I WAS sitting on the top of the mail coach, going from T. to G., in the far north of Scotland, some years before the railway was made into that neighborhood. It was a cool autumn evening, and there was a fair number of passengers outside, and amongst them a young man who had just returned from America, to take possession of a large estate left him by his uncle. The young man was full of this world’s pleasures, and was desirous of others sharing them with him. He had plenty of money, and spent it freely. He had laid in a good stock of whiskey for the sixty or seventy miles we had to travel, and frequently drank out of his flask.
Turning to me, as I was reading the word of God, he said, “Look here! have a drink?”
“I am drinking,” I said, “out of the fountain of eternal life.”
“Oh, bosh! never mind that book,” said he, “have a sip at this,” and as he spoke he thrust the flask into my face.
“No,” I said, “it does not suit me now. You drink the pleasures of this world, and get thirsty again. What you want, my friend, to satisfy you thoroughly and completely, and forever, is—Christ. Am I right?”
“Yes,” said he, in an altered tone of voice, “I believe you are right, and I am all wrong. I wish I were like you. I wish I did not do as I do.”
“If this be so, you have but to accept Christ as your Saviour. He can save you from death, hell, and judgment.”
“Can he?” said the young man, as if amazed; and again he repeated, half to himself, “Christ can save me Can He save me? He is God over all: then surely He can save me!”
I cannot describe the scene as the youth sat beside me; a struggle was evidently going on in his heart: should it be Christ or the world—Christ or himself—salvation or death. He hung his head for an instant; then, looking at me, he said, “I will trust Him,” and as he spoke he lifted his hand, and the flask, with its contents, was smashed against a rock we were passing at the time.
We had to travel together till midnight, and all the way along, over the hills and through the valleys, he was asking me about the Lord, and His wondrous love in dying for sinners. “Ah!” said he, as we parted, “I wish I had known Him long ago.”
Ah, reader, do you know what it is to drink of the heavenly stream of eternal life? What says Christ? “Whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
J. G.