WHILE I was engaged in mission work in P——- , I visited a young woman who was very low with consumption. She realized that her end was near but thought that the time was too short for her to think about being saved. She was too weak to hold a Bible or to read much, so a large wall text calendar was put up at the side of her bed. She read the verses on it from day to day, and pondered on them through the long hours. She realized that this life, which but a short time before was filled with bright promises for her happiness, was all but at an end. She was engaged to be married to a young man of the city, and on her being taken ill with this dreadful disease, he had at the first been faithful in calling on her. The last time he had been there was the week before Thanksgiving, and he had, much to her delight, promised that he would come again Thanksgiving day and bring her a nice fowl for their dinner together. She was eagerly looking forward to this event, and when the day came round her hopes were high for a happy time with this one who had become so dear to her.
How often the Lord has to teach our hearts the lesson that it is vain to trust in the heart of man. Emma waited in vain for a sight of the expected one. The day passed, and night came on, and still no knock at the door. It was a bitter disappointment, only to be rendered more keen by the passing of many more days and weeks, with never a sight of him whom she had once so fully trusted.
But her heart was to have a far better than any earthly friend. In her hours of grief her eyes had frequently turned to the text on the wall, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” How sweet it was, but ah, she was not one of those who were “in Christ Jesus.” She realized that she was one who was under condemnation; that she was dying, and that she was not ready to meet God. I had sought to put the simple story of .the love of Jesus before her, and from day to day as I called on her I waited to see the operation of the Spirit of God in her heart. My hopes were not long to be deferred.
As I entered the house one morning some three weeks before her death, a voice with a glad ring in it greeted me, and out of the fulness of her heart, she said, “Oh, Miss B——, I know now what that word “Now” in the text means! I am saved, now, and for me there is no condemnation; I am in Christ; I’m ready now to meet God whenever He is ready for me, for there is not the least sin left against me. I have found a far better friend than any earthly one could ever have been.”
I rejoiced with her in her new found joy, for now I felt that she was delivered into the hands of One whose care for her soul was such that He would never let her go until she was safe with Himself in the glory. Her progress in the knowledge of the Lord was rapid from this time on. She had a little rack made to hold her Testament at the side of the bed and from this time on she fed on this now precious word. She was anxious to see her mother brought to the Lord before she should be taken home, and when the ‘end was imminent she prayed the Lord that He would spare her just a little longer in order that she might be able to spend another day with her mother. Her desire was granted, and through the day she spoke to her mother about the blessed Saviour whom she had found. Toward evening she grew weaker, and shortly before twelve o’clock, she spoke with a renewed energy, “Goodbye, mother, I’m going home to be with the Lord.” Her eyes closed, she sank back, and her soul was with Him who has bought it with His own precious blood. Can you say that there is now no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus?
Messages of God’s Love 10/29/1911