Sir Henry N— began life as an army officer, became in due time Military Secretary to the government of India, and subsequently a colonial governor in the West Indies and Australia.
The story of his conversion is interesting. His sister had been converted to God, and persuaded her brother, after much entreaty, to accompany her to a mission service held in a little village in Somersetshire by the late Lord Radstock.
The room was packed. It was a time of real awakening. The power of God was felt. At the close of the service the well-known hymn was announced:
“Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee:
O Lamb of God I come.”
He requested that only those who could sing the hymn truthfully should take part in the singing. This thoroughly upset the young officer. With anger and resentment in his heart he refused to sing.
Once outside the building he exclaimed hotly to his sister.
“This comes of attending an unauthorized place of worship, and hearing an un-ordained preacher, even if he be a lord. Never will I consent to come here again. Tonight I shall go to a respectable church and hear an ordained clergyman.”
Evening found the young officer at church. The preacher was a man of culture and commanding presence, and more than these, that which is becoming alas! very rare, an ardent evangelist.
The service was gone through with proper decorum, and the closing hymn announced,
“Just as I am, without one plea.”
“What,” said Sir Henry to himself, “that hymn again! I escaped from it this afternoon and here I am faced by it tonight. God must be speaking to me. God must be speaking to me.”
The Spirit of God pressed this powerfully upon the young officer's soul. The reading of the hymn ceased; the organ struck up the well-known tune, the audience rose, what should he do?
A momentous decision one way or the other must be made! Thank God, it was the right decision. Surrender to Christ was made. The young man with his brilliant prospects before him, with the siren voices of the world calling him to the paths of destruction, there and then rose, and with a full heart sang the hymn, as the confession to the Lord of trust and confidence of his soul in Him as Savior, and in the precious blood shed on Calvary.
How happy, when the end of a Christian life comes, to know that through the atoning merits of the death of the Lord Jesus, the eternal destiny is fixed for heaven and happiness.
But what can be said of the end of a Christless life? The thought is appalling, for Scripture gives no hope of salvation, except in this present day of opportunity. It knows of no second chance, but speaks solemnly of the “great gulf fixed,” the fire that is never quenched, and the worm that never dies.
My reader, if you were called to die, how would you die? If you were claimed, where would you spend eternity? Answer that question we beseech you. It will press for an answer one day. It is better to answer it when you can look at the matter with clear mind and purpose. It is folly, indeed, to put it off till racked with pain on a dying bed, till the mind is enfeebled and often past making decisions.