Part 25 (1/2)
What a picture of all that is conceivable of human suffering. Alone, poor, persecuted, yet thankful and trustful. Oh! How amazing is G.o.d's grace.
Oh, yes, to the uttermost Jesus is able To save the poor sinner who cometh to Him; His word is most sure, and His promise is stable: Though feeble thy trust and thy faith very dim, Yet listen again to the soul-cheering sound, Our Jesus can save to the uttermost bound.
Did I hear some one say, ”But what of to-morrow, For my foes are so strong, and I'm sinful indeed?”
He is able to save to the end of the journey-- To the uttermost bound of thy uttermost need.
That same Jesus who died for us now ever lives, And as mightily saves as He freely forgives.
WORK AMONG THE JEWS.
”Though laboring to bring souls to Christ, of any nation, my chief interest and work is among the Jews.
”I called upon a family of very religious Jews. I talked with them of Christ as the true Messiah and of His sacrifice for our sins. I saw that they had the Old and New Testament, given them by a Christian lady. They said they often read it together, and I could not but think that the good seed was sown in their hearts.
”I am often discouraged by the opposition of one member of a family. A child who goes to Sunday-school is kept away by an unbelieving father, just as the truth has found a lodgement in her heart; but, again, my heart is filled with joy when I find that my labor has not been in vain. Such was the case in a family where I have prayed, and conversed often about their souls' salvation. The mother, a Jewess by birth, had changed her Jewish religion some time ago. But her heart remained untouched. I endeavored to make her understand what a change of heart is, and persuaded her to go with me to a German church. Some weeks after the father spoke of his faith in Christ, and a week since his wife also gave evidence of being a Christian woman. During the month of March I visited a poor woman who had had great sorrows. She asked me for a Bible, for which she was most thankful. Her husband, a Catholic, now reads it with her, and shows by his greater kindness to her its blessed effect. What a blessing, indeed, is this holy book in these poor homes?”
ANOTHER YOUNG JEWESS BROUGHT TO CHRIST.
”A young Jewess, who had found and believed in Jesus as her Saviour, wanted to unite with a Christian church, but her aged mother would not allow it. I encouraged her to pray for her mother, and one day calling to see her, I found she had now no objection to her daughter doing as she wished. I have had many conversations with Jews, and have often been allowed to read the Bible to them.”
It is certainly very encouraging to read how intensely interested she was in the conversion of the Hebrew people. We cannot wonder at this when we consider that they were the chosen people of G.o.d; and also to those who are in the habit of prayerfully consulting their Bibles, especially the prophecies pertaining to the Messiah, as they behold them literally fulfilled, not only as to the time and place of His birth, but His person, life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
”He surely came unto His own and His own received Him not, but to as many as received Him them gave He power to become the Sons of G.o.d, even to those who believed in His name.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
LOVE FOR THE HEBREWS.
A weeping sinner kneels, The chains of death are broken, And soon his glad heart feels The Saviour's welcome spoken.
Christ said, ”Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees.” She seemed to hate everything that looked like spiritual pride, or idolatry, or worldliness. Hence her sternness and courage in watching for sin in herself or others was marked. The language of Jesus ever sounded in her ears: ”Take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for _so_ shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pa.s.s, and to stand before the Son of man.”
She felt also that G.o.d was no respecter of persons, and her great ambition on this account was to try and save the Hebrew people from their vain delusions that they were still the chosen people of G.o.d, notwithstanding their rejection of the Messiah.
This is evident from the following conversation with a Jewish woman about G.o.d's Word.
”Visiting another Jewish woman, she asked me to sit down, and soon we were in earnest conversation about the Bible, and her soul's salvation.
After hearing me read some pa.s.sages, she said, 'We Jews must all be wrong if you are right.' I told her it was not my word, but the Word of G.o.d. I begged her to search the Scriptures for herself, and left with her a tract relating to Christ, written by a Jew. She asked to have a Bible, which I carried to her. Again we conversed on this great subject. She liked the tract, and had lent it to several of her friends. She said she would read the Bible with prayer, and if she was wrong, the Lord would open her eyes. During these four months I have made over one thousand visits, distributed many tracts and given away eight Bibles, besides taking several children to the Sunday-school, and using the Mission funds in a.s.sisting the poor.
”There has been a great deal of sickness this summer, especially among the children. But I have been enabled to do some good by taking these little ones and their mothers into the country. Among them were several Roman Catholic families. They expressed surprise that we should do so much for them, saying, 'It was more than their own people would do for them.' In visiting one of these women soon after, she said her husband had told her she had better take my advice and read the Bible. He said she had better have one, for it could do her no harm. I took her the Gospel of Matthew, which she has been reading attentively, and her children learning verses by heart. She gave me fifty cents, asking if that would be enough to buy a Bible.