That night, as Jack Mainwaring knelt to pray, his thoughts went to the old man whom he had visited that afternoon, and who was dying in that lonely cottage by the sea. He prayed that his few feeble words could be used by the Spirit of God to bring him out of darkness into light, and that he could see how willing God was to save him.
So Jack prayed, but he never thought that those few simple words spoken in the cottage had done more than that. He never thought that the message of salvation, so briefly spoken, had been received, and gladly received, by another heart.
Norman Forester, instead of going to bed that night when he returned to his tent, walked in the starlight to the end of the headland and down onto the shore. In that quiet place, where no sound was to be heard but the lapping of the waves on the shore, he felt himself indeed alone with God. As he sat on the rocks he seemed to hear again the conversation to which he had listened in the cottage. First came his friend Jack's voice: "God loved you so much that He let His dear Son be punished instead of you."
And then the answer in the feeble whisper of the dying man: "Ay, He died on the cross, didn't He?"
"Yes, for you."
"Was it for me? Are you sure?"
"Yes, absolutely sure."
"Then what have I got to do?"
"Thank Him," said Jack.
"Thank Him?"
"Yes, tell Him you are a great sinner, and thank Him for dying instead of you, and ask Him to be your own Savoir."
"And I've never done it," said Forester aloud. "I've never thanked Him. I've lived all my life without doing it. I've pleased myself as far as I could, and I've tried to make the best of life; but I've never thanked Him."
"Was it for me? Are you sure?"
"Absolutely sure."
The words came back to Forester again and again. He got up, climbed back up the hill and paced about on the headland. He saw himself, as he had never seen himself before, a sinner in need of a Savoir. And that night he realized how ungrateful he had been. A Savoir provided for him, and at such a cost, and he had never even said, "Thank you." But he said it that night.
From that night Norman Forester's life was a consecrated life, dedicated to the service of his Lord. The same plain, unvarnished gospel message which had guided an old man, led a young doctor into light and joy and peace.