CHAPTER XXVI. HOW LONG HAVE YOU TO LIVE? So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.-Ps. xc. 12. A MAN who had to pass near the place of our openair meeting on his way from his work to his home, one evening stopped a little while from curiosity to listen. He took nothing away with him, but "How long have you to live?" He went home and told his wife where he had been, and that a man who was speaking had asked, "How long have you to live?" "I don't know," she said; "No," he said, " and I don't know ;" and there their talk about the matter ended. They had their supper and went to bed. But "How long have you to live?" kept sounding in his ears. He tried to shake it off, but the more he tried the more it fastened itself on him, till he could bear it no longer, but had to get out of bed and kneel down and cry aloud to God to have mercy on him and show him how to be ready for death, as he felt now that he could not tell how near it might not be, and knew that he was not in his present state ready for it. His wife asked him what he was making that noise about, and called him a fool and a hypocrite, and told him to come into bed again; but this was only like the rebuke to the poor blind man sitting begging by the wayside for calling out so loud to our Lord Jesus for mercy as he heard Him passing by (Luke xviii. 38, 39); and so, like him, he only "cried so much the more," till the Lord "inclined unto "him" and heard " his "cry" and enlightened the eyes of his understanding to see the Lord Jesus by faith as his sin-bearer, and his readiness for death," and put the new song in " his " mouth, even praise unto our God" (Ps. xl. 1-3; Eph. i. 18), and he got into bed again a happy child of God by faith in his Son (Gal. iii. 26), with his mind at perfect peace (Is. xxvi. 3), as to that question of how long he had to live, knowing that he was now safe in our Lord's hands as one of his sheep (John x. 28) for life or death. He was one of the converts who came to the Sunday morning Bible class spoken of in a former chapter. He could scarcely read at all, but was eager now to get on with the reading of the Bible. When he got through his verse in the reading round he used to say with lively thankfulness Glory be to God!" 66 He became a useful helper immediately in our open-air and other meetings, though not a speaker in them. After a time circumstances led to my seeing but little of him, but all I have heard of him has made me believe that he lived in a quiet unobtrusive way as a faithful Christian; and I have just now heard of his dying as he lived, the report of him by those with whom he had lodged for a considerable time before his death being :-"Ah! he was a Christian." CHAPTER XXVII. FOUND OF ONE WHO SOUGHT HIM NOT. I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.—Rom. x. 20. THE course of open-air meetings in which the one referred to in the last chapter took place had been begun on Christmas-day, of all days of the year to begin work in the open air. The day being a lovely one, a Christian worker thought it a pity not to have a trial of open-air work; and when he began some others joined him, and they got on so well that they gave notice of a meeting in the evening of another day, and then in that meeting gave notice for another evening, and so on till the meetings were being held every evening, and the weather being very mild and open they continued to be so held through the winter and spring, and into the summer, and the Lord manifested his presence blessedly in them by the conversion of several dear souls who were, humanly speaking, most unlikely ones to be reached by any of the regular Christian work in the churches and chapels. One evening the Christian worker who was responsible for conducting the meetings was hurrying down the lane which led to the place of the meeting, looking at the hymnbook and trying to hum one or two of the tunes, in case, as often happened, there should be nobody able to start the hymns. There was a strong young man with a bright colour, as if fresh up from the country, sauntering down the lane, and as the Christian worker passed him humming one of the tunes, he struck up with his powerful voice some common worldly song; not in derision, but the sound of the hymn tune had made him think of singing, and so he began one of the songs he was used to sing. The Christian worker turning quickly upon him, gave him the hymnbook, saying, "There, take that, you'll find something better worth singing there," and then hurried on to the place of the meeting, leaving the young man coming on towards it at his much slower pace. He found scarcely any there as yet but a few children, and had difficulty, as he had feared, in getting the first hymn started to publish the meeting and begin to draw hearers to it. Presently the young man reached the bottom of the lane close to the place of the meeting, and the leader called out to him, "Come and help us to sing; I know you can, for I heard you just now." Partly out of good-nature, but chiefly, as he told us afterwards, because he thought it would be "such a lark" for him to be seen singing hymns in the open air, he came over to try and help in the singing, which he was able to do, not only because of his practice in worldly songs, but also because he had as a boy been a singer in the church choir in the place which he came from in the country. But it pleased God in the course of the meeting to direct his way one of his "arrows" which "are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under him" (Ps. xlv. 5), and he could not get it out, but had to go away with it sticking fast in him. 66 He came again the next evening, but in a very different spirit from that in which he had come the evening before—all his boldness gone, and no thought now of a lark," but watching for a while at a distance till enough people were gathered together to enable him to come without being observed. And now it pleased God to deepen yet more the impression made on him the previous evening. The next evening he came again, and God so ordered it that there came to that meeting one of the converts in the "revival" spoken of in some previous chapters who had proved a very powerful open-air speaker, and whom therefore the leader of the meeting at once set to speak. The young man was yet more deeply impressed. The speaker gave out near the end of the meeting the hymn beginning: "Come to the Saviour, come to the Saviour, Thou sin-stricken offspring of man; He left his throne above to reveal his wondrous love, He gave out the hymn verse by verse till he came to the last one: "I do believe it, I do believe it, I'm saved through the blood of the Lamb; My happy soul is free, for the Lord hath pardoned me, And at this verse, he said, in a commanding manner, The poor young man, of whose state the speaker knew nothing, but the blessed Spirit knew all about |