*127 the career and Christian service of William p. Nicholson, the Irish evangelist, can be accurately summarized in the expression: from sea fever to soul-winning!
born in county Down near Bangor, in North Ireland, he seemed destined to follow the sea. his father was a sea captain in the golden age of sailing ships during the second half of the 19th century and he took his laddie for his first voyage when the latter was only 6 years of age. to this day. Nich has a painting of his father's barque, The Muriel, fully rigged, with every sail set and although the evangelist is now in his eighties, sea fever rises deep within him as he contemplates that ship. could it be that far distant in his background is the heritage of the Vikings, those restless, fearless, ea raiders who ravaged the coasts of Ireland in medieval times? Could be.
school books and common place employment on the land had no place in young William's thinking; so at 15 he sailed away from home as an apprentice seaman, he recalls:
'it was a hard and harsh training. it either made you or broke you. yet I loved it, especially up aloft during the gale of wind - the wind shrieking through the rigging and the ship rolling from side to side, the seas like miniature mountains. it intoxicated me. food was scarce - tough salt beef and salt pork and Liverpool pantiles for biscuits. the regular hours,
*128 fresh air and hard work and instant obedience made you healthy, if mostly unhappy'.
but the Irish sailor lad was taken from the sea to become a fisher of men as dramatically, if not more so, than was Peter of bethsida long ago. on one voyage with a cargo of coal, , the ship on which he sailed ran into a terrific northeaster in the 'roaring forties' after rounding cape Horn. in the tempest the ship tossed and rolled as if it would go under and the cargo began to shift. with mast broken and sails in wreckage there seemed to be no hope. by morning, another sailing ship came near; but the half-frozen men of Nich's ship did not dare jump into the sea because they knew they could never reach the lifeboat. thereupon, the other ship sailed away and left them to their doom.
the crew, however, was able to break into the hold and shift the cargo until the ship righted itself. with what rigging was left they were able to turn back around Cape Horn and reached the Falkland Islands.
the cry to God for mercy made by the crew members, including Nich, when in their extremity, meant nothing to them once they were again in safety. snatched from the sea, but not saved!
after completing his apprenticeship and working for some time on railroad construction in South Africa, he returned home. it was there by the fireside on the morning of May 22, 1899, that he was snatched the second time 'from the sea'; and that time he was really saved. while reading the morning paper and smoking and awaiting the breakfast being prepared by his godly mother, he heard suddenly and without warning, a voice saying, 'Now or never. You must decide to accept or to reject Christ'. in that moment, trembling with fear, he cried out, 'lord, I yield. i repent of all my sin and now accept Thee as my Savior'.
*129 he recalls, 'suddenly and powerfully and consciously, I was saved. such a peace and freedom from fear, such a sweet and sure assurance filled my soul. i turned to my mother and said, 'mother, i am saved. she looked at me and nearly collapsed and said, 'when? I said, 'Just now. 'where? 'here, where i am sitting. she cried with joy unspeakable. she couldn't say a word, but just hugged me and cried.
William Nicholson had been saved and he knew it. 'I have never had any doubts about my salvation, he declares. 'the Blood had been applied and the Spirit answered to the Blood. I never doubted about my dear mother's word about my natural birth and do you think it's strange of me to take God's word without a doubt or fear? i became a new creature and began hating sin. I tried hard to love God, the Bible, the church and prayer; but what a failure I made of it.
the crisis of the deeper life, with the enduement of the Holy Spirit for service, came to young Nich a few months after his conversion.. it is best to let an irishman tell his own story, so here it is.
'the peace and joy and assurance continued, but in a fluctuating way. sometimes doubting, sometimes trusting, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad. all grosser sins dropped off me and I had no sorrow about it or any bother with them, but the sins of the flesh and the spirit continue to plague me greatly: envy, jealousy, malice, hatred. i could crush them down, but they continued to rise up again, more vigorous than ever.
the fear of man was a dreadful snare and i was helplessly caught by it. I was ashamed of Christ and ashamed of being seen with out-and-out Christians. I was a sneak and a coward, if ever there was one. I despised myself, bu was helpless about it....
