One day in the spring my wife wanted me to prepare the ground so that she could plant some flowers. There was some earth to get and some stones to haul off, and I went over to a neighbor’s for a wheelbarrow. She was sitting on the doorstep humming a hymn to herself when I opened the gate.
She rose and came toward me, “Good evening, Mr. Green,” she said.
I said, “Good evening,” and we talked about the weather and crops, and then I asked her to lend me the wheelbarrow.
“With pleasure,” she said.
When I started after it she called out, “You can’t see to use it tonight; it is dark already.”
“I didn’t mean to use it tonight,” said I. “I want it for tomorrow morning.”
She looked at me a minute, and then said, “Tomorrow is Sunday. I don’t work on Sunday, and my wheelbarrow can’t work on Sunday.”
I said some pretty nasty words to the old woman, and she said, “Mr. Green,” very slowly and calmly, “what would your dead mother say if she could hear you talk like that to me, her old friend? And you know that God heard you.” “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:3636But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)).
But I got out of the yard as soon as I could, and hollered back, “Keep your old pious wheelbarrow. I don’t want it!”
But I did feel wretched enough when I got home, and every time I saw the old woman around the yard I felt bad. That old wheelbarrow worried me. I could not pass by the house without feeling wretched.
Then one day I was at work in my shop when old Dr. Murphy came in, and we talked of all the news. When I asked him who was sick in the town, he spoke of two or three, and then said his worst case was an old lady sick with erysipelas. My heart gave a great thump. I knew who it was before he could tell me—that wheelbarrow woman. “Doctor, is she going to get well?” I couldn’t say die.
“Well,” said the doctor, “she’s pretty sick; both eyes are swollen shut.”
“What will I do?” I cried. I dropped my tools and went home. My wife asked me if I were sick. I told her I didn’t know. I walked the floor and around the house. “What if she should die,” I kept crying, “and I did not tell her I’m sorry?”
All night I could not sleep. In the morning I set out for that house. I could not keep away. The house was shut up and all was so still I thought she was dead. I saw a woman at the door. I went up and asked her, “How is the old lady?”
She whispered, “Quite low.”
Then I heard a faint voice say, “Daughter, let him in! I knew he’d come. I asked the Lord to send him.”
The woman said, “Don’t talk much or stay long,” and she went out.
The old lady called me to her. “Bring up a chair to the bedside,” said she. “I am blind; I can’t see you. There, put your hand in mine, Peter. I am afraid I did not do my duty in the right spirit that night, and I have asked the Lord to send you to me, to tell you of the better way.”
I said, “I was afraid you would die before I could tell you I was sorry I said those mean words to you.”
“Peter,” she said, “the Lord knows it all. Now get down here on your knees and I’ll ask Him to forgive us both.”
I got out of the chair and knelt by the side of her bed, her hand in mine, and she told the Lord all about us. You maybe would call it praying, but she talked to Him like I am talking to you. She asked Him to make me an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ—me! Peter Green!—a son of God!
Then I saw it the way she meant me to; my sins were many, but God forgave them for Jesus Christ’s sake! “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
I started down the street eager to tell somebody that I had been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb! Now I live only to work for Jesus Christ, my wonderful Saviour.