Catholics & Catholicism

Question:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Here’s something else you guys might like — AS I AM In a house in an Australian city, a man lay dying.  Not long before, he had been strong and vigorous, an excellent hand at trade, and popular among his companions.  He had recently been married, and life had seemed to open before him with brightest promise.  But these favorable circumstances, instead of inducing a thankful recognition of the goodness of God, only caused a feeling of pride and independence. Unconscious of any need of God, and well satisfied with himself and his good character, he lived a godless life. The man who begins by forgetting God may at length openly deny Him; and so it came to pass that this young man, like many others, fell as an easy prey to the craft of one of Satan’s ministers, to ridicule the Bible, to scoff at Christians as weak and credulous, and to talk with great swelling words about the rights of man. But God broke in upon his peace and prosperity.  He took away his vigorous health, and laid him on a sickbed, with the gracious design of teaching him his weakness and need.  Not at once, however, was this blessed result reached, for his nature was impatient and rebellious. Messages of mercy were carried to him by friends who loved him, and knew the danger of his position, but He refused to listen.  Such is man by nature! He hears of the value of his soul, the tender love of Christ, the awful reality of judgment to come, the glories of Heaven, the wrath of God; but none of these things move him.  He may be thrilled by a fiction or melted by a drama, but of the truth of God he says, "What a weariness it is!"  Even so this dying man closed ear and heart against the message of salvation. How wonderful is the long-suffering of God!  He could wait, but His purpose of mercy was not to be frustrated.  If the sick man’s ear seemed closed against the Word when spoken, it was to be quietly opened by the voice of a sweet song. During the weary hours, his wife waited upon him with all the attention and solicitude that true affection could prompt.  Although not a Christian, she had no sympathy with  the direction her husband had taken.  Life many others, if asked, she would have said she desired to be saved; but as yet, her salvation did not extend beyond the use of certain expressions, and a regard for external forms.  She had a tuneful voice, and often, when about the household work, would find relief from her burden of cares in singing the simple hymns she had learned.  At such times, her husband liked to listen; but it was the pleasing music, and not the sentiment, that he cared for. The tune of the hymn called, "TAKE ME AS I AM" was a special favorite of his.  As he lay on his weary pillow, the sweet refrain would often recur to him; and at length, unconsciously, he began to dwell upon the words and their meaning.  He soon found out that, simple as they were, they spoke of something he had not understood. He considered himself clever in argument, but here was something that could not be argued against until it had been tested by experience. If he had never come to Christ as a sinner, how could he honestly deny the truth of that scripture, familiar enough, but still a dead letter to him, "HE THAT COMETH TO ME I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT." John 6:37. And then, again, conscience told him he was a sinner.  All his clever sophistries could not dispose of that fact; and the more he thought of it, the more he felt he would like to know by experience whether Christ indeed received sinners; for once this fact was proved, there was an end to all argument, to doubt, and to skepticism forever.  If, moreover, this fact was not determined, his infidelity was based on ignorance, and how awful the consequences might be! Thus the Spirit of God was gradually pulling down the strongholds, and preparing the way for the entrance of the Son of God into this poor sinner’s heart. One day, he called his wife to his bedside.  "Sing,