One night just before the late Capt. Bickel was retiring to rest he met at the deck-house door a ruffian who had been wonderfully converted on one of the voyages. Although a rough, untutored man, he had gone at once to others telling the story of his conversion and of Christ as he had received Him. The Captain was very tired, but he had a little talk with the man. He asked him if he would take a Bible to a certain man on the morrow. He shook his head.
“No, no, Captain, he does not need that.” “But why not?” “It won’t do him any good.” “But why?” “Because it is too soon. That is your Bible, and thank God it is now mine, but it is not his Bible.” “What do you mean by that?” “Why, simply that he has another Bible; you are his Bible, he is watching you. As you fail, Christ fails. As you live, so Christ is revealed to him.” Writing of this incident, Captain Bickel said: “Friends, I did not sleep that night. I knew it in a way, of course, but to say: As yet live so Christ lives in that man’s soul, in that house, in that village, in four hundred villages. God help me! I had been called thief, liar, foreign spy, traitor, devil, in public and private, and had not flinched, but to face this! As yet live, Christ lives in a hundred thousand hearts. As you fail to live Christ, He is crucified again. What wonder that I slept not, that the message of the converted ruffian sans deeply into my heart!”
Living Links.