"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24.
A hot north wind blew as I started across the paddock that lay between me and the dwelling in which lived a woman who was in deep anxiety about her soul. I had been staying at a farm house in the bush and had heard of the deep exercise of soul she appeared to have passed through for some two years. A few days previously she had been overtaken by a neighbor as he was driving to the meeting house they attended, and which was situated some three miles from where she dwelt, trudging through the heavy rain on her way to the same place to hear the Word of God. As he stopped to take her up, he asked her why she ventured out on such a day, when she replied: "O, I daren't stay at home, my soul's at stake.”
Entering the house I found her busy cutting potatoes, which the children were carrying out and planting in the furrows made in the land adjoining the house where the father was plowing.
Seating myself on a form to which I was directed, I inquired:
"Well, Mrs. M., how are you today."
I had seen her once before at a meeting.
"Very well in health, thank you, sir."
"But what about the soul?”
"Bad enough, sir, as bad as it can be. I get no rest, no peace, yet I seek it. I go to hear the Word of God, and feel happy sometimes when listening, but then it all goes, and I feel worse than ever, but then I don't deserve it. I lived for five years near Mr. W., yet never went to hear him preach until two years ago. I felt very unhappy, and thought I must go. I went, and the Word of God seemed to plow up my very soul, and ever since then, when thinking of my past life, I feel, as it were, all ground up.”
"But how is that; have you not read what Jesus did for such sinners as you?”
"O, yes; but how may I know it is for me?”
"Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?”
"Yes, every word of it; I was reading it as you came in.”
"Have" you ever read the twenty-fourth verse of John 5?”
"I have read it all many times.”
"You have your Bible, will you kindly read that verse?" Turning to it she read: "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”
"Ah, that is very beautiful, but it's not for me. I don't believe aright.”
"Now will you kindly read that again, and see if it says anything about believing aright.”
Again she read it, and now the Spirit of God applied the word to the liberation of a soul so long in bondage. The next few minutes were occupied by her in reading again and again this most precious statement of Gospel truth, making her own comments after each reading.
It needed not that I should make further remark. God had given entrance to His word, which gave light and understanding to the simple.
At the second reading she replied, in answer to my question: "Well, no; it says nothing about believing aright; dear me, I never read it so before; I must read that again.”
And turning the leaf down, put the book on the table, but immediately took it up again and read it a third time, saying: "Well, that's wonderful.”