JACOB S. was a poor boy who lived in a swampy part of Ireland. He kept the sheep, and his father cared for the large herd of cattle belonging to the rich Count, who owned all the land and houses round about. Jacob’s father possessed a book, the Bible, which they loved more than anything else.
One evening, as the boy was sitting outside reading his Bible, waiting for the return of his father, he heard the loud voice of the good-natured Count.
“Well, my boy, what good do you find in that book? With all my education I do not understand half of it.”
“Pardon me, sir,” answered Jacob, “do not your own words prove that the book is true? For it says:
You see, sir, though you are both rich and learned, you are not certain whether the Bible is God’s Word or not; whereas we are as poor as a little lamb, and do not know much more, but we believe every word in it, and it is as much to us as our daily food.”
“But don’t you think your father would gladly change places with me?” asked the Count, smiling.
“What? Give up heaven, where mother and little brother are, and lose the Lord Jesus? Never, dear sir; all your money could never pay for what father possesses,” answered the boy, and pressed the Bible to his heart.
“How should I understand that?” he asked.
“Your Lordship reminds me of a ruler in Israel, who came to Jesus by night and asked; ‘How can these things be?’ because the Lord Jesus had told him, ‘Ye must be born again.’”
“How can you prove, my boy, that a man is born again, as you call it?”
“The Lord Jesus did not attempt to explain that to Nicodemus, dear sir, and I won’t either. If you saw a man walking down the street, you wouldn’t stop him to ask if he had ever been born. You know that he is, or you would not see him alive before you. Now when you see one, who, like my father, was once dead in sins, but is now living and traveling the road to heaven, you would know that he is born again, without asking him to prove it, sir.”
The skeptic smile vanished from the nobleman’s face, as he thus stood before the poor shepherd boy, who apparently pitied him.
“Jacob,” he said, after a pause, “there was a time when I wanted to have this faith. I cared for nothing down here, and I knew I could not take my riches with me into eternity, therefore I sought something better, more lasting. I prayed to God, but He did not answer my prayer, although your father assured me that He would.”
“O, dear sir, I believe you prayed only through selfishness. You were rich and wished to remain so. You did not earnestly seek His glory, regardless of what would become of you. Possibly you went to God with this feeling: I am Count Phelan, and no common man. Perhaps it appeared to you as a great condescension to seek His face. But, dear sir, in that way you will never find the Lord.” “How did you go to Him, Jacob?”
“I went sir, as the poor sinful child that I was,” and said, ‘I am thoroughly wicked, and totally ignorant before Thee; and have no right or title to Thy mercy. If Thou dost send me to hell, Thou wouldst be dealing righteously, but I desire to go to heaven, where the Lord Jesus is, and where there is no sin. If Thou dost take me, Lord, it must be just as I am, for I cannot make myself one whit better.’”
“Jacob, my boy, you talk like a preacher, but you are only a poor shepherd-boy. It is possible you have made a mistake in all these things, what will you do then?”
“O, dear sir, that can never be, for I have the unerring Word of God.”
“But you may have misunderstood the meaning of the Word of God.”
“Ah, your Lordship, when the way of salvation is made so clear, how can one misunderstand?” replied the boy warmly.
“How came you to decide to believe these things?”
“I did not come to any decision about it, I simply read the words of the Lord, ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)), and believed them. I was lost and He found me. Really, dear sir, when you come to the Lord Jesus as a poor needy, sinner, such as you are, and not as Count Phelan, He will surely accept you as His own.”
“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,” says the Lord (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)). Upon this the nobleman departed, and we trust God blessed the message to him.
ML 04/10/1927