In the military hospital of Cairo, Egypt, a Christian woman was given a permit to visit the soldiers. Among the wounded men brought in after a skirmish was a young Scotch Highlander. He had lost a limb, and infection had set in. The doctor said he could not live through the night.
The lady tells of her visit as follows: "I stopped at his bedside to see if I could do anything for him. He lay with closed eyes, and as he moved his lips I caught the words, 'Mother, Mother!' I dipped my handkerchief in iced water and bathed his burning forehead, full of fever.
“‘Oh, that is good!' he said, opening his eyes. Seeing me bending over him he caught my hand and kissed it. `Thank you, lady,' he said, 'it 'minds me o' Mother.'
"I asked him if I could write to his mother. No, he said, the surgeon had promised to do that, but would I, could I sing to him? I hesitated and looked around. The gleam of the yellow waters of the Nile as the rays of the sun caught the water, reminded me of that river whose streams make glad the City of our God. I began to sing in a very low voice:
“‘Shall we gather at the river?'
"Eager heads were raised around the ward to listen more intently; and soon bass and tenor voices, weak and trembling through sickness, came in on the chorus:
“‘Yes, we'll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.'
"When the song was ended, I looked into the face of the boy—for he was not over twenty—and asked the question: 'Will you be there?'
“‘Yes, I'll be there, through what the Lord Jesus has done for me,' he answered. His blue eyes were shining brightly, and a light that never was seen on sea or land irradiated his face. The tears gathered in my eyes as I thought of the mother in her far off Scottish home, waiting and watching for tidings of her soldier boy who was breathing away his life in an Egyptian hospital.
"'Come again, lady, come again,' I heard on all sides as I left the barracks. I shall go, Lord willing, again; but I shall not find my Scottish laddie here, for by tomorrow's reveille he will have crossed the river.”
Dear reader, can you join with the Scottish laddie and say: "Yes, I'll be there through what the Lord Jesus has done for ME"? If not, remember, life is likened to a "vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." James 4:1414Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14). You may be called at any moment to face the inevitable, for Scripture says: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27). But, if the Lord Jesus is YOUR trust, death and judgment have been born by HIM for all who believe.
Oh, if you cannot sing or say, "Yes, we'll gather at the river... Gather with the saints at the river," let me plead with you to come to the Savior of sinners NOW! He has said, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." Will you come TODAY?