John 4:46-54 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman… We also sometimes meet with voices on our way which come to us as an echo of our faith. I have heard of a Colonel yon M who on account of treason to his king and country was sentenced to a long imprisonment, and who, in his solitary cell at Galatz, in Silesia, began at last to seek the living God whose image had been for so long almost obliterated within him. He was allowed to have no book except his Bible, and though at first in reading it his only feeling was inward rage and gnashing of teeth, yet by degrees he felt the soothing of God's tender hand on his desolate and comfortless heart. During a sleepless night he suddenly feels for the first time since his childhood as if he could pray. He opens the Bible, and reads these words: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15). Wherefore he calls upon God: "Lord, reveal Thyself to me, and deliver me from the misery of my unbelief." And it was granted to him to believe the word which God was speaking to him; the tender and unspeakably indulgent Lord who despises not the faintest movement of faith, had seen and rewarded the coming to Him of this miserable man. He rises from his knees comforted, convinced in his conscience that a contact had taken place between his soul and the living God, and that, further, he should get to be able to glorify God. In that same night, the king of this colonel lay on his bed tormented with pain. He prayed God for an hour of quiet sleep; he slept, and when he awoke again refreshed, he said to his wife: "God has looked upon me very graciously, and I would fain be thankful to Him for it. Who is the man in my dominions who has the most deeply injured me? — this day I will forgive that man." He considered a moment, and then he exclaimed, "Colonel M— Let him be pardoned!" When the news of his release reached the prisoner, and the doubly-pardoned man inquired the hour in which God had softened the king's heart, it was found that the same God still lives as of old, and that He still performs through His outstretched right arm what we read in. Parallel Verses KJV: So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. |
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