Sam Jones Testimony
Samuel Porter Jones 1847-1906, American evangelist. Sam Jones was born at Oak Bowery, Alabama, and reared at Cartersville, Georgia. He studied to be a lawyer, but drinking and gambling soon brought him to the brink of ruin. This is hos story of amazing grace.
“I went to the bar and begged for a glass of liquor. I got the glass and started to drink and looked into the mirror. I saw my hair matted, the filth and vomit on my clothes, one of my eyes totally closed, and my lips swollen. And I said, ‘Is that all that is left of the proud and brilliant lawyer, Sam Jones?’ I smashed the glass on the floor and fell to my knees and cried, ‘Oh God! Oh God, have mercy!’ The bartender ran to my side and thought I was dying...and I was. I said, ‘Just let me alone.’ I picked myself up and staggered to my cheap rooming house and said to the ladies running it, ‘Would you do me a favor?’ They answered in the affirmative. I asked them to bring me a pot of black coffee. I went through three days and nights of hell, but when the morning came, something had happened to old Sam Jones. I went down to the clothing store and said, ‘I want you to give me a new suit. I got saved last night. Sam Jones is coming back.’ Not only did I get a suit, but shirts, ties, coat, everything I needed and as I left, the merchant stuck a $100 bill into my hand. I went to the barber for I had not had a shave in over a month. I asked for a bath, a shave, a haircut. I put on my new clothes, looking pale and weak. I left to go to my wife whom I had beaten till she was black and blue. She didn't even recognize her own husband. I said, ‘Honey, God has given you a new husband and the children a new daddy, and I wonder if you will forgive me and start all over again.’ She grabbed me in her arms and cried, ‘Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I have been praying for this!’ And I have been going round the country bragging about Jesus ever since.”
Sam was twenty-four years old. A week later in the agony of keeping his vow, he walked down the aisle of the little country church where his grandfather, Samuel G. Jones, was preaching and said, ‘Grandfather, I take this step today. I give myself, my heart, and life, what is left of it, all to God and His cause.’ He felt an immediate call to the ministry. A week after his conversion, Sam preached his first sermon in his grandfather's pulpit.”
