“Jim, Jim—oh, Jim! Where have you been? Father and I have been up all night waiting for you.”
Jim, pale and shaking, had just stepped inside the door and pulled it quickly shut behind him. It was five o’clock in the morning.
“Mom! I’ve got to leave home! I got drunk again last night, and I—I—did something—I’ve got to leave, and I’d better not even let you know where I am.”
Jim’s mother, Mrs. Ackers, burst into tears. “Why, oh why, did you ever start in with that terrible drinking? We tried to bring you up right, but Jim—” her voice broke. “Oh, how I wish you had never started in with that drinking crowd.”
“Now don’t worry about me; it’s not your fault. I’m no good anyhow. But I’ve got to go now.”
“But Jim, can’t you wait till Father gets back? He went down to the police station to see if they had seen you or heard about you.”
Jim’s face got even paler. “How long has he been gone?”
“About forty-five minutes, I guess.”
“I’ll have to go at once. ‘Bye, Mom—I’ll try to see you again sometime.” And he was off.
“Do leave that drink alone, and start reading—” but Jim was already out of hearing.
Months passed. Not a word came from Jim. Every morning and every evening both mother and father knelt in prayer, pleading earnestly for their Jim. Months grew into years, and still no word from Jim.
“I heard this morning that Sam Hadley is to speak at a meeting downtown today, Mary; I’d kinda like to hear him,” said Jim’s father one day to his wife.
“I would too; I’ve heard so much about him. Let’s go.”
Sam Hadley, converted drunkard and mission worker, told what Christ had done for him: “You’ve often heard testimonies of folks telling how they found the Lord. I can’t tell anything like that,” said Sam. “I never found Him. I wasn’t looking for Him! But He found me!”
After the meeting the Ackers went up to speak with Mr. Hadley. They told Sam about their lost son. “God saved you from drink, and He can save our boy. Mr. Hadley, won’t you pray for him?”
“Indeed I will,” was the emphatic answer.
“You may run across him when you go to the coast; he’s out there somewhere. I got a letter from a friend of mine not long ago, and he told me he was sure he saw Jim in San Francisco. Mother and I have prayed for years for Jim. Let’s be definite, Mr. Hadley, and pray for him every morning at nine o’clock, our time.”
Impressed by the earnestness of the parents, Sam answered, “Yes, God willing, I will pray with you every morning at that hour.”
When Mr. Hadley reached the coast, Dr. Wilbur Chapman was holding an evangelistic meeting in Oakland. Seeing Sam Hadley sitting in the audience, it occurred to him to hold a midnight meeting that night with Hadley as the speaker.
When the hour arrived, every seat in the hall was taken. Dr. Chapman got up to make the introduction. Just then a man came onto the platform from the rear; he stood to one side, behind one of the wings. Evidently he had difficulty hearing there, for he tried to make his way up closer to the speaker without being noticed.
When Hadley began to speak, Dr. Chapman, now seated, saw the man trying to hear. So he stepped over to him and asked him to take the seat—the only one vacant in the house—that Sam Hadley, the speaker, had just got up from. The young man sat down.
When the sermon was over, Dr. Chapman rose to address the crowd for a few minutes. Sam Hadley took the seat left by Dr. Chapman. He edged his chair over to where the young man was, stuck out his hand, “My name is Sam Hadley.”
“I’m Jim Ackers,” was the simple response.
“Jim Ackers!” thought Sam to himself. “That’s the man we’ve been praying for! And here he is right by me!”
“Glad to know you,” he said to Jim. “How did you happen to come in the back way?”
“I heard about this service, and just thought I would come to hear how a drunkard could get saved. I came, and couldn’t get in. Just my luck, I thought. When I do want to hear the gospel, I can’t. But I went around the back and got in. And you know the rest.”
With that introduction it was easy to lead Jim to Christ!
Just as the meeting was about to close, Hadley stepped up and asked permission to say a few words more. Then he told the remarkable story, beginning with his conversation with the parents some time before. Turning around, Hadley said, “Jim, haven’t you got a word for us?”
Hesitantly, Jim came forward. In a voice at first weak and unsteady, but growing steadily stronger as he proceeded, he told the story of God’s mercy to him. In conclusion he said:
“Friends, tonight I’m saved through the grace of God. For years I’ve lived a drunkard’s miserable existence. I’ve been a fugitive from the law. My past is dark and sinful. But tonight, through the prayers of my mother and father, through the prayers of this man, as I have just learned, I have been led in a most unusual way and I have accepted Christ! My desire now is to live wholly for Him, and to right the wrongs of the past, as far as I can. Will you pray for me?”
There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth—imagine the joy in the Ackers’s home that night when they got word that Jim was saved!