(For the circumstances which led to the following narrative, see “The Young Doctor: or, Comfort my Mother.” ― ED.)
I was asked to visit the nurse, and did so the Wednesday after his precious remains had been laid in their quiet resting-place.
I found the nurse in a little room in the hospital preparing to leave for another engagement, where her sphere of usefulness would be greatly extended, and for which the Lord was about to fit her in a remarkable way. The words of the dying young doctor had deeply impressed her, and when I named him the tears streamed over her cheeks. She could only speak of him in broken sentences. Then it was she told me the words of his dying appeal, and it gave me an opportunity to press upon her the danger of delay in the matter of her soul’s salvation. I pled with her to yield her heart at once to Christ, and asked if she had entered the path of blessing the young doctor sought her for, but she “Oh no, madam, I can’t say I am saved; I am still a poor unforgiven sinner.”
“But,” I inquired, “what was it Dr. M. asked you to do? Did he not say you must come to the Savior of the lost, as he had done?”
“Yes,” was her reply.
“Well, then, “I said,” do you believe yourself to be lost? God is holy, and tell me, can He see anything good in you? Let us take our Bibles and look into the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and learn what the Prophet said of himself when he saw the seraphims covering their faces with their wings, in the presence of the glory of God, and heard them crying one to another, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:’ he could only say, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.’ Now, if the Prophet got such a sense of his vileness, will not God require that you and I should lie in the dust before Him, and own our utter worthlessness?”
“It’s no trouble to me, “she replied, “to own that. Many a day I have felt what a poor vile thing I am, but I never thought of having to meet God till that night when the dear young doctor, at such a cost to himself, pled with me. Ah, madam, it required all the strength he had to say what he did, and he seemed so afraid I should go to hell! Since that night I have felt I can’t meet God, and that I am going to hell. All the unsaved will go there. I am unsaved, on the broad road, and worst of all, I can’t get out of it. I am lost!”
“Yes, Nurse,” I said, “the unsaved are on the broad road, and it does end in hell. They are far from God―’banished ones!’ But you must not think you cannot get out of the path that ends in destruction, for Scripture says, ‘Yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.’ God and the Lord Jesus Christ, in the counsels of eternity, planned the way by which man could be again in the presence of God, and happy there. God willed the blessing, and Jesus met the desire of His Father, and said, ‘Lo, I come to do thy will.’ The Son carried out the purpose of God. He, who ever dwelt in the bosom of the Father, came to earth in humiliation, was born of a woman, lived a lonely stranger on earth, revealed to man the heart of the God of Love, and at length died the cursed death of the Cross.
Then from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down:
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
On the Cross of Calvary peace was made and every sinner who now believes the value God sets on that blood-shedding of His Son, is saved and brought to God. He is ‘made nigh by the blood of Christ:’ Eph. 2:1313But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13).
“But, Nurse, how thankful Dr. M. would be if he could hear the last word you uttered, that word ‘lost.’ You have owned you are lost! It was when he took that place that Jesus met him and let him know he was saved. You are now on ground where God can cleanse and save you from every sin. Look with me for a little at Lev. 13., where we get the priest dealing with the leper. In the Word of God leprosy is the type of sin. Let us read Lev. 13:1212And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh; (Leviticus 13:12): ‘If a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh; then the priest shall consider: and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.’ Had the leper at that moment looked at his own body, he would have seen it was all diseased, and he must have raised the cry, ‘Unclean, unclean,’ and taken his place outside the camp,’ ― that spot figurative of the place of distance in which man is by nature from God; but then it was the priest pronounced him clean, and the leper had to believe the word of the priest, and not what he saw or felt himself to be.
