In my unconverted days I was considered to be the life and soul of the company I kept. I could sing and dance and tell a good joke. When I was inducted into the armed services I became known as a good all-round entertainer.
Sharing a room with me in the camp was a young corporal, a Christian. That chap was a puzzle to me. He always looked bright and happy, was never ruffled, never downcast. He never joined us in our wild parties nor went in for worldly amusements. In his spare moments he often sat on the side of his cot, poring over the pages of his open Bible, undistracted by the yells and taunts of his Christ-rejecting comrades. Of these, to my shame, I was the leader.
But later on there came a change. One morning while the boys were cleaning up their kits, I was going on with my usual silly pranks and trying to amuse them with a popular song. Suddenly I spied my corporal friend walking leisurely about the room with his Bible under his arm, and I was uncomfortably aware that he had been watching me. Presently, when the room was somewhat quieter, he came over to where I was.
The earnest look he gave me I shall never forget. He said to me: "You seem to be a happy-go-lucky sort of a chap, and never seem to know a care. You seem to be all right on the surface." Pausing, he put his large hand on my shoulder, and as our eyes met he continued, "But how is it below the surface? Is it all right there? Is your soul all right?”
Without a moment's hesitation I replied, "No, it is all wrong.”
"I thought it was," he said, "and, thank God, you know it is.”
He opened the pages of his beloved Book and pointed me to the Savior of whom it testified—his Savior. The pretentious mask I had been wearing was torn away, and I was left exposed and naked in all my sins— a truly wretched man. When I saw myself as I was in God's sight, I could truly say, like Job: "I abhor myself." But when I beheld by faith the infinite grace and beauty of the Savior who died for me, my heart went out to Him in loving wonder and praise.
"I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting place,
And He has made me glad.”