TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
” Undaunted Dick “
RICHARD WEAVER, the fighting coal-miner, who became the forerunner of Moody in English Revivals, was born in 1827, and had his share of hardships in what people called “the good old days.” He went to work in the pits shortly after he was seven years of age. His mother, who was a Christian woman, would walk out with him at half-past four in the morning, accompanying him along the lane that led to the pit, encouraging him as he went. As he grew in years, amid surroundings at his work that were not helpful, he took fast hold of all that was evil, mixing with others who cursed and swore and told lies, learning to do like them. His first glass of whisky was drunk when thirteen years of age. One step led to another, and drinking and boxing became his delights, gaining for himself the name of “Undaunted Dick.” His mother was a praying woman, and never gave him up.
Eventually he left his mother’s house, being tired of her prayers and her spiritual conversation. An older brother of his, who was married and a Christian man, was insulted one day with a man at his work spitting in his face. When Richard heard of it he asked what his brother did. Learning that his brother forgave the man, Richard said, “Well, he may, but I won’t.” He went to a public-house the man frequented, challenged him to fight, and completely knocked him out.
Afterwards he went to live with his brother, and one night when lying awake in bed he heard his brother come in from a meeting. His wife asked what the text was. He replied, “What then shall I do?” Richard thought to himself, “What a funny text I” But the Spirit of God applied it to him and made him think: “What shall I do when God rises in judgment against me?” In the morning he was so troubled in his conscience that he could not go to his work, and he did not rise out of bed all day. When his brother came home from his work he thought Richard was ill, and offered to go for a doctor. But he didn’t want a doctor, he wanted forgiveness of sin.
Next morning he went off to get drink to drown conviction. After some drink he had a sparring match with a noted pugilist. But conviction held a grip of him, and at two o’clock next morning he went into a field he was engaged to fight a boxing match in , and there on his knees, in an old sand-hole, in agony he waited on the Lord. Deliverance came, for he thought he heard his mother say, though she was a hundred miles away : “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3. 16). There and then joy and peace came to his heart. When he told his sister-in-law she wouldn’t believe it, and his brother said when he came home and heard the news, “I hope it ‘s true.”
Years afterwards, when Richard was out as a preacher, he was preaching one night in a chapel when a man rose and asked to be allowed to speak. Permission being given, the man said: “The last time I saw Richard he broke my jaw, now he has broken my heart.” He was the means of leading numerous souls to the Saviour.