A Noted Gambler
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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 g. 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 sal-
vation, not knowing that God was completely and per-
fectly 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.
"[B]y the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified
in [H]is 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."
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