THE morning service of the Lord's Day was just ended when the request was made for me to visit a young person, who was reckoned to be in the last stage of consumption. As I should have to pass her house to reach my own, I decided to call on my way home. I found the sick one was a young widow, whose husband had died some months before. She was dressed and sitting up, but her appearance clearly indicated that the disease had so far advanced as to make the course of her earthly life a short one. Her pale countenance, as well as showing extreme weakness, also evidenced great anxiety. A very little conversation with her revealed the fact that she was exceedingly anxious about her soul's welfare.
She was well acquainted with the main facts of the gospel truth. She felt her responsible position as a sinner before God, and knew that salvation was altogether of His grace, and that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. The way of salvation by the death of a sinless Substitute was also clear to her mind. Her difficulty was her unbelief. She would admit that God was merciful, that Christ had died for sinners, and that she needed such a Savior, yet she could not see that the blessings of pardon and justification could come to her by her receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.
On that day and at other seasons I brought before her many passages of Scripture, full of gospel promises; also using the simplest illustrations of faith which I could think of; and still faith seemed to her so difficult.
One of those seasons of instruction was remarkable. There were but three of us present, herself, her father-in-law, and myself. I had been again endeavoring to explain the way of salvation and peace, when the father-in-law joined in the conversation, trying also to give explanations of faith, and urging her to believe in Jesus as her Savior. Shortly after that interview, I was made acquainted with the strange and sad experience of this man. The Spirit had striven with him, and at one time he was so near the kingdom that he was on the point of publicly professing his faith in Christ, and of associating himself with an assembly of believers. Just about that time he was led into the company of persons who made some profession of religion, but who also dealt with the Holy Scriptures very freely, receiving what pleased them and rejecting what they did not like. Influenced by these persons, he accepted the teachings of science, falsely so-called, as to man's origin and nature, altogether setting aside God's testimony in His Word concerning those subjects. As a consequence he soon also set little value on the atoning work of the Lord Jesus. He was in that sad state of mind when he strangely sought to help another to believe in what he had rejected. Little by little he drifted away from all evangelical doctrine until, when I visited him in his own sickness, about two years after our meeting in his daughter-in-law's house, he seemed to be utterly indifferent to all divine claims upon him. He recovered from that sickness, but not from his unbelief; and from information received respecting his latter years I fear that his skepticism remained with him to the last.
The young widow's end was very different. The Holy Spirit gently constrained her to confess her sins to God, and to seek His mercy through Christ. She did not try to believe, but was led without effort to trust in Jesus as the sacrifice for her sins, and as her living High Priest and Lord.
One afternoon I called, and found her and her godly mother-in-law together. The invalid was lying with her face to the wall. On my leaning over to speak to her she recognized me, but could say but little, by reason of her extreme weakness. I spoke a little to her, and prayed. We then heard her speaking softly.
I bent over her and heard her say, “Thy blood." Other words followed, which expressed her trust in the Savior's blood, and her sense of being thoroughly cleansed by it. She was afterwards silent, and apparently went to sleep. I quietly bade adieu to her mother-in-law and left. I had gone scarcely a hundred yards from the house, when a young person overtook me to say that the young widow's spirit had passed away. She never spoke again after having uttered the sentences by which she so clearly expressed her faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, She evidently knew the meaning of such scriptures as " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood " (Rev. 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)), and " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin "(1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). Do you know their meaning?