“Will You Be Coming to HEAVEN, Too?” Asked Dying Bray
[Above: Billy Bray—F. W. Bourne, The King's Son. Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1883]
AT ONE TIME Billy Bray was an alcoholic, whose company was sought for his pranks and for the dirty stories he told. Later he confessed he had done many shameful things. Week after week he spent his mining wages on drink and took little home for his wife to subsist on. Reading a book about the afterlife, he had no doubt that if he died he would drop straight into hell. In desperation he began to pray and to read the Bible.
Finally, days later, he prayed, “You have said, ‘Those that ask shall receive, those that seek shall find, and to them that knock the door shall be opened,’ and I have faith to believe it.” In that instant the Lord made him so happy that he could not express what he felt. Billy shouted for joy and did not stop shouting and dancing until the day he died. Immediately he sought out old friends to tell them what Christ had done for him. He never spent money on drink again.
He joined an association of Methodists and became a local evangelist. His pithy humor and obvious delight in Christ made him a welcome speaker. He was especially successful in converting fellow miners.
Bray’s conversion itself would stand as a good example of divine intervention. However, today’s story remembers God’s provision when Bray, often with not a coin to his name, was able to build three chapels. While others scoffed and predicted failure, he toiled and prayed, pouring whatever he could spare of his own small wages into the work. To his critics he said that if his buildings stood one hundred years and just one soul a year was saved in each, he would be amply rewarded in heaven.
God continually provided the resources needed for Billy’s work. Thus he built “Bethel” at Cross Lanes near Twelveheads, “Great Deliverance” at Carharrack and “Three Eyes” at Kerley Downs. A trust deed remains for Kerley Downs Bible Christian Chapel, dated this day 4 July 1836. The place was called “Three Eyes” because of its three oddly placed windows.
When Bray was almost done building Three Eyes, he wondered what he’d do for a pulpit. He saw a three-cornered cupboard at an auction and realized he could adapt it to his need. He asked a bystander how much he thought the cupboard would sell for. The man said six shillings. Recognizing Billy Bray, he gave him the money. The cupboard went to another bidder for seven shillings. Disappointed, Bray looked for the donor so that he could return the six shilling to him but the man had left. Bray had no idea who he was or where he lived. He went down to Kerley Chapel to tell the Lord about his predicament. On his way home, he saw a cart hauling the cupboard and on impulse followed.
The buyer was unable to get the cupboard into the house he’d bought it for. Angry that he’d wasted seven shillings, he was relieved to cut his loss when Bray offered him six for it on condition he haul it to Kerley Chapel. As for Bray, his comment afterward was “Bless the Lord! ’Tis just like him. He knew I couldn’t carry it myself, so he got this man to carry it for me.” Incidents of this sort appear frequently in Bray’s biography.
Bray died in 1868. When he became ill, he asked the doctor, “Well, doctor, how is it?”
“You are going to die.”
“Glory! glory be to God!” shouted Bray. “I shall soon be in heaven.” He then added in a low voice, “When I get up there, shall I give them your compliments, doctor, and tell them you will be coming too?”
“This,” said the doctor, “made a wonderful impression upon me.”
—Dan Graves
Other Events on this Day
- Energetic Pulcheria Insisted Christ Is Both Divine and Human
- ROBERT SHEFFEY WAS AN ECCENTRIC AND MEMORABLE PREACHER