SOME years ago a few servants of the Lord Jesus Christ were seeking to bring sinners to God in an obscure part of a large town. The gospel was preached in an old upper room, and night after night a little band of workers went out into the lanes and alleys inviting the people to hear of God’s love.
It was a damp, cold evening when one of them, who was standing in the street opposite the place of preaching, noticed a poorly clad woman coming slowly along, so he invited her to hear the gospel.
“Thank you very much for your kindness,” replied the woman, a tear falling from her eye as she spoke; “I sorely need comfort, for I am in great trouble. I am now going to see my sick daughter, but when I return I will come.”
“I trust you are not one of those who wait for a convenient season. God says, ‘Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.’”
“I do want to be saved,” she replied, “and, oh believe me, I will come.”
She hurried off, and the Christian breathed a prayer that this weary one might not be hindered from hearing the gospel of peace, and He who said, “Compel them to come in,” was the willing hearer of his prayer; for that night Mrs. K. sat in the old room and heard words whereby she could be saved. For several years her path had been one of deep sorrow. Child after child had grown up to man’s estate, and then disease had carried them off. At the time of which we write, her husband was ill, and her eldest son and daughter were both sinking, while she, the wife and mother, was unable to afford them nourishment. No wonder that in the bitterness of her heart she exclaimed, “All these things are against me.”
Our attempts to comfort her seemed at first to mock her, though she listened with deep interest, saying—
“I’m so miserable; I would do anything to feel as happy as you look. I’ve tried over and over again to be good, but I can’t feel any happier. I’m almost in despair through my troubles, my poverty, and my badness of heart.”
Again and again we pointed her to the Lord Jesus, as the One able and willing to meet her every need, but the troubled look rested on her care-worn face. While pressing her hand to her heart she kept repeating, “I’m so bad here.”
How powerless is man to heal the sin-sick soul! It is only as led by the Spirit of God that a human instrument can be used to convey the message of life.
We obtained from her a grateful acceptance of our offer to visit her. “I shall be glad to see any of you, for I have heard words tonight that I shall never forget.”
I was young in the Lord’s work in those days, and it was with a trembling heart that the following evening I took my way to the poor woman’s house.
“Can I see Mrs. K.?” I inquired of the young man who opened the door. In a few moments Mrs. K. appeared.
“Ah!” she exclaimed, “you are one of the happy ones I saw at the old room yesterday.”
“Yes, Mrs. K., I am truly happy, and I have come to see if you, too, have joy and peace in believing.”
“Well, I cannot say that I have yet—but,” she broke in “do you mind standing here on the doorstep while we talk? I cannot ask you into my only room, for my sick husband is there, and I would rather be alone with you.”
“Do not make any apology, Mrs. K. The Lord will witness our conversation here as graciously as if we were seated in a palace.”
“How you seem to know Him,” she said. “If I only knew Him I should feel such happiness! I could not sleep last night for thinking of your happy faces. I thought Jesus must be precious, indeed, to reflect such brightness in you.”
“He truly is the chiefest amongst ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One! But, dear friend, He is willing to make Himself known to you tonight. You say you believe on Him?”
“Yes, most truly, I do.”
“Then what do we receive when believing?”
“Everlasting life,” was her clear response. “Does not the knowledge of this bring comfort to your heart?”
“It ought to do so,” she replied, “but I have not peace.”
“Perhaps you are looking at yourself, expecting to find some improvement there, instead of looking off unto Jesus?”
“I cannot help looking at my poor, bad heart: I feel so miserable. But I want to thank Him for dying on the cross for me, a lost sinner.”
“Mrs. K., you will never be able to praise Him while you look at yourself. Tell me, where is Jesus now?” “In heaven, to be sure.”
“Yes, and God points you to Him as the One who was raised from the dead for your justification. Let but your faith receive that risen One as your peace, and perfect rest will be yours.
“All thy sins were laid upon Him;
Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him;
And, believing, thou art free!”
As I finished quoting these lines a bright smile broke over Mrs. K.’s face, and, clasping her hands, she exclaimed, “Bless the Lord! I see it now. He is my peace! And, if I want to be bright, I must keep on looking at Him where He now is; just the same,” she added, as her eye rested on the moon shining over our heads, “as that moon receives light from the sun, so shall I get all from Himself”
“Yes, dear friend, just in the same way.”
“Oh, how wonderful all this good news is to me! I who, when invited up to the preaching yesterday, was bowed down with sorrow and sin now enjoy a peace which passeth all understanding.”
Tears of joy fell from her eyes as, standing upon the doorstep, she continued to praise Him who had given her rest.
“I should like to see Him,” she said— “the precious Jesus! I wish He would take me now, for I am ready to meet Him. Oh! what weary years I have spent without Him! Long, long I toiled for rest, but found it not. What I have now is through His finished work! Ah! that my dying son and all my family knew the joy of forgiveness! But He is able to save them. I will pray for them, and tell them what the Lord has done for my soul.”
It grew late, and we were obliged to separate. “It was the Lord put it into your heart,” she said, “and I shall never forget to thank Him for being invited into the old room yonder, and for your visit tonight.”
These were no idle words of Mrs. K.’s, she was enabled amidst poverty and suffering to show forth the praises of Him who had called her out of darkness into His marvelous light. All around her owned there was reality in her faith, and her husband repeatedly spoke of his wife’s happiness, spite of all their trying circumstances. For years after, hers was the language of the Samaritan woman, “Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” (John 4:2929Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? (John 4:29)). And many responded to the invitation given, and believed in Him. Shortly after her conversion her sick son was visited by a servant of the Lord, and became the happy possessor of God’s great salvation. Then mother and son rejoiced together, as heirs of the grace of life, till the latter, triumphantly, departed to be with Christ. Though trials of no ordinary kind encompassed Mrs. K. for some years, yet her faith shone clear and bright.
Dear reader, is Jesus the One you are longing to see? Can you say, “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me?”
E. E. S.