There was once a farmer who had a dog that had been very useful to him. But the dog was getting old, and his ungrateful master made up his mind to get rid of him by drowning him.
Taking the dog with him to a river near his farm, he got into a boat and rowed out to the deepest part. He had brought along a heavy stone which he had tied to a cord, and this he fastened around the dog's neck.
Then he threw him into the water. The poor dog sank, but the cord broke, and as he rose to the surface, he tried with a whine to get into the boat again. Unmoved, his pitiless master pushed him off a number of times with an oar.
At last the heartless man stood up in the boat with the oar in his hands, intending to strike the dog a blow that would send him to the bottom. However, in the attempt he lost his balance and fell into the water himself.
He could not swim and would have drowned, but when the faithful dog saw his master struggling in the water, in spite of the cruel treatment he had just received from him he swam up to him, caught hold of his clothes and brought him safely to land.
What an inhumane way to treat an animal whose only fault was old age! We only hope he had a change of heart and showered his faithful friend with kindness for the rest of his days.
But stop a moment, friend. Have you not been guilty of a far worse breach of the laws of kindness and uprightness? Let us go back nineteen hundred years to the time when Jesus the Son of God came into this world.
Though He was God Himself, the Truth and the Light, He brought nothing but love and blessing for poor ruined man. He went about doing good healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, and bringing joy to the weary and sad. And yet, what did men do with Him? They cried out, "Away with Him," and nailed Him to a cross. What terrible wretchedness and wickedness was found in man's heart!
But that is your heart, and mine, too. The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jer. 17:9. We will take His blessing from His hands one moment, but will get rid of Him the next if His will crosses the path of our will.
Now let us look at that blessed man on the center cross, and see the heart of God told out. There is not a word of scorn or resentment, not a finger raised in opposition; "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb." Isa. 53:7. It is all love going out to a world of guilty sinners.
Then we hear Him pray, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
Though the cross was the place where men sought to get rid of Him, in His death it became the place where His saving grace flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing their sins, and own Him as their Savior and Lord.
The farmer's faithful dog turned around and saved his master's life, but Jesus saves not for time only, but for all eternity; He gives eternal life. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
If you do not yet know this blessed Savior, we urge you to come to Him now, while it is the day of His grace. Soon He will come in judgment on this world, and what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner in that terrible day?
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:9, 10.