Cited in Practical Christianity July 1927, p287, published by the Officers’ Christian Union (now the Armed Forces’ Christian Union).
I was brought up in a truly Christian family. The Bible was our constant companion, and every inducement to the leading of a true and Christian life was present.
I was commissioned in 1915. Once an officer, however, I thought that ‘normal’ amusements were unworthy of my exalted station and set about cultivating what I then considered to be manly vices. I learned to drink hard, live loosely and rapidly acquired a somewhat unsavoury reputation.
A year or so after the war, I married. I was supremely happy, and for some time I turned over a new leaf, until I met a brother officer whom I allowed to exert a tremendous influence over me. He was a confirmed drunkard, and many other worse things. I left the Army thinking, thanks to my friend’s precious promises, that I could soon make a vast income in civilian life.
My wife was heartbroken at my leaving the Service and besought me to sever my connection with my friend, but his influence was too strong and, backed by my own ideas of ‘having a good time’, I continued to consult with him and rapidly went from bad to worse.
One day whilst sitting at home wondering how to get enough money to buy food (I had even thought of burglary!), my thoughts strayed from mundane to spiritual things. Where will you finish up? What of eternity? Try as I would, I could not avoid the question. What of eternity? In a flash my past came before me, a truly awful spectacle, my future equally black. What was I to do?
I dashed upstairs and got my wife’s Bible – having lost my own years before – opening it at random I read, ‘But when He was yet a great way off, His father saw him’. A great way off, surely if ever mortal man was in that position I was. It was the last straw. I fell on my knees and wept like a child, pouring out my heart and praying to Him who was but waiting to take me in.
From that day, everything was changed. The craving for drink fell from me like a cast-off coat and has never returned. My past methods of living became abhorrent to me; even now, after five years, I can barely drive myself to speak to a drunken man.
God in His infinite mercy has led me from the gates of hell back to His glorious light. The love of my wife and children has been restored to me. Surely are his mercies more than we deserve.
‘Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen’. Ephesians 3:20-21.