"The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked"
(Jer. 17:9). The truthfulness of this scripture has been verified in my
life. For more than twenty years I lived a most shameful life to satisfy
the desires of my wicked heart. I have learned that the more a person
yields to the sinful desires of the heart, the more wicked he becomes.
Many times during my early school days I yielded to the tempter and
played truant and ofttimes concluded that it was too hot to study and
yielded to the suggestion to go for a swim in the pond, regardless of
consequences. After playing truant the first time, I found a repetition
of the act much easier, until finally my parents became disgusted with
me and sent me away to work, and I have worked ever since that time.
While in the coal-mines, I received many hard knocks and bumps, and my
education neglected; whereas, had I not yielded to my wilfulness and
the deceitful desires of my heart in the beginning, I might have had a
splendid education and today be the possessor of a responsible position.
On my fifteenth birthday I took my first drink, yielding to the
temptation of taking my dinner-pail and getting ten cents' worth of beer
to drink beneath a shady tree. Oh, that God would have taken me before
it ever touched my lips! I am unable to relate all my experiences since
I took my first drink, but would say that I have suffered beyond measure
and have paid a great price for my folly. It has robbed me of my
character, reputation, friends, a beloved wife, and four beautiful
children--three boys and a girl--whom I loved more than my own life.
After drink had robbed me of all that was dear to my heart, then the
suggestion came for still further destruction by committing suicide. The
evil one suggested that as there was nothing left worthy a continuation
of my life, it were better to end it all and find sweet rest in the
grave. I was cast into prison, and the way before me truly seemed dark.
While I was serving a prison sentence I learned there was help for me
through the salvation of Jesus Christ. It was in the Bible that I
learned that the Lord would create within me a new heart if I would only
let him in, and "old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new." I thought that I was too far gone to be forgiven, but the
words found in Isa. 1:18 gave me assurance: "Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." These words were to me what a life-preserver is
to a drowning person. I grasped them with a trembling heart and found
peace to my soul.
Now, instead of destroying my own life by committing suicide and seeking
rest in the grave, as Satan had often suggested, I found sweet rest to
my soul in turning to Jesus, and the most earnest desire of my heart is
to serve him and do that which is pleasing in his sight. Now it is a
pleasant pastime, a joy and pleasure, to read the Bible and religious
books, tracts, and papers, whereby I can learn more of the beauties of a
life of salvation. May God help sinners everywhere to seek him while he
may be found.