I HAVE been asked to give a brief account of the dealings of God's grace as told to me on a deathbed—the sweet story of God's wondrous love in delivering the captive, turning from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto Himself. In the day of the appearing of Jesus Christ this one shall be there to swell the song of praise, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain"—a trophy of redeeming love.
I was never personally acquainted with W.W. until sent for during his last illness. I knew him only by sight, and had heard he was a most godless man, and much prospered in business. Hearing he was ill my brother visited him, and spoke to him of Jesus, and left the little book of verses, called "The Old, Old Story," begging him to have it read to him. This was the first thing that gave him a little light, as he afterward told me, and that whenever he had a fresh attack of cold which kept him in the house he would ask for this to be read to him; then, getting better, he would be again engrossed in business and pleasure, and forget all about it. Some time after I heard he was seriously ill, and my brother and I spoke of the desirability of my going to visit him, being anxious for his precious soul. We agreed that, considering the circumstances in which he was living, it would not be well for me to go into the house, but that I should leave at the door a plain Gospel tract, and this text, which was in very large letters: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Little, indeed, did we venture to hope the blessed results God would bring about by this little act, which will be told hereafter in his own words, and which, in looking back, I remember was done with a yearning desire for his salvation.
The next thing I heard was that he was pronounced to be in rapid decline, and that the doctors gave no hope of his life. I was deeply concerned, and wondered whether the time was come for me to visit him, and asked the Lord that if He had a message for me to take I might be sent for. I shall not forget the trembling between hope and fear when a messenger arrived summoning me to the sick man. This was to be our first meeting. The beaming joyful face, the glassy bright eye, the thin hand stretched out to grasp mine, the panting breath, the eagerness to tell, though only in broken accents, of the precious Jesus he had found, the insatiable desire to use the few hours that might be left in speaking of the way He was known to him, I can never adequately describe. Tears of joy were chasing down his cheeks and mine; yes, and more, there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over that sinner brought to repentance. So impressive was the scene, and the words uttered with such laboring breath, that it was an easy matter on reaching home to put them down; and I now transcribe them in the earnest hope they may be used of God to enlighten some who may now be as dark as the subject of this little history once was.
"Everybody knows what a wicked man I’ve been. There is not a sin I have not done; but I want to tell what Jesus has shown me. This is how I have sorted it out, for you know I can't read. God made man for His own pleasure, to enjoy Him and to delight in Him. He gave him only one thing not to do, but man transgressed. Now it was as if God said: ‘What must be done? I cannot have any pleasure in men now. My word is holy I can't go back from it. I have given away My power to forgive because of My Word. I will prepare a body for My Son. He shall go into the world and stand for them. He is One that cannot be tampered with, and I will give to Him the power to forgive sins, so that everyone who trusts in Him I shall be able to have back again to My love.’
“God has not only been satisfied about sin, but glorified; sin has been put out of God's sight for every believer, so that it is not now a question of sin, for Jesus has ‘borne our sins in His own body on the tree,’ and He being raised from the dead is the Father's acknowledgment that sin is forever put away for us. Oh it’s so simple! so simple!! How I grieve I did not see it long ago. I have lived in sin thirty-three years, and Jesus toiled for my salvation thirty-three years down here. All my life He has been so kind to me, prospering me in business and helping me to lay up money, and I never once thought of Him who was doing it all. And when I was first taken bad, I murmured and thought it hard that I could not go on with my money-getting business—for having had nothing to begin with, I thought I had made it all myself, and naturally valued it very much, for latterly I was making £300 a month profit—but then the Lord said to me, ‘I've been letting you get all this, and now I'm going to show you Myself, and what a home I've been preparing for you.’ Oh! bless His Name! I will praise Him as long as I live, and with my dying breath I'll praise Him. I have given Him my soul, body, spirit, confidence, doubts, fears, and He has taken all, and He's going to take this poor frame presently. I want nothing now but this bed to rest on, and I have given away all that He gave me, as He has directed. I have given £1,000 to my poor dear mother." Here he sobbed and said, “Oh! how different it is crying for yourself, or crying for others. I had no one to cry for me. If my poor dear old mother will only follow me where I'm going.”
