A SERVANT of the Lord Jesus Christ, much used in the Gospel of the grace of God, was preaching in a village in one of the midland counties. The passage he preached from was “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The Lord owned the word, and one of the hearers went home rejoicing in Christ Jesus. She turned to the text in her Bible and read it over. The words which follow struck her attention; they are “and thy house.” Receiving the whole passage in the simplicity of faith, she counted on the Lord for her whole “house.” The Lord had said, “Thou shalt be saved and thy house,” and she believed him. She was saved now, but her “house” was not. She did not stay to reason, nor to question; but taking God at his word, she expected the salvation of all who were of her “house.” She prayed for them in the confidence which a full persuasion of the immutability of God’s Word alone can give, and which reasoning only weakens. As soon as opportunity occurred, she went in her simplicity to her aged parents, who lived in a distant village; but when she got there she could not open her mouth. They knew not “wherefore she had come,” but the Lord knew, and if she could not speak she could pray for them. Her sense of her own weakness only served to cast her more entirely on the Lord and the fact that on her first visit she was unable to speak, shows she was not one of those bold, talkative persons, who too often mistake the energy of the flesh for that of the Spirit. “A meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price.” But she soon repeated her visit to her parents’ home. In that same village she had, beside her aged father and mother, four brothers and two sisters, one of the latter being married and having children. She herself, also, had a husband and children at home. All these, with the exception of herself were unconverted, but what cannot a Divinely implanted faith effect? One after the other, in what order or succession the writer knows not, nor is it of much importance, father and mother, brothers and sisters, the sister’s husband and eldest child, her own husband and eldest daughter, were all brought to Christ. Subsequently her second daughter believed and was saved; and last of all, an aged uncle living in the same village as herself, was “added to the number.” All these are probably still living; witnesses to the power and grace of him who said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”
Who in the prospect of that most solemn moment, when the trumpet shall sound, and the “assembling shout” shall fall upon our ears, and the archangel’s voice shall summon the sleeping saints from the dust of centuries, — who can hear of such an instance of the power of faith and prayer without earnestly desiring grace to “go and do likewise?”
To be “without natural affection” is one of the marks of the apostasy of the last days; yet how many believers seem to be totally unconcerned about the salvation even of their own children Their excuses are various; “The children are too young to give heed to such things.” “God’s own good time is best.” “Grace does not run in families.” “We cannot give grace to our children.” “The salvation of souls does not depend on us, nor on our prayers, but on God’s eternal purposes,” etc., etc. The answer to all this is very simple; “Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong unto us, and to our children;” and it is revealed, “Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Such parents can hardly respond to the gracious testimony, “Surely, I come quickly,” “Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.”
But there are others also, of widely different character, who find it hard so to respond. Such have said to the writer, “I could rejoice in the prospect of the Lord’s coming, but when I think of these I love it makes me tremble for them.” Christian wives who have unconverted husbands, believing husbands who have unbelieving wives, sisters who mourn over ungodly brothers, brothers who grieve over unsaved sisters, sons and daughters who yearn for the salvation of their parents, are among those who find it hard to say “Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Should not such remember that HE whom they look for has
“A heart
To feel their smallest woe, And in each sorrow bears a part
That none can bear below!”
Should not his gracious ways, his precious sympathies, his abounding promises to his own, encourage them to repose in full unlimited confidence in HIMSELF, and lead them in the energy of faith and prayer, to count on him for all that are of their “house”?
It is for such that the above narrative is written. One instance is often worth more than any amount of argument or exhortation, to lift the bowed heart, and rouse to energy and hope the faith that has almost failed.
“The same Lord over all,” whom this Christian woman counted on, “is rich unto all that call upon him.” Only let us remember that it is by unhindered communion that faith is maintained in exercise, and that the walk must accord with the verbal testimony. “Whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”