A missionary to the lumber camps sat one afternoon in a bunkhouse, reading his Bible. A tall, well-built man, who was a brakeman on one of the logging trains, came in slightly intoxicated. Seeing the missionary reading the Bible, he began to curse and blaspheme God, the Bible and all Christians. Then he spat a quantity of tobacco juice on the open Bible and turned and left the room.
In the early hours of the next morning a hasty summons was sent to the missionary asking him to come to the office at once as there had been an accident. On entering he found that same brakeman lying crushed and bleeding. He had fallen under a car and his right leg had been severed from his body.
"As I approached," said the missionary, "he extended his hand and humbly asked me to forgive him. I assured him that I had already forgiven him. Then anxiously I put the question: "How is it with your soul, Jack?"
"I am a lost man," he said unhesitatingly.
With my heart lifted to God for guidance, I related to him the story of the thief on the cross and his agonizing cry to the Savior: "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Then I told him Christ's answer, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise," and gave him the Bible promise: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
With closed eyes he repeated with me the prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Then a smile spread over his face as he said, "I see! I see! I see!"
A train was hastily made up to take poor Jack to the hospital sixty miles away. As I sat by his side, one of his fellow-workmen extended to him a whiskey flask with the remark, "Take a little of this, Jack."
"Boys," said Jack, "that is what brought me where I am. It was liquor that separated me from all I held dear—my wife and my children. It is whiskey that has brought me to my death tonight. Promise me that you will never touch another drop, and that you will take Jesus Christ as your personal Savior."
After a period of silence, which seemed like an hour, he suddenly reached for my hand. Grasping it, his face all aglow, he said: "I see! I see! Tell the boys I—made—the—coupling," and with a smile on his face he passed into the presence of the Lord.