A Song at Midnight
This friend was for many years an infidel, a hard drinker, a Sabbath breaker, unkind to his wife. One day, after a debauch, he went out on a stringer belonging to a wharf in process of building, drank two bottles of whisky, and lay down on the stringer, expecting to fall asleep, and roll over into the water in his sleep. He wanted to end his miserable existence, but had not the courage to do it in any other way. He did fall asleep, but did not turn over, and awoke with the stars shining in his face. He went home at midnight, saw his wife through the window still at work ironing, and heard her singing, “What a Friend we have in Jesus.” The thought came to him, “If Jesus can make my wife sing at midnight, He can make me stop drinking whiskey.” He never touched a drop of intoxicating liquor after that, and he became a sincere, trusting Christian.
The truth of the words, “Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days,” finds an illustration in this story of a writer who was