After the evening services at the mission, the preacher was hurrying to catch a late train. He had just three minutes before it was due, but the station was close at hand.
As he left the mission a man came running after him. Said he, breathlessly, as he came up, “Can you speak to me? I am very anxious about my soul.”
“Well,” replied the preacher, “my train is about due, and it is the last one. Look up Isa. 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)! Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ Good night.”
The man stood staring after him until he disappeared into the station. Then he muttered, “Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ What does it mean?”
When he arrived at home he got down a Bible. He turned to the text and read these words: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
“Go in at the first ‘all,’” he repeated. “‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’ I am to go in with that ‘all.’ Well, that one is easy: it just means I am one of those who have gone astray. And go out with the last ‘all.’
`The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ I see that too. Yes, I am to go out free with those whose iniquity has been laid on Christ.”
That one short comment brought by the Holy Spirit light and peace to that man’s conscience and heart, and he rejoiced in Christ as his Savior.