A BUSY city thoroughfare, and a bolting horse coming up a cross street. It was the work of a moment, but a well-built schoolboy of sixteen lay as if lifeless on the pavement, and the horse sped on. Willing help was at hand, and a policeman, stooping over the lad, said, “I am afraid it’s all over with him.”
An ambulance was quickly brought, and as they gently raised him, he said in a low voice.
“It is all right either way; His name shall be called Jesus.”
“Surely it was the young fellow that spoke?” said the policeman, holding his head; “yet his lips did not seem to move.”
Again the low voice said slowly, “I said it is all right either way—thank you for being so kind—for my side—hurts badly—but Jesus—Jesus.”
No other sound escaped his lips till he was laid on a hospital bed. Then, when asked if he could give his name and address, he answered in a weak but glad voice, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”
“Ah, thank God, he knows that,” said a young medical student. And an old doctor said, “It would be good for some of us older ones if we knew that as well as this youngster seems to do.”
“Perfect quiet, and a special nurse; internal injuries, and a bad case,” was the doctor’s verdict.
During the night of unconsciousness, with ice bags on his head, over and over again Jack Payne murmured, “Jesus, my Lord Jesus;” “Mother,” “Mother, lay your hand on my head,” or, “Never mind, mother, His name is called Jesus, so it is all right.”
Next morning the doctors shook their heads, but a medical student said to the nurse, “I believe God will raise him up. Most cases like this toss and rave, but he lies still, whispering about Jesus, His name, and mother. He has the peace of God in his heart.”
Police enquiries or newspaper notices reached Jack’s mother, and soon a sweet-faced widow was seated beside his bed. But he did not recognize her, though her touch evidently pleased him; still more did the texts she repeated softly to him. And the nurse noticed that each one she chose had the name of Jesus in it, and he would say over again, “His name shall be called Jesus, yes, that’s it, Jesus.”
Jack Payne got better, and lives to declare the goodness of God. He and Fred U. the medical student, are fast friends, and will likely go out as missionaries to China, to tell of Him to whom God hath given, “a Name which is above every Name, that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” Jesus, wonderful Savior.
ML-01/25/1920