In a little room adjoining one of the wards in a big military hospital, a man lay in great pain. He had been put there as a specially serious case. Terribly wounded, he had lain out in the open some hours before being rescued, and during that time memories of the past had come crowding in upon him. He had been a heavy drinker before he joined up, and the remembrance of his past cruelty to his wife and other sins rose before him. Then came a period of unconsciousness, followed by a dim realization of the removal from the battlefield and the subsequent journey back to England; but when he finally came to himself in the quiet of the little room in the hospital, the voice of conscience once more made itself heard, and he realized he was not fit to die. Yet death seemed drawing daily nearer, in spite of all the skill of doctors and nurses.
It was thus that I found him one day, with a look of distress in his eyes which told of a trouble deeper than the physical pain he was enduring, and I spoke to him at once of the Saviour—our Substitute, who had borne the punishment of all the sins which oppressed him. He hardly seemed to take in what I said; but I knelt by his bed and prayed that the blood shed for him might cleanse him, and that the Holy Spirit would make this blessed cleansing real to his soul.
When I rose from my knees, I saw a look of peace on his face which told me the prayer had been answered. Just as I was about to speak, the door opened and in came another visitor. I told her briefly of his need, and she turned to him and said:
“You have no need to worry over your sins; anyone who gives his life for his country, as you have, is all right.”
The man smiled faintly, but he shook his head, and said: “Ah, lady, that is a mistake! When I lay out there in the open, I knew I had done my bit. I hadn’t failed king and country; but that didn’t help me to face God. I wasn’t fit to die, and I knew it, and it has been an awful trouble to me every day since. But just now, as I heard that lady’s prayer, I saw that Jesus had been punished for all my sins and I might go free; and such a peace has come into my heart! How wonderful of Him to die for the likes of me! No, I’ll not be afraid to die now, because He has forgiven me.” M. W. J.