NO doubt the readers of FAITHFUL WORDS have much enjoyed hearing about the conversion of many precious souls, as I have done from month to month, and I do praise God for the many true accounts of His wondrous grace and mercy, found within these pages. I should like to add a short true narrative of how the Lord sought and found Sarah P., a young girl of twenty years, living in the town of H—, where I reside.
One Lord's Day afternoon, when returning from our Sunday school, my fellow teacher asked me if I had been to see Sarah, who, she had heard, was very ill. I had never heard of her till then, and felt glad of the opportunity of visiting one of the Lord's dear ones, for such I was told she was.
We soon found ourselves in the sick room where the young girl was lying, propped up with pillows. At the first glance, I saw She could not be long for this world, the bright luster in her eyes, and hectic flush on her cheek, told all too plainly that that terrible disease consumption was doing its worst; but the radiant smile that accompanied her answer to my first question, as I bent over her, " How long have you known the Lord? " was most cheering.
“Only since last Monday, and I am so happy, oh! so happy, for I have seen Jesus on the cross, and all is light! I have been seeking Him all my life, but now He has found me.”
I took her hand in mine and said, “Where are your sins?” She said, with deep emphasis, "All gone, all gone; Jesus has washed them all away in His blood." We did not stay very long with her that afternoon, but the deep soul-happiness which possessed dear Sarah followed me. I rejoiced to find one so young so willing to depart, and intensely longing to be “with Christ, which is far better."
The following day I asked the mother to give me an account of her daughter's conversion, which she did. She said that Sarah, from a child, was always thoughtful, and loved to read her Bible, and to pray. She enjoyed singing hymns as she played the tunes on the harmonium her mother had given her.
At twelve years of age she had scarlet fever, and had been delicate ever since. No doubt the Spirit of God had begun His work in her soul when she was a child, for she had longed to become a Christian, and to know the joy of being God's dear child and fit for His presence. She felt she was not ready to meet death as she was. For does not God's Word declare "Ye must be born again "? (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7).) “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." When the Spirit begins to show the soul its lost condition by nature, He implants the desire for salvation, and points to the Savior as the only living way to God, to happiness, and to heaven.
So in the case of Sarah the light did shine from the One who hung upon the cross, and her eyes were opened to see what God's dear Son had done for her; she sought the Savior, and He found her and saved her.
On Lord's day evening, the 23rd of last October, five weeks before she was called home, Sarah and her mother were alone together, the rest of the family all being out. She then opened her heart to her mother, and told her how unhappy she was, because she knew she was not a Christian, adding, "I cannot die, dear mother, or go to heaven till I am a Christian." She was in much distress about her immortal soul, which was, she knew,
“Passing onward, quickly passing,
Yes! but whither, whither bound?"
She had once heard that hymn sung, and it had deeply impressed her.
Reader, have you ever felt the importance of eternity? Have you ever paused and asked yourself “Whither am I bound? Where shall I spend eternity?” as Sarah did.
Her mother read to her out of God's Word, still her soul was in darkness. She then said, “Mother, let us pray," and together they knelt in the presence of the One who said “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest."
Surely there must have been joy in heaven over the return of one for whom the Good Shepherd had shed His blood, and for whom He had gone out upon the dark mountains to seek and to save.
That night she sought Him, and the following day He found her. With beaming face she came into the room where her mother was working, and exclaimed: “Oh, mother, I have seen Jesus on the cross, and I am now a Christian; my burden is all gone, and I want to go to be with Him." She then knelt down and thanked God for revealing Jesus to her as her own personal Savior, and prayed for her father and mother and sisters. Feeling much exhausted and weak in body she went to her bed, adding to her dear mother, “I shall never get up again."
For five weeks she was left down here to witness to all around her of the power of the cross, and the deep soul joy she had in Jesus was sufficient for all to see what He can be, and is, in life and in death to those who have fled to Him for salvation, and have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Many happy visits I was permitted to make to dear Sarah. Ah, how often did that sick room seem like the gate of heaven, as we used to talk together about the One so precious to us; and as her voice was quite strong we loved to sing together some of her favorite hymns, which were: " I am so glad that Jesus loves me," and "What a Friend we have in Jesus," and many more. On one occasion she said, “Oh, Miss S., it is all peace-perfect peace. I am so happy. I have seen the light, and it is grand! Jesus on the cross has given me peace."
I said, " Yes, dear Sarah, and He is not on the cross now, but seated at God's right hand, ever living to make intercession for us, and you will soon see Him in the glory."
"Yes," she replied, pointing her finger to the text on the wall, at the foot of the bed, “I am rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God."
Some of her young friends coming in to see her, would shed tears, but she would ask, " Why do you weep around my bed when I am so happy, going to see Jesus?” And surely the light of heaven was shining in her countenance.
As time went on she grew weaker, but though her earthly tabernacle was being dissolved, her soul was growing in the knowledge and love of God, Who had prepared for her "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 5:11For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1).) The last visit I paid her, she put her hand in mine and said, "Now good-bye, Miss S., you and I have no more to do with each other, for I am going home,
‘No more to roam,
No more to sin or sorrow,'
to Jesus, blessed Jesus!” And then she spoke of her father, and told me how she longed to see him at the feet of Jesus.
The summons came at the solemn hour of midnight, and dear Sarah's happy spirit was called up higher, and entered the presence of the Lord, through whose blood alone she had found peace with God.
Many weeping friends, with her devoted mother and family, followed her remains to the garden where God sows His precious seed, which shall spring up and rise again at the shout of Christ and at the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, that shall wake the holy dead out of their sleep, and bid them rise to meet their Lord in the air, and so to be forever with Him.
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Reader! if that shout should be heard tonight, and the Lord Jesus were to descend into the air to catch up His own, would you be ready to meet Him? Have you come to Him as a poor, lost sinner, and sought for pardon and peace in God's dear Son,
“Who took the guilty culprits' place,
And suffered in their stead "?
If not, do not delay, for, like Sarah P., your days on earth may be short. Now is the accepted time. Rest on Christ's finished work, and you shall have “Peace, perfect peace." L. S.
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CHRIST died for us. He is risen again, and now lives in heaven, where He is interceding for us. We meditate upon His love thus expressed, and by the Spirit's teaching, exclaim, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”