ONE Sunday I was in search of a Bible which I had lent. I knocked at a door to enquire if I had left it there. The door was opened by an Italian whose wife was in bed with a very bad cough. They asked me in. After sympathizing with the sufferer I began to speak of my Saviour, and was listened to attentively. But when I spoke of our sinful nature, the man said “I have never done wrong.” “Oh! but,” I said, “God in His word says that we are ‘GUILTY BEFORE GOD.’” He then produced a nice Italian Testament, and as I was anxious to know if he could read, I asked him to read something to his wife, which he did.
When I called again I found the woman’s interest had been awakened, and the Testament was kept on the table for whenever I might call. One day when I went to see her she had put it under her pillow because the priest had called, and he had told her it ought to be burned. She however said, “It is a good book; I will not have it burned.”
A neighbor told her she ought not to receive my visits because I was a Protestant. She answered, “That lady only speaks of Christ.”
One day when I called, to my great surprise, I was told that the Saviour had appeared to her, and said, “Listen to the lady who speaks French!”
She pointed to the corner of the room where the Saviour had appeared, and wanted her husband to look, but he saw nothing. I have reason to believe that she passed happily away. The husband was an organ grinder, and I saw him several times. I think he also was led to read his Testament. He had been in Garibaldi’s army, and was present at the taking of Rome after a siege of seven months. During the siege a box was brought, on which was written: “The property of the Church.” The besiegers insisted on opening it and found it to be poisoned daggers!
But, dear reader, with the entrance of the army, God graciously allowed the British and Foreign Bible Society to send a small cartful of the Scriptures in the Italian tongue that the people might be able to have and read the word of God which is able to make wise unto salvation. Singular to say, the only shop available for a depot for the sale of these Bibles was, I believe, one close to the Vatican.
The Lord be praised for such mercies, and may He bless every effort to bring His written word before every man, woman, and child.
But now I want to speak to you of the Bible—the wonderful word of God. How good is He that He should deign to speak to us sinful creatures as we all are by birth and in our ways. We are only living here for a short time at the longest. There is another world to which you are all hastening. What kind of a world is it? Is it where Satan shall be? or where God shall be all in all? Can anyone say?
Well, this book it is which alone solves all these questions. It tells us that we have all wandered from God, and are unfit for His presence, for God is HOLY, and we are sinners. But it also tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Think what God has given! He gave His well-beloved Son. It was not an angel He gave, but His Only Begotten. And He calls you to believe in Him, and if you do, you shall never perish, but have a life that is everlasting, that shall have its issue in heaven with Christ in paradise. But this is not all. If your sins now righteously shut you out from heaven where Jesus is, you may here know all your sins forgiven, so that no sin of all your life shall stand against you henceforth. Is this really true? It is. This blessed book, God’s word, says, that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin. For He suffered once on the cross for sins—Himself the holy and righteous One—for us unrighteous, that we might be brought to God. And this now.
Such is the testimony of God’s word. Do believe it. Come then now to God, as you are. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who atoned for human guilt when crucified, and YOU ARE SAVED, henceforth to live a new life. Now will you seek to please Him in all things, who has saved you freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. May this be your portion now.
S. G. A.