“I’m too bad for Jesus.” Such were the words which fell from the lips of Rose Lingard, as the writer was led to speak to her at the close of a very solemn Gospel Address, one Sunday evening, forty years ago.
The hall was crowded that evening with a most attentive audience; and the Spirit of God was working in many hearts. During the discourse I had noticed a young woman in the center of the hall, weeping bitterly.
At the close of the service, I announced that a prayer-meeting would be held for any anxious souls who might like to remain, when this young woman was the only one who rose to go.
I ventured to say to her, “Won’t you stay to the prayer-meeting?” She replied, “I shall lose my situation if I do.” “I don’t want to stop you, dear friend,” said I; “yet would it not be better for you to lose your situation than to lose your soul?”
With streaming eyes, she answered, “I’m too bad for Jesus.” “That is just the reason why He wants you now,” I said; “and I won’t keep you five minutes, if you will just let me read You a verse from God’s word, which I know will help you; for it is impossible for God to lie.”
A fresh burst of tears almost drenched my Bible, as I turned to Isaiah 43, and (looking to God for guidance) I called her attention to the closing words of verse 24, which run thus, “Thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities.”
“That, perhaps, is what you mean,” said I. “Yes,” she promptly replied, “I have just told you, I am too bad for Jesus.”
“That is quite true,” I added, for “we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God”; and, “there is none good; no not one.” “But I want you to notice the wondrous grace of God to all those who truly confess their guilt and sin; and are willing to receive His free pardon now. Read the next verse; will you?” but she was too overcome to do so, and her tears fell fast and thick; so I read it to her “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake; and will not remember thy sins.”
Like light from the glory, these words went home with power to her broken heart; and, wiping away her tears, she slowly read them to herself, at my suggestion. When she had read them, I said quietly: “Now you see, if you will simply believe what God says, He has given you a double promise in this verse a present, and a future one. Now, just now, ‘He blots out your transgressions for His own sake’; just because He loves to do it. And, as regards the future, He will not remember against you one of your sins, as Christ has died to put them all away. Is not this amazing grace?”
“Will you (I added) tell me your name?”
“Rose Lingard,” she replied.
“Then, if you can trust Christ now, read your name into that verse.”
Solemnly, and slowly, she then read it thus: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out Rose Lingard’s transgressions for Mine own sake; and will not remember Rose Lingard’s sins.” God’s Spirit had won the victory: and God’s word had brought her life and joy.
That was our first and last meeting on earth, for eighteen months after, I received a letter from her death-bed, with the glorious news that those words of Isaiah 43:24, 2524Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. 25I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (Isaiah 43:24‑25), had brought perfect peace to her soul and she died, rejoicing in the Lord, while singing the well-known hymn: -
“High in the Father’s house above,
My mansion is prepared;
There is the home, the rest I love,
And there my bright reward.
“With Him I love, in spotless white,
In glory I shall shine;
His blissful presence my delight,
In love and joy divine.
“All taint of sin shall be removed,
All evil done away;
And I shall dwell with God’s Beloved,
Through God’s eternal day.”
S. T