THE year 1838 stands out in West Indian annals as their great redemption year. Up to that time slavery held in cruel bondage numbers of human beings. Great Britain, moved to pity, paid twenty millions for their liberation.
Nineteen centuries ago a far greater ransom price was paid for the liberation of, not merely certain slaves in a few islands, but for men in every nation under the sun, the one to which you belong included. It was not millions of money, but something infinitely more valuable than silver and gold, even “the precious blood of Christ.” It was the life-blood of the blessed Son of God, given up in death. The Creator Himself became the Redeemer.
As soon as the day arrived for the emancipation act to take effect in the West Indies, the poor slaves hurried to their masters; manacles and chains were knocked off, and they were free forever.
Have you, my reader, had your chains knocked off? “Oh,” you say, “I am not a slave, I love to sing ‘Britons never shall be slaves.’” Wait a moment. Come with me to a London hospital. Do you see that poor fellow lying gasping on his deathbed? He also boasted as you do. What is his history? He came up from a Christian home with its sacred and hallowed influences, with the flush of health on his countenance, and then possessing a fine healthy body. What a change this modern Babylon was from the quiet simple life of his village home! The first step was to neglect his soul, and spend his Sundays and evenings with bad companions. Conscience spoke loudly at first, then died down, and at last he not only plunged boldly into all kinds of lust, but delighted in making others as bad as himself. At length he began to reap what he had sown. Health and vigor gone, money and friends gone, he was carried into hospital to die, the slave of lust.
Do you hear the cries from another slave, the agonizing cry of one who was once as boastful of being a free agent as you are? “Take them away,” he cries, “they are coming for me,” as in the agonies of delirium tremens he sees the demons surrounding his bed. This is no fancy picture. That man was once a Sunday-school teacher. He gave way to intoxication. One glass led to another. At last the habit so overpowered him that he was an absolute slave to it. Time after time he tried to give it up; alas, in his own strength, and failed. One day he came home drunk, lay down on his dining-room table, and died, leaving his godly wife to mourn another victim of strong drink.
We will leave the man of lust, and the slave of drink, and visit a palatial mansion. The owner is dying. He has amassed a fortune. Crowds of people envy him. They recall the time when he left his home a poor lad; they recount the various steps by which he rose in the social ladder, and at length reached the summit, as they thought. Ask him, Are you satisfied? “Satisfied, never I always wanted a little more than I had got. The more I possessed the more I longed to possess, and now I am dying and cannot take a penny with me.”
What a poor miser! The almighty dollar had controlled him. The love of money had such a grip of him that principle was thrown to the winds; he cared not how many of his fellow-creatures were ruined, provided he could grow rich. He had never seriously pondered the Lord’s question, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.” Have you?
Again take the case of the professor of religion. He will turn with disgust from the openly profligate and the poor drunkard. He says, “I am not as other men.” He will be regular in attendance at religious services, the more the better. Such a one was Saul of Tarsus. He was the prince of moralists, a leading light in the religious world of his day. He wrapped the robes of self-righteousness round him, and was blameless in all the outward ceremonies of the law. At the very same moment he was a murderer! He was so thoroughly the slave of an external religion, that under its influence he would have crushed the name of Jesus out of existence and annihilated all His followers. The race is not extinct. A gentleman was offered a gospel book; he refused it. Again the offer was pressed on the ground that God had wonderfully blessed that book to many. “Do you know who I am, sir?” he asked. “Do you know that I am a churchwarden?” In reply it was said, “I fear there are many holding such offices who are unsaved and traveling to hell” This made him very angry, and he strode off indignantly. Another of the devil’s slaves bound with religious fetters.
Which of these men are like you? The devil suits his chains to his captives. Some he binds with the fetters of lust. He tempts such to indulge their desires and visit the house of the strange woman. Alas, “he knoweth not that the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell.”
Others are in thralldom to strong drink. Every time the cup is raised to the lips, another link is forged in the chain that binds them. With what feelings of pity we look upon the besotted wrecks of humanity, many of whom we have known as fine handsome men. It all came about through indulgence, and being hail-fellow-well-met with others of like tendencies.
Money and religion are equally strong chains though much more respectable in the eyes of men. No matter what the particular chain is that binds you, what we want to point out is that a great ransom price has been paid for your deliverance. You may now be made as free as the poor Jamaican slaves were when England had paid down the price of liberty. The precious blood of Christ will do far more for you than England’s millions did for them. “The redemption which is in Christ Jesus” will not only free you from present slavery and give you perfect liberty, but will introduce you to eternal happiness, and untold wealth of blessing.
There is only one condition: you must turn to Christ Jesus for liberation. He is the only One that can free you. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:3636If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)). Whether your bonds are formed by lust or morality, by intemperance or covetousness, He and He alone can set the prisoner free. He came to give liberty to the captives. We want you to look into His grave, and see how all the chains that bind men are buried there.
Let us travel back in thought to that grave, and then onward to a scene in Jamaica which took place on the 31St day of July 1838. It was nearing midnight when every man, woman, and child were on their knees: some 14,000 men and women were gathered there, and similar groups throughout the island. They were still slaves. Midnight was the moment fixed to end their slavery. They dug a deep grave: they had already prepared a large mahogany coffin. In it they had placed all the badges of slavery—the whip, the torture iron, the branding iron, the handcuffs, the coarse frock, shirt, and hat, and a piece of the treadmill. The lid was screwed down, and all was ready for the midnight hour of deliverance to strike.
William Knibb, a Christian preacher, stood over the grave. At each stroke of twelve he cried, “The monster is dying, the monster is dying,” and at the last stroke, “THE MONSTER IS DEAD, BURY HIM!” The coffin was lowered, and that mass of human beings rose to their feet, free men, liberated by the act of others; and with one voice they sang: —
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
The five thousand children present then welled forth in their glad clear voices—
“Send the glad tidings over the sea,
The chain is broken; the slave is free.”
Now travel back again to Calvary’s Cross and the Saviour’s tomb. On that cross a stupendous ransom price was paid. In that tomb lies buried every trace of slavery. No matter what form your slavery may have taken, you are free to look into that grave and see every trace of it removed. Liberty and deliverance are only found there. There is no other way by which your chains can be broken. The devil is your master. An old blind man used to say, “Jesus Christ is the devil’s master.” In the death of Christ he was mastered. If the master is conquered, the slaves are free. All you have to do is to claim your freedom. We were all slaves. I claimed exemption through the ransom paid for me. You may do the same. Come now in all your misery and bondage. God’s blessed Son has given His life for your freedom. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” and free now by simply appropriating God’s deliverance in Christ Jesus.
H. E. N.