As a young man, lately arrived from England, I was wandering one evening in the bush in Australia, having lost my way, when I saw a light, and making for it I found my-self on a large farm, and asked permission of the farmer to pass the night under cover. He surlily said, “You can go into the barn if you like, but there is someone there already.”
I was then totally ignorant of God and His grace, unconverted, a man of the world. But being in want of shelter and rest for the night, I said “Thank God,” and went into the barn. By the light of a Lantern I saw a man lying in a corner, coughing violently. Laying down my gun and my shooting bag, which was my only luggage, I went over to him and sat down by his side, and asked him if I could do anything for him.
Speaking with difficulty, he told me he was an Englishman, and had been at the same University as I, but having disgraced his family, he had been sent out to the Colonies, where he had led a dissolute life. For some time he had been employed on the farm; but now he felt that he was about to die. Did I know anything about the hereafter? as he was anxious to know what was going to become of him. Utterly careless myself, I said I thought the Bible was the book he needed. He said, “Oh, the Bible; my mother put one in my bag when I left home. I have never opened it yet. Will you get it and bring it here?” telling me where it was. I got it and brought it to him.
He said, “Now, where are we to turn?” and we both confessed we did not know. “Well, clap it together and read where it opens.” I did so, and the Book opened at Isaiah 53. I read on till I came to “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” “Stop,” said the dying man, “Who is the HE?” I knew enough to say, “Jesus Christ.” He said, “Ah, go on.”
I read on slowly until I came to the words, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.” He said again, “Stop! that’s me! that’s just what I have done all my sad life”; and after a little of quiet he said, “Go on.” I read, “And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” “Ah!” he said, “Jesus Christ,” and then a short time of quiet, and then he said, “Read it again.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
He lay back on the straw, and I quietly read on, and turning over the pages I found some passages about Jesus Christ in the gospels. After he listened for some time, he thanked me and told me that would do. I was soon fast asleep. In the morning the beams of the sun were shining through the cracks in the barn when I awoke, and going over to the place where my poor friend lay, I was astonished by the change in him. His face seemed to have caught some of the sunbeams, he looked so happy and peaceful. I did not understand what had happened, but he said to me: “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all—Jesus Christ is my Saviour.”
He told me in the night the Lord had come to him and showed him His pierced hands and side, and now all was joy and peace. I listened, but thought he was light-headed, but it was that then I saw no beauty in the One he was so occupied with. The day or two he lingered he could not hear enough or talk enough of HIM. Sometime before he died (for he passed away before I left the farm), he said to me: “I have a request to make of you. I want you to write on the flyleaf of my Bible an account of your meeting me here and reading to me Isaiah 53:6,6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) and of the Him it speaks about—Jesus Christ—and how the Lord came to me in the night, and how I die peaceful and happy, believing on Him as my Saviour. I want to put my name to it, and I want you to put yours, and then send it my father in London.”
And he gave me his address, and I sent it as he requested. The incident faded for a time from my memory in the rush of a godless life. Some years after I returned to London on a furlough, through the grace of God a converted man, and, musing over my life in Australia, I remembered the incident I have recorded and wondered whether the Bible ever reached the old father. One evening I made my way to where he lived, and met a very old man sitting in his library alone. Making myself known to him, I inquired if he had ever received the Bible.
He said, “Indeed I did,” and getting up he went over to his desk and opened a drawer and got the Book, and sat down again. “Well do I remember receiving the Book,” he said. “I was then a careless man of the world, without God and without hope, but in infinite mercy what you and my poor son pointed me to in Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) my eyes were opened to my sinful condition, and soon after to Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and from that time to this I have not ceased to praise Him.”
Thus the Spirit of God, active in grace, encircles the globe, overcomes all obstacles, brings to hear the particular verse of Scripture at the particular time, and illuminates the soul as to Christ.
May the reader of these facts, if unsaved, be led by the same Spirit and Word to know and confess Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord. G. I. E.