SOME twelve years ago, full of what my soul had lately found in the Saviour, I was on a journey going from town to town in the western part of the state of New York, preaching the gospel of the grace of God wherever I had an opportunity. Finally, I found myself at Elmira, where, for some weeks, I held meetings every evening. As I was working at the same time with my hands, I got so wearied in body that I determined to return home and rest. My mind was made up, and I would not allow anything to stop me.
At the last moment, however, someone mentioned to me a town called Penn-Yan, expressing a desire that I should go there. It was a strange name to me at that time. I had never heard it. This, together with an irrepressible feeling that took hold of me, made me purchase a railroad ticket home by that way, to see the town as the train passed through, but not to stop, for I had fully settled it that I was going straight home. As the train drew near, however, I became more and more uncomfortable; it seemed as if I must stop. Why, I did not know, but stop I did, and made an end to my discomfort.
It was not long before I found the cause of all this exercise. As I was walking up the street, I met two men talking. Their conversation stopped me. One was saying to the other, “I have had no sleep for several nights. That old man in the other part of the house is dying, and he keeps crying out, ‘O God, have mercy on me! O God, I am a sinner, not fit to die!’”
The other replied, “It’s too late for that old man. He has led too bad a life. I don’t believe in death-bed repentance. Do you?”
“No, I don’t,” answered the first. “The best thing I know is for a man to do all the good he can in this world; and it’s too late for him now, for they say he can’t live till night.”
Now and then the two men looked at me, as no doubt it seemed queer to them that I, a total stranger, should thus stop and listen to their talk. But I cared little, for I was now sure that my Master had business for me in Penn-Yan, and I was on the track of it. So, addressing the men, I said, “Could you tell me what Jesus came into this world to do?”
They both looked puzzled, but after a little, one said, “Well, I suppose, He came to make the world better.”
“You are greatly mistaken,” I replied. “The Bible says, He came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)). He came to die, and thus make ‘propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)), so that such sinners as we are, confessing our sins, might be saved.” Then I said, “I want to ask you another question, How long do you think it will take a seeking Saviour and a lost sinner to meet?”
But they answered they didn’t know anything about such questions, and so were about to get away.
Then I said to them, “Will you please tell me where this old man you have been talking about is lying?”
They pointed out the way, and as they did so, told me that he had been the worst man of the town for years, and that it would be all lost time to go to see such a man.
“Ah,” I said, “come along with me, and see how long it will take for that poor old man and Jesus to make acquaintance. Come and see a meeting that shall make joy in heaven and in that old man’s soul.”
But they went their way and I went mine. Never shall I forget that day. All was so strange and unlooked for. Incidents in the life of Jesus came to mind thick and fast, telling of his readiness to save. The blind, the lepers, the guilty―all Found ready response to their needs as they called upon Him. What a Saviour to have for one’s self and to make known to others! and, full of these thoughts, I hastened with joy to see the dying old man. Though great sinner he had been, there was pardon for him, I knew.
Upon reaching the house, I found it occupied by four poor families. The old man I was looking for was on the second floor. I walked up the stairs, at the head of which was the door that opened into his apartment. It was partly open, and by the side of the bed I saw a poor girl, about seventeen years of age, kneeling. It was a solemn scene. She was praying for her poor old father.
When she arose and saw me standing at the door with the Bible, which I held in my hands, she came straight to me, and expressed her gratitude at my coming in. She said she was not a Christian herself, but that her dying father was so anxious, that she had knelt down just to ask God to hear her poor father’s cry for mercy. So saying, she led me to the bedside.
I took the old man’s hand in mine, and said, “Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.”
“That’s me,” he replied. “I am a lost sinner. Can there be any hope for me?”
I answered, “Yes. I have come to tell you the good news. Listen. ‘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’” (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)).
A look of hopefulness broke over his face, such was the immediate effect of the word of God in his repenting soul.
Again I read, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
“Good news,” he said; “but I have been such an awful sinner.”
This went in. The old man was free. Tears of joy moistened his eyes as he said, “Who could have thought of such love? To think that a sinner like me should be ‘justified from all things’! What mercy! what love! What a Saviour Jesus is! Thank God for sending you to let me know!”
