“But how am I to come to Jesus? Here is just the one thing I do not see. If I saw Him before me, I could arise and come to Him; but I do not really know what to do, or what you want me to do. If I knew it, I would do it. I want only to know it.”
He said this with unusual earnestness and anxiety.
“I am glad that you have thought about this question. I hope that it can be made clear to you. The best way is to take you to God’s book. You remember what took place when the woman came behind Jesus, and touched the hem of His garment. She felt her own sad condition. She believed He could cure her. She struggled to Him through the crowd. She touched His garment, and was made whole. Now this woman was one who did come to Jesus.”
“Yes: it is plain.”
“But why do you say that it is plain? Tell me this—What was there in that act of hers that leads you at once to perceive that she came to Jesus? It was not her making her way to Him through the multitude. It was not the mere fact of touching Him. Others were touching Him.”
“No: there must have been something more.”
“Is it not clear that this was no common touch—a touch not by the fingers, but something else? Did not her heart go out to touch the heart of Jesus? Did she not put herself in such contact with Him that the soul was the instrument, and not the finger? Here, then, is my conclusion. To come to Jesus is to do what this woman did. Try to put yourself in her place. Try to enter into her feelings, and to realize what she felt. If you can do this, you will understand what is meant by coming to Jesus.
“Observe three things about her: she felt how utterly diseased and helpless she was, and loathed herself. Is not this your case? She fully believed that there was within her reach a mighty and a loving Savior, able and willing to save her. This is what I ask you to believe. She did not cease until she touched Him, and sent her soul out to Him in that touch. This is what I am urging upon you. This is coming to Jesus.”
“This does make it very plain. It is all plain now.”
“I will ask you a question. If Jesus were now here present before our eyes, what would you do? would you go away?”
“Oh, no! I would go to Him, and fall down and’ touch Him, and cry, Be merciful to me a sinner.”
“But is He not here? Why not now? Do go and send out your heart and soul on this errand—to touch Him, and be saved. He is close at hand. He is waiting for this touch from you.”
And so the scales fell off those eyes, and he touched Jesus with as true a touch as did the woman of old. The dead was alive: the lost was found.
And now there was a change obvious to all. That dark, reserved almost sullen man, was eager to speak and tell the good news to all. Is it not always so?
After a very few days his disease increased with fatal rapidity. He was stretched on a dying bed, and went through much suffering; but to the last there was simple joy and honest faith; and he loved to bear testimony to everyone in that shape that was so dear to his own soul: “Only touch Jesus, as the woman did, and as I have done. This is all. Do this, and you shall be saved.”
G. S. S.