A young officer, who was well known as having led a careless, worldly life, was lying at the point of death in hospital, when he was visited by a trooper of his regiment. After speaking kindly words of sympathy, Taylor received from the dying man, as he had received from hundreds of others, mementoes and messages for loved ones at home.
“Promise me, Taylor, that when you get back to England you will call and see my mother, and tell her all about me.”
“Your mother, sir?” and the look of sorrow and regret on the dying face made him say gently, “May I tell your mother that you died trusting in Christ, sir?”
“No, no,” was the answer given bitterly. “She is a good woman, and a Christian. It will break her heart, I know: but no, it is not true of me!” and he turned his face away.
That was the beginning. “But Christ will receive you now just as you are. Why not come to Him?”
“Taylor,” was the bitter answer, “I have lived only for myself and given God no thought all my life. How could I be so mean as to turn to Him and to ask Him to help me now when I am dying? No! it’s too late. I couldn’t come now; it would be so mean.”
“Wait a minute, sir. Look at it this way. Look at it from Christ’s side. After all He has done for you—and He died for you—give Him the chance of reaping your soul. He has suffered enough for you. Don’t cause Him still more disappointment! Give Him at least the chance of saving you now, late though it is.”
The dying man’s eyes opened in astonishment. This was, a new way of looking at it―that Christ would be disappointed if he held back, and that he would be wounding Him still further―that was a new thought.
“Leave me, Taylor, and come again this evening. I must be alone; I must think.”
And that evening, when the trooper went there was no need to ask whether or not he had come. The light in the dying man’s eves told the tale. He had not disappointed Christ. The lost sheep had let the Shepherd find him “to the uttermost.”
“Tell... my mother... her prayers... have been heard,” he whispered.
When back in England, Taylor did tell that mother, and found, as he expected, a saint of God, whose prayers had followed her boy and been answered for him. You who read this may have a praying mother. Send her the good news that you have taken Christ as your Saviour.
Listen! Jesus says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” And “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” Selected.