TWO men lay dying, their race was almost over. They were what men call “jolly good fellows.” Both of them were well known in the racing world. Enthusiastic crowds had watched the victorious racehorse owned by one of them win the Derby, and warm were the congratulations which were showered on the proud owner. Here the curtain falls, — falls to lift on a very different scene.
G — lies in a darkened room. But darker far are the shadows in which heart and mind are wrapped; he is in an agony. As to who will win the Derby? The Derby! No! As to where his soul is going. All else fades away in the presence of near-approaching death. He sent for a young clergyman, a nephew of his. When he came, the now fast-dying man told him of his terror. His nephew replied, “What have you to fear? Why should you be in such distress? When you won the Derby; you restored the parish church!” And — the well-known racer passed forever away. Where?
Not far off another man lay dying. His doctor, who had seen a good deal of life, and also a good deal of death, felt great interest in his patient. The doctor had had the two ways put before him, “the way of life, and the way of death.” For you know, dear reader, there is “a way of life,” and there is a “way of death.” This doctor was well aware of the unhappiness of G―as he lay dying, and here lay another racing man, on the verge of eternity.
One day as he prescribed for him, he said, “G — is dying, and is in great agony of mind.” “Why?” exclaimed his patient.
“Because he is afraid of meeting God in judgment.”
Nothing more was said, and the doctor left. The next day he called again.
“I am wretched,” said the dying man.
“What is the matter?” asked his doctor. Then he told him, how his words that G — was in an agony of mind, because he was afraid of meeting God in judgment, had pierced his own soul.
Then the doctor most gladly told him the “old, old story, of Jesus and His love.”
“There is pardon sweet at the Saviour’s feet, Come and see;
There’s a song of peace that shall never cease, Come and see;
There’s a life beyond, ‘tis a life divine, Come and see;
And the light of faith on your path will shine, Come and see.”
One night the end drew near: the dying man asked the night-nurse to read to him the third chapter of the Gospel of John, in which are to be found these words, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Most attentively did he listen to the God-sent message of divine mercy, then turning to God he cried for mercy, and shortly afterward he passed also away. Where? To the presence of Christ, for “Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The above short story was told me a few months since by the doctor to whom these two well-known racing men were known, and who in the latter case was in God’s mercy the instrument of blessing. May it be a message from God to you, dear reader. “Behold, NOW is the accepted time: behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
“Why art thou waiting till another day,
Grieving the Saviour from thy heart away?
There is no refuge for thy soul but He;
Wilt thou reject Him, and a lost one be?
“One more message wilt thou hear in vain?
When ill-spent time is o’er and life is past,
What shall it profit, though the world thou gain,
But lost forever thy soul at last?”
L.