IN the spring of 1884 I was in America, holding missions in and around New York City. At M―, I was one morning accosted by a tall, thin, cadaverous looking fellow in the street, with, “Is your name S―?”
“Yes, that is my name. What is yours?”
“There’s my name over my store,” pointing to his place of business.
“B—, is it? I knew that name in the old country well enough. Yes; I think my brother knows your brother.”
“Well,” said he, “I am in the dark―my mind is much distressed, and I thought possibly you might be able to help me. Perhaps I had better tell you a little of my history. I have been over here for about ten years. I left home to free myself from all restraint. I just hated religion, wasn’t inclined that way a bit; and like many other foolish young fellows, I determined to have a fling on my own hook, and off I came. I am practically an atheist, though I haven’t publicly avowed myself as such. I have blotted God out of my thoughts, and have gone ahead as if there were no God―in fact tried to persuade myself there was none! I didn’t get on very well―had to push my way against tremendous difficulties, and at length settled here into this business. I have a good wife, and have done pretty well, considering; but somehow, lately, I have been awfully troubled in my mind. In the dark―can’t see my way a bit. Somehow the thought will force its way in that there is a God―that I shall have to do with that God, and I have been all these years practically denying Him.”
“No wonder you are in the dark,” said I; “it’s the usual thing when a man denies God, and lives without Him, he can’t get anywhere else but into the dark.”
“Well, can’t you help me at all?”
“I’m afraid not. When a man has gone right away from God, with his eyes wide open, it’s pretty hard for him to turn round again and get into the light. When a man has been practically saying, ‘I don’t want God,’ lie often thinks that God doesn’t want him.”
“The great trouble is that I can’t believe a single word of the Bible―not a word.”
“I am sorry for that,” I said; “but if you can’t―why, you can’t, and there’s an end to the matter.” “But can’t you help me?”
“No, I’m afraid not; I don’t know how I can.”
“It does seem hard that I can’t get some light. It’s awfully dark.”
“How long has this been troubling you?” “About three or four weeks.”
“Can you account for it at all? Have you been reading anything, or hearing anything that has stirred your mind?”
“No, nothing at all; it came all of a sudden―night after night―so that I couldn’t sleep for thinking. Can you account for it in any way?”
“Yes, I think I can. Does your brother ever pray for you?”
“He has never left off since I left England; I’m sure of that.”
“Then what you are now feeling is merely the beginning of the answer to your brother’s prayers. He believes in God. He knows God; lie has been mentioning your case to God, and now the answer is coming. You are getting a bit squeezed, and the truths of past years are coming to the front again. How do you like it?”
“Oh, it’s awfully dark, and I’m miserable! I can’t get light anywhere. My health is beginning to suffer. I have no appetite. Can’t you help me?”
“No,” said I; “I’m afraid I can’t; it’s not so easy to get back to God when you have been going away from Him for ten years. You’ll have to find your way back the best you can, if you ever succeed at all; and I’m afraid you’ll find it pretty hard and very difficult. Jesus Christ says, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me!’ You can only get back to God by Him. But then you said that you could not believe a word in the Bible, and what I have just said comes out of the Bible, so that won’t help you at all.”
“No; I can’t believe that.”
After further talk we parted. A few weeks passed, and I saw him coming into the service one night at a place four or five miles from his home. At the close he came up to me saying, “Will you try and help me tonight? I am worse than ever, and if I don’t get help soon I shall die. I can’t sleep, eat, or attend to business. It does seem hard.”
“Not hard, my friend, by any means. The Bible says, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap’; but then, I forget, you can’t believe a word in the Bible.”
“No, I can’t believe a word in the Bible; but can’t you help me, somehow?”
“No, I don’t see how I can. I have no other resource but the Bible; and that’s no use to you.”
“What shall I do? I am all astray. I have got far away from God.”
“What did you say just then?”
“Why, that I have got far from God, and gone astray altogether.”
“Well, I think I could find one line that you could believe now. Shall I try?”
“Do! I shall be so glad to get one line that I can really believe.”
“Is that true?” said I.
“Why, yes; that’s true.”
“How do you know it is?”
“It describes me! I’ve gone astray! That’s me, and no mistake! Why, there’s one line that I can believe! I never thought that you’d find a line like that.”
“Well,” said I, “you’ve got what you wanted now―one line out of the Bible that you can believe; so good-night, friend.”
