AN unconscious man cannot pose. What he says is utterly uninfluenced by those who may hear him. In such circumstances, what is deepest in the heart will be uppermost on the lips.
Let us draw near the death bed of the late beloved editor of this magazine, Dr W. T. P. Wolston, M.D. For forty-five years he has been the Editor of this gospel magazine, and for over half a century he untiringly preached the gospel to multitudes—as earnest when he spoke to a score as when he addressed a thousand; as tender and compassionate in dealing with the humble as with the noble and titled; and always eager and willing to give all the glory of his success to God’s Holy Spirit and the power of the Scriptures.
A man of many parts, of wide experience, of immense physique and striking personality, it was a pathetic sight to see the stricken giant, unconscious, paralyzed, his vacant eyes lighting up with no gleam of intelligence even when his devoted wife and lifelong companion tenderly sought with words of love to obtain a momentary recognition.
Though unconscious and lost to all earthly things save a slight recognition of his bodily condition, his mind has been clear and coherent as to divine things.
Listen to his testimony. His medical man, a Christian, sits by the death bed.
“Do you know me, doctor?” he inquires.
“No,” is his answer.
“Don’t you know W—?” (mentioning his own name), he again inquired.
“No,” is again the response.
Failing in obtaining any recognition, he asks, “Well, how are you this morning?” The answer comes at once, “Supremely happy on my way to glory.”
“What a testimony to the grace of God!” said the doctor in attendance. “It is as if he had two brains, an earthly mind and a heavenly mind, and as if the one were switched completely off, the other remaining clear and active.”
We may well inquire what made him supremely happy, and how did he know he was on his road to glory?
The answer is very simple: the late editor of The Gospel Messenger was a whole-hearted believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. With vehemence he was wont to denounce to large companies the vagaries of the Higher Criticism, and he was not ashamed to declare his simple faith in Christ, and trust in the unerring inspired word of God. A diligent student of the Bible, well versed in its truths from Genesis to Revelation, he delighted to uphold the Scriptures as inspired of God from cover to cover. New Theology he loathed with all his soul. The deity and humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the complete efficacy of His atoning work, the reception by faith of salvation by the believer, the heinousness of sin, the everlasting punishment of the impenitent, were ever his themes in preaching the gospel. For two long years, laid aside by the weakness of paralysis from the activity of earnest gospel work, never a murmur nor an expression of impatience crossed his lips, but on the contrary his testimony was ever to the goodness and grace of God. At last the fatal stroke fell, reducing him to unconsciousness.
Will his belief stand him in good stead when he needs it most? Listen His devoted wife bends over him, anxious to catch every syllable that may fall from his lips. He is expressing his deep joy in the knowledge of sins forgiven, and of the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus. His wife says tenderly to him, “But, darling, you knew that over fifty years ago.”
“Yes,” responds the dying man, though failing to recognize the presence or speech of his wife, “but I have been getting a fresh taste of it.”
Infidel; higher critic, religious infidel as you are; new theologian, can you match this? Will death find you with your views “supremely happy” and getting “a fresh taste” of that which you have professed to find satisfaction in in days of activity and health? The gospel can do all this, yes, the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God.
Reader, nothing would have delighted the late Editor of The Gospel Messenger more than to know that the occasion of his death was taken to bring the reality of the power of the gospel before our readers. He would be the last to claim any credit for his testimony, whether in strength or weakness, whether in living or in dying, but would glorify God who had used a poor earthen vessel for His blessed service.
Will you not pay heed to this dying testimony?
As we watched by the dying bed and noted the reverence with which the unconscious man took off his cap as he praised and prayed, we could not but feel that he was more in heaven than on earth. Said his brokenhearted wife, “I could not have borne his dying by inches, did I not know his prospect of being for ever with the Lord.”
Reader, what is your prospect? Death is coming. Time has wings, and oh! how swiftly it flies. Eternity draws near, vast and irrevocable. Shall it be glory or gloom for you? Shall it be heaven or hell? Shall it be song or sorrow?
Only through Christ can you be saved. He has completed the glorious work of redemption on Calvary’s cross.
Oh! reader, be in earnest. Trust the Lord. He alone can save. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). He is willing and able to save.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
What need to multiply Scriptures! It is as easy to prove that Christ saves and is willing to save as to prove that the sun sheds light and warmth.
A. J. P.