By B. Harvey-Jellie.
HOW tragic and how frequent is the cry, “I can’t do it!” when we are called to take a stand against a great temptation or undertake a difficult task. It is the cry of despair; and it was the cry of one who was known as “The Jumble King.” He was a dealer in all kinds of unwanted goods, ranging from household articles to motor cars, and he knew well how to turn the town’s rubbish into gold. “The Jumble King” was a familiar character, with his gaily-painted van and jingling bells; and, when he passed along the streets, people would turn and say, “Here comes the Jumble King!”
But Jeremy Barnes was a victim to drink. It had mastered him, and was dragging him fast along the road to ruin. What his end would have been one dare not think; but an accident, which might have proved fatal, checked him in his mad career. Driving in the dark one night, he ran his van off the road and into the river. He was badly hurt, and recovery was slow; but the enforced idleness gave him time to think and realize his folly.
Soon after he was about again he was persuaded to enter a hall where a mission was being held; and the genial welcome he received and the earnest address impressed him.
The subject that evening had been, “Turn ye, for why will ye die?”
He came to the meetings again and again; and, at his invitation, I went to see him at his storeroom.
It was a large building piled up with goods of every description, and as we stood together he swept his arm round in a wide circle, saying:
“All rubbish, throw-outs, like me, no use!”
“But there’s gold in it?” I said inquiringly.
“Yes,” he answered. “Maybe.”
“Like you!” I added.
He looked at me with interrogation in his eyes.
“The gold of a noble life, but crushed down and in danger of being destroyed.”
He laughed deprecatingly.
“Ah, no!” he said. “Not me. Not me.”
Then, facing me with great seriousness, he said: “Sir, I have been to your meetings, and I know I’m on the wrong road. I’d change over if I could, but I can’t do it. I can’t do it. It would mean giving up the drink, and I can’t do it. It’s no use!”
There was something pathetic in this confession of a strong man. I was sorry for him. There are so many in exactly the same condition.
“I know you can’t,” I said to him quietly. “If you could you would, but has it ever occurred to you that what you can’t do alone God can do for you and with you? Do you think if God and you faced this together you could do it?” “I never thought of that,” he answered.
“With God all things are possible,” I reminded him.
He was thoughtful, and I pressed home the message that had influenced him at the mission and the call to “turn.” I told him how our life could be completely changed, if we surrender ourselves to Christ as sinners needing His saving grace.
For a while he did not speak. He was fighting a hard battle in his heart. He was afraid to take the stand lest he should be unable to resist the temptation.
Then he turned to me, and I was almost startled by the deep sincerity in his voice when he said: “Will you pray for me?”
We knelt in his office, and I pleaded for divine help that this man, broken by sin, might be restored, redeemed, reborn, and helped to live a Christlike life.
When we rose, he grasped me by the hand.
“It’s settled,” he said. “Keep praying for me, will you? Keep praying!”
He signed the pledge, and nailed it over the desk in his office; and with it a card bearing the words: “I can do all things through Christ.”
The news that “The Jumble King” had been converted was the talk of the town. Some doubted the reality of the change; others helped him by their prayers and their friendship.
The change was genuine, a miracle of the grace of God; and in the new life Jeremy Barnes found opportunity to develop gifts which had been crushed by the reckless intemperance of previous days.
Within a year he held a responsible position in a firm of national importance, where he is highly respected and trusted; and he never fails to let it be known that he owes everything to the love and power of Christ in transforming his life, and adds humbly and gratefully, “I am what I am by the grace of God.”
The British Messenger.