Free The Boy Patriot by Edward Sylvester Ellis Page A

so.
    Blair seized the hand of his companion, and looking into his face, said quickly, “Oh, Derry, are you really in earnest?”
    â€œBless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies,’” continued Derry with deep feeling. “He found me dead in trespasses and sins; he has given me new life in Christ Jesus. Praise and honor unto his holy name.”
    Tears rushed to the eyes of Blair Robertson. A fervent “Thank God!” was all he could utter. Blair’s whole being did indeed “magnify the Lord” at this wonderful evidence of his power. Curses had been changed to praises. The blaspheming lips had been touched by the Saviour’s hand, and taught the language of the children of God. His young servant could not but “stand in awe,” and own the might and the wonderful mercy of the King of kings.
    Derry was the first to break the solemn silence. “Those words never left me: ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,’” he said. “They stuck to me, and rang in my ears and searched every nook and cranny of my wicked heart. Often I had longed to be a Christian man for the little dear’s sake, if not for my own; but I said to myself, ‘No, Derry Duck, you are all pitch, you can’t be made white;’ and Satan helped me to hold on to that way of thinking. Your scripture gave the lie again and again to that. It seemed to say to me, You choose blackness and damnation, when God asks you to wash and be clean. What I’ve suffered these weeks, no soul out of perdition can tell. The devil clung to me. He would not let me go. He claimed me for his own. He told over to me my dark, hidden sins, and taunted me that I had gone too far to go back now. He hissed in my ear that no power could cleanse and save such as me. Then came up the words, ‘With God all things are possible,’ ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.’ ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners .’ And he has saved me . I am His . He has given me a mouth to praise him. O Blair, think of his wonderful mercy, to take poor wicked Derry Duck into the kingdom of heaven.”
    The boy’s heart throbbed and swelled with joy and praise. What was the changing of water to wine, or the calming of the stormy sea, compared to this marvellous miracle wrought in a living human soul? “He to whom much is forgiven, loveth much,” said our blessed Saviour; and in Derry this truth was abundantly verified. The Christ whose blood could wash such as he, was a Lord for whom he was willing to suffer even unto death. The mercy that could stoop to ransom such a transgressor, claimed an affection before which poor Derry’s deep love for his earthly darling paled, as the things of time fade into insignificance before the things of eternity.
    Blair had longed to see his rude shipmates forsaking their sins; he had prayed and wrestled in prayer for them. Yet now, when he saw the work begun before his eyes, he felt the faithlessness of those very prayers, and knew that they could have won no fulfilment, but for the merits of the great Intercessor in whose name they had ever been offered.
    â€œWhy should it be thought a thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead?” This question of the apostle comes with power to the Christians of our own day. Do you really believe it possible for God to raise to newness of life the dead in trespasses and sins? There is no soul so hardened that it cannot be melted to penitence by the touch of the mighty Spirit of God. Let this thought make us fervent, importunate, instant in prayer for the souls that are at death’s door and hasting to destruction.
    Can