“Stop! stop a bit. True, I’ve got a line that I can believe; but it don’t seem to do me any good. I’m no better for it. I’m just as much in the dark as ever. That line hasn’t helped me at all!”
“No,” said I, “it wasn’t meant to. It merely states a fact that you knew before. It never does help a man to read that he’s ‘gone astray,’ when he knows it already.”
“Would you mind trying another line?”
“I don’t mind trying another, but do you think you ought to? Isn’t one enough at a time?”
“Well, you see, I don’t feel that one line has helped me at all; and I’d much like to try a second.”
“Why, that’s true too; you went your way from God—I went my way. That line describes us both.” “Yes, I can believe that line.”
“But observe,” said I, “it is a line and a bit—a little more than you expected. So now you have two lines and a bit out of the Bible that you can believe, and can know they are true. Isn’t it strange, now! Just think—out of this Book of God, there are two lines and a bit you can believe. You never expected that, did you?”
“No, I never did. It is wonderful that I could believe those two lines. And yet somehow they don’t seem to have done me any good. I don’t feel any better. I’m just as dark. I feel no nearer God.”
“No,” said I, “they are not meant to bring you into the light, because they merely describe us two; and we know they are true, because they are our experience.”
“Well, would you mind trying the third line?”
“I don’t mind trying any number, because I can believe all the lines in the Bible; but I wouldn’t advise you to try a third. You see two lines and a bit are a good deal for a man like you to swallow all at once; and I am pretty sure you would find the third line one too much. You wouldn’t be able to believe it.”
“I think I might; I think perhaps I might.”
“I feel very sure you will not be able to,” said I; “still, if you very much wish it, I will let you see it.”
Once more we read together. “And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “There now,” said I, “this third line is more than you can believe, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes. I must confess I can’t take in that at all. I can’t believe that.”
“I thought you would not be able to. I told you two lines and a bit were all you could manage at one time.”
“But how do you account for it that I cannot believe this third line?”
“I could tell you, but you would not much like me to say.”
“I wish you would; for it seems strange that I can believe two lines, but not three.”
“Well, then, the reason simply is, that you are the biggest fool out! And I can prove it in five minutes if you like.”
“I wish you would, then, for you are hitting me rather hard.”
“Suppose that, instead of this Bible in my hand, I was holding a photograph album, and we were looking at the pictures, the first one would be a picture of John M―. Yes, you would say, I knew that man well; and it’s a capital picture of him. The next one I might say is that of William H—. Do you know him? Yes, you reply―I know him well. Is the picture like him? Yes, exactly; a speaking likeness. Now we will turn over to the third picture. That is Thomas N—. Did you ever see him? No, you reply-I never saw him. But I have, I say, and I can vouch for that being a first-rate picture. Now the fourth is James B—. Is he a stranger to you? Yes, I never saw him. But, say I, I know it is as good a picture of him as are the others we looked at. And then you reply, I can’t believe that those two are a bit like the men you say, because I have never seen them; and until I do see them, I shall never bring myself to believe that those are their pictures, even though they are taken by the same artist. Wouldn’t you be a fool to reason that way?”
“Why, certainly I should, but I have not done that.”
“Yes, you have,” I replied. “I have shown you four pictures in that one verse, Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6). The first one was yourself―which you immediately recognized. The second was mine; and that you said, you recognized also. Those two lines showed us ourselves. Now, the third line shows us just as plainly the Lord Jesus and God: and you turn round and say, I can’t believe that third line. What right have you to impugn the accuracy of the Holy Spirit, in describing to you the Lord Jesus and the Living God, when you have seen His accurate drawing of us two?”
“Let me have the whole verse again. I see! I’m a fool after all! You are right!”
We read the verse over, and once more I tried to explain to him the meaning of the statements in three lines and a bit.
“Do you mean to say,” said he, “that my safety and life depend upon my believing that third line?” “Yes, I do!”
“Then I’ll stake my whole existence, for time and for eternity, on that third line. I put my finger on it, and declare that I believe that every word of it is true.”
Solemnly we dropped on our knees, and I repeated his words to the Lord Jesus. He then followed in humble and broken confession of sill; and ere he rose again the light had entered his soul. The three lines and a bit had accomplished the purpose of God. They had found entrance through the door of faith, and he was rejoicing in salvation.
G. S.