ONE evening a person came hurriedly to my house to say a dying woman wished to see me at once. On reaching the sick-room, soon afterward, I saw she was near her earthly end. She said she wished me to speak to her about her soul, as she was afraid to die. I spoke to her solemnly about judgment following death, and warned her to “flee from the wrath to come,” encouraged her, with several scriptures, to accept God’s free gift―the Lord Jesus Christ―as her Saviour, and to take shelter under His precious blood, and prayed with her, but was not sure that she saw herself sinner enough to need the sinner’s Saviour. Before leaving I told the women who stood round her bed to send for me in the night if Mrs. W― asked for me. Not hearing anything further I went the next morning, but found the blinds were down, and, that her spirit had passed away into eternity.
I asked one of the women, who saw Mrs. W― die, if she remembered her last words, and she told me Mrs. W― said, “Oh, don’t let me die; I can’t get through the gate, it is too narrow for me!” Whether or not she did, at the very eleventh hour, know her load of sins removed, and pass through the strait gate for heaven, we would not presume to say, but must leave that, and many another case, till God’s great reckoning day. But mark, when death made its claim, ready or not ready, those kind women could not grant the woman’s request.
“Oh, don’t let me die!” How solemn! and how unlike another young person I visited, dying in the adjoining street to Mrs. W―’s, who had for years trusted the blood of Christ and known that God, according to His word, would “remember her sins and her iniquities no more.” Shortly before she passed away, waking out of a sleep, she, as it were with disappointment, said to her relatives around her, “Oh, why does He not take me?” She was free from pain and delighting in the prospect of being soon with the Blessed One who had loved her, and washed her from her sins: who had risen again and gone to prepare a place for her. To the last this happy soul delighted to join in the hymn, a verse of which is―
“Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen,
Bright skies will soon be o’er me,
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path to LIFE is free,
My Saviour has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.”
Reader, what the Lord said is still true: ― “Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13, 1413Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13‑14)). You can only enter that strait gate without your sins.
It is too narrow for both you and your sins! There is plenty of room on the broad road for any amount of sins upon you of the vilest kind. Which road then are you on, friend―the broad or the narrow―on your way to destruction or to life? Which? Ere you can enter the strait gate of life, you must not only know yourself sinner enough to need a Saviour, but you must actually receive Him, and get clear of your sins through His precious blood. But if you would remain on the broad way, you have only to keep your sins, though remember the end thereof is eternal destruction. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27, 2827And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28)). Perhaps like the woman first referred to, you are afraid to die or even to think about it. Bear in mind when your summons comes, your friends who may be around you, cannot hold you back, ready or not ready.
“Yet there is room! still open stands the gate,
The gate of love; it is not yet too late.
Room, room, still room!
Oh, enter, enter NOW!
“Ere night that gate may close and seal thy doom,
Then the last low long cry: ‘No room, no room!’
No room, no room!
Oh, woeful cry, ‘No ROOM’!”
We pray you let not your last words on earth be: “Oh, don’t let me die; I can’t get through the gate, it is too narrow for me!” Nay, but rather, in true desire to be with the Lord who bought you, may your dying words be: “Oh, why does He not take me?” J. N.