THE rain was steadily coming down from a leaden sky, pouring on as it had done all the afternoon. A knock was heard at the door, followed by the voice of a little girl, saying, “If you please, my mother sent me to ask if Mrs. B. would go with her to visit a sick person.”
Now it so happened that Mrs. B. was sitting at that time, very contentedly in her cozy sitting-room, with a good fire, and plenty of needlework before her. Casting her eyes on the uninviting street, and contemplating the dismal state of the weather, so highly suggestive of neuralgia, it is to be feared she thought more of her own comfort than of the requirements of the unknown sick person, as she addressed the young messenger.
“Do you know whom your mother wishes to visit?”
“Mother did not say,” replied the child.
“Well, give her my love, and tell her that some other time I will accompany her, but I do not think I can go this afternoon.”
After the departure of the little girl, the conscience of Mrs. B. began to trouble her, saying, “Well, you are selfish! Because it is an uninviting afternoon, that poor soul may perish for lack of knowledge, so far as you are concerned. God, in His infinite mercy, has revealed to you His way of salvation. You can read His Holy Word, when you choose, and so draw water from the wells of salvation; yet you know that surrounding your dwelling, and within a stone’s throw of churches and chapels, are hundreds of grown-up people who have never learned to read, and you are too lazy to go out of your way ever so little to help them; yet for your sake the Master you profess to serve endured hunger, pain and cold, and at last died an ignominious and painful death.”
“Yes,” answered self-love, “but I have so much to do, and there are others who are not so busy, and who could do that work better than myself. Why did not Mrs. T. go by herself to visit this sick person? She is quite able to point any one to the sinner’s Friend.”
And so excuses multiplied, until at last Mrs. B. grew thoroughly ashamed of herself, as she ought to have been from the first. Then the still, small voice of the Spirit spoke to her heart of the privilege of those who are permitted to do the least possible thing in the name and for the sake of the dear Master. So, seeking forgiveness for such slowness and indifference, the idle Christian promised that, if permitted to live until the morning, she would accompany her more zealous friend to the bedside of the suffering one.
Accordingly the morrow found the two friends in the sick room of a beautiful, young girl, who for three weeks had been battling with a fatal disease. They gazed upon the bright eyes and flushed cheeks of the invalid of nineteen summers, of whom the doctor gave but little hope of recovery. She appeared, indeed, to be just on the borders of the eternal world. The Holy Spirit had evidently been working upon the mind of Sarah, for she had discovered that a merely moral life was not sufficient to give peace in a dying hour. She had been a good daughter and sister, a regular attendant at her parish church, and a constant Sunday-school attendant; yet, when Mrs. B. took her hand and inquired, “Are you saved” poor Sarah gazed upon her with flushed, eager face, and eyes from which her soul seemed looking out, as she answered, “No, but I want to be.”
“Do you know that you are a sinner?”
“Oh! yes,” replied the girl, “and I know that I am not fit to die.”
“Then,” replied her visitor, “you are just the person the Lord Jesus came to save, for He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Listen to what God says in His Holy Book, and remember the words are those of Jesus Himself. ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37).) And ‘He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.’ ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin.’ Dear girl, you may rest all your happiness for an endless eternity upon these Scriptures, for, whatever your sins may be, the blood of Christ is sufficient to atone for them. The word says, ‘cleanseth from all sin.’”
Although the poor girl listened eagerly to the truths of salvation, she did not at that time appear able to rest her soul upon the blessed words of Scripture. To all that was said, she replied, “I’ll try.” Ah how little do young people know how hard it may become to believe the plainest promises of God’s word, especially if left until sickness and impending death fill the heart with sore trouble!
During the momentary absence of her mother, the anxious daughter entreated, “Do talk to my mother, and be sure to come again.” The mother was asked if she was a believer: but, alas! neither father nor mother, nor indeed any of the family, knew anything of the saving grace of God.
