I WAS sitting in a retired spot when I heard a voice singing the hundred and sixteenth Psalm, and I felt disposed at once to join in the strain. I did so, when the third verse was ended, and I was overheard; for though no answer was given, a few seconds afterwards I saw an officer, who came up to me, and holding out his hand, said, “We are both of one mind, sir.” The speaker wore the ornaments of two different orders. He seemed about forty years of age, with a masculine, weather-beaten countenance, but his eyes, which were fixed on me, expressed much tenderness of feeling.
“Amen,” I replied. “Let us sit down together, and converse of the subject we both love—on what the Lord Jesus has done for our souls.”
“It is long since I have heard such a request made to me,” said the officer. “It does me good. I come from a distance. Business has brought me far from home; but here is an unexpected refreshment for me.”
“Are you a native of France?” I asked. “You sing in French, and you speak that language fluently.”
“My mother was a native of Nismes, in the south of France, and she early taught me the Psalms she had been used to sing.”
“Then she was a Protestant—probably one of those ancient families who preferred the Word of God to their homes and even to their lives.”
“She had often listened to the Word preached in the wilderness, from the lips of one of her own parents, and she knew the Saviour well. I say she knew Him, and she has now been with Him for the last five years. What a blessing it is when God gives a pious mother! Whenever my heart draws near to God I think of her, for she first taught me to know Him. But how remarkable it is that two strangers like ourselves should converse thus freely, and that you, my dear sir, should feel this interest in my concerns.”
I said, “This proves the truth and the nature of the work of God’s Spirit in the heart, because throughout the world all whom He renews are led by the same teaching, and united by the same life, to the same Saviour, and prepared for that eternal world in which they will form but one family.”
“The world knows nothing of these ties of brotherhood by which Jesus Himself makes His presence to be felt in our hearts.”
“You seem long to have been a follower of the Saviour,” I remarked.
“Pray do not think so, or give me any honour to which I have no claim. You would take care not to praise me if you knew what I have been, and done, and how I have forsaken and denied my Saviour. Never was His mercy more fully bestowed. My story is my shame; nevertheless it tends to the glory of God.”
At my request he proceeded:—”My father was a man of some rank and influence. He intended me for the Bar, and after receiving the rudiments of my education at school, under the wing of my parents—especially of my kind and pious mother—I was sent at the age of nineteen to the university, for the purpose of studying the law. I believe I was then sincere in my religious profession, and for a year or two I regularly observed seasons for prayer and exercises of devotion. But by degrees—at first unconsciously, and afterwards when fully aware of it—I left off the reading of the Bible, and afterwards my prayers; and at last the examples, the invitations, and manifold temptations of those with whom I then associated, drew me away from God, from His Word, and worship, and I became at length what those around me were—a friend of the world, a worldly-minded man, a fool, as the Scriptures declare.
“I was not happy then, I knew no real peace or satisfaction; I was a terror to myself. I pretended to be merry, to be fully engrossed, and I hurried into the vortex of pleasures, to which I was drawn by my youth and external advantages on the one hand, and on the other by the smiles and applause of all those among whom I lived, whatever might be their age or sex. I nevertheless felt a secret uneasiness, a sensation of self-reproach, which I vainly endeavoured to resist. Still, God watched over me, but I rebelled against Him, and I pursued my course without hesitation or repentance.
“My mother, as you will suppose, soon observed my backsliding, and by her letters, her precious letters, she ceased not to urge me to return to Jesus, and no longer to resist Him who had been the friend of my childhood. I sigh and mourn to think of the concern which my folly occasioned her. I know that I have been forgiven by her, and by God also; but, oh! how many blows, how many wounds, I inflicted on the heart of her who only sought my happiness; and who, day and night, watched over me with prayers and tears. I must be brief. Suffice it to say, that when I reached the age of twenty-six, I was in the sight of God as a madman, or like the horse which spurns the bridle, rushes furiously into the battle, and falls, being wounded suddenly from every quarter. I might have perished too, but God, our own God, preserved me, and accomplished His gracious purposes. Long did He wait, and at the very time the devil would have brought me to ruin, God humbled me, and pierced my heart, and I, like him that was possessed with ‘the legion,’ was again clothed, and restored to my right mind in the following manner:—
“I had taken my degree, and entered on the duties of my profession, when, in one of my fits of ungovernable passion, I had a quarrel, which ended in a challenge to a duel with one whom I thoroughly hated, as I regarded him as a rival. Our combat (why not call it our mutual purpose of assignation?) was to take place in secret. I spent a whole day and night in preparing for it, and still I could not look forward to it without horror. Not that I dreaded either being wounded or killed, for I was unfeeling, and my heart was hardened. But, sir, my Bible frightened me. I had laid it aside in a closet, and to this closet I went to seek the sword with which I intended to meet my opponent. Now, pray attend. I opened the closet—it was nearly midnight—I climbed a chair, and reached to the highest shelf, feeling for my sword, when I laid my hand on my Bible. A sudden chill ran through my veins, and without any time for deliberation, I took the Bible, opened it, and, still standing on the chair, I read the roth Psalm, which was the first passage on which my eyes rested. Then, sir, the voice of the Lord once more resounded through the dark recesses of my soul. I read with breathless eagerness, and still I went on reading, though my uneasiness increased till I came to this verse, ‘Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.’
