While visiting the General Hospital, a nurse said to me, "There is a patient here who is very ill. Will you speak to him?" I told her I would, and as we were walking down the passage to "No. 15", she told me that the case was a strange one. The doctor had not been able to figure it out.
The patient was a man about thirty-five years old. He was overcome with emotion, and his face was wet with tears. His voice, when he tried to answer my question as to his health, was so broken and incoherent that it was almost impossible to gather any meaning from his disconnected words. I finally succeeded in quieting him somewhat, and learned that he was making very strong and sweeping charges against someone, and that the "someone" was himself.
God was working, by His Spirit, to convince this soul "of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:88And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8)). So instead of telling him that there was no occasion for so much anxiety, I attempted to put before him the remedy which God had so freely and so fully provided.
"Oh, but," said the distressed man, "I have been such a hypocrite."
"There never has been such a sinner as I am."
"There never has been such a Savior as the Lord Jesus." But he could not see Jesus; he could only see himself as a moral leper, and he could only cry "unclean, unclean."
I went out of town on business for several weeks, but I wrote to my friend and sent him a New Testament with many passages marked for him. During my absence, I was very much before the Lord about him, and on my return, I was anxious to know of his state.
As soon as possible, I went again to the hospital. On entering "No. 15", my heart sank when I saw only a vacant bed where I had seen so wonderful an exhibition of the Spirit's power a few weeks before. However, he had been removed to another ward, and I found him in a distant corner, sitting up and reading his Testament. His face was shining with an unspeakable joy.
"Well," I said, "you are rejoicing in the finished work of Christ! But if the Lord were to call you at this moment, what would be the result?"
"Oh, I would go to be with Him!"
"Then," I said, "let us thank God for the salvation of your precious soul," and, on our knees, we praised Him for all His love and grace.