TWO cousins, both bearing the name of Joseph, were left fatherless at a very-early age. Their mothers were Christians.
Joseph R—’s mother used to gather her seven children around her every Lord’s day evening, to teach them, and to hear them repeat the ten commandments and the catechism, closing with the hymn:
“The light of Sabbath eve is fading fast away.”
There was in her teaching a mixture of law and grace.
These weekly gatherings were very distasteful to the children, for they were afraid of God, and had hard thoughts of Him, thinking that to obtain salvation, they had to keep the commandments. and of course, they found themselves unable to do so. The gospel tells us of God’s love and grace. Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God can freely forgive the sinner; can give to him eternal life, and make him His own child. (Rom. 3:24, 25; 6:2324Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:24‑25)
23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23); Gal. 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26).)
Joseph was the youngest member of this family, and as time passed on, religious teaching became more and more wearisome to him. He could not be induced to enter a church or chapel, and went on carelessly till the age of eighteen. He was then seized with typhus fever, in so severe a form as to leave him, after six days, in a dying condition.
On the morning of the day on which he died, his youngest sister, on entering his room, was struck with the great change that had come over him. She saw that he was dying. The nurse was sitting with him, but his mother had gone to breakfast. His sister was not a Christian, but her heart was tender; and hurrying downstairs, she cried, “O! mother, Joe is dying; and you have not said one word to him about his soul!”
The mother instantly returned with her to his bedside. He was apparently unconscious. His mother whispered, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).) The sister was surprised to hear Joe repeat the words after his mother.
Immediately, fearful convulsions set in, and during the slight intervals between the fits, poor Joe’s agony of soul was dreadful. He would cry out, “I have been such a wicked boy, mother!” and would be off in another fit. On returning to consciousness, this was still his cry; and all day long he kept on in this manner, until about five in the evening, when he cried:
“O, mother! Etta! the gates are open! Carry me through! Quick! Quick!” The fits were now so frequent and so strong that there was scarcely time between them to speak one word to him. Then, in an easier moment, he repeated:
“Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the raging billows roll,
While the tempest still is high
Hide me, O! my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past.
Safe into the haven guide,
O! receive my soul at last.”
Rarely, perhaps have the words of the last line—
“O! receive my soul at last,” been uttered with such intense earnestness, as they were then uttered by poor Joe. It was, indeed, a cry of anguish and longing from the depths of his soul. The young fellow was face to face with eternity, and he wanted that Saviour, whom he had slighted in life, to receive his soul now. Was he saved? One cannot speak with certainty.
After battling with death for about two hours, Joe was gone, so there was no life to testify to the reality of his change of heart. But if Joe really “called upon the name of the Lord,” and came as a poor undone sinner to Jesus, then he was assuredly saved, for it is written:
Jesus Himself has said:
But O! what an awful risk was his!
Let none of my readers think that he can come to Christ when he likes, and that there will be time to find Him on a death-bed, for death sometimes comes very suddenly. The six days granted to Joe are not granted to all, and what I have to relate of his cousin will show the truth of this.
The mother of the second Joseph of our narrative, although a Christian, had not obeyed God’s word concerning ungodly alliances, for her second marriage was with an unconverted man. He was not kind to Joseph, who, in consequence, left his mother’s roof.
Joe was an ungodly young man, desiring to see something of the world, and to be his own master. Alas! there are many such, and they think not that they are the slaves of Satan.
Soon after the death of his cousin, Joe met with an accident and was taken to St. G. Hospital. His mother was sent for, and proceeded quickly there, to receive the awful intelligence that nothing could be done for her son—he was dying! The poor mother went to his bedside, and tried to tell him gently of his danger, and of the love of Jesus, but there was no response in Joseph’s heart.
His mother, knowing he was unsaved, in the anguish of her heart, told him plainly that he was dying. He sprang up instantly from the bed, and shouted out, “I won’t die! I can’t die! I’m not fit to die!” and fell back dead.
So died Joseph P—, at the age of twenty-one. No ray of hope here. Notwithstanding God’s love and God’s great provision for sinners in giving His only begotten Son to die in their stead; notwithstanding the fact of an open Bible with the way of salvation clearly revealed therein—salvation through simple trust in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ—Joseph died without Christ—without hope.
His poor mother was heart-broken. Wherever she went, whatever she did, her dying son was always before her. She fancied she could still hear his groans, and his last bitter cry—and in about five weeks death came to her also.
O! my dear reader, let me ask you to profit by this terrible story. Do, I pray you, think of eternity. You may be younger than either of these young men, and your days are swiftly speeding on, like the grains of sand running in an hour glass. How mad to risk your eternal welfare for anything this world can offer! Nothing can really satisfy but Christ, and if you accept Him, as your Saviour, you will find that He gives not only salvation, but joy that can never be found in the world.
To the Christian mother who may read the account of these two sad death-beds, I would say, seek grace and wisdom from God to win your children to the Saviour while they are yet young. Let the story of His love and of His finished work be very tenderly dwelt on, and let the need of the little ones of such a Saviour be faithfully pressed. God will own your efforts, and will bless and save your children; thus you will never have to taste the bitterness of the sorrow, experienced by the two unhappy mothers of my story.
ML 09/15/1918