On leaving that sick room where I had expected to have to tell faithfully the Gospel message, I knelt, and praised with a full heart that blessed Savior God whose power and love had been so richly manifested in saving grace. The next time it was my privilege to see him, he greeted me by saying, “I'm as happy as a bird on the wing.” I could scarcely ascertain from him any particulars as to how he had passed the night—his health being the last subject he was willing to take up the time in speaking of. He was most anxious that I should be able to bear a clear testimony as to the blessed change that had taken place in him, and said, "I was like a man groping in the dark. I could not get clear, but one Saturday you brought me a tract about the Gospel, and this text—‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ then I could see it all—that word ‘THROUGH’ let me into the secret, IT'S ALL THROUGH JESUS CHRIST—He has done it all.”
He had ordered a large quantity of the little book—"The Old, Old Story"—and gave me some, saying, "Please give these away, with my love, and tell them it was the first thing that gave me a little light. Tell them all Jesus is, the only Gateway, and there is no other—they must have His Ticket. And then the Father won’t say ‘No’ when He sees they have His Ticket.”
There was a knock at the door, and hearing who it was he said, "It is a man I sent for to forgive him; he robbed me of six hundred pounds, and I want to shake hands with him—I want to die quite free.”
He told me the doctor had said, "Don't you trouble to speak to everyone," but he replied, "I must tell them what Jesus has done for me. Your profession could not keep my soul from going the wrong way; my body is of no consequence—you can't cure it—but the soul, that's what is of consequence.”
During this interview he said to me, "I want you to go and see a Mr. S . His poor wife has been praying for him for twenty-two years, and he has been a cruel husband to her. I sent for him, and told him what the Lord has shown me, and I do think he sees it too; he sat and cried like a child, and his dear wife is so happy, and now he wants talking nicely to and mellowing.”
Knowing so little of Scripture, he was anxious to hear what God's Word said on many points, and asked me simply as a child, "Shall I be with Christ directly, or shall I have to wait?" I read to him 2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)—"Absent from the body, present with the Lord." This gave him great joy. Again he asked, "Tell me about the judgment day. Does it not say, ‘The dead in Christ shall rise first?’" I replied that believers will not be judged as to their sins, for it is written, "He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (or judgment) but is passed from death unto life," and that the dead in Christ will rise when "the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout," and we "shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:16,1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)). In speaking of the Book of Life (Rev. 20:1212And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:12)), he said, “We have life in Jesus, so our names are in the ‘book of life.’”
To his mother he said, "Mother, the world is just as unbelieving now as when Jesus was here—if He were down here to-day, they would not receive Him." When he saw his mother and others weeping, he said, “Don't cry for me—cry for yourselves—Jesus is mine, and I am His.”
I only saw him once more. The labored breath and great difficulty in speaking told the tale: the end was near—but Jesus was precious—not one cloud to dim His sight—he was like a bird longing to take flight. The last sentences were very sweet—"The Lord keeps me here as a sample of what His grace can do for others." I never could have had salvation if it had not been for my precious Christ. If I did not know Jesus I should be cursing now. This poor frame belongs to Jesus, and He is going to take it home— I shall have plenty of breath to praise Him there, forever," pointing upwards. There was never a murmur, and often he gasped out, "I shall be better presently," meaning when he was with the Lord—then added, "Let me say good-bye now, if I don't have breath enough again. We're sure to meet where we shall be much happier. I feel so light.”
A few more hours of suffering, and he had entered into the joy of His Lord.
I would mention that the poor man alluded to as Mr. S—. received the Gospel, believed it, and a few months after died, leaving behind the blessed testimony that he was eternally saved. M. C.