PERHAPS because England is an island, many of her people have earned a living by catching fish in the English Channel and the North Sea. Usually they have rather small boats to work with. In them they carry large nets which are spread out on the water and then drawn together again and the fishermen hope they will find a large number of fish, Sometimes the men are caught out on the water in a severe storm and their boats may be driven onto the, rocks or they may sink and the meal be drowned. The work is hard eves, when the weather is bright and sunny and calm.
Sandy Wilkins was one of these fisherman. His face was weather-beaten and his muscles were hard. Sad to say Sandy’s heart was hard toward God. He felt he was as good as any man; he needed no Saviour, and he wanted nothing to do with’ folks who talked about God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and how He died for lost sinners.
Sandy’s wife did not know that she, too, was a lost sinner. But when some gospel meetings were being held in their little town on the English coast, perhaps out of curiosity she decided to go herself. That ye night she heard the wonderful story of God’s love for men and women. She believed God and she accept Jesus as her Saviour. After the meeting she hurried home to tell her husband the wonderful news. What happened then is best told in Sandy’s words: “One day my wife said to me, ‘I am going to the meeting tonight. Mother went there and she is so changed and so is my sister. I would like to see what they do.’
“I felt annoyed but only said, ‘Well, if you go you are a great fool. Go if you want to but they will never get me to go.’ She tried to persuade me to go with her but I would not listen. Then I got very angry but I was afraid to tell her not to go.
“When my wife had gone to the meeting I became most miserable. I could not sit still in the house so went out for a walk. I even went over by the meeting-house but I stayed on the back side of it. I tried to hear what was going on inside without anyone seeing me. The little I heard made me realize that those people were most serious in telling about sinners and hell and how Jesus had died for sinners.
“Soon I went home but I was most unhappy. I went to bed but I could not sleep. At about ten o’clock my wife returned. She came to the side of my bed and said, ‘O, Sandy, I must tell you I am saved.’ She fell on her knees and praised God out loud for saving her. And then she prayed for me! My whole soul was stirred but pride and the devil would not let me admit that I was miserable.
“At last, with perspiration breaking out all over me, I said, ‘What do you feel, Jean?’
"'Feel,’ she said, ‘It’s no feeling, Sandy, that saves a sinner. It’s just believing! I believe that God speaks the truth when He says that Christ died for my sins. The Bible says that if I believe this, He will give me eternal life. Now I do believe it and I will never come under the sinner’s judgment, for another verse says, There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Oh believe that, Sandy, and you will be saved and we will then both be so happy.’
“How the devil did try to keep my mouth shut,” Sandy continued. “The devil tried to prevent my owning that the Spirit of God was convincing me that I needed a Saviour. At last I said, ‘Now, Jean, pray that I may be saved.’ She did pray and such a power of the Spirit of God came over me that I thought I saw the Saviour on the cross. I cried out, ‘Oh, Jean, I see my Saviour, and His wounds were for my sins.’
" ‘Hold to that, Sandy,’ she said. Then we prayed together that all my unbelief might be taken away. She thanked God that I was saved, and then I did, too. We slept none that night for the joy of thinking that we would never come into judgment.”
The Bible says, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” Is. 45:22. Sandy Wilkins looked to Jesus and by faith saw Him hanging on Calvary’s cross enduring the judgment of God that really bonged to him. True to His word, God saved Sandy’s soul. Won’t you do as Sandy did?
“He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
ML-07/29/1962