YOUNG F. H. T—was born at Greenwich in the year 1852. He early lost his father, who was the master of a small coasting vessel. Soon after he was ten years old he was apprenticed to the fishing, and sailed out of Harwich in different smacks on their cruises for god and other fish. When about sixteen he left this work and entered the Royal Navy.
Like many more, and perhaps like yourself, my reader, from quite a child something used to tell him it was not all right between his soul and God, and he would make all sorts of good resolutions. Do you know what kind of things these are? and how they are broken nearly as soon as made?
Still he heeded neither these inward admonitions, nor the loving words of his Christian mother, and threw off all restraint, becoming thoroughly reckless, as he himself owned, in word and deed. In this condition of soul he joined H. M. S. B—, and proceeded in her to the North American station.
Not long after his arrival there, a letter reached him telling of the "falling asleep" of his mother, whom he knew to have been a believer in the Lord Jesus; one who knew all her sins had been forgiven, and that she had eternal life in Christ.
This loss not only aroused natural sorrow at the death of a loved parent, but touched T—'s conscience, and made him ask himself what would have been his present and eternal condition had he been taken away instead of his dear old Christian mother; and he became anxious about his soul, being led to see something of his lost and ruined condition as a sinner before the holy God..
About the same time his turn came to perform the duty of showing visitors over one of the finest ironclads in Her Majesty's service, as she lay in harbor. One day, after guiding a party from shore over the ship, as they were leaving the side, one of them, a lady, gave T—a small pocket Testament, and asked him to read it, which he promised to do, but soon forgot both Testament and promise for many days.
At length he took up the book, and turning over the leaves his eye rested upon the passage, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He was arrested, and his former convictions deepened. The concern and anxiety about his soul's salvation returned, and he now tried in real earnestness to set things right, and thus to ease his troubled conscience.
I need not detail them; for I am sure many who read this have gone through, or may be going through, this process, or, as the sailors say, are "on the same tack." It is called, "making one's peace with God," which was never yet made but by one Man; and that one the Son of God. I mean, peace with the holy God, not that false peace which precious souls try to satisfy their poor hearts with, and which reminds one of that passage, where it speaks of men saying, "Peace; and there was no peace," and "daubing with untempered mortar.”
Oh, what a lot of this kind of stuff there is, which will only crack, and chip, and peel off when the guilty soul stands before the great white throne, and all his or her nakedness is exposed. Alas, alas I too late then to obtain that covering which would stand the fire of God's righteous judgment, or satisfy His holy eye. No, dear unsaved reader; peace with God has been made eighteen hundred years ago, when the blessed Lord hung between the two robbers on Calvary's cross, as the word puts it, "having made peace through the blood of his cross."
Well, dear T—tried this, and got laughed at for his pains; gave that up, and for a time became careless. But still the fact of his lost condition would keep coming up before him, and that passage in the lady's Testament speaking of impending judgment would haunt him and make him feel very uncomfortable.
On board the same ship there were three or four Christian seamen. I do not mean mere professors, but I allude to that sort of people who know they are saved, and like whom you long to be, specially when the thought of death, and "after this the judgment," stares you in the face, though you may now join in the laugh and the chaff against them, calling them "blue lights," or "new lights," or "psalm singers," and such like.
To one of these T—was led to open his mind a little, and this man of God gave him a tract to read. In it was this verse, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life."
Have you, my reader, ever looked into this precious passage quietly? What magnificent simplicity, and yet what marvelous force, in those two words, "BELIEVE"—"KNOW!" It is riveting on the other side, if one may be allowed the simile, that word in the Gospel of John: “But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might HAVE life through his name." Now take the passages just quoted, and what do we find in the two? (1) Truth written, that you might believe and HAVE life; and then (2) more truth written to you who do believe, that you may KNOW that you HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. Look at these two passages well, and may God rivet them home to your soul.
T— had scarcely read and pondered that verse when joy filled his soul, and he knew because he believed. In the first burst of his ecstasy he ran up on deck to the sailor who gave him the tract, shouting, "I have found it! I have got it I” to the surprise of his shipmates, who wanted to know what he had found—what he had got. He told them he had got Christ and the forgiveness of his sins.
