say that." I then reminded him of the words he uttered when I left Glasgow, adding," You expected me to return to my old way of living, but the same God that was with me in Glasgow is with me here at Tutbury. The Lord is still precious to me.”
My old companion wished he could say the same. Shortly after the above conversation he was taken ill. I visited him frequently, and God enabled me to point him to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. I believe he was enabled to trust in the Lord Jesus, whose name is the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
The daughter of the sick man came to see him. I told her that I believed her father was saved, but the landlady of the house exclaimed, "Oh, no! he has a deal to do in order to be saved!”
But, says the Scripture, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
Perhaps some of my readers are, like this woman, thinking they have to do something to obtain salvation. We have no more to do to obtain salvation than the prodigal had to get the best robe, ring, shoes, and fatted calf. He confessed he had sinned, and was unworthy; and we can say nothing less. A father's loving heart provided every blessing, and the prodigal became the happy recipient of that father's bounty, and the house was filled with heavenly mirth.
God has received Christ up into glory, and we see in that a proof that He is satisfied with the work that Christ did once for all on the cross; and now it remains for us to receive Him by simple faith.
"Nothing, either great or small,
Nothing, sinner, no!
Jesus did it—did it all,
Long, long ago.”
Works flow from salvation like a stream from a fountain, but we must have the fountain first, and
“Until to Jesus' work you cling,
By a simple faith,
Doing is a deadly thing,
Doing ends in death.”
Do not despise God's grace, and neglect the salvation so fully and freely offered in the gospel.
C. SP—N.
"How little of the sea can a child carry in his hand! as little do I take away of my great sea, the boundless love of Christ."—Extract.