A Christian, visiting among the poor, one day engaged a man in conversation about his soul. While referring to the Bible he held in his hands, he was startled by a feeble voice nearby saying, “Does your book tell of the blood that cleanseth from all sin?
Tell me, Oh, tell me, does your book tell of the blood that cleanseth from all sin?”
The visitor entered the room from which the plea came, and upon a bundle of straw in a corner he found the wasted form of a suffering woman. Raising herself up on one arm as he entered, she fixed her large eyes on him and repeated her question.
“My poor friend,” he said, “what do you want to know of ‘the blood that cleanseth from all sin?’”
She cried out, “What do I want to know of it? Man! I’m dying; I’m going to stand before God! I have been a wicked woman, a very wicked woman, all my life. I shall have to answer for everything I have ever done”; and she groaned as she thought of her past sinful life.
“Once,” she continued, “as I was passing a door, I heard something about the blood which cleanseth from all sin. Oh, if I could hear of it now! Tell me if there is anything about that blood in your book.”
The first chapter of the first epistle of John was read to her, and the poor woman seemed fairly to devour the word, exclaiming, “Read more, read more!” The second, third, fourth, and fifth were read before she would consent to a pause. Almost from the very first she seemed to find peace and joy in believing in Jesus, who gave His life for the remission of sins. In a few days she passed away a ransomed soul.