“Four shillings fine, or else four days,”
Such was the law’s exacting ways;
But as the man had bread to win,
They gave him time to bring it in.
Thrown out of work, in vain he sought
To bring the money into court.
And so a second summons came,
To urge the magistrate’s just claim.
The fine unpaid, no longer he
Could leave the court made justly free.
The constable in charge was one,
Who having thus his duty done,
Stated the case:—without a wife,
The man was handicapped in life;
And if he must to prison go,
What would his little children do?
So the kind constables whipped around,
And soon the needed shillings found:
Thus law upholders came to be
The power that set the guilty free.
We cannot thus redeem our brother,
Or pay a ransom for another:
Nor can a man by working win,
Enough to pay the fine of sin:
But in the Court of Heaven is One,
The Father’s well-beloved Son,
Who, not with silver, nor with gold,
But with His blood of price untold,
Paid the full sum for you and me,
To set the lawful prisoner free.
Thus law the law doth satisfy,
And sinners live once doomed to die.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Gal. 3: 13.
ML 09/20/1959