The tears of a slave girl just going to be put up for sale many years ago drew the attention of a gentleman as he passed through the auction mart of a Southern slave state. The other slaves of the group, standing in a line for a sale like herself, did not seem to care about it, while each knock of the hammer made her shake. The kind man stopped to ask why she alone wept, and was told that the others were used to such things and might be glad of a change from the hard, harsh homes they came from, but that she had been brought up with much care by a good owner, and she was terrified to think who might buy her.
“Her price?” the stranger asked. He thought a little when he heard the great ransom but paid it down. Yet no joy came to the poor slave’s face when he told her she was free. She had been born a slave, and knew not what freedom meant. Her tears fell fast on the signed parchment, which her deliverer brought to prove it to her. She only looked at him with fear. At last he got ready to go his way, and as he told her what she must do when he was gone, it began to dawn on her what freedom was. With the first breath she said.
“I will follow him! I will serve him all my life.” And to every reason against it she only said, “He redeemed me! He redeemed me! He redeemed me!”
When strangers used to visit that master’s house; and noticed, as all did, the loving, constant service of the glad-hearted girl, and asked her why she was so eager with unbidden service night by night and day by day, she had but one answer, and she loved to give it,
“He redeemed me! He redeemed me! He redeemed me!”
“And so,” said the servant of Christ, who spent a night on his journey in a Highland glen and told this story in a meeting where every heart was thrilled, “Let it be with you. Serve Jesus as sinners bought back with Blood; and when men take notice of the joy that is in your looks, of the way you serve, of the love that is in your tone, the freedom of your service, have one answer to give— ‘He. redeemed me!’”
ML 10/18/1936