IT'S of no use your coming to talk to me. I've no time to think of such things!”
The words were impatiently spoken by an old woman, bent almost double with age and infirmity.
Without a ray of hope or happiness in it, her life was one of hard work and ill-usage, for her husband treated her cruelly, beating and starving her. You would have thought that she would have been just the one to listen to the Savior's words, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," and would have eagerly accepted the forgiveness which was offered her in His name. But, no! her present life, wretched as it was, had far more charms for her than any joys, present or future, which I could put before her.
"When I am ON MY DEATHBED I shall be glad for you to come and pray with me, but NOT TILL THEN!" were her last words to me.
A few weeks after news came that she had been found on their cottage floor unconscious, but still living. I went at once, with the faint hope that even yet she might accept God's mercy. As I lifted the latch she recognized me, and with a great effort raised herself and tried to speak, but it was too late. She fell back, and soon afterward died.
This, then, was her deathbed! The time she had fixed to put her soul right with God!
Are you likewise putting off the momentous question of your soul's salvation to a possible deathbed, my reader, risking an eternity of -endless bliss for an eternity of endless woe? Think of the awful danger, then think of the great salvation God has provided to save you from what must be your doom if you neglect it.
F. A.