It was a beautiful morning in the month of June, when I went for a walk in the neighborhood with some children who had been entrusted to my care. As I was rather weary from the heat of the sun, I sat down in the refreshing shade of a stately old tree, to keep an eye on the little ones who were playing in the field. While sitting there my attention was attracted by a colored woman who seated herself not very far from me. She seemed to be watching with interest the play of the little ones, as they followed boisterously the gay butterflies from one flower to another. Suddenly her expression changed to one of deep melancholy, when she perceived little Harry, the youngest of the troop, a bright little fellow of about three years of age. While she gazed at him, her eyes filled with tears, and she began to weep bitterly. I went to her, and laid my hand gently on her shoulder. Raising her large, dark eyes, she apologized for giving way to her feelings, and said that this little boy reminded her so much of her own darling, that she had left behind in India. She had come to England to take care of the child of a wealthy man, who had lost his wife a short time before.
“O,” she went on, “I feel so lonely, no one cares for me. O, I wish there was someone to love me.” I asked the Lord to give me a suitable word for this poor stranger, and I said,
“I am very glad to have met you, as have a message for you.”
“Indeed,” she repeated, “a message for me, you say?”
“Yes,” said I, “and it comes from Someone who loves you, and loves you so dearly, that He died for you.”
Full of astonishment, she fixed her large eyes upon me, and said that it was certainly a mistake, tor no one troubles himself about her. I assured her that it was true; and taking my little Bible out of my pocket, I read these precious 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.” John 3:16.
I spoke to her of God’s love to poor sinners, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15.
I also told her of all the miracles that Jesus performed. How He, by simply saying, “Be thou clean.” cleansed the poor leper. How He, with a word, opened the eyes of a blind man. How He gave strength to a paralytic, so that he stood up and carried away his bed. Yes, how He cured all who came, or were brought to Him, no matter what their diseases were. I also told her, in what loving tender words, He invited all weary souls to come to Him for rest:
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11:28.
“O,” cried she, “what a dear man He must be! How I should like to see Him! Have you ever seen Him? How good He must be! Why, they must speak about Him all over the world! Where is He now?”
It was with not a little joy, dear reader, that I tried to answer her eager questions immediately. I told her, that God had raised Him from the dead, and that He was now in heaven. And that God had sent a message, saying that whoever believed in His Son would be saved. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson. they shall be as wool,” Isaiah 1:18.
He “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Rom. 4:25.
Eagerly she listened to the story of Divine love. Never shall I forget her deep attention, and how she would at times lift up her hands, exclaiming,
“The more I hear, the more interesting it becomes!”
But I was obliged to return home. When I was taking leave of her, she looked at me imploringly, and asked me,
“May I come back and hear more about that dear, good One, who loves sinners?” I promised her I would come back the next day. It was the Lord’s day; and while on my way to meet her, my heart was lifted up in an earnest prayer, that the Lord might again give me the suitable word for her.
Although it was half an hour earlier than the appointed time when I reached the place, I found her looking out for me expectantly. When I sat down beside her, I read to her out of the Gospel of John the story of the crucifixion. Large tears rolled down her cheeks when she heard of the anguish of soul of the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. And when I read that they pierced His hands and His feet with nails, and then quoted Isaiah 53:7,
“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth,” then she said in her simple way, “but lady! Did He not cry out? O, how could He keep that all to Himself?”
I explained to her, that out of love to poor sinners He laid down His life, and shed His precious blood to take away their sins, for “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” These last words she repeated several times, saying that she wished to remember them.
O, dear reader! will you not too, take these words to heart? Will you not learn the cleansing- power of that blood, that cleanses from all sin? These words have been blessed to thousands of souls, and why not to you Meditate on this precious truth, even as she did, while she gazed for some time on the ground. What a solemn silence reigned around! One only heard the sad knell from an old church, making known that a soul had passed from time to eternity. Again we parted, and when leaving she said.
“May that blessed One, the Friend and Lover of sinners, bless you, and help you to speak to all, —black and white— of His precious blood, and of His great, large heart for sinners.”
So grace was working already in the heart of this poor colored woman. The scales fell from her eyes, while slowly it became light in her dark soul, and the hard and stony heart began to melt under the power of the precious truth of God’s perfect and free redemption, so gloriously revealed in the cross of the Lord Jesus.
Some weeks passed before I again saw Maria. Then one day I was sitting in the same place, when I heard footsteps behind me, and at the same time my hand was seized by my colored friend. Her countenance beamed with joy; it was the joy of a new-born soul, that has drunk of the living water, of which Christ said.
“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting- life.” John 4:14. With a heart that longed to give utterance to its great joy, she said,
“O, lady! I am so happy, and it is only through the blood of that Blessed One, that poor Maria is washed, O, so clean!”
We wept together, but they were tears of joy, and thanked Him together for having plucked another brand from the burning. Many happy hours have we spent together since that day, speaking of Jesus, the friend of sinners. Fervently she seized every opportunity of hearing more about Him, who had loved her so, who had died for her, and shed His precious blood to cleanse her from all sin. Earnestly she sought to speak to others of the blessed Saviour that she had found; for her heart had now one object, worthy of all her affection, and like the woman at the well of Sychar, when Jesus revealed Himself to her, she was ready to say with the daughter of Samaria:
“Come, see a man, which told me all
things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Is not this the Christ, dear reader? Have you found Him yet? Do you know this “Friend of sinners?” If not, then you are yet in your sins. O! you need a Saviour, because you are a sinner. Life flies swiftly by. Death is perhaps near. The judgment and the Judge are at the door. Eternal judgment is a reality, and how shall you escape it? But I can add.
Salvation and eternal life are yours, if you, just like poor Maria, simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Redeemer, the gracious Saviour, who now waits to receive you in your godless and sinful state. O, Come to Him! Yes, weary! weary of the world and its amusements that can give no rest,— Come! Fearful ones, fearing that you will not be received—Come! for He casts no one out! You who are righteous in your own sight, yes! to you also I say— Come! Your righteousnesses are like filthy rags, but He says.
“Whosoever will, ‘let him take the water of life freely,” and,
“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
May the Lord bless this account of the conversion of Maria, and of her simple faith in the Lord Jesus, to all your hearts.
ML 08/13/1922