Of course, he was again well laughed at, but he could afford it now, for it was not his doings or aught of himself, which only produces weariness of the flesh, but what Another had done for him, which, when believed and known, produces rest and peace.
The time came for T—to return to England to be paid off, and go on leave; during which time he was married to a young Christian to whom he had become engaged before he left the country, both being then careless as to their soul's salvation. About the 14th of February, 1874, while expecting what people call a "valentine" from her absent lover, she received a long letter from T—, telling what great things God had done for his soul, and pleading most earnestly with her to "come to Christ," as he put it, and that at once. This was the arrow guided by God through the joint of her harness, and was the commencement of a real work in her soul; so that by the time T—came home, she knew what he knew, because she had believed what he had believed-God's word.
Leave over, T— was ordered to join H.M.S. C—, the coastguard ship, H— harbor, his young and newly-married wife looking to join him shortly. On his arrival in H—, he found out a few believers in the Lord Jesus, meeting simply in His name, and by his bright and happy testimony was used to cheer them on their way. On Lord's day, February 4th, 1877, he was present at the morning meeting, and in the evening preached in the little schoolroom, pressing upon his hearers God's salvation, and that His word is, "Now is the accepted time," remarking that perhaps there were some there who would never hear his voice again.
On the following Tuesday afternoon he was at target practice at the mouth of the harbor, in the steam launch, with a field-piece in the bows; one, two, and three rounds were fired, the' hits and misses marked. When it came to T—'s turn to point and fire the gun, he did so; the eyes of most were fixed on the target to see if the shot had taken effect; but only for a moment, as something on board called their horrified attention. The gun after being discharged had jumped clean out of the chocks, struck dear T—on the chest, knocked him into the stoke-hole, and jammed his head against the boiler.
All was over, as far as life here was concerned. T—was what man calls a lifeless corpse, but his spirit was released, "absent from the body, present with the Lord." Sudden death, sudden bliss! Yes, indeed, how true for him. In the midst of death he was in life.
Sorrowfully the launch was put back to the ship, and T—'s body lifted on board. The Testament which the lady had given him some three or four years ago, and which had been used to deepen the conviction of sin in his soul, he always carried about with him; and inside his blue serge the book was found—all bedaubed with his life's blood; this was tenderly wiped off by one of his shipmates to give to his widow, who had been telegraphed for, but the marks could not be wholly got off; and the book now is in her possession, doubly valuable to her as the truth of God which had often cheered and checked her husband in his Christian course.
You may imagine the solemnizing effect it had on all on board. I myself overheard one officer say, the day the body was interred, while I was waiting to see it brought on shore, " It, was a miracle it was not I, as I fired the preceding round;" but God knew what He was about, and, as his widow said, in the midst of her grief, when taken on board to view the body of her husband, "Well, after all, better he than many another in the ship, for I KNOW HE WAS READY;" and sobs stopped her further utterance. This, too, touched the hearts of those within earshot.
Oh, may this voice reach many a conscience. And dear believer, as you read this, will you look up to God to carry home the testimony T—left behind him to many, at present, thoughtless sailors?
After the funeral, a servant of Christ had the opportunity of preaching the gospel at the open grave. What a pulpit I and in the 'evening, the same little room dear T—spoke in on the previous Lord's day was crowded; also on the succeeding Sunday night, when the love of God and work of Christ were set forth, and precious souls urged to BELIEVE and then they would know they had ETERNAL life.
And now, dear reader, this has not been written to make much of the earthen vessel, not to praise up dear T—, but to speak well of T—'s God and Saviour, and I look to Him to use this simple statement— and, of course, only a very partial one—of His dealings with the one who is now "forever with the Lord," to the souls of those still unsaved, who may read this article; that, like Samson of old, dear T—may slay more in his death than in his life, for truly, "he being dead, yet speaketh.”
May God Himself apply His truth to your soul, so that by simply believing His word—not mere doctrines—you will then KNOW that you will have eternal life; and this life is in His Son, so that you may be able, in His presence, now to say, through His grace, “In the midst of death, I am in life."
S. V. H.