A business man in New Orleans had been very successful and was very well off. He was born in New England and had a Christian mother who had faithfully taught him the truths of God's Holy Word.
But when he grew up and moved away from home he associated with a number of men who did not believe the Bible. They were infidels. Eventually he adopted their philosophies and became an infidel too. He gave up going to any religious service, and did not have a Bible in his home.
But he had a bright little son named Theodore. This was his only child and he loved him dearly.
One evening when he came home, Theodore was lying in bed partly dressed. He had been naughty and his mother had punished him. She was explaining this to his father as they sat together by the fire in an adjoining room, when suddenly Theodore broke into a loud sobbing and crying.
His father went in and asked him what was the matter.
"I don't want it there, Daddy!" exclaimed the little boy sobbing. "I don't want it there!"
"What, my child— what is it?"
"Why, Daddy, I don't want God to write down in His book all the naughty things I have done today. I don't want them there; I wish they could be blotted out." Then, in great distress, he broke out crying again.
What could his father do? To turn away from his beloved child in his heart-breaking sorrow was impossible. Yet there was nothing in the teachings of infidelity that would meet the case and comfort the distressed boy.
In spite of himself, the father was obliged to fall back on what his dear mother had taught him from the Bible.
"Well, you need not cry, my dear child," said his father. "You can have it all blotted out." "How, Daddy, how?" asked the boy.
"Why, get down on your knees and ask God for Christ's sake to blot it all out, and He will do it."
He did not have to speak twice. The boy jumped out of bed and was on his knees in a moment. He was silent for a while, and then looking up to his father, he said: "I don't know what to say. Daddy, won't you help me?"
What was the father to do. He had not prayed for years. But the boy's distress was so great, and his pleading so earnest that, big man though he was, he got down on his knees alongside of his sorrowing child, and asked God to blot out his sins. Then they got up and the child laid himself down on the bed again. After a few moments he said: "Daddy, are you sure it's all blotted out?" In spite of his infidelity the father was compelled to say: "Why, yes, my dear boy, the Bible says so; if you are truly sorry for what you have done, and if from your heart you have asked God, for Christ's sake, to blot it out, you may be sure He has done it."
A happy smile passed over the child's face, as he quietly asked:
"But, Daddy— what did God blot it out with?" Again putting his infidelity aside he answered:
"With the precious blood of Christ."
The child then lay down and went quietly to sleep.
When the father went back into the adjoining room and told his wife what had taken place, both their hearts were melted. They wept like children. Then kneeling side by side they asked God, for Christ's sake, to blot out their sins and make them His dear children. And God did just that.
God has blotted them out!
I'm happy and glad and free;
God has blotted them out!
I'll turn to Isaiah and see:
Chapter forty-four, twenty-two and three:
He's blotted them out,
And now I can shout,
For that means me!