A YOUNG wife and mother lay dying. The doctors had done all that human skill could devise to subdue the raging fever, but were at last obliged to admit that their best efforts were futile. One of them, the girl’s own father, had strained every nerve to save her, and had watched with anguish the impotence of each fresh remedy. Then, as he faced the sad reality that she was dying, he felt that at any rate she must be told the truth as to her state. It would be far better for her to know that she was going into eternity.
Very gently and tenderly he broke it to her, but nothing could soften the blow to one so young, and a heartrending struggle ensued. Was her life really over? Must she indeed part with all she loved in this world — babes, husband, parents, brothers and sisters? She had never even thought of having to leave them, and the shadows of grief had not yet crossed her pathway. Earth seemed so bright, and heaven so dim. But it was God’s will, and had He not the right to do as He pleased? It was useless to contend with Him, and besides He knew best. By degrees she grew calm and peaceful. Passages from the Bible were read to her, and the pastor was summoned, as is customary on those sad occasions.
Approaching the bedside, the signs of death were so unmistakable that he said, “Shall I pray God to receive you?”
To the surprise, perhaps, of himself and those who stood by, she quietly answered, “He has already received me.”
She had learned in days of health what the poor woman in Luke 7 learned, that “this man receiveth sinners,” — what the prodigal in Luke 15. learned when the father ran to meet him in his rags, and fell on his neck and kissed him, clothing him then in the best robe and killing the fatted calf because he had “received him safe and sound.” She had learned what the young children in Judea learned when Jesus took them up in His arms and blessed them. He had then said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.” She had come to Him now, and He had received and blessed her according to His promise.
The seed had been sown early in her young heart, and had sprung and grown up and borne fruit to His eye who had watched over it night and day. She had an aunt who had prayed for her from babyhood, and as she attained years of understanding had sent her regularly every month a gospel periodical bearing the glad tidings from God of peace to her soul, which she had received in faith, and now on her deathbed confessed.
Dear readers, do not despise these little tokens of God’s yearning grace over you. You too, perhaps, have Christian friends and relatives who send you Echoes of Mercy, or other gospel periodicals, and you think it a bore to have to read them, and wish they did not come, reminding you of the world to come, of heaven and hell. I entreat you to take heed to these little messengers, for how do you know that you too may not be cut off before your time, as M―was? What a blessing it was to her to know that she was going, not to an unknown land, but to a Person, the Lord Jesus, who had already received her just as she was, and had washed her from her sins in His own blood.
It is God’s delight to bless the sinner, and the “music and the dancing” testified to His joy over the poor returning prodigal whom He had received safe and sound. Can you say like my young friend, “He has already received me”?
To Christian readers I would say: “Do not be disheartened about sending tracts or periodicals to the unconverted. You may only know by-and-by the blessing they have been. Send them with the prayer of faith like M — ‘s aunt, and God will water and bless the seed sown. And perhaps He will give you, as He gave to her, the comfort and joy of knowing even here that ‘your labor is not in vain in the Lord.’”
Jesus stands waiting to receive every poor sinner that comes to Him by faith — and what a reception He gives both now and hereafter! We are received just as we are, in all our guilt and misery — carried home on His shoulders rejoicing — put to sleep by Him like M —, or waiting for the moment when He will come to meet us in the air and receive us unto Himself forever. May such a reception be yours!
“Sinners Jesus will receive —
Say this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall!
This can bring them back again:
Christ receiveth sinful men.
Shepherds seek their wandering sheep,
O’er the mountains bleak and cold —
Jesus such a watch doth keep
O’er the lost ones of His fold —
Seeking them o’er moor and fen:
Christ receiveth sinful men.
Come, and He will give you rest;
Sorrow-stricken, sin-defiled,
He can make the sinfullest
God the Father’s blessed child;
Trust Him, for His word is plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.”
C. A. W.