Will Thompson was a professional boxer—a champion. Years of successful bouts had brought money flowing freely in—but it flowed out even faster. “Easy come, easy go” seemed to be his motto, and the usual crowd of hangers-on helped him in his spending.
Eventually the years came when he could no longer command a big sum defending his title. Still he attracted the old crowd around him and the drinking and gambling and general carousing went on as before.
At last his money was gone, then friends were gone, and he found himself the occupant of a prison cell. He was sixty years old, and had never attended a place of worship, heard the Bible read, or mixed in any way with professors of religion. Against his will, he was required to attend chapel while in jail. On one occasion the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) was read. This was something in his own line! He was intensely interested. He understood it all, and at the close he applauded loudly. “I’m glad the little ’un won,” he said with satisfaction.
Returning to his cell, he walked back and forth thinking about the fight and, considering how unequally matched the men were, came to the conclusion that God must have helped the little one.
Being a lefthanded man himself, he felt a pleasure in hearing there had been others lefthanded in the Bible too. He began to think the Bible was a strange book, very different from his ideas of it, and resolved to listen more carefully next time.
The next Bible story he heard was of the three Hebrew youths: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He had fought under the name “Bendigo” and the name “Abed-nego” sounded to him like the one he had used. He said to himself, “If one Bendigo was saved, why not another?”
Soon after this he was a free man again. At the prison gate he found quite a crowd of his old companions waiting to welcome him. To their astonishment he refused all their offers to drink and declared once and for all that he had done with the old life. He would never enter a bar again.
That same evening he found his way to a mission hall where special services were held. His conviction of sin grew deeper. He left wretched and miserable, but on his way home, though the snow lay thick on the ground, he fell to his knees and cried for mercy. Soon he was able to rest his soul by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, found peace in believing, and went home justified and saved.
Day by day he grew in grace and in the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour. He began to take part in Christian work. Snatched from the kingdom of darkness, introduced into the light, liberty and joy of the kingdom of Christ, his heart longed for the salvation of others.
Have you, like this boxer, really and truly been converted to God. If not, do follow his example. The Lord Jesus said, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise [no way] cast out. Believe on Him now.
Remember now thy Creator
in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them.