NO more profound mistake can any soul make than to defer receiving Christ as Saviour and Lord when He presents Himself in that character for the acceptance of the soul Should Christ even be found on a death-bed, to have lost months and years of the sweet privilege of following and serving Him is loss indeed. These golden moments are never regained: these lost opportunities cannot arrive again. Every day spent without Christ is a day lost, and deferred decision for Him is often the seal of eternal damnation of the hesitating soul. God’s grace does sometimes meet a procrastinator; but it is fatal folly for any soul to defer decision for Christ.
The truth of these remarks has been pressed upon me during the last week, when I received a message to call and see, in the Edinburgh Infirmary, Jessie —, a bonnie Scotch lassie of twenty-three, whom I had known from childhood.
I had often been in the house where she lived, but no opportunity of a quiet talk with her, as to her soul, had arisen till eighteen months ago, when the death of an aged relation after a short illness, gave me the occasion I had long desired. The old lady referred to, a simple and happy believer in the Lord, had buried a Christian husband, brought up her family in the fear of the Lord, lived to see most of them decided for the Lord, and was also very anxious for Jessie’s conversion to the Lord.
At the time of the old lady’s death, Jessie was letting me out after paying a visit, when I asked if she had yet found the Lord. She frankly said, “No,” but that she thought of her soul’s salvation occasionally, and the fact of death being in the house had solemnized her.
I put the gospel very simply and plainly before her. She listened, trembled, wept, and finally said she would turn the matter seriously over in her mind.
Two days after, I again saw her, and asked her whether she had decided for Christ. She shook her head, and said she had many difficulties. The world was attractive, she was young, life was before her, she would enjoy it and the pleasures of the world for a while, and certainly decide for Christ some time; but she had definitely made up her mind not to receive Him then.
Deeply moved by the firm position she took up, I pled with her again, warned her solemnly of the uncertainty of life, and urged her to reconsider her position, for God might take her at her word, and, as she refused Christ, she might shortly find herself in eternity without Him forever.
More than a year rolled by, when one day she came to see me, complaining of some distressing head symptoms, the result, as she supposed, of a very trivial fall. Improvement not taking place, I recommended her to avail herself of the advantages which the Infirmary offered, for quiet rest and treatment, which she could not well have at home. I saw her occasionally, but without getting an opportunity for quiet conversation; and a week ago, received a message from her asking me to come and see her.
A great change had come over her physical condition. I saw that she was rapidly nearing the grave. I did not tell her this; but on asking her how she felt, she said, “I believe I am dying, I feel I shall never go home alive.”
I at once referred her to our conversation eighteen months before, saying “Do you remember the talk I had with you at the door?”
“Yes, indeed, I remember it well. I can never forget it; but thank God, I am all right now, Doctor. That is all settled. I have come to Jesus.”
“Oh, thank God for that, Jessie,” I said. “And when did that take place?”
“Just a week after I came into this ward,” she said, “I felt somehow when I came in, that I should never go out alive. An old friend of the family, who was a Christian, came and spoke to me, and I was led to decide for Jesus then and there.”
“And you have the knowledge that your sins are forgiven?”
“Yes, thank God, I am quite sure I belong to Jesus.”
“And His love gladdens your heart?”
“Yes, but I am sorry I did not decide for Him at the time you spoke to me.”
“Yes, it was a pity, was it not, because all this year and more has been lost, in which you might have been enjoying the Lord’s grace, and following Him. But how great indeed is His mercy, that He has met you in the evening of your life.”
“Yes, He has been very good,” was her gentle answer. And then she said, “Won’t you pray with me, Doctor?”
“Certainly, my dear girl. And what do you want me specially to ask the Lord for you?”
“Oh,” she replied, “ask Him to keep me near Him till the very end.”
I did so, and the end came within three days. She passed away quite peacefully, and I have no doubt she is with the Lord. But how much better would it have been, had she believed the Lord Jesus simply, confessing His name boldly, and followed Him faithfully for the twelve months that intervened between His appeal to her soul through my lips, and the incidence of the malady that carried her off.
My young reader, let me implore you to be warned by Jessie’s history. She being dead yet speaketh, and surely she says, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day shall bring forth.” You may think you have years of life before you. Already God may have uttered the word, “This year thou shalt die,” regarding, you, as He once did to another (Jer. 28:15-1715Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. 16Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. 17So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. (Jeremiah 28:15‑17)). Tell me, are you ready? Are you forgiven? Are your sins washed away? Is your soul saved? If not, procrastinate no more, but come to Jesus now.
The tender mercy that waited on the fair young lass of whom I have written, may never be tasted by you. Remember that “God is not mocked.” He was a wise and weighty counselor who once said, “Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:1818Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. (Job 36:18)). Why cannot a great ransom deliver thee then? It will be all too late. It is in life, not in death, that Christ is to be found.
W. T. P. W.