The Civil War was raging. Men in gray and men in blue, Confederates and Federals, or "Rebels" and "Yanks," as the Southerners and Northerners respectively were called, were engaged in deadly strife. Fellow-countryman against fellow-countryman, sometimes even brother against brother, or son against father were pitted against each other.
Among the combatants was a young man called George. He was the son of a Christian mother; but he himself led a godless life, and did not trouble about his soul and its eternal destiny.
When George left home to go to the front, his mother gave him a Bible. She besought her son to read and profit by its precious precepts. His love for his mother was not great enough to induce him to carry out her earnest request, but it was too great to allow him to disdain her gift; so he always carried it in his breast pocket.
One day, after a battle out of which George had come unhurt, he discovered that the breast of his tunic had been pierced by a bullet. On further search he found that the bullet had entered his Bible. However, it had not completely penetrated it. His long-neglected Bible had thus been the means of saving his physical life. Could it do more?
Eagerly George turned over the leaves of his Bible to see where the bullet had stopped; and these were the words he read there: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Eccl. 11:99Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
This messenger of life from God went straight home to the young soldier's conscience. He had, indeed, been walking in the ways of his own heart, and in the light of his own eyes. Now he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusted in Him as his Savior, and passed from death unto life eternal.
"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).
But what about you, dear friend? Have you accepted these blessed gifts from the hand of the God who loves you?
But here is another true story of a bullet—a messenger of death. This event occurred during the first World War.
Among the German soldiers fighting in one of the battles which cost such a toll of precious lives, was one who was a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. To him, therefore, to be "absent from the body" meant that he would "be present with the Lord." But even a Christian with eternal bliss before him still has a nature that shrinks from death. The nerve-wracking roar of the cannon, the scream of death-dealing shells, and the whizzing of bullets past one's ears are an awful ordeal for poor human nature to pass through. One need not be a coward to feel something of their terrors. So this young Christian soldier lifted up his heart to God, and asked that his life might be preserved.
As if in mockery of his prayer, a bullet soon came whizzing along and struck him full in the chest! Instead of falling to the ground sorely wounded or killed, the soldier remained upright and absolutely unhurt! What was the meaning of this?
There was a hole in his tunic just over his heart. He unfastened the tunic, and the mystery was solved. The bullet had pierced the little Bible which was his constant companion. He opened the precious Book to see how far the bullet hole went. It had stopped at these words: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Psa. 34:77The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. (Psalm 34:7).
Again God had used a bullet as His messenger; but this time it was not for awakening a careless soul, but for comforting and strengthening one of His own children. God who knoweth the heart, sends the right message to the right man.
Dear reader, which of the two messages comes from God to your heart today? Are you, like the first soldier, needing the warning voice which tells of judgment to come? Or are you, like the second soldier of whom I have written, sheltered beneath the precious blood of Christ, and safe under the shadow of His wings?