He was a coarse, blaspheming, intolerant skeptic, this traveling salesman of whom I write. Dissipation had interfered with his success and brought him at last to the verge of destitution. Now his godless life had landed him in a low grade lodging-house.
Somewhat to his surprise he found that this lodging-house was visited each Sunday evening by a group of Christian men who came to preach the gospel to all who would listen.
At first our friend was inclined to resent this as an outrage. To think that a "religious service," as he called it, should be tolerated in the place where he chose to stay! He sat, however, and listened.
One evening the preacher laid stress on the fact that men are lost and that it was lost sinners that Christ came "to seek and to save." Luke 19: 10, which affirms this, was quoted.
At the close of the meeting a question was addressed to the skeptic concerning his soul. He immediately began to air his infidel notions and poured forth a torrent of blasphemous abuse. The preacher turned from him in pained silence.
As the skeptic stood near the doorway another man came up to him and said loudly, "GOD says you are lost!”
Remembering what had been said in the address the unbeliever became very angry, imagining himself to have been insulted. He determined that he would knock the speaker down at his first opportunity. But while waiting with this purpose in his mind, the words kept ringing in his ears, "God says you are lost!”
All that night he lay sleepless upon his hard bed. All the following day these five words haunted him. The misery of a convicted sinner was now his.
At length, after three days, the scripture quoted so many times by the preacher came back to his memory: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).
These gracious words brought peace to his wretched soul. If he was lost, he was the one whom the Savior came to seek! There was salvation for him.
In this way, wonderful in its simplicity, the blasphemer became a child of God.