The following notes have been sent to us by a dear christian friend; and we give them to our readers as a very fine illustration of the statement, that a Christian is not a poor man with large expectations, but the present possessor of unsearchable riches in Christ. It is good to be permitted to breathe an atmosphere so intensely real, in this day of shams.
A sick ward in a workhouse makes a good classroom sometimes for learning the all sufficiency of Christ. When we went in that Thursday afternoon (Feb. 6), old James in his quiet corner did not at first notice us. He was looking up steadfastly into heaven. They say in the night he often breaks out into singing, and that it is always the same full joy and peace in believing, whoever is there to see the shining of the light through the poor old broken pitcher. You know he is quite deaf, and paralyzed down one side. Some fragments of his earlier history we have gathered up. Evidently preaching Christ has long been his delight, and if from a pauper’s mattress now, “It don’t matter where I am,” he tells us; “I can’t be worked here. When Christ is with me, He fills my heart with love, overflowing love. It’s the fountain of love. I can’t fathom it. It’s love without a bottom. I don’t want to boast of myself, but I may boast in the Lord. I often wish I were dead and gone home, but I be here till my appointed time, till my change come.”
One of the old men put two or three of our snowdrops into his left hand: his right hand is clenched and powerless. That drew his attention, and he said so brightly, “‘Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’ There is God in that. No painter could make one like it. We shall be dressed in white, white robes, and palms of victory in our hands, and we shall have the white stones too, and His name written on our foreheads, and we shall walk the golden streets.” “I wanted to see you,” he said, pausing a little, “I wanted to tell you about last Monday night. I could not say, ‘Thy will be done.’” It seemed impossible for me to say it—I could not say it in truth. My lips could say it, but not my heart. And I thought over the tracts you had given me, I looked at all the apostles, at last I looked at St. Paul. ‘Thy will be done.’ I wanted to get up so much. St. Paul had a thorn in the flesh, he prayed three times that it might be taken away. I have prayed. But Jesus says, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee;’ and so I lies contented. I can say it was one of the hardest things to me. It was impossible to say, ‘Thy will be done. See how the Lord removed the burden. I could not see anything that comforted me till I looked at Paul. I can see it ever since. It’s the same promise now as then. I believe Jesus troubles as much about me as he did about Paul! Paul was a sinner, and I am a sinner. He died for sinners such as I am. ‘My grace,’ Jesus said; that’s for me as well as Paul. I did not think I could have lain here two and thirty weeks, I did not think I could have lived so long. ‘But’ My grace is sufficient for thee.’ (And literally the dear disciple’s mouth was filled with laughter.)
“He cheers me,” he went on, exultingly. “I know He will lay no more upon me than He will enable me to bear. He gives me grace and strength according to my day. I trusts Him! I know He will do all things well. Here I lies; I can’t do naught, nor stir. But like Paul says, I can do all things through Christ strengthening me. ‘When I am weak, then I am strong.’ When I meditates on the blessed Lord, I seems too lost to feel pain.”
Then, after a brief silence: “What a blessed tiling it is the Lord knows our thoughts. I’ve been thinking that perhaps the Lord spares my life to give me to see that I ain’t fully believed in Him. I didn’t believe I had anything on my mind, but could just trust the Lord. But I had, you see. ‘Thy will be done’ I could not say; I hadn’t given. A voice from the workhouse I, Him my desire, my will, I wants to live without any will of my own. I wants He to do His own will and not my will. We are blind, narrow sighted creatures till He lets light in upon our hearts.”
Presently he continued, ‘I have been like a running over well, praising the Lord for His mercies.’ It puts me in mind of what our Lord said to the woman at the well, ‘springing up!’ The passages of scripture and the hymns springs up in my mind one after another as fast as I can say them. I’ve no temptation to tell of but that one. God says He will make a way for our escape.”
When the large print hymn book was put into his hand open at “Lord, I can see, by faith in thee, a prospect bright, unfailing,” and his spectacles reached down from the shelf, he read it down with marked delight, taking up one verse especially: —
“Ο how I thirst the chains to burst,
That weigh my spirit downward;
And there to flow in love’s full glow,
With hearts like thine surrounded.”
“Praise the Lord, that I can say from my heart!”
“High in the Father’s house above” was next pointed out to him: —
“ With Him I love, in spotless white,
In glory I shall shine;
His blissful presence my delight,
His love and glory mine.”
“My delight! my delight! it is my delight, through mercy. Bless the Lord, it’s all the blood of Jesus. It’s redemption through Thy blood, the forgiveness of sins, as fits us to see Thy glory.”
“All taint of sin shall be removed,
All evil done away;
And I shall dwell with God’s beloved
Through God’s eternal day.”
“I’m very thankful for your kindness,” he said, quite unconscious of having kept himself the “more blessed” place of giving, for we were simply listeners, receivers of the living water as it flowed. “A cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shall in nowise lose its reward.” “When saw we thee sick or in prison? they said. And Jesus answered, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” He knows our thoughts—they come from Him. What good we do, it’s for Christ. It’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. May I be built up in Him!
“Tis all my hope and all my plea,
For me the Savior died!’
“If I live, it’s by His grace I live to Him. If I die, I trust through His grace and strength I shall be landed on Canaan’s happy shore—I feel happy,” he said, with an emphasis that is quite indescribable. “I feels very weak, but I am strong in the Lord, I think stronger than when I was well. I can see more of the goodness of God, I can see more of His grace and strength now I am ill—now I am laid in this form. May the Lord mold me and fashion me in His own righteous image. I can’t stir, I can’t get up. I’m a monument of pardoning mercy.
“I don’t know when I may die, it might be in a moment. I feels very weak. But one thing I know, that when Christ appears I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is. When this poor corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall be fulfilled that saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. Ο death! where is thy sting? Ο grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
“I shall never see you again perhaps in this world, but I thank you, and shall as long as I live. God forever bless you. I wish I could hear you speak. Jesus Christ can hear, and He knows, that is the best of it. I shall greet you on the banks of deliverance, where the Savior will be, and all the apostles and prophets, and all the noble army of martyrs as kept the faith and died for the cause of their Master, Jesus.
“When Elijah was hid in the cave, the Lord went to him and asked ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’ ‘It’s because of thy enemies. They have killed thy prophets with the sword and I am left alone.’ ‘Why, Elijah!’ the Lord says, ‘I have seven thousand men who have not bowed to Baal. Why art thou afraid? I am thy God.’ Seven thousand men! Glory to God! What a lot! So you see when he was so much frightened, the Lord is strength. The Lord went to him. He knowed his weakness. ‘I have seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal,’ to the wicked one. Seven thousand souls as Elijah didn’t know of! So, you see, the Lord has hundreds and thousands of precious souls as loves and serves Him, besides we. We don’t know ‘em. But then we shall......in the eternal world of joy.”
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)