AT a cottage meeting, one evening, I was specially drawn to speak of present knowledge and present enjoyment of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God through simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the close of the address a man, grey, and bent with age, asked me, “Will you go and see my mother, sir? I am sure she will like your doctrine, if you will.”
“Your mother?” said I, astonished that he should have a mother still living. The old man led the way to an attic over his bedroom, where his mother had lived for some years. With an effort he drew himself up the nearly vertical stairs, and as I followed he pointed me to the next ascent, half-staircase, half-ladder, leaving me to mount alone. Thus I found myself close under the ridge of the roof, standing in a kind of triangular attic, through the small window of which the setting sun was shining in, its rays lighting up a spare, gaunt figure sitting upright on a low bed.
The woman’s age was more than one hundred years, yet, while very feeble, her faculties seemed unimpaired. The hard touch of her glazed brown hand, with its stiff fingers, and the dark and shining skin of her face, on which the light glanced sideways with a weird effect, produced a strange sensation, almost of awe, which was heightened by the quiet and loneliness of the place.
To my first inquiry the poor woman feebly replied that she was quite well; but when, after a short pause, I asked her, “And do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour?” her whole manner changed. Her eyes brightened instantly at the sound of that grand Name, her voice started into a shrill energy that has not died away yet in my memory as she rather retorted than replied, “To be sure I do! He knows me.” Then, pointing her finger at me, she cried, “Do you know Him? Do you know Him yourself? Do You?” At once I knew I had come to one who could teach as well as learn. Without waiting for a reply, she continued, betraying almost scorn for my question, as if asking it implied a doubt, “Know Him! and many a long year before you were born, too! Know Him! I should think I do. I was but a girl going to market along the dirty road, all bedraggled up to my knees in mud, when the Lord Jesus Christ drove by in His carriage, and picked me up, and set me beside Him, and said, ‘I’ll make you my bride.’ Know Him! to be sure I do. Do you, I ask? I should like to know that.”
The stream of vigor startled me a little, though the inquiry was welcome: but I answered, “Yes, through grace, I can tell you He died for me, and I do know Him as my Saviour.” Then she pressed her question in different forms, to discover whether I was real, and when satisfied, her anxiety for me gave way to many an expression of regret that of the people who at times visited her none could say that they were truly saved.
We chatted for some time on the free and unchanging grace of God, and on its present enjoyment by simple faith here, before we reach heaven. It was a privilege to taste with her a little of the fellowship which presently we shall resume when the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife hath made herself ready.
Does my reader KNOW whether he himself will be at that wedding in its great and heavenly glory?
In the quaint metaphor of this aged woman, can he say that the Lord Jesus has picked him up in his sins and misery, and given him a seat in Himself in the glory on high—quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, seated in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 2:5, 65Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:5‑6))?
Can you say, “I KNOW in whom I have believed”? “WE KNOW that we have passed from death unto life.” “WE KNOW that we are of God.” “WE KNOW that when He shall appear, we SHALL be like Him.” “We have received the Spirit of God, that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God.” “We have KNOWN and believed the love that God hath to us.” The Scriptures say, “Ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life.” May your portion be, “KNOWING, brethren beloved, your election of God,” for, “THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS.”