"Yet Speaketh."

THE first week of the present year was marked by a severe snow-storm, which many persons called seasonable weather; perhaps little thinking it was the messenger of death to many a household.
Whilst it continued, two persons lay dying; one, the mother of seven dear little children, knowing personally through grace the value of the precious blood of Christ for her redemption before God.
Seeing the snow falling against the window, she asked that some might be given her. On taking it, she called two of her dear little girls to her bedside, and said, “My darlings, you see this snow, how white it is?” They answered, “Yes, mother.” She then said, “I want you to remember your mother is whiter than snow; washed in the precious blood of Jesus, and fit to go into the bright presence of God, where there is no sin.” Blessedly true; “not a cloud above, not a spot within.” A short time before she “fell asleep” she looked up, and with a sweet smile said, “We shall be first;” and when asked, “Do you mean ‘the dead in Christ shall rise first’?” “Yes,” she said, “that is it.”
What wonder then that this dear child of God, who through faith had long known Christ as her Saviour, God as her Father, and heaven as her home, should, with eternity opening before her, be able, not only to rest on, but to rejoice in, the prospect. Just as she was passing away she exclaimed, “He’s come! I’m through He’s come! I’m through!” and so she fell asleep — “Absent from the body, present with the Lord,” there to know, without a cloud, His full unbounded love; with Him whose grace had thus made her meet for His presence; “the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Colossians 1:12,1412Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)
14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14).)
Once only in Scripture do we get those words, “Whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:77Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7)); and then, in the heartfelt confession and prayer of a conscience-stricken and repentant sinner, one who had been an adulterer and a murderer; but such is God’s grace that even he could say, “I confessed, and thou forgavest” (Psalms 32:55I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. (Psalm 32:5)); and 2 Samuel 12:1313And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. (2 Samuel 12:13) is, “I have sinned against the Lord,” calling forth the grace— in “the Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”
The other dying one was a middle-aged man, whose body, as I write, is being laid in the grave waiting the resurrection. Two or three Christians had visited him frequently during his three months’ illness; but not till about a fortnight before he died, could we see that he had any real anxiety in view of eternity. Poor man! he then seemed to wake up to his position; and said that “at nights he was often troubled with bad thoughts, and also that he couldn’t help thinking that for over twenty years he had neglected God, and thought perhaps if he had gone to a place of worship, things might have been different, and there might have been some chance for him. But now — what?”
And so Satan tries to cast an awakened soul back upon itself, and to occupy it with what he insinuates might have been, and thus to hinder the soul from really turning to God, and perceiving the blessedness of what He is — Love.
But, dear reader, it is just here, when we are brought to our wits’ end, that God can step in, in His infinite grace using, perhaps, the simplest means to convey light and grace to the soul.
Three days before the poor man passed away, I took him a little nourishment. He thanked me for it, and said he had much enjoyed it. I then asked him whether he thought I gave it to him freely, and was pleased to do so. He answered, “Oh, yes, I know it.” And so in this little circumstance we had a simple picture of God’s dealings with poor sinners. God so loved that He gave, and His joy is in our acceptance of, and joy in, His gift. “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 3:1616For 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 pressed him to receive God’s gift simply and gratefully. After a moment or two he answered, “Well, if ‘t is like that, I am sure I will.” Soon after I left, and I never saw him again. But his sister told me that during the last day of his life he kept repeating that verse (John 3:1616For 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)) over and over again; and his last words, three minutes before he passed away, were, “I believe,” and soon he was in eternity.
Now, dear reader, how different these two deathbeds. The one, a soul consciously in the enjoyment of eternal life, like a ship, as it were, in full sail, going into harbor; the other, like a drowning man struggling with the billows, though possibly dragged out at the last moment.
A. P. B.