R. A. Torrey had a terrible reputation as a young man. Deep in sin, rebellion and atheism, he scorned everything Christian—the Bible, Christ, God, heaven, hell, immortality.
His God-fearing mother talked with him and prayed for him until at last young Torrey told her: “Mother, I’m tired of it all. I am going to leave you, and I will not bother you any more. I’m tired of all this!” And in rebellion and unbelief he left home.
His mother followed him through the door and down the walk to the gate, pleading, praying, weeping. “Son,” she said as she could follow no farther, “when you come to the darkest hour of all, and everything seems lost and gone, if you will honestly call on your mother’s God, you will get help.”
But with hardened heart, Torrey pursued his dark, downward way. Deeper and deeper, month in, month out, he sank into the pit of atheism and sin. But a mother’s prayers are not easily shaken off—God hears, and God answers!
One dark night in a dingy hotel room far from home, R. A. Torrey lay suffering from overwhelming despair and remorse. Sleep utterly forsook him. Burdened with his sins, and weary with life itself, the devil prodded him on to the very brink of suicide. Just before daybreak he sat up, saying, “I will get out of this bed and I will take the gun from my suitcase. I will put it to my temple, and I will end this farce called human life.”
But even as he stood up, he paused and looked through the window into the black, dark night, and the last words his mother had spoken to him echoed loud and clear in his mind: “Son, when your darkest hour of all comes, and everything seems lost and gone, if you will honestly call on your mother’s God, you will get help.”
In spite of himself he fell on his knees beside his bed and cried, “O God of my mother, if there is such a Being, I want light! If Thou wilt give it, no matter how, I will follow it.”
Immediately, he knew not how, light from heaven came into his heart. It was the Light that made everything light, but it did not destroy for it was love itself. With it came faith, the gift of God—and with faith in Christ came salvation. Torrey left the hotel a converted man.
In his new-found peace he hurried back home, but, instead of surprising his mother as he intended, she rushed to meet him on the walk, laughing and crying with joy.
“Oh, my boy,” she cried, “I know why you are coming back, and I know what you have to tell. You have found the Lord! God has told me so!”
It is a wonderful thing to have a mother’s prayers, but if you had no praying mother—if no one on earth has ever said a prayer for you—God still loves you and wants you and will welcome you—welcome you so gladly.
“There is joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repenteth.”