I WAS asked to see a woman who was hopelessly ill, though still able to attend to her household duties. As soon as she saw me, she said, "Oh, do sit down, and tell me what to do!”
“What is the matter?" I asked.
“Well," she said, "I know I shall have to change worlds, and I am not ready.”
“But what can you do to get ready?" I replied.
“I have gone to chapel," she continued, "as much as ever I could; and when I have stayed at home, it has been because I have been weighed down with trouble and cares too heavy for me.”
“Suppose," I said, "you had never missed going, would that avail you anything now?”
"No," she replied, "I believe not; though when I was speaking lately about the state of my soul to some one, he said, ' You have never been so bad as to have cursed God to His face'; but this gives me no rest or peace: I know that you have something that I have not-will you tell me what it is?”
“Yes," I replied, "I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have all heard a great deal about the mercy and love of God, and truly He is both merciful and loving, but He is also just and holy, and He cannot show His love and His mercy without His justice and holiness being maintained; but I know that the Lord Jesus Christ met all God's claims against me; He paid all my debt for me in His death, and now I have peace with God.”
We read together Romans 3:10-25, and 5:1-11. She looked surprised as the preciousness of the words came home to her, and said—"I have never seen that before.”
I then read to her these words, " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:14-18); and light seemed to break in upon the darkness.
On another occasion I said to her, "Well, there is one comfort; God, who cannot lie, has sent His message to you and to me. Can you receive it?”
“Yes, I do receive it.”
“Then you must have peace.”
“I have," she said; "thank Him for it: this disease may go on now, for I shall soon be with Him in heaven.”
From this time till her death, she was full of peace, rejoicing in the finished work of Christ, always ready to hear more of Him who had brought her out of darkness into His marvelous light.
One day she said, "I never thought I should know what I do about Jesus, and I believe He has still more to show me and tell me about Himself.”
I replied by some remark about her great sufferings.
“Never mention them," she said, "I shall never murmur about being laid here; I bless Him every day, and oh! it will soon be over, and I shall spend eternity with the One who has done everything for me so unworthy." She would often say, when dwelling upon the contrast between the often repeated Jewish sacrifices, and the blood of Christ, eternal in its efficacy before God, "What a wonderful, gracious, merciful Father we have to bring us poor creatures into such a place, so near Himself!”
Her last words were, "Come, Lord Jesus." R.