The triumphant roar of the thousands who followed the fortunes of the football club of which he was captain was like music to George, for he lived for the game. He was a very popular fellow too; "a good sport," his friends called him, as well as a skillful player. He was a good singer, was always ready with a witty story, and could be relied upon to help a man who was down upon his luck. That sort always have a flock of friends.
But somehow George began to lose his interest in sports, and his jollity settled down into that forced kind that lacks sparkle. The cause was this: his wife had been converted, and George gradually got upset about it. She was so different from him now. He knew that she was right, and he was wrong. She prayed to God; he didn't. She read the Bible; he didn't. She loved the Lord Jesus Christ and owned Him as her Savior. It made him angry to hear the name of Jesus. Yes, there was a great difference between them, and he felt it. In fact, he began to realize that he was a sinful man, though he confessed this to nobody, least of all to his wife.
She often asked him to go to hear the gospel. He as often refused. But one Sunday when she was more persistent than usual, as wives can be sometimes, he said, "All right. I'll go with you today, if you'll let me alone in the future. However, this is the condition: that you go with me to the tavern first, and wait until I go in and get some beer." He did not believe that she would accept the condition; but she did, to his surprise.
He left her outside, for he had too much respect for his wife to allow her to go inside his favorite drinking place. In fact, he felt like a cad for having brought her so near it. He ordered his drink, and raised the foaming glass to his lips, but put it down again without even tasting it. That was a queer thing for him to do― a most unusual thing― and at that moment he could not have given a reason for doing it. Again he took it up, and a second time put it down untasted. A third time he raised it, determined this time to finish it; but a third time down came that glass of beer on the counter; and though he had paid for it, he left it there untasted, and turned on his heel and joined his wife outside. He said afterward that the thought that his wife was praying for him outside made him feel that if he had drunk that beer it would have choked him.
They said nothing to each other, and reached the place of the preaching some time before the time for the service to begin. He took up a Bible and began to turn its pages. Suddenly his attention was arrested by some words that seemed to stand out upon the page as though they were embossed, words that seemed entirely for him. Eagerly he read them, over and over again. Everything began to seem different as their meaning dawned upon him. His misery passed away, that misery that had been eating out his life for weeks, and he turned to his wife and said, "I'M A SAVED MAN." Yes, even before the service began that night, sitting by the wife who loved him and prayed for him, through the application of one solitary verse of Scripture to his soul, he was able to say, "I'm a saved man.”
The verse that did the work was this, "VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, HE THAT HEARETH MY WORD, AND BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT SENT ME, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, AND SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION; BUT IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
Wonderful words! Just how they appealed to the captain of the town's football club I cannot say, but I know that they revolutionized his life. They made him a happy man who could rejoice in Jesus the Savior who spoke them. They made him boldly preach that same Savior at the street corners of his native town.
Friend, believe those wonderful words of life. They were spoken by the Savior who died. Christ died for the ungodly, for sinners like George, for you, and for me. Yes, for you, that you might be able to say, "I'm a saved man." As surely as you accept the One of whom those words speak, you too will have "passed from death unto life.”