"You will rejoice with me, dear friend. I begin to see things once invisible. I know what the name of Jesus means. I understand now what you meant when you prayed so long ago. 'Blessed Jesus, save him from the corruption of his own heart.' I have pondered on those words for hours; but they had little meaning to me. Now I realize his wondrous power. In his own body he carried my sins to the cross. He made atonement by his precious blood, one drop of which would have been enough to save me."
"And here I have been doubting his ability to wash me clean."
He looked in her face with a smile so full of heavenly joy, her assumed composure was overcome, and burying her head in her hands she wept freely.
"I knew you would rejoice," he went on, gazing tenderly at her bowed form. "You would not leave me to perish. You dragged me out of my pit and brought me where the light of heaven has shone upon me. You held up my Saviour and made me look upon him whom I had pierced."
At this moment the physician came in. He had not seen his patient for some days, and looked in wonder at the new expression on his once gloomy countenance.
Paul held out his hand with a smile. "You may count the beats in my pulse," he said; "and if you tell me this is my last night on earth, they will not vary in the least. I acknowledge my crimes and throw myself on the mercy of the Judge of all the earth. I have an Advocate who has promised to save me, one whose word has never failed."
"What does he mean?" queried the Doctor, wonderingly.
"It means, that whereas I was once blind, now I see. Whereas, I once loved sin and rolled it as a sweet morsel under my tongue, now I hate it and long to escape from it. In heaven I shall be free, and I long to be there."
"Your wish will soon be realized," murmured the Doctor, putting his ear down to the sick man's breast. "A week at farthest and you will have done with time."
"And eternity will have commenced," Paul added, clasping his hands.