I REMEMBER looking at a bookmark with the words, “Faith, Hope and Love” worked in it by a young woman who had given it to her intended husband—I suppose as a sort of love gift. No doubt she had thought that with such a Friend in glory as they both possessed in Jesus, all must be well with them through life, and of this there can be no doubt. With others they sang on their wedding day:
“‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home.”
On the last day of her life on earth, of which I am now writing, it was still “Jesus.” As I was present in the room when she left us, I have often thought of putting before others some of her last words, which I may now do somewhat as I heard them. But ink and pen can never adequately describe their effect on the hearts of those who were present at the time. The manifest presence of God in that room, and the utterance of one so soon to depart, seemed to connect earth with heaven, and to banish for the time the grief that otherwise would have been so deeply felt.
Her departing to be with Christ had been spoken of in the usual way and in her hearing as “death.” At this she seemed to rise in the freshness of divine life. “Death!” said she; “there is nothing but life for those who have Christ as their Saviour. Those who belong to Christ will never taste death.” Then she began to tell us what was filling her own soul. “I believed the truth of God through dear, Mr. Trotter’s lips, and now I am proving what I then believed. I heard that Jesus, my Saviour, in passing through death, had by His death abolished death for all the people of God, that He had in His death made atonement to God for the sins of His people, so that those who believe might pass through time into eternity without having to taste death, as this had been suffered by Jesus for them.” What a time!—this precious truth which she had received, and the recollection of this servant of God through whom she had received it, to be afresh brought before her soul, and in such a way! None in that room but herself had ever seen Mr. William Trotter, who himself had passed into rest before her. But oh! the blessedness of being in the presence of one so soon to depart, who in such a simple way had so received Christ into her heart as Saviour. The sting of death was gone. There was nothing before her soul now but life with Jesus her Saviour, in the Father’s house above. We are not writing of an angel, but of a woman of like passions to us—of a wife, a mother—and I ask what but the very presence of God could have given such a one the victory in her own soul, which all in that room so deeply realized?
There was seen the reality of divine life possessed. Turning to her husband, she said, “On our wedding day we sang ‘‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last, Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home,’ and from that day to this it has been Jesus, Jesus—Jesus with us, and His word and Spirit in us, binding us up together with Himself in love. We have been waiting together for that day when all His will rise to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with the Lord.” Thus it was evident that it was this blessed hope which had cheered and comforted their hearts together through all the difficult circumstances which had beset their pathway. At last she said, “If I leave you here, it will be for me to be with Jesus there.” Then all was silent. She had fallen asleep through Jesus, leaving behind not only the calm of peace, but the very balm of heaven for the consolation of those remaining.
The reader will observe that my object is to show to others the reality of possessing Christ as Saviour and Friend now. Had she only but found a Saviour just ready to receive her when dying, this indeed would have been sovereign grace, as in the case of the dying robber. But mark the words of this one of whom we have been writing. Through her lips we learn of the Saviour as the Friend of both husband and wife, and whose Spirit and word enriched them as nothing else could do. If an Old Testament saint could say: “One day in thy courts is better than a thousand” elsewhere, what must the presence of the Lord Jesus be now to those who abide in His love through keeping His word?
Those who sweetly trust in Jesus
Day by day will surely find
Ever flowing from His presence
Solace for their troubled mind.
As He keeps them now from falling,
They may stem a world of strife;
Every comfort springs from Jesus,
Blessed precious Fount of life.
Living ‘midst a world of danger,
None but Jesus can supply
What we need to bear us upward,
What we need if called to die.
Weak as little helpless nestlings
Driven from the parent nest,
How, we need that great compassion
Dwelling in our Saviour’s breast!
How we need His loving kindness
And the covert of His wing!
All around us snares are springing,
Calling to our foes within.
How we need our precious Saviour
Ever near us, by our side!
Having Him as our Protector,
And through life our constant Guide!
Heavenly glory, what a prospect!
Traveling homeward day by day,
Through the Holy Spirit’s guiding,
Christ becomes their light and way.
And when with Him there in glory,
Dwelling in those courts above,
Sweeter still—through Jesus having
God as Light and God as Love.
E.T.