"YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN" TWICE-BORN
MEN
TRUE
CONVERSION
RECORDS OF~100 WELL - KNOWN
MEN IN ALL
RANKS OF LIFECompiled by
HY. PICKERING
A Harley Street Specialist
DR. A. T. SCHOFIELD, for long known as a famous
Harley St. Specialist, author of "Nerves in Dis-
order," 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 bed-
room. 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 re-
turned 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, ‘O 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; ‘I am
sorry you are not a Christian.’ What was I to do? I was
in a terrible dilemma, when, in a moment, the HolySpirit
flashed into my mind the words, ‘if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised [H]im 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 hap-
pened?’ 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 inde-
scribable."