In Oliver Cromwell's army there was a regulation that every soldier must carry with him a copy of the Holy Scriptures. A profligate young man had enlisted among the troops in the hope of dissipation and plunder. He among the rest was given a Bible.
After a day's fighting he was retiring to rest. When he took his Bible from his pocket he found a hole in it. Endeavoring to ascertain how far the hole penetrated and what had been its cause, he found that a bullet had struck the book, and had pierced to the ninth verse of the eleventh chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”
These words of divine inspiration struck home. They marked the great turning point in his life. He saw how near he had been to death. Had it not been for that blessed volume he would in all probability have been killed, and in his lost condition he would have passed into eternity unprepared to meet God.
You who now read this may have been as near your end except for the merciful intervention of God. How often may fever, disease, or accident have been near you! But God has given you yet another chance. Have you come to the great turning point?
How terribly significant were the words that met that young man's eye!—"Rejoice, O young man... but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment!" That soldier immediately saw the vanity of all beneath the skies. He fled to Christ, and became a consistent follower of the Savior. He lived for many years after the termination of his enlistment, and he was wont to say, in narrating his conversion: "The Bible saved me, body and soul.”
Friend, mark what God says—"Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”