During the war there was a young soldier in Alexandria who used to make a practice of distributing Testaments and tracts amongst the troops stationed in and around the city.
One day, shortly after the Armistice was signed, he heard that there was a large troopship in the docks, loading up with troops, who were going home, and he felt it laid upon his heart to go down with some tracts for the men, and to seek an opportunity of saying a word to some of them about the Lord Jesus. That evening he went off down to the dock, and it so happened that his bundle of literature largely consisted of a little tract, the outer cover of which is a reproduction of the playing card, known as “the five of spades.” He climbed up the side of the great vessel, but found to his disappointment that the decks were deserted, as the troops had not yet come on board. He felt certain, however, that God had a purpose in sending him there, and so he began to walk round the ship. Presently he came to an open porthole, through which a light was shining, and on looking in he saw five ship’s officers seated at a table playing cards.
Before his conversion the young soldier had been a skillful card player. As it happened spades were trumps, and watching his opportunity, he dropped his five of spades through the window on to the table, and took a trick with it. The officers looked up in surprise, and after some conversation they invited him into their cabin, and he went in and preached unto them Jesus.
So far from being angry with him, they invited him to come back the next evening and speak to the men, and the result, a blessed time This striking incident was given me by a young relative, who returned from the war.
We are told to be “instant in season and out of season,” and also “Be not weary in well doing.” There is much to discourage the child of God, but how precious the promise that we shall be “Kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:55Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5)), and He will use us, just in the little corner where we are placed if we are truly seeking to do His will.
A. A. L.