It has been my privilege for some years past to pay a weekly visit to the bedside of a poor woman, blind and paralyzed, but who knows what it is, through grace, to rejoice in the Lord; who knows silo has eternal life and forgiveness of sins through faith in the One who has stood in her stead before a God who cannot look at sin, and who forsook the sin-bearer on the cross, that he might never forsake the poor sinner, who believes in Him. And it is indeed a privilege to stand by the bedside of such an one, and see what the knowledge of the grace of God, and of a Savior’s love, can do to lighten a path on which all earth’s light and joys have closed.
I had paid my visit one day, and had left the little room she lives in, when the sound of children’s voices in the next one fell on my car as I passed the door, and, knocking, I entered. There, were in it two little children, and an old woman, their grandmother. She was employed in reading one of the cheap weekly periodicals which are published in such numbers in the present day, corrupting the minds of old and young; and when (seeing she must be about 70 years of age at least) I spoke to her about the nearness of eternity, she answered in a way which evidently showed she considered my visit an intrusion. I therefore withdrew, saddened at heart to see that one so near the grave had not yet found out the worthlessness of all that this poor world could give, and had not a thought nor a care about her immortal soul. Oh! those solemn words, “If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world path blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:3, 43But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3‑4).) Yes, dear unsaved reader, if such you be, that is the object of Satan now, to blind your mind; and are you willing he should do so, and prefer the wretched rubbish of this world to the “glorious gospel of Christ?” The glad tidings of God tell you of a risen and glorified Savior, who came from the highest place in heaven, to take the lowest place on earth, in death; and more than that, to drink the cup of judgment for sin, which you will have to drink in that place “where their worm dieth not, and their fire is nut quenched,” if you “neglect so great salvation.”
The next time I paid my visit I felt somehow I could not pass that door, discouraged though I had been. Something seemed to tell me to go in, so in I went. There she was again reading the same worthless publication, and seemingly quite satisfied with it. So it went on, week after week, and I hardly ever passed that door without going in and leaving a little message about the grace of God for poor lost sinners. But one day when I went in, I found a great change had taken place, and a remarkable one. She, was blind. But a few clays before she had been reading the rubbish she delighted in, and now God had dealt with her, and her poor sightless eyes could read no more. Poor creature, how unhappy she was! No more reading now. There she must sit, blind and helpless. But God had thoughts about that poor old woman, and now for the first time she was willing to listen.
Well, it was the old story she listened to; the grace of that God who looked down from His glory into this sin and sorrow-stricken world, and not only looked, but pitied; the love of that Savior who answered so willingly to that look; and, when the moment came, left that glory, and took up the cause of poor ruined lost sinners, and at such a terrible cost to Himself. For if He were to take up the cause of the lost sinner, He must take the punishment too, death and judgment; and drink to the very dregs, to the very list drop, exhausting it completely, the cup of the wrath of an offended God against sin—that cup which only He who was not only very God but very man, could chink, going down into the deepest depth of our need, and able to sustain the judgment and the wrath and the curse which we could not sustain. For this, dear reader, is the gospel; that while man has done nothing but hate God, and has proved it to the full at the cross of His Son, God has done nothing but love man, for God is love; and He has proved it by giving the best thing in heaven for the worst thing on earth, and that is His Son for a poor wretch like you and me.
Well, she listened to this, and as she listened the tears came into those poor sightless eyes, and she bowed her head, and owned herself a sinner, and a great one too. Before long she was able to understand, through the grace of God, that there was a Savior for the sinner, and that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20).) “Yes,” she said to me one day, “If God has taken away the light from my eyes, He has given light to my poor dark soul, and I bless Him for it; and if I wish for my eyesight back it is only that I might read my Bible, which I would not read when I could.”
She is still living, resting simply on Christ, having got rid, as she says, of that terrible burden of the sins of nearly 70 years, so heavy to bear, but the punishment for which she now knows that Christ, her Savior, bore for her eighteen hundred years ago.
Dear reader, one word before I close. Have you still got all your sins upon you? and are you content so to live on with death and eternity before you? Are you happy? Are you saved? And if still unsaved, whose fault is it? yours or God’s? “Come unto me,” said, and still says, that loving Savior, “ all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Have you taken Him at His word, and gone to Him? or are you one of those of whom those gracious lips are still obliged to say, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.”