WAS called to visit a young man in the neighborhood of my own home who was sick. He was about thirty years of age, well-educated, and of prepossessing appearance, but evidently in the last stage of consumption.
He had a wife and two little children, to whom he had been a good husband and father, but he had lived in utter forgetfulness of God.
During the early part of his sickness, he rested in the fact that he had never done anything very bad, and indeed that he had been better than many other people. Passage after passage from God’s own Word was read, proving that not for works of righteousness we have done salvation is bestowed upon us, but that by His mercy God saves us; and as the solemn Word was quoted, “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” the Holy Spirit applied the Word to his heart and conscience, and he exclaimed in anguish of soul, “What a fool I have been to neglect my soul all these years, and now it is too late!”
“No, not too late, my brother; for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and He is waiting to save you just now. Place yourself in His hands; He is able, He is willing, to save you.”
“I see that, but what about the past? What about my sins? What is to become of them? A just and holy God cannot pass them by without punishment.”
Ah! there were sins now revealed to him by the light of God’s Word which, in his self-righteousness, he had not thought of. They weighed heavily upon him, and it was not for some time that he was enabled to rest in a pardoning God. At last he rejoiced in the Scriptures. “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for thine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
“Thank God! thank God I see it now,” he said; “Jesus has not only borne the punishment for me, but He has wiped out the charge against me. Oh! it seems too good to be true!”
I visited him many times after this, but his trust never wavered, and his hope grew brighter day by day. He never tired of hearing of the beautiful home which Christ had gone to prepare for him; and again and again he said, “How good He is! Help me to praise Him. I don’t deserve His love. What a fool I have been to waste all these years when I might have done so much for Him!”
I was with him when the end came, and the last words he spoke were “Blessed Jesus! oh, He is precious!”
Oh! I would beseech all who read these pages to give themselves to Jesus in health and strength, and work for Him, so that they may never have to cry out, “Oh, what a fool I have been!”