They were two of a company of men gambling in the back room of a hotel in a large town. One was young, about twenty years old, and the other was a gray-haired old man. The old man was shuffling the cards. While he was doing so, the young man, in a careless and half-conscious way, sang softly to its sweet and pathetic tune the first verse of a hymn:
"One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me o'er and o'er;
I'm nearer home today, today,
Than I've ever been before.”
Some of the gamblers nearby looked up in surprise on hearing the singing. The old man, dealing out the cards, gazed straight through the smoke-laden atmosphere at his partner in the game. Abruptly he threw the whole pack of cards beneath the table at which they were sitting.
"Where did you learn that song?" he asked.
The young man pretended he did not know he was singing.
"Well, no matter," said the old man. "I've played my last game. That's the end of it. The cards may lie there till doomsday, for I'll never pick them up.”
Having won a hundred dollars from the young man he took the money from his pocket and, handing it over to him, said, "Here, Harry, is your money. Take it, for I am through!”
They both left the room and the hotel immediately. It is not known whether the young man definitely turned to God from the sins and follies of the world; but the Spirit of God used the words of the little hymn, heard in such incongruous circumstances, to awaken the old man to the condition of his soul, and of the fast fleeting years. He found no peace until he put his trust in the cleansing blood of Jesus. Then he could say in truth that he was going home to the Father's house.
Dear reader, may I ask you in all affection, "Are you going HOME?" The fleeting years are bearing you along to the end of your pathway. Whatever provision you may make for your journey here, see to it that you are not found homeless for eternity at the end of your journey. The Lord Jesus has died to save you, and God the Father waits to receive you.