IN 1868 I was on a colportage journey, and on the bank of the Motueka river I overtook a digger, with whom I entered into conversation. I found him very open and communicative. He had received, he said, a religious training in his youth from a mother of whom he spoke with warm affection.
At an early age he went to sea, and had continued a wanderer ever since; but although he traveled far and wide he could never get beyond the reach of his mother’s influence. He was not religious, he said, but he knew what it meant, for he had had a touch of it once, and “Oh, then,” he added, with an animated countenance “I felt so happy—nothing seemed able to disturb my peace. I felt this especially on Sundays, when I took delight in Bible meditation and prayer.”
All his friends he believed to be dead, and that a property was awaiting his arrival at home; “but,” said he, with a defiant air, “I will never return until I have a decent coat on my back.” This last remark suggested to me the parable of the Prodigal Son, and as I had no Bibles for sale, my stock having preceded me on a pack-horse, I alluded to that parable, and reminded him that if the prodigal had waited until he had a good coat on his back, he would never have returned to his father.
I then asked permission to refresh his memory by reading that portion of Scripture to him. To my surprise, however, he refused, and begged me not to do so, adding, “I cannot bear to listen to it—it touches me so; it reminds me of my mother.” These words strengthened me in my desire to read it to him, but my every effort only seemed to add to his excitement. “Don’t read it, sir! I can’t bear to listen to it.”
Seeing him thus resolute, I thought there was no use in persisting, and closing my Bible, I said— “Well, if you order me off, I will go.”
But, thank God, this was a brand to be plucked from the burning. Just as I was turning away, he seemed to relent, and said, “Don’t go, sir. I don’t want to offend you; and if you will read it, read it, and I will endeavor to listen.” Then, with an evident effort to control his emotions, he folded his arms across his chest, and leaned back against a tree, while I read him that incomparable parable.
As I read, the strong man was bowed down, and he wept like a child. Before parting we knelt down together, and in the solitude of the New Zealand bush offered up the sweet incense of prayer unto God. The next morning he came to the Baton, and purchased a copy of the New Testament, in which I wrote his name and direction to that fifteenth chapter of Luke.
Three years after, when on his way to Australia, he heard that I was stationed at Wakefield, and immediately turned off his road, a distance of eighteen miles, to thank me for that conversation which I had had with him in the bush, and especially for the prayer at its close. “That prayer,” he said, “broke my heart.” He then told me that after I had quitted him he felt miserable. He tried to pray when he reached his tent, but for a long time he could do nothing but weep. At last he thought of the Lord’s Prayer (a prayer he had probably learned at his mother’s knee), and he poured forth that prayer unto God.
This relieved him somewhat, but still he could not find peace. He, however, resolved, God helping him, to amend his ways. He continued in this anxious, troubled state, for several months, till one day he encountered another colporteur, to whom he immediately unburdened his mind. This man opened his Bible, and spoke to him of Jesus, and as he spoke God was pleased to shed light upon his understanding, and enable him to receive the truth in the love of it. And from that hour he rejoiced, believing that the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed him from ALL his sins. (John 1:77The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:7); Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12); Heb. 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)).