"The doctor says I have but three weeks to live, and that is far too little time to do what some good people tell me is needful!" So said a young lady of twenty from her bed in the hospital.
Her visitor had asked about her health and she had told him frankly the doctor's verdict.
"Then I suppose you will be thinking a great deal of where you are going when you die?"
"Oh no, on the contrary, I try to banish this from my mind. I have lived a gay life. I have gone in for all the pleasures of the world, and it is no use me thinking of anything else now.
"Besides, those who visit me tell me I must make myself good in order to be fit for heaven. I can't do that. Indeed, I have no inclination to try. In any case I have only three weeks to live. That is far too short a time to do what those good people tell me is needful. So what is the use of making myself unhappy with the thought of it?"
"My dear young lady," answered her visitor, "I have only fifteen minutes to be with you; I have to catch a train. But I can tell you that in fifteen minutes you can be made fit for the presence of God. Why do you smile?"
"Pardon me, I did not mean to be disrespectful, but I could not help smiling at the idea of me being fit for God's presence here and now in fifteen minutes."
"Well, here in this grand old Book, the Bible, I will show you what God says.
" 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).' Eph. 2:44But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:4) and 5." "Now look at this; is this not your state, 'dead in sins'?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Well, you see these words, Tor His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins.' Don't you see that God loves you just as you are? It is true you cannot make yourself good— not in thirty years, much less in three weeks: but God meets you with His great love just where you are."
Under a mask of indifference there lies many an aching heart; and this young lady, apparently careless as to eternal things, burst into tears.
"Oh, why did not the others tell me this?" she exclaimed. "Only to think of God loving me!"
After saying a few more words about God's free, sovereign love, her visitor left. On returning to the town a few days later, he called on the lady again. This time her face was lit with a happy smile as she welcomed him.
"Oh, since you were here," she said, "I have not been able to think of anything except God's great love. But I cannot find that verse you read to me; will you please find it, so that I may read it again?"
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Were every blade of grass a quill,
Were the world of parchment made,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love
Of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor would the scroll Contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Meir Ben Isaac Neherai— A.D. 1500