A MINISTER was called to see a young lady who was supposed to be dying. He found her very weak and low, and the doctor had no hope of her recovery. She seemed anxious to know the Saviour. She asked the minister what was the difference between head knowledge and heart experience.
The minister asked her if she had ever felt herself to be a lost sinner. She scarcely understood the question, but she remembered she had heard, years before, a text given out by a clergyman she knew, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” She was, at the time, surprised at these words; she thought to herself “I could not say that; to me to live is the world, and to die would be to lose my soul and go to hell.” The impression left upon her was deep, but after a time it passed away.
Now, however, she was face to face with eternity, and exercise of soul returned.
The minister told her that in Adam we are all dead and lost, and that we must be born again to get the new life.
He then told her that Christ had died to procure life for us—that He had shed His blood to obtain our pardon.
She listened earnestly; she believed; she rejoiced. And this was not all; the Lord raised her up from her sick bed, and she served and followed Him.
Dear young reader, are you like this young lady once was, when she had to say, “To me to live is the world, and to die would be to lose my soul and go to hell”? Oh, may you take your true place before God, as lost; and may you believe and live, and rejoice; and serve and follow Him whose blood can make you clean.
ML 01/31/1904