“Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city.... Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” — Luke 14:21-2321So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke 14:21‑23).
MANY years ago, in one of the most depraved parts of Bristol, there was a dear Christian young person, very afflicted, and at that time bedridden. She lived with her parents, who kept a brewery and public-house called “The Coach and Horses.”
The Lord had done great things for her, in converting her soul, and giving her to know and love Him as her Saviour, and He was very precious to her. She greatly desired to be with Him above, like the delivered one in the fifth chapter of Mark, but the Lord bid her still abide with her friends, to tell them and others in the lane and the neighborhood around what great things He had done for her, and had had compassion on her.
She loved to do this. She had great love towards poor fellow-sinners. She let her light shine, and witnessed for the Lord, amidst great darkness, and sin all around.
Every Thursday afternoon she used to get a few A women of the neighborhood together in her room, to read to them and tell them of Christ and His wondrous love to sinners. A dear Christian lady used to unite with her in this happy service.
At the end of one of these little meetings, the invalid told her fellow-laborer in the gospel that there was a party of gipsies in the lane, and how much she wished some of the young Christian men would go and hold a little gospel meeting with them before they left. The lady made this her wish known, and the following Lord’s Day evening two young Christian men went, and held a meeting at the lodging-house where the gipsies were.
There were eight of them present. They sang the well-known hymn―
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.”
They read the twenty-third chapter of Luke, from which they brought before them man’s ruin and God’s remedy, and told them in simple words how the precious blood of Jesus could make their sins, though deep as scarlet, and red like crimson, whiter than snow; and sought to get them that very night to plunge beneath that flood and so lose all their guilty stains.
The meeting broke up. The young men gave them a large print Testament, asking them to get it read to them, and also inquired if they might come again next Lord’s Day evening. They replied, “If we are still here you may, but we think of leaving the end of the week for the country.” They traveled the country, living in carts, nine months of the year, attending the fairs, race-courses, &c.; the other three winter months they came into the town, because it was warmer, and sustained themselves by making skewers for butchers, clothes-pegs, baskets, and such like articles.
The young men went the next Lord’s Day evening and found the gipsies had left; but the landlord said they were welcome to continue the meeting, if they could succeed in getting any of the neighbors to come to it. It was, as was said before, a dark and sinful place, full of the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind; just where the blessed Saviour would send and bring in to the great supper of God’s everlasting love.
The gipsies were gone, as we have said, but the little gospel work and meeting continued. God had opened a little door — a door of utterance — and, blessed be His name! it was effectual, too. If any place needed the Great Physician, it was this lane, and He used His divine and blessed skill and power to many at that time. All kinds came to hear the Word of God — sweeps, costermongers, drovers, fish-women — and as many as eighty of these came on one occasion. God sent a little wave of converting grace and saving blessing, which rolled in to many hearts.
Amongst those His Word came with power to at the first was a very desperate woman, Nance S —, a veritable Magdalene. The power Satan possessed over her was awful, and for a long time she had been a terror in the lane, even to men, as well as to women. But the Lord had compassion on her and delivered her, and turned her to God. He left her a little time to manifest the great change He had wrought, and then took her to be with Him above forever, in those bright and blessed scenes where sin can never come.
A direful fever broke out at the time, and some that had attended the gospel meetings took it and died — praising the Lord Jesus for having turned them to Himself, and giving every evidence that they departed to be forever with Him above.
One Lord’s Day evening, about nine months after the gipsies had left, on going into the meeting, it was observed that more than usual were there; and on further looking round, there were the gipsies. They had returned for the winter months, and hearing the little meeting had continued since they left, they came to it. The eldest, Jubal S —, the head of the party, was soon observed to listen with deer attention; then he remained behind to be further spoken with. God was working; faith came by hearing; and hearing by the Word of God. Witt tears rolling down his face he said, “Oh, what wondrous love of Jesus the Saviour to suffer such a death upon the cross for the likes of we!” HE believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved and his eldest son also, a young man of the party soon after. These, after some time, giving every evidence of the work of God in their souls, were received amongst God’s people gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace first saved them, then taught them — taught their wandering feet to tread the heavenly road. They gave up their gipsy life of going about the country, afraid of its temptations to ungodliness and sin, and sought and obtained honest employment in the town.
After Jubal S — ‘s conversion, he had deeply laid on his heart an old companion, Tom T —, who had traveled the country with him, but had not attended any of these meetings. Oh, thought he, if only Tom could know the Lord, what a joy it would be. For eighteen months he tried to get him to come and hear the gospel. One Sunday evening he succeeded, and Tom went with him. He was old now, and had not been inside a place of worship, so called, for between thirty and forty years, and then only to get married. Oh, what grace that very night God blessed His Word to Tom T — ‘s soul. He also was manifestly converted to God, and sometime after was added to the Lord’s people.
These three have now likewise passed away, after giving every evidence of the work of grace in them for some years, and their simple life and testimony having been used to others. The Lord took them, one by one, to be with Him above forever.
This little record is written in connection with those blessed words in 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 3-6, “God, our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
May God use this tale of His work of grace to encourage His servants, and to stimulate and encourage labor in the gospel. And in any who may read this little paper, that do not as yet know him as a Saviour-God, may He by it create the desire in their heart now to learn Him and His great love. And to Him be glory, forever and ever.
W. F.