AFTER preaching in a village in the North of Ireland, I was asked to visit two persons who were ill, and not likely to recover. I was pleased to do so, and, accompanied by the friend to whom they were known, started at once.
The first upon whom we called, though speaking of his hope beyond the present, made no reference to Christ and His work. He was resting on an experience which he had had some twenty years previously.
We told him how vain and useless it was to rest on anything of that sort as a ground of acceptance with God, or as an evidence of being saved, and we spoke to him of Christ.
The other man whom we saw was suffering much, and it did not seem likely he would be very long upon earth. Therefore, we spoke plainly to him as to the ruin of man, and the need of a Saviour, and then asked how it was with him about his soul’s salvation? He replied, he had “no hope.”
The difference between the two men was very noticeable. He with whom we had been first, placed his confidence in his experience— in something he had gone through; the other man knew he was helpless and undone.
While speaking to him of “everlasting life,” he said, to my surprise, “I have got it.”
“What,” we replied; “only a short time before you said you had ‘no hope.’ How, then, is it that you now speak of having everlasting life?”
“Well,” he said, “you have read to me from the Bible, that whosoever believeth the Son of God hath everlasting life. I believe, and have got it. I believe, because God says it.”
Now, while our object in going to him was to put before him the truth, that he might be saved through believing in Him whom God had given, yet the simple way in which the poor man received God’s word was more than we expected on the moment.
“Yes,” I said, “it is God who has said so, and, therefore, it is everlasting life to whosoever believeth.”
Seeing the peaceful, happy way in which he accepted the glad tidings, because God had said it, and the manifested joy which was brought to his soul, we knelt down and praised God for His goodness and mercy in saving this precious soul, who, only a little while before was “without hope.”
About twelve months afterward, when I was again in those parts, I heard that this man had lingered some seven months, but 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) was precious to him. He had believed in the Sent One of God, and had been enabled to rejoice in God’s salvation.
Reader, if you are still unsaved, you are “without hope.” You may not think so, but that does not alter the case. God says you are, and what He says is true. The one of whom you have been reading took the place of being “undone — of having in himself no hope,” for he would not rest on anything of his doings. He accepted God’s word about himself as a perishing sinner, but he also received it about the sinner’s Saviour, whom God, in love, had given. He believed the testimony concerning the Lord Jesus, and that which He had done. He received the word “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” He believed, because God said it. Do you believe? Have you everlasting life;
R. K.