"God has got me tonight," said a tall, manly young fellow about nineteen years old. Tears of joy ran down his happy face.
What a beautiful sight it is when a heart is touched and won by the grace of God made known in Jesus, His beloved Son! And how strikingly these words expressed what had actually taken place that night in the young man's soul.
About a half hour before this, he had been inquiring his way to the barracks which were about a mile from town. The one of whom he asked direction had himself been led to the Savior of sinners a few years previously, and now spoke kindly to the inquirer. Finding a sympathetic listener, the young man told him something of his circumstances.
His mother was dead, and his father had lately taken to drink. A younger brother and sister had just been placed in a "home," and he himself had lost his jab through striking a fellow workman at his place of employment. And now—his clothes shabby, hunger pressing him, and with no recommendation for another job—he was contemplating what he called "his last chance"—enlisting.
"I could earn enough money then," he said, "to care for my brother and sister; and when I have served my enlistment I'll be prepared to take a good job and earn real money. Six years seems a long time; but it will soon pass, and then—”
His companion here interrupted him by referring to the uncertainties of life and of riches, too. He sought by God's grace to tell him of the "true riches" which are not for time only, but for ETERNITY.
The young man listened to the glad tidings with much astonishment. "Nobody has ever spoken to me like that, sir! Nobody ever told me that!”
He continued to listen intently, accepting as simply as a child the good news of salvation. With tears in his eyes, he finally remarked: "To think that I should have spoken to you sir, and asked you to direct me! God must have sent you to tell me of His love!”
By this time they had reached the barrack gates from which a wide road leads up to the administration buildings. Bidding' the young man "Good night," his Christian companion commenced to retrace his steps toward town. To his surprise he was soon overtaken by the same young man he had just left at the barrack gates.
"I could get no farther, sir, than halfway up the road. Something told me, when I got that far, not to go on; so I came back, and now here I am. What shall I do?”
This was said with much earnestness; and with it came a request that he might hear more of what had been told him on the way from town. His companion gladly complied with his wish, telling him more about that Savior-God who gave Jesus, His only Son, to bleed and die on Calvary's cross for sinful man, and whom God had raised from the dead.
Listening thus to the sweet story of the grace of God, the young man burst into tears, saying, "God has got me tonight, sir; God has got me tonight!”
So much for his blessing, dear reader; but what about your own? Have you yet been arrested by the blessed God who gave Jesus, His only Son, to die for sinners? Has His grace, made known in Jesus, ever touched your heart? If not, may it be so now.