I WAS brought up at a mining village in the county of Stirling. My father died when I was very young, and being poor I was put to work in the mine when about twelve years of age, and there continued until I reached the age of sixteen. At that time I felt a strong desire to leave my home and seek employment elsewhere. This desire I carried out; and went off, resolved, as the saying is, to see the world. Shortly after this I went to the mining town of D―, in the west of Ayrshire; and, when still very young, I there threw off all restraint, and, in the place of distance from God where sin had put me, and with my mind blinded by the god of this world, I went on drinking deep into all the pleasures of sin that surrounded me on every hand. The Word of God declares the wicked to be “like the troubled sea,” and for the next nine years it was so with me.
Being in the grasp and under the power of Satan, I roamed about in a restless condition from place to place throughout Scotland and England. Oh! how I can now look back and trace the mercy of God in all my wanderings in sin, rescuing me in the midst of danger and death. On two occasions in the mine, it was the work of a moment to escape being crushed to death; but still, in the midst of such warnings, I remained impenitent, rushing on still in the midst of danger, with no fear of God before my eyes.
Again returning to the town of D―, and now married to a young woman, who, like myself, was a stranger to Christ, I rather settled down. For the next three years we went on together wrapped up in nature’s darkness, not one ray of light having penetrated our souls, and without one thought of eternity. About this time many were somewhat startled by the sudden death of a fellow-workman in the mine. Pay-day came round every month, and generally all the workmen went down into the mine on that particular morning at a very early hour. This poor fellow went with the others, as he had often done before, with little thought, I fear, that before the rays of the rising sun would have dispelled the darkness of night, his soul would be required of him. But it was so, for scarcely had he begun the labor of the day when the tool dropped from his hand, and in a moment he lay in the cold grasp of death. This solemn event had no effect on me at the moment it occurred. I went on unchecked in my career of sin, until the next pay-morning came round, when, as usual, I went down into the mine at a very early hour, and, proceeding to my work with a light heart, I little dreamed that I had reached the moment when I was to discover my lost condition as a sinner before God.
It was so, however, for scarcely had I begun my work when suddenly the thought of that poor fellow’s death, which had taken place just a month previous to this morning, came rushing into my mind. I endeavored to turn it off, and fix my thoughts on some subject more pleasing to my soul. But no, felt powerless to resist the thought of death. A voice seemed to say, “Is it not as possible for you to die this morning as it was for that poor man a month ago?” I believed it was; and again another silent voice whispered in my soul, “And if you die this morning, what then?” Oh! that was a solemn moment for my soul when death stared me in the face. For twenty-eight years I had kept the thought of death, and of meeting God, entirely shut out from my thoughts; but now, death was to me a solemn reality, and the thought of being launched into the presence of a God I had so long and so often sinned against made me tremble.
My physical powers gave way, my pick dropped from my hand, and with a beating heart I realized for the first time in my life, that I was lost, and were I to die I would be lost forever. My soul was overwhelmed with fear, and in my distress I called upon God to have mercy on me. Oh! that was a time of deep distress, a morning I never shalt forget, when moral darkness shrouded my soul, and in the dismal darkness of the mine I feared that every breath I drew would be my last. Oh! how little knew I that morning that the pitying eyes of a loving tender-hearted Saviour, that had wept over poor sinners down here, were looking down through one hundred and twenty fathoms of rock upon me, a poor lost sheep that had wandered, far from Him.
After being some time in this condition, my fears began to subside a little; and I resolved to turn over a new leaf, and live a different life than my previous one had been. And so I at once sought to give up all my bad habits, and, like many more in this state of mind, I thought by attending church, reading my Bible, and prayer, there would be some chance for me reaching heaven at last. For some months I went on in this self-righteous manner, with a very fair estimation of myself.
And now the time of our summer holidays having come, I went to spend a few days in my native place. While there I met with some of my old companions in sin, and along with them I again plunged into my old habit of intemperance, giving full proof that my new leaf had been but part of my old book, and so I returned home with all my past goodness blotted out. For many months from this time I went on in my old ways of sin, seeking, by doing so, to drive the serious thoughts of death and eternity from my mind. But again in the mine one morning God spoke to me, in a manner more stern than ever He had done, through my unsaved mate telling me about a friend of his who died in the midst of health and strength in a moment. That was an arrow of conviction that pierced my soul, leaving a wound that nothing but the blood of Jesus could heal.
For some months again I was a most miserable man. When I passed a news-agent’s shop, “Sudden death” was sure to meet my gaze. The sound of a funeral bell made me wretched, and often, when trying to appear merry, with my companions, my heart was breaking. In this sad state I sat one Lord’s Day afternoon alone in my home, with scarcely one ray of hope within my breast of ever being saved, when my eye caught a little book my wife had got from a little boy. I lifted it, and began to read a letter an old man had sent to a young friend. I saw from that letter that the writer, when a young man, had been in this same anxious state about his soul that I was in at the present time. No one having spoken to me about my soul, I thought no one had ever been in the state that I was in. I said to myself while reading, “If that old man will only reveal to me how he found peace, I will at once embrace it.” I read a few lines more from that dear old man, and heard words whereby I was saved. While telling this young friend he was addressing how he found peace, he said, “The moment through grace I believed in the wondrous love of God, and in the atoning blood of Christ, that moment I found peace and joy.” I saw through these words; to have peace there must first be decision for Christ; and that moment I believed that the work was done, that Christ had shed His precious blood for me on the cross, and in an instant my misery was gone, and peace and joy unspeakable filled my soul.
Twenty years have nearly run their course since then, I am now getting old, but today I am still rejoicing in His love to me, and without one fear or one doubt. And oh! the many blessings He has given me since that day. Salvation came to my house. Ten months after I was saved, my dear wife was rejoicing with me, and saying, “Your dear loving Saviour is my Saviour too.” The Lord gave us six sons, of whom four are saved, and, along with their mother and myself, come together on the first day of the week with a few of God’s dear saints, gathered out to the name of the Lord Jesus, to remember Him, and show His death till He comes.
And now, dear reader, if still unsaved, I would most affectionately warn you of your danger. There is no time to lose. The Lord may come at any moment. Then the Church will be gone from this scene, the day of grace will be closed, the day of judgment will then overtake you, and oh!
“What horrors shall roll o’er thy Christless soul,
Waked from its death-like sleep;
Of all hope bereft, and to judgment left,
Forever to wail and weep.”
But you may be saved before you drop this paper. Believe in Christ now, God’s free gift to you, a sinner, and then, but not till then, will you be able to say, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
D. W.