We had just finished a gospel service in the hall, in the town of A., and most of the people had gone home. My fellow-laborer and I were both preparing to go, when a young girl came up to us, and very politely asked,
“May I have a little conversation with you? I could not sleep last night for thinking about how I should meet God. I would like to have the assurance that Jesus is mine.”
The words were spoken in faltering tones, and finished amid suppressed sobs and tears.
We told her of the one who had come down to seek and to save the lost, and how anxious He was to lay her a lost and wandering sheep, upon His shoulders. But Agnes did not then allow His hand to lift her up. She thought herself too bad for Jesus. A few nights after, she heard some young people speaking about Jesus’ willingness to save, and the thought crossed her mind,
“If Jesus is willing to save others, He will be willing to save me, too, and I ought to allow Him to do so,” and Agnes, then and there, just as she was, a lost and helpless sinner, committed herself to Jesus, and she was saved for eternity.
For about a year after Agnes was converted she walked with God, and served Him as a domestic servant; and in that humble sphere she adorned the doctrine of God her Saviour. Her conversion was manifest in the kitchen as well as at the prayer meeting, and her testimony was blessed in leading weary souls to Jesus.
Agnes left an old Bible in the house where she then served. She was in the habit of marking favorite passages, and she had marked, among others, a verse that was read to her that night when she was anxious in the hall. It was this –
“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee,” (Isa. 46:22).
The servant who succeeded Agnes in the same situation, in turning over the leaves of the old Bible one night was arrested and saved through reading this; and thus the simple act of Bible marking, by one who loved and walked with God, was made a finger-post to point a weary soul to Christ.
But the Lord who loved her, had chosen another path for Agnes – a path of honor and holy service, in which she was sustained to her latest hour, and enabled by His grace to glorify His name. She was called to enter the furnace of affliction, and there – in the midst of the sharpest pain, extending over a period of five years, sometimes in hospitals far from home and loved ones, and sometimes in her mother’s cottage – to let it be known how Christ can satisfy the soul, and rejoice the hearts of His saints even here. It was a real pleasure to spend a quiet hour by the side of Agnes’ couch.
We sometimes visit the sick; and we always felt on visiting Agnes that it was to our gain: she was always so bright and cheerful, and so full of Christ. She was constantly meditating on the Word, and gathering its riches for her own soul, and she liked to share them with others. One day we looked in to see Agnes, and found her reclining with her Bible open by her side.
“O,” she said, as we entered, “I’ve just been asking the Lord to send somebody to help me to beat out some gleanings I’ve been getting today, and you’ll just sit down and do it.”
“And what have you been getting today, Agnes?” we asked.
“O, I’ve been reading about the great and costly stones being prepared for Solomon’s temple. I have only got this length with it, that they were first dug out from the quarries, and then, after that, they passed into the hands of the ‘stone-squarer’s to have all the rough bits knocked off, and to be prepared to fill their places in the temple of the Lord. We are told that the house was built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither, and there was to be no hammer or ax heard after that.” (1 Kings 6:77And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. (1 Kings 6:7)). And, grasping my hand with delight, she added –
“He dug me from the quarry five years ago, and now here I am being polished and squared; and when once He has finished the work, He will lift me up and put me into the place He is preparing for me to fill in His temple up yonder; and won’t that be grand?” Yes, that will be grand!
Most sweetly does her early choice, her joyous, peaceful life, and her triumphant entrance to her home above, invite you, my reader, to the One who can do as much for you. It was Jesus who saved and kept Agnes T., and He is willing to do all this for you. Will you commit yourself to Him, and allow Him to save you?