We had been having a series of gospel meetings, and I was going from house to house with invitations. One woman did not seem pleased with my visit, but reluctantly she let me in. After telling me that her sister was out shopping, she said, "She isn't a good woman. I wish you could get her to come to your services."
"Well, we must try; but what about yourself?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm all right; it's my sister that I'm worried about," she quickly answered.
"Quite right, too; but hadn't you better think about yourself first? If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, you are not 'all right.' In fact, your are in the same danger as your sister who is 'not good.' "
Just then her sister walked in. She seemed very surprised to find a stranger in the house, and I promptly explained to her the object of my visit. I invited her to come and hear the gospel and, as she did nut look like a woman who would like to sacrifice her pleasure for a gospel service on a weeknight, I suggested that she should come on the following Sunday.
She gave me the most emphatic "No" that I have ever heard!
"Well," I said in response, "I think you are wise in not promising to come to the service on Sunday evening. Long before then you may be dead and lost forever! Hadn't we better say Friday night instead?"
She did not answer so readily or emphatically this time, and it was evident she was thinking hard. Still, she would not make any promise for Friday.
I said, "The Bible says, 'Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.' You had better not put off even until tomorrow, but come and hear the Word of God tonight."
When she did not reply, I said to her sister, "You will bring her tonight, and may God bless you both."
In the gospel meeting that night there they sat, side by side. Both of them listened with great interest as the lovely story of the Savior's death and resurrection was told. Then we sang Charlotte Elliot's hymn: "Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me;
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come."
I said: "I will repeat this first verse to you, my friends, leaving out certain words in it; and if you are anxious to come to the Savior, put in the missing words."
So I read:
"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for ."
There was a brief pause, and then from the corner where the sisters were sitting came clearly and distinctly the word "ME." It was the sister who was "not a good woman" who had said it―said it with her whole heart.
"Thank God!" said more than one in that audience, and I turned back and repeated the lines again:
"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for .”
Then we heard a duet as both sisters put in the missing word, "ME!"
The sister who was "not good" and the one who claimed to be "all right" together took the sinner's place. And as I read to the end of the last line:
"And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God .”
"I COME," they chorused.
It was a definite and never-to-be regretted decision. They found that He to whom they came was delighted to receive them and to keep them. He would never let them slip from His loving hands but would be their Lord and never-changing Friend in time and their joy forever.