William MacKay was brought up in the wilds of Scotland, and when he came to Edinburgh to train as a doctor, his mother gave him a Bible in which she had written his name and hers.
It was not long before he rejected her faith. In fact he came to despise Christianity. However, he did take a liking to whiskey. He soon ran out of money. In order to get some cash, he pawned the Bible.
Despite his drink problem he became a successful surgeon. He still hated the Christian faith.
One day a man was brought into the hospital who had been crushed in an accident. The proud surgeon loved such a challenge. When he met the man he could not get over how peaceful this man was. The patient told Mackey that he trusted Jesus, and he was not afraid to die.
He asked Mackey how serious things were. The surgeon said that there was little he could do, he had at most three hours to live.
'Thank you, doctor. In my pocket is a two-week pay packet: please could you make sure that my landlady gets that to pay for my lodgings? And could you get her to send me the book?' He explained that his landlady would know what book he meant.
Mackey hardly ever went back to the ward after he had finished with a patient, but he went back because he was intrigued about how peaceful the man had been. The nurse informed Mackey that he had died a few minutes earlier. Then Mackey asked if he had managed to get the book. He asked what kind of book it was. Was it a bank book perhaps?
The nurse told him that the book was under his pillow. Mackey went to the pillow and saw a Bible that looked strangely familiar. He opened it, and there on the flyleaf he was startled to read his own name and the name of his mother, together with the verse of Scripture she had given him all those years earlier. This was the very Bible he had pawned for whiskey.
He hid the Bible under his coat, ran to his office, fell on his knees and asked God into his life.
No comments:
Post a Comment