“IS that you, Doctor? Oh, do come in. I am so glad to see you.”
Thus greeted, I entered the clean little house, at the top of a long, dark, common stair in Leith, at the door of which I had knocked, to inquire if a sick person I was seeking lived in that stair. I had been put upon the wrong track for the person whom I sought, but was very glad to renew acquaintance with the speaker who so warmly welcomed me to her house.
“What are you doing here, Grace?” I inquired.
“Doing here? Why, I live here―you know I am married now?”
“No, I was not aware that you were married.
Of course your husband is a Christian.”
“Oh, yes; if he hadn’t been a Christian, you may be certain I would not have married him. He has been converted for some time, and is a real God-fearing man, I am glad to say. James is just coming in for his dinner, so I hope you will see him.”
As she said these words the door opened, and in walked a pleasant-looking man, with an open countenance, and a bright smile thereon, as he greeted me to his dwelling.
I may here state that my friend Grace had often listened to my voice proclaiming the gospel in the Freemasons’ Hall. She was a woman of Amazonian stature, and many a night had caught my eye, but I had not spoken to her till one evening, as she passed out, I saw her face bathed in tears, and getting into conversation, with much emotion she told me that months of exercise of soul had ended that night in a simple reception of Christ as her Saviour, and that God’s peace and joy now filled her heart.
She had been awakened to a sense of her need as a sinner through hearing some servants of the Lord preach the gospel at a Sunday evening open-air service at the Mound, in Princes Street, Edinburgh. A card of invitation to the meetings in Freemasons’ Hall, George Street, having been given to her by one of the bystanders, she had come to the Sunday evening gospel meetings for some months before the night I refer to. I saw her for some months after this occasion, and often spoke with her, as she came regularly to hear the Word. Then for the master of a couple of years I completely lost sight of her, till I met her in the way above described.
“And so you are married to my friend Grace?” I said to the master of the house, who I learned had been a sailor, but was now working ashore.
“Oh ay, and a real guid wife I have got too, sir,” said he.
“I could quite believe that,” I rejoined, “and I hear that she has got a Christian for a husband.”
“Yes, thank God, that is so also,” he replied.
“She wouldn’t have had me if I hadn’t been converted.”
“Very good, “was my answer,” quite right. And now how did you get converted?”
“Well, you see, we had known each other for a good time, and after she got converted she gave me no rest, speaking about Jesus, and she would have me go up to the Freemasons’ Hall, where you often preached.”
“And were you converted there?”
“Yes, I was saved there, but it was not though your preaching.”
“Never mind who the preacher was, so long as you got saved, James,” said I. “Tell me all about it. Who was preaching the night you were converted?
“Well I can’t just tell you his name, but I can describe him. He was short and thick-set, and a good singer.”
“I think I know who you mean; it would be Mr. Alfred M —,” mentioning a well-known servant of the Lord.
“That is the name,” said he.
“And you were converted through his preaching?”
“No, the preaching didn’t touch me. I thought he was a fine preacher, but his preaching didn’t touch me.”
“Then how did you get converted?”
“I was brought to the Lord through a hymn he gave out in the after-meeting.”
“Indeed, and what was the hymn?”
“Well, in the second meeting Mr. M―said, ‘Friends, we will sing a little hymn,’ and the hymn was this―
“You had better come to Jesus,
To Jesus, to Jesus;
You had better come to Jesus,
And that just now.”
“The words of that hymn just struck home to my heart, and I said to myself, That’s guid advice―I’ll take it,’ and I just came to Jesus on the spot, and He saved me there and then, blessed be His name. I have not had a doubt or a fear ever since. I learned then that He had washed my sins away when He died for me on the cross, and He pardoned them all when just came to Him and trusted Him simply. That’s how I got converted, sir.”
It was quite a refreshment to meet these two simple happy souls, and we bowed the knee together, and thanked the Lord for His grace and goodness to each of us.
And now, my dear reader, let me ask you, have you yet come to Jesus? If not I would urge you to without further delay. He is the only Saviour, and apart from Him you cannot be saved. The work by which your sins can be put away has already been completed by Him, and all you have to do is to get to Him who has died to that end, confide in Him, and come under the benefit of a11 The work which He has done. This is what James S―simply did, and of course got all the benefit of simple faith-the happy knowledge that his sins were forgiven, and that he was saved-saved by grace-the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. To you I would say
“You had better come to Jesus,
And that just now.”
Is not that good advice? You know it is. If you are wise you will say what race’s husband did― “That’s good advice―I’ll tak’ it.”
W. T. P. W.