Old Jim was deaf—“deaf as a post,” his wife said and—ignorant as well. He had never been to school, never been to church, never heard the gospel of God’s grace. Not a very promising subject to preach to, was he? But somehow he heard of the meetings going on in Farmer White’s big barn, and one cold afternoon he walked the three miles from his own house to see for himself what was happening.
It was still too early for the meeting, so Mrs. White took him into the kitchen, where the preacher was sitting by the big stove, to get warm.
The preacher began to talk a little with him, fearing that it would be no easy task to make plain the story of the cross to one so ignorant and deaf.
“Ah, well,” said their hostess, “if you succeed with him, you will know that all the rest in the barn must understand.”
The preached tried to find out what the old man did know, in order to work upon that.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
“Yes,” shouted the man.
“Do you know what redemption means?”
“No, never heard of him.”
“Dreadful!” thought my friend. “Whatever can I do to make it clear?” He racked his brain for an illustration, and when he found one he said, “Do you know what a pawn shop is?”
“Yes, I know what a pawn shop is.”
“Well, when you put your things in pawn, you get them out again, don’t you?”
“Not all us.”
“Well, but when you do get them out they won’t let you have them without the money, will they?”
“Guess not!”
“And if you had the money and took it out again, what would you call it?”
“I’d call it redeeming my pledge,” said the old fellow, using the very word his questioner wanted.
“That is what I want you to understand.
Remember that redeeming means buying back. What Jesus Christ did for us when He died for us was: He bought us back.”
“Oh,” said the old man, seizing the idea at once, “but I didn’t know we were `in pawn, sir.”
Who could help smiling at this meaning got out of the illustration? But, after all, he was not so far wrong in thinking we were “in pawn.” At any rate, we are by nature sold under sin, held captive by the devil, and under the curse of a broken law.
As it was time to begin the meeting, the preacher said to the old man: “You shall sit near the platform, and if you can’t hear me, raise your hand, and I’ll speak louder.”
The meeting began, and soon the hand was uplifted while the old man exclaimed, “You can go on, sir I hear all you say.”
The speaker thanked him but saw that, though he heard, he was not taking in all he said, so he broke off the subject of his talk and took this simple illustration to make it clear: “Suppose that an old man in this place who owes $100.00 to a storekeeper cannot pay it; he is to be sent to prison for the debt, but the owner of this barn (out of the goodness of his heart) does not like the man to go to jail, and he says to the storekeeper, ‘If you will let him off, I will pay half of it.’ ‘No,’ says the storekeeper, ‘I must have it all.’ ‘Well,’ says the farmer, ‘I will give you $60.00 to let him off’. ‘No, I must have the $100.00 or he must go to jail’. ‘I’ll give you $80.00.’ ‘No, I must have $100.00 or nothing.’ ‘Then I’ll pay you $99.99 if you let him off.’”
“He’ll take that,” shouted the old man, “or he ought to go without!”
“‘No,” says the man, “I’ll take nothing less than $100.00.” “Very well then, I’ll pay the $100.00,” and down goes the money, paid in full. Now how much does he owe?” “Nothing” exclaimed the old man excitedly.
“Just so,” said the preacher. “Now listen to me. Our sins are our debts. Jesus knew we could not pay them, so He came from heaven to earth and died on the cross, so that our sins might be forgiven. Now the sinner believing on Jesus is free. All He wants from us in return is for us to accept what He did and to thank Him for it, and when we die we shall go to live with Him who has redeemed us with His own blood, and borne our sins in His own body on the tree.”
The meeting broke up, and the old man exclaimed joyfully, “I don’t care if I don’t get home till morning, I be so happy. The man said He paid it all.. I never heard it afore, but I’m glad I come over tonight. The man said He paid it all.”
This was all he knew, but it was enough.
Through the very narrow chink in his mind that seed had found a way, and it brought forth fruit to life eternal. He grasped it, and would not let it go. The old man lived for several years after that and testified to the reality of his conversion to God. He has now “gone home”; having lived and died peacefully and happily. His last words were, “He paid it all.”