HAVE you ever noticed at the close of a dark and cloudy day, the sun shine forth just as it was setting? Have you not seen then the golden glory flash across the sky, lighting up with wondrous splendor all the scenery? So was it with E. R. His life had been dark with sin and misfortune; but in his dying hour all the clouds were scattered, for the sun of faith lit up everything around him, and made his sky bright and beautiful.
He died of consumption. Up to the three last days of his life he was so harassed with worldly affairs, that, ill as he was, he could think of nothing but his business. He did not care to see any one about his soul. This went on until the Tuesday of the week he died. On that Tuesday I obtained admittance to the sick room.
I saw, as I stood by his bedside, that he was dying. He lay breathing painfully, and could only speak in a whisper.
I sat by him and, taking his hand, said:
“I am come to speak to you about your soul, not about worldly things: are you willing to listen?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I am: that is what I want now.”
“You are very ill,” I continued. “Yes,” he said.
“Do you know that you are a sinner?”
“Yes, oh yes.”
“Let me read to you,” I said; and as I spoke, I turned to Rom. 3. and read from the 10th verse to the 23rd.
“You believe all that about yourself?” I said when I had finished reading. “Yes, I know I am a sinner.”
Now listen again, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
“He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.”
“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
I read these texts to him, and then talked to him of Christ and His finished work, and added, “Now do you feel your need of a Saviour? Do you believe what I have been saying and reading?”
“Every word you have said has gone straight home to my heart.” I knew it, I could feel it even as I spoke and read to him. I prayed with him, and left him after entreating him to look to Jesus.
Next morning. I called to see him, and found him trusting in the Saviour. He was much weaker, and was obliged to pause between his words.
“I have had a hard struggle,” he said to me as he held my hand; “my sin was keeping me back, but I took my place among the very vilest, and I found mercy. I thought of Christ all through the night, and I said to Him, ‘Lord, do receive me,’ and I heard as a voice say, ‘Don’t be afraid, come to Me, and I will receive you,’ and He has received me.” Overjoyed I sat still, and waited for him to go on. He continued, “I have been wrong all my life; but now I know my feet are on the right track.”
I could scarcely believe that he was saved, it seemed too wonderful; so I said, “Are you quite sure you are saved?” He lifted his eyes and fixed them on the window through which the morning light was shining.
“I am as sure I am saved as that the light is shining in at that window.” I could doubt no longer, but asked another question, “On what are you trusting for salvation” He answered, “On the blood of Jesus shed for me: my sins are all gone, I am certain.” He spoke again, “My life here is not worth anything now.” I answered, “But you have eternal life?”
“Yes,” he replied, with uplifted eyes, “and what want I more?”
On the Wednesday afternoon I called again to see him. He told me a great deal about his anxieties and fears; how worried he had been, and how happy he was now.
I said, “You are like a man who, after battling with the waves in a stormy sea until exhausted, finds his feet upon a rock.”
“Yes, that’s it,” was his answer; “I am on the Rock now.”
He often referred afterward to being on the Rock: it seemed just to express his condition.
On Thursday morning when I called, he was very weak, he could only speak in a whisper. His eyes shone with peace and happiness.
He said slowly, “Thoughts and sayings that I used to know years ago are coming back to me now. ‘He loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ ‘The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.’” He repeated many other texts as well. It seemed as if the music of his youth was sounding in his ears now; the melody of the time when he thought of Christ, and listened to His words, before the troubled noises of his chequered a manhood had drowned their sweetness.
“I am very happy, but I can’t talk much,” he continued, and then after prayer I rose to go. I bade him good-bye; and his last words to me were, “I am firmer and firmer upon the Rock.” Thank God he was indeed snatched as a “brand from the burning.”
And what of you? Are your feet upon the Rock, or are you still struggling in the sea of your life’s sin? Can you say, “I am sure I am saved;” or must you own that you are not?
The man you have been reading about was saved at the close of his life. You may be saved now; YES, NOW. Christ has borne our sins; has died to save us; has taken His seat at the right hand of God because redemption’s work is done, and if you bow to God this moment, and from your heart believe that Christ is in that glory because your sins are gone, you shall be saved: “IF THOU SHALT CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH THE LORD JESUS, AND SHALT BELIEVE IN THINE HEAR, THAT GOD HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”