ONE day while visiting a sick woman at the North End, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the husband told me or a foreigner, a Belgian, De Graaf by name, living in the next street, who had been laid up with dropsy for about three months. He said De Grad’s wife was addicted to drink and greatly neglected him, and asked if I could not get him into the hospital. I said I would see what I could do, and called to see the man. I told him what his friend bad said, and asked him if he would like to go to the hospital.
“No,” he said, “I am not long for this world, I’d rather die here.”
“Very well,” I replied, “if you don’t want to go to the hospital we will say no more about it. But if you are not long for this world, do you know where you are going?”
“Yes,” he said, “I am going straight to heaven.” “That’s good,” I replied. “What makes you think so?”
“My heart is clean,” was the answer.
“And who made it clean?”
“I, myself,” said the man.
“How do you make that out?” I asked.
“My priest told me so,” he continued, “because I gave half a crown every Saturday to the Sisters of Mercy, and as many vegetables as I could spare (he was a vegetable dealer), and went to confession every Easter, and brought the priest half a sovereign. He said my heart was clean, and I would go straight to heaven when I die.”
I took my Bible out of my pocket and said, “Look here, De Graaf, if ever you made a mistake in your life, you have made the biggest this time. When you appear before God, you will hear nothing but what is written in this book (pointing to my Bible). Listen to what it says,” and I read to him Isaiah 64:6,6But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6) “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” “Do you think,” I asked, “God will have filthy rags in heaven?”
The man was pale before, but he turned paler still, as he whispered, “No, sir.”
“Well,” I said, “I have good news for you. What you can’t do, God can and will.” Then I read the following texts to him. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)); “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:33For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3)); “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)); and “Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43)). After a few words of prayer that the Lord might open his eyes to see and his heart to believe God’s way of salvation, I left, promising to call again.
I did so two or three times a week, and after about a fortnight he told me he now knew he would go to heaven, not because of what he had done, but because of what Christ had done for him. I continued to visit and read to him, and it was quite refreshing to see his desire for the sincere milk of the Word. I would sometimes ask him, “Shall I read anything special to you?” and he would say, “No, ‘tis all the Word of God. I want to hear it all.”
After some time, one day as I called I noticed a great change in him. Ever since his conversion he had been very bright and happy. That day he looked greatly troubled. Fearing Satan had assailed him with fears and doubts as to his soul’s salvation, I asked him what was the matter. He then told me his wife had come home the night previous the worse for liquor. Being rather noisy he remonstrated with her, and asked her to be quiet. But she grew worse, so that he got angry, and gave her a good scolding. Directly afterward he became very unhappy and could not sleep on account of it.
I read to him 1 John 2:11My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1) and 1:7, telling him to confess his sin to God, and it would be forgiven him. “But,” I continued, “you have now to learn a second lesson. The first lesson was, you could not save yourself, only Christ could save you. Now you have to learn you can’t keep yourself, only Christ can keep you. The next time your wife comes home drunk, you ask the Lord to keep you quiet. He can do it.” He said he would.
A little trouble with my eyes compelled me to go away for a few weeks. After my return to Port Elizabeth, the first time I visited De Graaf again, be called out even before I had time to say good afternoon, “‘Tis true, sir; ‘tis true, sir!”
“What is true?” I asked.
“The Lord can keep me,” he said, and then told me that a few evenings before his wife had come home worse than ever. He said nothing, but asked the Lord to keep him quiet. After some time, when she saw she could not provoke him with her words, she took a basin and smashed it on the floor. “But the more she raised [Dutch word for raged] the more I prayed to the Lord to keep me quiet,” he said. At last she came towards the bed. He feared she would strike him. Still he prayed. When standing before the bed she burst out crying, sank on her knees and sobbed out, “What a wicked woman I am I Pray to God to convert me, as He has converted you.”
And there and then, at the silent midnight hour, that dying man cried to God for his poor drunken wife. From that day she was a changed woman. Before, she would never stay in the room when I read to him. Now, she listened as attentively as he. About a week after she confessed Christ as her Saviour, and her whole life proved the reality of it. The room, dirty and untidy before, became a model of order and cleanliness. On her husband she waited with touching devotion, so that he said repeatedly, “‘Tis heaven on earth now.”
However, there was another lesson to be learned. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:1212Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)― “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” and De Graaf was privileged to learn that too. When the priest heard of his conversion he came to see him. De Graaf had told his wife he did not want to see him. But the priest forced his way in, asking, “Why don’t you want to see your father?”
“You have deceived me long enough,” he replied, “and almost let me die in my sins. You told me my heart was clean, and I would go straight to heaven when I die. But God has showed me that all my good works were filthy rags, and that nothing but the blood of Christ could cleanse me from my sins.”
“I would have told you the same in giving you the last unction,” the priest replied.
“I wanted to know this while I was alive,” De Graaf said, “and I thank God He sent someone to tell me so.”
The priest went away in a rage, but told the landlord, also a Roman Catholic, not to have him in his house. His wife found another room, but after a few days the priest spoke to the new landlord and so frightened him that he hired four kaffirs to carry poor De Graaf on his bed into the street, put him on a tray cart, and sent him out of town, finally depositing him in an iron shed, used as a stable, near some brick-kilns.
There I found him the next day, rejoicing that he was counted worthy to suffer for Christ. The shock, however, was too great for him. On the day following he departed to be with the Lord, rejoicing, and full of praise to the very last.
Reader, have you learned De Grad’s three lessons? Perhaps this falls into the hands of one who has not learned the first yet. Remember, not what you can do, but what Christ has done, will ever bring you to heaven. But if you have learned to trust Jesus, and you know Him as your own personal Saviour, then you may also learn that the One who saved you can keep you every day. It is your blessed privilege to look up to Him who sits at God’s right hand, and to know that “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)). And then should it be given you to suffer for His sake (see Phil. 1:2929For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; (Philippians 1:29)), may it be yours to “rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:1212Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:12)). G. O.