THE KING’S BUSINESS
462
ed to him the way of salvation, that they were the means of his conversion. And from that day, nearly fifty years before, he had, by God’s grace, as a result of those four lines, led a conse crated life for Christ. The lines, he said, Were':— In peace let me resign my breath, And Thy salvation see! My sins deserve eternal death— But Jesus died for me! “ ‘You can imagine,’ said he, ‘my amazement, as well as my delight, when I heard you tell the story about the lines. You brought back to me the wonderful way in which God was pleased to save my soul.’ “It was not long after that I was sent for to visit this old gentleman in a sickness which gradually grew more serious. One of the last things he did before he died was to take my hand affectionately and ask me, as his clergyman, to do him a favor, and that was, that at his funeral and over his coffin I would tell the story of the lines, in the hope that the prayer of a dying man might be answered, and that they might be a blessing to many souls more. Soon afterward he died, and at his funeral I told the story of the stanza that had transformed so many lives. : “I ended by saying that it was the “The secret of the wonderful power that resides in these lines cannot be told. It may be that they were writ ten in prayer and watered by tears of love. I only know that when I told this story in a. vacation service in one of the charming hotels in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, last sum mer, an American gentleman, a promi nent New Yorker, was so deeply im pressed that he said, after hearing the words: ‘I have rarely heard any thing that made such an impression upon me. Never in my life before have I so clearly grasped the way of salvation through faith in the Cruci fied.’ May they become the confes sion of faith of all who hear and all who read!” The Hon. John Wanamaker’s Account of How He was Converted A T AN afternoon meeting during the Torrey-Alexander campaign in Philadelphia, Mr. Alexander wish .of the dear old man on his dy ing bed that the words, which would be distributed as his last,memorial to all present, might become a blessing to their souls. And as each one passed from the house of mourning he re ceived a card, elegantly printed in pur ple, with the name and age and burial date of that old saint of God, and on the other side the never-to-be-forgot- ten words:—I In peace let me resign my breath, And Thy salvation see! My. sins deserve eternal death— But Jesus died for me!
was at a prayer meeting there one night, where there were perhaps 200 persons. There was no Alexander there to sing; I tell you, there’s only one, bless him!” At this point Mr. Wanamaker put his arm around the gospel singer, saying, “We are always putting our arms around you.” “It was a quiet, old-fashioned meet ing,” continued Mr. Wanamaker. “There was a handsome old man of
called upon the Hon. John Wanama ker to tell how he was converted. In response Mr. Wanamaker gave the following graphic description of how he was led to accept Christ: “I Was a country boy who had come into the,city, A salesman asked me if I wouldn’t go to his church, I
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker