SOME years ago I now and then visited an old man who occupied a single room in a country inn. He had at one time been in comfortable circumstances, but had lost nearly all his money, and had outlived all his relations and friends. Before he was confined to the house he had been a regular church-goer, and he considered himself, and was considered by others, a very religious man. He read his Bible daily, because he thought it was right to do so; but in talking to him it was easy to find out that he was not at rest, although he tried to persuade himself that he had nothing to fear. After a time he took to his bed, and became so deaf that it was impossible to talk much to him. The only thing one could do was to find various verses of Scripture, and show them to him in his own large Bible, saying a word or two now and then, and looking to God to speak to him through His own blessed Word.
After a time it became evident that the Word of God was sweeping away the “refuge of lies,” for he became more and more uneasy. One day a message came to me that he was very troubled, and would like a visit. On my way to his lodging I looked up to the Lord for a message from Himself to the poor troubled heart, telling Him of the special difficulty on account of his deafness. When I went into his room he was sitting up in bed, turning over the leaves of his large Bible, and looking very distressed.
“Oh!” he said, “I am so glad you have come. I have been reading, and thinking, and praying, but I can’t be satisfied with myself.”
I put my lips to his ear, and said, “God does not ask you to be satisfied with yourself; He is satisfied with Christ, and He wants you to be so too.”
He looked at me, and said slowly. “Satisfied with Christ! I couldn’t be dissatisfied with Him.” He kept repeating, “I couldn’t be dissatisfied with Him.”
The trouble was gone, and it never returned; he was content to be satisfied with Christ, instead of with his thoughts, his reading and his prayers. Not long after he passed away, “to be with Christ” forever.
Dear reader, are you trying to be satisfied with yourself, your prayers, your doings — perhaps your reading the Bible regularly — instead of resting simply in Christ? Will you not hear His Word when it tells you that Christ is all (Col. 3:22Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2)), and rest, where the old man rested, in Him alone.
C.