I’m just a rough old sailor on a leaky old boat, but I’m happy to say that if the old ship goes DOWN, I shall go UP. How do I know? I’ll tell you the story.
It came about this way. We were lying off Malta, and I was alone one night. I turned into a place where a soldier was preaching. He started with the hymn:
The Saviour calls; oh, come and see
What things He hath prepared for thee
Only it was the chorus that pulled me up. It runs:
Him that cometh,
Him that cometh,
Him that cometh to Me,
I will in no wise cast out.
It kept ringing in my ears, and I could not get it out. As I went out the door, the soldier shook hands with me and said, “God bless you and make you very miserable.”
This coming on the top of the hymn made me miserable indeed, but I thought I would turn in there again the next night. There, sure enough, was the same soldier, and he got up on the platform. Fixing his eyes on me right at the back of the hall, he said, “God loves you.”
I tell you, that made me feel worse than ever. Presently, when he had done his address, he walked straight down the hall and took a seat by me. Well, of course, I tried to edge off, but just as far as I edged off he edged after me.
At last I said, “Here, I’m getting out of this.”
He said, “I’m coming too.”
So we got outside, and he said, “You look very miserable.”
I said, “I am,” and he seemed quite happy over it.
So I said, “A nice sort of man you are to call yourself a Christian! You haven’t got a bit of sympathy in you.”
He said, “I’ll take you to the sympathizing Jesus.”
Then he showed me Him, the One that sympathized with and died for sinners. I knew I was one, sure enough. I put my claim in as a sinner, and I got Him from that night for my Saviour. I just proved the Scripture: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” I proved that “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).