VERY weak and ill, and almost destitute; such was the situation in which I found the poor woman of whom I had heard as dying of consumption, and whom I was now visiting for the first time.
After a few remarks about her state of health,
I said, “It may be that God has some wise purpose in thus laying you upon a sick bed; when we are ill we have much time for thinking. When you consider that perhaps God may soon call you to leave this world, how do you feel about it? Have you any hope of a brighter world beyond? "
“I am doing the best I can," she replied shortly.
“And will you tell me what that is?" I asked.
“Well, sir, I pray to God to forgive my sins, and I cannot do more."
"And do you think that those prayers of yours have satisfied God?” I asked; and as she fixed her eyes upon me with a look of anxious inquiry, I continued, " it is God whom we have to meet about this great question; He must be satisfied with regard to our sins, and our prayers will not satisfy Him; nothing but the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, can atone for sin, and open a way by which God can pardon us and give us a place with Himself in heaven."
Before I left we read together the solemn account of what we all are by nature, which God has written for us in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and I sought, by God's help, to show this poor woman the condition in which she stood before God; a guilty sinner indeed, but not too lost and undone for Him to receive, who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and of whom it was said when He was on earth, " This man receiveth sinners."
It pleased God, in His mercy, to give her, by His Holy Spirit, to see, in some measure, the darkness in which she was living, and when I next saw her she was in deep distress of soul, longing with unspeakable desire to know the blessedness of peace with God. It was then my happy task to show her from God's word how the Lord Jesus had by His death upon the cross met all the righteous claims of God's throne, and the deep need of the lost sinner who trusts in Him.
“We can do nothing to make ourselves fit for God or acceptable to Him," I said.
"What God seeks from us is that we should take sides with Him against ourselves, condemning ourselves in His presence as guilty and ruined sinners."
Then, after reading a few verses in the third chapter of St. John's gospel, which show that God, in His great love, gave His Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, I commended her to God and left her.
Two days afterward I called, and found her face lit up with joy, and as I sat beside her she began to tell me what the Lord had done for her.
"After you were gone," she said, "I said to myself, It is believing on Jesus Christ that saves the soul. Then what is to hinder me from being saved? I did believe in Jesus as my Saviour with my heart, and now I am happy. Yes, if the dear Lord were to call me away at this moment I am ready to go."
"Then you are not afraid of death now?” I said.
“No," she replied, with a bright smile, "I am not afraid now. Blessed Lord Jesus, I do thank Him for what He has done for me, and I long to be with Him, but I must wait His time."
For many weeks my poor friend lay upon her bed, waiting, as she said, "the Lord's time” to take her to be with Himself; and very sweet it was to hear her speak of the love of Jesus.
“Think," she would say, “of such love to a sinner like me, who only deserved to go to hell!” and with her whole heart she would praise her Saviour for laying down His life for her.
As the time drew near for her to leave this world of sin and sorrow, and to enter upon eternity in the presence of the Lord, she sent for me, and as I came in she said—
“I wanted to see you once more, to thank you for coming to tell me of Jesus." Then, calling her three little children to her side, she kissed them fondly, and bade them farewell. Presently raising herself in her bed, with hands and eyes uplifted, she began to sing—
“’Jesus is my Friend in glory,
Oh, how He loves!'
“Won’t you sing with me?" she said, as she paused for a moment. We sang together, and then she laid herself down, and soon, very soon, her happy spirit had taken its flight to her Friend in glory; she was 'absent from the body and present with the Lord.' R. B.