“GOOD morning, sir; so glad to meet you after all these many years; why, surely it must be more than a quarter of a century ago since we last met; I hope you are well.”
I had offered my hand in a mechanical manner to the person who thus addressed me, but found it held in a mighty grip from which I could hardly disengage it, and the above greeting given me.
“Forgive me,” I replied, “I seem to have some faint remembrance of your face, but I cannot recall under what circumstances we previously met.”
“Oh! I will soon explain it,” said Mr. R―;” but first of all perhaps we had better finish the business we have in hand.”
I agreed, and was nothing loth to set to work, as I was merely visiting the town where this interview took place, in order to inspect with the Surveyor to the Local Council some property on which alterations were to be made. The Surveyor was Mr. R—, who had so warmly greeted me on my arrival.
The inspection over, and the arrangements all completed, Mr. R―and I stood together beside his horse and trap ready to say good-bye, when I asked “By the way, what about our having met more than a quarter of a century ago? I have been doing two things ever since we met, one of them the necessary work connected with this inspection, and the other trying to recall to memory your face and that quarter of a century ago of which you spoke.”
“Surely,” he replied, “you remember the village of C―, and what a godless place it was years ago, and how every shop was open in it early and late, week-day and Sunday all alike?”
“Well, I do remember it,” I said, “and I also remember it was in that same godless village that God won my poor heart for Himself.”
“Yes, yes, that was it; and then you will remember you tried to get everyone else to see as you did, and we had some stirring times in C―. Don’t you remember the first move you made?”
“Well, really I have forgotten,” I replied.
“But I remember well enough, and I can never thank God sufficiently for it. It was you who helped me to take that first step which has been the cause of my spiritual and temporal prosperity; I shall never, never forget it. You first came into my little shop, which was a sort of general curiosity store, a poor affair, and you asked me to sign a paper agreeing to close my old shop every Sunday thence-forward, and to post a printed notice to this effect in my window.
“I hesitated―what would the neighbors say, I thought; but I promised to do so if all the other shopkeepers would do the same; and I remember how you tried, and how they all refused, generally saying they would shut up on Sundays if the others would, but no one would make the start.
“Then you came to me again and pleaded with me, and preached a little sermon to me, and at last I felt I could refuse no longer, and I signed the paper first, right at the top, and you put up the notice in my window.
“Well, you had no sooner left the shop than I regretted the whole thing, and felt I had made a fool of myself, and yet dared not pull down that paper in the window. The devil fought hard with me, but that paper seemed to have broken his power, and I conquered.
“On Saturday night up went the shutters, and there they stayed until Monday morning.
“At that time you held a little gospel meeting in a big room in the house of a relative of mine, and I thought as I had nothing else to do on Sunday I would―well you know―just drop in to see my friends. I really believe now that I wanted to hear what this gospel was, and it was not like going to church to just drop in to see a friend; nobody could upbraid me about this. The result was that God spoke to me there, and my soul was saved.
“Soon after this I sold my little business, and engaged myself to an engineering firm. This firm sent me to look after some work they were doing in D—.
“Now you will call to mind that just about that time you pitched your big gospel tent at C—. I did not attend these meetings, but my wife did. You conducted the singing at the harmonium with a choir, and I shall never forget my wife coming down to D―to see me with her heart full to overflowing with the blessing she had received in the tent. You sang a solo which was quite new in those days, ‘Almost persuaded,’ and my wife got the blessing; she talks to this day about that singing; she is quite persuaded now, and has been, thank God, for twenty-five long years, but even now if you will only go and visit her you will find her always ready to tell you about ‘Almost persuaded.’
“On my return. from D―I came to reside here, and found a set of earnest Christians, and now I, with my wife and children, are all busily engaged in the Lord’s work. But more than this, I gave my attention to surveying, building, and kindred work, and five years ago was appointed Surveyor to the Council, an assured position of trust and importance which I never in the years gone by dreamed ever could be mine.
“Now, sir, tell me have I not good cause in every way to remember you? Surely today you are seeing the fruit ‘after many days.’
“Now let me tell you too, before we part, that I am responsible for a Men’s Bible Class; a large number of working men and others meet every Sunday afternoon for reading the Word of God, and once a month we get someone to address us. Will you come next month? Do! It will be a real pleasure to us all.”
I agreed to go, and have fulfilled my promise. They were a bright, happy company of men from sixteen to seventy years of age. How they did sing, with evident delight, the songs of Jesus and His love, and it was good to see my friend Mr. R―on the platform generally conducting the meeting.
How God works! How He is today putting before souls questions which, if only answered according to those wondrous divine leadings of His Spirit to which at one time or another we are all subject, will lead us along the pathway of present good and into eternal glory.
H.