A Famous Temperance Orator
JOHN B. GOUGH, known world-wide as an orator
and
temperance reformer, thus writes concerning his
early days and the brightest day:
"Oh, that mother of mine! She was one of
Christ's
nobility, and she possessed a patent signed and sealed
with His redeeming Blood! She was poor in
purse, but
rich in piety; a brave, godly woman! She died a pauper
and was buried without a shroud and without a prayer;
but she left her children a legacy that has made them
wealthier than peers and princes! I remember one night,
towards the close of her life, sitting with her in the garret,
and we had no candle.
"She said to me, John,
I am growing blind; I don't
feel it much; but you are young, and it is hard for you
to have a poor, blind mother. But never mind, John;
there is no night in Heaven and no
need of any candle
there; the Lamb is the light
thereof!
"All at once it seemed as if the very light she
left as
she passed had spanned the dark chasm of those seven
dreadful years, struck the heart, and opened it. The
passages of Scripture that she had
taught me, and that had
been buried in my memory, came to me as if they were
being whispered in my ear by the loving lips of my mother
herself. [H]e is able also to save them to the
uttermost
that come
unto God by [H]im
(Heb. 7. 25). It is the very thing I
need! I want to be saved--I
cannot save myself--He is
able to save to the uttermost!--
Then He is the Saviour
for me!"
|
|