In a small country town there was once a poor man who was of ill repute among his neighbors. He was known as a hopeless drunkard and blasphemer.
One day, walking along the street, he heard a woman singing:
"I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.”
The words hit his conscience and stayed with him till they led him, by the Holy Spirit's teaching, to see his own great sinfulness and his dire need of a Savior. At length he came to Christ and could rejoice in knowing Him as his own personal Savior.
Then he went to some Christians and said that now he wished to be numbered among them. They were astonished, remembering his past sinful life. "We must have some evidence of your conversion. You have been a great sinner," said they.
"Well," replied poor Jack, "I know it. I confess I am a great sinner.
`I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.'”
This was his passport and so he was received among them. Once he was asked how he was "so uniformly joyous.”
"Well, I ought to be," he answered, "for,
`I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.'”
"Well, but," said a Christian friend, "I am at times miserable, when I remember my past sinfulness.”
"Ah," said poor Jack, "you haven't yet begun to sing, `I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all; But Jesus Christ is my all and all.'”
"And are your thoughts and feelings never variable?" he was asked. "What do you think of then?”
"Think of! What better than this can I think of?" said the simple believer:
“‘I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all;
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.'”