A NEW patient had been brought into one of the wards of a large hospital in London. Her face was, therefore, strange to me, and I went to her bedside wondering whether she were one of the Lord’s sick ones or one of those, of whom, alas! there are many, who are careless about their souls even when sickness has attacked their bodies, and they know that their time here may be short, I was not left long in doubt this time; for after a few words concerning her physical sufferings she told me that she was saved, ready to go as soon as the Lord should see fit to take her; that her sins were washed away in the precious blood of Christ, and that all fears for the future were gone. After a little while I said to her, “Would you like me to read you a hymn?” She said she would like it very much; so I began that well-known one—
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.”
But I had no need to read it to her. She stopped me as soon as I had began, saying, “I knew that forty years ago;” and then, in a very weak and feeble voice, she repeated the hymn right through, only stopping sometimes for me to begin a verse for her. How beautiful the words sounded, arising from that bed of sickness and weariness―
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear;
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.”
“Yes,” she said, when she had finished, “I knew that forty years ago,”
We spoke a little longer of the One who is “our Saviour, Shepherd, Friend,” and then I left her, saying: “I shall see you next week, if the Lord will. It is not likely that you will be well enough to go out so soon as that.”
The next week I went into the ward as usual, and found the bed by the door empty. “Perhaps,” I thought, “they have removed her farther up, out of the draft,” and I passed on. The first person to whom I spoke said: “There have been three deaths in this ward since you were here. One was that old lady by the door; she died quite suddenly last Sunday evening.”
“Well,” I said, “she was ready; she has gone to be with the Lord.”
Her stay in the hospital had been short, but she knew what it was to trust in that name “which quells the power of death.” Very different was the case of another of those three who had died. She was quite young, but attacked with that hopeless disease, consumption. While in the hospital she had never cared to listen to the word of God, and when her end seemed near, and a Christian desired to speak to her, she said, “Not now; wait till I am stronger.” That time never came, and she passed from time to eternity without giving any sign of a change. God, who searches the hearts, can alone know what was passing there during her last few moments. How solemn this is, to pass from this scene without a word to testify that she was ready to meet God! How much happier to depart and be with Christ after forty years of acquaintance with Him.
We sometimes hear young people say that they fear to be Christians lest they should die early! What a mistake! By being Christians we are delivered from death; and then, whether we remain here for a while or fall asleep, it is well with us. As to our life here, we have the assurance that “all things work together for good.” Every detail of our path is marked out by the hand of a loving Father; in every sorrow we have Christ and His sympathy; all our joys are increased a hundredfold since we can take them from God. Then as to our future. Do we look for death, the only end to all this world’s joys? Surely not. We look for the Lord Himself to come and take us to Himself, to that place where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying.
We may be left here for a long time or a short time, but the end is sure. Should we be called to pass through death, we can say, like my old friend in the hospital, that the name of Jesus “quells the power of death.” Do not be deceived by the allurements of this world or Satan’s false representations, but seek true happiness in Christ. “He that believeth on me,” the Lord said, “though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
L. A. M. B.