A Christian mother sat in her room toward evening. She had a large grown-up family and many cares, chief among them just now being the increasingly poor health of a dear son. She had that day been much moved at hearing of great blessing in a neighboring building through the preaching of a young man. "Oh, if my dear boy were only like him," she thought. "If he would even hear him, how happy I would be!" But she felt her own weakness. Ralph was almost too ill to go out at night. At his work during the day he was exposed to teaching the very reverse of what she craved for him. Still, "is anything too hard for the Lord?" Inwardly she resolved that, at all events, she would go to the preaching herself, for she felt that her own faith needed strengthening.
As she sat there that afternoon she listened and she prayed. She heard Ralph come home from the city, wearily climb the stairs, and go into his own room nearby. Then she heard him throw himself upon his bed and—could her ears be mistaken?—she heard a groan and her own name. In an instant she was beside him, and, with her arms about him, she heard, "Oh mother, I'm so ill, and so miserable!”
These were welcome words to her; even if his outward man was perishing, his soul was not, and she cared for it more than for his body now. Gently she told him what she had been thinking of, and asked him to escort her to the service. She did not say that it was for his soul that she yearned.
They went; they found the hall so full that they were obliged to stand. Then the mother lost sight of her son in the crowd, and again her faith failed. What if he had left in disgust? Should she follow him? No-she would listen for herself.
At the close of the meeting she found him awaiting her in the porch with a changed face, and by degrees she learned that a gentleman seeing his delicacy had made room for him, and that every word the preacher spoke had come home to him. Tears had stolen to his eyes; and as he furtively brushed them away, he became aware of a lady sitting beside him with an earnest face, who was evidently praying for him. It made a deep impression on him, for he was aware that she knew what was passing in his soul, and before leaving she turned and grasped his hand. He was rescued from death and from Satan that night, and brought to God and life.
There was joy in the hearts of mother and son as they walked home; joy too in the presence of the angels of God, for Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had sought and found the lost. The son which had been dead was alive. He could say, "The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day.... The Lord was ready to save me." Isa. 38:19, 2019The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. 20The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. (Isaiah 38:19‑20).
Let each one who reads this ask himself: "Do I know the One who has the keys of death and hell, and who says, 'Fear not... I am alive for evermore'"? Rev. 1:17, 1817And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: 18I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:17‑18). He died that we might live.