People we would be surprised to see in Heaven Part 2

Well, she certainly tried. Three times a week she visited him and told him that Jesus had forgiven and changed the worst sinners. Look at St Paul for example. He'd murdered many Christians because he'd been deceived by false religion. As he said, 'I was originally a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and so the grace of our Lord was great beyond all measure. Loving and trusting me is typical of Jesus Christ. It is certainly true to say and to be accepted by anybody that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners among whom I was the very worst.'

But Hayashi continued to pace his floor in utter despair. 'I cannot sleep,' he groaned. 'At night this cell is full of those people I've tortured and killed. They seem to come up around me as if to strangle me. Sometimes I fancy I can feel their fingers tightening around my throat.'

Time was getting short. There were only three or four weeks to go. Soon he would be told the date and time of his execution, so Miss Henty pleaded and prayed with him. Then she remembered how she herself had been converted only two years earlier. Christ had appeared to her in a vision. Please Lord would you do the same for Hayashi? Please, please, would you do it?

The long night passed. With apprehension she reached the cell. What would she find? Would anything have happened? She entered the cell and there in front of her stood Hayasha. His face was glowing. His words were exultant, 'Jesus Christ came to me last night!' he said. I saw him, and he has forgiven me everything!'

He told the jailers the astonishing news - three of them one after another - 'And I want to be baptised! Bring me some water! And my new name, my Christian name, is going to be Paul!' So what St Paul wrote about himself being the worst of sinners upon whom the Lord had mercy, had sunk into his memory. It described him all over again! And here were the jailers bringing water rather like the jailer at Philippi.

Hayashi's last week had begun. He was to be executed the following Monday at ten in the morning, but surprisingly the week was a happy one. He had seen Jesus; he was at peace; he was ready to go. 'What a pity that I cannot live to tell others, but I shall soon have the joy of seeing Jesus again!'

The last full day before his hanging had come. It was Sunday. Miss Henty kept bursting into tears, so Hayashi said, 'You must not cry, this is a happy day for tomorrow I shall see Christ.' Next morning his face was radiant. Miss Henty was allowed only twenty minutes with him before he was to be hanged, and during that time Hayashi gave her a letter which he had written in pencil. 'I shall not be alive to tell others of Jesus,' he said, 'and so I have written this: it is to Christians of the world.'

Translation of the Former Tyrant's Last Letter

It is a fact that within this world of men, there is a world of God's Spirit. Those who do not believe this fact cannot understand it. These clever men of this world, men of wisdom in this world, are all foolish. All men have weak bodies; they believe death to be terrible. I would like to continue life's journey, giving body and spirit to God, never for a moment forgetting my repentance. In this world there are billions of men. All die less than a hundred years old. Only those who know God's Spirit, those who know heaven, only the Christians - see the Spirit of God as a reality.

They fear nothing not even death. It is the will of God that I should die at 32, but Christ is with me to the last. I am filled with joy. I know the happiness of death. I believe that my execution today is a punishment from heaven given by God.

Since I, Hayashi, have become Paul, I think like a Christian, my happiness is to become a spirit and pray. Although a man may live to become 70 without knowing thankfulness to God, he does not know even the preciousness of seven days of knowing God. Christians sing in church as larks sing in the spring, as angels sing. As you study my death you will clearly see that God's Spirit has been working. God has forgiven me - I who have sinned so deeply.

Moreover I do not fear execution. Through it I pray that peace may come to the world.

First published in Miracles & Angels, Dr E K Victor Pearce.