"I would give anything, or suffer anything, if I could only be as happy a Christian as I once was," were the words of a woman of about thirty-five years who was lying sick in a hospital ward.
A neglected cold and much want and privation had led to tuberculosis, and now that she had been brought into the infirmary it was clear that she had not many weeks to live.
Years before, an evangelist came to the town where this woman, then a girl, had lived. She with many others was converted. Her heart had been filled with joy. But as time passed she had wandered away from the Lord and had lost the joy of her salvation. Now she had to say: "I did once rejoice in the Lord—but not now."
However, the Good Shepherd had followed His wandering sheep, and was even then about to bring her back. He had spoken to her in various ways, and at last on a sickbed she listened and longed to return. She was assured of the welcome that awaited her if she would but come, and was urged to do so. "And him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out," said the blessed Lord.
"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." He begins His work when we sin, not when we repent or return to God. It is His work in us that leads us to repentance. It was not long before the sick woman was to prove the truth of it for herself.
A week later we read her the latter part of Luke 15, the story of the prodigal and his loving father. We told her: "That is just the welcome that awaits every one that returns to the Father." With tears of joy she turned to Him again, as she saw in Jesus her Savior the One who had all the rights to her love.
How she longed now to be used for Him! She had let precious time slip by; and yet God in His grace gave her an opportunity of testimony for Him in that ward at the very end of her life. The nurses as well as the other sufferers saw her patience and her trust, and were impressed by it.
One evening she had great difficulty in breathing, and she said to the ward nurse who was standing near: "Is this the end?"
"I am afraid it is," was the answer.
"Oh, I am glad; I am glad! I shall soon see Jesus." With these words she quietly passed away to be with Christ.
Dear one who refuses to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, this is written with the hope that it may encourage you to turn again to Him who has redeemed you with His own precious blood. Return unto the Lord without delay. You will find the same "welcome" from His loving heart that awaits every truly repentant wanderer from God.
And let us each one remember that now is the time to be used for Christ. Soon the opportunity will be past, and it will be too late.
"The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again." 2 Cor. 5:14, 1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15).