THE long-suffering mercy of God, and His patient and tender grace, in what might appear to be a hopeless case, may be seen in the following little narrative, now put forth in the hope that it may prove an encouragement to those laboring in any way to bring the gospel of the grace of God home to the individual sinner.
To please himself had been the one object for thirty-three years of S― G―.
Although carefully trained in his youth, the desires after the (so-called) pleasures of life soon broke through the hedge which had been cultivated around him, with the result that, at the age of twenty-eight, consumption had set in, and he found himself a complete wreck. If, however, he had forgotten God, God in His tender love for the poor sinner had not forgotten him.
During this first illness, which lasted several weeks, the writer, a relative, put before him, by letters and little books, God’s way of salvation; and these, though not acknowledged at the time, were read by him, as he owned on his deathbed.
He recovered, but alas still unbroken, unrepentant, unsaved; and another season of willfulness and sin served but to display the tender patience of God towards the rebellious sinner.
Each succeeding attack was made the occasion for renewed appeals, and earnest prayer on his behalf, and these were followed by a personal visit in August 1886, when God’s grace was pressed upon him, and he was implored to lay hold on God’s salvation, through the perfect work of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. His only answer was, with tears, “I know you are right.” At this interview a little book, “The Two Alexanders,” was given to him, and this he carried about in his pocket, and was often seen to read.
About the end of March, as he was walking in the street, he burst a blood-vessel, and was led home a dying man. To his mother he said, “God has spoken to me today. If they had laid me down, I should have died directly.”
Again he was pressed to look to Him who alone could save, and his reply was a proof that God had not only spoken to him that day, but that he had heard His voice. “Yes,” he said, “salvation is not bought with money, God has taught me that.”
From that moment he took the place of a lost sinner, and accepted the Lord Jesus as the Saviour of the lost, never after doubting His power or His love.
“His love is as great as His power,
And knows neither measure nor end.”
He said little, being very quickly exhausted, but he liked others to speak and read to him.
Almost his last words were, “God is love”; and on his mother adding, “And God is light,” he said, “Yes, and I know that as well.”
He had known the light to penetrate his dark heart, and reveal to him his awful position; and now that light was known to him as revealing the full value and the preciousness of the blood which cleanseth from all sin:”
Is this paper being read by one on a bed of sickness? one who, looking back on the past, can only say, “Yes, God has spoken to me many times, but there has been no response.” God has undoubtedly spoken to you many times, but the point we would press upon you is, Have you heard? The last time will come, ―a moment when He will call for the last time! Think of the words above referred to, “If they had laid me down, I should have died directly.” When dead where will you spend your eternity?
A. H. P. W.