Just Lippen to Him

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1875

"Just Lippen to Him."

FREQUENTLY has it been my privilege to follow him (Dr. Chalmers) to some country district, and hear him (in language which he labored to reduce as much as possible to the standard of "the common people") announce to them the way of salvation, and the path to heaven. Sometimes, also, it was my lot to be his companion to some wretched hovel, where I have seen him take his seat by the side of some poor child of want and weakness, and patiently, affectionately, and earnestly strive to convey into his darkened mind some ray of truth, that might guide him to safety and to God. On such occasions it was marvelous to observe with what simplicity of speech that great mind would utter truth. One instance of this I must be allowed to mention.

The scene was a low, dirty hovel, over whose damp and uneven floor it was difficult to walk without stumbling, and into which a small window, coated with dust, admitted hardly enough of light to enable an eye unaccustomed to the gloom to discern a single object. A poor old woman, bed-ridden, and almost blind, who occupied a miserable bed opposite the fire-place, was the object of the doctor's visit. Seating himself by her side, he entered at once, after a few general inquiries as to her health, etc., into religious conversation with her. Alas! it seemed all in vain. The mind which he strove to enlighten had been so long closed and dark, that it appeared impossible to thrust into it a single ray of light. Still, on the part of the woman, there was an evident anxiety to lay hold upon something of what he was telling her: and encouraged by this he persevered, plying her, to use his own expression, with the offers of the gospel, and urging her to trust in Christ.

At length she said, "Ah! sir, I would fain do as you bid me, but I dinna ken how. How can I trust in Christ?" "Oh! woman," was his expressive answer, in the dialect of the district, "just lippen to him." "Eh, sir," was the reply, "and is that a'?" "Yes, yes," was his gratified response; just lippen to him and lean on him, and you'll never perish."

To some, perhaps, this language may be obscure, but to that poor and dying woman, it was as light from heaven; it guided her to the knowledge of the Saviour, and there is good reason to believe it was the instrument of ultimately conducting her to heaven.

It is not easy to give an English equivalent for the word "lippen." It expresses the condition of a person who, entirely unable to support or protect himself, commits his interests or his life to the safe-keeping of some person or object. Thus, a man crossing a chasm on a plank, lippens to the plank: if it give way, he can do nothing for himself. The term implies entire dependence, under circumstances of risk and helplessness.—Dr. W. L. Alexander's "Discourse of the Qualities and Worth of Dr. Chalmers."