SOME years ago I went to a town in Victoria named B —to hold evangelistic services. It was in the cool of the evening. A full orbed sun had ceased to shine in dazzling splendor, and had sunk in the far west horizon, leaving traces which indicated another hot day on the morrow. Here and there were groups of cottagers, seated under verandahs and in the doorways, whilst others were lounging on the grass, discussing the oppressive heat which all had much felt that day.
The queen of the night was rising slowly above the hill which overlooked the town, her borrowed light illumining its brow, which made the scene strikingly picturesque. At the foot of this hill lived old John Owen, and among those who enjoyed the cool of the evening and chatted freely were John and his wife. Possessing a clear stentorian voice, he could be heard clearly in the distance.
I was seated under the verandah of the house I was staying at, when suddenly the thought passed across my mind that I ought to go across and speak to John about his soul. Immediately I obeyed the impulse, and was soon by his side.
“Good evening, Mr. Owen.” “Good evening, Mr. H —,” he replied, and then added, “Wife, bring out a chair. Take a seat.” I did so, and after a few casual remarks about the heat of the day, a suitable opportunity was afforded to speak on a subject of greater importance.
“You are getting up in years, Mr. Owen.”
“Please call me John. Old John Owen is what every one calls me. Getting up in years? Yes, seventy-six next birthday.”
“Is your soul saved?”
“No, but I have been trying all my life to get that matter settled, and it is getting late now, my time is short here.”
I replied, “It is finished.”
“Yes, man, I believe that, but mustn’t I do something?”
Again I said, “It is finished,” and bade him adieu, praying that God would bless the word spoken.
The next morning at an early hour I heard John hammering away in his shop (for he was a wheelwright by craft). I walked across, with a cheery “Good morning, John!”
“Good morning, sir.”
“Did you think over the scripture I left with you last nigh?”
“That I did, and this morning too, but truly, mustn’t I do something? “Near the bench stood a wheel finished in a workman-like manner, I took up a draw-knife and commenced to shave one of the spokes, whereupon the hot-headed old Welshman exclaimed, “Man alive, don’t do that.”
“Why, John?”
“Because it is finished.”
“But mustn’t I do something?”
The old man saw the point and remarked: “That’s a good one, I’m done after that.” At this junction I left him to think, and I went to pray.
Later on I visited him again, “Well, John, do you see through it yet?”
“Hardly, but you have silenced me on the doing score. But must not I feel it first?”
“So the devil has got you on another line (and, oh, how many thousands the devil has blocked on the line called ‘feeling’),” I replied. “You must get it first and feel it after,” and again I left him.
The next day I was returning from visiting some persons who were attending the meetings, when I observed John coming out of an hotel with a large bottle of beer under his arm. I thought, he has got it all right but he doesn’t feel it yet. The same afternoon I called on him again, “Well, John, have you got it yet.”
“No, man, I wish I could feel it first, I do want it.”
Whereupon I told him the story of the man I saw come out of the hotel with a bottle of beer under his arm, pointing out that he had got it some time before he felt it, and assuring him it was the same in refence to salvation. This arrested John’s attention and very much impressed him. He then remarked, “That’s true about the beer. I am the man who had it, and I got it before I felt it. Better perhaps if I never felt it, I would have been better off today. Well, John Owen, that shuts you up,” he continued, and, as I left, I heard him repeat, “He got the beer first, and felt it afterward. I’ll think over that.”
The next evening I gave an address on Hebrews 11:7,7By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7) dwelling on some of the typical teachings of the ark. The door being in the side might point to the wound that was made in the side of God’s Ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, when a soldier with a spear pierced His side, and quoting, “I am the door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)). John listened attentively, and I saw him raise his spectacles and place them on his bald head. “Only one door,” I said, “either go in thereat or perish, no other; and only one window to look through, and it on the top, teaching us that there is only one direction to look if we would be happy.” I appealed to all present, “Who will go in at the door and look up through the window tonight?”
John immediately rose up, took his hat, and walked out.
At the close of the meeting a lady said to me, “I think old John went in tonight. What a blessing if he has, I have been praying for him.” I replied, “I think so too.”
The next day I went to see him.
“Well, how are you this morning, John?”
“Grand! I went in at the door last night and am looking up through the window.” His face corroborated the statement. It was quite clear such was the case. “Praise His name,” he continued, “for saving an old sinner like John Owen. Dear me, isn’t it simple?”
“Yes, John, but it wasn’t simple for Jesus; no, indeed. He felt it, and cried out too.”
