THERE was once a distinguished gentleman, who, cherishing towards the youth around him the benevolent spirit that glowed in the heart of Robert Raikes, gave much time and money to the support of several Sunday schools in his native county and his immediate neighborhood. Into those schools many neglected children and vagrant boys, accustomed to desecrate the Lord’s Day, had been gathered. Good superintendents had been appointed over them, and they were generally in a thriving condition.
One of these schools, however, had a more than ordinary share of large and troublesome boys; and among them was one ringleader who was particularly unmanageable. Again and again had he broken the rules of the school; the influence of his example was poisoning the minds of the rest; and the superintendent came to the conclusion that the expulsion of this boy from the school was an unavoidable necessity.
Just at the moment when he was about to act upon that decision, this gentleman, the founder of the school, a kind-hearted and noble-looking man, entered unexpectedly.
The superintendent told him at once of the sad duty he was about to perform, and of the mortifying failure of every method employed to reclaim the lad. Forbearance had reached its utmost limit, and the transgressor must, at last, be expelled.
The founder was grieved. His countenance showed the workings of pity. He was sure that if the boy were turned away from the school he would become worse and worse, and that his course would end, probably, in prison or on the gallows.
After a few minutes’ conversation he said to the superintendent, “I know that your sentence is just; you cannot allow the law to be broken down, and the order of the school to be destroyed by indulging the willful disobedience of any one. I dare not ask you to withhold any longer deserved punishment from the incorrigible transgressor. But one favor, sir, I will ask; let me receive punishment as the boy’s substitute. Change the form of the penalty, and let me bear what he deserves. I will take off my coat and submit myself to you to receive ‘forty stripes save one’; and then will plead for him that he be permitted to remain in the school and have time and space for reflection. Perhaps he will try again, and may God help him to do better.”
At this saying the superintendent was astonished, so were all the scholars. The scene was wonderful. There was perfect stillness. Every eye was fixed on the strange spectacle. The objections of the superintendent were overruled by the kind persistency of the man who presented himself to suffer in the transgressor’s stead. There stood that noble-looking gentleman, bowing his back to the smiter for another’s sake. The refractory boy, also, like the rest, was greatly surprised. He forgot himself. He seemed to notice no one in the room except the man who was about to suffer for his sake. He remained in his seat motionless, almost breathless, until the lash descended upon the good man’s back; then, bounding from his place, as by a mighty impulse, he arrested the hand of the superintendent, saying — “It is enough! I promise to do better! Spare him, sir, and just try me once more!”
He was not ashamed to weep. For the first time manly tears flowed from the deepest springs of feeling in his nature, and they were tears of repentance. The boy was gained over to the right side, and kept his word faithfully.
Who does not see that this noble act of self-sacrifice on the part of this benefactor was truly Christ-like? It was an appeal of love that rent the rocky heart like a lightning stroke. Such is the appeal that comes to the awakened soul from the cross of Jesus.
When the eyes of the mind are opened to discern the Sufferer there; when His voice is heard, “It is finished”; then we know the meaning of the response of Paul, “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.” “By his stripes we are healed.”