I WAS on my way from the railway station to the little meeting-room where I was to preach, in a small fishing-town in Scotland, when I was asked by a Christian man if I would go and see a poor young fellow who was dying. I at once consented to do so, having nearly an hour to spare before the time announced for my meeting.
The friend who asked me to visit the young man led the way, and soon we were in his room. There, upon his bed, lay what had once been a fine young man twenty-nine years of age. That deadly disease consumption had brought him thus low. Its dreadful sweat lay heavy upon him. I saw he was fast sinking, and that if his soul was to be saved at all, it must be now.
His story as a sinner is soon told. He had lived hard and fast, and, to all intents and purposes, had been a prodigal. He had wasted his health and substance in riotous living; but he had spent all that he had without obtaining happiness or satisfaction; and now, in all the weakness and helplessness of disease, he desired to return to the parental roof that he had so long deserted, and die under the care and nursing of those simple, Christian, praying parents. He was brought home on a Monday, on the evening of which day the friend who took me to his house first saw him. The sick man asked to have read the Gospel narrative of the conversion of the dying thief.
My friend read it, as it is given in Luke 23, which drew from the dying man the remark, “That’s grand.”
On Tuesday, the day following his being brought home, I saw him, and have already told you how I found him, as to his body. Now I will tell you how I found him as to his soul.
God had evidently been working in him by His Spirit, and had shown him that he was a lost sinner, and that it was an awful thing to go into eternity unsaved.
His agony about his soul seemed almost to make him forget his body, and he never expressed a desire to recover. Salvation was what he longed for; but he questioned if there was salvation for such a wretch as he had been.
I then asked, “Are you a sinner?”
“Indeed I am,” he replied.
“Then Christ came into the world to save you,” I rejoined. I then turned to Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
I asked again, “Are you a sinner?”
He replied, “Yes, that I am.”
“Then Christ died for you,” I said.
I then turned to a third scripture in Luke 15:2: “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
Once more I asked, “Are you a sinner?”
“Yes,” was his earnest, emphatic reply; and turning on his elbow, he looked across the room to the friend who had brought me, and said, “I ken I see it plainer, Donald.”
“But man, you must believe it,” replied the friend.
I then went over the three scriptures above mentioned again, and asked him, “Who did Christ come into the world to save?”
“Sinners,” he replied.
“And what are you?”
“A sinner.”
“Then Christ came into the world to save you; believe it.”
“For whom did Christ die?” I asked.
“For sinners,” he said.
“And what are you?”
“A sinner.”
“Then Christ died for you; believe it.”
“Whom does Christ receive?”
“Sinners.”
“And what are you?
“A sinner.”
“Then Christ receives you; believe it, and you are saved.”
He drew a long breath, and exclaimed, “I wish I could say I was saved!”
I replied, “If you believe that you are a sinner, and that Christ came into the world to save you, and that He receives you, then you are saved.”
The blessed Spirit of God applied the word; light broke in upon him, and he was saved.
I now read a fourth scripture, Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
“Who does ‘who’ mean?” I asked.
“Jesus.”
“And who is ‘me’?”
“Thomas M―”
“And what is between you both?”
“Love.”
He turned on his back, and said, “I wish I could make a little prayer to Him.”
“Thomas,” I said, “He wants you to thank Him.”
He immediately said, “Lord Jesus, I thank you for having loved me, and received me.”
My friend and I fell on our knees, and praised God for having shown this poor prodigal that Jesus had loved him, died for him, saved him, and received him.
When we rose up, he said, “Fetch in my mother.”
We gladly did so, and in an instant mother and son were weeping with joy, as each embraced the other; the mother praising God as she heard from her son’s own lips the cheering news, “Mother, He has received me.”
Prayer was answered; the prodigal was saved; and the joy of that humble room and its happy occupants was but a faint picture of the peculiar joy that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all heaven itself were now indulging in over this returned and saved and happy prodigal.
Thomas M. was brought home to his parents on Monday, was saved on Tuesday, and on the following Thursday evening he fell asleep, without a doubt or murmur. Glory be to God for this trophy of His grace! Surely “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20)).
Should this account reach the eyes of any of Thomas M.’s companions, I would beseech them at once to be reconciled to God.