Mr. Deane, a servant of the Lord, was resting one evening in his room after having preached the gospel, when there came a rap at his door and a visitor was announced. It was Mr. Hall, an acquaintance of the preacher's. After a little conversation about eternal and invisible things Mr. Hall said: "You know, Deane, that I have often heard you preach on this subject and I know all that you can tell me. It is all right for you who are a Christian; but what is it to me who believes neither in God, in heaven, nor in hell?"
"Well," replied Deane, "I also have heard all that you have had to say as to these things; but now allow me to ask you to do something for me."
"I will do it with pleasure, my friend."
"Very well. Go home, and for three consecutive nights, after putting out your light and before lying down on your bed, at the time that others would be addressing God in prayer, say these words: 'Eternity! Eternity! Eternity! I shall have to meet you; where? I do not want God; I do not believe in heaven; I deny that there is a hell; where am I going?' "
Hall agreed. That night he put out his light with a resolute air, and standing erect, he pronounced without hesitation the words which his friend had asked him to say.
The second night, he would have liked (although not ready to acknowledge it even to himself), that the light had not been extinguished before he said the words.
The third night he felt that he should let the light burn, and it was then that God, in His marvelous grace and love, began to respond to the prayers of his friend and to make the light shine into his soul.
Mr. Hall began: "Eternity! Eternity!
Eternity! I have to meet thee! Where? I do not believe in heaven." He stopped short. He could not say, "I do not want God," as he realized suddenly the presence of a holy and righteous God. "Where am I going?" he continued in a tone of agony and despair. The reply resounded from the depth of his soul:
"To hell, to hell! That is where I am going!"
Pursued by this thought which gave him no rest, in trouble which no words can express, he came back to his friend Deane after several days. He told him what he had been passing through, adding: "What can I do—what can you do for me?"
"Nothing," replied Deane calmly, looking down; "Nothing."
"What then ought I to do?"
"Nothing," was again the answer; "nothing."
"What? Do nothing when I am in a state of inexpressible misery?"
"No, nothing," Deane again repeated, looking first at his friend and then again fixing his look upon the floor. Full of thanksgiving to God at seeing his friend feel so really his misery and his helplessness, he felt that God was about to interpose.
"How is it," cried Hall, "that you can remain so calm at seeing me in this fearful perplexity? How is it that you can say so coldly that you can do nothing? You, a Christian, and to me, an immortal soul going to hell; you can say nothing! And it is you who has led me into this state of despair!"
"No," again Deane replied. "I can do nothing for you. I am, like yourself, only a weak and powerless creature. You can do nothing, and as to myself, I can do no more than you, absolutely nothing. But," he continued, raising his eyes and pointing to heaven, "God and He only, can do anything for you, and He has done all that is necessary."
Then divine light shone into this poor soul, banishing the darkness of infidelity and revealing Him who came to save sinners, bringing to light life and incorruptibility by the gospel, the good news of His grace. Thenceforth the question, "Where am I going?" could receive the joyful response: "To heaven, to be with Him who loved me and saved me from hell."
Reader, can you say as much?