WE were walking together, H. and I, on our return from seeing an old saint, Mrs. P., in the little town of Uttoxeter, and were remarking on God's wonderful ways both of grace and discipline, when he began to tell me of his conversion.
Said he, "I was a-sitting in a public-house on the Lord's day afternoon, just as it might be this, drinking with my brother-i'-law, when something quite queer came o'er me which I couldn't get the better of (it was just eight) ears agone 22nd of last March), and I zays to him, ' I must go.'
“' Oh! don't, be in a hurry,' he zays; ' time enough.’
'" Nay,' I zags, ' I must go,' and off I went that minute, feeling all the way as if the ground would open of itself right under me.
“My wife lay i' th' hozpital just then, and thought her would die, and I'd die too, and we'd both go to, hell. Well, I felt so upset, I were fit for no work. I could not go to public-house as I had used to, and I said, Whatever can I do?
"At, last said must go to chapel, must go, an hear the gozpel.'
“So off I went to th' Wezleyans, but I didn't, get anything, I got no help; but it seemed to me that all on 'em seemed happy, and I wished I did. So I kept on going, again and again, and I spoke to some o' them, zays I, ‘I want Christ,' but none o’ them come to see me all the time I went, and for several weeks I got none on.
“But when I told the wile in th' hospital I'd been to chapel (she'd always w anted to lead a good life), she fairly seemed as it she'd jump out o' bed and be well directly, she were so well pleased; for, you know, I'd been one o' th' worst fellows as ever waz; drinking, swearing, fighting, and anything that w ere bad.
“At last she came home, and I said to her, 'I tell you what it is, I can't go on w the likes o' this, we must go home.' For I were at Briztol then, about fifteen miles from where I come from.
" So she zays, ‘Well, I think we'd better'; and next day we got a wagon, and put everything in; and when we got there I told all my companions as I couldn't go on wi' them any longer; and zure enough they couldn't tell whatever had come over I. But I'd got no peace, and were very unhappy. I could not go to work, I were so wretched, and I'd no rest in the house or out, neither night nor day! “At last, one day I zees Mr. M—, a Christian man, who I knowz visited at different cottages, and I said, ' Oh! do go and tell him to come and see I,' as I saw him comin' along down th' field.
“But he didn't want no telling, for he came straight to our place, because the Lord had sent him.
“So after he'd asked how we waz, I zays, 'Oh I want Christ, and Christ I must have!
“Poor fellow! he zays, just like that. So he sits down, and began readin' Scripture, first one and then another; and while he went on I was like Bunyan, you know, the load began to get looser and looser; but I'd not got rid of it yet.
“He saw what a sad case I was in, so he zays, You must come along tonight; we're going to have, a cottage preaching.'
"So I zays, Oh! I will indeed; for I want Christ, and I must have Him tonight.'
“So I went, and as I got in they were all standin' up, and singin' that hymn—
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
O Lamb of God, I come!
“When I heard that, I went right down on the floor azide o' th' sophy just like a bird as had been shot, and I zays, I've got Christ.'
“And I had too, there and then, for I saw as His blood had been shed for me! And a month alter that the Lord brought my dear wife in an' all, and it were such a change wi' uz as all the village knew; it was like heaven upon earth i' our house ex er since. Praise to His name!”
In such simple strains did dear H., the Somerset-shire gardener, tell his homely tale of the grace which had shone into his soul, the sovereign grace of God in laying hold of one of the worst men in the place to make him a striking trophy of mercy, illustrating, as it surely does, the word of the prophet, "I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me"; for, as he was sitting Over his cups in the ale-house, God stirred his hardened conscience, and suffered him thenceforth to get no quietude for his spirit until the blessing was his for eternity. And now in his little measure he is sucking to win souls to Christ by showing them o!' that great love of the Shepherd who went after His lost sheep until He found it; even in the alehouse Reader, dear reader, how is it with you? Have you ever so faced the dread reality of what it is to be a sinner, under the just judgment of a holy God, that you have cried out in the anguish of your soul, "I want Christ, and Christ I must have"? Mark how' in our little narrative (so different from mere humanly produced impressions, as evanescent as the morning cloud) the earnestness of dear H. on the contrary increased and intensified as he went on. He first said to “the Wesleyans, “I want Christ and Christ I mast have"; at length he added, “I must have Him TONIGHT. It showed how really it was the work o! the Spirit of God; and the Lord gave him the blessing according to his faith.
May He Himself, he is so in earnest for the salvation of souls, make you, my reader, in real earnest, too, that the blessing may be yours from this time forth forever.
W. R.