Some years ago, a young man was walking thoughtfully along a crowded thoroughfare in Manchester. For some time he had been a skeptic in religious matters. In the society of young men of a similar class, he had been led first to doubt the truth of the gospel, and then to reject it as “a cunningly devised fable.” But a change had recently come over his thoughts. Circumstances had altered with him for the worse; his prospects had become clouded; and the vaunted friendship of former companions had proved utterly hollow and worthless. Fair-weather friends had forsaken him, while Christian friends evinced a deep sympathy in his trials, and a real anxiety both for his temporal and eternal welfare. By their advice he had accompanied them the previous evening to “the place where prayer was wont to be made.” He did not believe that the prayers to which he listened could be heard and answered; but he was constrained to contrast the happiness of those around him with his own misery. It was on the following day that he was walking through the busy streets, thinking of what he had seen and heard the evening before, when, in the midst of all the roar of traffic, something seemed to whisper in his ear, “What if it be true after all?” It did not seem as if the thought had merely been suggested to his mind, but as if a spirit had whispered, with thrilling earnestness, “What if it be true after all?” Staggered for a moment, the young man soon tried to re-assure himself. He mingled with the crowd, and endeavored to forget the question, but in vain. He tried to laugh himself out of the impression it had made, but in vain; the words were indelibly fixed upon his mind. Wherever he went, whatever he did, the inquiry still seemed ringing in his ears, “What if it be true after all?” Soon he saw that, if true, eternal destruction awaited him. He was led to inquire, “What must I do to be saved?” and after a severe conflict, was enabled to “ behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” Surely this was the work of the Holy Spirit. It is recorded thus, by the subject as well as the writer of this brief sketch, that his brethren may be encouraged to pray for those who are still in darkness, and never be weary in well doing. And should it meet the eye of a single skeptic, may the question be divinely applied to his conscience also, “What if it be true after all?”
“Be not weary, praying Christian,
Open is thy Father’s ear
To the fervent supplication,
And the agonizing prayer;
Prayer the Holy Ghost begetteth,
Be it words, or groans, or tears,
To the prayer that’s always answered;
Banish, then, thy doubts and fears.”