Not long ago a young man was put to the test as to where the faith he thought he had was really resting. It was during a serious illness that it came about. Until then, with a careful religious upbringing and having been received as a "church member," he considered himself "all right" for the next world.
As the illness increased in severity, however, and his natural strength declined, he began to take his bearings in the light of meeting God and facing eternity. He wanted something that he could really depend upon before God. To use his own words, he began to "try his weight" on this and that meritorious thing in his past life.
His supposed moral life came in review before him, but there was nothing of satisfaction. Then he thought of the hymns he had sung and the verses of Scripture he had learned both at home and in the Sunday school. His "weight" as a sinner placed him far beyond the possibility of safely trusting these things.
Everything seemed to slide from under him, until in distress he felt compelled to call aloud to his wife, "l am lost, and shall be eternally lost!”
All this time his physical strength was steadily ebbing out. He thought he was dying. In the midst of this awful predicament he cried out, "Lord, save me!" His heart was burdened with an intensity of alarm and desire that was inexpressible.
He felt as though he were inevitably slipping down some bottomless abyss. Still crying, "Lord, save me!" he suddenly felt himself upborne by some One. At that moment the words which the Lord uttered to His troubled disciples came to his mind, "It is I, be not afraid!”
This was enough. He felt, with everything else gone, his heart could safely trust Christ. His soul instantly found rest and peace.
Just put yourself mentally, my reader, into that young man's circumstances, and you will certainly find that Christ, and Christ only, will do for your heart's sure trust. Nothing but the merits of His precious blood can afford true peace on a dying pillow.
Living or dying, the true believer may say—
"On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.”