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“Have you heard the news?” inquired a young woman of her worldly friends who were gathered together for an evening of frivolity amidst their customary lavish surroundings.

“What news?” asked one in the group.

“Why, about Lizzie.”

“What about her?”

“She’s turned religious,” said the first speaker, with a mixture of contempt.

“Lizzie turned religious!” said another with an air of surprise. Laughter filled the room as might be expected.

“Well,” said another, “I’ll give her three months at that kind of thing!”

“Three months! I give her a month—she will have had enough of it by that time.”

“What will George say about that?” asked another in the gathering. “George is rich,” she continued, “a pleasure seeker and thoroughly a ‘man of the world,’ as they say. He won’t put up with that, so Lizzie will have to give up her religion, or George will call off the engagement.”

“What will her father say?” asked one rather seriously. “You know he hates religion. In fact, he is an infidel and doesn’t believe in any religion at all. He’s very rich too, and Lizzie is his only child. So, things could become very difficult for her.”

The news quickly spread from family to family that Lizzie had turned religious.

In a few days, George went to visit his fiance and after they had been together a few minutes, he said, “What is this that I hear about you, Lizzie?”

“What have you heard, George?”

“I have heard that you have turned religious!”

“I have come to Christ, George, and He has saved my soul and given me a happiness I never had before. For some time I had been very miserable. I tried to hide it as well as I could when I was with you or in the company of others.”

“Come, come, Lizzie!” said George rather sharply, “this won’t do. You know we are engaged and our marriage is not far off; and you know what my tastes are and what my position is. You know, too, what sort of people our friends are—none of them are what you would call religious, so you see it won’t do for you to be different. Besides, you know, your father detests religion and religious people. He would not have one in his home if he knew. So you see, Lizzie, it just won’t do. Now, think about it.”

“I have thought about it, George,” she replied calmly, but with deep conviction, “and my mind is made up. It is my desire to be all for Christ.”

“Oh, nonsense, you must give it up!” he said with impatient sharpness. “I’ll give you a week to think about it, Lizzie, and by the end of that time, I hope you will see things differently.”

They parted, and in a week they met again and George’s first words were, “Well, Lizzie, I hope you have given up all that religious nonsense and have shaken it all entirely off by this time.”

“No, George,” she quietly said, “I haven’t, and I cannot and I will not. Christ gave up all for me—He became poor that I might be rich. He laid down His life for me. He has bought me—body, soul, and spirit, and now I am altogether His and He is mine. He is my richest treasure. I cannot give Him up, and as I told you last week, I must say again today—All for Christ.”

George then began to try everything in his power to coax her into shaking her resolve, but all his efforts were in vain. To all his pleas she responded, “All for Christ.”

The frown on George’s face and the curled lip showed plainly the feeling of contempt that lay hidden within; and then, with suppressed rage, he spoke harshly and with disdain, “Don’t expect to see me again until I hear you have changed your mind.” With this, he abruptly turned away.

Lizzie felt this keenly and her heart was touched to the quick. She was in a state of bewilderment, but found some relief in a flood of tears, and then retired to her room. There she fell on her knees and cried to the Lord to give her strength to bear it all for her dear Saviour’s sake and to give her His grace in this hour of trial and need. The realization of George’s disapproval and his resulting ultimatum were like an arrow to her heart. The strain began to manifest itself in her health which had been failing recently.

The news of Lizzie’s conversion reached her father. When the opportunity he was looking for arose to speak to her, he said, “Lizzie, I hear you have become religious.”

“I have become a Christian, dear father,” she said meekly.

“A Christian!” said the hard, unbelieving father; “You know how I feel about those things,” he said in a firm, stern manner, “and I can’t allow this in my house. You know I detest religion, and I can’t bear anyone near me who professes it.

“Now, Lizzie, you are my only child, and ever since your mother’s death, you have been my companion and my comfort. You also know that in the course of time this house and all its contents, together with what money or property I may have, will, at my death, come to you. But if you persist in this way of thinking, I must tell you plainly that I shall disinherit you as far as it is in my power to do so.

“I will give you two weeks to consider the matter, and if at the end of that time you are of the same mind as you are now, you must seek another home, for you cannot remain here. Now, what do you have to say?”