I attended church twice every Sun and joined the men's Bible class. I read my Bible but didn't get any good out of it, and had little or no desire for it. prayer was a real
*130 penance and seemingly useless. what a wretched, miserable experience i was passing through!
I lived in this distracted state for nearly 7 months after my conversion. some have told me I wasn't converted at all - that i only thought i was. but they were wrong. I was truly born again and a new creature in Jesus Christ. I had the inward witness clear and the outward evidence that i was a changed man....i hated sin, but was continually overcome by it. I love holiness and longed to be perfectly whole, but never experienced it. i was truly a child of God, but a slave of the devil. my life was up and down, but more down that up. i was committing sin and confessing it, but rarely having victory over it. I believed there was deliverance for me, but how to obtain it I didn't know.
i knew some Christians who were living a victorious, joyous, soul-winning life. how i envied them! i am sure if I had only made known to them the fluctuating, failing kind of life i was living, they would have led me into the open secret; but i was ashamed to make my experience known....
thank God, the day of my deliverance was at hand. one of the leading businessmen of the town, an out-and-out man fro Christ and souls, arranged for a 'Convention for the Deepening of the Christian Life. ' my older brother James and a close friend of his in his student days,Rev. J. Stuart Holden, were the convention leaders.
if they had called the conference 'holiness meetings' I would have been frightened and would never have attended. i would have called them wild , blue-stokinged Presbyterian, I would have shunned them.
from the very first sermon I heard, I was sure my brother had told Holden about me, for he made public my miserable condition. it made me feel clean mad! i determined i would
*131 not go to another service; but I was there the next night. I was more sure than ever that my brother had put the preacher up to preach at me. I became more angry every night, but could not keep myself from attendance.
Stuart Holden made the secret of the victorious Christian life so clear and plain. after one has been born again by the spirit of God he can live victoriously only by the holy Spirit. i began to understand that i could not attain this life by self effort or ceremonies, for it was 'not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit'. it was not an ATTAINMENT, but and OBTAINMENT. Christ was God's unspeakable gift to the world. The Holy Spirit was Christ's gift to His church. i had been trying to do what the Holy Spirit Alone could and would, do for me. but i must receive him by faith, on the ground of grace and he would sanctify my heart, and apply the Blood, thus cleansing me from all sin and making the victory purchased by Christ on Calvary experiential. as i walked in the light as he was in the light, he would maintain the life of holiness and victory in my life day by day.
it was all so wonderful and new to me. I had never heard such truth before. Oh, how my heart ached for just such a life, but I was hindered by fear of the consequences. I didn't want to be anything or do anything a presbyterian ought not to be or do. I tried so hard to make the Lord see and understand my fears and feelings, but he had no sympathy for my fears. i couldn't make Him a Presbyterian!
the Salvation Army had come to our town. the Corps was composed of two wee girls in uniform. they held open-air meetings and made a noise with their tambourines. their first soldier was a man called Daft Jimmy. he carried the flag as they marched the streets. on his jersey, a red one, he had hardly enough brains to give him a headache, but he had sense enough to get saved. he carried the flag as they marched the streets. on his jersey, a red one, he had the women put with white yarn these words on his back, 'SAVED FROM PUBLIC OPINION'.
*132 'I was told by satan that i would have to go to the open-air meeting and march down the street with two wee girls and a fool. maybe that didn't fill me with horrible dread! I would be laughed at by all my friends. i would lose my reputation.
i said, 'Lord, I will be willing to go to Timbuctoo or Hong Kong or even die recently as a martyr', I couldn't get out of it. i became more and more miserable and, oh, SO HUNGRY FRO FREEDOM AND VICTORY.
