Our vessel was on a river in Africa. I had been drinking (moderately as we say), and half drunk, I threw myself into the river to bathe, without thinking of the dangers to which I exposed myself.
As I swam some distance from the vessel, a crocodile began to chase me. Some of the men on board saw my position and shot at this formidable animal, but without effect. It came along rapidly, and I used all my efforts to reach the bank, the danger I was in bringing me completely to my senses.
When I was just a short distance from the reeds with which the bank was covered, an angry tiger sprang towards me, the crocodile was also now quite close, its jaws wide open ready to devour me.
I saw death before me. The sins of a lifetime rose before my mind like a great mountain. I remembered my mother's prayers, my father's teaching, the pressing appeals of my Sunday School teacher—which I had despised. As my life passed in review I cried in despair,
"O God! have mercy on me, a poor, miserable sinner!"
This prayer was answered in a remarkable manner—truly "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform"—and my life was preserved.
I escaped the claws of the tiger which came upon the monster behind me. There was a battle. The water was red with the blood of the tiger, whose efforts to bite through the scales of the crocodile were useless, while the latter was gaining the advantage, for he kept his adversary under water and soon caused his death, when they both sank to the bottom of the river.
My comrades had watched this scene with great anxiety, and when they saw that I was safe on the bank, they rowed vigorously and brought me on board.
The moment I reached the deck, I fell on my knees to thank God for His marvelous deliverance. The Bible that I used to leave at the bottom of my kit, became, through the grace of God, my daily companion. I saw the wickedness of my heart. I confessed to God my sins and the lost state in which I had lived as a rebel for long years, and I saw that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had borne my sins "in His own body on the tree" and that God was asking of me nothing more than to believe that my divine Substitute had satisfied all the claims of God's holiness.
I saw, also, that henceforth my privilege and my joy would be to live for Him, and to glorify Him in all things.