SOME few weeks ago I received a message from a poor woman, asking me to go and see her. Her daughter, who brought the message, told me that her mother had been given up by the doctors as incurable. She was very dark and ignorant of the way of salvation; but she knew that she was dying, and that she could not save herself, and she listened attentively as this verse was read from John 3 “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” She listened attentively, for two reasons. She was dying, and she knew it; she was not saved, and she knew it. This knowledge made her thoroughly in earnest.
The next day I visited her, and to my great joy I found her resting in the finished work of Christ. She told me that the words of Scripture read to her the previous day had let light into her soul. “I used to be so afraid,” she said, “of being spoken to, that I always kept out of the way; but now I should be glad to see anyone who would speak to me about Christ.” For months she lingered on, but was kept bright and happy in the Lord, daily—even hourly expecting to be with Him. Thus was the saving grace of our Lord sweetly manifested to a poor, ignorant old woman, who was not even able to read.