I was brought up in a home where there was a Bible, but it was seldom opened. I was sent to Sunday school, however, where I received my only religious training. When I began to work and to earn my own money, I refused to go anymore. I had no desire for and no interest in eternal things.
I went in for everything my income would afford, trying the “broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” I was totally careless about my soul’s eternal welfare.
I worked with some that said they were saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and had eternal life. I thought I believed in Jesus too, but I had no such assurance. I know now that I only believed about the Lord Jesus, just as I believed about Napoleon or any other great man. Believing about the Lord Jesus never saved anyone, while believing on the Lord Jesus Christ has saved millions. Thank God!
Later I worked in a small coal mine in Cumberland County. I was put on shift work in the pit, and a real Christian was working next to me. At mealtimes he used to tell me of the work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, of conversions of people he had known, and of the realities of eternity. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15;1 “began to be in want.” I had a desire for something better than I had.
I did not let him nor anyone else know I was troubled. I used to slip an old Bible I had up to my bedroom. I had not looked at it for years, and I wouldn’t have let anyone see me with it for anything.
One night I opened my Bible at Rev. 20 and read of a “great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away...and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened...and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:11-1211And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:11‑12)).
I felt uncomfortable in view of this scene; every backward glance only brought sins to my memory. Then the words of God pressed upon me: “Judged... according to their works,” not according to someone else’s, but one’s own, and “God requireth that which is past” (Eccl. 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)) of each one of us.
One morning while eating our lunch in the pit, the old brother quoted that verse in Rom. 10:8-98But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That 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 10:8‑9): “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that 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.”
How I drank in that life-giving word! There and then I was saved. Yes, in the pit of the coal mine I was saved from the pit of everlasting destruction.
Down in the dark coal mine, where the light of the sun never shines, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus shone into my dark heart and I passed “from death unto life,” “from the power of Satan unto God.” Many years have run their course, and still I can sing:
Now I can call the Savior mine,
Though all unworthy still;
I’m sheltered by His precious blood,
Beyond the reach of ill.