For four years I was the only one in our house still unsaved. All my brothers and sisters were saved and serving the Lord. But I loved the world and the pleasures of sin. I knew all along that they had the best of it, and when I heard them speak and sing of their joy in the Lord, it went like an arrow to my heart. I often tried to appear happy, but inside I was perfectly miserable. My parents went to some Bible lectures and learned there the truth of the Lord’s second coming; my brothers and sisters also sang and spoke as if the Lord might come and take them all away, leaving me alone unsaved. That above everything else aroused and alarmed me about my lost condition. I did not so much fear death coming upon me, because I was strong and healthy, but to be parted from all who loved me on earth by the Lord’s coming and calling them away, was something I could not get over. Often in the dead hours of the night I would awake and wonder if they had all gone. Twice I got up and went downstairs to listen near my parents’ bedroom door if I could hear them breathing.
One evening, Jeanette and I were sitting on the lawn watching the sun go down. “I like to watch the sunset,” said Jeanette. “It always reminds me of the city which has no need of the sun — the home of God’s people.” Then, turning to me, she said, “I wish you were going with all the rest, Ruthie.” The next night we sat there again, and Jeanette again remarked, “Wouldn’t you like to be saved, Ruthie?”
It came home to me then how unsafe I was, while yet without Christ; and when I went to bed, I determined I wouldn’t go to sleep until I had the certainty that I would go up with the rest when Jesus comes. I knew the gospel and had marked many texts in the Bible, telling how sinners may be saved. I took my Bible, opened it, and ran over several passages, especially Isaiah, chapter 53. Kneeling down with my finger on verse 5 — “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” — I claimed the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, and as my substitute, telling God I believed that He died for me, and was wounded for my transgressions. There in the silent night I was saved, and peace filled my heart. I could not go back to bed, but praised the Lord and wished for the morning, so that I might tell my parents the good news. I stood on the stairs for an hour, waiting for Mother’s bedroom door to open, and when it did I rushed into her arms and told her I was saved. That was the beginning of days to me, praise be to God.
“Bless the Lord,” said my father. “Now we are all one in Christ, and if our Lord should come tonight, we will rise one unbroken family, to meet Him in the air.”
Dear reader, will you be with that number? Or will the coming of the Son of God find you unsaved, unpurged from sin, and unfit for heaven?
ML 03/26/1967