Are you a great sinner? One afternoon our Sunday school was interrupted by a knock at the door. A lady asked if one of the teachers would please come and visit her mother who was very sick. All the children in our class knelt down, and we asked the Lord to bless the dear sick woman. and lead her to the Lord Jesus. Then I went out and followed this lady to her home. There I found her aged mother very, very sick in bed. I could see that there was not much hope of her being well again, so I bent down and said, “Are you ready to die?”
“No, I am a great sinner!” she said.
What would you say to a grew sinner who was dying? Could you tell her to start praying and reading her Bible? Could you tell her to try to live a better life? No, it was too late for such things, and indeed they in themselves are not part of God’s way of salvation at any time. There is only one Book in the world that will bring comfort to a dying person, so I opened my Bible.
Verse by verse, I read to her Isaiah chapter 53. She listened so eagerly that I felt the Lord was speaking to her. When the chapter was finished she smiled and a look of peace came over her face. With the little strength she had left, she whispered, “I am a sinner, but I am now trusting in Jesus alone. My sins are gone.”
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6.
ML 08/20/1950