ONE Lord's Day afternoon when passing through the sick ward in the town hospital in G— I gave a gospel magazine to one of the invalids. By the way she thanked me I perceived she must have known me. I said to her, “I suppose I ought to know you as you seem to know me.” Her husband, who was sitting by, told me that his wife was known before her marriage as L. G., and then I recognized her as a Sunday scholar of many years before.
I inquired if she was saved, but the answer was “No." I pointed out to her how terrible a thing it was not to be saved, and asked leave to read a few verses to her from John 3 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." I said a few words about our being sin-bitten ones, and how that the Lord Jesus was lifted up for us on the cross. She asked me to come again.
On the following Sunday I was able to do so, and saw her for a few minutes only. I learned that she had had a very restless night, and she was then lying very quiet. Her husband and daughter (a young girl of about thirteen) were with her.
She was very weak, and the doctor was not sure that she would, last through the next night. It was a very solemn moment!
Three or four Christians had been asked to pray for her; and now on this my second visit, the words I gave to her were these, " Look unto Me and be saved." I sought to press this upon her in connection with the verses that had already been read, as God's message to her at the eleventh hour. And I asked, Would she not trust that precious Savior? She tried to say two or three words, but the only one I could catch was "Trusting." Oh! what a joy it was to hear it, and what cause for thankfulness.
I then begged the husband to ask her, which he did in a loving way, “Are you trusting in the Lord?” She bowed her head in assent twice, and he exclaimed, "I am glad.”
She lingered till the Thursday, and then passed away to be with the Savior on high, on the 16th January, 1908. When I asked Mrs. N. (who helps the nurses) about this dear departed one, she replied, “Yes, thank God, she died happy in the Lord.”
And now, dear reader, have you looked away 'from your poor wretched self, from all your own works and efforts, to Him the Savior, who died upon the cross for our sins that we might have full forgiveness and be saved now and forever?
Let me ask you to listen to what He has said, "Lo I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isai. 43:25). And when on earth, this same one said to a miserable and wretched woman—a sinner indeed, but who came to Him just as she was with all her sins—"Thy sins are forgiven." "Thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace.”
Oh, then, will you not now look to Him? Do not hesitate. “Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live." Then will you be ready, when the summons comes to you, to leave this scene for a brighter one. One thing is sure, the Savior is coming, and coming quickly.
Are you ready?
S. S.