TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Noted Gambler
BROWNLOW NORTH was well known in Scotland as a successful soul-winner fifty years ago. Up till the age of 44 he was a “stranger to the grace of God,” Though the son of a Church of England clergyman and the grandson of a bishop, he lived a gay and godless life, and was well known as a leader in sin and folly. When 44 years old he was deeply convicted of sin.
We give the story of his awakening as told by himself to a number of students in 1862: “It pleased God,” he said, “in the month of November, 1854, one night when I was sitting playing at cards, to make me concerned about my soul. The instrument used was a sensation of sudden illness which led me to think I was going to die. I said to my son, ‘I am a dead man; take me upstairs.’ As soon as this was done I threw myself down on my bed. My first thought then was, ‘Now, what will my forty-four years of following the devices of my own heart profit me? In a few moments I will be in Hell, and what good will all these things do me for which I have sold my soul?’ At that moment I felt constrained to pray, but it was merely the prayer of a coward—a cry for mercy. I was not sorry for what I had done, but I was afraid of the punishment of my sin.”
For months he “wrestled” and “strove” to obtain salvation, not knowing that God was completely and perfectly satisfied on account of sin through the work which Christ accomplished on Calvary’s Cross. One night in deep soul trouble he rose from his bed, and opening his Bible, read a portion of the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. As he read the twentieth and following verses light began to break in on his darkened spirit. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” How, then, could he be justified? If his deeds could not justify him, of what use were his prayers and tears? Then he read the wondrous life-giving words: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of (or in) Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.” The light of the glorious Gospel streamed into his soul. “Striking my Book with my hand,” he said, “and springing from my chair, I cried, ‘ If that Scripture is true I am a saved man. That is what I want ; that is what God offers me; that is what I have.’ God helping me, it was that I took: the righteousness of God without the Law. It is my only hope.”