SEE that my dinner is ready by twelve o’clock,” said a man to his wife, as he left home for his work one morning, adding, that if it were not ready, he would beat her until she could not stand.
Sally was a Christian; her sins were forgiven her; the Lord Jesus was her Saviour; heaven her home; so, instead of returning rough words, she hastened to do as her husband had told her; and on his return at ten minutes to twelve, dinner was ready, and she was seated by the table reading her Bible. By no means soothed at finding no cause for anger, the man approached as if to strike her, as was too often his custom, but was arrested by the book that lay before her, a book that had somehow taught his wife gentle words and kind actions, in place of the anger with which she used to meet his harshness. He could not read, but could spell a little. As he looked down upon the page, his eye caught the last verse of the chapter his wife had been reading. He began to spell it out.
“T-h-e the, w-a-g-e-s, what does that spell, Sally?”
“Wages,” answered his wife.
“‘The wages o-f of, s-i-n sin, i-s is, d-e-a-t-h,’ another long word, Sally; what does it spell?”
“Death,” was the answer.
The words seemed to frighten him, they were very solemn. “‘The wages of sin is death,’” he repeated to himself; adding, “If anybody ever earned those wages, I have.”
Quietly he ate his dinner, and for once bade his wife a kindly, “Goodbye.”
In the evening he returned sober, and exclaimed, on entering his cottage, “Those terrible wages! Sally, is the book full of the dark side?”
“Oh, no, Tom!” said Sally; “there is a bright side as well as a dark one. Just let me read the end of the verse: ‘The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).)
Earnestly she told her husband of the love of God; of the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross: how He died for sinners, and that the vilest who came to Him would not be cast out.
He listened eagerly, while the tears ran down his cheeks; and when she had finished, he cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
God worked in His soul; he felt he was a sinner; but he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and was saved.
Reader, if unsaved, you have been earning the wages of sin. Have you ever thought what those wages are? “The wages of sin is death.”
If you have found out that you are a sinner, lost in God’s sight, there is salvation for you, too, for “God cornmendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).)
ML 08/16/1903