MANY years ago a man named B. and his wife were living in charge of an ancient house in the country, ―the wife being a godly woman, happy in the love of God, and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus as her Saviour; on the other hand, her husband was bitterly opposed to that grace of God which had brought salvation to her, but to which he was himself a stranger.
He could find no fault with her as a woman, or as a wife, but allowed the bitterness of his heart often to express itself in the most ungoverned way. Sometimes at breakfast or at tea, with no provocation and giving no reason, he would rise from the table, and dash the tea-things to pieces, and break everything in his way. At other times he would blaspheme and rail against God in an awful way.
Upon one occasion in particular, the wife had made the place clean and comfortable on the Saturday, and, as usual, on the Lord’s day morning went to a meeting. In her absence he scattered a quantity of dirt over the floor, and, with a pair of very dirty shoes, took as much pains to grind it into the floor as she had to make it clean, hoping by this means to provoke her to swear. Upon her return, she felt grieved, but said nothing; prepared the dinner, and helped him to the nicest piece she could find. He burst into tears, exclaiming, “Surely there never was such a woman as you, or such a man as I am.” The impression then made, however, wore off, and he continued the same. One evening he struck her a violent blow on the head, which knocked her down, when, taking up a knife, he threatened with fearful oaths to plunge it into her heart. This went on for full thirteen years, till she was almost in despair about her husband, thinking that he was a lost man, and that it was useless to pray for him; but the Blessed One, who came to seek and to save the lost, had His eye upon them both, comforted her, and proved, as often before, that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
The Lord laid this bold blasphemer upon a bed of sickness, where he was visited by many, who prayed and talked with him, apparently to no purpose; among others the rector of the parish, who, upon leaving, handed him some tracts, one of which, entitled “The Prodigal Son,” was used of God as a mirror to show him himself, and he at once said, “I am the man.” He made no excuses for his sins, nor promises of amendment, but, in the deepest distress, cried to the Lord for mercy. After much exercise of heart, he believed in that blessed Lord who had died for him, and found that the One whom he had opposed had loved him with an everlasting love, and through grace he could rejoice and triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
The Lord raised him up from his bed of sickness, and made him a living witness for Himself, as one who had known the Father’s kiss of love; the best robe, the ring, and the shoes. The wife, too, could rejoice with him; while he, though forgiven of God, knew not how to forgive himself.
Dear reader, the above is given as a true record of the grace of Him of whom it was said, and is still true, that He receives sinners. Have you known His love, believed in Him, and confessed His blessed Name? Then take comfort in the thought, that He is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever; and He who answered, after long trial, the poor patient wife, and gave her the desire of her heart, knows the desire and hears the prayer of every one that calls upon Him. But, oil the other hand, if still at a distance from Him, if still sinning against Him, oh, think what a Saviour you are sinning against, what grace you are refusing, what love you are repelling! It is now nearly nineteen hundred years since He came into this world, to seek and to save that which was lost; every day brings nearer that moment when the Master of the house will rise and shut to the door; and then, WITHIN will be the joys and delights of heaven; WITHOUT, the horrors and woes of an eternity in the blackness of darkness forever, where a ray of hope will never come, where their worm dieth not, and where their fire is not quenched. Now, the Blessed Jesus says, “Come unto me;” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” THEN He will say, “I never knew you,” “Depart from me.”
The devil’s lies, or man’s reasonings and opposition, can never alter the solemn fact that there is an eternity of blessedness on the one hand, an eternity of unending woe on the other. The same lips that now say, “Come,” will say “Depart.” Now is the day of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross for sinners, according to that wondrous love of 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.” To Him be all praise, glory, and honor forever and ever, Amen.
“Call them in―the broken-hearted,
Cow’ring ‘neath the brand of shame;
Speak love’s message low and tender,
‘Twas for sinners Jesus came.”
J. C. B.