I WAS told a very interesting story by a young I officer of an event which took place in his life, while he was quartered in India.
He had passed scatheless through the great mutiny there in 1857-8, and was, when things had settled down, being carried in a palanquin by four of his native servants through a jungle.
It was night, and he had fallen asleep. He suddenly felt himself thrown on the ground, and his light carriage torn up by some robbers, who had been on the outlook for a quarry of this kind. They endeavoured to seize anything valuable and take possession of it.
He defended himself as best he could, but it was a matter of half-a-dozen to one; so, being sorely wounded, he gave up the unequal fight, and lay down on the side of the track.
The robbers soon cleared off, not much richer than they had been. The servants, too, had fled; but he heard their cry of distress as they called for help. “It was,” he said, “very weird.” They prefaced their call by the word “Ho!” protracting it very long. It had a penetrating, far-reaching effect. He was greatly struck by the sound.
Well, he was rescued, taken back to the station, then to hospital, where he quickly recovered of his wounds and returned to duty. But he told me that, while he lay in hospital, he pondered over that monosyllable which had rung out so clear and shrill as he lay bleeding by the side of his pilfered palanquin.
What could it mean? It was not the same as our Western ejaculation, “Oh!” This is brief, quick, summary; that was continuous and significant. He was at the time just what every soldier and sailor should be—aye, and every civilian too—a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a child of God through faith in Him.
He loved and knew his Bible. He recalled in his meditation a verse in the exquisite book of the prophet Isaiah, which began with the same striking monosyllable, and at once discovered its meaning in the language of the East, and saw why his servants had used it.
That verse is: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (chap 55:1). He reasoned thus: If my servants used the word “Ho” to indicate their importunity and their deep desire for attention, in order that a response might be given, so does God call earnestly and long to “every one that thirsteth,” in order that the salvation, which He alpine can give, may be theirs. He bids them come to the waters and drink, to buy (strange to say) without money or price. The intense earnestness of God for the blessing of man—poor, helpless, undone, but needy man—is graciously expressed in that long-protracted “Ho.”
And so it is. In the New Testament the language is similar. “As though God,” we read, “did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:2020Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)).
Wonderful! think of it, “as though God did beseech.” God, the holy, the omnipotent, the only wise God, as it were beseeching the poor, needy, thirsting, guilty souls of men to come and drink—to believe and live.
The only condition is what is called “thirst”; neither money nor price is wanted. Only the man himself and just as he is, prodigal and all.
Oh! but on what ground? On that of the death and resurrection of Christ, the sinner’s Substitute; that suffices. The thrice-holy throne is met. The wide door of mercy is flung open. The word for the day is “Come.”
What an eventful episode in the life of that young officer! What a fruitful theme of meditation in that military hospital! What a flood of light was cast upon his soul by the lovely verse in Isaiah, which begins with God’s long and earnest call to the thirsty, the weary and heavy laden.
He has passed away to his eternal home, and I pass on to you, dear reader, the story as I received it from him. These two divine monosyllables “Ho,” “Come,” are the purest gold. Hearken to their music and prove their value. “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
J. W. S.