VISITING in the village of D―, I entered a cottage, and found it apparently empty. The noise I made, however, attracted attention, and a voice from above said, “Come upstairs.” On going up I found a man ill in bed.
On making my errand known he replied, “I don’t believe in them people that go about saying they are saved.”
I replied, “Neither do I, but I suppose you believe the Word of God.”
“Every word of it,” was the sick man’s response.
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him SHOULD not perish but HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.”
I said, “Do you believe that?”
“Yes,” he said, “of course I do.”
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, HATE EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
I said, “Do you believe that?”
“Well,” he replied, “I must, it is the Word of God, but I never saw it like that before. Read it again.”
So I read it again.
“Well,” he ejaculated, “I have read that scores of times, but I’ve never seen it like that before. To think, too, I’ve been clerk at the parish church for forty years.”
“‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.’”
“Well, well,” he said, “I have read that many times, but I never saw it like that before.”
I replied, “The first scripture tells us that if you believe on the Lord you shall have eternal life; the second says that those who have believed have it, and the third tells us that believers may know it.”
The sick man burst out again, “I never saw it like that before. Read that last verse again.” He kept on saying, “Well! Well!!”
My visit was timely, an arrangement of Heaven’s making I am persuaded. The next time I passed that way I found the old man had died.
Reader, have you seen these things? They are there for you as much as for anyone else. “Faith appropriates what love provides,” is a true saying.
J. B.