THERE was nothing attractive in the old woman’s face, but rather the opposite, till the name of the Lord Jesus was mentioned, and then the sudden lighting up of the countenance and earnest look told me that under that almost forbidding exterior there was an answer to that precious name. Further conversation proved that it was even so. Years before she had been visited by an earnest servant of the Lord, who had read to her from God’s Word, and spoken to her of her need of a Saviour, and of the Saviour whom God had provided. Light had entered her soul, but not in fullness. She could not read for herself, having never learned, and was unable mostly through bodily infirmity to go to hear the gospel preached, so she knew little―very little―of what a great salvation God’s salvation was.
This was the first of many talks which we had together. Her case interested me much. From early years she had been what is called cast upon the world. She was now nearly seventy, and the hardships she had met with had left deep hart’ lines upon her face. She lived alone, and had not now a single relative living. Her neighbors, too, spoke hardly of her, as being miserly and unsociable. But it refreshed my heart the eager, earnest attention with which she listened to the Word of God, ―a contrast, indeed, to the listless carelessness that one so often met with. I could not but see in her a quickened, though not delivered, soul. But deliverance came.
It was some time after this that Mr. M―, a servant of the Lord, came to labor for a short time in the place, and, hearing of her case, went to see her.
“Well, Mrs. S―,” he asked, as he shook hands, “are you the Lord’s?”
“Ah, sir,” she answered, “I ance was, but I lost my grip.”
“But did He lose His grip of you?”
“Oh, I wadna like to say that of Him, but I’m thinkin’ He hams got a richt hold, for I’m no His the noo.”
“He always takes right hold, and never lets go; He says, ‘None shall pluck them out of my hand;’” replied Mr. M―; and then sitting down beside her, he simply and clearly put before her how fully the Lord Jesus Christ had met every claim which God’s holiness and justice required, how He had entered into the question of sin and settled it forever, how He had borne our sins in His own body on the tree, how He had gone down into death, and the proof that God was satisfied was, that He had raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the glory. Old Mrs. S― listened attentively, and occasionally wiped her eyes with a large handkerchief which lay upon her lap, but still the dark doubtful look rested upon her face. Suddenly Mr. M―lifted the handkerchief and laid it upon his own knee, and asked, “Where is your handkerchief?”
“Upon your knee, sir,” she replied, evidently greatly surprised both by the action and the question.
Mr. M―took the handkerchief and threw it under the chair out of sight, and asked, “Where is it now?”
“It is gone.”
“Well, that is what happened with your sins; the Lord Jesus Christ took all of them upon Him when on the cross, but He is not there now, He is in the glory, and your sins are not there in the glory: where are they?”
The dear old woman clasped her hands and exclaimed, “Oh, they are gone―forever gone; they, were my sins, but He took them―took them all, but He hasna them now, and He’ll no give me them back again. Oh, I never saw this before,” and the haggard-looking face looked quite beautiful, lighted up with the new joy that shone upon it. All was now changed for this aged one. The dreary, dark time of doubt and uncertainty was over, exchanged for the blessed certainty of knowing whom she had believed, and what He had done for her.
The following day the workers in the workshop over which her little room was situated paused in their work as they heard her speaking, and knowing that no one was with her at the time, they laughed and concluded that she was becoming doted and stupid. Ah! they little knew in whose company she was, and into whose ear she had been pouring out of the fullness which He Himself had given, and that instead of becoming stupid, she had now become wise unto salvation.
If she had loved to hear the Word of God before, how much more was this intensified now? As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so were those living waters to her.
“Don’t read me a big bit,” she would say, “just a wee bit, over and over, that it may bide wi’ me when you have to go.”
One day it was that scripture in Romans 8:30, “Moreover, whom he did predestinate―” when, glancing up to her, and noticing the puzzled expression on her face, I said, “Would you like a simpler word than that big one?” She nodded eagerly, and I began again. “‘Moreover, whom he did mark out, them he also called―’”
“Yes, yes,” she ejaculated, “and I was one.”
“ ‘And whom he called, them he also justified.’”
“So He did; it was wonderfu’.”
“ ‘And whom he justified, them he also―’ Do you know what word comes next?” I asked.
“No, for He could do nae mair than justify us.” “Yes, He did far, far more―listen.” I began again, and oh, with what freshness and power those words fell upon both of our ears. “‘Moreover, whom’ he did mark out, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.’”
She clasped her hands and exclaimed, “Is that a’ I wait for, just for the glory?”
“Yes, dear friend, and already in God’s sight it is an accomplished thing; it is only we who have to wait for it.”
But her waiting time was soon to be over, for in a few months the Lord took her home to be with Himself. Just before she was taken; I asked her, “How is it with you now?”
She answered, speaking with great difficulty, “I’m going―going―now―to—be―with―Christ.”
Reader, how is it with you? You doubtless know much more of the Word of God than this one of whom you have just been reading, but have you received, and believed, and rested upon it as she did? and is it unto you the joy and rejoicing of your heart?
These are solemn words, as spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). God grant that it may not be the savor of death unto death, but of life unto life for YOU.
Y. Z.