About five or six years ago, when staying in Birmingham for a short time in the service of the gospel, I was asked by some christian friends to go to Dudley, in Worcestershire, to see Robert P., a great invalid, a Christian. I consented to do so, and shall never, I think, forget my visit. It has been my lot in former days to see very much suffering in connection with the most painful diseases; I have seen the poor body tortured and racked by pain and anguish that neither the pen nor tongue of man could describe; I have seen limbs distorted and certain organs destroyed or rendered useless in one or another poor patient by painful diseases: but I doubt if I ever saw (save perhaps in one case) such an instance of accumulated sufferings of the most terrific kind in any one person, as I found in R. P. At the time of my visit he was 38 years of age, and had been ill for 18 years. He evidently had been a large, fine man; but to the eye of nature it was pitiable to see the “outward man” as I saw him. He was bent down almost double, his face turned in toward his chest, with his chin pressing hard upon his breastbone, so that for two years he had seen nothing but the light. His jaws were so locked that he could only take food the thickness of a penny, which had to be slipped in between his teeth. His limbs were not only deformed, but perfectly useless to him. He could only move two fingers when I saw him; all the rest of his body was as immoveable as if it had been a wood carving, save his tongue. This his Father was pleased to leave him the full use of, and as he had a heart completely at rest and fully satisfied—for he had CHRIST there—he used the member left him to speak of the love and mercy of that gracious God who gave His Son for sinners, and of that blessed Lord Jesus Christ who had filled his soul with sunshine. Sometime after I had seen him, his God and Father, to fill up his cup of sufferings, was pleased to cause even the eyes, which could before see the light, to fail before the ravages of that direful disease, so that, physically, he was to sit in darkness for the rest of his days on earth. Besides this, the two fingers that he had been able to move, became as rigid as the rest of his body. When in this state it was that he called someone to him to write down from his lips the good matter which his heart was indicting, and he spoke as follows:
Once I could see, but never again
Shall I behold the verdant plain,
Jeweled with flowers of colors bright,
Bathed in a flood of golden light.
The birds, the brilliant butterflies,
These all in thought before me rise;
The shining rivulet, whose song
Comes sweetly murmuring along;
The sky, the clouds, the grass, the trees,
All waving, glancing in the breeze—
I see them pictured in my mind
But there alone, for I am blind.
Blind, did I say? how can that be?
Since I, by faith, my Savior see
Exalted on the throne above,
Beaming with mercy, grace, and love.
A view like this is better far
Than sun, or moon, or glittering star,
Or glowing landscape, sunny skies,
Or sight that’s fair to mortal eyes.
I THANK my God that He has put
A veil before mine eyes, and shut
All earthly objects from my sight,
And Christ revealed in glory bright.
Henceforth my word shall ever be—
Once I was blind, but NOW I see.
Dear reader, I need say but little more. E. P., beloved of the Lord, has gone to be forever with Him whose he was. Converted from the darkness and evil of Unitarianism—chastened, not in wrath, but in love, he enjoyed that which of faith he possessed. HE HAD CHRIST—his heart was satisfied. And are you now unsaved? Then you are unsatisfied; your experience proves to you what the word of God declares in so many ways, that the world is not big enough to fill your heart. Do you know the plague of sin? Then the Savior, Jesus, whom God sent, is waiting to bless you, and satisfy your heart.
“Only believe!” F. C.