SHE was an elderly woman, of at least sixty years of age, I should think. Her hair was white with care, and her face wore a look of deep distress, upon it. I observed her sitting regularly in the same place in the meeting, and I longed to speak to her; but she gave me no chance, as she went away directly the meeting was over. Her sad and anxious face haunted me. I could not rest until I found out where she lived, and had visited her.
Her cottage was in a back lane, and beautifully clean. She was busy working when I entered, but willingly stopped to be spoken with about soul matters. Her one cry was, “Oh, my sins!” I asked her if she had long felt the burden of her sins, when she told me that she had wept and prayed for the forgiveness of sins for about thirty long, weary years, and had gone to the meeting room, where I first saw her, all that time, in hopes that she should get it there; but it had never come to her longing soul yet.
I asked her if she believed that Jesus had died for our sins according to the Scriptures; had been buried and raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures? (1 Cor. 15:3, 43For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3‑4).) She assented to all this, but it brought her no comfort. She still indulged in the old mournful cry, “Oh, my sins!”
I asked her if she believed that Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)), and that He had put them all away with His precious blood before He left the tree, and that He was back again in heaven without them?
Seeing that she was a divinely-quickened soul, without the knowledge of the forgiveness of her sins, I endeavored to show her, simply from the Scriptures, that Christ had all her sins, by imputation, upon Him on the cross; that He put them all away before He left the cross, and that He was upon His Father’s throne in glory without one of them being upon Him now; for how could God have sins in His holy presence?
I asked her to tell me, if Christ had her sins upon Him on the cross, and was now in the glory without them, where were they? She looked up, and replied: “Why, they are all gone, and I never saw that before;” and immediately she said, with an adoring, thankful heart, “Oh, my Savior!”
She now knew what it was to have not only the forgiveness of sins, but a Savior in heaven; and could look up into His face there by faith and say
“I know my sins are all forgiven,
Glory to the Savior-God.”
I find no end of people troubled about their health and their circumstances, but, oh! how few one finds troubled about their sins!
Are you who are reading these lines troubled about your sins, and anxious to know the forgiveness of sins? Then believe Christ died in the stead of the sinner.
“He knew how wicked man had been, He knew that God must punish sin; So out of pity Jesus said, ‘I’ll bear the punishment instead.’”