Late one evening, a Christian neighbor asked me if I would go with her to the next house, to see a poor woman who was prostrate on the floor, crying to God for mercy. I at once accompanied her, and found a woman kneeling on the floor, and locked in her daughter’s arms, the mother crying―
“Lord, have mercy upon me! Lord, save me! Lord, wash me from my sins! Lord, give me power to believe Thee! Lord, I thank Thee for having spared me for this hour!
Lord, wash me now! Lord, give me the blessing now!”
I do not ever remember having seen a soul in such heart-rending sorrow, and so earnestly desiring to be saved at once. I sat down by her side, and asked her to listen for a moment, and then quoted, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.”
She said, “I believe it.”
I asked, “Then have you come to Him?”
She answered, “Yes, I have come, but He has not removed the load of my sin yet.”
Again, she cried for mercy, and repeatedly exclaimed, “Wash me now, save me now, my Savior!”
I reminded her how the Lord had said to a poor woman―a sinner―at His feet, “Thy sins are forgiven,” and assured her that these words are addressed by Him at this very hour to every poor sinner who really comes to Him. The woman still cried for power to lay hold of His word, imploring the Lord to relieve her now. As I knelt and prayed to the ever-ready Savior to give relief to this poor soul, she wrung her hands, repeating over and over again, “Yes, Lord, now.” I quoted several times, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out,” and, “Thy sins are forgiven.”
About an hour was thus spent, alternately praying for her, and quoting those precious words of the Lord Jesus, but she seemed unable to lay hold of Him. At length I told her only to believe, for the Lord was waiting for her to accept the very peace and rest she was so desirous to obtain. How intensely I felt that at that moment there was “joy in heaven” over a repentant sinner! I then left her, and returned home.
In some twenty minutes I again went to see her, and she was now on her knees with her head on her husband’s lap, entreating him to come and get the blessing too. She knew she was forgiven, and all her anxiety was for her husband and their young son, a lad of about fourteen years of age. She was full of gratitude to the Lord, and to us who had prayed for her, and sought to bring her to Christ. I proposed praise for the Lord’s goodness to her, and prayer for the husband and son. We knelt down, and the exclamations of praise and gratitude from the newly saved one almost drowned my voice as I gave thanks to the Lord. Her fervent “Oh do, Lord,” and “Save my Georgy,” as I asked for the conversion of those still unsaved, might have been heard in the street.
When I left, the husband, deeply affected, said, “Do pray for me,” and I promised, by God’s help, to do so daily, until he had his load of sin removed, for he, too, longed to be saved.
I retired to rest that night thankful for the fresh proof that God hears and answers prayer, and could not fail to see His hand in keeping me at home on that evening, in readiness for the little service which He had so graciously permitted me to render.
The next morning I called, and found the new born soul quietly enjoying the relief from her “great burden of sin.” I should mention that her married son had found “peace in believing” a little more than a fortnight before, and the young man’s wife only three days previously. She told me that when she heard that these relatives were saved, she felt so keenly her lost condition that she had scarcely slept since; but that on that Wednesday evening she had felt so utterly wretched that she had been obliged to cry aloud for mercy. That cry reached the ears of the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” and an answer of peace was conveyed to the poor suppliant.
What marvelous grace shown to that family in such a brief space of time! and it surely becomes us to hope that the husband and younger son will soon be saved.
Now I would ask you, dear reader, have you ever felt sin to be an unbearable load? Have you ever cried for mercy? Do you know that sin, if unforgiven, will land you in the lake of fire? or are you, like thousands of others, indifferent as to eternity? I would urge you now to come to Him who says, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out,” that you may hear for yourself those peace giving words, “Thy sins are forgiven.” T.