NEAR a Worcestershire village, in a tumbledown thatched cottage, lives old Joseph. He is an old man, about seventy years of age, but such a bright, happy Christian.
The visit we paid him, one lovely spring afternoon, left a deep impression upon us. There he was, dear old man, lying on a dirty bed in an attic. We went up a rickety staircase into this uncared-for chamber. A bed, a table, and one chair were all the furniture. The old man looked up as we entered, and uttered a note of thanks to the Lord for our visit.
“Bless Him,” he said, “He never forgets me.” And then he began to pour out a volume of praise to the Lord for all His love and goodness to him, and for bringing him to a knowledge of His love in coming down to save him. “I used to think of Him as being very far off, but now he is nigh me; I just tuck my head under the bedclothes, and have a long talk with Him.”
We remarked that everything was very dirty and uncomfortable around him.
“Yes, it is,” he said, “but I think the Lord is just leaving me here to have a little taste of His sufferings; not much you know, but just a little, so that I may have a little idea what He suffered.”
His daughter now came in, and began, in a whining tone, to tell us that she was not able to get any better food for him, nor to make him more comfortable. We knew, that this woman and her husband and family were a great trial to him. She was, I need not say, unconverted, and there were constant broils and disputes amongst them. They were more like wild beasts than human creatures, and fought and quarreled over their food, which could get the largest share being the chief dispute.
The poor old man in his attic could hear all this, and it would have been indeed hard to bear had he not been trusting in One who could raise him above all circumstances, and keep him in perfect peace. In the attic in which he lay was a window covered with cobwebs. Old Joseph looked towards it, and said, “I like to look at that window, and think of the blessed Lord looking down at me through it; it’s a comfort, you see, to know that He sees me.”
Although he could not read, old Joseph in his way had been enabled to bring many to a knowledge of his Lord and Saviour. He often had tracts given to him, and his plan was to ask any one he met in his walks to read them to him, and then he was able to get a word for the Lord, and to earnestly urge them to come to Him before it was too late.
Upon being told that a dear Christian lady, who had been his chief friend since he became a Christian, had gone to be with the Lord, he said, “Well, the Lord hasn’t gone.”
Dear old man! he had only known the Lord in his old age, but the seed sown had taken root downward, and bore fruit upward. We left him, asking ourselves whether we should have felt so happy or contented in like circumstances.
And now, dear friend, are you, like old Joseph, trusting and rejoicing in the finished work of Christ, or are you trying to get to heaven by your own righteousness? Oh! be wise before it is too late, and come to Jesus just as you are, in all your sin and misery. He has said, “He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out,” for “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Stand before His cross, and behold Him made sin for you, that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Shelter yourself under the blood which was shed for you on Calvary’s cross. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.”
“Precious, precious blood of Jesus,
Shed on Calvary;
Shed for rebels, shed for sinners,
Shed for me.”
And remember that Jews said, when on that cross, “It is finished!” All who believe in that finished work are safe for time and eternity; and all they should live for now, like old Joseph, is to utter forth His praise.
K. E. C.