One Word Prevents Suicide [Tract]

Full text of One Word Prevents Suicide

Czar Nicholas, the leader of Russia, in order to find out what was really going on with his army, used to wander through his military camps, dressed as an ordinary officer.

Late one night, when all the lights were supposed to be out, the Czar was making one of these tours of inspection. He noticed a light under the paymaster’s door, and, quietly opening it, he stepped inside, intending to have the offender punished. A young officer, son of an old friend of the Czar, was seated at a table, his head resting on his arms, sound asleep. The Czar stepped over to awaken him, but noticed a loaded revolver, a small pile of money, and a sheet of paper with a pen that had fallen from the hand of the sleeping man. The Czar read what had just been written, and in a moment he understood the situation.

On the sheet of paper was a long list of debts — gambling and similar debts. The total ran into many thousands of rubles. The officer had used army funds to pay these reckless debts, and now, having worked till late into the night trying to get his accounts straight, he had discovered for the first time how much he owed. It was hopeless; the pitifully small balance on hand left such a huge deficit to be made up! On the sheet of paper, below the terrible total, he had written this question: “Who can pay so great a debt?”

Unable to face the disgrace, the officer had intended to shoot himself, but exhausted, he had fallen asleep.

One-Word Answer

As the Czar realized what had happened, his first thought was to have the man immediately arrested and court-martialed. Justice must be done in the army. But he remembered the long friendship with the young officer’s father and love overcame judgment. He quickly came up with a plan to be just toward the army and yet justify the culprit. The Czar took up the pen that had dropped from the hand of the wearied, hopeless offender, and he answered the question with one word: “Nicholas.”

The Czar himself, Nicholas, could pay that debt and voluntarily chose to do it. The young officer woke up soon after the Czar had gone and reached for his revolver to blow out his brains, but as he did so, his eye caught the answer to his question. In bewilderment he gazed at that one word, “Nicholas.” Surely such an answer was impossible! He had some papers in his possession which bore the genuine signature of the Czar, and quickly he compared the names. To his intense joy and humiliation, he realized that his Czar knew all about his debt, and yet, instead of inflicting the penalty he deserved, his Czar had paid the debt himself.

Joyfully and peacefully he lay down to rest, and early the next morning bags of money arrived from the Czar — sufficient to pay the last ruble of “so great a debt.”

You and I have a mighty debt. We may ask, “Who can pay it?” Thank God, love has provided an answer, and, like the answer given by the Czar, it is only one word long — “Jesus”!

Jesus

Yes, Jesus knows all about your debt. He knows how great it is. He knows how you came by it. He knows all the shame of it. He knows the cost of payment, and in spite of such intimate knowledge of you and it, He has assumed the full liability of it Himself. One word, “Nicholas,” set the heart of that young man at rest — even filled it with joy. One word, “Jesus,” has set my heart at rest and filled it with joy. Has that “one word” — that one name — filled your heart with rest, peace and joy? It can.

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39).