“The priest also saw the leper was diseased from head to foot, just what God sees the unsaved soul to be, full of sin, and guilty before Him; but he can say to the one who agrees with Him as to his utter worthlessness, ‘Clean every whit,’ or ‘Thy sins are forgiven,’ because His eye rests on ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, which cleanseth us from all sin.’ ‘When I see the blood,’ said Jehovah to Israel, ‘I will pass over you.’ God’s declaration must be rested in, and fully accepted, though the soul may, and does, abhor itself in the sense of its own vileness. Man’s nature does not improve, and all effort to improve it is vain. ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh,’ but God gives the sinner who believes His word a new nature. With this nature, led and strengthened by the Holy Ghost, the saint worships, serves, and enjoys God, and his every-day life yields the fruit of the Light. The old nature which he still has, must, with its desires, be denied, so that the deeds of the flesh may not appear. He is no longer a captive to sin; and, having become a servant to God, to do His will, the beauty of holiness should shine in all his ways, and the peace of God, which passeth understanding, will keep his heart and mind.”
The attention of the nurse was rapt in what I said. I felt it a solemn thing to be in the presence of a soul passing from death to life. God evidently was working, for His Word was desired, but Satan was watching ready to catch away the seed, which was sown in her heart. I looked to the Lord to send the suited word, His own message, for that soul, for He knew as I could not, what her state was. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” He heard, and as she gave vent to her thoughts the word was supplied, which fully satisfied her. “Every spark of light the soul receives,” as one has said, “is a ray direct from the glory of God.” Let us think of this, and in laboring for souls, seek to hold ourselves, emptied of all thoughts of our own, sanctified vessels to do God’s work, counting on the promise, “It shall be given you in that hour what ye shall say.”
At length the nurse remarked, “I know I am lost, and I believe that Jesus died for the lost.”
Here, I interrupted her by saying, “Then you are saved, for it is written, ‘He that believeth path everlasting life.’ You have passed from death unto life!”
“Oh no,” she burst forth, “I am not saved yet.”
“But,” I asked, “how can that be, for God says you are saved, and you believe His word, do you not?”
She thought a little, and then answered, “I will tell you why I do not believe I am forgiven. I love the memory of the dear young doctor far more than I love Christ; and how could God save me with a heart like that?”
“Then,” I said, “if you had a heart full of love to Christ you would be sure you are saved, would you not?”
“Yes,” she said, “I would have better reason then to say so.”
“Well,” I added, “you will never have the assurance you seek. I have been saved for some years, and the more I know of Christ the less I think of myself, or of any love in me to my blessed Lord; but supposing you could have the feelings you desire, then they would be your Savior, and chapter 13 of the Acts of the Apostles, the 38th and 39th verses, cannot stand as the truth of God. Hear His word: ‘Be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins, and by him’ (not your love to Him) ‘all that believe are justified from all things.’ Ah, Nurse, you must let Christ be your Savior, and not any measure of love in you to Him.”
“I know very well,” she rejoined, “it is only His work that can put away my sins, but I must love Him, surely?”
“Oh yes, “I replied,” but God will beget the love in your heart, when you have taken your place as His child, and believe your sins are forgiven. Then the Holy Ghost will dwell in you, and it is the Spirit’s constant work to take of Christ and show Him to the believer. It is occupation with Christ that begets love in the heart to Him; but that is God’s work, not yours. We read (Phil. 2:1313For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)): ‘It is God which worketh in you.’ What He now wants of you is to surrender yourself wholly to Him, and keep steadfastly looking on Christ. God will watch springing up and growth of the seed He has sown in your heart, and desires you to run the race set before you, looking off unto Jesus.”
Still I saw she was not satisfied. She was not fully committed to the grace of God. I repeated the Scripture, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins;” and added: “God knows the heart, sees we have by nature no love to Him, but He loved us notwithstanding, and did all that was necessary for our salvation. You must accept His love, and continue to think of it. Own to God you have none! Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Continue ye in my love (or, in thoughts of my love to you)’.”
