TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Harley Street Specialist
DR A.T. SCHOFIELD, for long known as a famous Harley St. Specialist, author of “Nerves in Disorder,” and numerous medical works, was converted when a boy of fifteen, at Rhyl, North ‘Wales. His story, as told by himself, is as follows: “As a new schoolboy I went upstairs to get ready for dinner, and found my bedroom. There were two beds, and the boy who was to occupy one was busy dressing. Hearing me enter, he turned round, and having asked me if I was the new boy, said, with no further preamble, Are you a Christian?’ I answered without hesitation, ‘No, I am not.’ The boy stared at me. ‘But would you not like to be one?’ he asked timidly. ‘It’s no use liking,’ I said scornfully, ‘I know well I never shall be a Christian.’
“As I had a slight cold, I went to bed early, while they were all at the meeting. When my young mentor returned I shammed sleep, for I wanted no more of his talk, so, saying his prayers first, he soon turned in, and off he went to sleep. ‘That’s all very well, my fine fellow,’ I said, glancing at him, ‘you can go to sleep, and I cannot, for you’re all right and I’m all wrong.’ So I lay and tossed, thinking it a strange thing that God should look down, as truly I believed He did, into that little room, and see two boys on two beds, one all right, and the other all wrong. I tossed about with uneasy snatches of sleep, until nearly two a.m., asking myself why I could not quietly rest like that boy? Suddenly there came to my consciousness, rather than my mind, the words, ‘Because you don’t take it.’ And then came my ‘Heavenly vision,’ which, after all, was rather prosaic. ‘Take what?’ I said; and as I lay I saw in my mind that I was very sick of a mortal disease, and that by the bedside was a table and upon it a bottle of medicine, which I was perfectly sure would cure me. And there was I asking, ‘Why am I not cured? Why am I not cured?’ And the answer was, ‘Because you won’t take it.”My word,’ I said,’if that is all, I’ll soon be well, for take it I will and now.’
“And then I saw that my sickness meant my state, and that this alone was the cause of my sleeplessness. The remedy was clearly belief—true, personal belief in Christ my Saviour. ‘Well, if that’s all,’ I said, ‘I won’t wait another moment.’ But how was I to do it? Of course I had known the Gospel story since I could speak, but it had never seemed to me the least good. I could not take it as I could medicine, then I saw that taking it meant believing. But the Spirit of God was hovering over that young boy, for I thought I cannot do better than settle it now. So I knelt up in my bed, and solemnly and from my heart, said aloud, ‘ 0 God, I take Thy Son Jesus Christ to be my Saviour this night,’ and feeling I could do no more, I dropped asleep.
“Next morning I went downstairs to breakfast, the boys having left, and I was alone with the master. ‘We were praying for you last night,’ said the master; am sorry you are not a Christian.’ What was I to do? I was in a terrible dilemma, when, in a moment, the Holy Spirit flashed into my mind the words, ‘ If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God halls raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved’ (Rom. 10. 9). I had clearly done the second and it only remained for me to do the first. So without one particle of feeling, I said, ‘But I am one.’ You a Christian?’ the master said incredulously. ‘But you told us you were not .”No more I was last night,’ I said. ‘But when did you become one ?’ he said, completely puzzled. ‘About two o’clock this morning,’ I replied. ‘But who spoke to you?’ he asked. ‘No one,’ I said, and then, after a pause, ‘unless it was God.’ ‘But what happened?’ So I told him all, and then demanded if that made me a Christian. ‘It does,’ he said, and immediately I was filled and flooded with a wave of joy perfectly indescribable.”