‘£3.90p’

This is the story as that admirable man of God, F. B. Meyer, tells it: ‘I remember speaking in the Free Assembly Hall at Edinburgh, and as I was standing on the platform there in the evening I noticed a young man come into the gallery, a student, as I thought. He sat intently watching me and listening. During my address I happened to say – but why I said it I have no idea – ‘There is a man here who owes his employer £3.90p’, and unless that is repaid he will never get peace with God’. On the great staircase Professor Simpson, with whom I was staying, said to this young man, to my great surprise: ‘Will you take luncheon with Mr. Meyer tomorrow?’ He said: ‘I shall be very pleased’.

We sat together at the luncheon table and talked on indifferent matters. He said to me: ‘Are you going again to the Assembly Hall this afternoon?’ I said: ‘Certainly’, He said: ‘May I walk with you?’ and as soon as I got outside he took my arm convulsively in his and said: ‘You know me!’ ‘No’, I said: ‘I have never seen you except last night when you came into the gallery’. ‘The remarkable thing is’, he said, ‘that three years ago I took just £3.90p from my employers, I am a Christian man; it has been on my heart ever since, but I didn’t like the exposure of returning it. But here is a letter to them, and you will see the cheque inside for just the amount’. I read the letter, replaced the cheque, posted it, and as that letter passed into the pillar box, his soul rose up in a perfect hundredth psalm of thanksgiving’.

From: Harold Horton, The Gifts of the Spirit, Gospel Publishing House, Springfield, Missouri, USA, 1975, pages 49-50

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