WE had not met for some thirty years. He was now in failing health, if not, indeed, dangerously ill; and pleasant as it was to grasp again each other’s hand, and prove that former days of early friendship remained the same, yet the changed appearance wrought by advancing years, and the ravages of a heart-affection detracted not a little from that pleasure.
“Did I ever tell you,” said he, in course of conversation, “how I was converted to God?”
“Well, you may have done so,” I replied, “but, if so, I have quite forgotten it, and should be charmed to hear it once more.”
And I confess, dear reader, that I am fond of hearing the account of God’s saving grace as it reaches the poor guilty soul of man, and leads him to a knowledge of His great salvation.
Let us remember that this is God’s work; that no power short of this can effect it; and that, while our sins make it necessary, if we are to spend our endless future in His blessed presence, yet, as the power, so also is the deep and infinite love on His side too.
What a mercy that “God is love”!
“Five and thirty years ago,” went on my friend, “I was coming home from India on leave, an utterly careless fellow, thinking only of fun and folly. I noticed on board our ship a certain young officer, who was likewise returning on leave, and who always carried about with him a Bible. This seemed to me a most extraordinary thing. What could he want with a Bible at all hours of the day? It is certainly not just the book that young men generally hug in that kind of way. Well, on a certain occasion we happened to be sitting together on a seat on deck. He held out the Bible, and said to me rather abruptly, Do you know what book that is?’
“ ‘A Bible,’ I replied.
“ ‘It is THE WORD OF GOD,’ he answered, and added no more.
“ ‘The Word of God’― ‘the Word of God,’ I repeated to myself, then it is the truth, and all it says must be true.’”
Yes, and how could it be otherwise, my reader? How could “God, who cannot lie,” declare in His Word that which is false?
Impossible! “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Believe me, it is an immense thing to give God His proper place as true, and holy, and mighty, and gracious, as also to take our own place as guilty and sinful. Wisdom’s children always justify her at all cost to themselves. Therein they are wise!
The Bible is the Word of God. Not only are there bits of that Word in it, not only is the divine in it, but it is the declaration of His mind, and kindly written by Him, through human instruments, used and inspired by Him for the very object of reaching us, even us, alienated as we are from Him by wicked works and evil hearts.
Thank God for the Bible! Now, this fact was the first arrow of conviction that ever reached the soul of that young man― “All that the Bible says must be true!” Several days passed without further conversation, but they met again at last.
“‘Do you believe the Word of God?’ was the next query of the young officer.
“‘Yes,’ said I.
“‘All of it?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘The fifty-third of Isaiah?’
“Yes.’
“‘The sixth verse?’
“‘Yes-but what is it exactly?’”
“ ‘All we like sheep have gone astray—” Do you believe that?’
“‘I do, and I own it too.’
“ ‘We have turned everyone to his own way—” And that?’
“ ‘Yes, indeed! I have, alas, turned to my own way!’
“ ‘And the Lord HATH LAID on him the iniquity of us all.” Observe it says, “hath laid,” “HATH LAID,” not shall lay at some future time! Yes, the work is done! Christ is dead and risen! Atonement was wrought in the shedding of His precious blood! God asks for nothing more! Do you believe that?’
“I rose from my seat, and went straight down to my cabin, and there, alone, falling on my knees, I poured out my heart to God and blessed Him, for having saved me, for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
How simple, how perfect! Such is the tale of that Colonel’s conversion to God five and thirty long years ago―now to all appearance a dying man!
“Doctor,” he said to his medical attendant, “there is no death for me, it is only to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord―at home with the Lord―no death, no death!”
Beautiful! and wonderfully real too. You see thirty-five years were surely long enough to test the genuineness of the event on ship-board! Had that been mere excitement, imagination, a vision, or aught else of the kind, the wear and tear of more than a quarter of a century would have produced a mighty change! But no! the Bible was still, and more than ever, the Word of God to his soul, the force of its truth, and the solidity of its foundation being only the more fully realized!
“Oh! to know that our blessed Lord Jesus is now an actual man in glory―a man, not a mere spirit― but possessed of flesh and bones, as He said to His disciples in Luke 24 after He was risen, oh! what comfort that gives! And also that we shall be present with the Lord!” were some of his words, as he poured out his heart full of praise and confidence and rest, in my hearing. The Word of God was the rock of his assurance. Happy man!
Now, reader, that Word may be, and is, rejected by many; may be and is, discredited, and torn to sheds by the worse than foolish hands and lips of thousands who do so to their own destruction. They will find, however, that though heaven and earth will pass away, that Word shall never pass away! Let not the devil in this awfully dangerous day filch from your conscience that Word which is able to make you wise unto salvation. “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24). J. W. S.