While, at the seaside, I went to see a girl who had been in bed for more than a year.
She told me that she had fallen down a flight of stairs three years before, and was so badly hurt that she could not hope to walk again.
“But,” she said; “I am accustomed to it now, and I don’t mind it nearly so much; at first I could not bear to be in bed and see the bright sunshine, and hear the birds sing; now, thank God, I am content.”
“Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?” I asked.
“Yes, indeed I do.”
“I am so glad of that, for it must make a wonderful difference to you when you are alone. And are you happy then, and ready to go when He sees it right to take you?”
She looked at me for a moment and then replied,
“O, no, I can’t say that,”
“Why is that? If you love Him, can you not trust Him? has He not saved you? can you not say that you are saved?”
She stopped for a moment, and then said,
“O, it would be too great presumption for me to say that.”
Silently I asked the Lord to give me the right word, so I asked her,
“Do you think He is willing to save you?”
“O, yes.”
“Is He able?”
“O, yes!” she was quite sure of that.
“Then why was He nailed to the cross, why did He hang there for those dreadful hours, and why did God hide His face from Him? Because He was bearing our sins; He was being made a curse for us; He was tasting death that we might never taste it, and now He is able and willing, and ready to save all that come to God by Him. Nay, the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all, and His own word to us is,
“Now,” I added, “I should think that the presumption is, not in believing His word, but in doubting it. You believe Jesus died on the cross for us?”
“Yes.”
“That He bore all our sins there?” “Yes.”
“That He bore yours as well as mine?” “Yes.”
“Well, then, the Lord says you are saved, you have eternal life, you have it now.”
She seemed intensely surprised, but could not quite grasp it. I found her some Scriptures to prove what I had told her in her own Bible, and left her.
Several days passed before I could go again. She welcomed me warmly, and said,
“O, I am so glad you have come. I did so want to see you. I have thought over all you told me, and read the verses again and again.”
“Well,” I said, “and are you afraid to say now that the Lord has saved you? Can’you fully trust Him now?”
She looked at me with a bright face, her eyes beaming, and the color flushing her cheeks, while a smile that seemed to say almost more than her words played round her mouth as she said,
“O, yes, I see it now.”
I saw her often afterwards before I left the place, and had happy times with her talking about our precious Saviour.
Do you, dear reader, have the joy of knowing you are His own—saved, and have eternal life?
ML 12/21/1941