A visitor among the poor and degraded was one day climbing a broken stair case which led to a garret in one of the worst parts of London, when his attention was arrested by a fierce-looking man standing at the top of the stairs. His first impulse was to withdraw, but on second thought he decided to do what he could to get into conversation with him, so he told him he had come there with a desire to do him good, and that the book he held in his hand (a Bible) contained the secret of happiness. The ruffian bade him be gone, or he would throw him down the stairs.

While he was endeavoring to calm him, he was startled by hearing a feeble voice from behind one of the broken doors on the landing, saying, "Does your book tell of the blood which cleanses from all sin?" For a moment he was too absorbed with the dreadful-looking man to answer the question, but as it was repeated in urgent tones, he pushed open the door and entered the room. It was a most wretched place, wholly destitute of anything except a three-legged stool and a bundle of straw on which was stretched the wasted form of an aged woman.

When he entered she fixed her eyes upon him and repeated the question, "Does your book tell of the blood which cleanses from all sin?" He sat down beside her and inquired, "What do you want to know about the blood which cleanses from all sin?" She replied, "What do I want to know of it? I am dying, and I am going to stand naked before God. I have been a 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 life of sin passed before her. "Once," she continued, "I attended a gospel service. I only stayed for part of it, but one word I have never forgotten. It was something about the blood which cleanses from all sin. Oh! if only I could hear it now! Tell me if there is anything about it in your book."

The visitor opened his Bible at the first epistle of John and read the first chapter, the seventh verse of which says, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." She seemed to drink in every word, and when he paused she cried out, "Read more, read more." He did so, and presently he heard a slight sound which made him turn around, and there he saw the savage-looking man who had stolen into his dying mother's room with tears running down his cheeks.

When he rose to depart the poor woman would only permit him to do so on his promising to come the next day. He continued to visit her daily until she died at the end of six weeks. It gave him great pleasure to see her drinking in the truth and resting her soul upon the value of the precious blood of Christ. Her son too became an interested listener, and after the remains of his dear old mother had been laid in the grave he expressed a desire to spend the rest of his life telling others of the blood which cleanses from all sin.

Reader, are you resting upon the value of the precious blood of Christ? Have you appropriated it as shed for you? It is the only ground upon which God can forgive you. "Without shedding of blood is no remission."

—E.E. Nichols