LORD ADALBERT PERCY CECIL, son of the Second
Marquis of Exeter, had a remarkable conversion.
An officer in the Royal Rifle Brigade, he was on leave
from Canada, where his regiment was quartered. He
visited his mother, the Marchioness of Exeter, and his
sister, Lady Victoria Cecil, at Brighton, where they were
staying on a visit.
At that time Lord Adalbert was a man of the world,
very headstrong and determined. His sister, Lady
Victoria, was going to take Holy Communion, and in-
vited her brother to join her. He replied brusquely,
"I won't." His mother interposed the remark
to this
effect, that he was right to decline, as he was not in a fit
state to partake of the [Ordinance]. To his mother's dis-
tress, he then said as brusquely, "Then I just
will."
He accompanied his sister in this defiant state of mind.
The unexpected happened. As he partook of the Lord's
Supper he testified that he had a vivid vision of the
Saviour on the Cross. His heart was softened,
and he was
converted there and then.
However, he had not peace
with God as yet. With great
energy and determination
he threw himself into the Christian life. He was out-
and-out.
He took to reading the Scriptures with zest. This
was to stand him in good stead. One day in winter,
the snow lying thick on the ground, riding at the head of
his troops, his soul in exercise,
longing to be clear of fears
and doubts, a passage he had lately read came into his
mind, surely by the power of God's Holy Spirit: "Thy
righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done
great things: O God, who is like unto [T]hee" (Psa. 71. 19).
In a moment he was in all the liberty and joy of the
Gospel. He said to himself,
"If God's righteousness is
very high, then I am as high as His righteousness." He
was lifted in a moment out of the valley of doubts and
fears to the mountain top of assurance, peace, and joy.
Determined henceforth to give himself to the work
of the Lord, he resigned his position
in the army. A [close
friend] of Queen Victoria, she was so distressed at the step
he took, that it is said she sent for him, and that she
heard the Gospel from his lips. Doubtless she would not
understand why an officer in her army should turn into
an unordained preacher. Unordained! did we say!
Ordained surely by the only ordination that counts, the
ordination of Heaven, the ordination of the pierced hands,
as a very fruitful afterlife demonstrated.
When only 38, he was drowned in a boating accident in
the Bay of Quinte, in 1889, when aiming at rescuing a
young man who was with him, he lost his own life.