A young Christian had a life-long friend; a druggist, who was far froth sharing the Christian's faith. Every time the latter spoke to his friend about God the young chemist made fun of him. Finally, the friend decided never to touch upon the subject again in their conversation. He said: "In future, old man, I shall not mention these matters, because you only make light of them. I have only one more word to say before closing the subject until you care to reopen it: a word from God to you. It is a verse from the 50th Psalm: 'Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.' Don't forget it!" But the other just laughed.
Some time after this the young chemist was on night duty at the pharmacy when a sudden and violent ringing at the door roused him from sleep. A little girl had brought a prescription which the doctor had just given to her mother, who was very ill.
Annoyed at being disturbed, and still half asleep, the young fellow weighed out the drugs, mixed them, stuck the label on the bottle, and handed it to the child, who ran off with it as fast as she could.
After she had gone he proceeded to put the various bottles back in their places when—horrors! what had he done? He had used the wrong drug! Instead of a soothing potion he had put a violent poison into the prescription! If the patient took any of it death was sure—a death of agony.
But he did not know the little girl, nor where she lived. How could he find her? He rushed out of the store and into the dark streets. He ran to the right, then to the left, but in vain. The darkness had swallowed her amid the streets of the great city. Besides, she seemed in such a hurry, perhaps at that very moment she was giving her mother a draft of the poison he had prepared!
A cold sweat covered the poor fellow he was at his wit's end when suddenly his friend's verse flashed on his memory: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
He hurried back to the pharmacy, threw himself on his knees, and prayed. Oh, he did not make any fun this time. In his terrible anguish he besought God to help him, for He alone could What! Another ring? He rushed to the door and, to his unspeakable amazement, saw the little girl, her face bathed in tears, and in her hand the neck of the bottle broken!
"Oh sir!" she sobbed, "What shall I do? I ran so fast that I fell and broke the bottle.”
We can imagine the feelings of the young man as he took the prescription in hand again and prepared it correctly. But the gratitude of his heart did not vanish like a fleeting, though profound, impression. Conviction had pierced his soul; he realized how unworthy he was of such goodness from God, whom he had so long slighted and even mocked. He soon learned to know the Savior whom his friend knew, and was enabled, too, to realize the last part of the verse: "And thou shalt glorify Me.”