AT LAST I BECAME DESPERATE. the last night of the convention i saw it was a clean-cut, unconditional surrender, or continued wandering in failure, defeat and dissatisfaction. I left the meeting and went down to the shore, and there under a clear sky and shining stars I MADE THE COMPLETE UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. i cried out,
'COME IN. COME IN, HOLY SPIRIT.
THY WORK OF GREAT BLESSING BEGIN.
BY FAITH I LAY HOLD OF THE PROMISE AND CLAIM COMPLETE VICTORY OVER SIN'.
Hallelujah! what a thrill, what a peace, what a joy! although an old-fashioned Presbyterian I began to weep and sin and rejoice like an old-fashioned Free Methodist. when I came home, I told my mother, 'the surrender has been made, and I am free and so happy'. she was delighted, for she told me she wondered whether i was really saved or not. she knew the blessing, for she had received it under the Rev. Andrew Murray's preaching held in a convention in Belfast. the wonder to me was that all of the far of what men might say or do had vanished and now i was willing to do anything or go anywhere. the very thing I dreaded most before receiving the blessing, about the Salvation Army meeting, was faced. i couldn't say i was very happy about it; but I TOLD THE LORD I WOULD DO WHAT HE WANTED, COST WHAT IT MAY. so i went to the open-air meeting on a Sat night....
as I walked down the street that Sat it seemed as if every friend and relative I ever had were out and about. when
*133 I came to the open-air meeting and saw the two wee Salvation Army girls singing and rattling their tambourines and poor Daft Jimmy holding the flag. I nearly turned back. talk about dying! I was dying hard that night. I stepped off the footpath and stood in the ring. the soldier looked at me. then to my horror one of them sad, 'the people don't stop and listen: let us get down on our knees and pray' what could I do? I couldn't run away. so down I got on my knees.
the crowd gathered around. I could hear their laughter and jeers. the officer prayed a telegram prayer - short and to the point. I could have wished the prayer had been as long as the 110th psalm. I stood up, blushing and nervous. they go the collection while the crowd was there and then to my horror, she said, 'bother! take this tambourine and lead the march down the street to the Barracks'. I couldn't let a girl beat me, so I took it. THAT DID IT. MY SHACKLES FELL OFF AND I - WAS - FREE; MY FEARS ALL GONE.
I started down the street, whether in the body or out of the body, i can't tell. I LOST MY REPUTATION and the fear of man and found the joy and peace of the overflowing fullness of the Spirit. Hallelujah!'
on street corners and in cottages, in the city and in the villages, in his place of employment on the railroad and in the churches, Nich became a fearless and flaming winner of souls. because of his enthusiasm and effectiveness he was advised by earnest friends to prepare for Christian work. his new friend, Stuart Holden, advised him not to be in a hurry;
*134 rather, to wait on God until a door for Bible preparation would be opened
a glimpse of his service in those days is this reminiscence; 'every Sun I held a meeting in a wee Orange Hall in a village a few miles from Bangor. I visited every home every Sun before the service, inviting them to come to my meeting. i prayed with everyone who would allow me and left a Spurgeon sermon. one dear old lady sitting at the door of her thatched cottage, when asked to come to my service, said, 'God love you, Mr. Nicholson, I don't need to go because you speak so loud the whole village can hear you'. my seafaring life gave me a good voice, so when I got warmed up preaching, you could hear me a mile away or more.
in His won way and time the almighty led His young servant to the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow. under godly and gifted instructors he was taught the wonders of the Scriptures. the Bible became his only textbook and witnessing for the Savior and winning souls his greatest delight. after Bible School days he became an evangelist for the lanakshire Christian union, an interdenominational society of leading Christian businessmen in that part of Scotland. Evangelistic services were held in the coal mining villages during the winter and tent campaigns wer held in the summertime. ther the Lord gave him great favor among the people. many came to a saving knowledge of the Lord jesus and many yielded themselves fully to the Savior and became Spirit-filled, soul-saving Christians.
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