This was the cry of a very sick man in what was called the poor house. I had been asked by those in the same ward to seek to rouse him up to the fact that he was near death. "He will not believe it," they added. Yet, the moment one looked at him it was very evident that death had already claimed his victim, as the fast failing breath and glassy eye clearly indicated.
I bent over the sick man, and told him of his danger. At the same moment I implored him even now to look to the Savior of the lost, repeating: "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.”
Gasping for breath, the dying man made a violent effort to speak. I listened eagerly for the words, but to my horror these were the only ones: "I want to live!”
No thought had he for the future, no desire for salvation, only the clinging to this poor life which was rapidly vanishing. Again I bent over him, assuring him that he was a dying man, and that in a short time he would have to face a holy God, who even now offered him pardon and eternal life. While I was yet pleading, he became wildly excited, and making a desperate effort to speak, he again gasped out: "I want to live!”
I cannot describe my feeling. The men around us urged me still to entreat. It seemed too awful to see how Satan was deluding his poor victim with the hope of this life. Sick at heart, for the last time I implored him to accept the Savior, that gift of God, which was eternal life and glory with Christ. With a last effort he pushed me from him, and for the third time he gasped out: "I want to live!”
Soon all was over, and he had to appear before his Judge, refusing the last offer of mercy which a loving Savior held out.
Reader, how is it with you? Are you leaving what concerns your immortal soul to your last hour? Then it may be too late, when Satan may tempt you to reject the wondrous gift which it cost the blessed Savior His life's blood to procure for you.
Jesus still says, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”
Accept this loving offer now. Tomorrow may not be yours. Come unto Him; look unto Him; accept from Him, and you will have "all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.”