HOW CARL WAS RESCUED FROM THE PERIL OF DEATH

(Continued from last issue)

Father Cooper answered: “My child! you have done a great sin and the punishment has directly followed the offence. The Lord however has had much to say to you. Now we are willing to forgive you, but thereby the matter does not end, for you have not only sinned against your parents, but also against a High and Holy God, and without having found forgiveness in the blood of Christ you shall have no peace. You are sorry you have sinned, because you feel the misery which has followed; but it is not the real sorrow my child! Such a sorrow had Judas also.”

Mother Cooper told her husband he should not be too harsh with the poor boy for he was already so unhappy. Her motherly heart was nearly broken. But her husband said he was not harsh, but wanted to be sincere with Carl, and above all, he pleaded with the Lord that this heavy blow would be made a blessing to his soul.

The patient shortly thereafter received a visit from his minister who spent a long time conversing with him, which seemed to make quite an impression.

We are not in a position to follow the whole course of his illness, but as the doctor had originally said, his case would linger a long time, so it was.

We can say more about the inward condition of Carl. He had confessed his sorrow for his doings because the consequences had been bitter; however, in a simple manner it was shown that such a sorrow did not please God, but that a change of heart must take place if it would be well with him.

He complained many times to his mother that he could do nothing, not even read, and this also bothered him. Then his mother would say that was good, for now he had time to place his needs and wants before the Lord and that He might reveal Himself to him.

It was now. the Sabbathday and how that day was spent by the Cooper family we will relate, and then it can be seen if this day is also spent by us in like manner and if so, you must esteem this privilege highly, for to keep the Sabbathday holy is pleasing in God’s sight; He loveth the dwellings of Jacob. They are the dwellings where the Lord is sought and served.

Father Cooper, as was his custom, closed his business at noon on Saturday to give his workmen an opportunity to do their shopping and other duties before it became late and as each man came in to receive his weekly wage, Cooper would never let them go without a word of admonition.

Mother Cooper was also an exact example of her husband. Not as some housewives are in the habit of putting off things until the last minute on Saturday and then sometimes are still busy until late into the night, no, it was altogether different with her.

By 6 o’clock in the evening, winter and summer, all the household duties were completed and the children were all neatly dressed. The whole family then gathered together; generally a few friends came over and the evening was spent, not in playing games or listening to the radio, but listening to instructive and spiritual conversation and then a Psalm was sung and one of the men concluded with prayer to ask a blessing for the coming Sabbathday.

The children also knew that the Sabbathday was no day for laying around and all were therefore early out of bed and ready to eat. The day was begun by singing a Psalm, whereupon father Cooper would lay all the needs and wants before the throne of Grace, never forgetting to particularly ask the Lord to strengthen His servants upon that day, that they may proclaim the glad tidings of salvation and that the Holy Spirit would bless the Word to true conversion. A portion of God’s Word was then read and after a short talk about the Word just read, all went to the house of prayer. The mother could not go of course, for she had to tend to Carl, who needed her help continually.

So the day was further spent in earnest and religious conversation, prayer and singing of Psalms and church going. The pew of Cooper and his family was never empty, for he said: “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”

In the evening when father stood at the sickbed, Carl asked him if the words: “Alone know your unrighteousness,” was in the Bible. When his father answered him in the affirmative, he asked Carl why he wanted to know this, whereupon he answered that these words had been, as it were, spoken to him and he felt they made such an impression in his heart, that he could not describe it. His father advised him to go to the Lord with these words and with a praying heart ask that this may be granted unto him. “But,” said Carl, “why does it say: ‘alone’? Must I know nothing else?”

“When you come to know your unrighteousness by the light of the Spirit,” said his father, “then the Lord will have you know and see more. Keep yourself busy with this thought and may the Lord sanctify it to your heart.”

For three days Carl lay speechless; but it was evident that there was an inward struggle. The following morning he burst into tears and weeping and could not understand why the Lord had not destroyed him—for he now knew what he had never known before; he was a trespasser of all the commandments of God and could only expect a righteous God would judge him accordingly. And in a flood of tears he cried out: “I am lost! I am lost!”

“I am lost!”—A cry which penetrates marrow and bone; which fills us with a feeling of sadness, even when heard in our every day walk of life. Think of voyagers on a ship which is helpless in a storm and ready to sink any moment. What anxiety, what fear, what crying out, “We are lost!”

“Lost!”—What a frightful word for a loving and comforting mother to hear from her child, at whose sickbed she is nursing, knowing that there is no more delivery possible and that a separation must take place.

Isn’t it true that at such a scene the heart literally shrinks with grief?

But how different it is when we have come to know ourselves in and through Christ.

Well can this bring us to cries of sorrow and remorse, but at the same time it is gladdening. It has a prospect of divine deliverance,—what do I say,—it is the unfallible prophecy of a blissful nature.

“I am lost!”—Man in his natural state does not say this. On the contrary, he believes he can save himself and climbing the ladder of self-righteousness reach heaven and whosoever may think this or believe this and faces death and eternity fully convinced thereof,—for them the cry: “I am lost!” is just an idle sound. He cannot picture that in himself, and thus outside of Christ, he is lost and therefore will be eternally lost.

But on the other hand, whosoever not only confesses with the lips but also with the heart: “I am lost;” who really may feel by the grace of God that in himself he is lost—he is not lost.

He is, yes, lost in himself, but still he is saved in and through Christ, who left his heavenly throne to seek those who are lost; Who, not for self-righteous, but lost sinners in themselves, underwent the bitter and scornful death of the cross and became a curse; that He may deliver them from the curse.

“I am lost!”—Where this cry is heard from a deeply concerned soul; where these words are the mouth-piece of an inward struggle,—there salvation is close at hand; there is the evidence that the Lord has begun his work in such a soul and we know that He never forsakes the work His hand has begun; there shall their cry of distress: “I am lost!” erelong befollowed by a song of jubilee: “Saved! Eternally saved!”

“Eternally saved!”—Very alluring, isn’t it children? Who of you would not wish this? Who is not desirous of possessing this blessing ?

“Yes!” You most likely say—”that, we do desire!” May God grant that this desire may be in earnest and not the result of a momentary outburst which fades as the morning mist,—that is to say: disappears as quickly as it comes.

But then your pathway must be as Carls. Then you must also feel that you are lost. Pray to the Lord that it may come thereto, for He says: “Suffer little children to come unto me.” Ask Him to teach you to pray.

Do not say that you are still too young to be concerned about eternity. Children can also die; death does not spare any, young or old and many have died who thought they still had many years to live.

Children, reckon with no one but the Lord alone, Who is the same unto all eternity. We must bear in mind, that a true sorrow never comes too late, but also, that a late sorrow is seldom a true one.

Let us hear what was further spoken by father Cooper to his son.

“But Carl! how did you come to this discovery?” Whereupon Carl sobbingly answered: “The Lord has laid me low because of my sins, so that I cannot move my hand or foot. Before, when my conscience bothered me, I could overcome it by keeping busy and the more my conscience spoke the busier I kept myself with my hobbies.

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