“DID you speak to me, Grandma?” said one who was watching beside the sick-bed of an aged saint and who thought she was being spoken to by her, and therefore asked the question, “Did you speak to me?”
“No,” replied the happy and yet suffering one; “I am talking to Jesus.”
This was said in a way which told more than the mere words could express; in a way which told of the deep joy and settled peace of the heart, which could thus in the quiet and solemnity of the midnight hour, and on the bed of pain be “talking to Jesus.”
She had before this been talking about Jesus, and had fallen into a quiet slumber, in which she was still supposed to be. But no; she had awakened, and was “talking to Jesus,” as the broken accents fell upon the watching one’s ear.
And now, dear children, I will write to ask you, Have you ever “talked to Jesus”? I know you have talked about Him, and sung about Him; but I want to know whether you have ever been “talking to Jesus”?
To talk to and to talk about are different things, are they not? You have often talked about the President, but perhaps not one of you has ever talked to him. Just as you may have talked about Jesus, yet have never talked to Him.
And do you know what is necessary to be able to talk to Jesus? Only one thing, and that is, to believe on Him. Not to believe about Him only, but to believe on Him; that is, to know yourself as a lost sinner; and Him—that is Jesus—as the Saviour of lost sinners. To know yourself a very great sinner; and Jesus as the One who has taken your sins upon Himself, and has been punished for them all. And, O, how you will love to talk not only about Him, but to Him! Yes, and praise Him too. Then why, dear little one, will you not be happy? Sometimes you sing—
“Jesus, only, He can give
Sweetest pleasures while we live.”
You would love to talk to Jesus, would you not? When He was on earth, He took little children up in His arms and blessed them. So He must love little children, must He not? He does, indeed. He says to all, “Come.” Do not say, “No,” any longer. Go to Him. Tell Him that you will take Him as your Saviour—that His love has won your heart, and that you are His forever. But go today!
“Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” You, too, may be laid upon the bed of suffering and pain; and what would you do then, to have no Saviour to sympathize with you, and no Jesus to talk to?
You may be even called to lie upon the bed of death. What would you do in view of eternity? You remember, perhaps, the lines—
“Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are.”
But what is a dying bed without Jesus? May you never experience it! Go, then, to Jesus now. He will make you happy in life, happy should you be called to die, and happy forever.
“Take salvation,
Take it now, and happy be.”
ML 08/05/1917