JAMES A — was an old gardener in a country town — a respectable quiet man, always busy, always cheery and brisk, and a regular churchgoer.
He sometimes worked for me, and if conversation turned on religious matters, he was fond of closing it by saying, “Ah yes, I’ve got a good hope.”
One day on hearing James was ill I went to see him, and found him laid aside, beyond any hope of permanent improvement, or of again rising from bed. His naturally lively disposition was still prominent, and his hopes of recovery wonderful. To my great regret I found James averse to any converse on spiritual things, though ready to talk over his poor body and any worldly matters.
Ere leaving, I asked him point blank if he was resting his soul on our Saviour’s finished work, and could calmly face the future trusting in Him.
Evading my question, the poor fellow said, “Oh, sir, I’m quite happy, I’ve a good hope, and if my wife would only come in and give me my tea, I need nothing else.”
Seeing there was no use saying more, I left him some little comforts I had brought, and bade him good-bye with the words — “Well, James, I never expect to see you again down here; take my advice, ask the Lord to show you your need and His readiness to save, and don’t be content with a ‘hope.’ I had a ‘hope’ once, but never was happy till I could say ‘I know’ whom I have believed.”
I never saw him again. In a few weeks he went to the grave. We can only trust that before that he looked in faith to One mighty to save. God only knows.
Wondering at the apathy of a soul nearing death, I called on another old man of a very different type, but a similar trade. Laid aside by age, his attitude was a humble waiting for the coming of his Lord, long known and trusted.
After a little chat I said, “John, it is a good thing to ‘hope,’ but better to ‘know.”
“Oh yea,” he replied; “where would I be, if I did not know the Lord now in my old age? He has seed me, kept me, and led me for thirty years, and now is soon coming for me, and when I see Him I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is.” Reader, which are you? Are you a man with only a “hope,” or a man who “knows” it is well with his soul? Do not delay to a dying bed. Today take the sinner’s place, claim the sinner’s Saviour, and sing: —
“Oh, mercy surprising! He saves even me!
‘Thy portion forever,’ He says, ‘I will be;’
On His word I am resting — assurance divine —
I’m ‘hoping’ no longer — I know He is mine.
I know He is mine, yes, I know He is mine,
I’M hoping no longer — I Know He is mine.”
W. S.