A Strange Impulse

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1902

A Strange Impulse

The following remarkable experience in the life of Mr. Emmons T. Mockridge, who was president of the Philadelphia Medical Mission, was published in Dr. Gordon’s magazine:—

“After a busy day, sitting in my counting-room in meditation, there came upon me an irresistible impulse to take the train and go to a distant city. After vainly trying to shake off the impression, I sent word to my family that they need not look for me that night, hastened to the cars without luggage, and at the end of a three or four hours’ journey found myself at my destination, heartily ashamed of having yielded to so unaccountable an impulse. Finding that the next train would not start for my home for some time, I strolled up into the town to pass away the time, amazed that I could have been so weak as to take a journey without any motive.”

“As I passed a public office, a door opened, and there came forth a man whom I knew well, who, without expressing any surprise at my presence, asked me to walk with him, to which I consented. I noticed that he was under great suppressed emotion, and I tried to find the cause. He told me that the night before he had been badly treated by another, and that he was now on his way to take that man’s life. Of course I was horrified, and tried all sorts of argument and persuasion to induce him to desist from his purpose; but he was a man of singularly strong will, and had become almost insane by brooding on his wrongs. For perhaps two or three hours I followed him as he entered different places in search of his enemy, vainly seeking to deter him from his fell purpose, until at last at midnight I fell on my knees in the street, and cried to God to save him from committing the dreadful crime of murder.”

“Immediately the answer came. He

raised his pistol, fired it into the air, and said, ‘I yield to your entreaties, and forego my purpose.’ ‘Now take me home with you,’ I said. He consented, and when we came there, I knelt down, insisting that he should do the same, and prayed that he might not only forego his purpose of vengeance, but also forgive the offender. It was a long time before he yielded to my entreaties that he should forgive him; but every time he refused, I turned to God with fresh prayer, until finally he consented to forgive. I then asked him to pray for his own forgiveness, and to ask God to receive him into his family as his child.”

“For a long time he refused my appeal, but I kept continually calling upon God for him, until finally, as the day broke, he made a full surrender, and as we both rose from our knees, we gave the glory to God, who had used me as his feeble instrument to save a soul from death, deliver him from the power of Satan, and bring him into Christ’s kingdom.”

“More than a quarter of a century has passed since that eventful night, but the event was of God, who, when he begins a good work, carries it to the end; for that man has ever since lived a godly and sober life, exemplifying the mighty power of God to save, to keep from falling, and to present faultless before the holy Presence with exceeding joy.”