“I have only one thing to say, dearest father, and that is, that I love you dearly as my earthly parent, and I have tried, especially since dear mother’s death, to do my duty. I would be pleased to continue to do so, but Jesus is more to me than all else. He has saved me by His death on Calvary’s cross, and since I accepted Him as my personal Saviour, I have a peace which passes all understanding. He is my chiefest treasure and I cannot give Him up, not for all the world. My desire now is to be all for Christ.”

So saying, Lizzie withdrew and again sought refuge and strength at the throne of grace. She told her heavenly Father all her trouble and asked Him to give her grace to bear it all for His sake who had saved her. She could tell that her already frail and sickly condition was worsening and before one week was over the doctor was called to her bedside. His dreaded diagnosis was tuberculosis.

The news quickly reached George that Lizzie was seriously ill and he rushed to her sickbed. From what he had heard and now saw, it was evident to him that her case was very serious. He sat down at the side of her bed speechless, sad and downcast.

The incessant cough and the flushed cheeks told their own tale, while the calm expression of Lizzie’s face gave evidence to the peace within that now frail and wasting frame. She told George that her end was not far off but that she was not afraid. Her Saviour had gone before to prepare a place for her and she was soon going to be with Him. Her acceptance of Christ’s shed blood to wash away her sin assured her of a place in the “Father’s house.” She had no fear of death. She did, however, have one regret and that was that she had lived so long without Christ, and therefore she had missed a life of supreme happiness and had lost the opportunity of living a life of devotedness to Christ. She felt that her life had been a loss and a miserable mistake. But Christ was her all, and she could still say, “All for Christ.”

George’s heart was touched by these sober words. He knew that Lizzie had something he was a stranger to. He felt, too, that after all, she was right and he was wrong; and as well as he could, for the choking feeling within his throat, he said, “Pray for me, Lizzie, that the blessing you have may be mine.” He fell on his knees, while Lizzie, with a full heart and in childlike faith, prayed that he might decide for Christ at that moment. Her prayer was earnest and touching.

A few minutes after the prayer had ended, there was silence, broken only by George’s sobs of repentance, and when his emotions were somewhat calmed, he arose from his knees a new creature. In answer to one more appeal, and then the inquiry, “Well, George, what have you to say now?” he made his first noble confession, as the words came from his trembling lips, “All for Christ, Lizzie.” The victory was won. The Holy Spirit had done His work. Lizzie had won a soul for Jesus, and now both she and George were one in Christ, and heirs of the inheritance above.

During all that week, the father had entered the sick chamber only a few times and even then his visits were brief. But when he heard there was no hope of his daughter’s recovery, and that in a few days she might pass away, he became all the more concerned, and he saw her more often and remained longer. For the first time, he saw a Christian in the presence of death, and it was his only child. He heard no murmur, but he saw with what calm composure she spoke of her departure which she said she thought was not far off. She ventured, after asking the Lord silently for wisdom and strength, to speak to him of her hope beyond the present, and she assured him it was all well with her; and when she was gone, he was not to think of her as being in the grave, but as being in heaven with Christ who had died for her.

A few days before her death, her father was again seated at the bedside of his dying but peaceful, happy daughter. She again spoke out of the fullness of her heart, now filled with joy at the thought of so soon seeing her Saviour, and pleaded with him to be sure and follow her by coming at once to Jesus as she had done and then he would have the same blessing he saw she had.

With deep feeling he said, as he stood up, “Lizzie, pray for me.” So saying, he fell to his knees while his daughter poured forth her earnest prayer to God to save her dear father now. That prayer prevailed. He arose, and then he too, as George had done before, assured his dearly loved one that he could say, “All for Christ.” Lizzie’s work was now done; her faithfulness and her unwavering firmness were rewarded—George and her beloved father were won for Christ and now she could die with the certainty of meeting both in heaven where there are no partings and no tears.

A few days later, Lizzie passed into the presence of the Lord, there to await the resurrection morn, when the dead in Christ will rise first, and then those who are His, found alive at that moment, will be changed, and both raised and changed will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so will they ever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

Reader, if you have lived your life without Christ, remember Lizzie’s one sad regret as she lay on her death bed. She was sorry that she had lived so long without Christ and therefore she had missed a life of supreme happiness and had lost the opportunity of living a life of devoted love to her Saviour. Will you not, then, now fall down at the Saviour’s feet, and yield yourself to Him who laid down His life for you? “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Can you now say, “All for Christ”?

—John Beaumont

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