ONE Lord’s day morning my door-bell rang at an early hour, and before I had commenced to dress myself the message was brought up to me, “Will you please come and see Mrs. —? she very ranch wishes to see you. And will you, please, come at once?”
I knew that the person whose name was mentioned was at the time lying very ill, and having hastily dressed, and bidden my dear wife not to wait for me for breakfast, I hurried off, looking to the Lord to give the suited word.
A few moments more and I was sitting at her bedside. She scarcely waited to hear my few enquiries as to her present bodily condition, before she fixed her eyes upon me, and with intense earnestness said, “Am I all right?”
One glance at the questioner was sufficient to convince me that what men speak of as death would very soon take possession of her now suffering body. And it was evident that in asking this question she was not thinking so much of the great change that would soon come, affecting her poor body, as of the destiny of her immortal soul.
Being consciously brought face to face with eternal realities, in evident anxiety of mind, she put to me the momentous question, “Am I all right?”
Was she one who had put off seeking Christ and salvation through His finished work until she came to a death-bed, as too many have done? By no means. She had been for years a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is some unsaved reader inclined to say, “What! a dying believer in anxiety of mind as to the destiny of her soul? why, I thought that of all persons believers were exempt from such an experience!”
To such my answer would be, “Before you read any further, pray answer me this one question ‘If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?’”
Those who have yielded to the temptation not to seek their soul’s salvation until they are brought to a death-bed, at their own peril ignore, the fact that the moment of severest physical pain and weakness is also the very moment during which the enemy of souls will leave no stone unturned in his effort to tighten the chains that already encircle his poor deluded victims, or to harass those whom he seeks if it were possible to devour. Full many a dying believer has protested, “If I had put off my soul’s salvation until I came to my death-bed, it would seem impossible for me to have sought the Saviour now.” Remember this, you who are putting off decision for Christ until you reach your death-bed, that, to a dying Christ rejecter, there is no name, the mention of which is, more terrible than the name of Him through whom we preach the forgiveness of sins.
“Am I all right?”
Before I ventured to answer this question I deemed it essential to ask several others.
“Do you know yourself to be a sinner? “
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that Jesus is the Saviour?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that His blood cleanseth from all sin?”
“Yes.”
“Can you save yourself by any efforts of your own?”
“No.”
“Do you believe that Christ is willing to save yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Are you content to be saved by Him, just as you are, and without any efforts of your own to save yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, if you believe that Christ is both able and willing to save you, and you are content to be saved by Him. His own word assures us, ‘Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out?’ What more do you want?”
Poor woman, because in a moment of weakness she had failed to look off unto Jesus, the enemy had. obtained an advantage. I pointed her to Jesus, and told the sweet story of old in her hearing and we prayed together.
I called several times during the day and in the evening I found her weaker than ever, but her relatives told me that she had been singing hymns of praise.
Her case was simply this. She had commenced to descend into the valley of the shadow of death without realizing that the Saviour was present with her; but when her eyes were once more fixed simply upon Himself, she must needs, as she journeyed onwards, sing for very joy of heart, because her Lord was with her, and His rod and His staff comforted her. Then she needed no word of assurance from my lips to testify that she was all right. But, beloved reader, if you have not the Spirit of God, you are none of His. He that has not Christ within cannot be “all right” for eternity. But he who believes has nothing to fear. A. J.