“IS this the last, Doctor?”
“Yes, my dear brother, I think the Lord is about to take you home; and Scripture does not exaggerate when it says, ‘To depart and be with Christ is far better.’”
“Yes, yes, that’s true.”
“And you are resting in Him?”
“Oh yes, that I am.”
“How long have you known Him?”
“It is over sixteen years since I was converted.”
“And have you rest, peace, and joy in Him?”
“Yes, yes, I have all in Him.”
“And what have you to say to your wife?” who was weeping by his bedside. “Can you say like Jacob when he was departing, ‘Behold, I die, and God shall be with you’?”
“Ah, yes, I can say that.” Turning to his wife he said — “God shall be with you, my dear. Train up the children in the fear of the Lord.”
Then to me, he added, “Any little goods I have, Doctor, I have left all to her. Good-bye, good-bye.”
The speaker was lying in a bed in one of the surgical wards of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. A man in the prime of life, just thirty-six years of age, well nourished, pleasant looking, and without a gray hair in his head, or a wrinkle on his brow, his words came with weird and sorrowful power alike to myself and his tender-hearted wife, who, with deep emotion, heard his dying testimony. For such indeed it was; within an hour he passed into eternity.
Perfectly well on the previous Lord’s Day, he was seized with a sudden illness at his work, as a railway porter, on Monday morning, and transferred from his house to the Royal Infirmary on Wednesday, and that day underwent a serious surgical operation. From that he seemed to rally; but on the Friday his strength failed, and the dew of death was on his brow when I stood by his bedside a little after noon that day.
He said little after I left him, save to repeat to his wife — “God shall be with you, and will provide for you and the children. Train them up, wife, in the nurture and fear of the Lord;” and then peacefully departed to be with Christ. His end was peace and joy; his eternity will be the same; and his sixteen years of Christian life had been marked by the same characteristics.
M — was a native of Orkney. Brought up well, he had as a young man been always outwardly moral, decent, and respectable; but was not converted to Christ till he came to Edinburgh when about twenty years of age. At that time he was thoroughly aroused as to his condition and guilty state before God; and going to hear an evangelist preach the gospel, his convictions of sin were deepened, and his anxiety to find Christ intensified. The preacher extolled the cleansing value of the blood of Christ; its all-sufficiency to meet the claims of God, and purge the sinner’s conscience. Its sin-cleansing power was pressed. At last the preacher said, “Lippen yourself to the blood!” and in an instant, acting on the exhortation, M — lippened (the broad Scotch for simply and implicitly trusting) to the blood, and entered into peace.
From that moment he took his stand for Christ, confessed Him boldly, and rejoiced to take his place in the ranks of those who were testifying for Christ everywhere. At many a street corner his cheery voice was heard extolling the Saviour, and proclaiming the power of the blood that had given him peace, and washed all his sins away. His occupation as a railway porter brought him into contact with all sorts and conditions of men. His fearless testimony for the Lord, and endeavor to deal personally with all whom he could address, of course, in the beginning, brought an immense deal of opposition and ridicule from those he daily worked with. But his godly walk and consistent behavior — ever ready to do any one a kindly turn, and thus to get an opportunity of commending his Master — eventually made him to be one of the most respected and trusted of the employees in the station where he earned his daily bread.
He had been married some fourteen years, and had displayed the greatest care for his six living children, often gathering them round himself in his spare hours, when home from his daily toil, to instruct them in the Scriptures.
His funeral was a sight rarely beheld. Many hundreds of railway-men who had known him, on the Lord’s Day after his death, followed his remains to the cemetery in the Easter Road, where they now await the first resurrection. At the grave I read a portion of 1 Corinthians 15, and spoke briefly on the wonderful facts that Christ had died for our sins and lain in the grave, that God had raised Him from the dead, taken Him into glory, and that He was coming again to take out of the grave all His own. I narrated his death-bed testimony, reminded my hearers that they all knew how he had lived, and then raised the question, Would it not be well for them to be what he was, an out-and-out Christian, a man constrained by the love of Christ to live for Christ, and seek to win others to Him?
Rarely have I seen more strong stalwart men affected and weeping over a grave. God spoke; many were reached; some were converted. Afterward many were heard to say, “It would be a good thing if we were like him.” Of a relative of his own I have heard, the day I pen these lines, that she was converted, as the result of his death. She said, she thought that being but a young woman, she might put the matter of her soul’s salvation off for a little, but his sudden removal made her feel the terrible uncertainty of life. She thought she had better come to Jesus. She did so there and then, and is now rejoicing in the Lord. Reader, follow her example.
Returning from that grave, one of the chief officials of the Company whom he served said to me — “Never was there a better servant than the one we have buried today. I do not expect to meet his like again. He could always be relied on, and was willing, cheerful, and obliging in every circumstance.”
That is a fine testimony to the practical Christianity of a simple working man. And I trust that many a railway servant into whose hands this little tale may fall, will have grace to be as decided for Christ, and seek, as devotedly as did’ dear M —, to serve, and please, and follow the Lord.
Reader, you cannot tell how soon you may have to say to someone at your bedside, “Is this the last?” If today were the last of your earthly career, are you ready for eternity? Are you converted? Are your sins forgiven? Is your soul saved? Are you prepared to meet God? If you cannot answer these questions honestly in the affirmative, let me implore you not to procrastinate. Time is short. Eternity is long. The Lord’s coming is at hand. Procrastination is fatal folly. Let me urge you to turn to the Lord Jesus today. Receive His love. Believe His name. Trust His precious blood. Cast yourself on His unlimited mercy. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
W. T. P. W.