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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
them, if they themselves had retained the soft, subduing influence of
the love of Christ. Do these poor souls, ready to die, look to them
for help? No; they did this until they could have no hope of help
from that quarter. They see not a hand stretched out to save.
The matter has been presented to me thus: A drowning man,
vainly struggling with the waves, discovers a boat, and with his
last remaining strength succeeds in reaching it, and lays hold upon
its side. In his weakness he cannot speak, but the agony upon his
face would excite pity in any heart that was touched with human
tenderness. But do the occupants of the boat stretch out their hands
to lift him in? No! All heaven looks on as these men beat off the
feeble, clinging hands, and a suffering fellow being sinks beneath
the waves, to rise no more. This scene has been enacted over and
over again. It has been witnessed by One who gave His life for the
ransom of just such souls. The Lord has reached down His own
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hand to save. The Lord Himself has done the work which He left
for man to do, in revealing the pity and compassion of Christ toward
sinners. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
Calvary reveals to every one of us the depths of that love.
There are souls in their darkness, full of remorse and pain and
anguish, who still feel that God is just and good. The Lord is keeping
alive the spark of hope in their hearts. The poor, darkened soul
feels, If I could only appear before God, and plead my case, He
would pity for Christ’s sake, and this horrible fear and agony would
be relieved. He has tried to speak to men, and has been rudely
repulsed, reproved, taunted by his supposed friends. Sometimes
the reproaches heaped upon his head have well-nigh destroyed the
last spark of hope. The soul that is conscious of sincere and honest
intentions finds he has less to fear from God than from men who
have hearts of steel. The soul wrenched with human agony turns
away from the misjudgment and condemnation of men who cannot
read the heart, yet have taken it upon them to judge their fellowmen.
He turns to One who is without a shadow of misapprehension, One
who knows all the impulses of the heart, who is acquainted with all
the circumstances of temptation. God knows every deed of the past
life, and yet in consideration of all this, the troubled soul is ready