Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-09-19
&eadimg &pr the Sabbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
THE CLEANSING BLOOD.


A visitor among the poor was one day
climbing the broken staircase which led to a
garret in one of the worst parts of London,
when his attention was arrested by man of
peculiarly serious and repulsive countenance,
who stood upon the landing-place, leaning
with folded arms against the wall. There was
something about the mans appearance which
made the visitor shudder, and his first impulse
was to 60 back. He made an effort, however,
to get into conversation with him, and told
him that he came there with the desire to do
him good and to see him happy, and that the
book he held in his hand contained the secret
of all happiness The rufian shook him off
as if he had been viper, and bade him be-
gone with his nonsense, or he would kick him
down stairs. While the visitor was endea-
voring with gentleness and patience to argue
the point with him, he was startled by hear
ing feeble voice, which appeared to come
from behind one of the broken doors that
opened upon the landing, saying: "Does your
book tell of the blood which cleanseth from
all sin?' For the moment the visitor was
too absorbed in the case of the hardened sim
ner before him to answer the inquiry, and it
was repeated in urgent and thrilling tones :
"Tell me, oh tell me does your book tell of
the blood that cleanseth from all sin?"
The visitor pushed open the door, and en-
tered the room. 1t was wretched place
wholly destitute of furniture except
three-legged stool, and bundle of straw in
O corner, upon which was stretched the was
ted limbs Of an aged woman. When the Wis.
itor entered, she raised herself upon one ell
bow, fixed her eyes eagerly upon him, and
repeated her former question "Does your
book tell of the blood which cleanseth from
all SIM" He sat down upon the stool beside
her, and inquired "My poor friend, what do
you want to know of the blood that cleanseth
from all sin?" There was something fearful
in the energy of her voice and manner as she
replied "What do want to know of it !
Man, I am dying; am going to stand naked
before God. have been wicked woman, a
very wicked woman, all my life. I shall
have to answer for everything I have done;"
and she groaned bitterly as the thought of a
lifetime's iniquity seemed to cross her soul.
"But once" she continued, "once, years ago,
I came by the door of church, and I went
in, I don't know what for; I was soon out
again but one word I heard there have
never forgot. 1t was something about blood
that cleanseth from all sin. Oh! if I could
hear of it now! Tell me, tell me, if there is
anything about that blood in your book p
The visitor answered by opening his Bible and
reading the 1st chapter of the First Epistle
of John. The poor creature seemed to devour
the words, and when he paused she exclaimed =:
| Read more, read more" He read the End
chapter-a slight noise made him look round ;
the savage rufhan had followed him into his
mothers room, and, and though his face was
tears rolling down his cheeks. The visitor
read the Sd, 9TH, and 9th chapters before he
could get his poor listener to consent that he
should stop, and then she would not let him
go till he promised to come again the next
day. He never from that time missed day
reading to her until she died six weeks after
ward and very blessed was it too see how,
almost from the first, she seemed to find peace
by believing in Jesus. Every day the son
followed the visitor into his mothers room,
and listened in silence but not in Indifference.
On the day of her funeral, he beckoned him
to one side, as they were filling up the grave,
and said: "Sir, l have been thinking that
there is nothing should so much like as to
spend the rest of my life in telling others of
the blood which cleanseth from all sim"
Thus the great truth of free pardon through
the blood of Christ sinks into the soul and
saves it. Thus grasped, when all else is gone,
it has power to sustain the drowning spirit,
and lift it up above the floods that are going
over it, Thus it breaks the heart of stone,
which nothing else could touch, and turns the
abandoned prosecutor into the Jealous teacher
of Oh ristia nitv