"It is Better to go to Heaven with one leg Than to Hell with two."

“The entrance of thy Word giveth light.”
“GOD have mercy on my soul! O God, have mercy on my soul!!” This was the cry that burst from the lips of Joe B― as he lay on one of the cots in a hospital ward. The kind matron, moving in and out among the patients, had long been accustomed to the groans of pain and the appeals for something to relieve the poor sufferers, but she had not become hardened, and oftentimes when wearied in mind and body, tender pity for the sufferers led her to forget herself until every patient was made as comfortable as her skillful care could make them.
“God have mercy on my soul!” Here was a call for relief which she could not give. She could not help soul sickness. In her helplessness she retired sorrowfully, leaving Joe alone with God.
O sinner, you who say, “If I’m to be lost I shall have plenty of company,” stop a moment. Joe had plenty of company in that hospital ward, suffering each with his own special malady, and occupied with himself. No one could comfort poor Joe. He was alone with God.
He thought of his past life, and he trembled. His history was a sad one. Almost the only opportunity he had had of learning anything about the Word of God, was at a Sunday afternoon class held in a neighbor’s house, and which he attended for nearly a year. Circumstances prevented the continuance of the class, and poor Joe drifted from bad to worse, until in the act of stealing coal from a moving train, an unexpected jerk threw him under the wheels. He was so badly injured that his leg had to be amputated. It was then that God spoke to Joe, reminding him of his sinful and lost condition, and the possibility of death in the near future. Oh! what a black record! How could he meet God? He had heard, in days gone by, of God who cannot look upon sin, with the least degree of allowance, but he could ask God to forgive him, for he had heard, too, that God was not willing that any should perish, and so he cried to God from his very heart. There was joy in heaven that day, for He who is light, as well as love, sent His glory-beams into poor Joe’s mind and heart, not only showing him his own vileness but the value God sets upon the death of His beloved Son.
The verse specially used to bring peace was one learned years before in that little Sunday school class, “God commendeth his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). How satisfying! Joe rested.
A few weeks passed and Joe still lingered, suffering but rejoicing. “It is better to go to heaven with one leg than to hell with two!” he remarked, one afternoon, to one who was sympathizing with him.
Again he said, “It is not reform that can save me nor going to church, nor reading the Bible, nor ever prayer. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, and I believe it.” Again he said, “I thought I would get well, and then I would go to the place where Christiana’s meet, but now I am going to heaven, and I shall meet them all there.”
A visit from a Roman Catholic priest was mad( to him a few hours before he died, at the request 01 The boy’s father, who knew nothing of the peace which his son enjoyed. The usual ritual was per formed, no comfort being administered by pointing to the finished work of the crucified Saviour, but Joe knew something which that reverend father had not told him, and after the little service was over the remark was quietly and respectfully made b3 one present, that Joe knew his sins were forgiven and was only waiting for the Lord to take him to be with Himself to spend eternity. No one knows what passed in the mind of the reverend father, but he seemed affected by the remark, and taking JOE by the hand, he said, “When you get there, will you ask God to keep me faithful?”
Joe’s sixteen years in a world of sin and sorrow pain and poverty are over. He is now “with Christ which is far better,” praising the love of God and of Christ, who died for us while we were yet sinners.