Travels with Alz Heimer: January 2012

A Story about Preparing

By O.F. Walton

One day at a luncheon Miss Lloyd brought a beautiful ring in to show us. Ho! It was a beauty. There was a ring of lovely large diamonds all around it. She told us that her friend had given it to her before she died. “Now,” she said, “you are all my friends, and I want a bit of advice. I am going to start tomorrow on a long journey; I am going to travel in foreign lands and stop at all sorts of inns and lodging places. Do you think it would be safe for me to take my ring with me?”

One of the women spoke up who’s always ready with advice, “I wouldn’t advise you to do so. You may take it off and forget it and leave it behind.”

“That’s just what I’ve been thinking,” said Miss Lloyd; “thank you for your advice. I’m sure my ring will not be safe, and I can’t keep it safe myself; well then, what shall I do?”

“Couldn’t you trust it to somebody, to take care of for you?” said another woman.

“Thank you, that is a good idea. I think it’s the best thing I can do. Now let me think,” said Miss Lloyd; “I must get some one who is able to take care of it, and who is willing too. Oh, I know,” she said; “there’s my brother-he is able. He has a safe deposit box at the bank.” When she asked him to keep it for her he was happy to do it.

“I feel quite happy about my ring. And now you won’t mind my asking you what are you going to do with your treasure?”

We assured Miss Lloyd that we did not have any treasure to worry about.

“You have a treasure worth far, far more than a ring. I mean your precious soul, which will live for ever and ever and ever somewhere; your undying self! Only your body will go in the grave; you yourself will be living for ever. I want each one of you to ask this question: What about my soul? Is it safe?”

Then she told us we were traveling through an enemy’s country; satan and his evil spirits wanted to get our treasure. She told us we could not keep our soul safe ourselves; if we tried we should certainly lose it, as she would have lost her ring. Then she said, “ Dear friends, what shall it profit you, if you gain the whole would, and lose your own soul?”

“I want you to do as you advised me to do. I want you to get someone to keep your treasure for you-someone who is able, some one who is willing; who shall it be?”

“I suppose you mean the Lord,” one of the women said.

“Yes, I mean the Lord Jesus. He is able, for He has all power; He is willing, for He died on purpose that He might do so. Won’t you trust your treasure to Him, and say, Lord Jesus, here is my soul; I can’t keep it myself; satan wants to get it for his own. I trust it to Thee; I commit it to Thee to be saved.”

Well, that very night I knelt down in the kitchen, and trusted my soul to the Lord Jesus to be saved, because He had died for me; I put my soul in His hands and I know He will keep it safe.

As I was telling this to a friend she said, “it’s to be hoped He will.”

I know He will-I don’t doubt Him because He said, “ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

“Well,” my friend said, “it seems all right when you put it like that, and I wish I was as happy as you are, but I am just an old woman and somehow I’m afraid He wouldn’t do it for me.” “Let’s look at this hymn together then,” I said.

Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul!

Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.

There is none in heaven or on earth like Thee;

Thou hast died for sinners-therefore, Lord, for me.

Jesus, I do trust Thee, trust without a doubt,

Whosoever cometh Thou wilt not cast out:

Faithful is The promise, precious is Thy blood-

These my soul’s salvation, Thou my Saviour God!

I asked her to trust her soul to Jesus that very night. The next day she came to tell me that she had prayed, but that she was afraid.

“What are you afraid of?” I asked her.

“Why, I am afraid of getting cold and hard again. I am afraid of slipping into all the bad, old ways again. Why I’ve tried to pray and to read my Bible scores of times before, but my mind has soon gone wandering away and I just can’t seem to keep an interest. How do I know it won’t be like that again?”

“You can’t get cold and hard if the fire burns bright,” I said, and the Lord will keep it lit.”

“What do you mean by fire?”

“Miss Lloyd showed us a picture of a fire burning on a hearth, a bright, cheerful little fire. And in front of the fire was a man throwing buckets full of water on it to put it out; but the fire was blazing away, and did not seem a bit worse for it. You see, behind the fire, on the other side of the wall, another was standing; and this one was quietly pouring oil into the fire to keep it burning. And it never had a chance of going out for the oil did it a deal more good than the water did it harm.”

“Well,” my friend said, “of course it would be so: oil makes a fire keep going; but what has that got to do with me?”

“The fire is the work of grace in our hearts. As soon as we trusted our souls to Jesus to be saved, that fire was lighted, the good work was begun. But we must not forget that we have an enemy. Satan will try to put the fire out. He’ll send somebody to laugh at you, or to plague you about turning religious. That’s one bucket of water! He’ll send you a lot of work to do , to try and make you think you’ve no time to think about your soul. That’s another bucket of water! He’ll have all sorts of pleasures, and cares, and difficulties ready, all of them buckets of water!”

“Satan has buckets of water but the dear Lord has His bottle of oil. It’s the Holy Spirit who alone can make us good. Or keep us good. And if the Lord puts His Holy Spirit in our hearts, it’s no use Satan trying to put the fire out; he’ll have to give it up for a bad job.” I told her bring me the Bible and I read this to her:

“He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

“Do you think He will do that for me?” my friend asked.

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

My friend then knelt down and said, “O Lord, I am a poor sinful old woman, but I want Thee to save me. O Lord Jesus, Thou hast died for me. I trust my soul to Thee. Here it is, I put it into Thy hands. Oh give me Thy Holy Spirit; keep the fire bright in my soul, please, Lord Jesus, do. Amen.”

The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose,

He will not, He will not desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,

He’ll never, no never, no never forsake.