SUCH were almost the last words of a dying woman whom a friend went to see, not quite sure as to her real state of soul; but a little talk with the sick one soon set his mind at rest on that point.
The invalid said she was going home, upon which the visitor asked,
“Where is your home; do you know anything of Jesus?”
“Oh! MY Jesus is a wonder!” was the reply; “He has saved me from the wrath to come.”
“How was that?” inquired the neighbor, wishing to get further and decided testimony of the safety of his friend.
“Why, He saved me from the wrath to come by dying that cruel death on the cross, and you know we shall have to pass through this, meaning the ‘Valley of the shadow of death.’” By the bye, did you ever notice, my reader, it is called in that Psalm, the 23rd, “The valley of the shadow of death,” — the shadow — not the substance. That blessed Jesus, whom that dear woman called a wonder, and He is a wonder (“His name shall be called Wonderful”) (Is. 9:6), HE went through the substance, and left only “the shadow” for the believer.
“But,” said the visitor, to comfort her, “ think what the word says, ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee’” (Is. 43:2).
“No! they can never flow over me; HE IS TOO BIG FOR THEM; and though I have Jesus, I shall not take Him away: every one else can have Him: I have prayed for my children and husband all night.”
She soon after passed away to be with that Saviour who loved her and gave Himself for her, and the dear woman who told me the above said it so brought to her mind that verse of a hymn—
“HE breaks the power of cancelled sin,
HE sets the captive free;
His blood can make the vilest clean,
His blood availed for ME!”
Can you say this, dear reader, “His blood availed for ME? Sinner, though I am of the deepest dye, yet, because God. says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from ALL sin,’ I believe it, and know all my guilt has been put away by that crimson tide.” If not, why not?
Had it been left to you or to me to put a right value on the work of Christ, or upon His precious blood, then one might doubt, and rightly so; but from the moment that God said to Moses, in Exodus 12:13,13And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13) “When I see the blood, I will pass over you,” until, through the apostle John, He writes about that precious blood cleansing from ALL sin, all ‘through the Bible, it is what He, the Holy God, thinks of that blood, not what I estimate it at.
Other expressions of dying believers come before me, while thinking of what the poor woman alluded to above said.
It was about September, four years ago, as an aged sufferer saw the waggons pass her window, carrying home the last sheaves, and hearing the reapers and gleaners rejoicing, and crying out “Largesse! Largesse!” as they do in the Eastern counties, she exclaimed, almost garnered. herself, “OH, THIS IS MY HARVEST HOME,” — yes, a ripe shock of wheat, indeed, only waiting for the summons to enter His barn (Matt. 13:3030Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:30)).
Another says, “Tis always peace, but sometimes positive joy, when I think of that incomparable moment when I shall be with Him.”
One need not ask who that “Him” is; not two “Hims” at such a moment; the One who saved the all absorbing object. Like Mary in the 20th John, when asked by the very one she was yearning after, in the 15th verse, “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” she replied, “If thou have borne mm hence, tell me where thou hast laid HIM, and I will take HIM away”— three “Hims” in one verse — there was but one HIM to her at that moment though. May your heart and mine, my friend, know now what it is to, have something of Mary’s spirit. It was not to get seven devils cast out of her, we find her hanging about the tomb, but she wanted the One who had done it.
One more. “Good-bye, He is with me, and I shall soon be with Him.”
Dear reader, do see to it. There was no crying for mercy at the last moment, when perhaps too late; there was no talking in either of the four instances I have named of their making their peace with God, as one often bears. No, they knew peace had been made by the blood of His cross (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)), and that having taken God at His word, they had peace, having been justified (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)), and were just waiting the word to go up higher. Let me ask you, had that summons come for you last night, now, would it have found you exclaiming “My Jesus is a wonder,” longing for your “harvest home,” looking forward to the “incomparable moment when I shall be with Him,” taking leave of surrounding friends, with “Good-bye. He is with me, and I shall soon be with Him;” or, “Too late, too late; Lord have mercy upon me.” God forbid the latter. It is not too late now, if you accept His again offered mercy, for He says, “Now is the accepted time.” Do accept and not be lost. “Why will ye die?” when Jesus has died fox just such sinners as you and I. S. V. H.