I know but little of the early life of the one of whose passage from darkness into light I desire to tell. It may perhaps be enough to state that the girlhood and early womanhood of Mrs. P. were spent where the gospel of the grace of God was seldom, if ever, heard, and where old superstitions and habits of thought maintained a hold upon the minds of the inhabitants, to a degree that those of us who live in busy cities can hardly comprehend.
My first interview with Mrs. P. was at the house of a relative of hers whom I had been asked to visit. I should have found it difficult to explain why I felt so strongly drawn towards Mrs. P. She had no peace, her sad weary face told that; but there was a look of almost piteous entreaty in her large dark eyes that seemed a mute appeal for help.
Very simply she told how she had been taken by a friend to hear the gospel preached and how the result of that first service had been to arouse her to a deep sense of sin. During the weeks that followed, Mrs. P. gladly took every opportunity of being present at various meetings for prayer and preaching, but she still remained a stranger to the peace and joy that can only spring from faith in Christ.
What could be the reason? The gospel she had heard was a very simple one, and her evident distress could only have been created by the Holy Spirit, who convinces of sin. I was not long left in doubt as to this question; for Mrs. P. said one day, "I do believe that the Lord Jesus is willing and able to save me, and I am longing for the rest He only can give, but I must wait a little longer.”
"What are you going to wait for?" I asked.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I am waiting to see something. When I was a very young girl, I heard a man, whom I thought to be a very good one, say, that if a person was converted he always saw something. I do not know exactly what I shall see, but I am sure to see something. You saw something when you were converted, did you not?”
"Yes," I replied, "indeed I did; I saw my own likeness, or photograph, if you like the word better. It was shown me by the Holy Spirit of God. Shall I show it to you?" and opening my Bible I read from Rom. 3:10-1810As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10‑18)
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This is not a beautiful picture, but I knew it to be correct likeness of myself drawn by the Holy Spirit.
"Now I will tell you how it was that the solemn words you have just heard lead me into peace. They showed me that God knew all the deep utter ruin of my nature, all the sinfulness of my sins, before He laid my sins upon Christ Jesus, before He took me up in grace. And when I was before God as a lost sinner, then the same grace that had convinced me of my need, made me willing to accept the Savior God had provided, so all was settled and I had peace.”
And as we re-read the Scripture I have already quoted, Mrs. P. saw that all her need had been met, all her sins put away by the Lord Jesus Christ. And "joy unspeakable, and full of glory," followed the blessed peace-giving sight.
When a person wants to sleep, he closes his eyes to the light, and seeks to remove himself from all noise; so, when a man desires to continue living in sin, he closes his eyes to the light of God's truth, shuts his ears to the least sound of the gospel trumpet, and deadens his conscience against the least awakening to anxiety as to his soul's condition. Satan would help him in this, and draw the curtain of darkness securely around him, lest the light of God's truth should shine into his heart, and scatter the darkness and deadness therein. How much pains men and women take to shut out Christ; one would think, to hear and see them, that He was a thief and a robber, instead of a loving Savior knocking, knocking at the soul, longing to bring in rich blessings to a poor, lost starving, benighted one, and to give life eternal.