YES, it was a most interesting conversation we had together in a London restaurant, one day about noon. It was in reference to our deepest interests, the salvation and eternal welfare of the soul.
After I had taken my seat at a table, I turned to look at the one by my side, and having an impression both from his manners and dress that he was a Christian, I opened up a conversation, the substance of which is as follows: ―
“May I ask you if you know the Lord?”
“Yes, thank the Lord, I do.”
“How long have you known Him?”
“Two years and three quarters.”
This answer greatly struck me. Its decision and promptitude savored of assurance and reality. It had such a genuine ring about it, that I followed it up with the question―
“May I ask you to tell me the circumstances that led to your conversion, for to me there is nothing so interesting as the conversion of a soul.”
“Oh, certainly,” he replied. “I keep a boot and shoe shop in the fashionable watering-place of H― on the south coast of England. I had been living without a thought of God, and for twenty years past had not entered a place of worship, but spent my Sundays chiefly in reading the newspaper. One Sunday evening, as it drew to a close, I began to think that this was not altogether a satisfactory way of spending my time — and soon after this came a most remarkable moment in my history.
“One morning as I was dressing I suddenly heard a voice say, ‘This day will be your last opportunity.’ I looked round, but could see no one, but the voice I clearly heard, and the words uttered were unmistakable. So affected was I that I nearly fell to the ground. Breakfast time arrived, but on coming down could eat nothing. Those terrible words, ‘This day will be your last opportunity,’ kept ringing in my ears.
“My wife, seeing I looked sad, thought I was ill, and wished to send for a doctor, but this I declined, as I knew no earthly physician could do me any good. My business now became a great burden, attend to it I could not, so leaving it in charge of others, I went out and wandered about in the distress of my soul. All my sins, my wasted Sundays, my neglect of God and His Word, came overwhelmingly before me.
“Dinner-time came, but I could take nothing. Again I wandered about. Tea-time came and still no relief, in fact my anxiety increased as the hours of my day were fast passing away. Evening set in and at last bed-time came, and the day of ‘my last opportunity’ was fast drawing to its close. What could I do? Whither could I turn? I could not pray!
“At last, in the deep distress and agony of my soul, I could no longer keep the state of my mind from my dear wife, but told her all that had happened to me that day — that dread sentence ‘This day will be your last opportunity,’ and all the deep exercises it had produced, and asked her (she being a Christian) to pray for me.
“Together we kneeled down on that memorable night. She pleaded earnestly with the Lord for my forgiveness and salvation. At last my tongue was loosed, and I cried for mercy to the God I had so shamefully neglected and sinned against. And He heard! Blessed be His name! Before the clock struck twelve, ere the day had passed away, light broke into my soul, I rose from my knees a happy and forgiven man.”
Such, dear, reader, is the account of the salvation of a precious soul that God in His sovereign mercy reached and saved.
May I now put to you, dear reader of this true narrative, the plain but important question, “Are you pursuing the God-neglecting, Christ-rejecting course that this poor man for so many years pursued, whom God in so remarkable a way awakened from his death slumber and brought to Himself?”
Remember, God does not often interpose in so remarkable a manner as this, especially where the gospel is listened to Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, which is probably your case, for God is speaking to you by His servants every time the precious message of a Saviour’s love reaches your ears. And God is lingering over you, waiting for you to turn to Him, not willing that you should perish, but turn to Him and live. Did Jesus die for sinners; and did He not die for you? Or are you the only sinner for whom He did not die? Blessed be God, that cannot be, for it is written that “he died for all.” “He gave himself a ransom for all.” “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Are you a sinner? Then let faith settle it — “Yes, I am a sinner, therefore He died for me.” E. M.