A series of gospel meetings was being held, and on several occasions a Jewess was seen in attendance. The husband of the Jewess was in the habit of spending his evenings with his friends, while his wife, who was more serious-minded, remained at home.
To relieve the monotony of an evening alone, she had slipped out and, led by curiosity, came to one of the services. The first evening's message left no particular impression. However, in a casual way, a question simply arose in her mind, "Suppose that Jesus was the Messiah!"
The next night Jesus again was preached. Before the gospel meeting was over, the question became more than a casual question. She said to herself, "Perhaps Jesus was the Messiah," and the thought greatly distressed her.
On the third night the thought, "Jesus was the Messiah," seized her soul and shook it through and through.
Of course there came with it—inevitable to a Jewess—the conviction, "I am lost forever, for my people killed Him!"
That night her husband returned at midnight. She met him in tears and said at once, "Go to some Christian neighbor and borrow a New Testament for me."
He tried to laugh her out of her depression, then to argue her out of it, but it was of no use. So, because of his love for her, he went out at half past twelve in the morning and knocked on a Christian neighbor's door. 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?"
The request was cheerfully granted. The neighbor thought, "There is a work to do for Jesus in that house 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!"
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.
"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 Christians came to her door, she was rejoicing in her new-found hope, and ready to confess Him before men.