For sixteen years I was a minister. I looked upon it in the light of a profession. I was in reality an atheist. One day in the streets of Paris, I was accosted by a man with a pack on his back.
“Sir,” said he, “do you know that you are a sinner, and that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners? Go straight to Him and He will save you.”
Amazed, I answered not a word but immediately bent my steps homeward, where, shutting myself in my room I fell on my knees and turned to Christ with all my sins. I realized His presence, and there and then knew that He loved me. I was saved, and filled with joy and gratitude I praised God. I said to myself, how is it that an hour ago I did not believe there was a God, and now I know Him and that He loves me? The next day I went to a pastor and said, “Jesus has saved me.”
Looking at me with considerable surprise, he said, “Then you are convinced?”
“No,” I replied, ‘I did not need to be convinced.’ He has saved me Himself; I see it all now. He opened my eyes, and gave me pardon and eternal life; then I told him about meeting with the poor man, and what he said to me. To my extreme surprise he looked at me with a curious expression of displeasure, and said, “You refused to believe all I said to you, and now you believe what a poor man in the street said to you.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” said I, “ it is God whom I have believed, not the poor man. If God chooses to speak by the lips of a poor man, He can. It was God who spoke to me.”
With the best intentions the pastor had worked for months at my brain, but he had not seen that my heart was miserable. The words that the poor man said went straight to my heart, and I turned to Christ. I believed on Him, and He filled me with His love and peace, and now for ten years I have been preaching His precious Gospel. ―A.F.