A GOSPEL preaching, held by two evangelists, had just closed, when an old woman of over fourscore years, with deeply-wrinkled forehead, came up to them. Taking hold of the hand of one, she said, “I was so glad you told them about ‘whosoever.’ I like that word. For a year and a half I was in despair. I was ten times more guilty than the devil. A thousand times I had the offer of salvation, and I despised the blood; but he never had the offer after he fell. But when I heard that word, I laid hold of ‘whosoever’ with a death-grip, and I made up my mind I’d carry it with me to hell, rather than let it go.”
“How long ago is that?” they asked.
“Some sixty years,” was the reply.
Dear reader, how is it with you? Have you ever known what it is to be in despair? Conviction of sin is a solemn reality. Those who have passed through it can well enter into the words of this aged Christian. To have before your soul the terror of the Lord, glorious in holiness (Exodus 15:1111Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11)); the broken law, with its awful curse attached (Galatians 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10)); a sin-burdened conscience; death, judgment, and the lake of fire your impending doom, staring you in the face morning, noon, and night, is a dread reality indeed. And oh, what inexpressible relief at such a moment, and in such a condition, to hear the joyful sound of the gospel, telling how “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).) Who would not lay hold of it with a death-grip?
Picture to yourself a man overboard from a ship in mid-ocean, and about to sink beneath the waves and find a watery grave, when suddenly a rope is thrown to him — his only possible chance of escape; see the death-grip with which he seizes it in his desperate eagerness, and you will get a faint idea of the grip of faith with which, as this aged woman described it, she gripped the “whosoever” of the gospel of God. Eternity depended upon it. To miss it would be to spend eternity in hell, to grip it, eternity in glory with Christ. At one moment the devil’s captive, reduced to desperation, the blackness of darkness for eternity right before her, with the full consciousness in the presence of the Holy One of richly deserving that awful doom, when suddenly the “whosoever” of His boundless grace sounds upon the ear. And as she so graphically described, she laid hold of it with a death-grip.
It was the grip of faith, and God’s blessed answer went along with it, “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.” (John 10:2828And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:28).) No, never. God declares it. No sinner ever did, or ever will, who believes on Him. Have you believed? For sixty years this aged Christian had rested upon, and enjoyed this precious promise of God. She knew that she would never perish, but that everlasting life was hers. She gripped God’s “whosoever,” and with it this priceless gift; and the mighty hand of the Lord gripped her for everlasting glory. (John 10:28, 2928And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (John 10:28‑29); 1 Peter 5:1010But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:10).)
Beloved reader, have you done the same? Perish you must, perish you will, if you go on without Christ. Another step may be the fatal one — off the precipice of this world, into the vast depth of an eternal hell! God has said it, and He cannot lie. But lay hold this moment, poor, despairing, Christless soul, of the blessed “whosoever” of the gospel of God, and all fear of hell shall forever depart from your soul, and everlasting life become your portion now. (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47).) “Whosoever” is a world-wide gospel word that includes all, and excludes none, outside of which no sinner upon the face of the globe can possibly get. Hence it must mean you; therefore lay hold of it, we beseech you, with a death-grip, ere it be too late.
E. H. C.