“THERE were many knocks at my heart’s door before it was opened.” So spake an open-faced pilot on the Suffolk coast, whose duty lay chiefly in bringing vessels over the bar of a river. “How often did I wish I was like my father, when I sat behind him in chapel, for he was a true Christian. He had the privilege in his time of entertaining many of God’s servants who preached to us, but he died before I was truly converted.
“I remember well on one occasion, after a service in the chapel, when my soul was deeply moved, coming home and crying till ‘rivers of water’ ran down my face. My wife presently entered the house― she was a Christian. ‘What is the matter?’ said she. ‘Shall I send for father?’ ‘No,’ said I; but she sent for him; and in the old man came. I did not say a word, but he knew what was wrong. ‘My boy,’ said he, ‘let us pray’; and we went down on our knees together. But I did not find salvation then. However, God was continually warning me about my soul.
“When my father died I was much moved, and felt I must indeed seek the Lord, but somehow I did not find Him then, and so some years passed by. I think there are many now, as I was then, with whom the Spirit of God is striving, but who are not saved; many who in their inmost heart’s desire after God, but who seem to live without Him.
“One wild, rough day, as the punt lay in the river, I saw a lot of wild duck, so into the boat I jumped to get them. It takes two men properly to attend to one of these punts but I had my mind on the birds. Suddenly a big wave from over the bar struck the boat, turning her bottom upwards, and there I lay underneath.
“Two men on shore ran into the water and dragged out the punt, and I crept ashore myself. This narrow escape made me again think about my soul. It was another knock at my heart, and these words: “Seek, and ye shall find,” kept ringing in my ears for days together after my escape.
“After this I was sailing up the river, when a puff of wind came, and immediately the boat filled with water, and sank under me. I had presence of mind enough to settle what to do, and, having my coat and sea-boots on, I chose going with the wind and tide towards a bight of land rather than the shorter swim across the river. When reaching the shore I felt that this was another knock, and that I must turn and seek the Lord while He was to be found.
“Many a call have I had, and now, thank God, I know I am saved.
“But it is only the last few months that God has taught me not to be satisfied with the old fashioned ‘drag-along’ style of religion that is the custom with the Christians hereabouts, for I suppose they are true Christians, since they call themselves by the name. There are very few in this neighborhood, so far as I can tell, who really desire the salvation of their neighbors and friends, and who feel they are on this earth to be a blessing in their own place, and among their own people.
“There must be a clean break with the old things and the old ways. ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ says the book about the Christian, and there never will be prosperity until the Christian be out and out for God.
“Now this is how the change has come in me. My wife and I had heard of God’s work in different places, saving souls, and we had read of the power of His Spirit with His word, so we got talking to different Christians, living near, about it, in the hope that we all might seek for the Holy Spirit’s work in our villages. However, save two or three, none seemed interested in such work.
“It was about the time of which I am speaking that God sent a dear servant of His to pay a visit to this hamlet, and it was to my house this servant of His came! This made my eyes fill with tears, for here was I, entertaining one of God’s servants just as my father had done before me! That visit we shall never forget. We had grand meetings in and out of doors. Some of the roughest and the wildest men, and some of the worst drunkards in the village were seen upon their knees. They were convicted of sin, and now, many of them live to show by their changed lives what God has done for their souls. That visit has taught us men to go on our own selves looking to God to give the power and the blessing; it has taught us to trust in God to work His work; to look to Him by His Spirit to answer our prayers, humble as these prayers are. And now, we pilots, and former poachers, and drunkards, find that on our knees crying to God, and believing on Him, we may―yes, and we do! ―receive His blessing.
“It is not that such a man as myself can preach a sermon: I don’t try, nor, so far as I know, do any of us; while as for getting a speech ready beforehand, that would be of no use for me, or them like me. What we do is this, we just ask God to fill us with His Spirit, and then we read a verse or chapter, and let it come out of the heart as God puts it in.
“And are we not full of joy? Christian life is all new to us now. Why, seeing God save your friends and neighbors must make you happy! Filling your heart with what Jesus has done for your soul must make you happy! And in the villages round, God has saved some of the roughest and the worst. Not that there are not plenty more rough ones, and plenty more drunkards to be saved yet, but we are looking to God to go on with His work. He is doing great things in our day by the simplest means, and we earnestly pray to be kept alive, and awake to the movements of His hand.”