IT was a cheerless winter day. Snow lay deep upon the ground. Being an old woman from the tour try, unaccustomed to the bustle of a large railway station, she had seated herself in the wrong train, her mistake only being discovered while the tickets were being checked, and, as she had now missed the last connection for the district into which she intended traveling, there was no choice left but to spend the night in the city.
Next day she attempted once more to travel. On this occasion, sure enough, she found her seat in the right train, but another difficulty presented itself, the validity of her ticket was questioned, as it bore the previous day’s date. What was to be done? The inspector could not allow this infringement of the Company’s regulations by allowing a passenger to proceed with a ticket that had done service already for aught he knew.
The case would not have been so serious, as no heavy sum was involved in this fresh difficulty that had so unexpectedly arisen, had she been able to purchase another ticket; but there she stood, lacking the wherewithal to pay a second time. Apparently in great distress, her tears flowed freely as she endeavored to convince the inspector that her story of misadventure the evening before was genuine.
Eventually, one of her fellow-passengers intervened. “Will you not try to do something for the old woman?” pleaded a young lady sitting in the opposite corner, who had heard her story. “The ticket has been paid, only the mishap of yesterday prevented her from using it on the day of issue. Do show some sympathy, and the Lord will reward you!”
The inspector left the compartment to take counsel with the higher official, who, after explanations had been made, gave instructions that the date upon the ticket should be altered to meet the changed circumstances. Thereafter he returned and handed the precious document to the distressed countrywoman. Her tears were now dried up, assured that her ticket was at last in perfect order and that she could proceed on her journey.
The above seems only a trivial incident, but it had far-reaching results as the sequel will show. After these exciting experiences, glad to escape from her enforced detention, “Grannie”―as her friend called her-realizing she had found a sympathetic ear in the one who had successfully appealed on her behalf, commenced to tell her story. She was eighty years of age. Her husband, who had died previous to this, earned a meager living as a farm laborer, leaving her as she said, “penniless, friendless and homeless.” Now she moved from one farm to another, doing little jobs of work as opportunity offered, never having the same lodging very long at a time.
Her conversation proceeded in the Buchan vernacular, a dialect well-known in Scotland but as we fear such would be unintelligible to the majority of the readers of The Gospel Messenger, we shall give in English the substance of what passed between them. Her friend considering this was an excellent opportunity for the presentation of the Gospel proceeded thus: ―
“The Son of God has been here in this world, in deeper poverty than even yours. Verily, He was ‘penniless, friendless and homeless.’ There has been no one so poor as Jesus, and we can only appreciate His poverty when we consider who He was and whence He came. It was amazing love which brought Him down to die and to make atonement for sin, so that sinners such as you and I might share His glory above. Do you know this Saviour?” she inquired. “Have you come to Him?”
Grannie replied; ― “I have often wished I could come to Jesus, but I do not know the way; besides, I have been an out-and-out sinner all my life and have nothing to commend me to Him.”
The story in John 4 of the woman at the well of Sychar, where the light revealed the sin of one guilty sinner, but at the same time did not repel but drew her to the Saviour, was here revealed in very simple terms in her own mother tongue. The great desire of her friend (whom we shall name Z) was that she should meet the same Saviour that day.
In order to get down to solid bedrock, Z took out her New Testament And read Romans 10:9: ― “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
“Do you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus?” queried Z. “That I do,” Grannie responded. “Do you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead?” “Yes I do,” she again replied. “Thou shalt be saved,” was the emphatic assurance, conveyed to the distressed soul by the written Word of God. Grannie confessed Christ, there and then accepting Him as her precious Saviour and Lord just as the train was nearing the station where she had to get off. Gathering her few belongings together, Z helped her on to the platform, and bidding her an affectionate farewell, in a minute or two the train was on the move again.
Two years and six months had passed away, during which period the one used of God in Grannie’s conversion often wondered how this new-born soul of eighty years was faring, and if she were still in the body.
