THE power of the Lord Jesus Christ in healing natural disease reached many miles (John 4:5050Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. (John 4:50)); and His power to save from a worse disease, sin, now reaches not only to great extremities of guilt, but through many years.
I have met with a striking example of this, where the preaching of the gospel was rendered effectual eighty-five years after it was heard.
Here is the true story.
A very excellent minister of the gospel, John Flavel, whose writings are known and valued, resided at Dartmouth in the middle of the seventeenth century. There he was very useful. His manner of preaching was affectionate and serious, and often awakened very strong emotions in the minds of his hearers.
On one occasion he preached from the words, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. That sermon was more solemn than usual, particularly the part where he showed the meaning of “anathema, maranatha,” dwelling upon it in a very sorrowful way, as he said it meant “cursed with a curse, cursed of God with a bitter and grievous curse.”
At the end of the service, when Mr. Flavel rose to pronounce the benediction, he paused, and looked around with tears in his eyes. Then he said, in a low, sad tone, “How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ is ‘anathema, maranatha’?”
This solemn way of speaking took such an effect upon the congregation that almost everyone was in tears. A nobleman who was there was so overcome by his feelings as to fall fainting on the floor.
There was a boy present who did not faint away nor seem much impressed. He, however, listened very attentively, but he soon forgot all about that solemn sermon. His name was Luke Short, and he was then fifteen years of age. He was a native of the town. Soon after this time he became a sailor, and, after some years had passed, went to America. There he settled as a farmer, and there spent the rest of his life.
He lived longer than men usually do. When he was a hundred years old he was still strong enough to work on his farm, and the powers of his mind were very little weakened. But up to this time he had lived without loving and serving Christ. He had never as a sinner felt his need of Him, and therefore knew nothing of His preciousness as a Saviour. The preaching which he heard so many years before had not converted his soul. If it was like seed cast into the ground, the seed had not sprung up.
But God’s ways are not as our ways. One day as old Luke Short sat in his field he busied himself in thinking over the past. His thoughts went back, as the thoughts of the aged frequently do, to the days of his youth. Many old scenes and old companions rose up before his memory, and among these early recollections there came the thought of a certain Sunday evening, and of a certain preacher who spoke in tender yet solemn tones to people who listened as if life and death hung upon his words. As it were but yesterday, he seemed to see that eventful scene; the preacher leaning forward; the awe-struck people; the rich man carried out in a swoon. He seemed yet to have in his ears the ringing sound of those terrible words, “Anathema, maranatha.” How strange that he should now recollect all this! And how still more strange it seemed to him that he should have forgotten that solemn sermon during so many, many years. Now it was fresh in his memory, not only the text and the speaker’s impressive delivery, but even the substance of his discourse. Passage after passage flashed across his mind, as if the preacher were still pronouncing the words.
Very striking and very blessed was the old farmer’s recollection. He felt that he had not loved the Lord Jesus Christ; he feared the dreadful anathema. Conviction led to repentance; and, by God’s blessing, this aged sinner obtained peace through faith in the blood of atonement, and was found in the way of righteousness. Mr. Flavel’s sermon had brought him to Jesus, eighty-five years after it was preached. He lived sixteen years longer, giving every assurance of real and humble piety.
It was a long distance of time for tile Saviour’s mercy to reach. There was a long interval between the sowing and the reaping; but to hear of this miracle of grace should much encourage any who speak in the name of the Lord Jesus.