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The story
is told of a young dockworker who heard a minister named Henderson deliver a
sermon based on Romans 5:1. Although impressed with the truth that one can
have peace with God only through the merits of the Lord Jesus, he did not
trust Him as his personal Savior. The next day that man joined the crew and
sailed on the steamship London.
A short time later it met with disaster on the high seas. Several months
passed, and a sailor came to the clergyman and inquired, "Are you Pastor
Henderson?" "Yes, I am," he replied. "I've come to tell
you that I talked and prayed with a young man on board the London who had
heard you preach on Romans 5:1. He was concerned about his soul but didn't
quite understand the plan of salvation. I finished what you began and led him
to the Savior. Only a few minutes later we were shipwrecked, and he and I
were told to launch one of the lifeboats. While doing so, he said to me,
'Mate, if you get to shore, be sure and tell Pastor Henderson that I've been
saved.' Somehow he failed to get into the lifeboat in time, and we had to row
away immediately to keep from being capsized by the suction of the sinking
ship. The last I saw of him, he was up in the rigging of the doomed vessel,
waving his hat and shouting to me above the noise of the waters, 'Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ!'"
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