LAST year, in the town of R., two friends met after a long separation, during which much had happened in the history of each of them. They were old school-fellows, and, when last together, had been both alike without the knowledge of Christ as their Saviour, but now, in behalf of one of them a mother’s prayers had been answered; divine grace had visited her, and after a period of deep anguish of soul on account of sin, the Lord Jesus had said to her, in the silent midnight hour, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” and had filled her soul with the joy of salvation.
Sealed by the Holy Spirit, and having the love of God shed abroad in her heart, she had been the means of blessing to many a weary one in the town and neighborhood until she married, and went to live near L. Changes, trials, new responsibilities came, but nothing could rob her of that divinely-given, divinely-sustained joy, which found its expression in speaking of Him who is its source and its object, Jesus, the Saviour, now in glory.
When the fondly attached schoolfellows met again there was much to tell on each side, but how different the tale!
The young wife’s reply to the question of her friend, on meeting her, “How are you?” was, “Happy, inside and out.” “Ah! You look so, indeed,” answered Mrs. W., who also was married; and her countenance fell as she sighed, and said, with tears, “I am neither,”
Hers was a sad tale of suffering and wrong; her husband, who like herself, was unconverted, had caused her the deepest anguish a tender, womanly heart could feel; but the deep gloom in which she was plunged was only intensified as she listened to the story of her friend’s conversion from her own lips. She forgot, for the time, her husband’s sin against herself, in the sense of her own deep sin against God, now, for the first time brought home to her by the Holy Spirit.
For a fortnight Mrs. W. remained in great distress; the preaching which she heard only served to deepen her sense of guilt, and to make her realize more intensely her danger.
It was at this time that her friend, accompanied by her husband, went to see Mrs. W., who, in order to support herself and her child, had opened a girls’ school at R. Mrs. W. at once left her sister and a friend, who had called to see her, and went with them into a room where they could be alone and undisturbed, for she was still in deep anxiety. They knelt in prayer, and then spoke of the Lord Jesus, and His finished work, that work by which, when He gave up His life on the cross at Calvary, He met God’s just and righteous claims, and became our Substitute and Sin-bearer; they spoke of Him, once dead, and laid in the grave, now raised from the dead for our justification, alive for evermore at God’s right hand in heaven; but nothing seemed to bring rest to Mrs. W. At last one of her friends said, “Suppose you were taken up to heaven today, whom would you look out for first?”
“For Jesus,” she replied.
“But would you not be afraid of Him?”
“No; because He died for me.”
“Why did He die for you?”
“Because He loved me,” she said.
“Then will you not trust the word of Him who loved you enough to die for you?” said her friend, pointing to the words which our blessed Lord, when on earth, spoke to one who was a sinner, “Woman, thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 7); and then added, “Will you not believe Him?”
“I will,” she said, as the light of life and love shone into her soul, and lit up her countenance with newborn joy. After together praising their heavenly Father for this touching proof of His gracious favor, and commending Mrs. W. to the Lord, especially asking Him to make her a means of blessing to others, the friends took their leave. How speedily that prayer was answered I hope to tell on a future occasion. I will only add now that when Mrs. W. returned to the room which she had left on her friends’ arrival, her sister exclaimed, “Why, Polly, what can have happened to please you so?” and she at once told her that the Lord had pardoned all her sins, that He had washed her from them in His Own blood, and had saved her soul with His everlasting salvation. G. L.