AN awful hurricane had swept over the West Indies, devastating villages, destroying vegetation, and causing enormous loss of life and property. Sites which but a short time before had been covered by numbers of cottages and huts were now only desolate wastes of ruin, and the inhabitants that remained had barely escaped with their lives.
As one of a relief party, an English missionary visited some of the ruined villages, and among the heaps of rubbish discovered a few rough hoards hastily put together to form some sort of screen, behind which lay the form of an aged colored woman, dying from the effects of starvation and exposure. Everything she had loved and valued was gone; all earthly props had been shaken to their foundation, and without even a roof to cover her, she lay on the brink of eternity. Anxious to know if she had ever learned any truths of the gospel, he inquired of her, “Who is Jesus?” Slowly the dying lips answered, “Him say, Sinner, come!” Again he queried, “What did He do for us?” “Him die for we,” came her unhesitating reply.
Reader, under similar circumstances, with the light of eternity dawning on you, when earth is done with, and the things of this life—whether in a palace or hovel—are slipping forever from your grasp, would such be your answer? “What think ye of Christ?” A true knowledge of His Person is all-important, for gone else but “He who is over all, God blessed forever,” “the Word made flesh,” in whom “dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and yet “the Man Christ Jesus,” could stand in the breach between God and man and meet all the claims of a holy God, and the need of the guilty sinner. But a correct head knowledge, even of such a truth, will save no soul. How does He, the holy One, stand in relation to you? The aged colored woman knew His heart; she had heard two words from His own blessed lips: “Sinner, come!” and they suited her. She was a sinner—no doubt about it; no one else wanted her—but Jesus had said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It was enough for her. Yet more than this. In order that she might come to Him, with no barrier between, He had died to put away the sin that He might receive the sinner. She knew it; she knew Him; and behind her screen of boards she rested on that which shall never be shaken—His word and His work.
T.