YES, three words―only three; but enough to die with, enough to smooth the pillow, enough to heal the conscience, enough to fill the heart. So found R― a few weeks ago. Anxious for some time. Awakened by reading a little book given her by a friend. Anxious, but dying; dying, but unsaved. How sad! how solemn! you say, and yet perhaps your condition, within how short a time of death, but still unsaved; and not only so, but careless, because ignorant of how near death may be. Not so R―. Occupied with her own efforts, she had yet to learn the power of three words. As her body grew weaker, her anxiety increased, until her troubled spirit seemed to look right out of her deep black eyes. God’s time came for His voice to reach her. “What were the last words the Lord Jesus said upon the cross? a friend asked her one day. “It is finished,” she said. “Did He mean them?” “Yes, yes; I see, I see,” she said. “He’s done it all, and I have nothing to do. Oh, how wonderful, how beautiful, how clear! I cannot add to what He has finished.”
“What were the first three words the risen Saviour spoke to His gathered disciples?” “Peace unto you.” “And He showed unto them His hands and His side. The work was done, peace was made.”
Who can describe the change that came over R―? There and then God set His seal upon her. Her very face spoke eloquently of the rest these three words had given. Her few days left down here bore witness to the work the Spirit of God had wrought in her soul. Suffering, but happy; weak, but strong in His love. Nothing to boast of but Himself, the peace He had made filling her soul with joy, she shortly entered His presence. “Who, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Reader, is that your hope? are “three words” enough for you?
E. C. L.