HAVING been asked by some friends to visit a poor old man of the age of seventy-two, living in a small hamlet in Wiltshire, I found him laid upon his bed in agonies of pain.
The poor man was so ill that the doctor had given him up, and all hope of his recovery was gone. I sat down by his side, speaking a little of his sufferings, and then said, “Well, my friend, I want to ask you a question: do you believe the truth of what God has said in His word concerning you, that you are, as an unconverted man, a guilty sinner, lost and ruined, before God?”
He answered, “I am very ill, and I want to be quiet; I do not wish anyone to talk to me.” Poor man! the devil was blinding him as to his true condition, and, after a few moments of waiting upon God, I read a portion of Scripture, to which he listened very attentively. I then showed him what God’s thoughts are concerning guilty man, and what is the awful doom of a lost soul. Having pressed solemnly upon him his condition as a guilty sinner, and the fact that if he died in his sins he would have to suffer for his sins throughout eternity, I commended him to God and left him.
Two days after I found him much weaker in body, and still unconcerned about his never-dying soul, and again sought to get at his conscience by the word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword, reminding him of what the apostle says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:3131It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31).)
After visiting him time after time, and finding him still in darkness, I wondered if the light of the glorious gospel of the grace of God ever would shine in. But at length God, through His blessed word, and by His Spirit, made known to the dying man his true character—a lost and guilty sinner; and when he was awakened to see himself in the light as God saw him, his cry was, “There is no one so vile as I am.”
One evening, when telling him what God had done for the guilty, in that He had given His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ to make atonement for us by the shedding of His precious blood, and that He had raised Him from the dead, and glorified Him at His right hand in heaven, I added, “If Jesus came into the world to save sinners, did He come to save you?” He paused for a moment, and at last he said, “I see it now; it is as clear as the daylight. I do believe that Jesus died for me to put away my sins. I never saw it clear before. Bless the Lord, I shan’t be lost!—He died to save me.” Then with a few words of prayer, I thanked God for His wondrous grace in revealing Jesus as a Saviour to this poor dying soul, and was about to take my leave, when I asked him if we did not meet on earth whether I should have the joy of meeting him above. “Yes, we shall meet in heaven,” he said, and I left him rejoicing in the Lord his Saviour.
I saw him again; his pains were much greater, but his faith in Jesus was the same. He said many times, “I long to go to Him; I am ready when the Lord sees fit to call me.”
Dear reader, are you saved, or are you lost? If you die in your sins, you will have to appear before the great white throne; and then, O poor Christless soul, you will be banished from His presence forever and ever. May the Lord awaken you, and give you power to see your need of a Saviour before it is too late! R. B.