Sometimes it is the simplest of matters that bear the greatest fruit. A simple deed, a simple gift, a simple word can make all the difference. They can even begin a cascade that changes lives and changes the world.
Charlotte Elliot, a satirist and skeptic, had become bedridden and embittered. One day a pastor from Geneva, Switzerland passed through her town and was asked to meet with her. As he did so, he inquired about her spiritual state and told her about Christ. She scoffed, “I, a sinful creature, come to Him?” But she did! She believed the gospel the pastor shared with her and later penned a hymn that has endured to this day: “Just As I Am, Without One Plea.”
That pastor, César Malan, had been ordained many years prior. Yet at the time he was ordained, and through the opening years of his ministry, he did not know the gospel. He had been trained in the Geneva Academy which at the time had been given over to rationalism. But eventually, he had been confronted in his unbelief and converted. This conversion equipped him to share the powerful, saving gospel with Charlotte Elliot and so many others.
Malan’s conversion had come about when a Scotsman visited Geneva and found himself dismayed by the unbelief of the churches there. Robert Haldane had hoped to become a missionary but had been rejected. His travels brought him to Geneva where he found a small remnant of faithful pastors and began to meet with them, encourage them, and train them. His lectures soon drew more and more people, many of them pastors like César Malan. The Lord used Haldane to great effect in a city that had once been a bastion of truth.1
Robert had come to Christ several years prior. His brother James had begun to attempt to share the gospel with him, but Robert utterly rejected it. In fact, he went so far as to ban James from his home until he would revoke his religion and stop trying to convince others of it. James said, “Very well,” but also told Robert that nothing would prevent him from praying for his salvation. Robert was cut to the heart by the reality that his brother was interceding for him and eventually responded to the gospel. Both brothers were now believers and together they dedicated their lives to the Lord’s service.2
Many years prior, James had joined the Royal Navy and worked his way through the ranks until he was given the privilege of commanding one of her great warships. During a particularly terrible battle, he saw an entire crew get raked by fire and left for dead. He gave the order for a replacement company to be brought up from below decks. When they came onto the deck and saw their comrades lying dead, wounded, and maimed, they recoiled and began to panic. Haldane responded by screaming and cursing at them, invoking God to cast them all into the depths of hell.
An old marine stood nearby and, hearing the captain’s rant, spoke a simple but courageous word—a word that was out-of-place when directed to a superior, but still appropriate under the circumstances. “Captain,” he said, “I believe God hears prayer, and if God had heard your prayer just now, what would have become of us?” With that, he bowed and returned to a respectful silence. When the battle had eventually been fought and won, Haldane couldn’t shake the marine’s words. They sat so heavily on his soul that they eventually led him to repent of his sin and believe in Christ.
Wayne C. Johnson wonderfully summarizes the chain of events: “An old seaman rebukes the blasphemy of his captain, whom God saves. A captain prays for his brother, whom God saves. A brother from Scotland witnesses to a preacher in Geneva, whom God saves. A preacher from Geneva shares the Gospel with a bedridden woman, whom God saves … and who takes up her pen again, only this time to pour out her heart in thankfulness, writing:”
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.3
In God’s providence, all the names have been remembered except the name of the one who began it all—the one who spoke a simple word of courage, a simple word of obedience, a simple word that resonates through the church to this day.
- He also led Felix Neff and Merle d’Aubigne to the Lord. Neff would go on to become a renowned philanthropist and evangelist while d’Aubigne would become the era’s foremost church historian. ↩
- It takes an entire book to recount all the brothers accomplished for the Lord. ↩
- As quoted here. ↩
