In New York, several years ago, a detective went into a drug store, laid his hand upon the shoulder of a young man there who was quietly going about his business, and said, "You are wanted.”
"What do you mean?" the young man exclaimed.
"You know what I mean. You were in the Albany Penitentiary—you escaped—went West—and you married out there. Then you came back here and settled, and we have you now. You needn't deny it.
"It's true I won't deny it but let me go home and say good by to my wife and child.”
They went to his home. He met his wife and said, "Mary, haven't I been a kind husband? Haven't I been a good father, and worked hard to make a living?”
It was true, and she confirmed it. He was all right in his relations with his wife and child—all right in business—all right with his neighbors; but he was all wrong with the state of New York. He had yet to pay for his crime against the state, and his years of blameless living could not atone for that broken law.
It is even so with God's law. "God requireth that which is past," and no reformation can atone for one past sin. But what you and I could never do, Christ has done for us.
"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.... Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him... and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Have you received that atonement?