No more was needed; that word of Scripture, “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us,” had set her free. “I see it all,” she said. “How simple, and how very wonderful! All grace! Then I cannot be too bad. God knows all about me, and yet He loves me, and has saved me.”
“Yes, “I replied,” and ‘there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ,’ or, as the hymn beautifully puts it―
“‘No condemnation!’ Oh, my soul,
‘Tis God that speaks the word;
Perfect in comeliness art thou
Through Christ the risen Lord.
‘No condemnation!’ Precious word!
Consider it, my soul!
Thy sins were all on Jesus laid,
His stripes have made thee whole.’”
“God is now for you, and will ever be so. Who then can be against you? Keep trusting in Him moment by moment. ‘As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him’ (Col. 2.) It was simple trust in the Word of God that delivered your soul, and gave you quiet joy before Him, and you must continue to trust God, else your soul will not keep full of joy. The Lord Jesus is to be the object of all your joy, and He never changes. ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Heb. 13:88Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)). Precious words! Whatever your path may be, He will prove all-sufficient for you. The Apostle Paul was filled with joy, though his circumstances were most dire. He was shut up in a prison, and its walls resounded with his praises at midnight. This shows us there is no place or time in which the believer may not be full of joy. In myself,
“I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.”
This is the secret of comfort for the soul.”
We knelt together to praise the Lord for His gracious dealings: grace that had met and blessed the youth, now “safe in the arms of Jesus,” and grace that had caused his dying appeal to awaken her, who now gave thanks to the God of her salvation ― her Father.
Several of the Lord’s people saw her before she left the city, and to all she made a good confession of Christ. She asked us to pray that she might be used in blessing to others. I have since heard of and seen her. She labors, in the hospital over which she is matron, to point the sick and tying to “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Young believer, is not your heart stirred to seek the salvation of the lost by the blessed results which flowed from “the dying appeal” of this babe in Christ? Well might he have pleaded the weakness of his frame as an excuse for silence, but his heart was filled with the sense of the blessing he had received, and in the quiet of his sick-chamber, on the very night after his conversion, he sought to unfold to a perishing soul the glad tidings of salvation. He abounded in the work of the Lord, and this narrative shows his labor was not in vain. He simply told what God had done for his soul; and he warned of coming judgment. This may be done by the youngest, the feeblest saint, and if the heart is full, words will not lack wherewith to make known the way of life. God owns the simple testimony that comes from the heart.
But before I close I would say a word to the unsaved. Heed the warnings God may send you. As a child of Adam you are under judgment. At any moment you may be beyond the sound of mercy. The Lord may come, or you may be cut off from the land of the living, the place of hope. Your soul will never die, and you must give an account for every deed done in the body. Can you face the judgment? Think of it before the door of mercy is closed forever.
Today Jesus says to you, a banished one, “I am the door; by me, if any man enter in he shall be saved.”
“Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him!” To the unsaved how terrible will that sight be! To you, if you die as you are. In that day you will call on the mountains and rocks to fall on you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb, but in vain. Then will you seek a shelter. No nook of safety will be found, no place on which to pillow your weary head; and weary you will be, for “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Today Jesus offers rest to the weary soul, and shelter to every banished, wandering one. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest: “these are His own words, and the sacred volume closes by telling of His coming again, and sends a last appeal to you, who cannot yet join with the redeemed in their cry, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
“Surely I come quickly,” is His word of cheer to His waiting ones. “I am the bright and morning star.” As such He will appear when the night of this world is gone, and the dawn of the day of glory come. Now “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:1717And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17)).
“Return, O wanderer, to thy home,
The Father calls for thee;
No longer now an exile roam
In guilt and misery.
Return! Return!
Return, O wanderer, to thy home,
‘Tis Jesus calls for thee;
The Spirit and the Bride say, Come
Oh then for refuge flee!
Return! Return!
Return, O wanderer, to thy home,
‘Tis madness to delay;
There are no pardons in the tomb,
And brief is mercy’s day.
Return! Return!”