SOME years back I visited an old man aged eighty-four, and was given to understand that he had been a man of the world and a fighting character. On my first visit he seemed very indifferent to eternal things, but he was afterward taken ill, and I went to see him again. I said to him that eighty-four years of sins could be washed away by the blood of Jesus. I believe the word was blessed to him, for the next time I visited him he put out his hand to me. He had got very childish, and I could not make out much that he said. But his daughter heard him saying his prayers, which I suppose was wonderful for him. But praying truly is one of the first signs of divine life in the soul. The Lord’s testimony to Ananias of the chief of sinners when he was converted was, “Behold, he prayeth.” He departed this life soon after, and I trust went to be with Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. Not long after the daughter was taken ill with cancer, and she believed the message of salvation and became very happy in the Lord. I remember on one occasion going to see her. She was suffering very much. Sitting by her bedside I said nothing, but started to sing a gospel hymn. Soon after she joined in the singing, and her face beamed with happiness. While she was ill, her husband met with a very bad accident to his right arm. This was trouble indeed, for he afterward had to have it reset. She departed to be with her Saviour, to praise Him throughout all eternity for His great love in dying for her sins on Calvary, and giving her to know it.
Dear reader, Are your sins washed away by the precious blood of Christ? Are you ready if God should call you soon from this world? “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”
A. C. W.