“Well, well, seventy-six years of age, and never saw it till now. Thank God for sending you here, if only for old John Owen, and I might have had it sixty years ago. And how different my life would have been. But there, it was not put so that I could understand it.”
John’s life was near its close, he only lived three weeks after.
One day an old gold-digger came into his shop and offered him money to go for some beer. He refused. “If you want beer, go yourself for it, and mind you don’t bring it here to drink. I’m done with the lot of it.”
“What’s the matter?” in a surprised tone, was asked.
“It isn’t old John Owen. Now it is new John.”
Shortly after he was suddenly taken ill, and confined to his bed. I went to see him, and asked, “What is the matter, John?”
“God is going to take me home. Dear me, how good of Him to pick up an old sinner like me, and save me and take me home out of the road. It’s almost too much to bear.”
It was cheering to see that dear old man rest in God’s Ark. Go when you would he was resting, and whenever asked how it was with him he always replied, “Grand! Gone in at the door, and looking up through the window.”
I remember one morning in particular when I went to see him he said, “Glad to see you, Mr. H—. There’s a bit of a dark cloud on that window this morning.”
I replied, “The sun shines on a cloudy day when you don’t see it, as it does on a clear bright day when you can see it.” He smiled. Just then that sweet verse, the foundation verse, came into my mind, and I read it, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:5454Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:54)). He shouted out: “That will do, it’s gone, brighter than ever. Lack-a-daisy! it’s getting still brighter,” and a heavenly smile sat upon his dear old face.
I said, “You seem to be very happy today, John.” “Yes, peace, peace.”
“What do you mean by peace?”
“Peace with God.”
“Who made that peace?”
“I didn’t. Oh, no, John Owen didn’t, though he foolishly tried to.”
“Who made it?”
“My Jesus, by His blood.”
“And what are you doing?”
“Enjoying it.”
Only one taught of the Spirit could speak as he did. You could hear him occasionally, as he drew near his end, repeating to himself, “Dear me! silly J. O., what a fool I’ve been, trying all my life to make what was made eighteen hundred years ago; but there, it’s the preachers’ fault, the one-half of them don’t know it themselves, and how can they preach it?”
One day the doctor, who was John’s senior by ten years, came to see him: “Well, Owen, what’s the matter with you?”
“Bad, doctor, suffering the fruits of my bad ways.” (He was far advanced in wrong-doing, and there were few sins that he had not committed.)
“You seem to be very quiet and calm if you are going to die.”
“No wonder, doctor.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have gone in at the door, and am looking up through the window.” (He seldom took his eye off the roof.)
“What do you mean?”
“Why, I am saved, doctor; is that plain enough for you? Saved! Yes, an old sinner, like you.”
“An old sinner like me! Where were you saved?” “At Mr. H — ‘s meeting; and if you go there you may get saved too, you need to be.”
“You’re mad, Owen.”
“No, indeed, doctor; have been all my life, but am all right now.”
A professed servant of Christ, hearing of his conversion, came to see him.
“Well, John, is it true you are saved?” “True enough!” “How.” “Went in at the door, and am looking up through the window.” After a short stay he rose to go, remarking, “If you are saved it is a good thing.”
“If, if, if there is no ‘if’ about it, ifs are of the devil. God has knocked them all out of me.” This was said in a firm tone.
It was on a Tuesday morning I had my farewell interview with dear old John. “This is my last visit. I shall not see you again until we meet on that morn without a cloud.”
“Please don’t leave me till I am buried. I shall not be long now.”
“Is it still bright?”
“Yes, getting brighter and brighter.”
In the eve of the same day John passed away to be forever with his precious Saviour, and later, at John’s grave, stood many old and hardened sinners who listened to a word on the “Two Resurrections.” The fruit of that day’s sowing will be seen on the Day of the Lord.
Reader, how do you feel in the light of “the resurrection of the wicked”? If still hardened and indifferent, remember, if you do not confess Jesus as Saviour and Lord now, you will have to stand before the great white throne and do so. Let me earnestly and affectionately implore you to follow dear old John’s example. “Go in at the door, and look up through the window.” The Father is calling, the Son is inviting, the Spirit is wooing. Come by night or come by day, come as a last resource, like people to the workhouse. I don’t care when, so long as you come to Jesus. Come, as R. Hill once said:
“Come naked, come filthy,
Come ragged and poor,
Come wretched, come dirty,
Come just as you are.”
Time is short. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”
“Time was, is past, thou can’st not it recall;
Time is, thou halt, employ the portion small;
Time future is not, and can never be —
Time present is the only time for thee.”
A. H.