BULLETS pierce the body, but words pierce the heart. Such has been the experience of many. So it happened with one of Cromwell’s soldiers. As is well known, Cromwell had ordered that each of his men should carry with him a Bible. This particular soldier of whom we write had been a dissolute man, caring nothing for the Book which on every page condemned him, but he obeyed orders—a Bible was in his breast pocket.
After a fierce battle in which many had fallen on both sides, as he was removing his coat for the night he noticed that the Bible had been pierced by a bullet, which had gone through half the book, and had embedded itself there. He was awe-stricken as he realized how near death he had been, and the Book which had been pierced instead of his breast suddenly acquired value in his eyes.
The spot on which the bullet had stopped was Eccl. 11:99Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. (Ecclesiastes 11:9): “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”
As the bullet had pierced the Book, so these quiet but solemn words pierced the soldier’s heart. It was a very different sentence of death, indeed, they brought to his heart than if the bullet had gone through it, but it was nevertheless death. The sentence of God was here pronounced upon all his past life, add the pang of it followed him until he learned the sweet, the old, yet ever new, story of Jesus and His love. He learned that the death under which he lay had been gone through by that blessed Saviour: that on the cross He had borne the judgment of God for all his sins, and thus delivered him from the wrath to come.
Of course, out of a foe the Lord Jesus made him thus a friend, as He has done with millions of others, as He is doing still in every corner of the earth, and as He can do on the battlefields of Europe at the present time.
Reader, are you as yet a foe, or have you become a friend? There is not a question in all the earth half so solemn as this, and on the answer to which hang such stupendous results—eternal bliss or eternal woe. Towards which are you bound?
Here is the way of blessing. The Lord speaks: “Verily, 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 5:2424Verily, 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).)
Contributed by H. A. M.