SUCH was the mournful plaint of the Lord Jesus Christ when the nation to whom, in grace, He came, refused their Messiah. And most fittingly may the words be applied to many a rejecter of Christ in our English-speaking lands.
An extremely sad example of this met me some two or three years ago. Too appalling, indeed, is it to write or speak of, save as a warning to those who think there may be time at the last to accept the good which has been refused before. There are those who think that they have only to cry “Lord, have mercy,” when life is passing from them, or that any time will do, when it suits them.
Thus the enemy of souls seeks to blind his poor slaves, till time’s privileges shall have given place to an unalterable eternity. That God has His own time as well as way of bearing witness to the eternal efficacy of the work of Christ, is plain in His Word. That is “Now!” Let my reader grasp the moment as it passes. “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)).
A lady was much interested in a young girl of whom a Christian neighbor had spoken as being very ill. The family were utterly godless, and would, she thought, oppose any visitor likely to bring God’s light into that dark home. Alcohol and light literature seemed the methods used to stimulate a delicate frame and an ignorant mind when no company was at hand to divert her thoughts. The pinched features, bright eye, and consumptive complexion, all betokened the mortal disease going on within. And it was melancholy to look at that fragile form, decorated fashionably, yet with the hopelessness of a young fading life, possessing nothing that could brighten the prospect beyond.
The lady tried to show some kindness, and she was welcome, but she feared to raise opposition by attempting to read. Unhappy about this, she spoke of it to me, and was glad to have an offer of help, though she doubted if I should be allowed to open my Bible there. Looking to God, however, for an open door, I asked to see the girl. It was early in the day, and her mother led me to the bed on which poor Emily lay, thin, and worn, and weak, though only seventeen years of age.
As I stayed only a few minutes, and repeated from memory John 3:16,16For 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) both mother and daughter listened, and bore with me, during that brief visit. Next time, I saw the girl alone, and sitting up, when I read the first part of John 3. Although no look of interest brightened her face, yet it seemed well to go on making known the revealed thoughts of God about man’s true condition. But stolid and indifferent though her manner was, I knew that with the Word lay the power to convict her of sin. She seemed to have no conception either of her great need as a sinner, nor of the danger of her illness.
The third time I went, the days were brighter, so that Emily had been out, and now she spoke of getting well. Beginning at where I had left off on my previous visit, I read to the end of the chapter. As I closed the book with those solemn words of verse 36, I said, “You will think over this, Emily, will you not?”
With quick impatience she replied, “No! it would send me mad to think of that!”
“Do you mean the words of the Bible, Emily?” I asked, in amazement.
“Yes,” she quickly answered. “I don’t want to hear that, for it worries me after you are gone.”
The solemnity of the position was most alarming and painful as I thought of her poor soul. Mournfully I said, “Emily, God’s Word comforts me, and that is why I read it to you. Will you not hear it?”
With a most emphatic refusal she led me to understand that I should be welcome without my Bible, but not with it. The overwhelming truth thus pressed itself upon me, that while God’s thoughts were convicting that poor soul of sin, the will of the flesh was determined to refuse them. No alternative was given but to leave that poor miserable heart alone in her sin, her weakness, and her will.
So I said sadly, “Good-bye, Emily. I cannot force myself upon you, nor come if you do not wish to hear the Word of God. But, if you ever change your mind, will you send for me?”
Emily promised that she would, and I left the only certain address I could, which was that of the friend who had told me of her, and who I knew would willingly forward a message. Alas! alas! for the poor soul, so soon to be in the presence of God! One autumn evening a slip of paper was sent to my friend, saying that Emily was very ill, and, “according to promise, we let you know.” This lady had also ceased to go when she found that the Bible was refused. She was soon by that heartrending deathbed, but the sorrowful soul and the dying body were bond the expression of feeling by words. Taking the thin wasted hand in hers, she said, “Press my hand, if you know me, Emily.” A returning pressure told the sad tale, but no sign, no word, that could indicate peace in that poor forlorn and dying girl. Early next morning all was over on earth, and before my friend could tell me the sorrowful story Emily was a corpse.
Such a deliberate rejection of the truth of God, in one so clearly near death, we neither of us had ever seen, and the wish to hear when death was at hand was sorrowful in the extreme.
Dear halting reader, pause before the voice of God, and let Him speak to you in time — Now. “Your time is alway ready,” but that will not do for “the Judge of all the earth.” “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.” Deceit is our natural state, and to meet this the Scripture of truth presents to us the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “He that is holy, He that is true,” contrasts infinitely with what we are. Let it not be said to you, my reader, as of old, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:4040And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:40)).
G. W.