Have you ever been sick in the hospital? I suppose many of our readers have known what it is like to lie in suffering and pain, even though you may be young, for suffering is not only for old folks. Still there are nearly always kind folks to bring you flowers, and to visit you, but my story today is about a poor young sailor who lay dying of fever in a foreign port, far away from all his loved ones.
Anthony was so sick that his shipmates had to leave him behind and sail away without him. All his loved ones were in another land, thousands of miles away, and Anthony was dying. Every Sunday, a tall man in a black suit came through the hospital and tried to cheer up some of the sick folks. When he saw that Anthony was so very, very sick, he turned aside to chat with him.
“How are you feeling today?”
“I’m not at all well, and the doctor tells me I shall soon be gone.”
The stranger looked very solemn, and then he took from his pocket a black book.
“Let me give you,” said he, “the consolation of religion, and read to you a prayer from my book.”
The dying sailor smiled.
“Thank God, sir, I already have the ‘strong consolation’ that God speaks about in His Word. I have the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work for me on the cross as the anchor of my soul, and I am quite happy to go to be with Him.”
Wasn’t that a grand testimony! How good it was to be able to rejoice in the face of death, far away from home and loved ones, for the Friend and Saviour of sinners was close by.
And what about the stranger? He looked long and silently at the happy face of the dying sailor and turned and walked away without a word.
Oh, dear boys and girls, let me tell you that there are many religions in this poor world, but none of them can save your soul or take you to heaven. Do not trust in religion but in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He only can save sinners.
ML 06/28/1953