SUCH were the words that fell from the lips of an. aged lady, who had spent full threescore years without Christ. I relate the story, trusting the Lord will bless it to some such soul.
While in Cumberland staying for a few days with a friend of mine, one evening we had occasion to pass the dwelling of this old lady. On our way back again, my friend told me that she was nearing the end of life's journey, and was also in a peculiar state. Asking me to go with him to inquire for her, we were invited in, and were soon seated near the old lady, who was able to sit up a little by the fire. But her looks told a doleful tale; they told of a guilty conscience, a sin-burdened soul, fear of a sin-hating God, and a long dark night.
After we had made inquiries as to her bodily ailments, she told us of someone who had called on her, offering her a tract, and at the same time asking her if she was saved. She replied, “I hope so, sir." "Hope so only," the man added, "that won't do, that won't shelter you from coming wrath.” The woman did not like to have her only prop removed, and so got him to leave her to hope on.
Having an opportunity to say a few words, I remarked, “I believe the man was right; but let us look and see where hope ' occurs in Scripture." So I showed her from the Word, “hope" was not once mentioned concerning the soul's salvation, as implying uncertainty, as she thought; and further, that to hope for mercy and for pardon beyond the grave, is one way Satan seeks to deprive souls of eternal happiness. “But I do find in the word of God," I said," that we may know our sins forgiven, and still more, that we have eternal life.”
She seemed still more troubled, to find the hope she claimed was not for her after all. For some time she thought she was not so bad as many, but I sought to let her see that would not fit her in the least to appear before God. But as the time was clue for my friend to go, we were preparing to do so, when her husband asked us to pray with them. We turned to the Lord, asking His blessing on the word that had been read to them, and that their souls might be saved.
As I was leaving, the old lady got me by the hand, saying, “You must not leave yet, but talk a little longer of these things." I sat down again, and told them what the Lord had done for my soul, and that He was able to do the same for them. Then we read Romans 3 to find what we were by nature, " There is none righteous, no, not one. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God "(vv. 10, 23). Then I read, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)). To this the woman, with tears streaming clown her cheeks, replied, “I’m too bad to be saved." I told her, "Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
We then read John 3., Christ showing Nicodemus the necessity of a new birth. We then went on to the illustration,—" And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up,"—showing that sinners, like the bitten Israelites, are dying from the poisonous bite of the enemy of souls, and that the poison, which is sin, is doing its terrible work in the system, and with the soul; but there was a serpent of brass raised in their midst, and Christ, in our midst, has been raised on the cross; sinners lie suffering and dying around, the cry is made loudly and distinctly, "Look and live.”
After much anxiety, and expressing many longing desires to be saved, the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself in His all-sufficiency to the old lady, and she cried out, “Oh, I see it, as I never saw it before!" I saw her several times after, always rejoicing in the Lord.
Dear reader, have you simply believed in Him, and can you rejoice in Him also? J. P.
“WHAT is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Reader! answer this before you sleep.