Thus did this poor dying man give expression to his newly found treasure.
The sight of the old man’s joy acted upon me too, and with a heart full of praise I knelt clown and thanked God for His mercy to another sinner who had been so near the brink of perdition, but, like the thief on the cross, was saved at the last moment.
After a little more happy intercourse together, I left the now rich and blessed old man, but not without the promise to return again in the afternoon.
I thought my work for the day was practically done, but it was not so.
At about two P. M., two young men found me, and told me that the old man had died soon after I had gone―that the condition of his body and the great heat required him to be buried at once, and would I come at four o’clock and preach at his funeral. This I had never done, and I shrunk from it; but what else could I do than say yes? and so I did. Meanwhile, God alone knows what I passed through. The people knew what the old man’s life had been, but they knew not what he had found at the end, though already it was noised about that a great change had taken place, and that the stranger who had come to town in the morning was connected with it.
I besought the Lord to help me, and give me such words as the occasion called for, and at four o’clock I returned to the house.
All was changed there. One of the families downstairs had given the use of their room, and in the center of it stood the coffin in which the body of the old man lay. All around it was full of people, not a few attracted by the rumor of strange circumstances attending that death. I gave out the following hymn:
“Rise, my soul I behold, ‘tis Jesus―
Jesus fills thy wond’ring eyes;
See Him now in glory seated,
Where thy sins no more can rise.
“There, in righteousness transcendent,
Lo! He doth in heaven appear,
Shows the blood of His atonement
As thy title to be there.
“All thy sins were laid upon Him―
Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him,
And, believing, thou art free.
“God now brings thee to His dwelling,
Spreads for thee His feast divine,
Bids thee welcome, ever telling
What a portion there is thine.
“In that circle of God’s favor―
Circle of the Father’s love―
All is rest―and rest forever―
All is perfectness above.
“Blessed, glorious word ‘forever’!
Yea, ‘forever’ is the word;
Nothing can the ransomed sever,
Naught divide them from the Lord.”
Many joined in singing it, and it fitted the case so well, that there was scarcely a dry eye in the place.
I then related to them how I had happened to be in their town, how I had heard about the old man― his bad life, his cries for mercy, and his near end―what I had read to him, how it had acted upon him, and how I felt sure of meeting him again in heaven.
Then I tried to show them from the Scriptures that none of us was any better in the sight of God than that old man, for God Himself has said, “There is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22, 2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)); ―that there must be, therefore, but one common way by which such sinners could be saved, and that was by the cross of Christ―that on that cross He had “once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18))―that salvation was not, therefore, by any good we could do, but by what Christ had suffered for us―that if we truly feel the burden of our sins, and in simple faith trust in Jesus, this is salvation, even as it is written, “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9)).
I took occasion, from the fact that there seemed a great reluctance to visit the old man in his need, to press upon them the blessed and solemn truth that Jesus Christ had not come into the world to call the people who thought themselves righteous, but those who knew themselves vile and lost indeed―that He had not come to receive from man, but to give to man. Even as it is written, “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:4545For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45))―that salvation did not come by loving God, but by receiving what His love had provided for us; for “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)). And now, because of that “propitiation,” God can justify from their sins all that come to Him with them. He can give eternal life to them who are spiritually dead; He can reconcile rebels, and “purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Then I told them that if this old man was truly saved, as I believed, he was now “absent from the body, and present with the Lord,” as Scripture teaches; that at the coming again of the Lord Jesus―which might happen at any moment―his body, lying dead there, would be made alive again by the return of his spirit into it, and, in a glorified state, be “caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;”―that those of us who were also children of God, and were alive, would have our sinful bodies changed in an instant, and, at the same time with the rising dead, be caught up too (1 Thess. 4:16,1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17))―that then the day of grace would be all over for them who had not believed, and they would be forever shut out, in the “outer darkness.”
We buried the old man, and I felt my work in that town was clone for the present. The results are with Him who will manifest all things “in that day.”
Dear reader, may you also get a blessing from this true narrative. If this end is reached, my purpose is fulfilled.
C. H. T.