Frank Thomas Bullen

“ Now, if this were all that these reasoners said, one might remind them, or inform them gently, that they were only partially right—that while it is undoubtedly blessedly true that early influences for good do exert themselves most forcefully and unexpectedly in after years in a large number of cases, yet it is most untrue and God-dishonoring to suggest that Christianity is purely a matter of education, of environment, of a long acquaintance with religious persons and matters. ”

“ One of the most striking instances of this wonderful work of God in the soul that has ever come under my notice is that of a sailor who, strange as it may seem to-day, had never, until the time of which I speak, received the remotest idea of the relations of God to man, and had not the faintest conception of religion of any kind. ”

“ He’s been waiting for your proud heart to bend down and own that it wants Him—can’t do without Him. Oh, Jemmy, how He loves you! Your mother and father love you, and are heartbroken over you, no doubt, but He, your Father God, loves you from everlasting to everlasting, and spared not His own Son, that you might be made welcome to His peace, that you might know how happy a child of God can be who [29] has found out from God Himself how much He is longed and waited for. ”

“ So far from this being the case, it is a truism with Christian workers that very frequently their most hopeful converts have [9] been those who never heard the Gospel before, or at least had never listened to it with the slightest attention, even though they may have actually caught the tones of the preacher’s voice. To such simple ones the Water of the Word of Grace comes like the monsoon rains upon the burnt-up breadths of India, causing the apparently dead soil to put on at once a glorious garment of living green, life-giving, life-sustaining, beautifying and blessing all around it. ”

“ I don’t know anything, except that God the Father is my Father, that God the Son is my Saviour, who died that I might live, and that God the Holy Ghost, whose work it is to impress these wonderful matters on men’s hearts, is always at hand arranging the time, the messenger, and the message. ”

“ And the influence of the hour, amid all the eternal immensity of the environment, made for breathless awe, silent involuntary worship of the unseen yet palpably present God.
Suddenly the new-comer spoke quietly, yet with a certain force, as if unable to hold his peace any longer. “Jemmy, lad, don’t ye feel as if we was a-sailing inter the very presence of Almighty God—as if He wanted t’ show men ’at won’t think, how glorious He is, an’ how great is His peace?” ”

“ Some of you have never had a home, yet this Friend has been for nearly two thousand years preparing a home for you that is beyond all your hopes, beyond everything that you can imagine. Some of you have never in your lives had any real joy; this Friend has in His right hand for you pleasures for evermore, and in His presence there is fulness of joy. He can and will do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. ”

“ Immediately the Christian, following his Master’s example, took a quick stride to the [28] youth, and laying his hand upon the trembling shoulder, said softly: “Dear boy, let ’em run. They’re a sign that your heart ain’t got too hard yet to feel the sweet influence that God puts out to win His wandering ones back. But if there’s anything I can do to help you, do let me, won’t you?”
He came nearer as he spoke, until his arm was round Jemmy’s neck. And then he waited patiently until the broken words came: “I—I—feel so miserable. I’ve forgotten my mother and father, my home and my God. ”

“ There are many exceedingly clever and well-educated persons who would have their readers believe that in all cases where a man or woman has become a Christian, and from serving the devil has turned and consistently served God, the change has been due to early impressions, which, accidentally encrusted over for a term, have been suddenly revived in all their pristine force, and have compelled the mind back into the channels in which it was originally taught to move. ”

“ It would be impossible to convey to people living sheltered lives on shore how terrible were the physical sufferings of the poor lad now, bruised from head to heel, shaking from illness brought on by his excesses, yet compelled to toil in superhuman fashion under pain of being savagely beaten again. ”

“ Then and there Jemmy slid down to his knees, [30] and lifting his streaming face to heaven he murmured, “O God my Father, forgive me my sins, and make me what I ought to be. Dear Jesus, put your own precious life into me and drive the unclean life out. I do believe in you, my Saviour, because you compel me to by your love. Teach me your way—I’ll make it mine. Bless my poor father and mother at home, and let me get back and comfort them ”

“ Those people who are always striving to trace back to a man’s early training or surroundings the real reason for any startling change in his life after he has long grown up, and do not believe in what the Bible calls the New Birth, must often be sorely puzzled. They seek for that which they wish to find, and often ignore any evidence which militates against their preconceived theories. ”

“ The recital would, I know, arouse an almost frantic feeling of resentment that such things should have been possible such a handful of years ago, and readers would forget that, by the blessing of God, men’s hearts to-day, even in the lowest strata of our society, have been marvellously softened towards children. ”

“ I know now it’s what I been wantin’ all my life.”
“Gently, my dear brother,” said the preacher, “you can’t buy it. He bought it with His blood to give it to you, and you can’t pay anything for it.”
“Why, I never had anythink give me in my life,” said Johnny. “’T ain’t right. Everythink’s got ter be paid for, and I’m going ter pay for this. I’m no beggar, if I am a bit of a thief when I gets the chance.” ”

“ So it is when, after long buffeting the gale that is blowing fair for home, because the captain is uncertain of his position and dares not run before it, the pilot comes on board, orders the helm to be put up, and the good ship fleeing homeward with a fair wind seems to have suddenly sprung into fine weather. ”

“ At last, in the course of his wanderings, he came to Calcutta, and was enticed by a shipmate up to the Sailors’ Rest in the Radha Bazaar one Sunday evening, when he had neither money nor credit wherewith to get drink. ”