Have you ever heard an exciting story from the lips of some fairly new convert and wished you could tell a lurid story yourself e.g. 'How wicked you were before your conversion'?
Well, I am one of those people with no lurid story to tell. But it doesn't worry me at all now, because it takes just as much of the grace of God to keep a person from falling into vile sin as it does to pull them out!
Father's visions
My father could tell of three visions which he had in the process of his turning to the Lord and shortly afterwards. Why was no vision granted to me? My father's testimony was much more exciting than mine! It was a long time before 'the penny dropped'. If God was calling me to be a preacher of the Word rather than a narrator of an exciting experience, it was important that he did everything in my case through the Word and not through visions.
Jesus' high priestly prayer recorded in John 17 says: 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for those who shall believe on Me through their word.' His prayer was for folk like me! The Saviour did not specify whether their word was to be the spoken word, limiting their influence to some three generations, or whether it was written and translated. I only know I am greatly privileged to be among those who believe on him through their word! I used to think my father's experience was 'first class' and mine 'second class'! I don't think like that any more! If God in his sovereign wisdom had wished to convert me through visions, he could easily have done so. But I can see now he wanted to bring me to a saving knowledge of himself through the written Word.
Nowhere to hide
At one time I used to give most of the credit for my conversion to the late Robert Matheson, solicitor of Dublin and the Children's Special Service Mission which he led so wonderfully from 1901 to 1949 on the beach and lower prom at Port St. Mary in the Isle of Man.
But as I grew older, I came to realise all the glory must go to God for genuine conversion, and I had heard all the truths 'Mr Matt' taught from the lips of my father speaking to my friends at the back of our home in Wallasey, Cheshire. Our mother knew only too well that we would never hear the gospel in our parish church, so whenever there was a visiting evangelist, she used to take my two sisters and me along to Hebron Hall, Liscard, Wallasey. The visiting preacher was usually a 'Brethren Evangelist' who would tell us exactly the same as our father and 'Mr. Matt'.
You may wonder how 'such a nice boy' (!) came to see he was a guilty, lost sinner? The fact is that I used to cheat at school, and that others also did so, did not ease my conscience. I was pretending to be more clever than I really was . . . 'only to encourage the teachers, of course'! But that didn't really wash! I was guilty, lost and helpless to save myself.
God loves me
What was worse, I was found out and a school prefect, whose younger brother became my best friend at school, made life miserable for me. Both brothers had to pass our front door to get to school, so I had nowhere to hide! My heart went out to Mr. Matt's preaching from John 3.16; wonderful news, bringing ever-increasing assurance! God loves me. Even me! Christ died for my sins, yes, even mine. I cannot remember the precise moment of turning to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and deliverance, but my mother noticed a real difference in me when I was 14; when I had raised my hand at a Brethren Mission in Wallasey Park, my mother said she saw no difference in me whatsoever! I must confess I felt rather trapped: 'If you have never confessed your faith in the Lord Jesus (all eyes closed, of course), do it now!'
At school, I became increasingly concerned about the many nice fellows who had no idea of God's way of salvation. So I got up a petition which was signed by 70 boys seeking the permission of the headmaster for the launching of a Christian Union as in so many other big schools. At the end of one of the lessons which the headmaster took with the combined sixth-forms, the head indicated that he wished me to stay behind. He gave me the roasting of a lifetime: 'This is a Christian school and I will not have any boys forward the idea that they are the Christians and the rest are not. Such boys are responsible for the weakness in school prayers at assembly each morning.' I did not dare to say: 'But Sir, if it was not for a few like me, there would be a deafening silence when it comes to the prayer wrongly called 'The Lord's Prayer' (he had no sins to confess and be forgiven!)'. It is possible he sought to make amends for this attack on me by the glowing words he put at the end of my final school report! Unknown to me, the headmaster's secretary was engaged to be married to a Church of England curate and was on my side. So when 'Freddie' left to become the headmaster of Latymer Upper School, London, Miss Snape quickly organised an interview for me with the new headmaster, Mr Allen. He readily gave permission for a group of boys to meet on the school premises every Sunday afternoon.
Dr. Charlie Sergel, Cambridge Rowing Blue, introduced the idea to the school and we started with 30 boys under the genial leadership of Mr. Arthur Gollifer. When I went to see Freddie at his London school, he called a boy over who was wearing a Crusader badge (whose father was a deacon at Duke Street, Richmond Baptist Church), and the headmaster told me what a good boy this fellow was and what a useful contribution he was making to the life of the school!
Regeneration
I had thought I was going to take an honours degree in French but when I discovered it involved a whole academic year in France, I withdrew from that honours school, with the professor's permission, and switched to New Testament Greek (Hellenistic Greek), for which I was the only pupil, taught by the Rev. George Seaver, Vice Principal of St. Aidans College, Birkenhead. Dr. Seaver was biographer of Birdie Bowers, Albert Schweizer of Lambarene and various others who had hit the headlines in their time. What a privilege was mine!
One Saturday morning, Dr. Seaver was late. 'Sorry to keep you, Sammy,' he said, 'the principal (Dr. Heiser) and I were discussing baptismal regeneration, and came to the conclusion that neither of us can believe in it!' I had the temerity to say: 'Good for you, Sir.'
One Saturday, when the athletics team was travelling by train to Manchester, one of our two top sprinters said to me: 'I'll have to go to hell, Sammy, because all my friends will be there and will be well placed to get me a good job there.' I did my best to assure him that there is no hell with a little heaven in it. He would find no friendship there! Hell is personal and infinitely lonely. See Luke 16.19 to the end. Solemn words from the lips of the King of Love!
Revelation 20.10 carries more weight with me than with some who think they can find a way round its solemnity. I cannot in good conscience do so. Therefore I must go on teaching what I don't find easy to teach, because I find it written so clear in the Bible. Mark 9.44-49 leaves me in no uncertainty. There is a hell to be shunned as well as a heaven to be sought.
University
On my first day at university, I had great pleasure in meeting two people with whom I thought I was going to have wonderful fellowship for years: Alan Neech, whom I never met again till Keswick in the 1970s and Gordon, second son of headmaster Wells of Kingsmead School, Hoylake. Gordon became one of my closest friends. We did Bible studies together. He married one of the teachers of my younger sister, Joan. My other sister, Ruth, was working for the Civil Service in Liverpool, before she joined the travelling staff of the Scripture Union in Scotland.
Gordon and I were delighted to find an evangelical Christian Union functioning in the university, even if 30 was a good attendance for us whereas the more liberal SCM was then able to muster 120. Gordon was made Secretary of the ECU after the second term, but handed the task on to me when he had to repeat the first year. Half brother of the late Leslie Lyall, he finished his working days on the deputation staff of the OMF in eastern Canada. One of my jobs was to look after Dr. Robert Wilder.
When I went back to conduct missions, it was fascinating to find the SCM gone and 150 attending ECU meetings! Professor Bruce, Professor of Sociology at Aberdeen University, wrote his doctoral thesis on 'Why the IVF succeeded where the SCM failed'. The IVF stuck to the Bible and the centrality of the cross. When he was Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University, Belfast, Dr. Bruce said to me: 'I am not a Christian, but if I were to become one, I would be a conservative evangelical. It is the only logical position.'
Leith Samuel was minister of Above Bar Church, Southampton, for many years, but now lives in retirement in Frinton-on-Sea.
