A RUSSIAN soldier was sitting alone in his barracks. His face looked worn and haggard, and the expression of his eye betokened deep anxiety. His distress was due to the fact that he owed a large sum of money and could not satisfy his creditors.
His debts compelled his attention. They took possession of his unwilling mind, whether he performed his round of duty, or joined his comrades in the mess-room.
Today he had made a list of those debts, and was trying to face the position. But as he looked at the paper lying before him, his case seemed hopeless. Where could he possibly obtain the money? In despair he wrote, “Who will pay these debts?” Worn out by the sickening anxiety, he fell asleep.
The Czar of Russia passed through the barrack room where the soldier was sleeping. The paper attracted his attention; he picked it up and read it. Only a list of debts! But as his eye rested upon the inquiry, “Who will pay these debts?” his heart was touched with pity. He took up the pen and wrote underneath the soldier’s question his own name, “Nicholas.”
Presently the soldier awoke and glanced wearily at the paper before him. But stay! he had not written all these words. “Who will pay these debts? Nicholas.” Nicholas, the Czar! It was the Czar’s handwriting, the Czar’s own signature. What did it mean? Could it be true that the Czar would pay his debts?
He was not left long in doubt, for the following morning a messenger brought him the money. Who can describe his relief, his joy and gratitude when he found the burden thus lifted from his shoulders?
Reader, thou, too, unless thy sins have been blotted out by the blood of Christ, dolt owe a mighty debt and canst not pay it.
For thy name has been entered in the books of heaven and against thee have been recorded the sins of childhood, of youth, and of thy riper years. “God requireth that which is past.” Think how this debt increases with advancing age! Yet at any moment death may step in and close the account. Too late then to discover that thou canst not pay it.
But God, who knew man’s inability to satisfy His righteous demands, in infinite love and compassion devised a way by which the debt might be canceled and justice yet be satisfied.
The Lord Jesus, in obedience to His Father’s will, became man and went into death, that He might bear the punishment of sin. There is virtue in His precious blood to cleanse man’s sin-stained soul.
Oh, sinner, He died on thy behalf. Wilt thou not turn to Him confessing thy guilt? He would wash thee whiter than the drifted snows, in the crimson fountain of His blood. Sin’s dreadful debt wiped out, thou wouldest hear His voice say, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins.”
M. L. B.