If was winter. I was at that time Master of Ceremonies at the court of H.M. the Emperor of Russia, Alexander II. I was young, made much of by the world, and at the same time, diligent in my official duties.
One evening, absorbed by music, of which I was passionately fond, for I sang with enthusiasm in the drawing rooms of the aristocrats, I perceived with alarm that I had scarcely time to go home to change into my uniform and to go to the palace.
I decided, in order to save time, to cross the canal on the ice to avoid a circuitous route by the bridge, Anitschkoff. It was cold, a piercing wind blew and scattered the snow. I was barely six feet from the shore when I sank into the water.
The ice had been broken to allow women to do their washing, but the snow had covered it up so well that there was no sign of it. My cries for help in this perilous position did not stop the passers by. They paid no attention and I could not save myself.
I was sinking deeper and deeper. One of them, noticing my tall, fashionable hat, and that I was struggling in anguish, said loud enough for me to hear; “He is drunk. The quicker he disappears and perishes the better.”
Then a woman saw me, but instead of procuring assistance she screamed and disappeared. My position became more and more terrible. At last, a cab-driver, touched by my peril, approached the place where I was disappearing in the water and called to me with a loud voice, “Seize the rope that I throw you quickly.”
What a relief to me to see at last this kind man, who wished to save me. I took him at his word without hesitation, and when the rope, which served as bridle for his horse, was thrown to me, I did not stop to ask myself if it might break. I had faith that it would be the means of my salvation.
“Hold fast!” cried the kind man.
I eagerly seized the rope as the one means of salvation, and thus escaped from the terrible position in which I was; I was saved from death. Well, all I had to do was to take hold of the rope. Drawn out of the water, and finding myself on the bank, I could testify with full assurance that I was saved―not partly saved, but completely so. The one who saved me from physical death was a simple cab-man, an isvostschi, as we call them in Russia. There is no need to add how great my gratitude to him was, nor what a pleasure it was to prove it to him.
You will understand, my reader, why this incident, which has been to me a living parable, is to me unforgettable.
One often uses the word almost, as to many things, but if I had been almost saved, nothing would have been found but my mortal remains under the ice. Either one is entirely saved or not saved at all.
At that time, my soul was not saved, I was not yet converted, not yet a child of God, but some time afterward, I laid hold of Christ as a rope of salvation, I passed from death unto life. The Lord Jesus has become my personal Saviour, and I have been able, since then, to testify that I am saved. What an immense difference there is between believing that Jesus Christ is a Saviour for all and knowing Him as my own personal Saviour!
To be saved He must be known in this personal way. Religion will not save us, the church cannot save us; none but the Lord Jesus alone, who bore our sins on the cross, who has redeemed us from the curse of sin. “Neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)), and the Lord Himself says to the one Who comes to Him as a lost sinner: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)).
I can testify that there is no happiness to compare with that of being a child of God, of belonging to Christ. The judgment that I deserved fell upon my Saviour. He has redeemed me once and for all. He was crucified for me, and won for me upon the cross eternal life. Glory be to His Name!
COUNT MODESTE DE KORFF, [Translated from the French]