There was a general meeting in progress. On several occasions a Jewess was seen in attendance. Her husband, a gay man of the world, was in the habit of spending his evenings with congenial friends at the theater and other places of amusement. His wife, more serious-minded, most often remained at home.
To relieve the monotony of an evening alone, she had slipped out, and impelled by curiosity, attended one of our services. The first evening's message left no particular impression. The question simply arose in her mind, just as a cloud floats over the sky: "Suppose that Jesus was the Messiah!”
The next night Jesus again was preached. Before the gospel was over the question became more than a question. She said to herself: "Jesus was, perhaps, the Messiah;" and it greatly distressed her.
On the third night the thought seized her soul and shook it through and through: "Jesus was the Messiah.”
Of course there came with it—inevitable to a Jewess—the conviction: "I am lost forever, for my people slew Him." And in that spirit she went home sobbing and wailing.
Her husband returned at midnight. She met him in tears and said at once: "Go to some Christian neighbor and borrow for me a Testament.”
He tried to laugh her out of her depression, or argue her out of it; but it was no use; and so for the love he bore her, he went out at half past twelve in the morning and rang up a Christian neighbor. When he came to the door, the caller said: "I beg your pardon for disturbing you; but will you be so kind as to lend me a New Testament?”
You may be sure the request was most cheerfully granted. The neighbor thought: "There is a work in that house to be done for Jesus tonight." As soon as he could get dressed he hurried to the home of a Christian brother, and together they went to the Jewish home.
The door was instantly opened, and the mistress of the house met them with a welcoming smile. Her greeting was: "I have found Jesus!”
And then she told the story I have told you with this addition: she said that when her husband gave her the New Testament she could not speak. But she went into her room, and kneeling, lifted up her face toward heaven, crying: "O LORD GOD of my fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, give me light! Give me light!”
Keeping her eyes closed she opened the Testament. When she opened her eyes the Scripture before her was the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans.
She read slowly, and the verses went tearing through her soul like hot thunderbolts, until she came to the sixteenth verse: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first"—there she stopped. Her flowing tears blinded her. She looked again.
"It is to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
As she read these words she believed them, and she knew her Messiah must be Christ Jesus, the Lord.
When the Christian brethren came, she was rejoicing in her new-found hope, and ready to confess Him before men.