WHAT grace and wisdom are needed, when paying visits to the sick, so that the right word may be spoken. Especially when addressing the unconverted, a place should be taken side by side with them, in a spirit of humility and tender sympathy. We, who are Christians, and seek thus to serve the Lord, should remember, that once we were “without Christ in the world,” quite as far off from God as any other poor sinner to whom we may speak, and that we owe all that we have, and all that we are, to sovereign mercy, which has called us out and blessed us. The following little incident will illustrate this.
During the summer, a lady who was staying in a country town, used to purchase fruit and vegetables at a shop, the owner of which was always glad to have an opportunity of talking a little, if a customer would stay to hear her. One day, this woman told her of a Christian, who had recently left the town. “I shall never forget him,” said she, “for he was the means of saving my husband, who was ill for seventeen weeks. During that time, Mr. W. came very often to see him. Once when he was explaining to my poor husband about sin, he says to him, ‘We are all sinners, you and me,’” and, added the woman,” the ‘me’ done it. If he had said you are a sinner, my husband would not have listened to him, he would not even have let him bide in his room!”
The poor invalid evidently had a proud, unbroken spirit, but the good Christian visitor humbly took his place with him, as by nature a sinner, only with this difference―that one was a sinner unsaved, and the other was a sinner saved by grace. “The ‘me’ done it.”
H.L.T.