An Extract.
“I FOUND her (Mrs. J—) very ill in consumption. The Bible-woman had often visited her, and read and prayed with her; but she told me when first I went that she could not realize the love of Christ to her. She was sure God had sent the Bible-woman to her; but she was such a great sinner that she could not think there was mercy for her.
“While I was talking to her as she lay on her bed, there was a ‘father’ from the Ritualistic Church talking to the husband in another part of the room. I did not interfere with their conversation, but directed mine entirely to the poor woman, telling her of the ‘blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin.’ I stayed some time with her at this first visit. At length the ‘father’ rose, end, before he left, told me my visits were not at all required there, as the case would be attended to from the church; but as the poor invalid put out her hand in a beseeching way, I asked her if she would like me to come again.
“‘Oh, yes,’ she said; ‘he’s persuading my husband to go to confession in the morning; but I hope from my heart he will not go.’
“The ‘father’ then left, saying, as he went out, that he should call again in the morning, and they were not to mind what I told them, for I was leading them into error.
“I then directed my conversation to the husband, who listened attentively. I explained to him a little of my own experience of the love of Christ to me, and told him he would find Him just such a loving Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, if he would but come unto Him and believe in Him alone. He wept much, and said he was not happy in what he had promised to do in the morning.
“I left him with some texts of Scripture that seemed to come into my mind at the time, especially that one, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’
That word appeared to be blessed to him at that very time. He caught at it as at some new idea, and kept repeating it, and lifting up his hands in astonishment.
“The next morning when I went in the wife exclaimed, ‘Oh, nurse, your prayers have been answered. He has not been to confession, and is not going’... At my next visit to the poor woman, she asked me to lock the door and pray with her, as she knew one of these ‘fathers’ would soon be up, and she did not wish to be disturbed. At another time she asked me, as a great favor, to stay a little while, as she knew they would soon be coming, and to ask them not to call again, as it only distressed her, and she was too weak to tell them so, or to argue with them. They had been exceedingly angry with her and her husband; but she said, ‘I don’t seem to care now; for I begin to feel the blessedness of having my sins washed away in the precious blood of Christ, and I care for nothing else. I could not feel this before; but you and the Bible-woman have explained it so to me, that I can never doubt again.’
“I was there again on Friday morning, and had some nice conversation with her, and she seemed very happy. As I was going for my holiday on the following day, she begged me to look in again in the evening. She then told us she could never thank us enough for our kindness in reading and praying with her, and leading her to Jesus.
“‘I don’t think I shall ever see you again,’ she said, ‘but I do hope to meet you in heaven.’
“ ‘Are your hopes bright now,’ I said, ‘in the prospect of death? And what do you rest them on?’ “She said, ‘I know that my sins are forgiven, for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I believe He has saved me. I am going to heaven, for He has washed me in His precious blood, and taken away all my sins.’
“When I left the room she called me back, and requested that I would not forget her husband, but occasionally look after him, which I promised to do.
“I never saw her again. She died happily the day after I left.”