Naomi

by Mrs. J. B. Webb

"My dearest mother," replied Naomi, "I bless my Heavenly Father for the words you have spoken. Surely He hath begun the work of salvation in your soul, and He will accomplish it to the end. Your very doubts and fears are an evidence that his Holy Spirit is striving with you; and I shall yet see you among his believing people, enjoying that peace which was the gift of Jesus to his disciples, and which nothing in this world can either give or take away."

"May God grant it, Naomi," said Salome, in a dejected tone, "but I never expect to feel perfect peace on earth. I have lived for many years in contempt of the Saviour whom you would have me to worship, and serve, and love as a God. And if he is indeed the Christ, how can I hope that he will pardon my past neglect, and accept a faith so poor and weak as mine? I shall not live to prove whether it is sincere or not; and I dare not say that if I met with persecution or even opposition for his sake, I should have strength to confess him and to maintain my belief. Oh no, Naomi; my heart is not like yours or our poor Theophilus's—and Jesus must despise it."

"Oh say not so, dear mother," said Naomi: "you have more faith in your Redeemer than you allow yourself to believe. Were it not so, you would not be so anxious to be pardoned and accepted by him. And were your doubts tenfold more powerful than they are, Jesus would not turn his face from you, for he has promised to receive all who come to him in sincerity, and in no wise to cast them out."

"While I hear you tell of his condescending mercy and love to sinners, I always feel comfort, Naomi: but when I am alone and remember my own utter unworthiness, then I doubt whether that mercy and love can extend to me. I have sinfully neglected him, and even striven to banish from my mind the impression that long ago your conversation and that of Amaziah made on me. I feared to displease your father more than the God of my salvation; and preferred a blind confidence in the superiority of that religion which he professed, to a diligent inquiry into the truth of the Christian doctrines. I did not even at that time pray that I might be led into the right way, for I wished to remain in the Jewish faith; and can I hope that such perverseness should be forgotten, and such hardness of heart pardoned? O Naomi, I have suffered much in the last few months. I do believe that the Lord has been striving with my spirit, though I resisted his influence; but day by day that influence has become stronger, and my desire to know the truth more urgent. While you and your father were absent at Joppa, I gave much time to meditation; and I believe I was sincere in asking my Heavenly Father to bring me to himself, and make me his own accepted child, however trying to flesh and blood might be the means which his love and wisdom should see necessary to wean my soul from all its false dependencies, and its attachment to the things of earth. I prayed also that the true way of acceptance with him might be made known to me; and that I might be taught to renounce all that was erroneous in the manner in which I had hitherto worshipped Him, and enabled to discover and embrace that faith which would make me pure in his eyes, and meet for the kingdom of Heaven."

"Then I no longer wonder, my dearest mother, that you have taken such an increased interest in the truths of our holy religion since that time. God has heard your prayer, and graciously inclined your heart to receive the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have greatly rejoiced ever since my return home, to find that you not only permitted me to speak unreservedly of my Lord and Saviour, but that you took delight in the subject, and always seemed to be cheered and enlivened by it; but I did not know that this was in answer to your own supplications. Oh, I thank our merciful God who gave you the spirit to ask so humbly and sincerely, and then in his love and mercy granted your request."

"Yes, Naomi, it is all his work. If at last I am saved through Jesus Christ, what a monument of his goodness shall I be!"

"And is it not equally a miracle of grace, that any one of us should be saved?" replied Naomi. "Are not all of our fallen race by nature dead in trespasses and sins, until the Spirit of the Lord takes away our stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh? What pride, and presumption, and self-righteousness once defiled my whole soul; and yet did my Saviour call me to believe in him, and enable me to trust wholly and unreservedly to his merits for pardon and salvation! I have never known a single believer in Jesus who did not look on his own salvation as a wonder of grace and mercy, and those who have attained to the greatest degrees of holiness, and have been enabled in some degree to imitate the perfect example set forth by their Divine Master, have ever been those who have also most deeply felt their own natural depravity, and most gratefully acknowledged that all their attainments here, and all their hopes hereafter, were the free gift of God. Do not then, dear mother, doubt his power and willingness to save you: 'If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God!'"

"Yes, my child, I believe indeed that Jesus has the power, and I will try also to believe that he has the will, to save and pardon even me. It is a wonderful thing that God should give his Son to die for us: and if that be really true, nothing is too great to expect from his love towards his sinful creatures."

"Oh, eternal thanks be to God," exclaimed Naomi, fervently, "for this confession of your faith in Jesus, as his Son, and your own Saviour, my mother! May he strengthen that faith day by day, and enable you to triumph in his great salvation."

"Naomi," replied Salome, "it is not in my nature to feel all that holy trust and confidence that seems to inspire your more ardent soul. While I remain in this world, I shall ever be subject to fears and timorous doubts. But pray for me, that my faith may not altogether fail—that I may be enabled to take comfort in it when the hour of death approaches, as it surely will ere long."