THERE he, lay alone on his dying bed, thirty-eight, a widower and friendless, and beholden to the kindness of the strangers who had received him into their house, and made him welcome to the pleasant little chamber in which I found him. I had never seen him before, nor have I seen him since; but I had been asked to visit him, and, if possible―for his powers were fast ebbing away under the debilitating effects of consumption―to make known to him, even at the last moment, the way of God’s salvation.
I found him lying with his face to the wall, and the bed-clothes drawn closely up to his ear. An appearance of solitude marked this death-chamber. It was beautifully clean and sufficiently furnished. There was placed on a small round table near the bed a glass of milk and a biscuit or two, but these were evidently of little relish to one so feeble as he.
Yes, solitude, loneliness, the absence of love’s tender providing’s and thoughtful care, gave a peculiar feeling of desertedness to that dying pillow.
No mother’s tender hand, no wife’s deep solicitude, no child’s ready footstep, no nurse’s firm advice! No! He was alone!
Yet all these sad surroundings seemed only to draw out my sympathy the more. I felt keenly for that dying man. There are moments in our lives when the human heart craves compassion; when it feels and owns its need; when it bends and breaks; when, burdened and depressed, it cries for succor; and when, in awful solitude, it says, “No man careth for my soul.” It was thus with him at that moment, and glad was I that I could lend, in measure, the very consolation he required.
The preliminaries of introduction were very simple, and easily gone through. A few kindly words as to his sufferings, &c., paved the way for the more important object of my call.
“Now tell me,” I said, “is it well with your soul?”
“Ah, sir,” he replied, “I know that I’m a great sinner, but I’ve cried to God for mercy, and thrown myself at His feet.”
“That is right―that’s just the very thing!” I answered. Why, that was exactly what the prodigal proposed to himself, and what he did, and we all know the blessed result.
“Yes,” I said, “that is right so far; but now for another step―Has God heard your cry and shown you mercy? Are you saved?”
Up to this point he had been lying on his left side, and had answered my queries with face averted, but now he turned his, eyes full upon my own, and with a glance that, accustomed as it was, when in command of his vessel, to penetrate the darkness and read the skies above, seemed to search into my innermost thoughts, he said, “No one can tell that!”
Oh, how often have I heard that rejoinder― “No one can know.” It is, alas, the common expression! It is none the less the expression of unbelief. We should know, and may know, and, thank God, many of us do know!
Well, I met his gaze firmly, and I could read in that earnest eye, and shattered, though manly countenance, of only thirty-eight summers, a feeling of wonderment as to whether, after all, any could tell for certain that God had shown them mercy, and that their sins were pardoned. His pleading, earnest, inquiring look seemed to say―If anyone can tell, let me know, and know at this moment, for I have no time to lose! He appeared to hang breathless on my answer.
“Yes, my friend,” I replied, “we can tell that God has had mercy upon us, we can know on His authority that we are saved. Let me read these words to you: He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 4, 5). ‘WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD!’ Yes, we have it; and peace is a thing so comfortable, that, if you have it, you most certainly know that you have it. And it is PEACE WITH GOD!” How that dying man listened to, and drank in the truth of this well-known scripture! His eye was riveted on mine, his ear was divinely opened, whilst the one thing that he craved, the one link in the chain, was being made known to him. God had wrought in his soul, and convinced him of his sins, had used the very desolation of his circumstances to act upon him, as his destitution had acted on the prodigal, had led him to throw himself at His feet, and cry for mercy. All that was God’s work by His holy Spirit.
What a fit subject for the gospel, for the good news of redemption!
And if to a hungry soul a bitter thing is sweet, what to this poor famished spirit were the tidings that Jesus was delivered for our offenses―all the awful load being laid on Him when He died on the cross― and that, having borne both them and their judgment, He was raised again for our justification! Death could not hold Him. The judgment against sin was exhausted by our sinless Sin-bearer, so that God raised Him from the dead, and therefore the one thing between God and the believer is, not now sin, but peace! “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What a settlement! And we know it, thank God, on His authority.
“I see it,” said the poor dying fellow, as the light gently but clearly, spread itself over the long-desolate heart, and the load was removed, and the difficulty banished. He apprehended by faith the truth of the gospel.
Observe, dear reader, that a cry for God’s mercy, however importunate, is not just the same as faith in God’s word. The one leaves me uncertain―it is but a cry, the other places me on a rock of eternal security; the one may give me a hope, the other carries assurance; the one leads me, at best, to hope for mercy, the other puts me in possession of eternal life!
Ye may know, ye who believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye have eternal life!
Now this is not an idea, nor a fancy, nor a hope―no, it is a divine fact that he who believes on the name of the Son of God may know that he has eternal life; and, as we saw, these things were written for that very end. But may he not lose it? How, O, incredulous man, can eternal life be lost? What does eternal life mean? Tell me that, and I can assure you that the enjoyment of such a life will captivate the heart for time and eternity.
I have lately heard of my poor dying friend through a letter from one who kindly went to see him― that letter stated, “He is now saved.” A fine and grateful corroboration of my hopes concerning him!
Oh, how that little lonely chamber must have been lit up and rendered happy by the company of a dying sinner’s living Saviour! What it is to have such a Saviour in life or in death, in strength or in weakness, and to know, even now, that eternal life is ours!
Friend, if you know not, if you have hitherto questioned and discredited the possibility of the believer knowing that he is blessed, be persuaded today to rest on the written word of God. For “YE MAY KNOW!”
If, like that dying sailor, you brave for mercy, but cannot tell whether God has shown it, then, like him, drink in God’s peace-giving word, and rest on the mighty work of our dead and risen Lord, and know, with assurance, that you, too, have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Since having written the above, I received another letter from my friend, in which he says, “I don’t expect he will survive the night, but he tells me to let you know ‘It is all well with my soul!’”
Thank God for this welcome message from the lonely, but happy death chamber! It is a full and God-given answer to the first question I put to the dying man. I asked him, “Is it well with your soul?” No, it was not! He was dying, and unfit to die, yet he craved the knowledge of the way of salvation. This, through faith in the work of Christ, and in the written word of God, he received.
Then came a week or two of conscious salvation; and, finally, when on the brink of the grave, he could calmly say, “It is all well with my soul!”
He got to know, and again I repeat, “Ye may know!”
I must close by adding the verse that gave this knowledge to my own soul many years ago, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” I saw that believing and knowing go together; I knew that I, through grace, believed on the Son; and this written word certified to me that I had everlasting life! A solid foundation indeed! But notice how the same verse ends: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)).
I beseech you then, dear friend, to see to it that you are in the first part of this verse, and not in the second. It is either “everlasting life,” or “the wrath of God.” J. W. O.