AMONGST the pilgrims who recently visited the shrines of Mecca, Medina, Bethlehem, etc., was one whose story may well interest English readers.
He was the son of a well-known Mohammedan sheik, who since early youth had eagerly sought by mortifications, fasting, and prayers, with repetitions of the name of “Allah,” to win the favor of God. After years of fruitless endeavor, he decided to make the Great Pilgrimage in the hope that this would give him an answer to the perpetually recurring question, How shall I find rest to my heart and peace to my conscience?
Arriving in Mecca, the sacred tombs were visited, the famous black stone was kissed, and the regulation forty-nine stones, larger than a pea and smaller than a bean, were collected; these latter were to be hurled in sevens at the pillar of the “Great Devil,” the pilgrim meanwhile exclaiming, “In the name of God the Almighty I do this and in hatred of the devil and his shame.”
After many months of weary travelling from shrine to shrine, each visit accompanied by ceremonies so wild as to seem almost incredible, our hero reached Port Said and took tickets for Cairo. From this point I will take up the story in his own words, though taking the liberty of curtailment.
“At Ismailia my mind became much troubled and I said to my companion, ‘I feel we must go from here to Suez.’ He replied, ‘Why to Suez? there is nothing to take us there,’ and strongly opposed my project. I, however, insisted, and getting off the train tore up our tickets to Cairo and took others to Suez, not knowing why I went there, or what lay before me, except that some power drew me on.
“On arriving, in much perplexity of mind I wandered to and fro in the streets, and one day noticed an open shop with a sign written above it and on the door a printed paper, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ I was astonished and said to my friend, ‘Who can the owner of this place be? None should use words like these but the blessed One Himself.’ He replied, ‘Do you not know that this is the land of the Pharaohs? The man is probably puffed up by his riches and greatness and therefore speaks thus.’
“We passed on, but the word stayed in my heart and I said, ‘I must see the man who gives the weary rest.’ After noon I went back but the notice was gone. My companion sought to dissuade me from pursuing the matter further, but I said I would not go from Suez until I had found out the truth about the man who gives the weary rest.”
To make a long story short, our friend one day summoned up courage to enter the shop, and addressing two men whom he found within, inquired what they sold. They told him the Holy Books were there for all to buy if they desired. He was shown a New Testament, and with a scarcely restrained eagerness, he inquired as to its contents and was soon deep in conversation with the storekeeper. For three days, despite a severe quarrel with his companion ending with his desertion, he continued almost without interruption for food and sleep, and was slowly led up into the very presence of the Man who gives rest to the weary. On the third day he rose and confessed that the truth had become as clear as the sun of midday, and with a conscience at rest could say, “The One Saviour an Intercessor has redeemed me by His precious blood.”
Reader, the foregoing story, recently related to the writer by a friend, and since verified as to details, shows how God’s Holy Spirit brought a troubled conscience into peace and rest. To the young sheik, his confession of Christ involved the loss of all things, home, parents, friends, possessions, yet he gladly counted all things but loss that Christ might be his gain. The dying love of Jesus carried his heart by storm, and now as a humble evangelist he seeks to proclaim the story of the cross amid persecution and rejection. Are you resting where he does, on the blood of Christ for his sins, on the intercession of Christ for his cares, and on the return of Christ for his eternal hopes?
ML 10/21/1906