SOME time ago I witnessed the falling asleep of a very dear friend of mine, whose last words I cannot help repeating in warning to others. One evening, a little while before the Lord called her away to be with Himself, I was sitting by her bedside watching her. She was in a very precarious state, and, as I gazed on the wasted form, I felt that I could not hope to keep her long. Perhaps you, my reader, can remember seeing the departure of some dear one of yours; it may be your loved mother, or a very dear friend, and, as you read this, the whole scene comes again before you, and you recall the dying words, “Oh! my dear son, or my dear girl, will you not promise me that you will meet me in heaven?” With tears in your eyes, and quivering lips, you perhaps gave that promise.
But years have rolled on, and you are no longer that little girl or boy. “Ah!” you say, “indeed I am not; vast changes have taken place since then.” Let me affectionately put the question to you today, Have you kept the promise that you gave that dear one? Have you sought and found the same Saviour? Have you a good hope of rejoining your loved one in heaven?
But I must return to my story. As I sat beside my dying friend, she looked up into my face, and said, fervently, “Oh! how glad I am that I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour whilst in health. If I had put it off until now, it would have been perhaps too late.” She stopped quite exhausted. As I looked at her poor suffering body, I thought how changed she was from what I had known her. In moments of most acute pain she showed the greatest patience; it was evident that a divine power sustained her, that One was with her, who has promised to never leave nor forsake those who have been washed in His precious blood.
I well remember the last moment of this dear one. It was on a Sunday evening early in July, hardly a breath of air stirring, as in that quiet hour lay the dying one, surrounded by many loved friends. In their presence she passed calmly away, to be with her Lord and Saviour, whom she so loved and longed to see.
Dear reader, when that enemy, death, comes, you cannot bolt him out; all the friends in the world cannot hold you back when his cold, icy hand is laid upon you. Oh! sinner, delay not to prepare for that awful moment. What a day of salvation this is! The God of infinite grace is waiting; the door of mercy stands open. What are you waiting for? God bids you enter, why stay outside? The Saviour waits with outstretched arms. He is ready, why will you not go to Him? Listen to His loving words, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me.” You have tried broken cisterns long enough, and proved there is naught there to satisfy.
The Saviour bids you to come to Him now, and He will quench your thirst. If you refuse His offer of grace, there is no other alternative but eternal perdition. Do you not think it is high time to wake up? Will you not solemnly consider these things? Jesus says, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
E. A. S.