Hank was a wild swearing dockworker, helping to load freight onto a big steamer. Going up the gang plank, he was jostled by another workman and fell overboard into the water. Uttering a horrible oath, he disappeared under the waves.
His mates got him out of the water a few minutes later, but it seemed at first that he was drowned. They worked hard to revive him, and finally they were successful. As he came back to consciousness, his first words were, “Praise God! I’m saved.”
“Yes, you were nearly gone,” remarked one of the men.
“I don’t mean just being saved from drowning,” said Hank. “I mean the Lord has saved me from my sins. He has forgiven me. He has taken my sins away.”
Then Hank told in the presence of them all what had happened when he found himself down there in the water under the ship’s hull. He thought his end had surely come.
In a moment of time his past life passed before him. He saw himself as a boy kneeling at his mother’s side, saying his prayers in his tender years. He heard his mother praying for him. His sins rose up before him mountains high. He cried to God for mercy, and pleaded with Him to save him for Jesus’ sake. God heard his cries. In that moment, he knew God had forgiven him; his sins were cleansed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. Well might he praise God!
Have you cried to God too, dear reader? If you have, you too can praise Him. If you haven’t, then call upon Him in faith now; He will hear your prayer, for He is willing and able to save.
I thank Thee, Lord, for saving my soul; I thank Thee, Lord, for making me whole; I thank Thee, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation, so full and free.
ML-10/15/1978