SOME time since there lived in a large city in Holland, a Jewish doctor who, like Paul, had lived a Pharisee. Like Paul, too, he had been, by the por of the Holy Ghost, turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan to God; and, like Paul, his heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved.
With this object the doctor went day after day into the part of the city inhabited by the lowest class of Jews, and from house to house he preached and taught Jesus Christ. In reaching this suburb he had to pass the magnificent house of a rich Jewish merchant, who had a house of business also in the mercantile part of the city.
It had often happened to the doctor to pass this house; but it was not until he had done so many times that a new thought struck him. Why was it that he was ready to go day after day and speak of the Lord Jesus to the poor Jews in the back streets, and yet he had never felt how accountable he was to God for not making Christ known to the rich Jew in the great house?
He knew that the merchant was often engaged in the city till a late hour, and he therefore determined to call upon him one evening at about ten o’clock, thinking that by that time he would be sure to find him at home.
He was surprised at being at once admitted and shown upstairs, just as though he had been expected. But this was explained when he was ushered suddenly into a large ball-room, already filled with company. The music was playing and the dancing had begun.
The appearance of the little doctor, so unlike the rest of the company, caused many eyes to be fixed upon him. He at once went to the master of the house, and apologized for his untimely visit. “I was not aware,’’ said he, “that you were engaged this evening, but as I have called upon a matter of great importance, I would ask if you would kindly appoint a time when I may call again without inconvenience to you.’’
“Certainly,” replied the merchant— “May I ask if the business is pressing?”
“It is a matter of life and death,” replied the doctor. “I will call again at your earliest convenience.”
“Allow me to ask one more question,” said the merchant. “Whom does the business concern?”
“It concerns the Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus of Nazareth,” replied the honest doctor. “It is concerning Him and Him only that I came to speak to you, and I am glad that you will kindly allow me the opportunity of doing so another day.”
“Stay,” said the merchant, with a very strange expression of joy and astonishment. “This is wonderful,” he continued, now speaking so as to be heard by the doctor only. “My friend, I have been miserable for many months past; how or why I know not; but one thought has continually haunted me by day and by night; whether in business or at home it has never been absent from my mind. I have tried to put it from me, but I could not. It is a thought which has left no peace, and it was this, ‘Who and what was Jesus of Nazareth?’ I have asked God in His mercy to help me, and to send me some one who could speak to me and tell me the truth about this great question. Now He has heard my prayer. I cannot let you go. There is no time like the present.”
ML 10/08/1899