It was a fine summer afternoon―in striking contrast to the day they first met―Z happened to be out shopping. In the city of A —, just off the principal thoroughfare, there stands a fine statue of the late Queen Victoria. Z had occasion to pass that particular spot in the afternoon. As she did so, at some little way off she observed a woman far advanced in years sitting on the base of the monument. Something seemed to suggest to her she had seen those features before, and feeling a strong impulse to satisfy her curiosity she retraced her steps, when it suddenly dawned upon her, the solitary figure was that of the old lady she had met in the train that winter’s day. Going up to Grannie she accosted her in this fashion:
“Hallo Grannie! Do you know me? What has brought you here this afternoon?”
Recognizing her at once, Grannie replied, “Oh! my dear, I am so glad to see you. I am just sitting here asking the Lord to send you along. I was telling Him your name is Z and that you stay in X―,” mentioning a district in the city, “and I so much wanted to see your face once again, and being in A―I felt the opportunity had arrived.” The pleasure and satisfaction at meeting once more was mutual. “And did you really come to Jesus that day in the train?” was the next question. “I WOULD like to know,” continued Z.
“I will tell you all that, my lassie,” Grannie answered. “As I approached the farm to which I was going, before entering the house, I went to the back of a dyke in one of the fields, then I went down on my knees on the top of the snow, and committed myself to the Lord. Lest I should make any mistake, I committed myself to Him every day for a whole ‘week after. Now I can say with assurance that Jesus is mine. The master and his wife received me kindly, but when I told them I had been converted in the train the whole house laughed, wondering what I could mean by that.
It got abroad in the district somehow that I had turned religions, and was saying that I was saved. One of the neighbors came along to correct me. ‘Oh! Margot,’ said she, ‘you cannot be sure or being saved until the day of judgment.’”
“And how did you answer her?” interposed Z.
“Well, you know I cannot read myself, but I asked one of the children to turn up the Bible at Romans 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9) and read to Mrs.―what my assurance was based upon. Latterly it got to the minister’s ears of the great change that had taken place in me. He came and asked how it had all happened.
“Well you see,” I told him, “your preaching was far too grand for the likes of me, but a lassie in the train told me the story of Jesus and the woman at the well of Sychar, and the warm welcome she received from the Saviour, and I just came to Him in the same way.”
“But Mrs. K — “said the clergyman, don’t be too sure; not here, but here after shall we know for certain if we are approved of God.”
“In any case, continued Grannie,” none of their arguments have moved my faith in the Saviour’s word, for I know I am saved and I am happy.
“In this simple, artless tale we learn how an old, illiterate Scotchwoman found peace with God. It has been admitted by the worldly-wise, that the gospel may be a fine thing for old wives and children. Certainly! why should an old woman or a child be excluded from the saving benefit flowing from the death of the Lord Jesus. It was spoken in derision when the Son of God was here on earth― “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Luke 15:22And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (Luke 15:2)). This has been the title, and the only title that myriads have had in their approach to Him.
But it would be a fatal mistake to suppose that only those in childhood, or had reached their “second childhood,” should listen believingly to the story of the cross. Men of giant intellect (who have earned world-wide renown) in the full flush of early manhood have bowed the knee to the sweetest of all names―Jesus. Many have spent honored and useful lives, proclaiming their faith in the once-crucified but now exalted Lord. His benison, and the prospect of seeing His face, has been their sheet anchor in the hour of death. Would you not like to pass into eternity with His name upon your lips, my reader?
“Life has been very bright to me and now there is the brightness beyond. I shall see JESUS who created all things: JESUS who made the worlds; I shall see Him as He is. I have had the light for many years, and oh! how bright it is! I feel so safe, so satisfied.” These were the last words of one of Scotland’s most eminent sons―Sir David Brewster, Astronomer, Scientist, Man of Letters, Principal of the University of Edinburgh etc.
Lovingly, affectionately, would we urge you to make his Saviour your Saviour. Then “we shall meet above” to praise Him for His grace through a long eternity.
JOHN R. STEPHEN.