Upon one of the subsequent visits of the friends, Sarah said she did believe, but wanted to feel assurance as to her safety. Mrs. B. told her not to trust in any feelings, but to simply believe the record that God has given of His Son.
“Listen to the very words of the Saviour Himself, in the last verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of John: ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ Do you hear these words?” continued Mrs. B.; “they are words of Him who cannot lie. You may believe them, for He can never deceive. He is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever.’ You believe the words of Jesus; well then, you have everlasting life―not waiting to have it―no, you have it now― “hath everlasting life.’”
“Yes,” replied the invalid, “but fears come to me sometimes that after all I am not saved.”
“Those doubts are suggested by Satan,” said Mrs. B.; “he wants to worry you.”
“Oh, yes!” agreed the other visitor, “Satan will try all sorts of devices to drive you from your place of safety in Christ. But if the devil says you are too great a sinner to be saved, tell him that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin—nothing can be more than all.”
The sick girl listened eagerly to these precious Bible words, and was enabled gradually to trust fully in the Saviour. She professed to be resting upon the Rock of eternal ages for safety, and to be relying alone upon the finished work of Christ for redemption. She seemed ever eager for prayer, and earnestly joined in the petitions with which every visit closed, upon one occasion telling her visitors that almost all her time was spent in prayer when alone.
After this, for some time Sarah appeared to rally a little, but never sufficiently to leave her bed; it was only one of the deceitful changes of the complaint. Mrs. B., having been prevented from calling upon the invalid for some weeks, was rather surprised to learn from her friend, Mrs. T., that the young and lovely Sarah had passed away, and had gone to that land from whence no traveler returns. Once more, in company, they went to pay a visit of condolence to the bereaved family, and also to learn some particulars of their young friend’s death.
What a scene of sorrow met the eyes of the two friends! The mother and father of the departed, with the mother of her affianced husband, and her brothers, all bathed in tears, for,
“When blooming youth is snatched away,
By death’s resistless hand,
Our hearts the mournful tribute pay
Which pity must demand.”
And yet surely we had no need to pity the dear girl who was gone home. For Sarah, death was swallowed up in victory, and, as the two Christians sat listening to the mother’s affecting account of her daughter’s happy death, in their hearts they were echoing the words of one of old: “To die is gain.”
The night before Sarah died, her bedroom was filled with weeping relatives, and among them the young man, who was so soon to have been her husband. She asked someone to pray, but all were overcome by feelings too strong for words. The dying girl lay with eyes fixed upon the ceiling of the room, a seraphic smile on her face.
“Oh! look, how beautiful!” she exclaimed. “What is beautiful?” inquired her mother. Sarah, still smiling, pointed upwards, saying joyfully, “Oh! the gates ajar! I wish you could only see.” She still continued gazing upwards, and, waving her right hand, murmured, “Beautiful, beautiful” These were nearly her last words.
And so faded one of nature’s fairest flowers. She is gone to the land where the flowers freshen, nevermore to fade.
A few short months ago, and Sarah was a blooming young woman, looking forward to years of life and health, and preparing for a happy marriage. Little would one have thought at the beginning of the year that, in the beautiful summer time, this lovely flower would be taken to the heavenly garden.
Some eyes, younger than those of Sarah, may rest upon this page. Dear young friend, let me ask, if death were to stare you in the face, would you be afraid, and say, as she did, “I am not saved, but I want to be”? Then let me beg of you to seek the Saviour at once, ere it be too late.
Oh! if you could but know the agony of having any doubt as to your salvation, when you stand as it were on the edge of the river of death. If you could have seen the eager eyes and earnest face of poor Sarah, on the first visit of those Christian friends, you would never leave a matter of such overwhelming importance until the time when it is all you can do to bear pain, and weakness, and then death. You cannot be even sure that you will be in possession of your reason, nor that the Spirit of God will plead with you then. Let me entreat you, for the sake of your soul, which must live forever, to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” RHODA.