AMONGST the invalided soldiers at Netley who had been through the war in Egypt was William S. He had been stationed at Suakin, and, one night when on sentry, whilst the bullets of the enemy were falling thick, he felt, for the first time, what a terrible thing it was to be called away unprepared into eternity. As far as he knew how to do so, he prayed to God, and told Him that, if He spared him, he would give up his old ways and trust in Him. This promise was speedily forgotten, but God did not forget the soldier.
It happened that amongst the invalided men, there was one who, being convalescent, was allowed outside the hospital in the gardens. H., realizing that “the time is short,” and also that the moment is near when those who are ready shall go in, and the door shall be shut, assembled, with his wife and little children, three times a day in the gardens for reading and prayer. Any of the twelve hundred invalids could, if they chose to do so, sit down upon the grass at these Bible readings and listen to the words of rest and life.
William was one of the soldiers who was not ashamed to do this; he would sit down under the trees and join in these Bible readings, and there God met him in His grace, and saved his soul. His after-life showed that he was truly converted. He knelt down at night by his cot in the ward, and, amidst much jeering and boot-throwing confessed publicly the love of Christ, who had loved him, and given Himself for him.
One of the worst persecutors he had in his ward, one who swore at him, and ill-treated him, was Arthur―; yet amidst all this persecutor’s bravado, the simple fact of William’s kneeling at his bed had wrought a work in the man’s soul. God had His purposes of grace for the salvation of Arthur. He troubled his soul deeply, and at the close of one of the evening Bible readings, he came up and said to H., “Can you do anything for me, for I am miserable? My father, mother, sisters, and brother are all Christians, and I am the only black sheep in the family.
I leave the hospital to-morrow for my depot at Enniskillen, and I feel if I could only get what S. has got at your meetings, I could go back there a changed man.”
He was invited to sit down with the rest, which, after a great deal of persuasion, he consented to do. Many of his comrades stood at a little distance under the trees, looking on, laughing and making grimaces at him.
For a long time Arthur listened as the precious word of God was read to him, but no rest, no peace, entered his soul. He wanted to feel something in himself to assure him of God’s love to him. Beyond this, the knowledge of his comrades looking on and jeering, so vexed him, that he bit his lips and clenched his fists. At last he said, “I can’t stand this any longer; I must ‘go’ for them. It’s no use trying to love God”
With no little difficulty he was kept from “going.” But God’s ways are not as our ways, and His thoughts are not as our thoughts. Just when Arthur was so wretched that he could scarce restrain his feelings, and a big fellow he was, H.’s wife and little children came up. Cissy, a girl of some five years of age, noticed the stranger sitting in the group, and, with a little child’s instinct of pity for a sad countenance, she at once ran up to him, and, looking up into his face, said, “Do you love Jesus”
After a moment’s silence, he replied, “I am trying to, my little dear.”
The child looked again into the man’s sorrowful face, and then turned to her mother and father with an expression of surprise, as much as to say, How strange that anyone should try to love Jesus, who loves us so much! Turning round again to Arthur, she put her little arms round his neck, and kissed and squeezed him, saying at the same time, “Oh, Jesus loves you this much, yes, more than I can love you.”
The simple words of that little child had spoken to the heart of the big soldier. Faith in the love of God had entered into his heart. He believed the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He no more tried to love Jesus, but thankfully believed the love of Jesus the Son of God to him. The tears flowed from the strong man’s eyes, and coursed down his cheeks.
“We were very happy that night,” an eyewitness of this joyful scene says, “as we thought that at that very moment as we sat on the green grass in the gardens of Netley Hospital there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over a precious soul saved. We sang together —
‘Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.’
We encouraged each other, and impressed on each other the necessity of being bold yet humble — firm yet yielding — for our Jesus, ‘who hath done all things well.’ Also we enjoined upon Arthur not to be ashamed to ‘confess Him before men.’ Then we sang again —
‘Now just a word for Jesus,
Your clearest Friend, so true;
Come, cheer our hearts, and tell us
What He has done for you.
‘Now just a word for Jesus
Will help us on our way:
One little word for Jesus,
Oh, speak, or sing, or pray.’
And so we parted for the night.”
When the morning came there was a great longing to see Arthur, and to learn how he had confessed Christ in the ward. He said that as soon as he got in all the men began to laugh at him, and tried to joke him out of his new-found peace and happiness, but he knew the Lord was with him, so, after a struggle, he knelt down at his bed and prayed. As soon as the lights were put out, down came an angry shower of boots at him. Some of them hit him hard, but such a present help in the time of trouble was the Lord to him, that, looking the men full in the face — that is, as far as the light shining in the room from the passage would permit — he said, “Ah, comrades, you can fling away now, for I have Christ, and you cannot take Him away from me.” He continued in prayer for these very men till it was nearing midnight.
The next day Arthur left for his depot, and not long since a bright, cheering letter was received from him, expressing his joy and peace in believing, and his deep thankfulness for the child’s simple question, “Do you love Jesus?”