ONE day, when nearly eight years old, I called my brother a fool in play, and immediately that text, (Matt. 5:2222But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matthew 5:22)), flashed into my mind, “Whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” I had been reading it only a few days before with my mother, and so remembered it well. From that time, I always felt it was no matter what I did, for I had committed the sin that would send me to hell come what would. I continued in this dreadful state about six months, when one night I had a most awful dream.
“I thought I was standing all alone on a great dark mountain peak. Opposite to me was another, equally high, but all surrounded with the brightest and most beautiful light I ever saw. I felt that God was there. Between the two peaks lay a deep, deep gulph or precipice, horribly dark and black. I felt it was the judgment day, and there was I, a little child only eight years old, waiting to be judged. I heard a voice pronouncing some sentence upon me as I stood there shivering with fright. I did not fully understand what was said, but I knew I was being sent to hell in a moment I felt myself rolling over and over down the awful steep.
“Never, never, shall I forget the awfully helpless, hopeless sense of being lost that came over me at that moment. Even now, in writing it, I recall again that dreadful feeling of utter despair. But while I was thus rolling ever more rapidly down to that black and bottomless gulps, I saw a man coming right out from the bright light that I could still see far away up on the other mountain. He came slowly and deliberately straight to me, and without an effort, stopped my downward career. I looked up bewildered, but still with a sense of relief, into his face as he stood beside me. He said to me, Fear not, I have settled it all; and then he took my hand, and I remember perfectly the feeling I had of a little child surrounded by danger, clinging to a grown person. I did not know what he would do with me nor what it all meant, but I felt I could trust him, I had confidence. He took me with perfect ease across the gulph right up towards the top of the other mountain that was surrounded with the light out of which I had seen him come, which grew brighter and brighter as we neared it.
He then seemed to take me right into it, and immediately I felt I was in a presence I could not see.
“As I stood there, half in confidence, half in doubt, I heard my deliverer say, ‘I have answered for this child, I have suffered in her stead.’ Never can I describe the joy, the relief, the peace that flooded my soul as I heard those words, for I understood their meaning, I knew I was saved and that I owed all to my deliverer. I was full of happiness, and in the midst of it all I awoke. The impression of that dream never left me, although I did not tell it for years after, and I have to thank God for it, for, together with the reading of His word, it was the cause of my conversion.”
R.
BELOVED READER, I publish the above true record of a remarkable dream because it so clearly sets forth the gospel. We do not wait for the judgment day to hear the sentence, for “He that believeth NOT is condemned ALREADY,” and every day as it passes is another nearer destruction. But One, mighty to save, has come forth from the light, and, at an infinite cost to Himself, stands by our side and says, “Fear not! I have settled it all!” Will you hear these glad tidings of great joy, that this day there is a Saviour for you? And will you believe in Him who suffered and bled on the cross that He might be able to come and speak peace to you? Will you place your hand by faith in His at this moment, and trust HIM wholly like that little child of eight. “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein.”
Jesus alone can take the sinner by the hand right into God’s own presence, and there say, “I have answered for this soul, I have suffered in its stead.” May the Lord lead you to trust yourself wholly without reserve or doubt to Himself, and to the value of His finished work.
A. T. S.