| In the late 1920's, a young lad went with his parents to one of the Bristol Channel seaside resorts. Standing on the edge of the pier, he went too close and fell into the deep water beneath. He went under, and came up twice, and then sank for the third time, knowing that it was said that a drowning person rarely came to the surface again after the third time. It seemed that his young life was to be cut short, As he sank beneath the water with this terrifying thought, an unseen force lifted him up out of the water and set him on the pier, water dripping from him. An old gentleman had seen him go under the water, and had let down his walking stick into the water and hooked the drowning lad by his collar and thus pulled him out. This lad, P.M. Kilmister, grew up to be a preacher and he related this incident in his life as an illustration of what salvation is. The deliverance from death was entirely through the kindness of the old gentleman, so the deliverance from eternal death is entirely the work of free and sovereign grace. An unseen power, grace, lifts the perishing sinner from a deserved death and places him on the Rock of ages, Christ Jesus the Lord. |