When I first knew Ned he was ringleader of all the bad boys in the neighborhood. He was an orphan who had been brought up from his birth by people who did not love him, and who took no trouble to teach him about anything good, or about the Word of God. I was much interested in his sad life, and determined, with God’s help, to try to teach him and lead him to the Saviour. It was a difficult task, but I knew that “there is nothing too hard for the Lord,” so I did not despair. At last I found Ned alone, and after talking kindly to him for sometime, I asked him if he would come to my class on Sunday afternoon.
Ned laughed, and said I need not expect to catch him inside the Sunday school, for he would never go there. Before I could say another word, he had jumped over the fence, and was gone.
Early one morning, some time after, I went for a walk through a near-by woods. I thought I heard a groan, and turning to one side I saw a boy lying upon the ground. Upon going to him I found a crushed bird’s nest in his hand, and guessed what had happened to him. The injured boy was poor Ned. I found that I could not carry him, so I called a working man from a nearby field to help me. We took him to the cottage of dear old Matty, a Christian woman, who I knew would nurse him kindly, and then I went for a doctor.
Ned was very badly injured, and it was a long time before he was well enough to talk, or even listen to me. I was, however, with him a great deal, and often sat up with him all night to rest old Matty.
One night, after long being unconscious, Ned opened his eyes. He recognized me, and was only strong enough to ask me how I came to be there. The next day when I went in to see him, he said old Matty had been telling him what I had done for him. Poor Ned could not understand why I should do so much for a bad boy like him.
I told him there was One who had done far more for him than I had.
“Who is that?” Ned asked.
“It is God. You have been lying at death’s door for the past few weeks,” I replied, “and God has been very gracious to you. He knew you were not prepared to die, so He has spared you yet a season that you may turn to Him.”
“Yes,” Ned answered. “That was good of Him.”
“But He has done more than that,” I replied.
“What?” asked Ned, as he looked at me wonderingly.
“He has given His only Son to die for sinners, to bear their punishment, that they may be forgiven, and go to live with Him in His own bright home in heaven.”
“No, surely that’s a mistake! He don’t want the likes of me there!” Ned exclaimed.
As a reply, I took my Bible and read one precious passage after another to prove what I had said. When I had finished, Ned’s eyes were full of tears, and he had evidently understood it all.
“Can you not believe that God loves you?” I asked. As there was no answer I continued to read.
When I stopped again, he said, “It seems too good that Jesus should do so much for a fellow like me!”
“I never knew before, all that you have been telling!” Right then and there Ned gave his heart to the Lord Jesus, and accepted Him as his own precious Saviour. Won’t you take the same step now, too, dear young reader?
“Only a step to Jesus!
Then why not take it now?
Come, and, thy sin confessing,
To Him, thy Saviour, bow.”
ML 08/30/1953