“I felt confounded, and throwing myself prostrate on the floor of my room, I sobbed aloud and groaned, praying for pardon from God for the sake of Jesus. I dared not rise. I was afraid even to look up. I felt that the eye of God was upon me, and my sorrow is not to be described. The tortured criminal does not suffer what I then felt, and about an hour passed away, at the end of which time I felt somewhat more calm, and sat down, still holding my Bible in my hand. God had thus rescued me. The prayers of my poor mother were heard, and my sinful soul was restored to the narrow way of life, which, indeed, I had never totally forgotten, though I had in so great a degree trodden under foot the truths I had learned, seeking to crush them as I should a serpent.”
“What followed? My duel was a painful subject, and I resolved to give it up. But this was not all, I was filled with sympathy for him whom I had regarded as my adversary, and I longed to make this known to him, and also to those who were to have been the witnesses of our crime. The day began to dawn, and the hour for our meeting arrived. My companions came to seek me; but I had gone on first, and hastened to the wood, which had been the place chosen for the duel. I reached it first, and felt that the Lord was graciously present with me. My adversary, accompanied by his seconds and mine, arrived there, and perceiving me, he cried out, ‘Here I am, make ready.’ I answered seriously, but with much feeling, ‘I am ready in the presence of God to ask pardon of you, if I have offended you, and to forgive you any wrong you may have done to me.’ ‘Coward! scoundrel!’ he exclaimed, ‘this is your meanness!’
“‘You need not insult me,’ I added, ‘I speak in the presence of God, who sees us both. He has humbled me, and touched my heart, and I repent, and acknowledge my folly before Him, and entreat you also to fear Him, and no longer reject His mercy.’ Here the companion of my adversary came up to me, and taking my hand, asked me if I were a Christian. ‘I am,’ I answered, ‘and for this reason my sword shall remain in its sheath. If your friend has any complaint against me, let him mention it, and it shall be repaired. Moreover, I will not stand in the way of his pretension, which caused this quarrel.’
“Thus, sir, God prevailed. The contest was dropped, and I returned to the town, urging my companions no longer to live in rebellion against God. I know not if they yielded to my entreaties, for I left the town shortly afterwards, and had no further intercourse with them. But I cannot describe the joy of my pious mother when she saw me to be such as she desired, and felt that the infinite love and mercy of the Lord had been manifested towards me.”
“Not long after this I was called upon by Government for military service on behalf of my country. The Lord has blessed me. His precious Word has daily become more valuable to me, and as you are aware, I love the hundred and sixteenth Psalm, and find much in it to describe the manner in which God has dealt with me. Where should I have been had not God given me such a mother? But let me look higher. Her love is but a faint shadow of the everlasting love of God; to Him be all the praise ascribed.”
“My brother,” I answered, “if we could thus daily look back upon the way in which God has led and guided and preserved us, we should feel the same cause for thankfulness with which you acknowledge your entrance on this path.”
“And where,” said the officer, “is the haughty and cold spirit of those who think that it is in the power of man to keep alive his own soul by his own feelings toward God? Assuredly I was found by Christ when I sought Him not. There was nothing in me by which I laid hold on eternal life; but the Giver of life eternal laid hold on me. The Father, who keeps us by His power, who abideth faithful, and who has daily bound me to Him by the cords of His love, has again and again, by His Spirit, caused me to hear the voice of His dear Son. To Him I owe all my comforts in this life and in that which is to come.”
The officer ceased, and when we had read a part of the Word of God and prayed together, I felt that there may be on earth a foretaste of heavenly joy. The fellowship of Christians is a part of that spiritual bliss which is far above the concerns of time and sense—as the refreshment of breathing the clear mountain air and beholding the lofty summits of the Alps, renders it painful to the traveller to descend to tread the dusty roads of the plain or the crowded streets of the city.