In a lone room a sad and weary woman sat lamenting the death of her only child, a bright girl of twelve years. Emma had gone to be with Christ. She had been converted in early years, and her simple, earnest testimony to the gospel’s saving power, had received but little sympathy from her worldly mother. Now Emma had gone, and she had time to think. Many of her departed daughter’s words were coming back to memory, and she sat that evening at the open window, looking across to the little cemetery on the hillside where Emma’s body lay awaiting the resurrection morning. Her weary, unsatisfied heart yearned for rest: she had not found it in the world and the pleasures of sin.
Sitting there brooding over the past, and wondering what the future would bring, sounds of singing fell upon her ear. She rose, and looking out, saw a circle of young men standing on the village street only a few yards from the door, under the open window, singing a hymn. The first sounds that fell upon her ear were
“I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad,
I found in Him a resting place,
And He has made me glad,”
The tears fell thick and fast. She was “weary and sad,” but no such resting place was hers. When the hymn was finished, one spoke, then another, telling the story of Jesus and His love. The well known words of Jesus –
“Come unto Me all ye that labor and arc heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” were specially dwelt upon, and the way of life and peace through Christ alone made plain. God owned the Word, and she received the message by faith. That night the first evidence of the new life was manifested by her going down and taking her place in the circle, and when the meeting was over, she invited the speakers to the house, and to their joy, told them what the Lord had done for her soul.
What a resting place is Christ for the weary sinner? Reader, is He yours?