Patsy worked in a weaving mill in the north of Ireland. She had heard much about the Lord Jesus, but, like many other girls, she decided she must have a good time, and think about “religion” when she was older.
Quite a few of the girls who worked in the same mill with Patsy were true Christians, and they often gathered in their noun hour and read their Bibles together. While they worked, they sang hymns, and seemed to be the happiest girls in the mill. Although these girls were happy and always ready to help others, they were hated. Why was that? Why do unsaved people wish to avoid the company of those who are Christians, and why do they so often mock them, if they speak well of Christ? It is because, deep down in their hearts, they hate Christ. And so with boys and girls who are not saved; they do not want to be in the company of true Christians.
Patsy took her stand with those who mocked the Christians, and she persecuted them at every chance, even singing worldly songs to try to drown out their happy hymns of praise to Jesus. But this does not mean that Patsy herself was happy. She afterward admied that she had “many a good cry” when she was all alone, and in her heart she wished she were as happy as those she was mocking. One day as they sang together,
“What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,”
Patsy just couldn’t mock them—in fact she couldn’t keep back the tears. All that day the words kept ringing in her ears, and that night she took out her Bible and hunted up 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). There she read the glorious words, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Kneeling by her bed, she owned with tears her rebellion and her sin, and accepted the Lord. Jesus as her Saviour.
The next day as she started work at the mill her thoughts were very different than ever before. At the very first opportunity she walked across to one of the Christian girls, at whom she had so often jeered, and said, “I’m saved.” Her face showed the truth of it, and soon the news spread all through the mill. “Patsy’s saved!” When dinner time came, Patsy was to be found together over the Bible with those who loved the Lord. But there was a test ahead for her. When closing time came, Patsy’s old companions were waiting for her at the door, and when she stepped out they shouted, “Here comes Patsy the hypocrite. Let’s duck her in the canal!”
Patsy smiled and said quietly, “It’s no more than I deserve, but I want you all to know that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all my sins.” This confession seemed to take all the fight out of the girls, and Patsy had the further joy of being able to bring some of them also to her Saviour.
Will you too come to that Saviour that has made so many happy? Accept Him as your own now, and know the blessed assurance of sins forgiven.
ML 08/119/1951