SOME years ago I was privileged to visit a young woman, who, as it proved, was on her deathbed. I had known her all her life—the child of Christian parents. She was bright and happy, and up to this had always enjoyed good health, but having caught a cold, she gradually grew worse. This evening she was tossing on her bed, evidently in much pain. At first I did not think she was conscious. Still, I put this question to her, “Do you love Jesus?” She said, “Yes.” I then said, “Does Jesus love you?” She replied, “Yes.” “How do you know He loves you?” She again replied, “He died for me.” What an unanswerable proof of His love! The next I heard was that she had gone to be with the One she loved.
My dear reader, if you were to receive the summons to depart this life how would it be with you? Could you say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day”? This dear one could say, “He loved me.” The apostle Paul too could say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
Do you believe you need such a Saviour? If not, the fact remains. For God has said that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Do bow to the word of God. Own yourself a sinner, and God’s message to you is, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
Think, Who it is that shed His precious blood upon the cross. He who is God over all blessed forever became man in order that He might die for men. The Saviour of mankind, the only begotten Son of God, suffered on the cross—not indeed to draw out God’s love to man, but to manifest that love—Himself, the expression, proof and measure of it. The Lord Jesus in His death has vindicated all God’s holiness and righteousness; and on the ground of that work once and forever accomplished there, God can, and does, now pardon all who come pleading the person and work of the Saviour. Do not delay then to come; do not treat such a salvation lightly, I pray you, nor neglect “so great salvation.” May God give you to see and own your need. Then you will be able to say truly,
“My sins, my guilt, in love divine,
Confessed and borne by Thee;
The gall, the curse, the wrath were Thine
To set Thy ransomed free.”
W.T.