Everyone called him Jem, and I can’t even tell you what his real name was. As our story opens, he was just a boy, and a very lively boy, living at home with his big brother Robert, and his little sister Elsie. Both Robert and Elsie loved the Lord Jesus, but Jem did not, and he didn’t want to hear them talk to him about Jesus either. Elsie prayed very often for her brother and used to like to sing hymns around the house. But whenever she would start to sing, Jem would whistle, or he would take up his cap and go outside. One day as Robert was going utairs, he saw Elsie coming out of her room looking very sad.
“What is it, little Elsie? What makes you look so sad?”
“I’ve just been asking Jesus to save dear brother Jem.”
Soon after this, Jem took a fancy to go to sea, and it wasn’t long till he bade them all good-bye. You may be sure Elsie never forgot to pray for her absent brother.
I’m sure Jem didn’t find it quite so pleasant as he had expected, but he was a strong determined boy, and he made the best of it. Every once in a while, though, when the storms would be bad, and the sailors would be swearing, Jem would suddenly remember little Elsie’s prayers and hymns, and they made him feel very strange inside.
Then came one storm, worse than all the others. The gallant ship would ride up the crest of a mighty wave, then tip and slide down into the boiling trough, with mountains of water toweng beside it. Deep in Jem’s soul was a sense that the eye of God was watching him through the storm. And above the roar of the storm and the whistling of the wind, came the quiet words of Elsie’s hymn, ‘We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll. Fastened to the rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.”
Then and there in the midst of the storm, Jem bowed his head and accepted the Lord Jesus as his own Saviour, believing that He died for his sins upon the cross of Calvary.
Not many months after, Jem stood at the door of his old home, waiting for someone to answer his knock. Elsie came and her eyes opened wide. It was Jem home again! But best of all, Jem was a Christian! With what joy they gathered together and heard of the Lord’s goodness in bringing Jem to Himself. And when the hymns of praise were sung, Jem’s voice sounded loud and clear with the others.
ML 11/14/1954