ABOUT ten years ago, a devoted sister (now with the Lord) was visiting some of the cottages in the lowest part of the town, occupied mostly by the depraved. In one of these she called to see a sick man who had been tramping the country for years, but who, on account of a serious illness, could do so no longer.
On going in, she found a second occupant sharing the pitiful meal in progress, and was told he was also a tramp, and being in utter destitution he had asked for shelter, until he could find some means of getting a few shillings together to start afresh.
After some conversation, during which she comer discovered that the new comer must have been in a very different position in his early life, she invited him to come to the preaching of the gospel in a little room close by. Much to her joy he was there the next Sunday evening. His whole bearing, though dressed in the unmistakable garb of a tramp, and the ease with which he found passages of scripture and hymns, confirmed her in her first opinion of him.
Faithfully, from week to week, she visited the cottage, and read and prayed with the two men, pointing them to Christ for salvation; and by-and-by, she had the joy of seeing one of them come regularly to the meetings, and, after a while, confess that he had accepted Christ as his Savior.
Then came the testing time: for surely if he professed to be the Lord's, he could not continue the life of a tramp, His heart realized this, and though sixty years of age, worn out with the life of privation he had led for years, and unused to manual labor of any kind, he bravely set to work; he started a wheelbarrow, and took to wheeling coke from the gas works of the neighborhood where he lived.
Quiet, punctual, honest and civil, he won the respect and confidence of all. He proved a man of few words, but he lived Christ, and by his fruits he was known as a Christian.
For several years this living testimony to Christ was continued, and then the end came. He was ill for about a fortnight, and then he was laid to rest in the pretty little churchyard of—.
“He came among us," as one said when speaking at his grave, "he came among us a lonely stranger, but he departs as a brother in Christ.”
Oh, how wonderful God's dealings are. This man had been well and religiously brought up, had held a most respectable position, and had all that the world seeks for; but, like the prodigal, he wasted his substance in riotous living, and was in absolute want, before his eyes were opened to see the loving Savior with arms outstretched to receive him, and his ears unstopped to hear His voice, saying, "Come.”
Is anything too hard for the Lord? Surely not. His word can pierce the soul like a two-edged sword, and cause the despised and degraded ones to bring glory to His name.