“Do you know there is a young gipsy lying very ill in a house close by?”
“No,” was the reply, “but one has been attending the meetings regularly till the last week or two. I’ll go and see him.”
And the missionary started off at once to the house indicated. It was as he expected, and he recognized the invalid as one whom he had frequently seen at gospel meetings. But he was not prepared for the answer to his kind question, “Why did you not send for me, and let me know of your illness before?”
“Well, sir, you have so many to see to who are not saved. And, thank God, I am all right. For me to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord.”
Utterly astonished to hear such words from one whom he expected to find without salvation, the visitor inquired what he meant; and in reply, was told how that eighteen months before, the speaker had heard of God’s love in sending His Son to die for sinners—that he had believed the message then given, and had since known peace with God through Jesus Christ. “And,” he added, “I am a poor gipsy and can’t read, but I do feel I want to hear more of the word of God; and I always heard it explained by you so that I could understand it.”
If the gospel “bringeth forth fruit in all the world,” as it did at Colosse, we need not be surprised at such words and such conduct from a poor gipsy. Truly much of the fruit of the Spirit was manifested in this dying man and in his unselfish thoughtfulness for the busy missionary. His care for perishing souls around that they should not be deprived of hearing words whereby they might be saved; the calm assurance, in the presence of approaching death, that he was “all right”, and the humble confession of his own ignorance and love for the word of God were all indeed Spirit wrought. “The word of the truth of the gospel” and “the grace of God in truth” do produce mighty results when truly believed and received.
The “word of the truth of gospel” shows the sinner’s utter worthlessness, for there is none that doeth good; his feet are swift to shed blood, and destruction and misery are in his ways, and there is no fear of God before his eyes. Thus brought in “guilty before God” (Rom. 3), it nevertheless also reveals in the fullest way the love of God to such, and captivates the believing heart. If man has no righteousness for God—there is none righteous—God declares His righteousness, even “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”
The “grace of God in truth” makes its own captives most assuredly, for sin has not been trifled with, but righteously and completely judged in “Him who knew no sin, but who was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). Faith in the person and work of “the Holy One,” who made peace by the blood of His cross, brings not only life, but satisfaction, and this now, as well as for eternity. He who cried when suffering for our sins, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” had also prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Have you, my reader, availed yourself of that prayer and rested in that precious blood which God sets forth for your trust. Now He does set Jesus forth a propitiation, or mercy seat, through faith in His blood that cleanseth from all sin, and now “he is just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” It will not always be so. The day is coming fast when “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10-1210And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:10‑12)). Will you not then, my reader, be at once aroused to flee from the wrath to come, while yet you may? For Jesus has said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)).
T.