Old Mr. Dixon was dying. He had lived most of his long life in the same house in the little town of Bentley, and now he was going away— but where?
Peggy Alford knew the Lord Jesus as her Saviour, and she had been praying for this dear old man, and wanted to go and see him, to ask him if he knew the Saviour, too. “It’s no use,” said Mrs. Alford, “he’s so very deaf I’m sure you couldn’t make him hear.”
But Peggy was so anxious, and had prayed for him so long that she felt she just must go and have a talk with him. At last her mother agreed, so Peggy set out happily with her Bible, and was thinking of all the things she would tell the old man about Jesus and His love.
Peggy knocked on the door of his cottage but there was no answer. She knocked louder, and still there was no answer. At last she opened the door and walked right into the room where the sick man lay. He was so deaf he hadn’t heard her knocks, and didn’t even hear her footsteps in the room. But when he turned his eyes to her, he smiled, and then she tried to tell him her message.
“It’s no use,” moaned the old man, “I can’t hear you. It is too late now to come and talk to me. But I’ve been a good man and have always paid my way, so I’m not afraid. God will have mercy upon me!”
Harder and harder did Peggy try to make him hear, for she knew that if he died trusting in how good he had been, he would be lost. But the old man just shook his head and said, “I can’t hear you.”
Poor Peggy walked home slowly and thoughfully. She tried to think of some way that God was not looking for goodness in our hearts, but was waiting to cleanse away our sins in the blood of Jesus.
When she reached home, she suddenly spied her box of pencils and colors, and she brightened up. She quickly asked her mother for a big piece of clean cardboard, and then she hurried away to her room with her Bible. She opened it at John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16), and then set to work printing in large clear letters.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
As soon as she was finished, she knelt and asked the Lord to help Mr. Dixon to read and understand it, and then she hurried back to his house. This time she didn’t wait to knock, she just walked right up to his bed, and fixed her text at the end of the bed where he could easily read it.
Peggy went home and prayed more and more for the dear old man, and then after a few days she went back for another visit. This time she found that Mr. Dixon had nothing at all to say about how good he was; he just smiled and repeated over and over the verse of his text. And so he went home to be with the Lord Jesus in a few days, repeating till the last those beautiful words.
Are you trusting in yourself, your honesty, your religion, your prayers? —or are you trusting in the Lord. Jesus alone?
ML 11/11/1951