They were sisters. They were both very old, and they both "lived on welfare." They were both extremely dirty and untidy, and they both shared alike the miserable tenement they called home.
But similar as they were in outward appearance, there was a vast difference within. Listen to their conversation. The elder woman is talking of her husband now in heaven, and adding her desire to follow him soon.
"Aye," responded her sister; "but you must work for it, you know!"
Poor old lady! There was little to comfort her in the remark, for she was seventy-two years of age, and so infirm that she had to be carried up and down stairs to bed. But a bright look came in her face, and she stammered out (for she had an impediment in her speech), "No, He done it all."
"Ah!" insisted her sister; "but you must work for Him; if not, He'll cast you off."
But even this remark, gloomier than the previous one, did not perturb the old saint, as with emphasis she responded, her wizened face glowing with animation: "That He never will!"
One sister was trusting to her own righteousness, which God declares is as filthy rags in His sight, and to her own efforts to please Him, which the Bible tells us are all "dead works." The other one had found in her helpless, hopeless state, that it is to such needs as hers that the "grace of God brings salvation." Weak and infirm, she rejoiced to know it was when we were "without strength, Christ died for the ungodly." And she knew just enough of His love to scout the idea that, when once the Good Shepherd has put the sheep on His shoulders, He would never again allow the possibility of its being lost. "My sheep shall never perish."