It was a busy railway station, and crowds of people were coming and going. Little Winnie was holding tightly to her father’s hand and intently watching the faces of the people who passed by.
A tall policeman with a very stern face came slowly along, and stopped right near where Winnie was standing. Very close to the policeman stood a big man with a fierce and unhappy face. Winnie’s eyes grew big with interest, and suddenly she noticed that the fierce man’s wrist was fastened to the policeman’s by a steel handcuff! He was a prisoner, and was probably being taken off to jail.
In a moment, Winnie let go of her father’s hand and ran over to where the two were standing. Bravely looking up into the prisoner’s face, she said with her sweet voice, “Man, I’m so sorry for you.”
The man turned and gave her such an angry scowl that she turned and ran quickly back to her father. Still she stood watching and at last she broke loose and ran over once again. This time there were tears in her bright blue eyes, and her voice was not quite so steady.
“Man, Jesus Christ is so sorry for you.”
This was too much. The fierce look changed, and the big prisoner seemed to have to blink his eyes and swallow hard. Then the train came along. He was led away, and taken to prison. He had been a very hard man to handle, but now he seemed to be so gentle that the guards and policemen asked him what had happened.
He told them the story of the dear little blue-eyed girl who had spoken to him at the station. “I suppose I frightened her for she ran back to her father. But soon she came back and told me that the Lord Jesus was so sorry for me. It brought back to me what I had learned from my Sunday school teacher as a boy, and now I know that the Lord Jesus not only loved me, but that He died to wash away my sins. I have taken Him as my Saviour.”
Dear reader, the Lord Jesus Christ is sorry for you too, if you are still in your sins. I know you are not being led away to prison, but something very much worse is ahead for you. When you leave this world, if you have not taken the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, there is only an eternity of outer darkness ahead. And the Lord Jesus doesn’t want you to go there, for He loves you, and as the prisoner said, He died for such as you. Can you say, as he did, “I have taken Him as my Saviour?”
ML 08/26/1956