EARLY in the year 1831 Henry Reed of Australia had occasion to return to England, and took his passage in a vessel called the “Bombay.” He records his experience in connection with this voyage in the following words :
“Off Cape Horn the weather was severe, and we were in danger of sinking, and, like Paul and the crew and passengers who sailed with him, we lightened the ship by throwing overboard the cargo.
“It was during that night that God met with me. I went down into my cabin without any thought of eternity or my soul ; but when I had shut the door, and was alone, in a moment my whole life appeared to pass in review before me. Things that I had forgotten came vividly to my mind ; events that had transpired long before, and had apparently been blotted out of the book of my remembrance, came back with wonderful vividness. I saw all the mercies and all the deliverances, and when I saw them, oh, how astonished I was at the ingratitude of the wretch who had been watched over by that loving God, and had not even thanked Him !
“I now saw that it was God who had delivered me from shipwreck and bushrangers and natives and sickness and venomous reptiles (for I was badly stung by a scorpion), and for the first time in my life I realized in that cabin that THERE Is A GOD. I professedly believed it before, but had never known it, never realized it. I knew there was a God, and that He was searching me and bringing into remembrance my past ff, showing me His lovingkindness and sparing mercy. When I saw it, I wept bitterly.
“Perhaps some will wonder at this marvelous arousing of my mind to eternal realities. The secret is contained in three words—a praying mother. I remember her saying to me, ‘Henry, I always felt that I had hold of thee however distant; for I was conscious that I had hold of God, and that God had hold of thee.’ That mother was left a widow when I was about five years old; and during my boyhood, a while sleeping in a little room adjoining hers, I have heard her groans and prayers in the middle of the night to, for I believe she used to rise from her bed plead with God for her family during the night-watches.”
Yes, there is indeed a God—a God who watches over every one of us, a God who hears a mother’s prayers, a God who so loved the world that He be gave His only gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Have you believed on Him? Will you not accredit this wonderful love of God? There is nothing comely in you or your ways that could attract God’s love to you, for God is holy. He is light as well as love. The light of God discovers your total unfitness for His presence—your nakedness before Him. There is nothing in you at all suitable to the presence of His holiness—for sin has ruined what coming from His hand was once so “good” and beautiful. But His sovereign grace reveals God’s pure and holy love to you in His adequate provision for all your need as a sinner who has, and does, come short of His glory. The love of God has its origin and reason in the heart of God. And as without shedding of blood there is no remission, so it must be not the blood of the creature whether in heaven or earth (even though it were the archangel), but the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, which alone can, but does (thank God) cleanse from every sin. Jesus has died, and God is now just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Rest your soul on this and praise Him.
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“Every knee shall how to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”